Johnson positions himself well for Sunday

Entering this week at No. 104 on the money list, Kevin Johnson knew he was running out of time to make this a successful season. With only five events left in the season (including this week), opportunity to play well and move up the list is precious.

For Johnson to have a chance to reach the top 60 and keep his Tour status for next year, he needs a few high finishes down the stretch - at least two or three top-10's, and maybe even a top-5 or two.

So the veteran went out on Saturday and fashioned a bogey-free 66 at The Club at Longview to move to 11-under on the week, sailing from T40 to T15. Although Johnson drifted further back from the leaders (Brad Fritsch and Russell Henley, who are both 20-under after Saturday 65s), he finds himself only a shot back of the top ten heading into the final round.

After starting the season in a promising manner, with a T6 and T19 in his first two events, Johnson's results have seen a sharp decline. After the second event, he has only one other top-50 finish in 18 tries (a T15 in Wichita).

This is in no contrast to the pattern seen throughout Johnson's career. Along with plenty of high finishes (including six wins) and other successes, the Clemson grad has suffered through many years of substandard play. he failed to notch a top-35 finish in 2011 (in 14 tries) or in 2008 (22 tries).

He told me he can go from 'missing the cut to winning, just like that." His results show that he isn't lying.

Johnson found his Saturday success with crisp iron play, hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation in the bogey-free effort. On a course with plenty of short par-4's and reachable par-5's, players are set up for makeable birdie efforts if they're on their game, and Johnson's game looked to be just fine on moving day.

Now faced with the challenge of closing the week strong and acquiring a useful paycheck, Johnson needs to keep the pedal to the metal on Sunday. A 70 or 71 won't do it, and a round of 5- or 6-under could be necessary for him to finish the week inside the top ten. The wind is not expected to blow above 10 mph, and players can be expected to light up the course.

If Johnson to break 70, another low finish is likely in the cards, even if a result outside the top 50 is unlikely.

Simply, he's running out of time to keep his job, and he can't afford anything less than an above-average round.

Johnson tees off at 11:22 today. We'll see what he's got.

Home stretch begins in North Carolina

After a summer of criss-crossing the country, with stops anywhere from Sandy, Utah to Boise, Idaho to Midland, Texas, the Web.com Tour will now settle down for the rest of the season.

This week's stop is Charlotte, for the Chiquita Classic, a tournament previously hosted in the Cincinnati area that has moved southeast for this year. The event takes place at The Club at Longview, a 7,065-yard par-72 designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Most Web.com players are used to trying out new courses, and the United Leasing Championship debuted just this summer, in Evansville, Indiana. Now the players get to have at another different track, one that appears to be fairly scoreable by the numbers - reachable par-5's, and plenty of moderate-length par-4's.

Of course, speculation can always prove futile. If the course plays firm and fast come Thursday, with tucked pins and demanding rough, there's no telling how players will respond to the new challenge.

With only five events left on the schedule, time is running out for players to make their moves up the money list. Three distinct milestones are on the players' minds - the top 25, top 60, and top 100.

Of course, the top 25 on the money list will achieve PGA Tour status for next season. The top 60 retain full Web.com status, and No. 61-100 retain conditional Web.com status, assured of (at least) an occasional place to play next year.

The PGA Tour has instilled fundamental changes for qualifying starting next year, with a fall series mixing PGA Tour and Web.com players together to determine PGA Tour privileges for the following year. However, the top 25 on the Web.com circuit will retain their right to move up, unlike an initial plan that proposed to wipe out qualifying via the Web.com money list.

Speculation has been made regarding the impact that these changes will have on professional golf as a whole, trickling down to college kids deciding when to go pro. Omar Uresti worries that collegians will be encouraged to leave school a year early, since the changes will force players to play a full Web.com season at minimum before getting on the big tour - since the changes eliminate the traditional Q-School that has allowed direct big-tour access.

Nobody will know the impact for sure until the changes actually take hold. Either way, this is the final home stretch for the 'traditional' Web.com format that has taken hold for two decades.

For this year's Web.com group, the 'old' rules are still in play, and the old ways of qualifying. For players like Kevin Johnson (currently No. 104 on the money list), time is running out to maintain full status for 2013. For a Jeff Gove (currently No. 59), recent weeks have proven encouraging, and the time is now to make a late surge into the top 25.

I'll be at next week's event, the Neediest Kids Championship in Washington, D.C., to cover the different types of late-season pushes that these players face. Should be interesting.

But for now, the group has business to take care of in North Carolina.

Johnson grinds out solid 70

After bogeying the par-4 10th at Midland CC on Thursday, Kevin Johnson found himself over par on his round. On the Web.com Tour, anything over par puts a player in position to miss the cut. Missing cuts makes a player drift further and further down on the money list.

KJ finds himself currently 100th on the money list, with the season slowly winding down. The top 60 at the end of the season retain status, and the top 25 will 'graduate' to the PGA Tour.

For KJ, it's time to start making something happen. Top-25's are essential, and a few very high finishes may be required. Missing cuts, at this point, are disastrous.

So after fading over par on the 10th, KJ went about the business of making something happen. The Clemson grad righted the ship with a par on 11, and birdied three of his last seven to post a solid 2-under 70. With the early lead being 6-under, KJ finds himself within reasonable shouting distance of contention.

You can't win the tournament on Thursday, but you can certainly play your way out of it. KJ did well to make sure that he kept himself in it, capping off the strong finish with a birdie on the 470-yard par-4 18th.

KJ could certainly fade on Friday afternoon, and making the cut is no guarantee. But at least he won't have to play catch-up.

Considering the ever-constant threat of Texas winds whipping through on a late afternoon, there's something to be said for that.

Day near top of leaderboard in Boise

When I talked to him in Indiana this summer, Glen Day mused on how it can be tough for former PGA Tour veterans to gear up for a full season on the Web.com Tour. The money is less, the cities (more like towns) not as glamorous, and the crowds significantly downsized.

For Day, the ability for a player to finish a Web.com season inside the top 25 requires a full commitment to the minor-league circuit. High finishes are required, and a player won't make it back to the big show with a collection of top-20's. Top-threes and top-fives are the order of the day.

So far, so good for Day in Boise. He opened with a sizzling 8-under 63 on Thursday, and has backed it up adequately Friday morning - going 1-under thru 10 in tougher conditions. Day finds himself in a tie for second, one shot back of leader Tyrone Van Aswegen.

A high finish this week is much needed for Day, who is currently mired at No. 95 on the money list. He has certainly committed to a Web.com schedule - this is his 14th event - but has not done much in terms of big weeks. His highest finish was a T16 in Indiana, where he cashed in with $8,250.

Day has made a total of $41,891 in his 13 completed Web.com events this year, with most of that money coming from his four top-25 finishes. He has almost reached his Web.com earnings total in just three PGA Tour events - making $38,850, despite failing to notch a top-25.

Simply put, the monetary difference is profound. For a guy like Day who knows what it's like to do well on the big tour (nearly $9 million in career earnings), it's easy to see how the prospect of grinding away in the minors can be tough.

Then again, the winner this week will cash in a check for over $130,000. That's still plenty of incentive to play well.

If Day can keep it up for the rest of the week, he'll be right there on Sunday afternoon.

Notes:

-Jeff Gove is riding the momentum train right now, after a summer of failure after failure on cutdown day. Gove matched Day with a Thursday 63, and is currently even on the day thru 6 holes, T4 and two shots back of the leader.

Still, Gove has plenty of work to do in the season's final events, if he wants to make up for the lost summer.

-Casey Martin struggled on his first nine (the back) on Thursday, capped off by a double bogey on 18 to push him over par on the day. But showing flashes of the young star he once was, Martin rebounded with a 4-under 32 on his final nine to post 3-under on the day. In search of his first made cut in six years (he has not played a Web.com event since 2006), Martin currently finds himself right on the cut line at 3-under.

Casey is a great story, and surely most everyone in golf is rooting for him.

-Kevin Johnson, on the other hand, has some work to do if he wants to stick around for the weekend. KJ opened at 2-under, right on the day-one cut line, but has struggled out of the gate on Friday. KJ bogeyed his first hoel and finished the nine at 1-over, leaving him 1-under on the event.

Heading into his back nine, KJ is two shots back of the cut. The cut line will likely move to 4-under, depending on afternoon weather, which means he might need a sizzling 32 on the back.

He certainly has the talent to string some birdies together. We'll see if he can.

For here, we can rest safely

One August morning around 4 a.m., I pulled back into my driveway in Orchard Park - completing a 16-hour journey home, and completing my summer of covering golf on the Triple-A circuit.

I woke up that morning at my Extended Stay America in Springfield, and cleaned up the room I had made my home for a week. After making sure I didn't leave anything behind, I checked out and headed to the course - with the intention of watching Omar Uresti's round for a while. I planned to watch the whole round if he was playing well, but not if he struggled, as I didn't want to get home TOO late.

I was sort of expecting Uresti to make a Sunday charge, after finishing in such a disappointing fashion on Saturday. But it wasn't meant to be - Uresti made it through the first ten holes at just even par, on the eminently scoreable Highland Spings track.

When he hooked his drive into the trees on the par-5 11th - cursing to himself, 'Aaaah, Omar!' in the process - I noticed that we were relatively close to the parking lot. I took this as a subtle clue.

And so I hit the road.

Making the seemingly never-ending drive through St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Erie, and eventually back to Orchard Park, I got to thinking about all the time spent at these tournaments, and what I learned. With so much time spent watching golf over the years, I figured that I had a pretty good idea of life on tour, but I figured there was plenty more I could learn from experiencing it for myself.

Indeed there was. Through my travel patterns - making the drives as the players would, sleeping in the same low-budget motels, spending day after day at the course - I feel that I gained as much of a sense of the life as I possibly could, without actually playing myself. The week caddying was a culmination of sorts, finally getting inside the ropes to see what it's like for the players as they compete.

So after all that, what can I take away from the experience? For one thing, I had certainly glamorized life on tour before actually experiencing it. Despite the public spectrum that these guys find themselves in, they aren't really celebrities at all - they're far from it. True, they get to play a game for a living just like all the famous athletes, but they're doing it on a much smaller scale - and for much less money. The crowds are less, the star treatment is nonexistent, and they don't carry themselves like 'stars' at all. They aren't famous, most of them anyway, no matter what I may have thought growing up.

And just like thousands of people do every Saturday and Sunday across the country, they're just playing golf. They hit good shots, and they hit bad shots (albeit many more good shots than the average player) and live with the consequences. Unlike on the PGA Tour, they aren't necessarily living and dying with every shot from a monetary perspective - unless they're in contention on Sunday afternoon.

The PGA Tour is a show. The Web.com Tour is a workplace, where people grind every day to make a living. If you don't do well on the Web.com Tour, you have a hard time getting by.

One good week on the PGA Tour can be enough for a family to live for the year. On the Web.com Tour, you need sustained weeks of solid play to build up the money reserves. Not the same, by any stretch.

The Web.com Tour is real - not to say the PGA Tour isn't real - but truly authentic, a representation of the everyman's struggle. You don't get rich playing average golf on the Web.com Tour.

That's what makes it appealing, and a reason why these guys aren't stars. They're pro athletes, but they don't live the lives associated with the stereotype of a pro athlete. Some may have nice cars, some may have boats, sure. But the luxuries are associated with trade-offs. The money supply isn't endless.

They play because they love the game, and they stop when they realize they don't love it enough anymore. Bob Heintz has a Yale degree, but toiled in the minors for years because he knew of no other job that would make him as happy. And he still had that driving force, the belief that he had the ability - somewhere, deep down - to succeed in the big leagues.

But eventually, he ran out of gas. Heintz officially retired this summer after the Midwest Classic, taking the job as head coach at Penn. The travel will still exist - matches, recruiting, etc - but the income will be stable. With a family to support, that's the most important thing for Heintz.

Heintz is done, but there are plenty of new young golfers fresh out of college, eager and ready to take his place. The PGA Tour needs players for the future, and many of them will come from the Web.com Tour. Just like the minors produce the next wave of star hockey and baseball players, the Web.com Tour gets players ready for the life of a PGA Tour golfer, so they can handle the life once they get to the grand stage.

Maybe they'll make it to the top, maybe they won't. If they don't, they can keep toiling away on the Web.com Tour, waiting for their best golf to come to the surface.

And who knows? Maybe in a few years, Heintz will be back. The golf bug doesn't go away easily.

Martin returns to Web.com action in Boise

Casey Martin had most of the country pulling for him this past June at the U.S. Open. The outcome was disappointing, but his game effort served as inspiration for all who know his story.

He gets a chance to make amends this week in Boise, after receiving a sponsor exemption to the Web.com Tour's Albertsons Boise Open.

Martin is the disabled golfer whose situation drew national attention in the late 1990's, when he sued the PGA Tour for the right to use a cart in tournament play. Due to a leg disease that makes it difficult and painful to walk, he reasoned that the cart would not be providing him with any sort of competitive advantage, as walking to and from the cart was tough enough. The Supreme Court ruled in Martin's favor, 7-2, and he had his cart.

But soon after the ruling, Martin's game began to slip. He failed to keep his card in 2000, which proved to be his only full PGA Tour season. He tranisitioned back to the Web.com Tour, but gradually played less and less until he retired in 2006, taking a job as golf coach at Oregon.

Martin can still play, though. He frequently competes with his players in practice, getting the best of them on occasion, and was inspired to go through U.S. Open qualifying this spring - for the event was scheduled for Olympic in San Francisco, where he finished T23 in 1998.

Sure enough, Martin made it through, and hung around the cut line all week. A bogey on his final hole Friday dropped him one shot over the cut line, a disappointing end to a nostalgic week.

This week in Boise, Martin gets another chance to make the cut, at a friendlier course, against less severe competition. Every player at Olympic finished over par, and early starter Michael Putnam is already 8-under through 15 holes in Boise.

Martin tees off in the final group of the day off hole 10, with Patrick Cantlay and Jamie Sadlowski at 4:55 p.m. ET. Martin attracted a crowd rivaling the big names at Olympic, and don't be surprised if he steals a large part of the (much smaller) crowd in Boise.

Notes: -Jeff Gove suffered through a severe midseason slump, but recent play has shown signs that the veteran's game still has some life. After missing 8 of 9 cuts through the spring and early summer, Gove has rebounded to post three consecutive top-30 finishes, including a T6 at the News Sentinel Open three weeks ago.

Currently No. 83 on the money list, Gove tees off in Boise at 3:45 p.m. ET. He has a long way to go if he hopes to snag a PGA Tour card for next year, but the big week always looms as a possibility.

-Bob Heintz talked about retiring at the BMW Charity Pro-Am, but proceeded to play a handful of additional events throughout the summer. He backed up his words this week, though, taking the head coaching job at Penn.

The press release referred to Heintz as 'recently retired' - recently meaning the last month, as Heintz competed in the Midwest Classic in mid-August.

A nice note of sentimentality for the man who nearly won the PGA Tour's Reno-Tahoe Open in 2010? He closed his career with on a high, birdieing the 18th on Sunday at the Midwest Classic to finish T27.

Good career, Bob. Sad to see you go.