Verplank the clear favourite in Las Vegas

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2007 Frys.com Open | Preview | 09 Oct 2007

The end of the 2007 PGA Tour season is rapidly approaching and, for many, time is rapidly running out.

With a figure somewhere around US$730,000 looking likely to be needed to make the top 125, there is a lot for many to do if they are to have any chance of reaching that all important figure and earn the right to play the PGA Tour again in 2008. For others even finishing inside the top 150 can be of benefit as that may be instrumental in them avoiding all but the final stage of Tour School Tour.

This week’s Frys.com Open at the TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas is where Troy Matteson will defend the title he won in somewhat of a surprise victory after what had been a slow start to his PGA Tour career. Matteson graduated with distinction from the Nationwide Tour the previous year and defeated Ben Crane and Daniel Chopra by a shot to win his first USPGA Tour event.

Matteson has played well on occasions in his second season on the PGA Tour and there have been enough good rounds of late to indicate that he might again do well in Vegas.

The two courses used will be the Bobby Weed and Fuzzy Zoeller designed TPC at Summerlin, which is the host course, and the Ray Floyd designed TPC at the Canyons. The first two rounds will be rotated over both courses with the host course being used alone over the weekend.

Scott Verplank is the highest ranked player in the field and has been in remarkably consistent form in recent months. He has played well at this venue on several occasions having not missed a cut in his last nine appearances in this event and deserves to be the favourite, on paper at least.

Daniel Chopra finished runner up to Matteson last year and his much improved effort last week suggests he might again have another good week in Vegas. Chopra was also 12th in 2005 highlighting what appears to be a comfort zone with the two course venue, more especially the TPC at Summerlin.

Shigeki Maruyama has had an awful year by his standards but in recent weeks there has been considerable improvement and with a couple of reasonable finishes in this event over the years, he might be on the verge of what would be only his second top ten of the season.

Chad Campbell played well last week especially considering he was coming off the back of a win the previous week and perhaps with his mind back on the job, he could go close to winning again. He has not done all that well in this event but in his current form might turn that around this week.

Charley Hoffman did well last year to finish 5th in his only time in this event and he is a much more credentialed player now. Given the sort of recent form he has shown he can be expected to have a big tournament.

Others worth a thought are Bo Van Pelt, Dean Wilson and John Mallinger.

The Australians are arguably headed by Nathan Green who returns from a two week trip to Britain one of which he used to play the Dunhill Links. This will be Green’s penultimate event of the PGA Tour season.

Richard Green is in the field although that has been the case for the past two weeks and he has not played. If he does tee it up he will be the leading world ranked Australian in the field and the second highest ranked player full stop. He has played sparingly of late and that is of some concern.

Mathew Goggin, Andrew Buckle, Stephen Leaney, Mark Hensby, Jarrod Lyle, Gavin Coles, Paul Gow and previous winner of this event, Phil Tataurangi make up the balance of the Australasians.