Kokrak in second place

[94GRAD]

Jason Kokrak is two stoke back in the Nationwide event this week in Valdosta.

http://www.pgatour.com/players/03/09/44/scorecards/2010/h092.html

[XUglow]

Wow. Look at those stats. He is averaging 305.0 off of the tee and is in 21st place... and this is the Nationwide Tour.

[joe titan]

Unless he had sponsor invite (unlikely) he probably Monday-qualified for the event. A top 10 finish allows him to play the next Nationwide and a win merits a 2 year Nationwide exemption. Take dead aim Jason.

[94GRAD]

Unless he had sponsor invite (unlikely) he probably Monday-qualified for the event. A top 10 finish allows him to play the next Nationwide and a win merits a 2 year Nationwide exemption. Take dead aim Jason.

He won an event on the Tarheel tour which got him into this tournament.

[joe titan]

Sorry 94 but the win a few weeks back was EGolf Tour, and there is no automatic invite from that "tour" to Nationwide.

You may know Nationwide has scheduled a stop in Cincy this summer; Chiquita is the sponsor, so start the campaign for Jason to receive that sponsor invite.

Worth noting the top 25 Nationwide money winners earn PGA tour cards. It takes about $200K to make that top 25, and a win would bring half or more.

Best of luck to Jason for the weekend.

[94GRAD]

Sorry 94 but the win a few weeks back was EGolf Tour, and there is no automatic invite from that "tour" to Nationwide.

You may know Nationwide has scheduled a stop in Cincy this summer; Chiquita is the sponsor, so start the campaign for Jason to receive that sponsor invite.

Worth noting the top 25 Nationwide money winners earn PGA tour cards. It takes about $200K to make that top 25, and a win would bring half or more.

Best of luck to Jason for the weekend.


http://www.pgatour.com/2010/tournaments/h092/04/23/southgaclassic.rd2/index.html

Some more good press about Jason. And that win did get Jason into the tournament.

[Masterofreality]

Nice. So far he's posted 68, 67 and is in second for now.

If anyone has Golf Channel, the South Georgia Nationwide Tour event is on tonight on tape delay at 6:30pm.

Playing professional golf and actually learning to make a living at it is a true process. There are only a few guys like a Woods who can just step right out there and compete. Jason is only 24 at this point and seems to be figuring it out. A few more quality starts and the confidence will grow.

Once you get the confidence that you can actually play with those guys out there, success happens exponentially.

One shot at a time, J. One shot at a time.

[Masterofreality]

Holy crap.

Jason hit a drive on the 10th hole that was measured at 407 yards on a 600 yard par 5!
And then he dumped it in the front bunker. Damn.

Even on the Nationwide Toiur, these guys play a game with which I am not familiar.

[Masterofreality]

One thing, though.

I know that these events are televised with some money going in the till from that, but...

There is NOBODY in attendance at these freaking tournaments. I have more guys watching me play on Saturday at my club. You can hear the birds and crickets. WTF??

How do they support the purses for these tournaments? Even with the sponsorships they have, I can't believe they make money and are able to give anything to charity.

[joe titan]

Nationwide really does not have the charity model that PGA Tour does. Valdosta GA is not exactly a prime market. Most of their events receive some support from PGA tour as they see the need for a developmental tour.

[94GRAD]

Tough final two rounds 75-75. Finished tied for 17th and gets him into next week in Athens. Congrats Jason and good luck next week.

[GoMuskies]

Tough final two rounds 75-75. Finished tied for 17th and gets him into next week in Athens. Congrats Jason and good luck next week.

I'm sure the $11k in prize money will come in handy as well.

[stophorseabuse]

I play that course a couple times a month. I don't know why I do it to myself. It is awesome but WAY out of my league.

South Georgia has some really good golf. I love going to Jeckyll Island early on a weekday during the summer and playing all 63 holes on the island and coming home that evening. It is just so f'n hot and humid if you don't have the ocean breeze it gets almost unbearable for 5 months.

[stophorseabuse]

One thing, though.

I know that these events are televised with some money going in the till from that, but...

There is NOBODY in attendance at these freaking tournaments. I have more guys watching me play on Saturday at my club. You can hear the birds and crickets. WTF??

How do they support the purses for these tournaments? Even with the sponsorships they have, I can't believe they make money and are able to give anything to charity.

There were about 20,000 people over the last 2 weeks at the various events. They park them in a tomato field then taxi people over (seriously). It is actually a fairly big swoon for the local economy though, as most of the fans are from out of town. All the hotels off that exit stayed pretty full. I believe admission to the tournament is free.

[xudash]

I play that course a couple times a month. I don't know why I do it to myself. It is awesome but WAY out of my league.

South Georgia has some really good golf. I love going to Jeckyll Island early on a weekday during the summer and playing all 63 holes on the island and coming home that evening. It is just so f'n hot and humid if you don't have the ocean breeze it gets almost unbearable for 5 months.

Ha! Well done sha. For those of you guys living up north who may not know any better, the concept of being able to play golf YEAR AROUND down here is BS. July and August can be brutal, regardless of how good of shape you may be in.

Wet and wiped out is exactly how you feel if you aren't near the ocean with a breeze, and even then it can be tough.

It's great to hear that Jason is coming along. He's a class act and represents X well.

[stophorseabuse]

Ha! Well done sha. For those of you guys living up north who may not know any better, the concept of being able to play golf YEAR AROUND down here is BS. July and August can be brutal, regardless of how good of shape you may be in.

Wet and wiped out is exactly how you feel if you aren't near the ocean with a breeze, and even then it can be tough.

It's great to hear that Jason is coming along. He's a class act and represents X well.

Hell, throw May, June, and September in too. I coach football down here, and 4 hours a day at practice in July and August almost kills me--and I'm not playing. I don't know how the kids do it. A northern football team would be crazy to come down here in September.

[GoMuskies]

Finished tied for 17th and gets him into next week in Athens.


Kokrak tees it up at 9:30 Thursday morning at UGA.

http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/h090/tee-times.html

[xudash]

Hell, throw May, June, and September in too. I coach football down here, and 4 hours a day at practice in July and August almost kills me--and I'm not playing. I don't know how the kids do it. A northern football team would be crazy to come down here in September.

My club is on the St. Johns River and is otherwise about 15 miles west of the beach, so we probably are getting some more wind and milder temps here than what is available to Valdosta. May is okay here, and even part of June is still okay, but you're right about the back end of June and September as well, especially if the Hurricane season is beginning to get up onto its hind legs.

[GoMuskies]

First round three under 68 for Kokrak at the Nationwide stop in Athens.

[Masterofreality]

Nice.

I think that Jason is starting to figure it out.

He hits the ball a country mile, he's just got to get his wedges under control. He was right there in Valdosta but totally made a mess of #18 in the third round and threw himself out right there.

Gettin' closer. Just trust it, J.

[joe titan]

MOR: Open qualifying starts in a couple weeks time so Jason is on the upswing at the best moment; cannot wait to see him in Columbus & Cincy Nationwide stops this summer

[GoMuskies]

cannot wait to see him in Columbus & Cincy Nationwide stops this summer

I believe he still needs to qualify for those. His good Valdosta showing got him into Athens, but I believe that is it. Hopefully he'll finish out the weekend strong in Athens and get exemptions into more Nationwide events.

[Masterofreality]

I believe he still needs to qualify for those. His good Valdosta showing got him into Athens, but I believe that is it. Hopefully he'll finish out the weekend strong in Athens and get exemptions into more Nationwide events.

Yep, he's on the "weekly qualifying" status right now.

If you finish in the Top 25 in the week's tourney, you are automatically in the next week. If you don't you can still get in through the Monday qualifier- usually only the top 3 there.

The Big Tour used to operate that way as well before "sponsors exemptions" and the other methodology. Some of the stories from the old-timers like Sam Snead about those Monday qualifiers are classic. Guys stepping on other guys golfballs, "forgetting" to take the flag out , playing for personal money in bets as a way to make ends meet, etc.

Those old timers used to play for a total purse of $5,000 of which $1,000 would go to the winner. Byron Nelson won 11 tournaments in a row in 1946 and won a total of about $15,000 in those 11 tourneys. I know there's inflation all over but, wow.

[joe titan]

I understand Jason has no real status on Nationwide at this point. They do have sponsor invites to Nationwide events & the Monday suicide drill called qualifying. Often the sponsor invites somebody w/local ties to sell a few tickets so Chiquita could look favorably toward JK.

Sounds like Skip Prosser's hoops camp initiation for JK.

[GoMuskies]

Hey MOR, if he wins (or gets a top 5) is there a better exemption for him than merely getting in to the next week's event? Or is week to week the best he can do this season?

[94GRAD]

Every ten weeks or so, the nationwide tour reshuffles thier qualifying list. This just happened after Valdosta. I think the top 100 on thier money list are exempt for the next 8 or 10 weeks. So it looks good for Jason for the rest of the season, especially the way he is playing.

[Masterofreality]

Hey MOR, if he wins (or gets a top 5) is there a better exemption for him than merely getting in to the next week's event? Or is week to week the best he can do this season?

If he wins, he gets an automatic 2 year exemption. Nothing for Top 5 necessarily, but like 94 Grad said, the tour reshuffles the list every few weeks so if he continues to perform, things look really good for a while.

[GoMuskies]

Rough day for Kokrak. Shot a 75, but he made the cut on the number. So he'll at least get something for his trouble. Hopefully a couple of strong rounds to get back into the top 25.

[GoMuskies]

Kokrak double-bogied the 18th to end up even par 71 for the day and stay at 1 over for the tournament in a tie for 46th. It's a shame, too, because -1 would have him in a tie for 30th and one stroke out of the top 25 that seems to be the magic number to keep him playing Nationwide Tour events.

[GoMuskies]

Final round 69 for an overall 1-under weekend. Nice showing, but it looks like it's back to the e-Golf Tour for a bit. 18th hole was a killer for him. He played it in 5 over par for his four rounds.

[joe titan]

Jason was a fairly strong Medalist w/67 (-5) at US Open Local qualifying yesterday. The weather played to his advantage; saw him play several holes and he was generally 25+ yards past his fellow competitors.

[94GRAD]

His next round for US Open qualifing is up in Columbus June 7th.

[GoMuskies]

Kokrak finished tied for eighth in this week's eGolf Tour event and remains #1 on the money list.

[dubbledxu]

Jason failed to qualify for the US Open today in C-Bus. He is still leading the eGolf tour earnings

http://www.egolfprofessionaltour.com/

[GoMuskies]

Kokrak leads the eGolf Tour's Bushnell Championship at a pretty incredible -14 after two rounds. They don't update their scoreboard mid-round, but he must be out on the course playing his third round right now. After being #1 on the money list for most of the year, he's "plummeted" all the way down to #2, but he's got a good shot at taking the lead back this weekend (the current money list leader is 5 strokes back in a tie for 11th.