Rask Shoots 67 to Monday Qualify for Waste Management Phoenix Open

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  -- Clayton Rask made five birdies and no bogeys Monday on the way to a 5-under-par 67 at McCormick Ranch Golf Club and then survived a 4-for-3 playoff on Tuesday morning to gain a spot in this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open.

The tournament, which draws the largest crowds on the PGA Tour, begins Thursday. (Total attendance for last year's event was a record 564,368.)

Luke List and David Skinns matched Rask's 67 and were the other two qualifiers. Parker Mclachlin, who is a Scottsdale resident, was the odd man out, even though he, too, was a co-medalist with 67.

There were five players in the field of 115 who missed the playoff by a stroke with 68's, and 13 guys tied for 10th with 69's.   

Rask is a 31-year-old former University of Minnesota star and MGA Player of the Year (2007). He is a five-time winner of the Minnesota Golf Champions tournament, and he has partial status on the web.com Tour this year. He's played in one PGA Tour event, the 2014 U.S. Open, and made the cut. 

Both Rask and List are prodigiously long hitters. List, also 31, has been a member of the PGA Tour for one full season previously, in 2013, and he has status again for the 2015-16 season. So far, he's played in six events on the Big Tour this season, made $222,180 and is No. 87 on the money list. In 2012, List claimed his one web.com Tour victory, at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club, which played 7,781 yards that week, the longest course ever used for a PGA Tour or web.com tournament.

Afterward, List said the length wasn't a big deal -- because he was averaging 330 yards off the tee and, therefore, had only a 150-yard wedge shot to most of the longer par-4's on the course. 

As a measure of how difficult it is to Monday qualify for a PGA Tour event, consider this: In last week's Thursday qualifier, which was required for most guys just to get into the Monday qualifier, Rodney Hamblin, a former MGA Junior Boys champion (2001), shot 66 at Ken McDonald Golf Course -- and missed by one.    

PGA TOUR 

Waste Management Phoenix Open

Monday Qualifer

At McCormick Ranch

Par 72, 7,187 yards

Final results 

T1. Clayton Rask, Elk River                     67

T1. Luke List, Seal Beach, Calif.                67

T1. David Skinns, Suwanee, Ga.               67

Did not qualify

T1. Parker Mclachlin, Scottsdale                67

T5. Nathan Lashley, Scottsdale                   68

T5. Scott Langley, St. Simons Island, Ga.   68

T5. Jarrod Lyle, Orlando                              68

T5. Nathan Tyler, Tucson                            68

T5. Grayson Murray, Raleigh, N.C.             68

WD -- Joe Affrunti, Crystal Lake, Ill.