The TOUR Insider: Fry's Electronics Open  PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent It's doubtful that a new event could appear on the PGA TOUR schedule with more established credentials than this week's Fry's Electronics Open in Scottsdale, Ariz.  Phil Mickelson, who graduated from Arizona State in 1992, always draws huge galleries when the TOUR visits Phoenix. (WireImage) The host site, the Raptor Course at Grayhawk Golf Club, has in its short history hosted a number of special events featuring the world's top players. The $5 million tournament, the fifth of seven in the PGA TOUR's Fall Series, is run by the Thunderbirds, the civic organization that for years has hosted the FBR Open. Fry's Electronics is the sponsor; the same company that hosted last week's Fry's.com Open benefiting Shriners Hospitals for Children. A terrific 132-player field headlined by eight of the top 30 money winners -- including World No. 2 Phil Mickelson and reigning FBR Open champion Aaron Baddeley -- and nine of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, brings even further esteem to a tournament that is being played this year only on the Tom Fazio-designed layout. Other top 50 players include Stewart Cink (23), Arron Oberholser (25th), Tim Clark (30th), Robert Allenby (38th), Mark Calcavecchia (41st), Stephen Ames (43rd) and Mike Weir (49th). Weir, the International Team hero at the Presidents Cup, is coming off a tie for 10th in Las Vegas, just his third top-10 of the season. Not to be overlooked are former major champions John Daly, David Duval, Tom Lehman, Bob Tway, Shaun Micheel, Todd Hamilton and Justin Leonard, who won two weeks ago at the Valero Texas Open. Frys.com winner George McNeill and two-time winner Steve Flesch, who won the first Fall Series event at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, also are entered. Since opening in 1994, Grayhawk's two layouts, the Raptor and Talon Courses, have been busy. The Raptor, which measures 7,135 yards, par 72, but will be played this week as a par-70 configuration with the seventh and 18th holes knocked down to par-4s. The inaugural Williams World Challenge, hosted by Tiger Woods, the Anderson Consulting World Championship of Golf, and the Tommy Bahama Challenge, a made-for-TV event featuring young players like Oberholser, Zach Johnson and Geoff Ogilvy, are the most significant events contested there. Grayhawk's Raptor Course features elevated greens surrounded by deep bunkers and replete with the kind of undulations that make Fazio courses maddeningly complex. The fairways are generous, but risk-reward shots are plentiful as golfers must carry a series of natural and designer-created hazards in the Sonoran Desert. The rough isn't too deep, so distance control, hitting greens in regulation and recovery shots will be the key factors in determining a winner. Worth knowing: The money earned by the 125th player increased by $28,239 after the recently completed Frys.com Open benefiting Shriners Hospitals for Children. At the start of the week Harrison Frazar was ranked No. 125 with $688,814, but he slipped to 127th after missing the cut, while Alex Cejka moved into the bubble spot with $717,053. The difference between 125th and 126th place heading into the Fry's Electronics Open is $21,773. George McNeill has taken over as the player making the biggest jump in the Fall Series after his victory in the Frys.com Open, moving up 63 places from 122nd to 59th. Justin Leonard has improved 58 places and Michael Allen, who had moved up 61 places before missing the cut in Vegas, remains 55 spots ahead of where he started a month ago.
McNeill, medalist at last year's Q-School, didn't just come out of nowhere to win in Las Vegas. He had been coming on since July when he tied for third at the Canadian Open presented by Franklin Templeton Investments, when swing changes he'd been making with Jim Suttie and his longtime teacher, Kevin Kenny, finally started to congeal. McNeill ranked 167th in greens in regulation entering the week, but he ranked second in that category at the Frys.com Open. John Daly continues to collect exemptions in the Fall Series and he is coming off a performance in the Frys.com Open in which he shot at least two rounds in the 60s for just the fourth time this year, including at second-round 63 at TPC Summerlin, his second-best career score. Another exemption of note worth watching: Brandel Chamblee, a regular on GOLF CHANNEL tournament coverage, who has not played competitively on the PGA TOUR since the 2004 Valero Texas Open. Watch out for a pair of former Open Championship winners this week. Local resident Tom Lehman won what is now known as the Target World Challenge in 1995. In second place, three strokes back, was David Duval, playing for the second time this fall and eighth time this year.  Aaron Baddeley hasn't finished out of the top 25 since the PGA Championship. (WireImage) That first event hosted by Tiger at Grayhawk was perhaps most famous for a hailstorm that struck on the final day that covered the greens in ice. Rather than wait for the 18th green to clear so he could finish his round, Phil Mickelson chipped through the ice with his sand wedge and holed a 15-footer for birdie. If Mickelson were to win this week, it would mark a season-high victory total for lefthanders. Mickelson has three wins this year and Steve Flesch has two, equaling the record of five Mickelson (with four wins) and Mike Weir combined to set in 2000. Since the start of the Fall Series, Michael Allen has made a 61-spot jump on the money list from 154th place to 93rd. Justin Leonard has improved 58 positions while Jesper Parnevik and Steve Flesch have each gained 45 places. Johnson Wagner has moved up 44 spots and Chad Campbell 42. Timing might not be everything, but on the PGA TOUR, it matters. Jeff Overton is currently 27th in scoring average but is 108th on the money list. Meanwhile, Chad Campbell is 138th in scoring and 43rd in earnings. And look at Bo Van Pelt, who is 20th in earnings but also trails Campbell at No. 53 on the money list. And let's keep track of Heath Slocum, who is 13th in scoring at 69.87 -- one of only 17 players averaging below 70 while trailing only Vijay Singh in that group in rounds completed -- but is on a different bubble at 30th in earnings. Florida natives Daryl and Derek Fathauer, standout golfers at the University of Louisville, are scheduled to make their PGA TOUR debuts at next week's Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro in Port St. Lucie, Fla., which would make them the first pair of identical twins to play in a PGA TOUR event since Curtis and Allen Strange at the 1981 Texas Open. The Fathauers both competed in the U.S. Amateur, and Daryl shot a career-low 61 recently in winning the Alister Mackenzie Invitational in California. TOUR Insider's power ranking for the Fry's Electronics Open: |
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