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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > May > 17 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USEx-Dog Bolli 182nd but closing in
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are certain things that don’t take an economics degree to figure out.
Ranking 182nd on the money list? Not going to get you very far.
Ranking near the top of the leaderboard but having confused fans wonder aloud, “Who’s the guy playing with Stewart Cink?” Easy. Cable didn’t pick up the 2004 Chattanooga Classic on the Nationwide Tour.
It could be worse for Justin Bolli. It has been worse for Justin Bolli. Getting a Tour card, only to lose it after one year. Making eight of 12 cuts but finishing 66th, 49th, 48th, 80th, 57th, 72nd and 40th. But a corner might have been turned this week.
The former Roswell High School and Georgia walk-on is making a run of it in the AT&T Classic. His 68 Saturday at Sugarloaf left him with a 9-under-207 through three rounds, just four shots back of leader Charles Howell III. People might even know who he is today.
“This is a great thing,” Bolli said. “It’s a lot better than finishing in 57th place.”
This will be progress, both career-wise and economically. Regardless of what happens today, Bolli will not step so far out of obscurity that he will surpass Cink. (“He has a house here. My income’s not quite there yet.”) But there’s little reason to believe he’ll fall off the pace.
Even Cink, his more famous playing partner Saturday, said: “He’s really consistent. He doesn’t do anything to get himself into big trouble. He’s not the longest player but he’s also fairly accurate off the tee. So he’s always going to be in the game. I don’t see him shooting a lot of 77s.”
And then this: “He’ll stick.”
Cink meant on the Tour. Bolli earned his card in 2005. But he made the cut in only nine of 24 tournaments, had three top-25 finishes and found himself back on the Nationwide Tour. He won his PGA Tour card back after finishing eighth on the Nationwide money list.
This year, he said, he has “made cuts, but missed putts,” leaving him 182nd in earnings.
“I’ve gotten my card twice and I’ve lost it once, so I’d have to say keeping it is harder than getting it,” Bolli said. “Hopefully I can keep it a little longer this time. I feel a lot more comfortable.”
In 2005, there were times when he found himself somewhat overwhelmed by the moment, the competition and the surroundings. Not now. Cink remarked how Bolli’s temperament didn’t change Saturday when he got to within one shot of the lead.
“He didn’t look nervous at all,” he said. “The experience of being in the thick of things is really going to help him down the line.”
Golf is no different from other sports in this respect: Jumping from the Nationwide to the PGA Tour is the same as transitioning from the minors to the majors. Strengths get neutralized. Weaknesses become magnified.
When asked why he believes he struggled in 2005, Bolli mentioned better competition, and then added: “You’re playing with guys who know the courses, they know where to go, they know where to eat. It makes it so much easier to just go out and play when you know where everything is. A lot of the time I was just trying to find my way around.”
Not a problem this week. He bounced back from an opening-round 72 to shoot 66 Friday. He opened the third round with birdies on six of the first 13 holes, dropping to 10-under, one shot back of Howell. But he bogeyed 15 and missed birdie chances on the final three holes.
His cheering section consisted of his parents, fiancée and a couple of friends, not quite matching Cink’s gallery.
It’s not every day a Georgia man finds himself so outnumbered by Tech fans.
Asked about the pairing of rival schools, Bolli smiled and said, “There wasn’t too much ribbing. I can just remind him of the game every year.”
It’s his hope that bragging rights will carry over from football.
Comments
By Ted Striker
May 17, 2008 9:21 PM | Link to this
Man, it’s good to see a good column on golf from the AJC…who is that other guy that writes about it?
By Roy
May 17, 2008 11:01 PM | Link to this
That other guy is the guy who actually shows up at golf tournaments more than one day a year. I wonder if Schultz even showed up at the course to write this. I heard most of those quotes on the radio.
By Ted Striker
May 18, 2008 4:18 AM | Link to this
Hey, Jeff — Ever noticed how so many respondents utilize argumentum ad hominem and red herrings?
By RN
May 18, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq_e2Q2HxXg
Braves Nostalgia. Funny stuff.