Week 41 Approach Shots: Viking Classic

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The Viking Classic is the fourth of five Fall Series events, and Will MacKenzie returns to Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Miss., looking for a strong finish to his season. He is 131st on the money list, with his best finish a tie for fifth at The Honda Classic. He also had a top-10 performance at the Memorial Tournament, where he tied for 10th.

Quick Facts

WHAT: Fourth of five Fall Series events WHEN: Oct. 29-Nov. 1 WHERE: Madison, Miss. COURSE: Annandale Golf Club ROUND 1 TV: GOLF, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET ROUND 2 TV: GOLF, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET ROUND 3 TV: GOLF, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET ROUND 4 TV: GOLF, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET KEY LINKS: Tee times | Leaderboard | Tournament page VIDEO: Preview

MacKenzie returns to defend the 2008 title he won after a two-hole playoff with Brian Gay and Marc Turnesa. Other past champions who are playing this week are Chad Campbell, D.J. Trahan, Heath Slocum, Cameron Beckman, Greg Kraft and Jim Gallagher, Jr.

HOME GAME: Gallagher, Jr., a resident of Greenwood, Miss., will make his 18th appearance in the Viking Classic when he tees it up this week. Gallagher first played in 1986. Gallagher won the event in 1985 when it was an unofficial event, the Magnolia State Classic.

FOWLER CAN LOCK UP CARD WITH TOP-10 FINISH: Rickie Fowler is coming off back-to-back top 10 finishes on the PGA TOUR, and one more will likely give him full status on the PGA TOUR in 2010.

Fowler was booked for the first stage of q-school, but the 20-year-old finished tied for second last week in the Frys.com Open, pushing his 2008 earnings to $553,700. David Duval, 125th on the money list, is currently at $623,824.

Last year, Kraft finished solo seventh and pocketed $120,600. Tom Scherrer was solo 13th and made $75,600.

MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI: Slocum, who spent part of his childhood in Vicksburg, learned the game from his father, Jack, who was the club pro at Vicksburg Country Club. Jack played in the Viking Classic nine times, making the cut three times. He tied for 49th in 1981, tied for 30th in 1982 and tied for 59th in 1986. When he won the 2005 Southern Farm Bureau Classic, Heath employed his father as his caddie.

WINNERS IN 2009: Five players with 2009 TOUR wins are in the field this week. They are Michael Bradley (Puerto Rico Open), Nathan Green (RBC Canadian Open), Slocum (The Barclays), Matt Kuchar (Turning Stone Resort Championship) and last week's winner at the Frys.com Open, Troy Matteson.

PLAYOFF PLAYERS: David Toms and Slocum are the only two players competing this week who also made it to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, the final event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

OVER-50 SET: Michael Allen is the oldest player in the field. He turned 50 at the beginning of the year, and promptly won the Senior PGA Championship in his Champions Tour debut. Allen is making his ninth appearance at the Viking Classic. His best finish is a tie for 25th in 1991. Tom Pernice, Jr. is the other Champions Tour-eligible player in the field. He won the SAS Championship in his first Champions Tour appearance after turning 50. Pernice tied for sixth at the 1987 Viking Classic, his best Mississippi performance.

NO LEAD IS SAFE: Last year, the par-5, 18th hole featured a 4.692 stroke average. There were 184 birdies there during the four rounds, the fifth-most birdies on a finishing hole on TOUR in 2008.

ON-COURSE OBSERVATIONS: PGA TOUR Network correspondents Bob Stevens and Larry Rinker are on the scene in Madison, Miss. for this week's satellite radio coverage (XM 146/SIRIUS 209). Reports Stevens and Rinker:

Bob Stevens: Defending champion Will MacKenzie is obviously glad to be back. He says his putter has held him back all year -- he has missed 15 cuts and has only two top-10 finishes -- but he absolutely loves the Bermuda greens here. He feels really comfortable here and wishes the tournament were earlier in the year so he could have had that feeling earlier.

Rickie Fowler says the homework here on TOUR is quite a bit different from what he faced at Oklahoma State as recently the spring. Instead of term papers and projects, he is trying to learn each course in a short period of time. Obviously, as mentioned above, he's a quick study.

Larry Rinker: David Duval comes into this week as the bubble boy at No. 125 on the money list. He said that he's not focusing on that -- he's here to win a golf tournament. The former No. 1 player in the world has his father, Bob Duval, out here following him and working with him on his game. He's excited about the last two weeks of the season and looks forward to the challenge.

Annandale Golf Club has taken over 20 inches of rain in the last two weeks. They have only mowed the fairways once. With more rain in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, it's most likely they will be playing lift, clean and place in the fairway. This favors the longer hitters, and the course will play much longer. Look for record scoring because the greens are in great shape and, due to their design, are still playing firm and fast.

Weather forecast for the Viking Classic

THURSDAY, Rd. 1 FRIDAY, Rd. 2 SATURDAY, Rd. 3 SUNDAY, Rd. 4 Thunderstorms Temp: 80 high/68 low Scattered thunderstorms Temp: 76 high/53 low Rain Temp: 59 high/45 low Sunny Temp: 66 high/43 low

DTN/Meteorlogix is the official weather provider of the PGA TOUR. For more information, click here

Viking Classic snippets

Daly making return: John Daly, who makes his home right up the road in Memphis, returns to action this week. Daly has played this event in each of the last two years, making the cut each time but without a finish higher than a tie for 40th. Daly is looking for his first top-25 finish since the 2007 Buick Open. Giving back: The 2008 Viking Classic raised over $500,000, which was donated to local charities including $140,000 to the Friends of Children's Hospital. In 2008, over 70 charities benefited from the Birdies For Charity program. 125 watch: Former Ryder Cupper Chris Riley got his card back in q-school in 2008. At 126th on the money list, he faces another trip to the q-school finals if he is unable to score a top-25 in either of the next two tournaments.