It”s that time of the year in men”s professional golf when the Fall Series is played. A fairly strange concept in organized sports, the PGA Tour hosts events in Las Vegas, San Jose, Sea Island and Orlando following the conclusion of the Fed Ex Cup playoffs. It would be kind of like having the Celtics and the Lakers duke it out in the NBA Finals and then have a series of games with non-playoff teams such as the Warriors and the Clippers. This weekend the Fall Series finds itself at CordeValle Country Club, a Robert Trent Jones II design just south of San Jose, for the playing of the Frys.com Open.
Historically the Fall Series events are filled with second-tier golfers, either aging veterans or rookies or journeymen, all hoping to win enough money to rank among golf”s top 125 and gain exempt status for the 2012 golfing season. Last year”s Frys.com was no exception as one of those aging veterans, Rocco Mediate, edged out journeyman Bo Van Pelt and Alex Pugh by one stroke. Mediate took home $900,000 for the win and that was enough to have him finish 78th on the money list with $1.13 million in earnings. In other words, the Frys.com made his year. That”s pretty much the way it is with all Fall Series events. Kevin Na is set for next year after winning for the first time in his career at Las Vegas last week.
Yet this time around, the Frys.com is very different from the usual Fall Series mold. Its strength of field is quite impressive when you take into account the major champions in the field. Just like all these journeymen who want to be exempt and do well in the Fall Series, there are some very interesting stories associated with this year”s event.
First and foremost is the fact that Tiger Woods is in the field. The former No. 1-ranked golf in the world has not played competitively since missing the cut at the PGA Championship in mid-August. Woods has been named a captain”s pick by Freddie Couples for next month”s Presidents Cup Matches and this weekend at CordeValle is a tuneup as he prepares for Australia. The same is true for South African Ernie Els, a longtime member of the International team. Since winning twice on the PGA Tour in 2010, Els had a very mediocre 2011 campaign. Like Woods, he is using the Frys.com as a means to get competitively hardened prior to the matches Down Under in Melbourne.
Woods and Els, both past British Open champions, will be joined at CordeValle by a handful of linksters who have also lifted the Claret Jug. Louis Oosthuizen, who won the Open at St. Andrews in 2010, is in the Frys.com field. A South African, Oosthuizen is a member of both the European Tour and the American PGA Tour. He needs to enter 15 events to maintain PGA Tour membership into 2012 and he still needs to enter the Frys.com and one other event. He is exempt through 2015 because of his Open Championship triumph.
Justin Leonard, David Duval and Ben Curtis, a trio of past British Open champs, are entered in the Frys.com for an entirely different set of reasons. It”s been a lot longer than five years since they prevailed at the Open and they”re competing for their golfing lives. Leonard is 138th on the money list, Curtis is 142nd, and Duval is 145th. A good week a CordeValle, perhaps a top-eight finish, would probably be good enough to secure a spot among golf”s top 125 and join the exempt golfers for 2012. Another former Open champ, Todd Hamilton, needs to pull a Rocco and win this weekend if he has any hope of finding the top 125.
Billy Mayfair is still hanging on the fringes of professional golf. The 45-year-old who won the U.S. Amateur in 1987 is currently 127th on the money list, just $3,097 out of 125th place. A top-20 finish would be just what Mayfair needs. Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey is also in the field and his purpose is even greater. Currently ranked 34th on the money list, Gainey needs a top-30 conclusion to his season to automatically qualify for all four of the 2010 majors. Gainey first came onto our radar on the Golf Channel”s Big Break and he is well worth watching. When Gainey takes one of his patented wild swings at the ball, it seemingly hurts your back just watching him.
Others in this week”s field include two-time U.S. Open champ Lee Janzen, Masters and U.S. Open winner Angel Cabrera, former PGA champions Steve Elkington, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel, as well as past Masters champ Trevor Immelman.
Californians in the field include Spencer Levin, Ricky Barnes, Matt Bettencourt, Kevin Chappell, Joseph Bramlett, Zack Miller, Tom Pernice Jr. and UCLA star Patrick Cantay. One California golfer who didn”t make it into the 132-man field is four-time Lake County Amateur champion Jon Carlson.
Carlson entered the Frys.com pre-qualifying some 12 days ago at Chardonnay in Napa and tied for second with a 4-under-par 68. The 1999 Kelseyville High School graduate had 10 pars, three birdies, three bogeys and a pair of eagles on the seventh and 18th holes. His second-place finish advanced him to Bayonet in Seaside where he was derailed by a 37th-place finish after posting a round of 76. Matt Marshall, a former UC Davis golfer who plays on the Canadian Tour, led the way at Bayonet with a 69. Former University of San Francisco golfer Todd Fischer, a former member of the PGA Tour, matched him. Marshall, Fischer, Eric Flores and Erick Justesen played their way in while Windsor pro Jason Schmuhl and Bobby May lost out in a playoff.
The PGA Tour”s Fall Series is at CordeValle this weekend for the playing of the Frys.com Open. Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Tommy Gainey lead a field of longtime veterans who have lost their golfing mojo, perennial journeymen who consistently find themselves on the bubble for maintaining exempt status from year to year, brand new rookies, and college stars. No, it”s not like the Masters or, for that matter, it”s not like playing in the AT&T at Pebble Beach. Nonetheless, it is part of the tour”s big show with a $5 million purse and a $900,000 first-place prize. The Frys.com doesn”t mean a whole lot in golf”s big picture, but for those who have survived Friday”s cut and are playing this weekend, it”s everything in their quest to stay on the PGA Tour, to get on the PGA Tour, and to be ready to make an impact for their team in the Presidents Cup.
