Invensys notebook: Move to TPC pays off for Riley

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001 | 9:48 a.m.

Former UNLV All-American Ed Fryatt said that after his daughter, Faith, was born in July, his game picked up tremendously.

So what dramatic changes in Chris Riley's personal life before the season helped propel him to a career-high 51st on the money list with $964,902.25?

A secret marriage or engagement perhaps?

The birth of his own kids?

"No, no, no," Riley said in between laughs. "Nothing like that."

He did make a more subtle change.

"For me really, I moved right here (the TPC at Summerlin) on the driving range from Green Valley so maybe that helped," he said. "Now I can just walk 50 yards and I'm out on the driving range."

The extra practice time with instructor Bob Knee out of San Diego certainly seems to have helped.

Riley, a former UNLV All-American, carded a 3-under-par 69 at the TPC at Summerlin in the first round of the $4.5 million Invensys Classic that continued today and concludes Sunday.

"The wind was up a little bit today so that 3-under wasn't that bad," Riley said. "Overall, I'm happy with my score with four days left.

"I'm driving the ball really good. I'm going to hit some putts because I think I need to work on my putter."

Riley birdied the first and third holes, but then bogeyed Nos. 4 and 6. On the back nine, he birdied the par-5 606-yard 13th hole, bogeyed No. 14, then birdied Nos. 15, 16 and 18.

"The putts just finally started to go so here we are," Riley said. "The shot that I was working on when I was practicing out here was on 17 and I hit a good shot (6-iron) in there and missed it, so with the wind blowing left and right I was pretty happy with it."

Riley, in his third full year on tour, will probably earn his first $1 million on tour this week.

He has made five consecutive cuts, two top-10 finishes and finished in the top 20 eight times.

"I've just been working hard and the putts have been going," Riley said. "I just feel like I'm getting better.

"I've been working on everything, just trying to get more experience."

Lehman was in the top 10 of the Ryder Cup point standings, which would have automatically made him eligible before the PGA Championship, but dropped to 11th after.

"I'm disappointed, yeah, definitely disappointed," he said. "But a big part of my disappointment was the fact that you know that you needed to be in the top 10 in order to avoid being in a situation where you needed to be picked. To finish out of the top 10 was disappointing."

Flesch feels he has played much better the second half of the season since he stuck to one ball. He said he spent the entire first half of the season and then some deciding whether to play the Titleist Professional ball or the Pro V1.

"It just consumed my Tuesdays and Wednesdays so much," Flesch said after he carded a 7-under-par 65 Wednesday at Southern Highlands, two strokes back of the lead entering today's second round. "I think I've spent so much time and energy deciding what I'm going to do with the golf ball that I neglected my game."