Print this page  |  Close Window

Andrew Buckle tied for 46th place at the Travelers Championship on Sunday. And while that might not sound like headline news, it most definitely is good news for the young Australian.

Andrew Buckle isn't one of the biggest members of the PGA TOUR, but he packs a punch off the tee. (Steve Grayson/WireImage)

Combined with a tie for 25th at the Stanford St. Jude Classic earlier in June, Buckle now has made two of his last three cuts -- and the miss in the middle came at the U.S. Open. After a dry spell too long for comfort earlier this year, he is beginning to show the kind of results he wants to see on the PGA TOUR.

The 24-year-old Brisbane native advanced to the 2007 PGA TOUR after an incredible 2006 season in which he won the Nationwide Tour's Virginia Beach Open by a record five shots with a tournament-record total of 20 under par. He went on to finish 13th on the season-ending Nationwide Tour money list while also spending time on the Asian Tour and European Tour.

He opened his PGA TOUR Career in strong fashion, finishing tied for 28th at the Sony Open in Hawaii, tied for 18th at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and fourth in the Buick Invitational. All of a sudden, though, he went cold, missing five cuts in a row over a four-month period that stretched from the beginning of February through the end of May.

But his recent improvements have him back on track, and he now sits 115th in FedExCup points, with 1,744, and 119th on the money list with $370,350.

As a card-carrying member of the big-hitting younger generation, Buckle's strength is his length off the tee. He ranks 41st on the PGA TOUR in driving distance, averaging 292.9 yards per drive -- his longest measured drive this year was a whopping 401 yards. Not surprisingly, he ranks 29th on TOUR in making birdies on the par 5s -- he has made birdies on more than 44% of his par-5 holes so far in 2007.

One major discrepancy in Buckle's statistics stands out above all others: his lack of consistency from the front nine to the back nine. Buckle ranks fifth on the PGA TOUR in front-nine scoring, averaging 35.03, but falls all the way to 165th in back-nine scoring, averaging 36.39.

His overall scoring average of 70.71 ranks 73rd, far better than both his FedExCup and money list rankings, though, which indicates that he has the potential to rocket much higher up the PGA TOUR ladder at any time. And the results of his last few tournaments show that he might be getting ready to do just that.