BOGEYBREAKERS ^TM

At the end of the first two rounds of the 2003 Chrysler Classic, Ty Tryon
had a Gross Negative Score (GNS) of -11 and Dean Wilson had a GNS of -7. Ty
did not make the cut while Dean finished tied for 6th place and took home $97,125.
The difference? At the end of two rounds Ty had a GPS of +12. At the end of
four rounds, Dean had a GPS of +2. That’s right, +2, meaning just two bogeys
in 72 holes. Admittedly, Ty is still a teenager so it will probably take a while
for him to learn that all those birdies and eagles are not worth much when they
are offset by an equal or greater number of bogeys and worse.

What about the leaders? Frank Lickliter II finished third in both GNS and
GPS, a winning combination that netted him a first place check of $540,000.
Chad Wilson finished fifth in GNS and fourth in GPS for second place overall
and a check for $324,000. The "winner" in the GNS column (-26) (see
chart below) was Todd Barranger but unfortunately Todd was +17 in GPS and thus
finished tied for 26th. Of some ironic relevance might be the fact that Todd
tied for first for most eagles (2), finished fourth in driving distance, but
tied for 80th in driving accuracy.

Aaron Barber had an interesting week. In his first two rounds he had 11 birdies
and in his second two rounds he had 11 birdies. In his first two rounds his
GPS was +9 but in his second two rounds his GPS was zero. What difference did
his bogey free third and fourth rounds make? He finished tied for fourth, worth
$132,000.

Kenichi Kuboya is also an interesting story. He was in the top 20 in GNS (-19),
but took home money for a 68th place tie. How much satisfaction do you think
he got from his sole number one finish, first place in number of bogeys for
the week?

You might be inclined to think that Steve Elkington had a "so so"
week. Steve took home $31,200 for being tied for 23rd. But Steve did something
in his last 68 holes that the average weekend duffer never does. On the fourth
hole of the first round Steve took a 7 on a par 3. Steve didn’t let that 7 bother
him the way most average duffers who are incapable of breaking 100 would let
it bother them. He hung in there and made a decent week’s pay.

Look through the table below and draw your own conclusions. Tag Ridings finished
in the bottom 10 after two rounds (T136) and didn’t make the cut but his GNS
(-8) for those two rounds was within three strokes of 10 out of the top 12 "winners"
for those same rounds. Once again, driving distance played a very small role
in deciding winners and losers. Only one of the top 12 in the tournament finished
in the top 10 in driving distance. Think of poor Stewart Cink , and Aaron Oberholser
(55th and 57th respectively in DD) and each had to settle for $97,125. Or Steve
Flesch tied for 59th in DD and had to settle for $75,000. Imagine how embarrassing
it would have been if one of them had to play with Grant Waite who was fifth
in DD and took home $5,300.

* Both Ty and Tag are in the top 20 in driving distance for
the 2003 season, so far.

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