Notsurewhereville, Somewhere—Even in between CGT events, it still takes me a minute to figure out what city I’m in. I’m actually typing this as I drive on I-91.

Anyway, off we go to Rhode Island for the 3rd annual Cranston Open July 28-30.

Many of the CGT’s usual suspects will be in attendance, but two high profile names are noticeably absent from the field.

Namely, defending champion Corey Harris, who parlayed medallist honors at Asian Tour Qualifying School this past winter into an 83rd place finish on the Order of Merit with earnings of $14,891 in 11 events.

This year’s winner will be hard-pressed to match, let alone surpass, the drama provided by Harris and last year’s runner-up Jim Hallet.

Who can forget Hallet’s hole-in-one on the 12th hole? Or Harris’ 15-foot birdie putt to win on the first playoff hole? The Skinny can’t.

LeBaron Hills victor Mike Harris won’t be in the mix at Cranston either. His excuse?

He received a sponsors exemption into the PGA Tour’s Buick Open by virtue of his victories in the Michigan Open and Michigan Tournament of Champions. I’ve seen far worse excuses. Good luck, Mike.

Without the defending champ and arguably the hottest play on Tour in the field, who can we expect to contend for the Cranston Open crown?

Here’s some fat to chew on:

Don’t overlook Geoff Sisk and Jim Hallet in your CGT rotisserie leagues. I know. Neither player can keep it within the same zip code as the Baby Bombers (Andy Bare, Nick Cook, Matt Donovan, etc.) off the tee, but there
swings are dialed in better than Sprint.

Several venues on Tour simply play too long for this duo, but Cranston isn’t one of them. None of the par 4s exceed 460 yards and two of the par 5s will be reachable for everyone in the field while the third five par, at 625yards, will be a three shot hole for the entire field, unless someone’s tee ball catches a sprinkler head.

Assuming Billy Downes has recovered from a back injury that forced him to withdraw from LeBaron, this course should also favor his game. Ditto for Rob “Land O’ Lakes” Oppenheim and Eli Zackheim, whose games are predicated on precision more than power.

Every venue caters to a certain player’s game, but momentum, Mr. Mo himself, is equally important when handicapping an event.

Matt Donovan, fresh off his 2nd consecutive win in the Greater Bangor Open, certainly falls into this category. He has two top 16s on the CGT and two other top 4s in regional state opens. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to
see how he fares following his latest win in Bangor. After capturing last year’s GBO, he admittedly fell into a funk, recording just one top 10 in the final five CGT events. With five of the seven remaining events repeat venues
from ’04, how Donovan closes out this season will reflect his growth as a player since last fall.

Robert Twine and John Connelly, though yet to step into the winner’s circle this year, have also been riding a considerable wave of momentum. Both have made every cut on the CGT. And both are coming off of season best finishes at LeBaron Hills, with Connelly tying for 2nd, two shots ahead of Twine, who
tied for 4th.

Andy Bare, who was denied back-to-back wins at LeBaron, hasn’t stepped off the momentum train since he relocated from North Carolina. The Cranston Open marks his first appearance in Rhode Island since finishing 9th in last year’s Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett Country Club, one of the nation’s foremost amateur events.

With so many players in mid-season form, this week’s Skinny is ripe with a host of potential challengers.

Good luck with your rotisserie leagues. See you in Cranston, assuming I find my way off of I-91.