TOUR Insider: Big week at Buick Invitational
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
Big doings this year in La Jolla, Calif., where the Buick Invitational begins Thursday at Torrey Pines Golf Course and where the U.S. Open will be held in June on the renovated South Course.
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Big doings this week at the $5.2 million Buick Invitational with the season debuts of the top two players in the Official World Golf Ranking -- Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. No. 4 Jim Furyk, No. 9 and Sony Open winner K.J. Choi and No. 10 Vijay Singh join the fray in a field that features 11 of the top 25 in the world.
Big doings this week, historically speaking, since Woods, the three-time defending champion, has 61 career victories. A victory this week in a tournament he's won five times would tie him with Arnold Palmer.
Of course, he'll have to get past Mickelson, who has been playing the North and South Courses at Torrey Pines since he was a kid and who has won the tournament three times himself, including 2000 when he halted a six-tournament winning streak Woods had cobbled together over two seasons.
Woods and Mickelson, native Californians, are making their season debuts in the same event for just the fifth time (Woods holds a 3-1 winning edge), but for the first time at the Buick Invitational. Woods has won his season opener five times, Mickelson four. Between them they have captured seven of nine events at Torrey Pines.
Big doings this week because of the big doings in June. Players like Furyk, Justin Leonard and Kenny Perry admit that they are heading to La Jolla to do some advanced fieldwork for the year's second major, the 108th U.S. Open. The greens won't be as firm or fast nor will the fairways be as narrow as they are likely to be in June, but the PGA TOUR Player Report says that both courses are in excellent shape, and the South Course, 7,568 yards and site of three of the four rounds, will feature many of the same tees and mowing patterns as the Open layout.
So that's why we'll see Furyk, who has missed the cut in his only two previous starts, with his last in 2001, and former Masters champion Mike Weir, who tied for fifth in 2001, his only appearance. Perry and Chris DiMarco also are playing for just the third time after more than a decade away. Tim Herron and Rocco Mediate have been absent at least a half-dozen years.
Big doings with 17 of the top 20 players in the FedExCup standings, including leader and Sony Open winner K.J. Choi, in attendance.
Every week in the new FedExCup schedule seems to take on heightened urgency, but this week's tournament has all sorts of storylines and undercurrents of drama. Heck, even the media contingent is expected to be larger than in past years. Big doings, indeed.
FEDEXCUP POINTERS
• Before re-injuring himself at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic John Daly had already put himself on a new track, following the gospel according to Butch Harmon. Daly employed a slightly shorter putting stroke at the Sony Open in Hawaii after getting a tip via a text message from Harmon. After making the cut -- but not advancing -- at the Sony, he snuck in an instruction session with Harmon in Las Vegas after flying all night from Hawaii. He's entered in the Buick Invitational, which he won in 2004, but his status is uncertain.
• Aaron Baddeley is another convert to Adams Golf (joining Rory Sabbatini) after his longtime deal with MacGregor expired. Baddeley will play 13 Adams clubs -- not ready to surrender his Scotty Cameron putter. His deal is for 1-3 years as he works with the company on a set of specially designed irons.
• Robert Allenby, who battled flu symptoms at the Sony Open, played increasingly better at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, finishing tied for 12th. He plans to play roughly the same west-coast schedule he did a year ago when he . "I should have won three or four times last year, realistically. I was playing that well," Allenby said. "My goal this year is to simply learn to finish it off better."
• Taking a cue from 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson, Jonathan Byrd, who leads 20-something players with three PGA TOUR wins, got together with his instructors for a preseason strategy and prep session. Led by sport psychologist Morris Pickens, who also works with Johnson, they targeted parts of Byrd's game that need attention. "It worked for Zach," said Byrd, who is skipping this week's event after playing the first three weeks.
• Justin Rose, who won the '07 Order of Merit on the European Tour, made his first U.S. appearance last week -- at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando at TaylorMade's apparel booth. He has decided, however, that he won't tee it up on the PGA TOUR until the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles.
• Joe Durant, who hasn't finished in the top 10 in eight Buick Invitational starts, might be one player to watch. He played decently in four of five rounds at the Bob Hop Chrysler Classic as he continues to fine-tune some putting alterations he made late last year with the help of Champions Tour player and three-time major champion Nick Price.
• The 19th Nationwide Tour season begins Thursday at the Panama Movistar Championship, the first of 30 tournaments on the schedule that offers nearly $19 million in prize money. Over 200 players have access to the developmental tour that will graduate the top 25 money winners to the 2009 PGA TOUR.
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