Quinney ready to avenge past disappointments

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Jeff Quinney says he has great memories of last year's FBR Open, regardless of what happened at the end.

Jeff Quinney is looking for his first PGA TOUR title. (WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Jeff Quinney in 2007

Starts 29 Cuts Made 18 Wins 0 Seconds 0 Thirds 1 Top-10s 5 Top-25s 9 Scoring Avg. 71.11

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"I love this course," Quinney said. "Obviously last year brings back a lot of great memories, and third place was a great finish, but I didn't finish the way I wanted to. I obviously wanted the victory. But (I'm) happy to be back and try to redeem myself."

Quinney had a three-shot lead with four holes to play on Sunday a year ago before Aaron Baddeley went on a birdie binge to card a second consecutive 64 and snag the victory. It would be the closest Quinney would come to a victory all season long.

A year later, Quinney says he has no regrets.

"I'd do it over the same," he said. "Some people criticized me not hitting 3-wood on 17, but I'm not long enough to hit it over that cross bunker," he said. "I had to hit driver, felt great over it. Obviously, my miss is never left, it's always right, and I think I over compensated with the water. Hit a great shot, missed a short putt and bogeyed 18.

"I'd do the same thing over again. I wouldn't change my strategy."

Quinney, one of several Arizona State University grads in the field this week, says the loss didn't stay with him very long.

"It was around, but I was so relieved, and I didn't let it bring me down," he said. "I had a top-10 finish a week later, so I wasn't letting it bring me down at all.

"It did set up the rest of my season, and it really kick-started my year and took a lot of the pressure off," he said. "I made $800,000 before I even left -- gone to D.A., and I was riding on cloud 9."

So what about this season? Through three events, Quinney has made two cuts, but he admits there's more work to be done -- and he's doing it.

"I'm starting to turn it around," he said. "I didn't get off to such a quick start. I made two of the last three cuts and had a good opportunity to finish pretty well in the San Diego tournament, but I played bad on Sunday in the tough conditions."

Still, Quinney says he's ready to win not just one, but multiple tournaments in 2008.

"I set my goals high," Quinney said. "I basically want to win more than once. I think if I just set it for one, that would be too low. I set my goals high, winning twice at least, making the Top 30 (in FedExCup points) to get into THE TOUR Championship, want to get into the top 50 in the world so I can get into the World Golf Championship events and the majors."

Most importantly, Quinney says he's entered the 2008 PGA TOUR season a year smarter.

"Probably the one thing (I've learned) is just the courses, which course I do like and don't like, so maybe I won't play some tournaments this year that I played last year. I played 29 tournaments last year. That was probably too much. I think at the end of the year I probably played too much."

And as far as this week goes, Quinney says TPC Scottsdale may hold a few surprises for the field.

"It was pretty wet," Quinney said of the course on Tuesday, "so it could play pretty long. Normally those fairways play fast and you can get to the par-5s and you have shorter wedges in, but now you're going to have some longer irons in.

"The rough is thick, so it could be more penalizing this year."