Robert Crozier ('50), former golf team captain, passes away.

Robert Nodle Crozier of Santa Paula died peacefully on Monday, January 19, 2009, of natural causes with his family by his side. He was 80.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marlene Hertel Crozier, sister Charlotte Luehr of Scottsdale AZ, his son, Thomas Hertel Crozier and wife Janet McCreary Crozier of Ventura, his daughter Coralie Crozier Kenton and husband David Kenton of Oakland, and daughter Kathleen Crozier Egan and husband Kevin Egan of Ventura. He was predeceased by his older brother, Thomas Henry Crozier Jr. of Menlo Park. Also surviving him are granddaughter Lauren Elizabeth Crozier of Ventura, grandsons Sean Thomas Crozier, Galen Charles Egan, Liam Crozier Egan, and Taig Hertel Egan of Ventura, Peter Joseph Kenton and Marcus Robert Kenton of Oakland, step-granddaughter Molly Egan of New York City, and many nieces and nephews.

He will be greatly missed by his family and by numerous professional associates and golfing buddies. His greatest passion and love was for the game of golf, which he began playing at the age of nine. (See More) --- you will find his full obituary provided by his family. | Here you will find all Stanford golf team alums from 1932 to today including Robert Crozier in 1950.

Will Yanagisawa's earns 2009 Asian Tour card & shares a video tour of 2008

Congratulations to former Stanford All-American Will Yanagisawa ('95) for qualifying for his full 2009 Asian Tour card as he tied for 17th by shooting rounds of 73-70-76-72-71 in Thailand. Here are the full final results and here is an article describing the qualifying tournament where 40 players earned their tour cards.

Will also shares below a fast-paced video tour of his 2008 season on the Asian Tour. Included in this 6 1/2 minute video are images from Hawaii, California, Malaysia, India, China, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia. Will was a member of the 1994 national championship team.

Grube & Miller to play in the AT & T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Recent Stanford graduates Rob Grube ('08) and Zack Miller ('07) have been invited to play in the 2008 AT & T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as was announced by the Monterey Peninsula Foundation.


Adding a local flavor to the event, Grube is a graduate of Monterey's Stevenson School and was a 4-time All-American at Stanford as well as being named Pac 10 Player of the Year. In 2007, he led the Cardinal to the National Championship while finishing third individually. In 2008, the Illinois native captained Stanford to a second place finish, losing only to UCLA by a stroke.


Miller was a two-time All-American at Stanford and captain of the 2007 national championship team. Zack has been playing professionally in Asia as well as on mini-tours in the US. For Zack after a frustrating up and down year the invitation was like a wonderful Christmas present. He is quoted in an article in the Marin Independent Journal that "It is really the pinnacle of a golfer's career: To have status on the PGA Tour, the best tour you can be on if you're a golfer," Miller said. "Just having a week out there knowing that you started this game when you were seven and it's come all this way. It's going to be amazing being able to put forth your best effort and look at the scoreboard and see your name against some of the guys you have been following on TV for so long."

The 2009 tournament is slated for Feb.9-15 at Spyglass Hill, Pebble Beach Golf Links and Poppy Hills.

Final round 67 for Notay Begay III earns him a PGA tour card while Alex Aragon will have non-exempt status on Nationwide Tour

Two Stanford graduates, Notah Begay III ('95), 4-time tour winner, and Alex Aragon ('01)competed in the PGA Tour's final stage of qualifying at PGA West in La Quinta, California.

Begay fired a 5-under 67 (the low round on the tougher PGA West Stadium course) to tie for 11th and earn his PGA Tour card once again. Showing a flare for the dramatic, Notah birdied 3 of his last 4 holes to move 2 shots under the cut line. His last two rounds of 63-67 (14-under par) were the best in the field of 163 players. Alex Aragon shot a final round 71 to tie for 87th place, leaving him with non-exempt status on the Nationwide Tour. PGA Tour story on Begay's qualifying tournament.

Final results can be found here.

PRIOR POSTING:
Notah's brilliant 63 in the next to last round (see Golf Week article) jumped him into contention as he is tied for 21st after rounds of 72-70-69-71-63 (-15). Begay plays on the tougher PGA West Stadium course in the final round and will likely need to shoot 69 or lower to gain one of the 25 exempt PGA tour spots.

Alex faces a much tougher challenge to make the low 25 but is in the hunt for an exempt spot on the Nationwide Tour earned by the next 50 qualifiers. Aragon sits tied for 89th at 8-under par after rounds of 71-67-74-72-68. He will likely need a 68 or better to make the Nationwide Tour or a 62 to make the PGA Tour in his final round.



A field of 163 players are competing for 25 exempt spots on the 2009 PGA Tour, with the next 50 players receiving full exempt membership on the Nationwide Tour. The remaining players will have conditional status on the Nationwide Tour. Begay is one of field's 20 players who have won a total of 48 events on the PGA Tour.

The final stage is held over 6 days and 108 holes and is considered the most grueling test in golf.

Aragon & Begay qualify for the PGA Tour's Final Stage

Notah Begay ('95) and Alex Aragon ('01) both move on to the final stage of the PGA Tour's qualifying school. Tour veteran Notah fired a blazing 65 last round that included an eagle and five birdies (he finished with birdies on 17 & 18) to finish tied for 8th at the PGA's 2nd stage qualifier in Lantana, Texas while Alex finishes tied for 3rd after a final round 69 at Beaumont, CA.

Notah , seemingly had little chance after three rounds which left him 6 shots off the cut line. But his tournament low 65 leapfrogged more than 30 players and allowed him to continue his quest to return to the PGA tour after rounds of 71-77-74-65. Notah has had a long injury plaqued battle to retain the greatness that was once his as a top 10 player and multiple winner in the golf world. Here's the full leaderboard for the Lantana qualifier.



Aragon had rounds of 65-69-74-69. He led after both the first two rounds and continued his steady play to easily move on to the final stage of qualifying for the first time in his career. A total of 19 players from his field moved on to the final stage qualifier. Here's the full leaderboard for the Beaumont qualifier.



Joel Kribel ('99) missed the qualifying cut by 3 strokes in an earlier second stage qualifier at Kingwood, TX after rounds of 75-72-69-71. Here are complete results from the Kingwood qualifier.

Philip Rowe ('02) updates on his pro career in Europe

Editor's Note - Philip Rowe was an All-American in 2002 and has played in Europe professionally since leaving Stanford.


Special effects: The Biomechanics Laboratory at C.R.E.P.S. near Poitiers collects data upon my swing movements.

In the last update the news was of a near victory in Normandy and two tournaments later in at the Open Mirabelle d’Or it was a very similar story. In the club house at 17 under the par I could only wait and see how the others finished: A Frenchman finished with two birdies to earn a spot in the playoff and a Belgian also duly birdied the last to make it a three-way. Although I had the closest eagle putt of 6 feet it was the Frenchman who took away victory with his eagle putt from 40 feet!

More solid results were to follow at Stade Français (5th place) where I had the opportunity of playing with Jean-Francois Remesy (two time French Open winner) in the 3rd round, and, a sweet final round of 66 hurtled me up the field at Padova (7th place). Since then, numbers in the 60s have been somewhat illusive. Final rankings on the Alps and AGF-Allianz golf tours were 14th and 5th respectively.

On several occasions this season I put myself in position to win tournaments. Even including a less glorious round or two, my 2008 stroke average remains –0.5 (a personal best season in those terms). There was a really hot stretch where I shot a cumulative of 56 under the par for 23 consecutive tournament rounds. With such a level of performance, top finishes and wins are inevitable! Consult the “Stats Attached” section below to see more detail about my performance this season.

Two wonderful pieces of news arrived this week. Firstly, thanks to my AGF-Allianz Golf Tour final ranking, I have earned an invitation to play the Mauritius Open (12-14th December) and an occasion to compete amongst regular European Tour players there. Then, I also received an invitation to play a limited field event in La Reunion the week before Mauritius at the venue where I previously won in 2006. All in all my trip to the Indian Ocean from 1st - 16th December. I have no doubt that this will be a fantastic adventure both on and off the course and I can’t wait!

Before then I have two coaching courses that I will take: PGA Coaching Level 1 (Birmingham, 17-18th November) and “The Mind Factor” coaching diploma with Dr Karl Morris (Manchester, 22-25th November). The coaching qualifications will consolidate my expertise and activity within golf. They will also help me develop skills to progress certain projects that I look to intensify over the wintertime.

During the early part of this winter training period, I continue to undergo a thorough series of assessments that reflect multiple elements of performance in sporting activities and golf specifically. DreamGolf is a new company that has been set up locally to where I live in Poitiers and I hope to support and use it’s impressive structure of expertise. Various professionals are collecting data to measure particular components of my performance profile. Upon that data I will look to build a training programme in order to expand my personal capacities and increase the likelihood of a breakthrough next season.

Philip Rowe ('02) - Nov 2008 update.

Aragon and Kribel advance at PGA Tour's Q-school, Grube, Seki and Miller do not

First stage of qualifying for the PGA Tour is completed and two Cardinal golfers, Joel Kribel ('99) and Alex Aragon ('01) are moving on. Three others, Rob Grube, Jim Seki and Zack Miller failed to qualify.

Three Stanford alums, Rob Grube ('08), Zack Miller ('07), and Jim Seki ('02) competed in the first stage of PGA Tour qualifying at San Juan Oaks CC in Hollister, California. A fourth alum, Alex Aragon ('01) played in Southern California at Carlton Oaks CC in Santee, California. These are two of the 12 first stage qualifying sites being held around the country. Joel Kribel (previous post) has easily qualified earlier and moved onto the 2nd stage of qualifying.

In the four rounds Seki shot 69-71-70-75 (3-under and tied for 45th), Grube 69-72-72-71 (4-under and tied for 39th) and Miller shot 70-74-69-75 (even par and tied for 56th). It took a 7-under par score to make the low 24 and ties and move on to the 2nd stage of qualifying. Full results from San Juan Oaks can be found at: http://pgatq.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/pgatq8/event/pgatq816/contest/1/leaderboard.htm.

In his four rounds, Aragon shot 72-72-72-72 to finish tied for 11th in the Calton Oaks field with low 23 and ties qualifying for stage 2. Full results from the Calton Oaks qualifier can be found here: http://pgatq.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/pgatq8/event/pgatq814/contest/1/leaderboard.htm.