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MEMPHIS: Tenn-Harrison Frazar now knows what he's going to be doing the next couple years, and his work place will be on the golf course with his clubs, not helping manage tournaments or working with the PGA Tour .
That's the difference a PGA Tour win makes.
Frazar beat Robert Karlsson with a par on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff Sunday at the St. Jude Classic, earning a win in his355th tour event when the Swede pushed a par-saving putt 3 feet pastthe hole. This win means Frazar will be playing in Maui in January and Augusta at the Masters for the first time in his career.
"This probably is going to change my life," Frazar said. "It's notgoing to change my wife or my kids, but it's probably going to change my life and the fact that I'll be 40 in July. This will take me to 42 or 43."
Frazar, playing on tour this year with a major medical exemption, had his plans all set to end his playing career and go to work in theindustry. He was tired of being away from his family too much and trying to play through a variety of injuries that required separate surgeries on his hip and shoulder last summer.
Memphis was just his fourth cut he's made in 10 events this year, though he just qualified for the upcoming U.S. Open at Congressional.His wife and three children were traveling Sunday when he won, and he hadn't talked to them before he met with reporters after the trophypresentation.
The man who might've been previously known best as Justin Leonard's college roommate at Texas also picked up the biggest paycheck of his career, taking home $1,008,000.
"It just shows you how sometimes when you let your guard down or let your expectations soften, you can free yourself up," Frazar said.
Frazar didn't realize he'd won until Karlsson's putt finally stopped without a miraculous turn back into the hole. From then on, he called it a whirlwind. All that talk about acting as if you've been there before doesn't work for someone who'd never won before.
"I don't know if I'm supposed to keep the seersucker jacket. I don't know if I'm supposed to carry the trophy. You don't know who you're supposed to talk to. I felt bad. I didn't thank the sponsors. I didn't thank FedEx. I didn't thank the volunteers. I was not quite sure really what was happening right then," Frazar said.
"The only tournament that I won in Q-school, you walked in, signedyour card in the scoring trailer, and they gave you a pat on the back, 'Good job.' You walked out the door. There was nobody there."
Karlsson led after the second and third rounds, and he has shot below par on his past eight rounds here. Now the Swede has lost in a playoff at the TPC Southwind course for a second straight year, though he said he couldn't have done much more in what he called a great match.
"He played great, and I played good as well," Karlsson said. "It'sone of those days where I think most of us had a lot of fun out there. Congratulate him on a great win. He played great in the last roundafter sort of being injured and stuff like that. He played really well."
Camilo Villegas (64) tied for third with Tim Herron, Ryuji Imada, Charles Howell and Retief Goosen. Lee Westwood, the 2010 champion here, tied for 11th. Frazar missed a chance to win on the 72nd hole whenhe made his first bogey of the day. He shot a 3-under 67 to match Karlsson (68) at 13 under. He became the seventh first-time winner on tour this year and the first to win his first title in Memphis since Dicky Pride in 1994.-
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