Week 21 Approach Shots: Northeast Penn. Classic

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After the first eight Northeast Pennsylvania Classics were at Glenmaura National Golf Club, the tournament moved to Elmhust Golf Country in Moscow, Pa., last year, and Scott Piercy provided plenty of drama, winning his second Nationwide Tour tournament in three weeks.

Quick Facts

WHAT: 21st of 29 Nationwide Tour events WHEN: Aug. 27-30 WHERE: Moscow, Pa. COURSE: Elmhurst Country Club WHAT'S AT STAKE: $525,000 purse ($94,500 for winner) KEY LINKS: Tee times | Leaderboard Tournament page | "THE 25"

Entering the final day, Piercy trailed D.A. Points by four strokes. But a final-round 64 gave Piercy a two-stroke margin over Brendon de Jonge, the eventual Tour Player of the Year. In his rookie PGA TOUR season, Piercy easily qualified for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. He's had two top-10 finishes -- at The Honda Classic (tied for fifth) and the FBR Open (tied for sixth).

HOW HE WON: Piercy, the 2008 champion, put together a rare week of power and accuracy last year. Piercy led the tournament in average Driving Distance (319.9 yards) and tied for second in Greens in Regulation (57 of 72). Piercy led the tournament in Driving Distance on only one of four days -- topping the field during Sunday's final round, with an average of 336.0 yards.

Piercy's success could also be traced to his play on the final trio of par-4s. Piercy had seven birdies over the dozen holes and also did not have a bogey on the closing holes. In comparison, runner-up Cameron Percy played the same three holes in 1-under par, and runner-up Brendon de Jonge played them in 2-over par.

RARE ROSS COURSE: The Northeast Pennsylvania Classic began in 2000 at Glenmaura National Golf Club and moved to Elmhurst Country Club last year. Elmhurst, a Donald Ross-designed course, is the only remaining Ross design on the Nationwide Tour schedule.

Elmhurst Country Club played very close to par each of the four rounds last year. The four-day scoring average at the par-70 layout was 70.230, which ranked it in the middle of the Tour's 33 courses. The toughest hole on the course was the par-4 second, which played to an average of 4.313 and ranked as No. 28 in difficulty on Tour, the only hole at Elmhurst among the toughest-50 in 2008.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Among those players to watch at Elmhurst this week are 2009 tournament winners Rich Barcelo (Cox Classic) and Chris Tidland (Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open). Barcelo tied for 40th in 2004 but he finished sixth, tied for 11th and tied for fourth in his last three appearances. Tidland, who comes into the week No. 2 on the money list, has recorded four straight top-25 performances in the event.

COMEBACK KINGS: Comebacks seem to be the order of the day in Northeast Pennsylvania. The tournament winner has come from well off the pace during the final round in each of the past three years. Craig Bowden started the string by coming from seven shots off the pace in 2006. Justin Bolli was five back in 2007, and Scott Piercy was four behind last year. Those comebacks pale in comparison to Gary Hallberg's 10-shot rally in 2002. Hallberg's comeback matched the Tour record for the best come-from-behind win set by John Flannery at the 1991 Reno Open.

DON'T EXPECT A PLAYOFF: There have only been two playoffs in Northeast Pennsylvania Classic history. In 2004, D.A. Points defeated James Driscoll, and two years later, Craig Bowden got the better of Jess Daley. Both playoffs took place at Glenmaura National Golf Club. Only two other times in the nine previous tournaments has a winner won by one stroke. That happened in the inaugural tournament year of 2000, with Jeff Hart edging Ian Leggatt. In 2007, Justin Bolli defeated Richard Johnson and Patrick Sheehan by a stroke.

Weather forecast for the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic

THURSDAY, Rd. 1 FRIDAY, Rd. 2 SATURDAY, Rd. 3 SUNDAY, Rd. 4 Partly cloudy Temp: 72 high/50 low PM Showers Temp: 67 high/56 low Showers Temp: 66 high/57 low Scattered t-storms Temp: 69 high/54 low

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Northeast Pennsylvania Classic snippets

NATIONWIDE ROOTS Seventy eight of the 125 players who qualified for the PGA TOUR Playoffs are Nationwide Tour alumni, including three of the top five. Ten of last fall's Nationwide Tour graduating class will be at Liberty National this week led by Bryce Molder (55th in points) and Jeff Klauk (60th). YOUNG GUN Nicholas Reach, 17, of Moscow, Pa. makes his second appearance in the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic. A sponsor exemption again this year, Reach missed the cut last year but hung with the more seasoned Nationwide Tour members, falling below the cut line by only four shots. GIVING BACK Four Nationwide Tour pros, including Todd Demsey, Rich Barcelo, Doug LaBelle II and Jon Mills, visited a children's rehab facility on Tuesday. Read about their trip.