Children's Miracle Network Classic

November 12 - 15, 2009
Disney's Magnolia & Disney's Palm Course
Lake Buena Vista, FL
Magnolia (Home Course) Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,516
Palm (1st two days) Par: 72 / Yardage: 6,9576
Purse: $4.7 million with $846,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Davis Love III List of Champions & Scores

Results & Scores 2008 Children's Miracle Network Classic

Box Score of 2008 Children's Miracle Network Classic

Tournament facts:

Tournament information:

This year, there will be 128 golfers competing in Children's Miracle Network Classic. Seeing as it is the last stop on the PGA Tour's Fall Series, players are vying for a top 125 ranking, which would insure them a Tour Card for 2010. Also important is the race to get into the top 150 of the money list, without being at least in the top-150 you have no chance to play in 2010 unless you get in through Q-school or weekly Monday qualifying.

Course information:

The Palm Course has earned much acclaim. Most notably, its ranking of 61st by Golf Digest on its 1992 list of "Top 75 Resort Courses" in the U.S. The Palms Course is the most difficult of the Joe Lee-designed Disney courses.

Diney's Magnolia Course was designed by Joe Lee in 1971. The Par 72 course plays at 7,516 yards. It features a slope rating of 73.9 and a slope rating of 140. The tees, fairways, and rough are comprised of 419 Bermuda Grass cut to 7/16", 7/16", and 2/5", respectively. The greens at the Magnolia Course are Tif Eagle Bermuda Grass cut to 1/8". This rather long cut, combined with the slower, cool-weather Bermuda Grass explains the rather low stimpmeter rating of 10.5 feet.

The Magnolia course is aptly named, as there are more than 1,500 magnolia trees lining the course. The elevated tees and greens, rolling terrain and threat of water on 10 of the 18 holes makes for a challenging round of golf. The par-3 sixth hole is the course's most notable. Its chief feature is a large bunker in the shape of Mickey Mouse.

This year, as is customary, the first and second rounds will be played on both the Palm and Magnolia courses. The final two rounds will be played on the Magnolia course.

The Buzz:

For years in the late 90s and earlier in this decade I have gone down to this event and found it an amazing opposite in feelings. Since the event is held at the Disney World resort, the notion is to go down with the kids and have a good time with Mickey and Donald Duck. So in a way it's weird to see these guys grinding it out, trying to find their games but then having the kids run up on the players during practice and begging them to forget about grinding it out and going to the park for a day of fun. It's a weird mix of opposites watching the desperate souls trying to save their careers in what Disney bill's "The happiest spot on Earth" .

One thing that is shocking is the limited coverage this event has gotten. We all know the tough times newspapers have had but they still have a responsibility in covering local events. For years the Orlando Sentinel has been one of the finest papers in the country. They prided themselves in there golf coverage, it made sense that the city that had the most PGA Tour players living in it, would have good golf coverage. But with it being part of the other papers that got sold to the Tribune group, things have gotten tough as the Sentinel has made a lot of cutbacks, including no longer having a full-time golf writer and very limited golf coverage. It's amazing in looking at the pages of the Sentinel from five years ago in which they dedicated three to five pages of the news pages to Disney coverage, but now there hasn't been a single story written on the event in either the Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday edition (update, no stories on Tuesday, it's 11pm on Wednesday and we still haven't seen a single story yet, hard to believe).

It's hard to fathom that a paper would give no early coverage to a PGA Tour event, of course they will do something but basically the editorial minds should be embarrassed by the lack of effort. After seeing all of the stories out of China, plus all of the stories coming from Melbourne and the Australian Masters, the golf world will be more interested in what happens on the other side of the world instead of at Disney. It's also not very good business of the Sentinel to forego early coverage which would help the tournament spark some interest from the locals. Hopefully this will change, but I guess that is what its coming to with city newspapers. Maybe officials of the Childrens Miracle should send over some stories and remind the sports editors of the Sentinel that this is the week of the tournament. Hey free stories is probably right up their alley since they have gotten so cheap and the paper looks more like a throw away than a paper of record of a top notch city like Orlando.

In looking at the field, with the loss of the Viking Classic due to a rain cancelation both Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark get into the field based on their top-ten Frys finish. Both need either a win, runner-up or a third to earn enough money to get into the top-125 and avoid Q-school. Talking about Q-school the field has every player from 118th to 148th on the money list entered except for Stuart Appleby, who is playing in Australia and Matt Jones, who is 129th on the money list. Many are wondering if it's unfair that Jones can't get into the Childrens Miracle, as of Monday afternoon he is first alternate. Yes he is 129th on the money list but in looking at his priority, things make a little sense. Last year Jones was 135th on the money list and bombed out of Q-School, so he is playing under the rules of those between 126th and 150th on the money list, if an event needs to fill a field they go to this list. It's not the best and many feel that the tournament should of given Jones the last sponsor exemption instead of Erik Compton but with all of the history of Compton the tournament will get more coverage from Compton than Jones..

One last thought, this is the last of our PGA Tour previews for 2009, the question for you all is to give us a moment of your time and tell us what things you would like different for 2010. How can we do a better job in this space in 2010 and what things would you like for us to tell you as we think of better ways of previewing each event. So please just give me an E-mail at: Golfersal@aol.com. Thanks.

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Chris Condon/WireImage A view of the 17th green during the 2006 Walt Disney World Resort Classic at Disney's Palm Course.

A couple of years ago major changes were made to the Magnolia course, adding more than 300 years making it one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour. In looking at Shotlink data, you would never of know that the course was toughened up:

In 2008 the course played to a 70.378 average, ranked 49th toughest on tour
In 2007 the course played to a 71.379 average, ranked 40th toughest on tour
In 2006 the course played to a 70.058 average, ranked 48th toughest on tour
In 2005 the course played to a 69.868 average, ranked 47th toughest on tour
In 2004 the course played to a 69.953 average, ranked 47th toughest on tour
In 2003 the course played to a 70.365 average, ranked 43rd toughest on tour
In 2002 the course played to a 69.704 average, ranked 48th toughest on tour

• Key stat for the winner:
  One round is played on the easier Palm course and in the past this event has been know as a birdie fest. If you look back historically both courses are a hot bed for birdie makers as 1,687 were made during the week in 1997, 1,465 in 1998, 1,591 in 1999, 1,805 in 2000, 1,803 in 2001 and 1,916 in 2002, 1,839 in 2003, 1,929 in 2004, 1,951 in 2005, 1,894 in 2006, 1,607 in 2007 and 1,650 last year. If you look at the champions of the last couple of years, you can see that 11 of the last 16 winners made the most birdies during the week and except for five of last 11 winners, Davis Love III, Lucas Glover, Duffy Waldorf, Jose Coceres and Bob Burns were ranked very high in the yearly stats for birdies made per round.

Below is a look at how many birdies the winner has made not only at Disney the year they won but on tour for that year:
Champion	# & birdies per rd - at Disney	rank per event	# & birdies per rd - for year	rank per year
2008-Davis Love III	24 (6.00)	T3rd	261 (3.35)	106th
2007-Stephen Ames	23 (5.75)	T1st	244 (3.01)	34th
2006-Joe Durant	26 (6.50)	T1st	366 (3.62)	18th
2005-Lucas Glover	26 (6.50)	T2nd	316 (3.16)	T65th
2004-Ryan Palmer	24 (6.00)	T3rd	386 (3.86)	18th
2003-Vijay Singh	26(6.50)	1st	450 (4.41)	1st
2002-Bob Burns	28 (7.00)	1st	348 (3.63)	94th
2001-Jose Coceres	25 (6.25)	1st	204 (3.58)	106th
2000-Duffy Waldorf	30 (7.50)	1st	271 (3.61)	61st
1999-Tiger Woods	22(5.50)	2nd	317 (4.46)	1st
1998-John Huston	21(5.25)	1st	354(3.98)	3rd
1997-David Duval	27(6.75)	1st	401(4.09)	3rd
1996-Tiger Woods	23(5.75)	T-1st	185 (4.51)	not ranked
1995-Brad Bryant	15(5.00)	T-18th	353(3.72)	14th
1994-Rick Fehr	23(5.75)	T-1st	276(3.58)	T-30th
1993-Jeff Maggert	25(6.25)	1st	337(3.74)	9th

• Being a hot putter this week will be important or you'll be setting your sights for the Magic Kingdom and the rest of the Disney attractions, as you will most assuredly miss the cut. The last eight of nine champions of the Children's Miracle Network Classic have posted scores between 22 and 26 under.
• So as you can see the favorite to win this year is one that makes lots of birdies. So in making your choice look at this chart of the leading birdie leaders this year.
• Another key is to look for players that do well on courses with Bermudagrass and those with patience. The patience part is because the first 36 holes will be played with amateurs in the pro-am portion.
• The Rookie factor. Look at some of the winners in the last decade. Lucas Glover, Ryan Palmer, Bob Burns, Brad Bryant, Rick Fehr and Jeff Maggert were all rookie winners. So don’t disregard a player just because he hasn’t won. Also Palmer was making his first start at Disney in 2004 so don’t disregard the 25 players that are making there first Disney start this week.
• Weather is suppose to be picture perfect for the week, Orlando has had very little rain the last couple of weeks. So look for long hitters to do well this week on dry, firm fairways.
• Another thing to watch is the battle to get into the top-30 of the money list, to get into the Masters and the race into the top-125 to keep tour cards for 2010.
  In the past a lot of players were forced to play in this event and bring their family's. A lot of the regulars aren't here and yes family's are present, but with this being the last event of the year a lot more pressure is on the players.
  Most of the field are in the race for the top-125. Of the 128 in the field, every player from 118th to 148th are entered except for Stuart Appleby (134th), who is playing in Australia and Matt Jones (129th), who is first alternate.
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