Oct 11, 2022

Harrison Frazar's ride Monday qualifying to solo second

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Harrison Frazar's ride Monday qualifying to solo second
Written by Bob McClellan @ChampionsTour

Runner-up at Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS; first career top-10 on PGA TOUR Champions

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      Harrison Frazar's bunker escape leads to birdie at FURYK & FRIENDS


      Harrison Frazar did just what he needed to do at the PGA TOUR Champions CONSTELLATION Furyk & Friends event: Popped his best finish in a professional golf event since the PGA TOUR Sony Open in January 2012.

      Frazar’s solo second in Jacksonville, Florida, pushed him from 70th in the Schwab Cup standings all the way to 52nd, making him a lock to be in the field for the first Playoffs event as he chases full status for 2023.

      Frazar, 51, a native and resident of Dallas, was playing in his 16th PGA TOUR Champions event. It was his first top-10. He finished 12 under par, two strokes behind champion Steve Stricker and one ahead of tournament host Jim Furyk.

      “Well, that was goal No. 1 was to try to make enough money to get into the Playoffs,” said Frazar, who played 18 seasons on the PGA TOUR and won the 2011 FedEx St. Jude Classic. “Second goal was to try to get a top-10 to where I didn't have to do the qualifier. After I got off to the hot start early, I looked up and kind of realized that it was just me and Strick there for a little bit, so maybe I'll try to make a few more and see what happens. So the goals changed as the week went on.”

      Stricker won for the fourth time this season and third time in his past four starts. It would have been a tall order to expect Frazar, despite a sizzling final-round 65 that was the low round on Sunday, to track down one of the Champions Tour’s best.

      “I don't know what it takes to beat him, I was never able to,” Frazar said. “As good as he putts the ball and as good as he is around the greens, I think he's really, really difficult (to beat) when he's playing well and when he's got a cushion.”

      Like so many others trying to make a living on PGA TOUR Champions, Frazar has a bit of status because of being a past champion, but he’s not high enough on the all-time money list to be fully exempt. And Monday qualifying is a grind.

      Frazar is happy his second-place finish earns him a spot in the field for the SAS Championship, and that’s the final event before the Schwab Cup Playoffs begin. So no more Monday qualifying this year.

      “Yeah, the uncertainty of this whole thing and having to fight every Monday and every Tuesday is not unexpected, it's not unreasonable ... it is stressful,” Frazar said. “So now to be able to have a couple of days to kind of rest and process and actually focus on next week is a relief.”

      No one shot better over the weekend than Frazar. Only Stricker was able to match him.

      “I actually really felt very good about my game for about the last five or six weeks” said Frazar, whose best previous result this season was a T18 at the Principal Charity Classic. “As much time as I took off, it takes a long time to get back into the competitive mode, right? So I've told people this, that I feel like I'm finally getting to the point where I'm saving strokes during a round of golf instead of throwing them away. I felt like something was coming. I didn't feel like I would honestly contend late on Sunday, but I felt like something good was coming.”

      Frazar said his game was lacking off the tee at Timuquana Country Club, but he was proud of how he overcame the problem.

      “I actually drove the ball poorly, so I was extremely conservative and very cautious off the tees,” Frazar said. “I was taking very conservative lines trying to hit short of some bunkers, trying to make sure that if I did leak something out to the right, I wasn't going to get blocked out.

      “So game management I would tell you is probably what I'm most proud of. And I also feel like I made a lot of 3-, 4- and 5-footers and on these greens, the way they are, you're going to have a bunch of those.”

      Now it’s on to the SAS Championship, where Frazar finished T12 last season.

      “This Tour owes me nothing other than a chance to Monday qualify, a chance to work my way in,” Frazar said. “And I committed to it. I've got an incredible support group at home who have given me the runway to go try to do this. You know, here I am, right? But I feel like I've got something still left to prove.”

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