Medical Extensions

An article on SI.com a few days ago details the players receiving medical extensions from the PGA Tour in 2007.

When a golfer misses part of the year due to injury, he can apply to the Tour for a medical extension. The Tour takes into account the nature of the injury, how much time the golfer missed, and that golfer's status, then decides whether to issue the extension and how many tournaments it will get the golfer into the following year.

Among the golfers receiving medical extensions from the PGA Tour for 2007 are Tom Byrum, Scott Hoch, Scott McCarron, J.L. Lewis and Hank Kuehne.

Kuehne, for example, received an extension that gets him into 21 tournaments in 2007. In those 21 tournaments, has can maintain his fully exempt status by winning the equivalent of No. 125 on the 2006 money list. If he fails to do that, and also fails to finish in the Top 125 on the 2007 money list, he loses exempt status and will be faced with the possibility of returning to Q-School.

The most interesting player among those receiving extensions is Steven Bowditch. In 2006, Bowditch had one of the worst seasons in recent PGA Tour history. He made just 3 of 24 cuts. He was DQ'd four times and withdrew another three times. He shot in the 60s just three times, but in the 80s six times.

Bowditch applied for a medical extension, citing depression. And the PGA Tour granted him a minor medical extension for 2007 that gets him into five tournaments.

You'd be depressed, too, if you had a year like the one Bowditch had in 2006.