Nov1 PGA tour season comes to a close

Most players used to come to Disney to play golf and enjoy the theme parks. As the final tournament of the PGA Tour season, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic has a much more serious tone this year.

Most guys here are simply trying to save their jobs.

No one feels it quite like Ted Purdy, who has plunged from No. 110 on the money list at the start of the Fall Series to No. 125, giving him a $4,118 lead over J.B. Holmes.

If he misses the cut and Holmes makes it to the weekend, Purdy will lose his full exemption for 2008.

“Never was I worried about keeping my card until the last couple of weeks,” Purdy said. “I’ve played my way into this situation.”

He’s not alone.

Since the Fall Series began, nine players have fallen outside of the top 125 in what has proven to be an unpredictable set of circumstances. Tour officials figured something around $700,000 would be enough to finish in the top 125, but that number has been moving north every week.

One reason is because the top stars have taken the year off, leaving more players out of the top 100 on the money list into fields and raising the chances of them either winning (George McNeill) or doing well enough to secure their cards (Mark Hensby, Michael Allen).

Other bubbles for the week:

Anders Hansen is at No. 150, the cutoff for conditional status. Hansen, however, is not at Disney, and he would be bumped if Tripp Isenhour, Robert Gamez or Jeff Gove make the cut.

Carl Pettersson is at No. 32 on the money list, needing at least $84,926 to have any hope of moving into the top 30 to qualify for the Masters. Heath Slocum (No. 31) already is eligible, as is David Toms (No. 30). Also in range of a trip to Augusta National is Justin Leonard (No. 35) and Ken Duke (No. 36).

TIGER TALKS: Tiger Woods said any rumors about him leaving Hank Haney are just that. WI have not split with Hank Haney, my friend and swing coach,” Woods said in his monthly newsletter. “He’s spent more time at home helping his wife deal with health issues, which is the way it should be. Besides, I’ve become much better at correcting my swing flaws, and that’s ultimately where you want to get to with a coach-pupil relationship. Hank is still going to be my coach; that’s not changing.”

Haney has not been at a tournament with Woods since the Bridgestone Invitational, fueling rumors about a split.

Woods won’t play again until the Target World Challenge in California on Dec. 13-16, and about the only one touching a club in the house appears to be 4-month-old daughter Sam.

“She can grab things now and has held a golf club in her hands,” he said. “I didn’t start swinging a club until I was 11 months, so she’s got seven months until that happens.”

DIVOTS: U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera made eagle on the final hole to force a playoff, and he beat Ricardo Gonzalez in the Argentina Masters. Cabrera also eagled the 18th and won in a playoff in his previous event, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. … Chris DiMarco, who had shoulder surgery on Sept. 12, withdrew from the final PGA Tour event of the year. … Nine players outside the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list have played at least 30 times this year.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Three years after Todd Hamilton won the British Open and rose to No. 16 in the world ranking, he has fallen to No. 894 going into the final event of 2007.

FINAL WORD: “I like time off, but I golf. So that’s why we play.” – Mark Calcavecchia on playing in the Fall Series.