Round 4: FedEx St. Jude Classic
June 12 2011
7:55 pm
Frazar finally gets a trophy
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
Two weeks ago, Harrison Frazar was on a baseball field with a team of eight-year-old, the Little Red Sox, when one of the boys who’d noticed Frazar hadn’t played much asked him when he was going to play golf again.
“I said, ‘I don’t know. Maybe the Byron Nelson’,” Frazar said.
The boy then asked if he was going to win and Frazar responded, "I don’t know. I’ll figure it out."
The boy followed with, "Have you ever won?"
“No, I haven’t ever won," Frazar responded.
After 355 starts, however, Frazar finally has his first victory.
“My middle boy, who is so hyperaggressive, he said, ‘Yes, you did’,” Frazar continued. “I said, ‘You’re right, son, I’ve won’
“He said, ‘Yeah, but you didn’t get a trophy,’” referring to his q-school victory a few years ago.
Now Frazar has one after nearly giving up the game because he’d been fighting an uphill battle against age, injury and a career without a victory. He seriously pondered the idea of quitting playing for a career in something along the lines of tournament management or sports marketing and even doing so for the PGA TOUR.
He probably will still pursue those plans but they’re now on hold after winning the FedEx St. Jude Classic on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff with Robert Karlsson to earn his first victory in 355 starts.
“This is not about bad play,” Frazar said about his contemplating retiring. “It’s about — it’s about how do I get my game back up to that level and can I make those sacrifices. I didn’t know if I could.
“I had a few people that were emotionally attached and they were upset. They wouldn’t talk to me for about a week after that article [in Sports Illustrated] came out. Once they realized that me saying that in the article is not — I was not packing it in. That’s me just being brutally honest about what it’s like for somebody at my age and at my stage of my career.
“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a 40-year-old that’s been out here 15 years who hasn’t thought maybe it’s time that I find something else to do.”
Now Frazar, who also earned 500 FedExCup points with the win, doesn’t have to find something else to do. He has a spot on TOUR for the next two years, and a spot in the 2012 Masters, among other tournaments.
“Early in my career I tried to make the sacrifices, and it was very selfish,” Frazar said. “You have to be selfish in this game up to a certain level.
“When we started having kids, I didn’t want to be selfish anymore … When your four-year-old is in the car and he starts crying and puts your arms around you and says ‘Daddy, don’t leave,’ it’s really, really hard to walk through that door and go get on the plane. I’ve managed to do it for 13 years. I haven’t done it very well at times. I’ve been just as upset as they have.”
The next time he sees them, they’ll be happy. And Frazar will have a shiny new trophy to show off.
7:40 pm
Heartbreak again for Karlsson
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
Another year, same result for Robert Karlsson.
In a finish eerily similar to last year’s tournament, the Swede watched someone collapse on the 18th hole only to find himself come up short in a playoff again.
In 2010, it was Robert Garrigus who blew a three-shot lead that led to a three-man playoff that also included Karlsson and eventual winner Lee Westwood. This time it was Harrison Frazar hitting it in the water on the 18th — only he outlasted Karlsson in the head-to-head battle, beating him on the third extra hole.
“I cannot say I could have done much more,” Karlsson said. “It was a great match, and someone has got to win and someone has got to lose.”
Karlsson had a chance to extend the playoff to a fourth hole, but his chip shot on No. 12 settled nearly 12 feet away to leave him a difficult par putt.
The Swede missed and Frazar got his first career victory, something Karlsson, who has 11 wins on the European Tour, will have to wait for on the PGA TOUR.
”Chipping here is quite difficult in general,” Karlsson said. “The ball wasn’t lying that great. I thought I had the right club and just came at it a bit too low and landed in the down grain and just released too much.”
Still, Karlsson tried to keep his head high after another runner-up in Memphis.
“It was good fun,” he said. “That’s why were here. That’s why we play. That’s the challenge of the game to be here and to play.
“He played great and I played good as well. It’s one of those days where I think most of us had a lot of fun out there.”
6:46 pm
Congratulate Frazar on his victory
It took 355 starts, but Harrison Frazar finally got his first career victory Sunday, beating Robert Karlsson on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff. Send him a note of congratulations here and we’ll pass it along.
6:40 pm
Frazar finally gets his first victory
After going winless in 354 starts, Harrison Frazar had to wait a few more holes before he could claim his first career victory.
A par on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff with Robert Karlsson gave it to him as Karlsson slid his par putt to extend the playoff by the hole.
The win gives Frazar 500 FedExCup points and moves him to 40th in the standings. It also gives him his first victory in what’s been an injury plagued career, especially the last few years.
He almost never got the chance however.
After going back and forth all day with Karlsson on the leaderboard, Frazar took a one-shot lead to the final hole of regulation after Karlsson bogeyed the penultimate hole.
But Frazar hit his approach shot on the 18th into the water and needed to get up-and-down to extend the tournament. He chipped it close, made the putt and then traded pars with Karlsson over the first two holes of the playoff.
On the third extra hole, the par-4 12th, Frazar hit his approach to just over 20 feet while Karlsson missed the green right. Frazar calmly two-putted, while Karlsson missed his par putt.
5:53 pm
Playoff play-by-play: Frazar wins
The playoff between Robert Karlsson and Harrison Frazar will begin on the 18th hole, where Frazar just hit it in the water on his way to a bogey that resulted in the playoff. The order of holes in the playoff will go No. 18, then Nos. 11 and 12 and then back to the 18th if necessary.
18TH HOLE: Karlsson and Frazar both hit it on the green in two on the first hole of sudden-death. Frazar is closer, about 17 feet away. Karlsson is much farther away at 38 feet. Both two-putted for par, however, and the playoff will now move to the par-3 11th hole.
11TH HOLE: Frazar hit a gap wedge on the 134-yard par-3 and did so to the back of the green about 45 feet away. But Karlsson this time was the one who was closer, hitting it to around 20 feet or so. Frazar lagged his putt to tap-in distance, while Frazar missed just right. On they go. Up next: No. 12.
12TH HOLE: Frazar teed off first on the 12th, which has water to the right off the tee. He split the fairway, however, and Karlsson did the same — though Karlsson is well back of Frazar after what looked like a 3- or 5-wood. There’s about a 70-yard difference between the two. Karlsson still had just a 9-iron in, but he missed the green to the right. Frazar, meanwhile, hit a lob wedge to about 20 feet.
After Karlsson hit an indifferent shot to around 10 feet, Frazar two-putted for par. Karlsson then missed his par putt, giving Frazar his first victory in 355 career starts on the PGA TOUR.
“The last couple years have been really long and really hard,” an emotional Frazar told CBS following the win. “It’s pretty cool.”
5:46 pm
Another playoff in Memphis
For the second straight year, the FedEx St. Jude Classic will be decided in a playoff after another mistake on the 18th hole at TPC Southwind.
Leading by one coming to the final hole of regulation, Harrison Frazar pulled his approach shot left and into the water on the difficult par-4 finishing hole.
That opened the door for Robert Karlsson, who led most of the day. With a chance to redeem himself and force extra holes, Karlsson missed his approach shot to the right of the green but got up-and-down for par, sinking an 8-foot, 9-inch putt.
Frazar, who dropped just off the green and chipped it close, then made his putt for bogey to drop back to 13 under and into a tie with Karlsson. The two will head back to the tee on the 18th hole to begin the playoff.
A year ago, Robert Garrigus triple-bogeyed the final hole of regulation to lose a three-shot lead and was eliminated on the first hole of a three-man playoff eventually won by Lee Westwood.
This marks the ninth straight week that a PGA TOUR event will be decided by one stroke or in a playoff.
5:20 pm
Villegas posts best score of year with 64
Camilo Villegas isn’t going to win the FedEx St. Jude Classic, but he did match the low round of the day with a 64 that has him tied for third as the final round winds down (only Retief Goosen could surpass him).
Perhaps more importantly, though, Villegas’ round will be a boost of confidence. In 14 starts this year, Villegas has missed the cut eight times and he’s yet to record a top-25 (his best finish was a tie for 30th last week at Muirfield Village).
The 7-birdie, one-bogey 64? It’s also Villegas’ best score of the year, surpassing the 66 he had in the opening round of The Heritage.
5:00 pm
Final three holes: Karlsson vs. Frazar
With the FedEx St. Jude Classic basically coming down to essentially match play between Robert Karlsson and Harrison Frazar, here’s a look at how the two have played the final three holes at TPC Southwind.
Karlsson has played Nos. 16 through 18 in a collective even par with two birdies and two bogeys. The latter of course could be fresh in the Swede’s mind since he bogeyed Nos. 17 and 18 to close out his third round.
Frazar on the other hand is a combined 4 under with four birdies and no bogeys — he birdied Nos. 16 and 18 in the second and third rounds.
4:25 pm
Howell’s bogey-free streak continues
As well as the two leaders have played this week at TPC Southwind, Charless Howell III has them beat — at least in terms of not making bogey.
The last bogey for Howell, who is 8 under and six shots back, came 57 holes ago on the par-3 14th hole in the opening round.
Since that bogey, Howell is 12 under with two holes remaining in his final round.
3:56 pm
Playoff in the future?
Since moving to TPC Southwind in 1989, the third-round leader of the FedEx St. Jude Classic has gone on to win nine times, most recently Brian Gay in 2009. That’s good news for Robert Karlsson.
The bad news is that he and Harrison Frazar have been going back and forth atop the leaderboard all day.
Eight consecutive events on the PGA TOUR have been decided by either one stroke or in a playoff, dating back to the Valero Texas Open in April.
And since the FedEx St. Jude Classic moved to TPC Southwind in 1989, the tournament has been decided by one stroke six times and in a playoff five times.
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