Knost, Lyle thinking of -- but not fixed on -- promotions

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- It's playing on their minds, constantly in fact.

It's on the very top of their things to do this week too. Has been for a while.

"It's what I think about every Thursday when I tee it up,'' Jarrod Lyle said.

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Jarrod Lyle (left) and Colt Konst each have two Nationwide Tour victories this season.

How they're doing

Jarrod Lyle and Colt Knost during the 2008 Nationwide Tour season

Lyle Knost Starts 17 14 Cuts Made 11 9 Wins 2 2 Top-10s 5 3 Top-25s 6 5

Colt Knost said he only dwells on "it when I'm asked.'' And that has been every week since Knost scored his second victory of the Nationwide Tour season in the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr. Pepper in mid-July.

'It' is a performance promotion to the PGA TOUR. And Lyle and Knost are the only two players on the Nationwide Tour with the credentials to talk about it in the present tense as the Xerox Classic gets underway Thursday at Irondequoit Country Club, a quaint but challenging Donald Ross design located a stone's throw from more celebrated Oak Hill Country Club. Each player owns two tournament titles in 2008 and needs one more to immediately move up to The Big Show.

There is performance promotion history at Irondequoit, a fact that only adds to the intrigue in this $600,000 event on the shortest track -- a 6,720-yard, par 70 -- the players will see this year. Australian Nick Flanagan has been here and done that. Last year in fact, when he roared from seven strokes behind in the final round to overtake James Driscoll for his third title of 2007.

While Lyle and Knost would love nothing better than to repeat Flanagan's performance, they understand they simply cannot snap their fingers and make birdie after birdie appear on their scorecards.

"The minute you start forcing it, trying to make it happen, you begin getting further and further from it happening,'' said Lyle, the Tour's leading money winner who has been on the performance promotion hunt since mid-June. "The hard part is, you know you're close, that all it takes is one more good week.''

Trouble is, the opportunities are getting fewer and farther between -- the Tour has three off-weeks built in to the remainder of this year's schedule -- as the season winds down. Only seven events remain on the regular schedule. And all players who finish inside the Top 60 on the money list earn an invitation to The Nationwide Tour Championship at TPC Craig Ranch in early November, but by then it will be too late for the PGA TOUR in '07, which is why there is some sense of urgency.

"If I win, I win, but I know where I'm going next year,'' said Knost, currently fifth on the 2007 money list with $259,308, more than enough to guarantee his graduation to golf's highest level. "But I wouldn't mind getting up there and seeing what some of those courses on The Fall Finish are like.''

Knost seemed to catch himself as he got ahead of himself. He soon made a mid-paragraph correction.

"But I've always been taught that I need to win two battles each week,'' he said. "That's me against myself and me against the golf course. I try to play each hole as best I can. If I get it right everything will take care of itself.''

Irondequoit seems to be the kind of place that will suit the precision-like, fairways-and-greens games of Lyle and Knost, who return to the Tour re-charged after taking off last week. It's a bombers beware layout that demands players drive it in the fairway if they are to hit a majority of the greens in regulation. Lyle, in fact, carried the lead into the final nine holes in 2006 before he "finished horrendously'' to tumble to a tie for 14th.

"I really wouldn't be surprised if we both don't get into contention here,'' Knost said Tuesday afternoon after getting his first look at Irondequoit.

What's more, the majority of the courses they will see through the end of the season are similar. That is to say, not exceedingly long and they require position off the tee.

"That's why I'm looking forward to the next three or four weeks,'' said Lyle, who didn't touch a golf club until Friday of last week, choosing to spend the majority of his time planted on the couch sipping a few adult beverages while catching up on the Olympic Games. "My iron play is solid and I'm driving it awesome. It's just a matter of getting a few more putts in the hole. Then watch out.''

Rick Price, who won the inaugural Xerox Classic in 2005 and the inaugural Nationwide Tour Players Cup in July, thinks the time to watch out is now. Price is familiar with the games of Lyle and Knost and believes at least one of them is going to earn the performance promotion soon.

"The golf courses coming up are just perfect for them,'' he said.