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Biggest record remains for Tiger
Tiger Woods is on track to break one of the most venerated records in golf: lowest stroke average for a year. Currently Woods is averaging 68.33 for his 60 rounds this year. It is the same total Byron Nelson achieved in his epic 1945 season, in which he won 18 tournaments and including 11 in a row. But because statistics were incomplete for that year, the official tour record is 69.23 by Sam Snead in 1950. For the year, Woods' low round is the 61 he shot in the second round of the NEC Invitational, while his high was a first-round 75 at the Masters. One record Woods hasn't yet broken is Mike Souchak's 72-hole mark of 257, shot in the 1955 Texas Open. In the history of the Tour, only 10 players have ever gone below 260 in a 72 hole event, with Woods' 21 under par 259 at the NEC Invitational being the latest.
Monty: Euro Tour needs to rethink Ryder Cup wild cardsEuropean Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance will have two wild card picks for the 2001 team, which Colin Montgomerie believes is not nearly enough.Montgomerie points out that stalwarts including Jesper Parnevik, Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Nick Faldo and Thomas Bjorn will all be playing most of their golf in America in 2001, meaning some or even all of them may not earn enough points to automatically qualify for the team. The European Tour, on the other hand, favors only two captain's picks because it wants every lever at its disposal to keep its stars playing in Europe. This time next year, it could be a decision they regret.
May, Verplank make their marksTwo erstwhile journeymen have made their marks in the last two weeks. Bob May's third-place finish at the Reno Tahoe Open, along with his dramatic playoff loss to Woods at the PGA, have vaulted him to 22nd on this year's money list with more than $1.2 million. In his four previous seasons on the tour, May had won just over $121,000.Meanwhile, Scott Verplank's playoff victory over Jean Van de Velde at Reno was his first in exactly 12 years and 27 days, the fourth-longest span between wins in the history of the tour. The longest belongs to Butch Baird, who went 15 years, five months and 10 days between winning the 1961 Waco Turner Open Invitational and the 1976 San Antonio-Texas Open.
Big Jim's big yearJim Thorpe is having a career year. After finishing second to Larry Nelson last week at the Senior Tour's Fleet Boston Classic, the 51-year-old Thorpe has now won $916,955 and ranks 11th on the money list. The most Thorpe ever won on the PGA Tour was $371,091 in 1985, when he had two victories. Thorpe has finished in the top 10 in eight of the last 10 events, and is due for his first Senior Tour win.Sports Illustrated senior writer Jaime Diaz covers the golf beat for the magazine and appears each Saturday on CNN's "Sports Illustrated Golf Plus" show.
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