Tucson Open Final Round: A
Sun Devils' Breakthrough Performance

By Scott Behmer, Southern Arizona Bureau Chief

Tucson, Az - In the '90's Tucson became known as the birthplace of champions with first-time victories by Robert Gamez, Phil Mickelson and Lee Janzen. Jim Carter carried this tradition into the new millennium with his first PGA Tour victory.

The Winner: If one were told that the winner would begin the day at 13-under, it would have seemed logical that he would have been U.S. Open winner Steve Jones. Instead, former ASU golf star Jim Carter burst through the pack with seven birdies and a lone bogey to turn in the round of the day. Afterwards a clearly overjoyed Carter explained, "I'm really proud of the way I played!"

The Turning Point: Playing as the second easiest hole at Tucson National, the par 5 #8 was really a par 4, yet Jim Carter had a 20-foot chip for his birdie. From the fringe, Jim chipped in to move to 17-under and in sole possession of the lead for the remainder of the tournament.

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The Wildcat Hopeful: With a birdie on the par 5 #2, Ted Purdy moved into a tie with Tom Scherrer for the lead at 17-under. He wouldn't birdie another hole, though, and closed at 14-under and in 11th place. Unfortunately, Ted, who lost his Tour card did not finish in the final top-10, therefore not receiving an automatic exemption into Doral next week. However, the $72,000 check he'll get for this week's work is almost $30,000 more than he made on Tour all of last year.

The Conditions: Sunday was a beautiful day for golf but at times the winds were strong, wreaking havoc with club selection. Scherrer thought this was good for him, saying, "When the wind was blowing this morning I thought that was to my advantage. It played a little tougher and eliminated the field a little bit." In the end, the wind and the front pin placements kept him from making a run. "A lot of the pins were up front, so if you hit it just over the bunker, it shoots over and then you've got a downhiller or little chip. It was tricky out there."

The Bright Side: While every player out there wanted to win, many still had the highest finish of their careers. Of course, that was aided by the top-64 playing at La Costa. Chris DiMarco's 66 on Sunday, Jean Van de Velde's 69, and Scherrer's 72, put them in a tie for second, their bests ever. Also, Ted Purdy's eleventh was a career PGA Tour high. Further, Rick Fehr and Steve Jones in fifth and Woody Austin at seventh were season highs for players whom we haven't heard from in a long time.

Parting Shot: It's interesting to note that the Tucson Open has always been played well by golfers from the state universities. Recently, Phil Mickelson and Robert Gamez have won, and Jim Furyk is on the leaderboard every time he comes. Even this year it appeared that there might be a Wildcat-Sun Devil playoff when Ted Purdy and Jim Carter were tied for the lead on the front nine. This time the victory went to the Sun Devils, to a man who has put in the time on Tour and played the very best golf this week. Tucsonans can be proud in having Jim Carter as the new Tucson Open champion.