Scottsdale PGA Tour
rookie hopes to get carded

By Shannon Gazze
GolfArizona.com Valley Editor

But there is one card that is better than all the rest. Better than platinum, better even than titanium. It’s one that everybody strives to procure and only a select few ever attain.

It’s a PGA Tour card. When the season winds down every November, only 125 professional golfers are allowed to keep it. On any given week, it can be worth $50,000, $100,000, maybe even $500,000.

Scottsdale’s Ted Purdy has had his Tour card less than a year, and already he is faced with the reality that it may be taken away from him.

Ranked 225th on the PGA Tour money list ($46,660) after last week’s B.C. Open, Purdy missed the cut at the Westin Texas Open and would need to finish first or second in one of the five remaining events to propel himself far enough up the list to hang on to his card.

"I’m being realistic," says Purdy, a 26 year-old rookie on the PGA Tour. "I just sent in my $4,000 check for Q-school."

Qualifying school, or the PGA National Qualifying Tournament, is where golfer’s dreams come true. Purdy finished 16th in the final stage of the tournament in 1998 to achieve his life-long dream of playing on the Tour. The top 110 receive Tour cards.

Next time around, if there is a next time, Purdy expects the same outcome in Q-school. "I’m not afraid of Tour school," he says. "I probably have an advantage having been there and playing on the Tour. Usually it’s the guys that have been playing that make it back."

He hopes his next time around the Tour circuit, however, is much different.

"If I regain my card, I’ll have a much better perspective next year than I did this year," Purdy says. "I pressed the panic button way too early. I played a lousy final round (74) to blow the Buick Invitational in February, and I started worrying about keeping my card.

"All the guys said not too worry. That it’s a long season. They were right. I shouldn’t have been worried then. I should be worried now."

As things turned out, tying for 35th at the Buick was the best finish Purdy would manage all season. He’s missed 18 cuts in 1999.

Before that, Purdy won the Arizona Amateur in ’95 and the Southwest Amateur in ’93. He won a state title at Scottsdale’s Brophy Prep and starred for the Arizona Wildcats along with fellow Tour player Rory Sabbatini.

"I’ve just been missing fairways, and that affects my whole game," Purdy says of his current woes. "One day I shot a 66 (at the Reno-Taho Open in August) and hit every fairway. The next day I hit two or three fairways and followed up with a 77. My game this year could be described as inaccurate, at best."

• Ted Purdy’s biography from pgatour.com • Past course reviews from GolfArizona.com • Past articles by Shannon Gazze

Purdy counts Sabbatini, Tommy Tolles and Nolan Henke among his friends on Tour, but says he doesn’t socialize much on the road.

"It’s different out here than on the other tours," he says. "It’s so competitive out on the golf course that people tend to go their own way at night. It would be like the Phoenix Suns going out to dinner with the (Portland) Trailblazers. And you’ve seen your caddie all day long, so you don’t want to go out with him. I eat a lot of room service.

"Just being out here, I'm gaining some valuable experience, though. I see a guy like Rocco Mediate come into the clubhouse and sit next to a legend like Nick Price. Rocco doesn't give two shits about Nick Price. That stuff doesn't even affect him. I'm not quite there yet."

He may still be getting his feet wet, but one of two major things that Purdy still has going for him is his attitude about the game. A business major at UA, he likens the golf world to the world of high finance. "It’s been a tough year, but there are cycles in every business," he says. "I’m on a down cycle, but there are positive moments."

The other thing that's buoying Purdy is that he’s still got a great golf game. "Agents and players will come up to me on the practice tee and say ‘Purdy, man, you’re game looks fine.’ But there’s just a fine line between keeping it together and missing the cut," he says. "I’m one of the straightest drivers around – at least I used to be. Hopefully whatever’s wrong is correctable and I’ll come back strong next year."

The strange thing about Purdy’s place on the money list is that it is his worst statistic on Tour. He’s 79th in driving distance and 76th in eagles scored per hole. He’s solidly in the top 200 on every other major statistic kept by the PGA. But the only stat that really counts is that 225.

I’ve made six cuts," Purdy explains. "It’s that simple, you’ve got to make cuts to make money."

Purdy says it’s been a long time since he’s played a round of golf and not thought about the business aspect of the game. But he’s happy to look up the money list and see all the talent in front of him. Golf is a capitalist game. Better players mean more money and better competition for everyone. Confidence has never been a problem for Purdy and he welcomes the challenge of becoming a Tour regular.

If he must return to Q-school to meet that challenge, than so be it.

But he’s still got a little unfinished business in the dwindling 1999 season. Not only would a victory in one of the remaining events secure his coveted Tour card for another season or two, but it would mean a lot to someone who means a lot to Purdy – his grandfather.

"Par," as he's affectionately referred to by Purdy, has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Purdy would like the man that gave him a golf club when he was in diapers and followed him throughout his career to be there when he hoists a championship trophy in a PGA Tour event.

The odds are against him, much like they are against his grandfather in his battle. But both are fighters, and the best advice is this: Keep an eye on that leader board in the month of October and don’t count either one of them out.

There may be wealthier players on Tour right now, but there are few as hungry as Ted Purdy.