By Stephen Hennessey

Starting the week at No. 44 on the Web.com Tour's money list, Justin Bolli needed to make a big move to jump the 19 spots required to earn his PGA Tour card.

How about winning the Web.com Tour Championship outright?

Bolli, 36, made his PGA Tour rookie debut in 2005, and has been a PGA Tour member for three seasons, never once keeping his status for the following year. His best PGA Tour finish was a T-5 at the 2008 AT&T Classic in Georgia.

This is the last year the top 60 on the Web.com Tour money list will play the Tour Championship in attempt of getting into the top 25. Next year, as part of the changes to the PGA Tour schedule, the top 75 from the Web.com Tour will compete in "The Finals", along with 75 PGA Tour players who don't qualify for the FedEx Cup, for another 25 spots. The top 25 players on the Web.com money list at the end of the 2013 season will clinch a card.

Justin Bolli fired a final-round 65 to clinch his fourth season on the PGA Tour. Photo by Stan Badz/PGA Tour.

Two of the more unlikely stories to earn a card out of TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas include Luke Guthrie and Ben Kohles. Both 22-year-olds and recent college graduates--Guthrie from Illinois and Kohles from Virginia--won two Web.com Tour events to lock up their cards early in the season. Kohles won two events in a row, lucking into a spot at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational, then winning the Cox Classic the next week.

Another good story is Morgan Hoffmann, who was struggling to Monday qualify for Web.com events early in the season. The former All-American at Oklahoma State finished in the top-10 in six of the last seven events of the year, including a T-3 at the Tour Championship to earn his card. A roommate of Rickie Fowler and Cameron Tringale in Jupiter, Tringale said he hadn't seen Hoffmann in months with their differences in schedule. Now the trio will be on the same schedule in 2013.

Casey Wittenberg had locked up his PGA Tour card early in 2013, winning two events before June. The 27-year-old Memphis resident also qualified for the U.S. Open, and was paired with Tiger Woods in the final round at the Olympic Club.

Fifteen of the 25 newly-minted PGA Tour cardholders will be first-time PGA Tour members.

Here's the full list:

1. Casey Wittenberg, $433,453

2. Luke Guthrie, $410,593

3. Russell Henley, $400,116

4. Luke List, $363,206

5. James Hahn, $337,530

6. Shawn Stefani, $307,371

7. Robert Streb, $305,591

8. Ben Kohles, $303,977

9. Justin Bolli, $300,924

10. David Lingmerth, $287,148

11. Justin Hicks, $277,159

12. Paul Haley II, $263,841

13. Cameron Percy, $256,238

14. Andres Gonzales, $235,505

15. Scott Gardiner, $234,145

16. Lee Williams, $223,468

17. Darron Stiles, $213,031

18. Brad Fritsch, $212,168

19. Morgan Hoffmann, $207,540

20. Brian Stuard, $205,711

21. Andrew Svoboda, $203,717

22. Nicholas Thompson, $192,751

23. Alistair Presnell, $190,567

24. Doug LaBelle II, $186,320

25. Jim Herman, $182,001

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Jason Dufner's walk-off birdie on the 72nd hole at the HP Byron Nelson Championship rightfully received the most attention of any golf shot hit over the weekend. But what about a grandstand birdie on a tournament's final hole?

That's exactly what Nick Flanagan pulled off at the Nationwide Tour's BMW Charity Pro-Am. Trailing by a shot on the final hole, the 2003 U.S. Amateur champ blew his approach over the green and, well, you have to see what happened to believe it:

Following this stroke of luck, Flanagan converted the birdie and wound up winning in a playoff for his fourth career Nationwide Tour title. After winning the developmental tour's player of the year award in 2007, Flanagan was unable to stick on the PGA Tour, finishing 169th on the money list.

Related: Golf's Greatest Strokes Of Luck

His big break, though, will go a long way towards him getting back to the big leagues. Despite this being just his second Nationwide event of 2012, the win propelled him to 11th on the money list that guarantees a PGA Tour card for the following season with a top-25 finish.

-- Alex Myers
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When the U.S. Open returns to the Olympic Club in June, it will be impossible for the name Lee Janzen to not come up. After all, it was Janzen who held off Payne Stewart by a shot at the San Francisco venue in 1998 to claim his second major championship, and the most recent major at Olympic.

Janzen, who hasn't won a PGA Tour event of any kind since, is unlikely to crack this year's Open field. But it won't be for lack of effort.

Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images

Now 47, Janzen is still grinding away, even if his grinding style of play -- which led to his two most famous wins -- isn't what it used to be. How determined is Janzen to recapture some of that old magic? This week, for the first time since 1990, he is teeing it up in a Nationwide Tour event.

You don't hear brain surgery associated with golf too often, but a second golfer on the PGA Tour will be forced to undergo brain surgery in less than a year's span.

Jeff Klauk will have one of three possible surgeries necessary to remove a "spot on the brain" that has caused epileptic seizures since 2006, as reported by the Florida Times-Union yesterday.

(Jeff Klauk with his wife Shanna after he won the Melwood Prince Georges County Open on the Nationwide Tour in 2008. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images)

Back in September, 2008 Ryder Cup and two-time PGA Tour winner J.B. Holmes underwent successful surgery to remove pressure on his brain. Holmes' recover was rather quick--the University of Kentucky grad has played in eight events in 2012, nine including this week's Valero Texas Open, and finished in the top 10 twice.

Klauk, who made $1.24 million in 2009, his rookie season on the PGA Tour with three top-10s and a T-14 at The Players Championship, told the newspaper that the first surgery taking place today will be more of an exploratory one, which will then be followed by at least one additional surgery to remove the brain tissue causing his seizures.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Another piece of the 2013-2014 PGA Tour puzzle appears to have been settled.

The current Fall Finish events that will move to the beginning of a split-calendar season in 2013 are likely to be worth full FedEx Cup points. The PGA Tour Policy Board still has to vote on the measure, but that was the recommendation the board received from Player Advisory Council, which met Tuesday at the RBC Heritage.

The tournaments in question are the Justin Timberlake Shriner's Hospital for Children Open, Fry's.com Open, The McGladrey Classic and the Children's Miracle Network Classic. Additional co-sanctioned events in Asia like the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic also would be worth full FedEx Cup points.

Photo by Getty Images

"The thinking was that if we're going to go through all this trouble to change the schedule and incorporate the fall events into the regular season, the points should be equal to the other events on the schedule," said Jim Furyk, one of four players on the Policy Board.

From the Dec. 12 issue of Golf World Monday:

For all the angst it has caused since it began in 1965, PGA Tour Qualifying School has also been a gateway of dreams and an on-ramp to bigger things. Survive the stress, earn a card -- the rest was up to you. It's no surprise, then, that news of the potential demise of this enduring institution after 2012 has created a lot of chatter.

Brendon Todd was recently medalist at Q School.

The PGA Tour is considering changes that would stop Q school from being a direct path to the PGA Tour. Currently, cards go to the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list (the class of 2011 is shown) and 25 from Q school.

Instead, all 50 PGA Tour cards would be determined through a three-tournament series comprised of Nos. 1-75 on the Nationwide Tour money list and 75 players (Nos. 126-200) who didn't qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Q school would be only for earning status on the Nationwide Tour.

Several factors are behind the potential shake-up, including the PGA Tour's attempt to obtain a new sponsor for the developmental circuit after Nationwide departs next year and the fact that players with Nationwide Tour experience have retained their PGA Tour cards at a much higher percentage than those without it (87 percent vs. 13 percent in the last six years).

Related: Five historic Q School grads

Still, during that same period J.B. Holmes, Anthony Kim, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson and Rickie Fowler (among others) went from college to Q school to PGA Tour success. The success of those young stars, a couple of whom the tour utilizes in its marketing, will make it difficult to completely end Q school as we know it.

-- Bill Fields

(Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The year of the amateur golfer continued Sunday. One problem: they know it.

And if you think the professionals aren't happy getting beat, you might not have seen anything yet.

Harris English rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole at Ohio State University's Scarlet Course to vault over fellow amateur John Peterson and become the third amateur -- and second this year -- to win on the Nationwide Tour, capturing the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational. English became the second University of Georgia product to win on the developmental circuit in 2011, joining former roommate Russell Henley, who claimed the the Stadion Classic at UGA. Daniel Summerhays was an amateur when he won the inaugural Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational in 2007.

Meanwhile, Patrick Cantlay, the Jack Nicklaus Award winner as the top collegiate player, continued to shine on the PGA Tour, finishing T-9 Sunday at the RBC Canadian Open, his fourth top-25 in as many tour appearances. Earlier this year Cantlay shot 60 at the Travelers Championship after finishing low amateur at the U.S. Open at Congressional CC. Then there was the performance of 20-year-old Tom Lewis in the Open Championship at Royal St. George's, where the Englishman seized a share of the first-round lead with a 65.

English and Peterson, both 22 and former first-team All-Americans, held the top two places on the leaderboard at OSU Scarlet after the second and third rounds, which had never happened before on the Nationwide Tour. Peterson, the 2011 NCAA Division I champion, was the leader both days, and he set the 54-hole tournament record of 199 before a closing 1-over 72 that included a bogey at the last to fall into a tie for second with hometown favorite Kyle Reifers. English won with a 14-under 270 total after a 70.

Peterson, perhaps out of disappointment at not winning, might have made too much out of his consolation prize.

"I knew I could beat all those guys. My goal was to win, but I didn't get it done," the LSU product said. "I didn't win the tournament, but I beat all the pros."

He probably should have stopped there. He didn't. Bulletin boards should be put away at the next few tour stops.

"The top guys in college, the top 20 or 30 guys, can beat the top 20, 30 guys on the PGA Tour," Peterson added unequivocally. "Maybe with the exception of two or three guys who are constantly up there, like a Matt Kuchar or Luke Donald, those guys that are always there ... those top 20 college guys will beat those top 20 or 30 PGA Tour guys, if given the opportunity. They just don't have the opportunity. That's why this tournament is so great."

"I definitely agree with that," English said. "You look at what happened here, you look at what guys are doing this week in Canada ... at the U.S. Open there are always a couple of amateurs playing well. On any given week when you give amateurs a shot, they're going to do it (play well) because we're ruthless. All college events are very competitive, and you learn how to go out there and win. The college golf system is awesome. You see guys coming out every year ready to compete and showing it off."

English and Peterson plan to turn professional this fall, after the Walker Cup, unless they should earn a Masters invitation via reaching the final of the upcoming U.S. Amateur. They had better be ready to compete.

-- Dave Shedloski

From this week's edition of Golf World Monday:

What did Russell Henley have to lose? That's what the Georgia All-American kept asking himself down the stretch at the Nationwide Tour's Stadion Classic.

The 22-year-old from Macon, Ga., was playing on his home course, the University of Georgia GC, after getting in the field by carrying the lowest average on the Bulldog squad. Having parlayed his local knowledge into a share of the 54-hole lead with Troy Kelly, Henley knew he'd have the support of a partisan crowd, something Georgia coach Chris Haack said the senior who graduates Friday thrives on ("It helps calm him down, seeing familiar faces in the crowd," said Haack).

John Smoltz's Nationwide Tour debut began in promising fashion. The ending, however, did little to justify the future Hall-of-Fame pitcher's spot in the event.

Playing in the South Georgia Classic on a sponsor's exemption, Smoltz, who carries a plus-2 handicap, started on the back nine and parred his first two holes before birdieing No. 12 to get into red figures. The rest? Well, it was ugly.

Over the final 15 holes, Smoltz didn't record another birdie while racking up nine bogeys and two double bogeys. The final number, 84, looked more like the reading from a radar gun after one of his sliders towards the end of his baseball career.