Louisiana’s Slocum has top-40 finish

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Heath Slocum had the best finish of the three players with Louisiana connections over the weekend in the PGA Tour’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Slocum finished with a one-under-par 71 in Sunday’s final round on a wind-whipped day that featured only seven players breaking 70. He finished with a six-under-par 71-67-71-71–280 score over the four rounds, tying for 34th and earning $26,745.

Acadian-by-marriage Chris Riley finished one stroke off the cut line at 70-71-71–212 and Breaux Bridge native Brett Delahoussaye finished at 69-76-70–215.

This week’s double-up on the PGA Tour has several Louisiana-based players on two different fronts.

Monroe native, Shreveport resident and former LSU standout David Toms qualified for the limited-field Accenture World Match-Play Championship which begins Wednesday at the Ritz-Carltol Golf Club in Marana, Ariz. He is seeded 52nd out of 64 players in the unique head-to-head match-play event and will face Sergio Garcia in Wednesday’s opening round.

Slocum, Riley, Delahoussaye and Monroe’s Brian Bateman are all in the PGA Tour’s alternate stop, the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya near Cancun beginning Thursday. Rayne native, Lake Charles resident and ex-UL Lafayette All-American Mike Heinen is also an alternate in the Mayakoba tournament.

Only one Louisiana-based player likely to make cut

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The three players with Louisiana ties in the PGA Tour’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am had varying results in Friday’s second round, and only one is in good shape to make the Saturday-evening cut and play in Sunday’s final round.

Heath Slocum of Hammond and Baton Rouge carded a five-under-par 67 on the Spyglass Hill par-72 layout Friday and stands at four-under-par 138 through two rounds. He had a one-over 71 in his first round at the Monterey Peninsula course and will play at Pebble Beach on Saturday. The event has a unique three-course setup with all players playing each course once before the Saturday cut, with the final round played at Pebble Beach.

Acadian-by-marriage Chris Riley, who opened with a two-under 70 at Pebble Beach Thursday, had a one-under 71 at Monterey Friday and stands at one-under 141 through two rounds. He will likely have to be at least a couple of strokes under par Saturday at Spyglass to make the cut.

Breaux Bridge native Brent Delahoussaye had posted a one-under 69 at Monterey on Thursday but slipped to a four-over 76 at Spyglass on Friday to stand at three-over 145, needing a stellar Saturday round at Pebble Beach to reach Sunday’s final round.

A total of six players — Alex Cejka, Bruce Molder, defending champion Dustin Johnson, Paul Goydos and J. B. Holmes — were at 10-under 132 through two rounds.

Heitala closer, but misses second Down Under cut in Australia

The only player with Louisiana ties in this week’s Nationwide Tour Moonah Classic came a little closer to the cut line than the previous week.

Former Lafayette resident Ryan Hietala, now living in Boise, Idaho, missed the cut line by two strokes in the $600,000 Nationwide Tour event. Hietala, also a former Chitimacha Louisiana Open winner, carded a 75-72–147 total over two rounds of the event at the Moonah Links in Victoria, Australia, with the cut line at one-over 145.

 Hietala figured to be inside the cut line after opening Friday’s second round with two birdies in the first three holes. He still stood at two-under before bogeying the seventh, and finished with five bogeys in the final 12 holes.

American Jim Herman, who opened with a stellar 10-under 62 in Thursday’s first round, held the halfway lead by three strokes with a 62-70–132 score.

Hietala had also missed the cut in last week’s Michael Hill New Zealand Open. The Tour wraps up its “Down Under” season openers this week and returns to action Feb. 25-28 in the Panama Claro Championship in Panama City, Panama, and will also visit Bogota, Colombia for a March 4-7 event prior to the U.S. Tour kickoff March 25-28 at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open at Le Triomphe.

Hietala has rough start to Nationwide Tour season at Michael Hill New Zealand Open

QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand — The only player with local connections in the Nationwide Tour’s 2010 opening tournament won’t have good memories of this year’s inaugural.

Former Lafayette resident Ryan Hietala, now living in Boise, Idaho, finished well down the leader board — 151st out of 157 players — in the Michael Hill New Zealand open which wrapped up Sunday, Jan. 31, at The Hills Golf Club in Queenstown.

Hietala, who won the 2005 Chitimacha Louisiana Open championship on his Le Triomphe home course for his first Nationwide Tour win, carded 74-78 — 152 (+8) and did not make the cut for the final two rounds.

Reigning Louisiana Open champion Bubba Dickerson also missed the cut line by a single stroke, posting a one-under 74-69 — 143 total. It took a two-under 142 to advance to the final two rounds.

Both will have a chance to get their seasons untracked this week when they play in the Nationwide’s second “down under” event, the $600,000 Moonah Classic Feb. 4-7 at the Moonah Links in Victoria, Australia. The Nationwide Tour plays four international events before opening its play in the continental U.S. in the 19th Chitimacha Louisiana Open March 22-28 at Le Triomphe.

Local connections Riley, Delahoussaye both miss cut

SAN DIEGO — Both of the players with Acadiana connections missed the cut line Friday in the second round of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Acadian-by-marriage Chris Riley of Las Vegas missed the two-under 142 cut total by only one stroke, posting a one-over-par 73 on Friday and finishing at one-under 143. Riley had three bogeys and two birdies in his round.

Breaux Bridge native Brent Delahoussaye finished at 74-74–148 (+4) after making a front-side run at the cut line, shooting two-under on Friday’s front. But he had a six-hole stretch with two bogeys and one double bogey to finish well off the cut line.

D. A. Points and Ryuji Amada are tied at 11-under 133 entering Saturday’s third round.

Riley tied for 40th, Delahoussaye struggles in first round at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO — Acadiana’s two representatives in this week’s PGA Tour action at the Farmers Insurance Open finished with varied results in Thursday’s opening round.

Acadian-by-marriage Chris Riley carded a two-under-par 70 opening round, carding four birdies and two bogeys on his way to a tie for 40th after one round at Torrey Pines. The Las Vegas native was making his second appearance of the season after missing the cut in the Sony Open two weeks ago.

Breaux Bridge native Brent Delahoussaye had an up-and-down round, finishing with a two-over 74 that included four bogeys and two birdies after making the turn at one-under. He stood tied for 117th after the opening round.

Second-year PGA Tour member Scott Piercy had a stellar eight-under 64 in the opening round, one that included nine birdies and a seven-under 29 on the front side, for the first-round lead. He stood one stroke ahead of a fivesome at seven-under 65.

Louisiana products Slocum, Toms both finish in top 50

LaQUINTA, Calif. — Heath Slocum and David Toms both posted final rounds in the 60’s and finished in the top 50 in the Bob Hope Classic that concluded on Monday.

Slocum, a native of Baton Rouge, posted a final-round 69 and finished tied for 33rd at 18-under-par (66-72-68-67-69 — 342) in the unique five-round event. He slipped back five spots on the final day after a four-birdie, one-bogey round in his second tournament of the season — and one week after missing the Sony Open with the birth of his second child.

Toms, a native of Monroe and Shreveport resident, finished tied for 42nd in his second outing of the season at 16-under-par (70-70-67-70-67 — 344), moving up 13 slots in the final round with a five-birdie round including birdies on three of the final five holes.

Bill Haas, son of long-time PGA Tour pro Jay Haas, missed only one fairway and two greens in an eight-under 64 finish Monday and won the event by a single stroke with a two-putt 18th hole birdie. Haas had only one bogey in his last three rounds in becoming half of the eighth father-son tandem in history to win PGA Tour events.

Neither are scheduled to play in this weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Acadiana-area entrants include Breaux Bridge native Brent Delahoussaye and Acadian-by-marriage Chris Riley.

Louisiana products Heath Slocum and David Toms are hoping to still be around for Monday’s final round of the PGA Tour’s Bob Hope Classic in LaQuinta, Calif.

Baton Rouge native Slocum, whose opening-round 66 had him in the top 15 on Wednesday, managed only an even-par 72 on Friday on the PGA West Course (Thursday’s play was postponed due to wet course conditions). His two-day six-under 138 has him 10 strokes back of front-running Bubba Watson (66-62–128) with three rounds to go and tied for 39th overall

Toms, Monroe native now living in Shreveport, has matched two-under 70 scores on the LaQuinta and SilverRock courses (the first four rounds of the five-round Hope Classic are played on four different golf courses), and his 140 total is two more strokes back and tied for 67th.

There is no cut until after the fourth round when players have played each of the four courses, with the field cut to the top 70 and ties for the final round which will now be played on Monday.

Heath Slocum posted an opening-round six-under-par 66 and stood tied for eighth after the first round of the PGA Tour’s Bob Hope Classic on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

Slocum had a bogey-fee round with six birdies, including three in a row on the 13th through 15th holes, and was four shots behind first-day leader Shane Bertsch.

David Toms was at two-under 70 and was tied for 55th after an opening round that incuded five birdies and three bogeys.

The second round of the unique five-round event was postponed on Thursday due to wet course conditions. Play resumed early Friday morning.

Shreveport’s David Toms made the cut and finished tied for 43rd in his PGA Tour season debut at the Sony Open, held Jan. 14-17 at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Monroe native carded 70-69-70-68 — 277 in the first full-field PGA event of the 2010 season. The event was familiar ground for the LSU product, with five finishes in the top 13 in his career at Waialae including winning the title in 2006.

Toms was coming off a strong 2009 season in which he had seven top-10 finishes and three runner-up spots while earning $3.04 million. But that season didn’t include a victory despite those close calls, meaning he’ll likely be looking with a vengeance to add to his 12 PGA Tour wins during the 2010 season.

One other player with Louisiana ties also competed at the Sony Open, but Chris Riley did not make the cut. The Acadian-by-marriage posted 74-71–145 opening rounds and missed the cut by four shots. Riley, a former U.S. Ryder Cup player, earned his PGA Tour card for 2010 through his finish at Q-School last December.