[ SONY OPEN ]
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Harrison Frazar finished second to Ernie Els on the third playoff hole at the Sony Open yesterday at Waialae Country Club.
Frazar took
big step in lossThe 32-year-old Texan said
he'll take a lot of positives
out of yesterday’s loss
to Ernie Els
Ernie Els said it best after claiming his second straight sudden-death victory at the Sony Open in Hawaii yesterday: "Nothing ever comes easy. You got to always remember that. ... I had to go out and win the tournament instead of somebody giving it to me."
Tell that to runner-up Harrison Frazar. The 32-year-old Texan took a one-shot lead into the final round at the Waialae Country Club, birdied six of his last 11 holes in regulation, including the final two, and shot 66. Only to lose in a playoff.
It was the first playoff of his PGA Tour career and the third time he has held the final-round lead in a tour event, only to wind up second. Now entering his seventh year on the tour, he is still searching for his first victory.
"Obviously, I'm disappointed," he said. "This is going to hurt for a while. But I feel that I take with me the fact that I went toe-to-toe with Ernie, who is ranked No. 3 in the world, for the better part of three-and- a-half hours out there. I feel like I held my ground with him pretty well. So even though it hurts, there's a lot of positives to take from it."
"This is a step in the right direction," he added. "I don't feel like I lost today. I got beat. I played well. When the heat was on in the middle of the round, I sucked it up and was able to get myself back in there, which in the past I haven't been able to do. I think I found something inside of me that's going to help me further down the road."
Frazar got off to a fortunate start when he holed a 34-foot putt on the first hole for a par. But after a pair of bogeys at the sixth and seventh holes, he found himself trailing Els by two. That's when he put together four straight birdies to pull back even with the big South African.
At the par-3 11th, he struck a beautiful 5-iron that landed within 3 feet of the hole. "When that 5-iron left the club face, that's when I realized that I'm still in this thing," he said.
When Els hit a masterful shot from the fairway bunker at 12 to within 3 of the hole for birdie, Frazar responded by chipping in for a birdie from just in front of the green.
When Els proceeded to birdie 13 and 14, to go back to two up, Frazar remained patient. When Els three-putted the 15th, his only bogey of the day, Frazar got up and down for par out of the thick frog hair around the green to pull back within one. Then he birdied the final two holes to force a playoff with Els, who also birdied 18.
Frazar had a chance to win the playoff on the first extra hole, but hit a weak putt from 20 feet above the hole. On the second playoff he sank a clutch 15-footer to extend the match. But then Els closed the door on him at the par-3 11th with a clutch putt of his own.
But don't feel too sorry for Frazar. He took home $518,400 for finishing second, which is more than he won in all of 1998, when he won $461,633 and was nominated for Rookie of the Year honors. That's a far cry from the kind of money he was making as a real estate salesman in the mid-1990s when he decided he wanted to give the tour a shot.
At that time, he was working 70 -80 hours a week and making about $21,000 a year. "I saw some of the guys that I went to college with that were out there doing well -- Tim Herron, Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard," he said. "I didn't see why I couldn't give it a shot. And once that entered the thought process, I began to realize I didn't want to be one of those guys at 32, 34 and wishing that I had taken a chance and have it be too late. ... My heart was calling me back to golf."
After yesterday's performance, Frazar feels his first tour victory is not far off. "It's coming," he said. "I thought it would be today, but I'm not disheartened in any way. I'm disappointed, but I think I believe in myself right now more than I have in quite some time. ... I think I'm working on all the right things. I think I'm improving in all the right areas. I think my mind-set and mental attitude are better than they've been. So I fully expect it to happen very soon."
Els was quick to agree: "He (Frazar) is a hell of a player," he said. "He's ready to break through."
