Frys.com Open: Tournament Preview and Coverage Info

There will be a total of 132 players who will tee it off at the Frys.com Open, but one of them has captured most of the attention and the build- up to the tournament, Tiger Woods.

But while that big spotlight has been given to Woods, there are a lot of players at this tournament that play it as part of the Fall Series, because they know there are big rewarding goals to achieve.

For starters, the Top 30 on the Money List and the Top 50 on the OWGR receive an invitation to the Masters the next year. The Fall Series offer those who are not in any of those lists, the last four chances to make it.

The Fall Series is of the utmost importance for the players that are outside the ever important Top 125 PGA Tour Money List. It presents their last shots at moving into that list. That would mean they retain their exemption for 2012.

By winning one of these tournaments, that player will also be part of the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions. It is played over the Plantation Course at the Kapalua Resort near Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

The purse is that of $1.2 million for the winner? With the short amount of players on the tournament, the odds to win that big fat check are greatly improved. That means family vacations at “The Valley Isle” during the first week of January.

Also, a win on a Fall Series event gives the winner a two-year exemption, basically assuring him a full schedule job through 2013.

As you see, there are plenty of incentives for playing the PGA Tour Fall Series.

The Frys.com Open is just the second stop of the PGA Tour Fall Series, and it starts this Thursday. It is played over the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, California.

The 18-hole course is 7,368 yards long, with Par for the course at 71. It has 63 sand bunkers and two water hazards. The most difficult hole on the course is No. 5, a 461 yard par-4, while the easiest No. 16, a 166 yard par-3.

The defending champ is Rocco Mediate. He co-owns with Dan Wilson the course record at 64. They both did it last year. Mediate did it on the first-round last year, during which he also made the only hole-in-one in the history of the course, at the No. 3 hole.

It will be interesting to see if Mediate can repeat last year’s magic, where he held off Bo Van Pelt and Alex Prugh to win by one stroke. It was his sixth PGA win, and his first since 2002.

Only three players on the field have won a tournament this year. They are Brendan Steele (Valero Texas Open), Scott Piercy (Reno-Tahoe Open) and Kevin Na–the winner this past weekend at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Past winners Cameron Beckman (2008), Troy Matteson (2009) and Rocco Mediate (2010) return to play this week. Mike Weir won the inaugural edition in 2007.

The field is headlined by Tiger Woods, the former World’s No. 1, who is looking to get some action before his participation in the Australian Open Golf Championship and the President’s Cup in November.

He will be on a group with 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and UCLA sophomore Patrick Cantlay, winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award (US Top College Player) and the Phil Mickelson Award (Top Freshman).

That will certainly put all the eyes on that grouping. Cantlay, is a player, that while it remains to be seen, how he translates his game to the pro level, he has elite player potential and if Woods is on his game, it will be a shot making affair.

There are many other former major winners on the field. But besides Woods and Oosthuizen, only Angel Cabrera and Trevor Immelman won theirs after 2003.

Cabrera, has four-straight cuts missed and only three Top 25 finishes this year. He will be on a group with former major winners, Ernie Els and Justin Leonard.

Els is having the worst year of his career, but did show some life at the FedEx Cup playoffs. Like Leonard, he is still looking for his first Top 10 finish this year.

Immelman is also looking for his first Top 10 of the year. He played very well at the Greenbrier (T14) and the PGA Championship (T12). But since then, although he has scored well, has not been able to return to the Top 25.

He will be on a group with Paul Casey and Bill Lunde. Casey is battling to retain his card, while Lunde leads the Kodak Challenge, by three shots over Cameron Tringale.

Other group worth noting is the one with Kevin Na, the winner of last week’s tournament, with the past two champions of this tournament, Rocco Mediate and Troy Matteson.

There are plenty of reasons to watch the Frys.com Open this week, here is the coverage information:

TV TIMES - Golf Channel, Thursday through Sunday, 4:00-8:00 pm ET

SIRIUS XM - Thursday through Sunday, 2:00-8:00 pm ET

TEE TIMES - For a complete review of all the Tee Times, click here.

- Carlos Torres