Top-20 American players to watch out for in 2012: Part-16
He remained lurking in shadows for the whole year until he suffered a devastating shoulder injury which forced him to stay put for the rest of the season. He again made it into the PGA Tour through the Qualifying School, again finishing for a joint 11th.
This time around, Woodland had a different strategy.
Playing his second tournament on the PGA in 2011, he finished for runners up at Bob Hope Classic, where he lost the title on a Playoff to Jhonattan Vegas, marking his first top-ten finish in years. Bolstered by the strong finish, he posted another joint
fifth at the Waste Management Phoenix with an aggregate score of 15-under, until he finally won his maiden title on the tour at Transitions Championship in March.
In his 25 starts this year, Woodland managed to make the halfway cut in 21 of them, with six top-ten and 15 top-25 finishes. His best performance for the closing end of the year came at the Omega Missions Hills Golf World Cup where he led the US Team to
a stunning final round victory over the Irish duo of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy. He was playing alongside countryman Matt Kuchar.
Woodland closed the season with gross earnings of $3,448,591, pulling in a scoring average of 70.11.
Ben Crane
Official World Golf Rankings: 54
FedExCup Rankings: 96
PGA Tour wins in 2011: 1
The formidable Ben Crane finally won an event on the PGA Tour this year, the McGladrey Classic, after struggling at the start. Another of the grizzled veterans on the tour since 2002, Crane has performed consistently well in the last decade, although he
was not as successful in pulling in titles as several other experienced players on the tour.
A University of Oregon graduate, Crane turned professional in the year 1999 and moved over to win seven professional events in his decade long career. Soon after turning professional, Crane joined the Nationwide Tour and won one event each year in 2000 and
2001. Crane started getting lessons in the sport from the tender age of five from his father. Never worried about who he will be paired with on his debut Crane used to say,
"I looked up to a lot of these guys who I'm now playing with. So, I didn't want to have to go to sleep thinking about it. And so that's kind of been my routine. I never want to know who I'm playing with. Just tell me the time. In 2002, at the Byron Nelson
I played with Ernie Els in the final round, it worked good, because I watched Ernie play a lot of golf on TV. So we just kind of kept that routine going. I just never look and find out on the first tee.” said a young Crane at the start of his career.
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