The Valero Open isn't a high-profile PGA Tour event. Not unless you're Justin Leonard, who seems to win it every year. (He's actually one it three times, twice as the Texas Open.) But it's on the schedule this week, and even if many of the world's best players aren't in the field, it's a chance for guys trying to keep their tour card to make some money, or for players who have faded in recent years -- and in a few more will be relegated to the Champions Tour -- to reinvent themselves, even if temporarily.
Take David Duval, for example. After an opening round 66, the former British Open champion was the story heading into Friday. He got within one shot of the lead before stumbling to a back-nine 38 and falling seven strokes off the pace.
There's also Jesper Parnevik. In 2000, he was the seventh-ranked player in the world. Last year, he finished 143rd on the money list, and his best finish this season was a T42 at the Buick Invitational. Unlike Duval, Parnevik missed the cut at the Valero Open. By itself, that's not particularly noteworthy -- Parnevik's missed plenty of cuts in recent years -- but his caddie, Lance Ten Broeck, also played this week, and scored lower than the man who employs him.
First, the backstory: on Thursday morning, several players withdrew from the field. And with spots available, tournament officials asked Ten Broeck, an alternate who also works full time as Parnevik's caddie, to join the field. He accepted.
The 53-year-old former tour regular shot an even-par 70 on Friday before toting Jesper Parnevik's bag the rest of the afternoon at La Cantera Golf Club.Ten Broeck, who shot 71-70, missed the cut by two strokes. His boss also missed the cut, and finished three shots behind his caddie. Don't see that everyday. One benefit to mutual trunk-slamming: Parnevik was spared the indignity of having to pay his caddie for beating him.
Ten Broeck arrived as Parnevik's caddie, but was called up Thursday as an alternate. He was so unprepared he had to buy pants at a nearby mall and borrow clubs. ... Ten Broeck, who became a caddie about a decade ago, said "it's something I always wanted to do" and that "I wasn't going to pass it up."
