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I'm from Pensacola, FL and it was a good year for local golfers. Joe Durant finished the year with a bang and is in position to make a run at the Ryder Cup team if he has a good 2007. Heath Slocum and Bubba Watson easily kept their cards for next year. And Boo Weekly will be promoted from the Nationwide Tour to the big show. How are the professionals from your area doing?

Jeff Overton finished like 150th on tour and he made about half is cuts..He's a personal friend, and Lee Williamson was top 10 on the money list of the Canadian tour, he is a personal friend as well!! Soo not too bad, but no one huge!

No pro golfers from New Orleans. Kelly Gibson was the only one, and he's not exempt right now, and really has put golf on the back burner. He did however win an award last year, along with 2 other Louisiana golfers, David Toms (LSU Tigers!) and Hal Sutton, for their contributions to Hurricane Katrina relief work, which trumps any golf accomplishment they could have.

I'm rooting for Doug LaBelle II to lock up his first PGA Tour card. He entered the week 19th on the money list, and a solid 72 in tough conditions today moved him from 19th to 10th at the season ending Nationwide Tour Championship.

I don't know him personally - I worked for his dad while I was in college - but Doug's family belonged to the same mid Michigan club my family did. After a solid but unspectacular college career at the University of New Mexico, he dabbled around the Australasian Tour, spent four years grinding through small purses on the Canadian Tour, and this is his fourth year as an exempt member on the Nationwide Tour. Huge year for him personally - he bought a house, got married, and won his first tournament.

After nine years as a struggling professional he stands on the cusp of a life changing day. I wish him and his bride nothing but the best on Sunday.