Cliff

Kresge

The veteran shot a 10-over-par 39-43=82 at PGA West’s Stadium Course today, reaching the 72-hole mark in 18-over 306. He carded an 82 on Thursday as well. Kresge is the sixth golfer to withdraw after play began on Wednesday. Entering Sunday’s fifth round, 167 golfers remain.

Kresge’s card had seven birdies, one bogey and one costly double-bogey on it. The fifth place finish is his best result of the year and it is his best result since a T-3 at the 2002 B.C. Open. He is currently in the field for next week’s Honda Classic.

Kresge had a nice start to the year, but since his T-10 at the FBR Open, he has made only five cuts in 12 starts on the Tour.

Kresge was mired in a slump after his T-10 at the FBR Open, but he has started to play better and last week finished T-30 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The second cut was started last season in an attempt to trim down a field that is too big after the first cut. Other players that missed the second cut were Shawn Micheel, Troy Matteson, Peter Lonard, Aaron Watkins, Ryan Helminen, Troy Kelly and Leif Olson. They will receive official earnings, but won’t play on Sunday.

One week after pulling out of the Timberlake Open with an illness, Kresge was 3-under through 11 holes at Grayhawk before the roof caved in down the stretch, with three bogeys and a double on the back-end of his card. It’s a microcosm of his season during which he’s failed to cash in half of his 26 starts. He still needs about $250K or so to retain fully exempt status.

Kresge had played 10 holes of his second round and was 4-over-par on the day when he withdrew. He’ll try again at next week’s Frys.com Open, where he missed the cut last year and finished T-70 in his first appearance in 2007. Kresge entered this week 142nd in earnings with $464K and needs to get into gear to avoid Q School.

Kresge played very well at the start of the season, but he has had a tough time recently with missed cuts in three of this his last four events. He has played in three Buick Opens and he has missed the cut in all three events.

Kresge gets the tee time that was reserved if the WGC-Bridgestone champ was otherwise ineligible. Since Vijay Singh won at Firestone, Kresge will now play in his first PGA.