Shootout: Jake up for Comeback award

The Bonita Springs resident is on the ballot for Comeback Player of the Year.

Jacobsen, who won the Greater Hartford Open, his first victory in eight years, is on the player-voted ballot with Tommy Armour III and Woody Austin.

The 49-year-old said he was thrilled to be up for the honor.

"It's great to be up for the award," said Jacobsen, who finished No. 62 on the PGA Tour's money list with $1,162,726 this season. "And as long as I'm up for the award I want to win."

Jacobsen, who turns 50 in March, credits the turn around in his career to hip surgery in 2001. While he's now playing pain free, there was a time, while in a Fort Lauderdale hospital, that his last thought was swinging a golf club.

"I definitely had a comeback," Jacobsen said. "There was a time when I was lying in a hospital bed and I never thought I would play again."

Jacobsen knows that voting will be tight.

Austin, who spent the last seven years bouncing back and forth from the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour, finished No. 44 on the money list with $1,477,241.

Armour, who started the year out as a conditional player, won the Valero Texas Open last month to secure exempt status.

OPEN HOUSE: Jacobsen invited his fellow pros and caddies out Wednesday afternoon to take a look at Hammock Bay Country Club near Marco Island.

Jacobsen was excited to get their thoughts on the course he co-designed with partner Jim Hardy for WCI.

Even though he already had played 18 holes in the Shootout pro-am, Jacobsen was going to get in a few more at Hammock Bay.

"I designed the course and I've not even played the course," Jacobsen said. "I'm excited."

LONG JOURNEY: Matt Kuchar and his wife, Sybi, made the 15-hour flight from New Zealand to Fort Myers in time for the pro-am. The Kuchars don't live in New Zealand, they were there on their honeymoon.

When the Kuchars found out Sunday that Nick Faldo withdrew, they got on the first plane back.

Don't feel sorry for them, though.

The newlyweds already had spent a month tooling around Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. The couple was married in Georgia on Oct. 11 and were scheduled to come back home on Nov. 14.

"It was really no big deal," Kuchar said. "We only cut our trip short by two days."

SHARK BITES:The Hall of Famer and now a broadcaster for Fox's NFL pregame show is scheduled to host the tournament dinner. He originally was going to play in both days of the pro-am, but hurt his back practicing. ... Former PGA Tour player and Fort Myers resident Bobby Nichols was in the locker room catching up with some of his old friends.

Nichols, who beat Jack Nicklaus to win the 1964 PGA Championship, is 67. ... This is the last day that spectators are allowed to take pictures at the tournament. Cameras are not allowed once tournament play begins on Friday.