Gainey grabs tournament spot

Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey finally made it to the PGA Tour when he qualified for the Wachovia Championship on Monday.

However, it didn't come without a healthy dose of drama.

Gainey, a regular on the Charlotte-based Tarheel Tour and one of the featured participants in The Golf Channel's latest "Big Break" reality series, captured one of four available spots in the Monday qualifier at Firethorne Country Club in nearby Marvin, joining Michael Putnam, Robert Dinwiddie and Todd Demsey in the field.

"I don't know what to think right now," Gainey said before picking up his courtesy Mercedes. "I've never played in a PGA Tour event or a Nationwide event.

"I've missed three times by one shot, and now I'm standing here looking at Zach Johnson, the Masters champion, walk by. I hope my nerves don't get the best of me."

Gainey, who is from Bishopville, S.C., and wears two black gloves, was cruising through the qualifier Monday after shooting 5-under par on his first nine holes (the back side). When he birdied his 12th hole to get to 6 under, he figured one more birdie would get him a ticket to the Quail Hollow Club.

But Gainey double-bogeyed the fourth hole, made consecutive birdies at the fifth and sixth holes, then made another double at the seventh, where he had made a 10 in a prequalifying event last week.

"I was steaming," Gainey said. His birdie on the ninth hole got him into a four-man playoff for three spots. He holed a 20-foot par putt on the first extra hole to stay alive, then advanced with a birdie on the second playoff hole.

Looking sharp

Dillard Pruitt, the tour official in charge of the event, said Quail Hollow was in ideal condition.

"It's the best shape it's been in for the five years we've been here," Pruitt said.

He praised course superintendent Jeff Kent for getting the course prepared.

Provider:
Knight-Ridder / Tribune Business News / Charlotte Observer, The (NC)