TOUR Insider: Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

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Charley Hoffman didn't give much thought to winning last year's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic until just about the moment when it happened. He won't have that luxury when he returns to Palm Springs, Calif., for the 49th edition, having to defend the title he claimed in a playoff over John Rollins for his first PGA TOUR title.

Charley Hoffman eagled 18 to force a playoff with John Rollins last year. (WireImage)

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Entry List
Video: Hoffman eagles No. 18 to force a playoff in last year's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
Video: Host George Lopez celebrates a birdie in last year's fourth round

Ignorance sometimes really is bliss.

"I think probably it actually helped me the whole day that I wasn't -- I never really crossed my mind of winning the golf tournament besides walking to the 18th tee the last round, which is really the only time it crossed my mind because I really wasn't in contention," Hoffman, 31, said. "Justin (Rose) started the day way ahead, then he struggled a little bit, and I mean, I didn't really make anything happen. Then I birdied 17 and eagled 18. So obviously the eagle is what jumped me a few spots. But I really was never thinking about winning and maybe that's one of the reasons why I won."

It makes sense to us.

Hoffman will be among 12 former champions who are teeing it up in the field of 128 players in the 49th edition of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the PGA TOUR's only 90-hole event and one of two contested in a pro-am setting. The $5.1 million tournament held on four courses offers 4,500 FedExCup points and $918,000 to the winner.

The challenges of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic are numerous, starting with the fact that the players must tour four different courses in four days -- not exactly the best way to get into a rhythm. Wind is a definite deterrent to scoring, particularly at the host site, the Classic Club. Then there are the lengthy rounds with the pro-am partners. There's fun for everyone, but it's still a test of sorts. "Just to keep your focus for six hours more or less doing anything or trying to win a golf tournament is pretty tough," Hoffman said.

Not only do the players have to get familiar quickly with the new SilverRock Resort layout, a desert style layout with wide fairways lined by native areas that will play the longest of the four at nearly 7,500 yards, but the Classic Club also has undergone numerous renovations since '07, including new green complexes at 2, 11 and 16. Another change at the Classic Club is that everyone will start at even par on the eighth hole; ahem, that's because it's been turned into the first hole. Most of the front nine has been re-ordered. The back nine remains the same.

The field will have to keep their wits about them and know what they want to get done -- even if they aren't thinking about winning.

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• John Daly and TaylorMade-Adidas have parted company, leaving Daly without an equipment deal of any kind in the 2008 season except for Winn grips. The two-time major champion, who is non-exempt for the second year in a row, is still playing a TaylorMade driver and 3-wood, and Titleist irons and Titleist ProV1 ball. Daly, 41, employed Titleist equipment during 2005, in which he twice was runner-up and finished 42nd on the money list. He is in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic on a sponsor exemption and expects to play nearly all of the West Coast events armed with exemptions.

• Give Jerry Kelly credit for toughness. He competed at the Sony Open in Hawaii and is headed to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic despite lingering problems with a torn left bicep he suffered on a home exercise machine prior to the Merrill Lynch Shootout. The injury hasn't set him back as he continues to work with Jim Schumann to overhaul his swing. He's encouraged by the progress. "I've never really known how to release the club before. And even if I did, I don't remember it," Kelly said. "It's a totally different feeling."

• Seven men are entered in the Hope who also played in the first two events of the season: Mark Calcavecchia, Chad Campbell, Daniel Chopra, Steve Flesch, Paul Goydos, George McNeill and Boo Weekley. Calcavecchia, Campbell, Chopra and McNeill all played four rounds at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

• In an effort to further concentrate on the major championships and reach his goal of supplanting Tiger Woods as the No. 1 player in the world in the next few years, Ernie Els does not plan to compete on the PGA TOUR until the Honda Classic in March. That means he will be skipping the entire West Coast swing including the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. He plans to open his season at the Dubai Desert Classic later this month.

• The Hope entry list contains two intriguing names who won previously in Palm Springs. Fred Couples, who battled back problems for most of 2007 but played a few Challenge Season events, is scheduled to make his first start since last year's Masters. He won the 1998 crown in a playoff over Bruce Lietzke. David Duval returns to action for the first time since October. He played sparingly (just seven events, and only two after February) in 2007 as his wife endured a difficult pregnancy. Duval, of course, shot 59 in the final round on his way to the 1999 Hope title.

• It's hard to bet on a non-winner this week, even though Charley Hoffman earned his first TOUR victory at the Hope last year. Before that, only Donnie Hammond in 1986 and Bill Rogers, the 1978 champion, had posted their first victories in the desert.

• Anthony Kim tied for 45th last year in his first start at the Hope, not a bad showing considering he probably had extra distractions as a local favorite. Kim attended La Quinta High School.

• Sean O'Hair is among several players who are putting the new TaylorMade Rossa Monza Spider putter in their bags at the start of the year. Others who have been trying it out include Carl Pettersen and Charles Howell III.

• Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., site of this year's Ryder Cup, underwent a thorough renovation in 2006 that included four new green sites. Three of those greens (8, 11 and 16), underwent a second redesign last September after captains Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo, as well as some PGA of America officials, found the slopes on those surfaces too severe. The course still should be ready in time for the matches.