Power Rankings: Children's Miracle Network Classic

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Nov. 10, 2009
By Ryan Smithson, PGATOUR.COM

The pressure of the PGA TOUR season finale will be magnified this week at the Children's Miracle Network Classic, where players on the money list bubble pretty much have three options:

1. Go low at the pair of easy courses that host the tournament. Move into the top 125.
2. Miss the cut, and send in your application to the q-school finals.
3. Miss the cut, skip q-school, spend the winter mailing sponsor exemption requests to already-overloaded tournament directors.

Obviously, door No. 1 is the easiest route, although even that doesn't ensure a TOUR card. Rookie Tommy Gainey fired a final-round 64 at Disney in 2008 at the longer of the two courses, the Magnolia Course, and missed getting into a playoff with Davis Love III by only one shot. That missed playoff opportunity sent Gainey back to q-school, where he failed to keep his card. Coincidentally, he's an alternate into the field this week.

Most of the players in the Power Rankings this week do not have these problems. The two courses that host the tournament -- the Palm and the Magnolia -- were annihilated by the field last year, especially the 7,000-yard, par-72 Palm Course, where the field averaged a full 3 under.

This tournament is interesting because there is a 500-yard difference between the two courses. Although the Magnolia Course isn't difficult -- it ranked 49th out of 55 courses the TOUR played in 2008 -- big hitters have the advantage in the final round, which is played solely on the Magnolia Course. Love and Gainey are two of the longer hitters on TOUR and both shot 64 on the final day to pass everyone else in the field.

Power Rankings: Children's Miracle Network Classic

Rank	Player		Comment
		Zach JOHNSON	It was surprising that Johnson only finished tied for 62nd here last year. He shot 15 or under four times in '09, and in three of those weeks, he finished second or better. His scoring average (69.88) trails only Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk.
		David TOMS	Because the Viking Classic was canceled, Toms has played just one Fall Series event, so it's impossible to judge the state of his game, and he's been skipping this event in recent years. As he nears his 43rd birthday, he still makes a ton of birdies.
		Kevin STREELMAN	Two things about Streelman: He tied for sixth here last year, and he's sure to be in a good frame of mind considering he's on the verge of clinching the winner-take-all Kodak Challenge. He ranks 11th on the PGA TOUR in total birdies in 2009.
		Justin LEONARD	Leonard had a shot to win at Grayhawk two weeks ago, but he actually lost ground despite rounds of 69-69 on the weekend, and he tied for 13th. Leonard skipped the Children's Miracle Network Classic last year, but he tied for sixth here in 2007.
		Tom PERNICE JR.	Pernice, 50, has racked up $200,000 in his last two starts while gunning for dual membership in 2010. Stat I like: He hasn't made worse than bogey on a hole since the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. Bonus: It wasn't even a double bogey. It was a quad.
		Steve MARINO	One of his best chances to win came at Disney last year, where he was 19 under after three rounds. Admittedly, this may not be the best pick: he will be a little tired from his appearance in the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions.
		Rickie FOWLER	Fowler needs a top-10 this week to lock up a TOUR card. It will be interesting to see how he performs this week because his back-to-back top-10s on TOUR were both notched on desert-style courses. This will be his first pro start in Florida.
		Brandt SNEDEKER	His brother Haymes is in the field this week, but I like Brandt because he's a threat anytime the field is required to go low for four days. This will be Brandt's first start at Disney, but he's played well in Florida during his brief stint on TOUR.
		Brian GAY	Which player is going to show up this week? The one that destroyed two different fields in 2009, or the one who doesn't have a top-10 since then? Gay played well last week at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions.
		Davis LOVE III	Love, the defending champion, is not playing as well coming into the event as he was last year. Love had three top-10s in the Fall Series last year, but he is without a top-10 since the Memorial in May. Still, he remains a world-class ballstriker.