No, John Daly won't be on hand to defend his title at this weekend's Ben Hogan Utah Classic golf tournament. The long-hitting blond has more important places to be after skyrocketing to fame with a win at the PGA Tournament last month.
But several other stars of tomorrow will be at Riverside Country Club in Provo this week as the second-year Ben Hogan Tour makes another stop in Utah for the three-day tournament Friday through Sunday.The whole purpose of the 30-event Hogan Tour is to develop future PGA Tour players. The top five money-winners each year earn exemptions onto the PGA Tour the following year.
Because there are only three Hogan tournaments left after the Utah Classic, most of the top Hogan Tour golfers will be at Riverside, hoping to move up the list, perhaps into the top five.
Of this year's top 30 money-winners, only two will be missing this week, ex-Tour player Lon Hinkle, who is ranked 17th and Bruce Zabriski, who is 27th.
The top two players, Tom Lehman and Olin Browne, are locks to finish in the top five with $116,696 and $95,006, respectively, in earnings. The third and fourth players on the money list, P.H. Horgan III and ex-PGA player Frank Conner, are in good shape, but not quite assured of exemptions with $76,026 and $67,800, respectively. All four of those players have won two events this year.
The big race is for the fifth spot, where seven golfers are within $10,000 of each other. They are Jerry Anderson ($59,423), Steve Ames ($55,897), Jeff Woodland ($55,113), Jerry Foltz ($53,217), Steve Haskins ($51,522), Webb Heintzelman ($51,481) and Jeff Gallagher ($50,889).
To show what a victory can do for a player - Russ Beiersdorf won the $25,000 first prize at last week's Boise Open and vaulted all the way from 58th to 16th on the money list. With a couple of more good showings, he could find himself in the top five by the end of the year.
Several local players will be going after the $20,000 first prize as well. Most earned spots at the PGA Section qualifying last month. The top Utah golfers to watch are Kim Thompson, Milan Swilor, Jimmy Blair, Bruce Brockbank, Steve Schneiter, Bruce Summerhays, Henry White and Roy Christensen.
Other Utahns include Steve Borget, Mike Borich, Mark Davis, Jeff Green, Chris Jones, Lanny Nielsen, Curtis Peterson, Mike Richards, Rick Roberts, Glen Spencer, Brad Stone, Craig Norman and Randy Anderson.
Ironically, the guy who beat everybody at the Utah Open last month - Eric Hogg - didn't qualify. He wasn't eligible for the section qualifying and he shot a 72 in the open qualifying Monday, which puts him 6th on the alternate list as of Wednesday. Hogg was also the low Utah golfer in last year's Ben Hogan Utah Classic.
Also playing this week will be Hogan regular Jim Nelford, the ex-BYU star; R.W. Eaks, last year's runnerup; and Wayne Player, son of Gary Player.
Golfers tee off Friday starting at 7:30 a.m. on Riverside's 6,950-yard layout. They'll do the same Saturday and the 135-player field will be cut to the low 50 and ties for Sunday's final round.