E-notes: Will Langham return to success in Utah?

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The Nationwide Tour will be well represented this week at the third event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup with 41 former players qualifying for the 70-man field.

This week's Utah Championship presented by Zion's Bank will be the 10th since the tournament joined the Tour back in 1999.

Langham

Maybe this will be the week that defending champ Franklin Langham regains his form. After winning last year's Utah Championship, Langham has struggled all season long in 2008. He has enjoyed great success in Utah, though. In addition to winning this event last year, he's also tied for second (2004) and tied for sixth (2003). He also tied for second after losing in a playoff at a previous Utah event that is no longer on the schedule.

The 8-under 63 Franklin Langham shot in the opening round was the low start by a winner on the Nationwide Tour last year. Craig Lile and Matt Weibring also shot 63s during the tournament and tied the 18-hole record shared by Mark Hensby, Joe Daley, David Sutherland and Scott Gump.

Brendon de Jonge, winner of the recent Xerox Classic and runner-up at the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic, moved into the No. 1 spot on the Nationwide Tour money list, just $4,090 ahead of Jarrod Lyle. In his last 28 rounds, de Jonge has scored in the 60s 22 times. De Jonge played the Utah Championship from 2004-2006. After missing the cut in his first attempt, he tied for fifth and sixth in the following years. De Jonge's final-round 64 in 2006 is his low round in Utah, where his scoring average is 69.60.

Clampett

Bobby Clampett, a three-time All-American at nearby Brigham Young University (1978-80), has accepted a sponsor's invitation to play the Utah Championship. The 48-year-old Clampett won the Southern Open on the PGA TOUR in 1982.

The six-stroke lead David Sutherland (63-64) held after 36 holes of the 2001 Utah Championship was a Nationwide Tour record that season. It also tied the largest 36-hole lead in Tour history, originally set by Joe Durant in 1996 and equaled by D.A. Points (2004) and Kevin Na (2006). Sutherland went on to win by a stroke over Danny Briggs.

The 36-hole cut at the Utah Championship has been under par every year except 2005 when the cut was even par, and 76 players advanced to the weekend, the most in tournament history. The past two years, the cut has come at 4-under par, the lowest in tournament history.

In the last three tournaments, Scott Piercy has vaulted from 123rd to 12th on the Nationwide Tour money list on the strength of his wins at the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open and the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic. In between wins, Piercy tied for sixth at the Xerox Classic. In his only appearance at the Utah Championship in 2003, Piercy tied for 22nd.