• Four players among the top 10 through 54 holes are searching for their first PGA TOUR victory: J.J. Henry (163rd TOUR start), J.B. Holmes (fifth TOUR start), Dean Wilson (97th TOUR start) and Camilo Villegas (15th TOUR start). There have been eight players that earned their first PGA TOUR victories at the FBR Open:
1954 Ed Furgol • With one round remaining at the FBR Open, the leader J.B. Holmes is at 16-under par and has a one-stroke lead over J.J. Henry and Ryan Palmer. Since the tournament moved to the TPC of Scottsdale in 1987, only seven times has a player managed to get to 20-under par for the week, with three-time winner Mark Calcavecchia accounting for three of the seven. See list below.
1989, Mark Calcavecchia (won), 263, 21 under
• Holmes, medalist at the 2005 Qualifying Tournament, opened the 2006 season with a tie for 10th finish at the Sony Open in Hawaii, his first start as a member of the PGA TOUR. Holmes collected $127,500 in Hawaii in just his third start on TOUR. He missed the cut as an amateur at the 2003 U.S Open Championship and then missed the cut at the 2005 Southern Farm Bureau Classic as a professional. His only other starts on TOUR, he finished tied for 28th at the Buick Invitational and withdrew after the first round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic with a back injury. • The last rookie to win on the TOUR was Sean O’Hair at the 2005 John Deere Classic. He was the only rookie to win during the 2005 season. • Holmes, who has posted only four bogeys through 54-holes, has bogeyed the par-4 fifth hole all three days. His only other bogey for the week came at the par-4 17th hole in the second round. He needed only 23 putts to get around the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale on Saturday. • J.J. Henry’s streak of bogey-free holes at the TPC of Scottsdale ended at 41 with a three-putt bogey on No. 6. Henry, who started the day with a four-stroke lead, fired a 1-under-par 70 and enters the final round on Sunday, one stroke back of rookie J.B. Holmes. Henry’s third-round scoring average in 2005 was 71.3, ranked tied for 139th. • Twenty-one of the 36 international players in the field managed to make the cut. Only rookie Camilo Villegas (tied for sixth) and University of Arizona All-American Rory Sabbatini (tied for eighth) are among the top 10. Camilo Villegas, who is a rookie on TOUR after finishing 13th on the 2005 Nationwide Tour money list, got into the FBR Open field as a sponsor’s exemption and is making his 15th professional start on the PGA TOUR. Villegas followed up rounds of 68-67 with a 5-under 66 on Saturday and is tied for sixth heading into Sunday’s final round, four strokes back of leader J.B. Holmes. The last sponsor exemption to win on TOUR was Adam Scott at the 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship. • Local favorite Kirk Triplett, who has posted three rounds in the 60s, is tied for 12th and needs to earn just over $28,000 on Sunday to move back into the top 125 category for the remainder of the season. Last year, Triplett was limited to 18 events due to elbow injury. He underwent right elbow surgery on damaged tendons on July 21st and didn't return until October at the FUNAI Classic at the WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort and finished out of the top 125 for the first time since joining the TOUR in 1990. He is playing the 2006 season on a Minor Medical Extension. Coupled with $598,145 earned in 18 events in 2005, Triplett has the opportunity to play in 11 events to earn $28,591 and match the $626,736 winnings of 2005's No. 125, Nick Price. • Two sponsor exemption picks and one Monday qualifier are among the top 20 on the leaderboard heading into Sunday’s final round -- Camilo Villegas (tied for sixth), Sponsors Exemption, Kirk Triplett (tied for 12th), Sponsors Exemption, Scott Piercy (tied for 18th), Monday Qualifier. • Defending champion Phil Mickelson fired a 1-under 70 on Saturday and is tied for 18th, eight strokes back of leader J.B. Holmes. In addition to his two victories, he has five other top-10 finishes at the TPC of Scottsdale in 13 starts. • Five of the nine rookies in the field managed to make the cut -- Henrik Bjornstad, Nathan Green (tied for 34th), J.B. Holmes, Camilo Villegas and Nicholas Thompson (tied for 58th). Holmes (first) and Villegas (tied for sixth) are among the top 10 heading into the final round, while Bjornstad is tied for 12th. Thanks to a couple of top finishes since the start of the season Bjornstad (improved 410 spots), Green (improved 204 spots) and Holmes have all made a significant climbs up the Official World Golf Rankings. A good week in Phoenix could move each of them closer to the top-100. • Seven of the 20 players in the field at the FBR Open who have ties (born or residence) to the Phoenix/Scottsdale area or attended Arizona State University made the cut. The following is a list of how they fared through three rounds. Aaron Baddeley, MC; Rich Beem, MC; Mark Calcavecchia 67-67-73--207 T29; Steve Jones, MC; Jonathan Kaye MC; Ian Leggatt MC; Tom Lehman MC; Andrew Magee 67-73-75--215 T69; Billy Mayfair MC; Phil Mickelson 69-66-70--205 T18; Arron Oberholser 67-69-69--205 T18; Geoff Ogilvy 67-72-67--206 T24; Pat Perez MC; Ted Purdy MC; Chez Reavie MC; Tony Rohlik MC; Jerry Smith 66-71-68--205 T18; Joey Snyder III MC; Brady Stockton MC; Kirk Triplett 67-69-68--204 T12. • There were only five bogey-free rounds recorded on Thursday: Justin Leonard, David Toms, Jonathan Byrd, Jerry Smith, Thomas Levet and J.L. Lewis. • Rory Sabbatini, who has posted two top-10s in three starts this season, posted a 7-under-par 64, joining Ryan Palmer with low round of the day honors on Saturday. He is tied with Scott Verplank for eighth place, five strokes back of leader J.B. Holmes. Sabbatini finished tied for second at the Sony Open in Hawaii and tied for 10th at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic His best finish at the FBR Open is tied for eighth at the 2002 event. • Bernard Langer recorded the longest putt of the day with a 53 foot, 5 inch putt on the par-4 10th hole. • Holmes recorded the longest drive of the day, 352 yards on the par-5 13th hole.
J.B. Holmes (68-64-65—197) (-16) 54-hole statistics: |
|
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network