Notes: Tour heads to one of shortest but hardest courses

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INSIDE THE COURSE: Irondequoit Country Club

• Irondequoit Country Club is one of three courses on Tour that plays to a par 70. At 6,720 yards, it is the shortest course on the schedule. The other par-70 courses are Panama Golf Club (Panama Movistar Championship), at 7,066 yards, and Hardscrabble Country Club (Fort Smith Classic), at 6,783 yards. The course features three par-3s and a pair of par 5s on the front nine, while the back nine has eight par 4s and one par 3.

Lyle

• A pair of two-time winners are entered this week, seeking to repeat Nick Flanagan's heroics of a year ago. Jarrod Lyle, the Tour's leading money winner, would like to add the Xerox Classic title to his Mexico Open and the Knoxville Open titles. Colt Knost, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, has registered wins at the Fort Smith Classic and the Price Cutter Charity Championship this season. A win by either of these players this week would propel them to the PGA TOUR, making them eligible for the Fall Series.

• Rick Price, winner of the inaugural Xerox Classic in 2005, returns to Irondequoit Country Club this week with an eye on the 2009 PGA TOUR. Price defeated Chris Anderson in a playoff to win the Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia earlier this season. Price collected a record $180,000 for the win, which vaulted him from No. 46 to No. 3 on the money list. The victory put Price solidly among "The 25" and assured the 40-year-old of moving to the PGA TOUR for his rookie season.

• Despite the shorter length and the par 70 of the Irondequoit Country Club course, only one player has managed to shoot four rounds in the 60s during the first three years of the Xerox Classic. Kevin Stadler, the 2006 champion, accomplished the feat when he posted scores of 69-68-69-65. Stadler's winning total of 9-under par is the highest of the three tournament winners.

Bates

• There have been four holes-in-one in Xerox Classic history, and three of them have come at the par-3 sixth hole. Pat Bates (first round, 2005), Jeff Burns (second round, 2006) and Ted Smith (fourth round, 2007) have each aced that hole, which measures 196 yards. Skip Kendall aced the second hole during the second round last year, as well.

• The first three winners of the Xerox Classic all were among the tournament leaders in a couple of key categories. Rick Price tied for second in Fairways Hit and tied for third in Greens in Regulation when he won in 2005; Kevin Stadler tied for third in Greens in Regulation when he won in 2006, and Nick Flanagan was second in Total Putts a year ago.

• The scoring average for last year's tournament was 71.645, making Irondequoit Country Club the fifth-toughest among the 34 courses used on the Nationwide Tour. The hardest hole on the course was the 434-yard par-4 13th, which played to a scoring average of 4.371, ranking it No. 19 among the toughest holes on the Tour in 2007. The par-3, fourth hole, measuring 196 yards, had a scoring average of 3.330 to rank as the fifth-toughest par 3 on Tour in 2007.