La Quinta has been kind to Bill
Haas in recent years.
FEDEXCUP:
Current
standings |
Weekly
leaders |
More
By Chris Dunham, PGATOUR.COM Does anyone enjoy the Humana
Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation more than Bill
Haas? The reigning FedExCup champion has found no shortage of
success in seven starts in La Quinta. The 2010 champion and 2011
runner-up has posted 20 consecutive sub-70 rounds here. In seven
starts, Haas has just one round over par and no finish lower than a
tie for 34th (2005, in his event debut). This week presents the
29-year-old’s second opportunity to get a quick start on his
title defense. His first attempt didn’t go as well as hoped
when Haas started 2012 with two even-par 73s while more than half
the field was posting red numbers at Kapalua. Bookends were key for
Haas en route to the 2011 FedExCup title. Of his seven top-10
finished, Haas had three to open his year and one to close the
FedExCup season. If he doesn’t have a good week here, Haas
will be behind his schedule from the last two years and will need
to make up ground elsewhere. With more than 30 events ahead,
he’ll have plenty of opportunities to rack up points, though.
FRAZAR ENTERS THE PICTURE: Sticking with golf is
looking like a very good decision for Harrison Frazar. It took 355
starts for Frazar to break through with his maiden victory (last
year’s FedEx St. Jude Classic). Prior to that, Frazar
hadn’t finished inside the top 10 since the 2009 Turning
Stone Resort Championship or the top 3 since 2005 at Disney. Now
Frazar is off to one of the best starts on TOUR, earning a tie for
fifth and a T2 in two 2012 starts -- the only player with two top-5
finishes -- and a fourth-place standing in the FedExCup race.
ROOKIE SECONDS: While the Sony Open in Hawaii has
not featured a rookie finisher inside the top 10 since 2009, the
Humana Challenge is far more welcoming to the first-year TOUR pros.
Three rookies -- Chris Kirk, Keegan Bradley and champion Jhonattan
Vegas -- finished inside the top 10 here last year. Interestingly,
that trio all ended the season with victories and spots in the top
five of PGATOUR.COM’s
Rookie
Rankings. Ted Potter Jr. (T13 at the Sony Open) is off to the
best start in
this
year’s class.