Local PGA Tour Contingent Tries
to Recover From Problems of 2007

By Gary Baines

Colorado Golf Journal, Monday, January 28, 2008

Duval, Kaye, Jobe and Bertsch combined to play just 16 tournaments last year

Shane Bertsch

Brandt Jobe

Jonathan Kaye

David Duval

    They were both born in Denver in 1970. They both have won the Colorado Open golf tournament. They’re both PGA Tour players. And they’re both returning to Tour after prolonged medical-related absences.

    But Jonathan Kaye and Shane Bertsch aren’t the only Tour players with strong Colorado ties to be making comebacks this year. Another Colorado Open champion, Brandt Jobe, also falls into that category.

   And though Cherry Hills Village resident David Duval didn’t have medical

issues last year, like Kaye, Bertsch and Jobe he was granted a major medical extension by the Tour for 2008 by virtue of attending to his wife, Susie, who went through a difficult pregnancy before the birth of daughter Sienna in August.

     Suffice it to say that 2007 was a year that this foursome would just as soon forget from a professional standpoint. Combined, the four played in a grand total of 16 Tour events last year — seven for Duval, five for Jobe, fourth for Bertsch and none for Kaye.

     Besides Duval’s situation with his wife, Jobe had portions of his left index finger and thumb sliced off after a broom handle broke while he swept the garage in November 2006; Bertsch was hit with a case of vertigo; and Kaye recovered from surgery on the big toe of his right foot.

     All have played at least one Tour event in 2008, and in Kaye’s case it was his first tournament since Tour qualifying in December 2006. Since then, the two-time winner on Tour underwent the toe surgery, subsequently missing a complete calendar year on Tour for the first time since going through qualifying in 1994.

      Though he was still experiencing pain in his foot late last year, Kaye said then that he was eager to return to competition.

    "I'm definitely looking forward to it," said Kaye, who is scheduled to play this week in the FBR Open, a tournament he won in 2004. "I definitely want to play."

    Kaye missed the cut at the Sony Open. Jobe and Duval also have yet to make a cut this year, but Bertsch has come back relatively strong, finishing 40th at the Sony Open and 16th at the Bob Hope Classic to stand 65th on the Tour money list.

      All four knew going into the year exactly how much money they had to make under their medical extension in order to keep their Tour playing privileges, at least for the remainder of 2008:   $774,164 in 28 events for Bertsch;  $713,235 in 20 events for Duval; $774,164 in 23 events for Jobe; and $785,180 in 21 events for Kaye.

    And now, the countdown is on.