Harrison Frazar Will Keep Playing

HARRISON FRAZAR WAS THROUGH. As John Feinstein writes in “A twist of fate” at GolfChannel.com, Frazar, playing with an 11-tournament medical exemption, had decided he would hang up the sticks this summer. A sports marketing job awaited him in Dallas.

“I had dinner with eight guys from the company last month after I missed the cut in New Orleans,” Frazar told Feinstein. “I really liked them and when they made the offer I said, ‘I’m there. I’m 99 percent sure I’m going to say yes. But I promised myself I’d play through the U.S. Open this year and I’m going to do that.’”

Then things happened. University of Texas teammate Justin Leonard saw a different Harrison Frazar in a practice round. Frazar seemed more relaxed, like his old self. He went on to qualify for the U.S. Open. But before heading to Congressional, there was a tournament to play in Memphis.

Frazar joined the PGA Tour in 1998 and was a top-100 player on the money list for nine straight years. Then, beginning in 2007, he dropped out of the top 125 and had to go back to Q-school to hang on to his card. Plagued by injuries and poor play the last two years, Frazar, who will be 40 in July, had had enough.

“In my mind, especially after I talked to those guys about the job, this was the end.”

Just as he was ready to set aside the clubs and slip into a suit, it all clicked in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Frazar caught Robert Karlsson on Sunday and survived a three-hole sudden-death playoff to win his first PGA Tour title in 355 starts.

As Frazar explained to Feinstein, it was an answer to prayer.

“For a long time, Allison [Frazar’s wife] would pray to God to give me the peace to let me win,” he said. “Then she prayed that hard work would be rewarded. More recently she just asked him to please show me clearly what I’m supposed to do, whether I’m supposed to play golf or not play golf. I think the message I got is pretty clear.”

Frazar went on to finish in a tie for 22nd at the U.S. Open. With his victory in Memphis, he is exempt through 2013. The neckties will stay in the closet a while longer.

−The Armchair Golfer

How Hot Is Too Hot for Golf?

IT’S 96 TODAY AT the St. Jude Classic in Memphis. Meanwhile, the heat index—that measurement some genius came up with that combines air temperature and relative humidity—is 110. People in Memphis and elsewhere knew when it was sticky hot and suffocating long before the heat index and “feels like” numbers came along.

Look at these tour players at TPC Southwind. They’re soaked with sweat, big dark patches ringing the seat of their pants. They look like they had an embarrassing accident. Sometimes I wonder how European players such as Swede Robert Karlsson and Englishman Lee Westwood acclimate to hot spots like muggy Memphis. I know they play worldwide, including places such as Dubai, but is there any place sweatier than the Home of the Blues?

My question to you is: How hot is too hot for golf? It’s summer now (or nearly so), golf season in North America, and the temperatures are rising. Is there a cutoff point for you, a temperature at which you say, “No, thanks. I’ll tee it up another day”?

(Photo: World’s tallest thermometer in Baker, California, a toasty hot town in the Mojave Desert. / tomspixels, Flickr)

It’s in the mid 90s across much of the Southeast and Southwest. Tomorrow the high in Phoenix will be 101. Does anyone play golf in Phoenix in the summer? Some must. But Phoenix golf, in particular, and Arizona golf, in general, are a much more comfortable activity in the winter months when highs are in the 60s and 70s rather than in June when the average high is 103 degrees and the record is a scorching 122.

This might sound like a variation of the “I walked five miles to school in the snow” story, but when I was growing up in California’s Mojave Desert I routinely played in 105-degree heat. And, yes, it was a dry heat. And, yes, that does make a difference. (But it’s still blistering hot.) It didn’t bother me as a teenager. I didn’t think anything of it. I spent summer days at the golf course and actually liked it when extreme heat cleared the course in the afternoon so my golf buddies and I could have the place to ourselves.

I don’t handle the heat as well now. I can play in it, but I find that my recovery period, especially if I walk, is much longer. It saps my energy. I’m not playing a lot of golf these days, but when I do I’m fortunate to live and tee it up in the Blue Ridge Mountains where the summertime temps rarely reach 90. That’s just fine with me.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Brought to you by ArizonaGolf.com.)