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Three PGA TOUR rookies off to great starts in 2009: Webb Simpson, Scott Piercy and James Nitties (left to right).

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With the PGA TOUR rookies already making their presence felt this season -- especially in the FBR Open -- The Foursome weighs in on which rookie will finish at the head of his class in 2009.

Piercy

PIERCY MAKES HIS MOVE: Scott Piercy was a little like the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday -- he was the underdog with some flash, but in the end the dream never become reality. The rookie, who earned his card by finishing ninth on the Nationwide Tour money list, had the lead for a fleeting moment at the FBR Open but couldn't hold it after four bogeys over his last eight holes.

Trying to win your first TOUR event in your rookie year is a unique pressure, even for a player who once shot a 5-under 31 on the back nine to overcome a three-shot deficit with five holes to play to win $2 million on his fifth wedding anniversary. That's what Piercy did to win the 2007 Ultimate Game at the Wynn Las Vegas. Here's what he did this week: Led the field in putts per round, was second in driving distance and fourth in birdies. He's also shot just three rounds of 70 or higher this season, and has finished in the top 20 in each of his first three starts, including a T6 on Sunday.

At one point, I thought Webb Simpson might be the TOUR's best rookie. Now? I'm not so sure. -- Brian Wacker

For a video version of the Backspin, click here.

The Top Three

Videos

• Mayfair gets the 16th hole crowd fired up. Watch • Rookie Klauk grew up on one of TOUR's top courses Watch • Newly crowned Super Bowl champion loves golf Watch

Links

• Thinking too much can wreck your game... Click • News and reviews from PGA Merchandise Show Click • Revisit the 16th hole from the skies above Click

SIMPSON SHINES: Both James Nitties and Scott Piercy had a great opportunity to win the FBR Open on Sunday but struggled down the stretch on their way to a tie for fourth and a tie for sixth, respectively. Sure, it wasn't a win, but it was their first experience in the deep end of the pool and they were far from drowning. The experience gained by those two at TPC Scottsdale should prove to be invaluable as they continue their maiden journeys.

While Nitties and Piercy were the latest to step up, no rookie on the TOUR has been more impressive than Webb Simpson. It took 12 competitive rounds before Simpson signed a card that had a score higher than par. That came after a 6-over 77 on Saturday. After a 75 on Sunday, Simpson finished 65th. In his first two starts, Simpson tied for ninth at the Sony Open in Hawaii and tied for fifth at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer.

Not a shabby start to a career ... for any of these rooks. -- T.J. Auclair

Simpson

ANOTHER VOTE FOR SIMPSON: OK. So he shot 77 and 75. I still think Webb Simpson is the rookie to watch this year. I'm not exactly going out on a limb here, I know. After all, Simpson tied for ninth and fifth in his first two starts this year, and he was in the mix at 7 under through the first two rounds in Phoenix. He's made more than $300,000, which should give him a sense of security that many of his fellow rookies would covet right now.

What impresses me the most about the Wake Forest grad is his poise. Simpson turned pro last June and played in six TOUR events with limited success but was second in his first Nationwide Tour start and lost in a playoff later that fall. The four-time All-American was steady in his very first trip to q-school in December and earned his TOUR card with a tie for seventh. He learned he could play with the big guys, and he's proved it over the last three weeks. Simpson is a guy to keep your eye on this year. -- Helen Ross

Nitties

DON'T SLEEP ON NITTIES: James Nitties has made just one cut on the TOUR, but he made it count. Obviously when you have a chance to win on the back nine on Sunday, you want to break the door down, but any veteran will tell you that you have to get there a few times before it happens.

What was impressive about Nitties' performance in Scottsdale was the fact that even though he had every opportunity to throw in the towel, he didn't. He could have backed up in the second round after he made a double bogey followed by another bogey. Instead, he rallied with birdies on three of his next four. We thought he would go away when he made two sixes on Saturday, but once again he bounced back with four birdies on the front nine Sunday to get to the top of the leaderboard.

In the end, he wasn't able to make a birdie on the back nine on Sunday, but the 68 he shot is more than respectable. Nitties' first check on TOUR was worth a little more than $260,000 for finishing fourth, but the experience he gained is almost as valuable as the confidence that he undoubtedly gained by hanging in there. -- John Maginnes

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Charley Hoffman: Eight straight rounds of 69 or better and four straight finishes in the top 20 have Hoffman moving onto the radar. He's a good ballstriker in general and one of the TOUR's longest hitters, and if he can figure out the putter, he's going to get wins. Hoffman is a player who can get streaky good, too. Rory Sabbatini: He's going to win, maybe as soon as this week at Torrey Pines. First, he generally plays pretty well in the first few months of the season. Second, he was quietly moving up the leaderboard Sunday until he overcooked his tee shot at 17 and made triple bogey. Still, he finished 12th for the second straight week. Rory McIlroy: The 19-year-old from Northern Ireland nearly gave away the Dubai Desert Classic before hanging on by a stroke, but that's almost to be expected from a teenager closing in on his first win. Everyone absolutely loves this kid. And why not -- he moved up to 15th in the world. Watch for him at the Masters in April.

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Phil Mickelson: He shot 76-73 and missed the cut badly at an event he's owned. That's not the start we expected from Lefty. He put his usual positive spin on it, saying his swing, while rusty, was really close. Still, we've never seen this kind of start from him. Camilo Villegas: Has shot just two rounds better than 71 in his first two starts of '09. There are a lot of expectations for the young Colombian, but I wonder if some swing issues are being exposed a little bit and/or if the weight of those expectations is weighing on his solid putting stroke. J.B. Holmes: He won two of the previous three FBR Opens but could only manage 70-76 before missing the cut. That's his second consecutive MC, and he finished near the bottom of the limited-field Mercedes-Benz Championship in the season opener. Not a good start for the big hitter from Kentucky.

A Quick 18

Front Nine Back Nine Maybe 48-year-old Kenny Perry getting to 20 career wins isn't so crazy after all. Like any great player, he knows where he can win and where he can't. There's no reason to think he can't win again at Colonial or Muirfield Village or Warwick Hills. Scottish scribe John Huggan suggests that Colin Montgomerie was tabbed as Europe's Ryder Cup Captain in 2010 because the decision-makers didn't want Monty as Captain in 2012, when the Ryder Cup is slated for Medinah outside Chicago, where things could potentially get ugly for him. Drawing parallels to Brookline in 1999 probably isn't a stretch. One other note about Perry: His win this week came in just his third start of the 2009 season, the earliest in the year he has won in any season. Just twice before has the 48-year-old Kentuckian won before his 13th start. After opening with a 66 at the FBR Open, David Berganio Jr. never threatened the leaderboard again. That's still light years ahead of where he's been the past five years when multiple back problems basically kept him out of the game. "Getting out of bed was a bad day," he said. Finally healthy, it'll be interesting to see how far he can go. For all the young guns talk, the first four winners this year consist of three guys in their 30s (Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson and Pat Perez) and one guy in his 40s (Perry). Still, someone in his 20s -- Anthony Kim, Adam Scott, John Merrick and Charley Hoffman -- has finished second. Maybe there is a reason we were talking about these guys in the first place. Was it me, or was the 16th at TPC Scottsdale a bit tamer than normal this year? And that despite the fact the hole was enclosed with about 20,000 seats. Alas, there wasn't much drama: No holes-in-one and just 62 birdies there all week (and 10 each on Saturday and Sunday). So far, no one has been able to successfully defend his title from 2008. J.B. Holmes missed the cut in Scottsdale, D.J. Trahan tied for 14th in Palm Springs, K.J. Choi tied for 12th in Honolulu and Daniel Chopra was near last at Kapalua. With defending champ Tiger Woods still out, that trend will continue this week at the Buick Invitational. Interesting scoring note: Friday's scoring average of 71.031 was the toughest second round at TPC Scottsdale since 2000, when it was 71.08. That's nothing compared to the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this year, however. The Sony Open is the only event so far to have a cut over par (1 over). Kevin Na wasn't being cocky when he said he expects to win multiple times in the desert; he was just being honest. The fact is, Na has done everything but win out west. In 2005, he was second at the FBR Open (and lost a playoff at the Tucson Open). Last year, he was T-4 as one of only five players with four rounds in the 60s. This year, he was third thanks to a 66-68 weekend. What was Tiger Woods up to this weekend? Apparently he was busy texting the tennis world's No. 2 ranked player and his good friend Roger Federer. Unfortunately for Federer, Woods wasn't able to channel any karmic energy, as Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final. The economic climate has affected Ben Curtis' wardrobe. He's worn Reebok NFL apparel since 2004 but did not have on Cardinals attire this week in his first start of '09. "It wasn't a break between us as much as I don't think they know what their relationship with the NFL is at this point," Curtis told the Arizona Republic. "But maybe it is a sign of what is to come." That wasn't all Tiger was up to this past week. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Woods was hanging at the Magic-Cavaliers basketball game Thursday night in O-town. As for when Tiger will return, his coach, Hank Haney, was non-committal at the PGA Merchandise Show, telling the paper: "You can't predict when he's going to be ready. I know he's not ready right now. I know he's more ready this week than last week." Seating capacity at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Fla. for Super Bowl XLIII was 72,500. Attendance at Sunday's final round of the FBR Open was 60,425, bringing the week's total to 470,294. That was down from last year's record of 538,356. Last year's attendance spike likely was impacted by the Super Bowl being played in nearby Glendale, and this year's attendance was affected by the hometown Cardinals playing in the '09 Super Bowl. I saw Happy Gilmore last week for what must have been the 47th time and I swear it gets better each time. It's just such an original golf movie, whether or not you're a fan of Adam Sandler. Happy Gilmore's fan base is John Daly-esque, Shooter McGavin is the perfect villain and the Bob Barker scenes are priceless. I'd rank it as the second-best golf movie ever behind, of course, Caddyshack. What do you think? Brian Gay slipped from third to sixth on Sunday after shooting a 1-under 70, but this was the fourth straight week the 11-year pro finished in the top 25. That's the best stretch the former Florida All-American has had since the 2001 season when he rolled off six straight top 25s starting at the Buick Open. Phil Mickelson is arguably the biggest sports fan on the PGA TOUR -- or certainly one of them. Having lived in Arizona for so long before he moved to San Diego, he was also clearly pulling for the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. After listening to his analysis earlier in the week, then seeing the game play out the way it did, it's pretty obvious Lefty knows his Xs and Os better than the average fan, too. Want more proof that the rookies are playing well this year? Aside from Nitties and Piercy -- the top two rookie finishers in the field -- three other first-year players made the cut: Jeff Klauk (T48), Gary Woodland (T60) and Webb Simpson (65th). One other young player of note was Ricky Fowler. The 20-year-old Oklahoma State sophomore finished T58 on a sponsor's exemption. Jim Furyk, whatever you paid for your Super Bowl tickets, it was worth it. Your Steelers, along with the Cardinals, gave us one heck of a game and one of the best fourth quarters in Super Bowl history. Furyk was also at the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh against the Ravens. Since he's not playing until Pebble Beach, I wonder if he'll be at the victory parade?

The Forward Spin

It seems odd to hear the words Buick Invitational and not hear the words Tiger Woods in the same sentence. Woods has won this tournament the last four years and five of the last six, not to mention has a 1999 victory there, too. Tiger won't be able to defend his title, of course, since he's still on the mend from last summer's knee surgery. One guy who is playing, however, is Padraig Harrington. He's making his 2009 TOUR debut and this is really the first step toward seeing if winning two majors last year and three of the last six was just some sort of blip on the radar or something more significant after years of really grinding it out. If it's the latter, we might be looking at a younger version of Vijay Singh. LIVE INTERVIEWS: Be sure to check out PGATOUR.COM's live interviews from the press tent this week at Torrey Pines. The schedule (times are subject to change: TUESDAY -- Bill Lunde (4 p.m. ET), Luke Donald (6 p.m. ET). WEDNESDAY: Phil Mickelson (2:30 p.m. ET), Hunter Mahan (before or after pro-am), Padraig Harrington (5 p.m. ET), possibly Charley Hoffman (time TBD).

Stock up/Stock down, Quick 18 and Forward Spin were written by PGATOUR.COM Site Producer Brian Wacker