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LUTZ, Fla. (Feb. 15) -- Bruce Fleisher and Larry Nelson have won the last two events in Tampa. Advantage Nelson.
While Fleisher is the defending champion at the Verizon Classic, Nelson is the best player on the Senior PGA Tour these days, and on Friday, he will begin his quest for a third win in four events this season.
Meanwhile, Fleisher is in the midst of his longest drought since joining the tour in 1999 -- 11 tournaments and counting. He admitted he was tired at the end of last season and is winless since July.
The 1999 Rookie and Player of the Year, Fleisher has finished no worse than 11th this year. But he was just a stroke off the lead entering the final round of the season-opening MasterCard Championship and shot a 2-under-par 70 to tie for third.
Nelson tied for eighth last week at the ACE Group Classic after claiming the MasterCard and Royal Caribbean Classic two weeks later.
The Vietnam veteran has won six of the last 11 events he has entered, including four in a five-tournament stretch last season en route to Player of the Year honors.
Nelson won at the TPC of Tampa Bay in 1999, holding off Fleisher by two shots with a final-round 4-under 67. Last year, Fleisher defeated Dana Quigley by four strokes, with Nelson 19 off the pace.
Quigley has improved in each of his starts this season, going from 16th to fifth to second. Playing his 131st consecutive event, he finished two shots behind Gil Morgan at the ACE Group Classic.
Morgan shot rounds of 71-67-66 last week en route to his 19th career Senior Tour title. He is second to Hale Irwin in all-time earnings among Senior players -- on both tours combined -- with $13,381,594.
Irwin, the Player of the Year in 1997 and 1998, is entered in just his second official event of the season. He tied for 12th at the MasterCard before winning $320,000 at the Senior Skins Game.
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