Local Knowledge: Grayhawk and the Frys.com Open

The Frys.com Open is up this week at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, Ariz. With so many PGA Tour players living in the area, it's a Fall Series event with a strong field. Before the event gets under way, Grayhawk PGA Head Professional Doug Hodge sat down with PGA.com for a little Q&A.

PGA.com: Grayhawk creates an interesting situation during the Fall Series. Typically the top players begin their offseason after the Tour Championship, but since Grayhawk is in Scottsdale, it's a home game for several of the best players on Tour. How much of an asset is that to the tournament? You've got arguably the strongest field in the Fall Series.

Cameron Beckman secured his 2009 PGA Tour card with his win at Grayhawk last year./Getty Images

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PGATOUR.COM:  Complete coverage of the Frys.com Open

Hodge: I think it's very beneficial for the event, frankly. We have great relationships with a lot of the players in town. Most of them, especially the ASU guys, this was their home away from home. When their home course was closed because they were aerating or overseeding, the men's and women's teams came to practice here. It kind of became a second home for them.

Even if it's just a short time before the players turn pro and they get a deal at a club -- a lot of them have called Grayhawk home. Chez Reavie, Pat Perez, a lot of the Australians, have been here a little bit -- Aaron Baddeley, Geoff Ogilvy is right up the street. Our location is a huge benefit. Why not compete when you can sleep in your own bed for the week -- that's probably what a lot of the guys think.

PGA.com: Grayhawk has hosted several high-profile professional events in the past, including what is now known as the Accenture Match Play Championship. Tell us what it is about the venue that lends itself to big events.

Hodge: Obviously the location. Scottsdale this time of year through end of May is so ideal weather-wise. We have two courses here. When you have 36 it's a lot easier to host an event because you don't have to completely shut down the operation. That's a benefit. Our owners have always been proactive in seeking out events like the World Match Play and Tiger's event [the Chevron World Challenge], which started here. That's how we market ourselves. We don't advertise. We try to find either a televised event or something with players from around the country.

PGA.com: What's the excitement level like in and around Scottsdale with the tournament right around the corner?

Hodge: The big buzz in town is always the FBR Open. The buzz for us is you can actually watch golf here every day. Our maximum crowd is about 15,000 per day. It's more for the diehard golf fan, which there's a lot of in Scottsdale.

The buzz now is our slogan, "get close to greatness." You can get 20 feet from the players hitting balls on the range on Sunday. This is an intimate venue.

PGA.com: Your winner last year was Cameron Beckman. A victory on the PGA Tour is always special, but especially when it's getting down to the wire and you need to play well to secure a Tour card for the following season. That's exactly what Beckman did in 2008. Is it safe to say that the storylines, like those of Beckman, make a tournament like the Frys.com Open more compelling than others?

Hodge: I think so. Especially being the third-to-last event in the Fall Series. You can see the guys that are on the bubble are definitely working hard on the range, putting green and chipping green. It's a pretty compelling story for the guys at 130 on the money list and grinding.

PGA.com: What is it that you're most looking forward to during tournament week?

Hodge: It's great to see the players, but the best part for me, really, is once we get through the pro-ams Monday-Wednesday and into the golf event proper, it's fun working with the volunteers at the range and seeing their excitement. They're golf junkies that know the brand of ball before the player even gets there. That's compelling to me -- seeing the volunteers interacting with the players. Also, seeing the best players compete at your place is pretty cool too.