Web.Com Tour Grads Not Getting Enough Opportunities?
/One shot off Nick Watney's Wyndham Championship lead, Brad Fritsch used the opportunity of the last regular season event to point out that as a Web.com Tour Finals grad (14th), he's gotten just 18 starts with absolutely no rhyme or reason to them and as with many players who've tried to make it to the PGA Tour this way, he's wondering how his year would look with just a few more starts. Or getting in an event after a top ten but finding no room because of the PGA Tour's incredible number of major medical exemptions.
Will Gray reports.
“Felt like I played one on, off three, played one, off four,” Fritsch said. “I think if the field sizes were the same as they were last year I would have gotten in four, five more events. That’s just frustrating.”
This week marks Fritsch’s 18th start of the season, and he is vying for his third top-10 finish of the year. While he began the season No. 14 out of 50 on the priority list among Web.com Tour Finals graduates, he is now No. 162 on the FedEx Cup points list and likely needs at least a top-three finish Sunday to secure playing privileges for 2015.
The lowlight for Fritsch came back in February, when a T-10 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open failed to gain him entry into the following week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. A top-10 finish typically earns a player an automatic spot in the subsequent PGA Tour event, but a limited field and an influx of players using major medical extensions meant Fritsch never got to tee it up at TPC Scottsdale.
**Commissioner Leno says all is well, except that minor issue with new graduates not even getting in the fall events that were meant to be a great place for the rookies to get their headstart.
Will Gray reporting from the Wyndham Championship.
The one shortcoming Finchem identified is one that has been brought up by players throughout the year: a lack of playing opportunities for players coming out of the Web.com Tour Finals.
“The only weakness, if you could call it that, is that with all the fall events strengthening, it’s put a little pressure on access for the Web.com Tour graduates,” Finchem said. “That’s kind of a good problem to have, actually, but we’ll watch that because we want to make sure we’re providing enough access to players coming off the Web.com Tour.”
