Local Golf: Touring pros just happy to pitch in

Others' games are hurting. And others are keeping their games sharp until they become eligible for the senior tour.

On Saturday morning, 18 tour pros made their way to The Golf Club at Fiddler's Creek to play in the PGA Tour Saturday Series Pro-Am to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Collier County.

The Saturday Series was started by tour player Gary Hallberg in 1998 and gives golfers an option to play on Saturdays if they miss the cut at a PGA Tour event. Most of the time, that's who makes up the field, but with such a long distance between this week's tour stop near Tampa, the Chrysler Championship, and Naples, only six of the 18 made the journey.

Still, there were 18 pros there, many of them doing so because of their relationship with Bill Thompson, the series' president and tournament director. Tour players Mike Sposa, Mike Donald and Pete Jordan made the drive when they found out Thompson needed players.

"I feel very fortunate that the numbers of years I've been out here doing this I've made a lot of friends," Thompson said. "They have literally gone out of their way on many occasions, this one being one of them, to help me."

"They needed some help, so I'm here," said PGA Tour player Brian Gay, who has played on the tour the last four years, but will have to go to qualifying school because he's 136th on the money list.

The Saturday Series features four-person amateur teams playing with a pro. The pros switch teams after nine holes. About 20 have been played this year. Amateurs paid $2,500 apiece and the pros receive an undisclosed appearance fee. The events aren't open to the public.

"It's a pretty good format," said Sposa, who was 88th on the money list in 2001 but slipped to 159th this year and will go back to Q-School. "You switch up groups and you get to meet different people. It goes pretty quick, so it's good."

"This is a big part of the PGA Tour, being able to take somebody out and play golf with them," said tour player Larry Rinker, whose brother Lee is a top club professional and won the South Florida PGA Open in Naples earlier this year. "It's personal and it's great PR for us."

Gay, Sposa and several others are trying to keep their games sharp for the grind that is PGA Tour Q-School. The six-round finals are in Orlando, Dec. 3-8.

Bart Bryant and P.H. Horgan III were there after coming back from injuries. Bryant missed most of the season after elbow surgery. Horgan has missed the past couple of years because of hip and shoulder surgeries.

Rinker, 46, and Donald, 48, are biding their time until they can play on the Champions Tour, although because they're not high on the all-time money list both of them will have to go through its qualifying school, which will yield only seven spots this year.

Based on his years on the tour, Rinker hopes that the Champions Tour would make some kind of change to its eligibility. Since golfers like Rinker and Donald played most of their careers in the 80s, when the purses were nowhere near what they are now, their standing is hurt when compared to others on the all-time money list, one of the ways players can qualify automatically for the Champions Tour.

"This all-time money barometer really doesn't show what a guy's contributed to the PGA Tour in his career," Rinker said.

"We have guys when we turn 50 ahead of us on eligibility that never played the tour. I would like to think that at least for a year or two that we would have some eligibility to play, rather than just having to go through the Q-School like everybody else."

Donald, best known for losing the 1990 U.S. Open to Hale Irwin in a playoff, has kept on playing, despite not having much success the past five or six years.

"I've seen a lot of guys that were struggling between 45 and 50 and things turned around for them, like a Dave Eichelberger or a Hubert Green," he said. "I think I'm better off playing and competing against good players and not being as competitive, rather than just beating balls."

This wasn't the first time a Saturday Series Pro-Am has been played in Southwest Florida.

The Club at Mediterra in North Naples has hosted one the weekend of the PGA Tour's Honda Classic the past two years. Mediterra's and Saturday's are the two farthest series events from their respective tour stops. Usually they're 30 miles away at the most.

"These events are a great thing for the tour events because it actually brings in your weekend customer," Rinker said. "You've got a guy that flies in for the weekend, comes in Friday, spends the night, gets to go play golf and then he can go in the afternoon to the tournament."

Saturday's pro-am was set up with the help of Bob Curtin, former sales director for Naples' LPGA Tour event. Once Curtin and Thompson figured out it could work, the pro-am was a go.

Most of the pro-ams are tied in with charities and .

"The pros are willing to help most always, especially when it's a charity for children," Thompson said.

PGA Golfers

A brief look at the 18 PGA Tour golfers who played in the PGA Tour Saturday Series Pro-Am on Saturday to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County at Fiddler's Creek:

Steven Alker: New Zealand native 163rd on money list in first year on tour

Bart Bryant: Veteran played just six tour events this year due to elbow surgery

Barry Cheesman: Tied for 11th at last week's Nationwide Tour event in Miami

Marco Dawson: Tied for seventh at Buick Invitational

Mike Donald: Veteran finished second to Hale Irwin in 1990 U.S. Open

Brian Gay: Four-year veteran slipped to 136th on money list

P.H. Horgan III: Veteran rebounding from hip and shoulder surgeries

Ryan Howison: 94th on Nationwide Tour money list

Pete Jordan: Played Nationwide Tour this year after nine years on PGA Tour

Anthony Painter: 169th on PGA Tour money list in first year

Deane Pappas: 181st on PGA Tour money list in first year on tour

Larry Rinker: Finished second twice in PGA Tour career

Dave Rummells: Finished second once in PGA Tour career

Akio Sadakata: 206th on PGA Tour money list in first year on tour

Patrick Sheehan: 103rd on PGA Tour money list in first year on tour

Mike Sposa: 88th on PGA Tour money list in 2001

Darron Stiles: 149th on PGA Tour money list in first year on tour

Mike Sullivan: Three-time winner on PGA Tour