Print this page  |  Close Window

By Adam Wallace
PGA TOUR Staff

With the season ticking away and fewer tournaments left to earn one of the Tour's coveted top-25 spots and a PGA TOUR card for 2008, the Nationwide Tour travels to Rochester, N.Y., this week where 51 of the current 57 leading money winners are entered in the third Xerox Classic. Irondequoit Country Club, one of the players' favorite courses, is the host venue.

Two-time 2007 winners Nick Flanagan and Roland Thatcher continue their pursuit of a third win that would earn the victor an immediate PGA TOUR promotion. Sixteen of the year's 20 tournament winners will tee off in the 156-player field on Thursday. Jason Day, second on the money list, returns after a week off, with thoughts of carving into Thatcher's nearly $94,000 advantage.

With nine of its holes originally designed in 1916 by Donald Ross, Irondequoit is one of the shortest yet most challenging of the 32 tracks the Nationwide Tour will play all year. In 1952, land was purchased from neighboring Oak Hill Country Club and the current 18-hole layout completed. A par-70 that measures 6,720 yards, it was the eighth most difficult course last year, playing to an average of 71.06.

Last year's winner, Kevin Stadler, will not be in Rochester to defend his title as he readies himself in Greensboro this week for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup that begin next week at The Barclays downstate in Westchester County, N.Y. However, the inaugural winner of the 2005 Xerox Classic, Rick Price, is in the field seeking to become the first Nationwide Tour player to successfully defend a Tour title. The Reading, Penn., native is currently 42nd on the money list and one strong finish away from finding himself inside THE 25. Price had his third best finish of the year, a T10, in last week's Northeast Pennsylvania Classic. He is approximately $33,000 shy of THE 25.

First prize in this $600,000 event is $108,000.

Last week's winner, Justin Bolli, whose victory in Scranton moved him 11 spots up the money list to No. 6, has all but locked up his 2007 PGA TOUR card. The 31-year-old University of Georgia walk-on would like nothing better than to follow-up last week's performance with his third Nationwide Tour win at Irondequoit.

Daniel Summerhays, who became the first amateur to win a Nationwide Tour event at last month's Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational, looks to climb his way into contention for a 2008 PGA TOUR card. The BYU All-American still has a long way to go but his T10 finish last week in his third professional start has him headed in the right direction. Summerhays is 162nd on the money list with nine full-field events remaining, plus the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship featuring the top-60 money winners.

All four rounds of the Xerox Classic will be aired on GOLF CHANNEL beginning Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. Golf Channel will air seven of the final 10 Nationwide Tour events.