It figures that the first year I don’t sweat out the qualifying scores of the Champs Tour, the craziest things happen. To begin, check out the list of world players trying to qualify for one of seven spots: Kuramoto and Ozaki from Japan, Romero and Carbonetti from Argentina, Cambridge from Jamaica, Rivero from Spain, Brand and Longmuir from Scotland, Nelford and Stewart from Canada. Every one of these guys made a mark during his sub-50 days. Now look at the Americans: Danny and David Edwards, Mark Pfeil, David Ishii, Brad Fabel, Bill Britton, Lance Ten Broeck, Keith Fergus, and Howard Twitty. Each of them won on the regular PGA tour. Before the first shot of the final stage was fired, it was shaping up to be a shootout.

Now, throw in first-round,hurricane-quality winds, accompanied by scores in the high 70s and low 80s (warmer than the temperature) and the whole house of cards falls apart. Longtime Long Island club pro Darrell Kestner shoots 81 in the first round, and currently stands tied for 6th midway throught the fifth round. Eduardo Romero, at 79 through 18 holes, now sits one back in 9th position. Rick Rhoden, the Dodgers’ pitcher who truly has the game for this league, sits tied for 6th with Kestner. Ahead of them are Kuramoto, Ozaki, and Longmuir, along with a few club pros for salt and pepper. Current-day scores among the contenders range from -4 (Nick Job, who went from 44 to 15 with that one; he’ll need 66 tomorrow to have a shot) to +4 (Rhoden, better find a way to stop the bleeding.)

I wish I had the Golf Channel.

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