|
Tournament Stats:
FBR OpenFebruary 1 - 4, 2007
TPC Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Par: 71 / Yardage: 7,218 Purse: $5.3 million with $954,000 going to the winner
Defending Champions: J.B. Holmes
List of Champions & Scores
Results & Scores of 2006 Buick
Box Score of 2006 Buick
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:256 (Mark Calcavecchia in 2001)
54-Hole Record:
189 (Mark Calcavecchia in 2001)
36-Hole Record:
125 (Mark Calcavecchia in 2001)
Low round of tournament:
60 (Phil Mickelson in 2005, Mark Calcavecchia in 2001, Grant Waite in 1996)
Tournament information:
This will be the 69th edition of the Phoenix Open which was started in 1932 TPC of Scottsdale has been the site of the tournament since 1987. The first two years the tournament was played it was called the Arizona Open, then took its present name in 1935. The only oldest tournaments on the PGA Tour are the British Open (1860), U.S. Open (1895), Western Open (1899), Canadian Open (1904), PGA Championship (1916), Texas Open (1922) and the Nissan Open (1926),Course information:
The TPC of Scottsdale was designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, with Howard Twitty and Jim Colbert serving as player consultants. The course was opened in 1986 and has some interesting features like desert between holes and fairways with many plants from the surrounding area. Also features mounding for spectators, course can easily accommodate almost 100,000 spectators. The average green size at the TPC of Scottsdale is 6,770 square feet, which is a little over the average on the PGA Tour. Course has 72 bunkers and six water hazards.
Surrounded by spectacular mountain views, the course was designed specifically to host the FBR Open and features spectator mounding that promises an excellent view to all in the 500,000+ galleries that gather during the tournament. Hole No. 16 will always be remembered as the site of Tiger Woods' hole in one in 1998. Hole No. 17 will be remembered for the first and only hole in one on a par four during a PGA TOUR event recorded by Andrew Magee in 2001. For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this map and a hole by hole on PGA Tour.Com.
The Buzz:
After a week of cold weather by the ocean at Torrey Pines, the tour returns to the desert and the FBR Open in Phoenix, Arizona. Unfortunely the weather won't be up to the standards of past years, as cool temperatures are expected this week.
| Desert Foxes, those that have the most money in the desert since 1997: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Starts | Wins | Top-Tens | Earnings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Mickelson | 26 | 3 | 12 | $4,191,225 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chris DiMarco | 26 | 1 | 7 | $2,576,948 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scott Verplank | 32 | 0 | 9 | $2,560,285 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mark Calcavecchia | 34 | 1 | 10 | $2,400,291 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Justin Leoanrd | 28 | 1 | 8 | $2,274,301 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jim Furyk | 21 | 2 | 7 | $2,181,229 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jesper Parnevik | 26 | 2 | 6 | $2,171,923 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jonathan Kaye | 31 | 1 | 5 | $2,030,869 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Even with the cool weather look for low scores as just like last week in San Diego a cold snap earlier in the month put a kibosh on growing rough. With that the rough is down to 3 inches compared to 5 to 6 inches the last couple of years. So without rough, the courses best defense, will allow players to take a better swipe at it so look for the long hitters to rule the roast this week.
If you also add in the fact of zero wind, another defense for the TPC Scottsdale, this brings up the possibility that a sub-60 round could be shot. Last week Brandt Snedeker had one of the all-time best starts by being ten under after the first ten holes but slowed down the pace by playing his last eight holes in one under. This week something like this could happen at the TPC Scottsdale, especially with the par being at 71. If you look at the all-time lowest 18 hole scores on this course, three have shot 60, 1 shot 61 and seven shot 62. Of these 11 rounds, nine of them were in 1996, 2001 and 2003 years that the rough was down
In some other news Chris DiMarco, who won the 2002 FBR is making his PGA Tour debut this week. Tiger took another pass on playing in Phoenix but despite him not playing the field is OK as 98 of the top-125 from last year's money list will be playing. The field also includes past champions like Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. For Mickelson, after two poor starts at the Hope and Buick, he will be looking to prove that his game doesn't have a post U.S. Open hangover as many people feel that it may have.
Here are some things to look for this week:
|
The TPC Scottsdale is a links style course in the middle of the desert, its just over 7,200 yards with more than 70 bunkers scattered around. That along with six holes on the back side that play next to water require placement of shots. Since the tournament was first played at TPC of Scottsdale in 1987, the winners include those that play well on U.S. Open type courses. For 2004 several changes was made to the course. First over 200 years was added with new tees at the sixth, ninth, fourteen and the fifteen holes. These changes were put into effect because it seemed the course was getting too easy, in 2003 the average score was 69.133. After all of those changes scoring went up a stroke and a quarter in 2004 and another full stroke in 2005 when it was 71.574. It was the hardest the course has played since 1999 when the average was 73.24. With some milder conditions and the players getting use to the changes, scoring average went back down to 70.344 last year Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the FBR Open:
- Key stat for the winner: Those with a hot putter seems to dominate, other than Vijay Singh's victory in 2003, every winner since 1997 has been in the top-ten in putting, with eight of the winners being in the top-five. Phil Mickelson was 2nd in putts in 2005 averaging 26.00 per round while J.B. Holmes led the event last year averaging 27.00 putts per round. Another important fact is that birdies will be made on par 4s. This is one of those events in which scoring is lower on the par 4s than the par 5s as Jonathan Kaye in 2004 is the only champion in the last nine years that played better on the par 5s than the par 4s. In 2005 Mickelson was 9 under on the par 4s and 5 under on the par 5s while last year Holmes was 11 under on the par 4s and 9 under on the par 5s.
- Unimportant stat: Even though the course is in the desert and it would seem that the long hitters would dominate, that isn't the case here. Since 1997 only two of the last ten champions have been in the top-ten of the driving distance stat as three of the winners were not in the top-25. In 2005 Phil Mickelson averaged 307.8 per drive and was 12th in the field while last year J.B. Holmes drove it 308.0 yards and was 13th. So you don't have to hit it long to win at Phoenix.
- Four of the last seven champions have had a top-ten finish within two weeks before they won the championship, so look for someone that is playing well to win. Oh last year J.B. Holmes didn't fit into the mold but we can almost give him a pass because he did finish T10th three weeks earlier in the Sony Open in Hawaii.
- Player can't be afraid of a lot of people watching, as many as 100,000 will be watching over the weekend.
- Must hit lots of greens and make lots of birdies. In the last ten years the winners have averaged hitting 71% of the greens and averaged 23 birdies for the week.
