Both the Web.com the European Challenge Tour concluded their seasons this weekend, with their final money lists determining the first wave of newcomers to the PGA and European circuits for 2013.  In the case of the Web.com, the top 25 money winners gain PGA Tour status, a list which breaks down as follows:

1   Casey Wittenberg   $433,453 
2   Luke Guthrie   $410,593 
3   Russell Henley   $400,116 
4   Luke List    $363,206 
5   James Hahn   $337,530 
6   Shawn Stefani   $307,371 
7   Robert Streb   $305,591 
8   Ben Kohles    $303,977 
9   Justin Bolli    $300,924 
10 David Lingmerth   $287,148 
11 Justin Hicks    $277,159 
12 Paul Haley II   $263,841 
13 Cameron Percy   $256,238 
14 Andres Gonzales   $235,505 
15 Scott Gardiner   $234,145 
16 Lee Williams   $223,468 
17 Darron Stiles   $213,031 
18 Brad Fritsch    $212,168 
19 Morgan Hoffmann   $207,540 
20 Brian Stuard   $205,711 
21 Andrew Svoboda   $203,717 
22 Nicholas Thompson   $192,751 
23 Alistair Presnell  $190,567 
24 Doug LaBelle II   $186,320 
25 Jim Herman    $182,001

Among those left on the outside looking in, 33-year-old Colombian Camilo Bendetti finished 26th (despite a closing 67 – and a T19 – at the Tour Championship), ex-Georgia Bulldog Hudson Swafford was 27th and former PGA Tour players Joseph Bramlett and Michael Putnam finished 28th and 29th respectively.

On the European side, only the top 20 qualify, which broke down as follows:

 1 Espen Kofstad     €131,099 
 2 Kristoffer Broberg     €126,508 
 3 Andreas Harto    €121,999 
 4 Joachim B Hansen    €120,085 
 5 Gary Lockerbie    €117,482 
 6 Magnus Carlsson    €110,487 
 7 Simon Wakefield    €108,593 
 8 Alessandro Tadini    €101,428 
 9 Alexandre Kaleka     €95,944 
 10 Chris Doak     €92,730 
 11 Scott Henry    €90,688 
 12 Chris Paisley    €74,485 
 13 Eddie Pepperell    €72,378 
 14 Maximilian Kieffer   €70,243 
 15 Justin Walters    €69,913 
 16 James Busby    €67,350 
 17 Gary Stal     €66,580 
 18 Mark Tullo     €66,436 
 19 Morten Orum Madsen €65,338 
 20 Seve Benson  €65,149

Near/notable misses here included England’s Daniel Brooks (21st), veterans Raymond Russell (22nd), Phillip Archer (25th) and long-hitting Daniel Vancsik (27th), as well as touted American prospect Peter Uihlein (26th).

PGA Tour - CIMB Classic (Unofficial)  -  Nick Watney  (262)
European Tour - BMW Masters  -  Peter Hanson  (267)
Japan Tour - Mynavi ABC Championship  -  Han Lee  (271)
Asian Tour - See PGA Tour (Above)
Sunshine Tour - Suncoast Classic  -  Ruan De Smidt  (208)
Australasian Tour - Western Australia Open  -  Oliver Goss (a)  (272)
LPGA Tour - Sunrise Taiwan Championship  -  Suzann Pettersen  (269)
LET - China Suzhou Taihu Open  -  Carlota Ciganda  (199)
JLPGA Tour - Morinaga Weider Ladies  -  Mi-Jeong Jeon  (204)
Champions Tour - AT&T Championship  -  David Frost  (208)
Web.com Tour - Web.com Tour Championship  -  Justin Bolli  (268)
E Challenge Tour - San Domenico Grand Finale  -  Espen Kofstad  (265)

McGladrey Classic (and first-time) winner Tommy Gainey comes quickly to mind this week, for even in an era of unchecked equipment, it’s not often that a PGA Tour player cards a final round 60, nor that someone beats a Sunday field by three full shots – and, were it not for David Toms’ 63, the margin would have been an almost unthinkable five.  Beyond routing the field’s average score by more than nine strokes, adding to the round’s considerable shock value is the fact that Gainey had been playing largely mediocre golf in 2012, having logged but a single top 10 (a 3rd-place finish at Colonial, back in May) and never bettering 31st since tying for 13th at July’s John Deere Classic.  But after opening with solid-but-unspectacular rounds of 69-67-68, the former Big Break champion made four front nine birdies to go out in 31 on Sunday, then logged four birdies and an eagle from the 11th to the 16th holes en route to an incoming 29.  A missed 20-foot birdie putt at the last deprived Gainey of a record-tying 59, but as par for the Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course is only 70, such an 11-under-par total would be marked with an asterisk anyway……………Bo Van Pelt joined Gainey as American major tour winners this week, carding a 272 aggregate to claim the European circuit’s inaugural ISPS Handa Perth International.  Clearly comfortable competing on faraway foreign soil (he is also defending champion at this week’s PGA Tour semi-sanctioned CIMB Classic in Malaysia), Van Pelt’s 16-under-par total was enough to beat Jason Dufner by two at the highly thought of Lake Karrinyup Golf Club – a rare daily double in that Van Pelt and Dufner were the only Americans in the field……………Also notable were a pair of victories logged by the old but not-so-infirmed: 44-year-old Toru Taniguchi’s triumph at the Japan Tour’s Bridgestone Open and 45-year-old Thaworn Wiratchant’s victory at the Asian Tour’s Hero Indian Open.  In Taniguchi’s case, a closing 66 was enough to edge Hiroyuki Fujita by one, allowing Taniguchi to successfully defend his 2011 Bridgestone title, to claim the event for a third time overall, and to log his 19th career Japan Tour triumph.  Meanwhile in India, Wiratchant closed with rounds of 67-66 to post a 270 total, then edged Scotland’s Richie Ramsay on the first hole of sudden death to claim his third Asian victory of 2012 and his 15th overall.   

PGA Tour - McGladrey Classic  -  Tommy Gainey  (264)
European Tour - ISPS Handa Perth International  -  Bo Van Pelt  (272)
Japan Tour - Bridgestone Open  -  Toru Taniguchi  (272)
Asian Tour - Hero Indian Open  -  Thaworn Wiratchant  (270)
Sunshine Tour - BMG Classic  -  Teboho Sefatsa  (206)
OneAsia Tour - Kolon Korea Open  -  Dae-sub Kim  (279)
Australasian Tour - See European Tour (Above)
LPGA Tour - KEB-Hanabank Championship  -  Suzann Pettersen  (205)
JLPGA Tour - Masters GC Ladies  -  So-Hee Kim  (205)
Web.com Tour - Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open  -  Russell Henley  (270)
E Challenge Tour - Crowne Plaza Challenge  - Kristoffer Broberg  (270)

This week's PGA Tour visit to the Sea Island Resort will once again shine the spotlight on Tom Fazio's large-scale renovation of the resort's C.H. Alison-designed Seaside course, an aesthetically flashy Fazio work but one not entirely sympathetic to Alison's Golden Age vision.  But halfway around the world, the Sunshine Tour's BMG Classic will visit a less-transmogrified Alison layout, the Glendower Golf Club, a tree-lined, lake-dotted track in Johannesburg's northeastern suburbs.  Glendower may also come up a bit shy as a preserved classic (not all of those water hazards, for example, date to Alison's day) but with three South African Opens (including Vijay Singh's 1997 triumph) on its résumé, it does remain a fine traditional venue (photo).  And even further afield, the European Tour visits Western Australia for the inaugural ISPS Handa Perth International (Golf Channel), an event to be hosted by another Golden Age classic, the Lake Karrinyup Golf Club.  Despite sitting an enormous continent away, Lake Karrinyup would fit nicely into the fabled Melbourne Sandbelt and was built in 1927 by Dr. Alister MacKenzie's Australian partner, Alex Russell.  Norman von Nida, Bruce Devlin, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have all won Australian Opens here, making it one of Oz's finest and more historic facilities (photo).  

Jonas Blixt would be an obvious place to start here, as the 28-year-old Swedish rookie broke through for his first major tour victory as the Frys.com Open in Northern California.  For close followers of the PGA Tour, this win is not altogether shocking for Blixt, a former All-American at Florida State, was playing some impressive golf during the springtime (logging three staright top 10s during May) before a rib injury sidelined him for more than 10 weeks.  But upon returning at the Wyndham Championship, Blixt improved his finishes over five consecutive starts, eventually finishing 3rd at Justin Timberlake’s Las Vegas event last week before breaking through this week at Cordevalle.  Is this another young star in the making?  Blixt’s lone campaign on the Web.com Tour (2011) was a strong one (5th in earnings), his rookie year on the PGA Tour has been impressive and he rates among the Tour’s statistical best on and around the greens.  So while long-term stardom may not yet seem a sure thing, this is a young player worth watching……………Michael Campbell – remember him?  The 2005 U.S. Open champion has gone through enough hard times in recent years that his struggles have no longer even seemed newsworthy.  But the affable Kiwi quietly finished 3rd at the European Tour’s Portugal Masters this weekend, stringing together consistent rounds of 68-69-67-68 to log his first E Tour top 10 since 2008.  Campbell will not be making the trip Down Under for the Tour’s inaugural ISPS Handa Perth International this week but is scheduled to tee it up the following week in Shanghai at the $7 million BMW Masters……………The Naha Golf Club, a 7,176-yard test somewhat remotely located on the island of Okinawa, made its debut as host of the Japan Open last week – and promptly yielded the event’s highest winning score since Joe Ozaki’s 10-over-par 298 aggregate at the Otaru Country Club in 1998.  The winner was six-time Japan Tour champion Kenichi Kuboya, whose Sunday 70 was good enough to win by one when Filipino Juvic Pagunsan finished double-bogey, bogey to lose by one.  Far Eastern dispatches provided no explanation beyond steady winds for the high scoring, but the curious can examine the apparently demanding Naha layout here……………Gaganjeet Bhullar, a touted 24-year-old Indian professional, claimed his second Asian Tour title in a month on Sunday at the Venetian Macau Open, posting a 268 total to edge American Jonathan Moore by two.  Bhullar’s previous victory came in Taipei at the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (a 54-hole event in which he cruised home by four), the twin triumphs joining his victories at the Asian circuit’s 2009 Indonesia President Invitational and 2010 Asian Tour International, as well as 10 lesser events on his native PGTI in India.  Viewed for several years now as one who might lift India’s golfing fortunes beyond the international benchmarks set by Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milkha Singh, Bhullar has never played on American soil but did log an MC at the 2009 Open Championship, as well as a T74 at 2009’s WGC-HSBC Champions event in China.  He has not, however, shown any desire to race towards the PGA Tour, and while he has 35 career E Tour starts under his belt, the majority of these have been in co-sanctioned events played around Asia.  

PGA Tour - Frys.com Open  - Jonas Blixt  (268)
European Tour - Portugal Masters  -  Shane Lowry  (270)
Japan Tour - Japan Open  -  Kenichi Kuboya  (292)
Asian Tour - Venetian Macau Open  -  Gaganjeet Bhullar  (268)
OneAsia Tour - Nanshan China Masters  -  Wen-chong Liang  (276)
Australasian Tour -  Western Australia PGA Championship  -  Peter Wilson  (283)
LatinoAmerica - Roberto De Vicenzo Invitational NEC Cup  -  Alan Wagner  (273)
LPGA Tour - Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia  -  Inbee Park  (269)
JLPGA Tour - Fujitsu Ladies  -  Misuzu Narita  (207)
Champions Tour -  Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn  -  Fred Funk  (201)
Web.com Tour -  Miccosukee Championship  -  Shawn Stefani  (269)
E Challenge Tour -  Czech Challenge Open  -  Andreas Harto  (264)

If Rory McIlroy hadn't won a Major, who would be the 2012 worldwide Player of the Year?  Probably still Rory (with his four PGA Tour wins) but on the periphery of the discussion might be 24-year-old South African Branden Grace, the only man two log five major tour triumphs in 2012.  Grace gained that status with his victory at this week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where a stunning opening round 60 at Kingsbarns kicked off what would become a wire-to-wire two-shot triumph over another young up-and-comer, Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen.  So as yet another top-shelf young South African prospect, how competitive might Grace currently be in America?  He's logged six official PGA Tour starts thus far in 2012 (including the final three Majors), making five cuts but recorded only a single top-25, a tie for 25th at Memorial.  Nothing too electric just yet, then, but given that his run of form has extended over an entire calendar year, Grace would appear to bear watching as he inevitably makes more American starts in 2013................Also notable this past weekend was the victory of Yuta Ikeda at the Japan Tour's Canon Open for Ikeda, now 26, looked poised to challenge Ryo Ishikawa as the Land of the Rising Sun's top young prospect when he won four J Tour events in both 2009 and 2010.  A one-win 2011 set him back somewhat (he ended the year ranked 75th in the world after residing among the top 50 in two previous years) and 2012 had thus far seen plenty of solid golf but lots of Sunday frustration; indeed, Ikeda had logged eight J Tour top 10s (as well as a first-round 62 at  September's Asia Pacific Panasonic Open) and managed the comparatively odd feat of finishing second in three straight events, the Fujisankei Classic, the Toshin tournament and the ANA Open.  So perhaps the Canon victory will get him jumpstarted once again...

PGA Tour - Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals Open  -  Ryan Moore  (260)
European Tour - Alfred Dunhill Links Championship  -  Branden Grace  (266)
Japan Tour - Canon Open  -  Yuta Ikeda  (271)
Asian Tour - C.J. Invitational  -  K.J. Choi  (269)
LatinoAmerica - Brazil Open  -  Clodomiro Carranza  (269)
LET - French Open  -  Stacey Keating  (266)
Champions Tour - SAS Championship  -  Bernhard Langer  (203)
Web.com Tour - Neediest Kids Championship  -  David Lingmerth  (272)
E Challenge Tour - Allianz Open de Lyon  -  Chris Doak  (271)

It may be mop-up time here in the U.S. but there are still some moments of greater golfing interest around the world, including this week's Dunhill Links Championship, an 11-year-old event contested at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and, most notably, St Andrews.  And while first-day fireworks seldom prove central to the plot come Sunday, we cannot let pass Branden Grace's remarkable opening-round 60, which was recorded Thursday morning at Kingsbarns.  The 24-year-old Grace has enjoyed a breakout season worldwide, winning back-to-back E Tour-co-sanctioned events in his native South Africa in January, adding the Volvo China Open in April and, most recently, claiming the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final on the Sunshine circuit last week.  Apparently the long trip from South Africa did him no harm, for after "quietly" negotiating Kingsbarns' back nine in 31 (led by an eagle at the par-5 16th), he proceeded to birdie seven of nine holes on the front, coming home in a stunning 29.  Indeed, an eagle at the 558-yard 9th would have made him the first man ever to break 60 on the E Tour - but a closing birdie instead left him as the 14th to shoot 60.

Beyond the obvious, what's so impressive about this feat?  That while numerous players went low at St Andrews (include 22-year-old Frenchman Victor Debuisson, who flirted with a 59 of his own before "fading" to a 62), Grace managed to beat the field by a stunning five shots at Kingsbarns - and how often do we see that?  

For the record, only three players among Thursday's top 57 played at Carnoustie, so the true measure of play won't be apparent until the three-day rotation has come full circle on Saturday night.  But given the margin by which he lapped his fellow Kingsbarns competitors, Grace's round represents an impressive achievement in any light.

Had he done it on the Old Course, it would have been worldwide news.