Deacon Golfers in the Pros Update
7/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
July 15, 2008
WINSTON-SALEM - Below is an update of how the Demon Deacons on the three professional golf tours have fared during the 2008 season.
Billy Andrade (1983-1986)
Andrade has played in 17 events on the PGA Tour in 2008 and has made seven cuts. He has posted two top-25 finishes and has made a total of $191,935 this season. He currently stands 170th on the money list and 169th in the FedEx Cup standings.
His best 2008 finish is a tie for 14th at the Verizon Heritage in April. He has four-career PGA Tour wins and was inducted into the Wake Forest Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.
Bill Haas (2001-2004)
Hass has played in 21 PGA Tour events and has made 11 cuts in 2008. He posted his only top-10 finish with a T9 at the FBR Open in February. He was just one of five players to card four sub-70 rounds (67-68-69-69) at the FBR. Haas also posted a T11 at the AT&T Classic at Pebble Beach where he tied for the lowest final round score with a 6-under 66.
Haas has notched a total of six top-25 finishes and has earned $680,867 this year. He stands 95th in both the FedEx Cup Standings and PGA Tour money list.
Jay Haas (1973-1976)
Jay Haas has had a stellar 2008 season, posting two wins on the Champion Tour. He won the Senior PGA Championship and The Principle Charity Classic in back-to-back weeks, giving him 12 career Champions Tour victories to go along with his nine PGA Tour victories.
Haas has also posted two runner-up finishes in 2008. He lost in a playoff at the Toshiba Classic in March and he carded a season-low 7-under 64 in the final round of the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in April, to finish a shot back.
He opened the season with five-straight top-six finishes and currently tops the Champions Tour Money List and Charles Schwab Cup Point standings. He has earned $1,352,055 this season and has posted a total of nine top-ten finishes.
Gary Hallberg (1977-1980)
Hallberg started 2008 on the Nationwide Tour, making two cuts in six starts. His best finish was a T40 at the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship in April. He then turned 50 on May 30, and was eligible to join the Champions Tour.
Hallberg has made the most of his three starts with the seniors, posting two top-20 finishes and making just over $61,000. In his first start on the Champions tour, he finished T16 at the Bank of America Championship. He then carded a season-low 8-under 64 in the final round of the Dick's Sporting Goods Open on July 6, to finish tied for 10th.
Scott Hoch (1975-1978)
Like Jay Haas, Hoch has had a strong season on the Champions Tour, posting a pair of victories and five top-5 finishes in 2008. He won the Allianz Championship on Feb. 10 and one week later, Hoch won a four-way playoff to snag his third-career Champions Tour victory at The Ace Group Classic.
Hoch tied Haas for second at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on April 20, and finished a shot behind Denis Watson at the FedEx Kinko's Classic on May 4. He is currently fourth on the Champions Tour Money List with $1,096,173 in earnings and sits third in the Charles Schwab Cup Point standings.
The Raleigh, N.C. native also made the cut at the PGA Tour's Honda Classic in late February, finishing T65 in his only PGA Tour start of 2008.
Joe Inman (1966-1969)
Inman has played in seven Champions Tour events this season. His best finish came at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in April, where he finished 3-over and tied for 39th. He has made $20,785 in 2008 and stands 108th on the Champions Tour money list.
Inman has three-career Champions Tour victories to his credit, with his best season coming in 1999 when he posted ten top-10 finishes and made over $1 million.
Len Mattiace (1986-1989)
Mattiace has made eight starts on the PGA Tour and five starts on the Nationwide Tour in 2008. He's made a total of three cuts this season, earning a combined $24,861. His best finish on the PGA Tour was a tie for 55th at the AT&T Classic in May. He also finished tied for 34th at the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic on the Nationwide Tour in late June, after firing rounds of 69-68-68-72.
Mattiace is a 1990 Wake Forest graduate and has been a mainstay on the PGA Tour since he qualified to play full time in 1996. He has two-career victories, winning both the FedEx St. Jude Classic and Nissan Open in 2002.
Kyle Reifers (2003-2006)
After playing 2007 on the PGA Tour and failing to secure his card for '08, Reifers has had an up-and-down season on the Nationwide Tour. He made just four cuts in his first 11 starts, but at the Bank of America Open in late May, he raced out to the first round lead after a sizzling 8-under 63. Reifers would eventually finish tied for fifth. Three weeks later, at the Knoxville Open Presented by Food City, Reifers closed with rounds of 69-65-66 to finish tied for third, just two shots out of a playoff.
This past weekend, the 2006 Wake Forest graduate, finished tied for 14th at the Nationwide Tour Players Cup, which featured the richest purse in tour history at $1,000,000. He carded a 6-under 66 in the opening round and finished with a 67 on Sunday to make $17,500 for the week.
On the season, Reifers has made eight cuts in 16 starts on the Nationwide Tour and currently sits 30th on the Official Money List with $105,083. The top-25 players on the money-list at the end of the season earn their PGA Tour cards for the following year.
Jay Sigel (1963-1966)
Sigel has made five starts this season on the Champions Tour. His best finish was a T13 at the Toshiba Classic on March, 9, where he carded three sub-70 rounds, including a season-low 68 in the first and third rounds. His $51,896 earnings in 2008 have him ranked 90th on the Champions Tour Money List. Sigel has not played in a tournament since March, 30.
Webb Simpson (2005-2008)
Despite only graduating from Wake Forest this past May, Simpson has still managed to play in five PGA Tour tournaments, making the cut in three of them. His first tournament was the Arnold Palmer Invitational in mid-March, where he was still an amateur and a member of the Demon Deacon golf team. He made the cut and finished tied for 31st after a final round 68.
Simpson completed his play at Wake Forest and turned professional on June 2, and promptly received a sponsor exemption into the Stanford St. Jude Championship. He finished tied for 64th at the St. Jude and cashed his first check for $12,660.
Two weeks later, Simpson made the cut at the Travelers Championship, finishing tied for 34th after carding a pair of 3-under 67s. He made $25,800 at the Travelers and now has a season total of $38,460.
Curtis Strange (1973-1976)
Strange, a two-time U.S. Open Champion, has played in 11 tournaments on the Champions Tour in 2008. He posted one top-10 finish and four top-25 finishes, with his best being a tied for sixth at the Toshiba Classic on March 9, when he fired a final round 66.
Strange has split his time in 2008 between the course and the announcer's booth but has still managed to make $178,067 this season and is currently 50th on the Champions Tour money list.
He was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Wake Forest Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.
Leonard Thompson (1966-1969)
Thompson has made 15 starts on the Champions Tour in 2008, earning a total of $129,578. He has posted one top-10 finish and two top-25 finishes.
At the Toshiba Classic in early March, Thompson closed with a season-best 6-under 65 to finish in a tie for eighth. The Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. native also fired a 6-under 65 in the final round of the Commerce Bank Championship two weeks ago. He currently stands 65th on both the Champions Tour money list and Charles Schwab Cup point standings.
Lanny Wadkins (1969-1971)
Much like Strange, Wadkins has shared his time between the course and the announcer's booth, only playing in five Champions Tour events this year. His best finish came in his first event of the season, the MasterCard Championship in Hawaii on Jan. 20. He posted rounds of 67-73-68─208, to finish in a tie for 23rd. Wadkins' last tournament came at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, where he teamed with his brother Bobby to finish 9-under par and tied for 31st.
Ron Whittaker (1991-1994)
Whittaker is coming off a successful 2007 season that saw him make over $271,000 and finish 11th on the Nationwide Tour Money List, which secured his PGA Tour card for 2008. But he has found life on the big tour a little less fruitful. Whittaker made just his second cut of the season this past weekend at the John Deere Classic. He finished T57 and has now made $25,537 this season.
Whittaker's best finish in 2008 came at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in late February, where he carded a season-low 3-under 67 in the third round to finish in a tie for 31st. Whittaker has also made three starts on the Nationwide Tour, missing the cut in all three events.
Players Mentioned
