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.
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