"What is an amateur doing in the same group as major champions?"

Doug Ferguson explains how the unusual Tiger Woods pairing for this week's Frys.com Open came about. (He's playing with amateur Patrick Cantlay and 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen.)

The PGA Tour has been tweaking a few groupings this year to help make it more appealing for TV viewers. It starts with eight groups of three players - four groups in the morning draw, four in the afternoon draw. Twenty players are taken alternately from the world ranking and the FedEx Cup standings. The other four come from the winner’s category.

However, the tour now can have one “wild card” to swap out from the four players in the winner’s category. This week, Cantlay was chosen, and then put in the same group as Woods.

Comments

[Moi]

If you look a the statistics of Cantlay, besides being nº 1 amateur in the world, you'll see the lowest round of the PGA Tour season, one of the lowest stroke averages of the 2011's PGA Tour and an amateur that dominates the best pros in many game points. In fact, these things were featured at this blog at:
http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2011/7/25/cantlays-11-prize-money-if-he-were-a-pro-roughly-456297.html
To me, absolutely deserved

[No Longer Used to be Former S&T Convert]

Wonder if his slow play bothers Tiger.

[Del the Funk]

Last night Rymer said this about Cantlay..."he has a chance to win this golf tournament, this is a bad pairing for him".

[RickABQ]

Well, Cantlay will certainly have the most interesting answer on his UCLA team on "what did you do this week".....

[tlavin]

Being paired with Tiger has ruined many a round for younger players. Here's hoping that Cantlay shoots four under.

[The O]

If the PGA Tour actually imposed slow play penalties, Cantlay would struggle to break 80.

[Mike T.]

Cantlay has played with the pros before, so that's no big deal. But catching a pairing with Tiger, under these unique circumstances, will certainly crank up the pressure.
Just imagine if he has to sink a three-footer on Friday to beat Tiger by a stroke for the two opening rounds. Or the other way around. That would something to see.

[High Performance Engine Guy]

I thought I detected a hint of blue smoke trailing Cantlay as his US Am came to an end. Will be interesting to see if he's blown a little hole in his gasket.

[Moi]

I don't see it as a punishment. It's a good opportunity to learn certain things and mature a little. If he can't stand it, it means he's not going to be the great player he promises now.

[titleist38]

Oosthuizen will grow a beard out there. I watched a bit of Cantlay at Royal Aberdeen and his pace of play is shocking.