Columnist Victoria Sun: Las Vegas’ Fryatt shoots 11-under in Phoenix, collects largest payday

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

Victoria Sun is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. Her golf column appears Wednesday. Reach her at 259-4078 or victoria@vegas.com

After firing a 6-under-par 65 final round at the Phoenix Open last Sunday, former UNLV standout Edward Fryatt had a legitimate reason to celebrate.

Actually, he had 99,733 good reasons to get a little excited.

Instead Fryatt said, "We just packed up the car and drove home. There was no real time to celebrate, I just had a good week that week."

Typical Fryatt.

Understated, classy and humble.

His performance, however, was more exciting than he let on.

The 28-year-old Las Vegan got off to a shaky start on the par-71 7,083-yard TPC of Scottsdale with an opening-round 73.

He rebounded with a 67, 68 and finished the weekend with a 65. His efforts earned him $99,733, the biggest paycheck he has pocketed since he turned pro in 1994.

Fryatt's four day total of 11-under 273 was just three strokes back of winner Tom Lehman.

"I just played pretty solid last week," Fryatt said. "I was just trying to survive the cut and make things happen on the weekend.

"I was disappointed I got off to a bad start. After that, I didn't really expect too much. Saturday, I had a couple bogeys then played great on the back nine. Sunday I just played real solid, hit everything right down the middle.

"I didn't make too many mistakes. When that happens, it just made it feel like the game was real simple."

Fryatt said it was a good way to start the season.

"It kind of takes some of the pressure off of trying to fight your way to make some money at the end. But there's a long way to go. It's nice to get off to a good start and hopefully carry on the rest of the year."

In his first full season on the PGA Tour, Fryatt is stands 28th on the money list with $112,348. He spent last season playing on the BUY.COM Tour, formerly called the Nike Tour.

Now that he has fulfilled his dream of earning his PGA Tour card, Fryatt doesn't plan on giving it up.

"It's nice," Fryatt said of the perks of playing on the PGA Tour. "Everything is on a grander scale here than any of the tours I've been playing in Asia or the Nike Tour."

But for Fryatt, the game is still the same.

"You just try to take one week at a time, one shot at a time," he said. "It's an old cliche, but it's true.

"We kind of did things right and got a good result out of it. I've been driving the ball pretty good the last couple of weeks and it's definitely helped.

"As a rookie, you're just playing everything and anything that comes to you. That's why I just try to keep things in perspective and tell myself if I keep doing the little things that got me here, everything will work out."

* GPI: Las Vegas resident Bob May was rated No. 32 by the Golfweek/ Sagarin Performance Index for the week ending Jan. 31. The Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index gives a power rating to all players who have played a combined 11 events on nine worldwide tours, including the PGA Tour and European PGA Tour. Three-time Las Vegas Invitational champion Jim Furyk was No. 4.

* GOLFING CEOS: For a few decades, golf has been the sport of choice for business executives all over the world. "The suits" often turn to a "friendly" game of golf to discuss informal proposals, hammer out the kinks of a contract or just for networking purposes.

If you follow the stock market, no doubt you know have a good idea of what companies make up the Fortune 500. But if you've ever wondered which CEOs kick butt in the office and on the golf course, the March issue of Golf Digest has the answer.

The magazine surveyed all 1999 Fortune 500 chief executive officers to rank the top 200 CEOs with a 22.2 or lower handicap.

Topping the list is Sun Microsystem's Scott McNealy with a handicap index of 3.3. Other notables in the top 10 include William Dillard II of Dillard's department stores, ranked No. 4 with a 4 handicap, and Charles R. Schwab of the Charles Schwab investment brokerage firm.