Things return to normal following the U.S. Open Masters at Augusta, with the primary draws being a wonderful golf course at Harbour Town, a full field of stars for Lorena Ochoa to batter in Florida, and the opening of the 2008 season in Japan.  Post-Major weeks are always quiet(er), but this one is hardly without interest...

PGA Tour:  Verizon Heritage

Site: Harbour Town Golf Links  -  Hilton Head, SC
Yards: 6,973     Par: 71
Defending: Boo Weekley 270  (beat Ernie Els by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: Ernie Els (3), Justin Rose (7), Jim Furyk (9), Stewart Cink (14), Zach Johnson (20), Aaron Baddeley (21), Niclas Fasth (23), Sean O’Hair (24) & Scott Verplank (25)   Other Notables: Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard, Davis Love III & Corey Pavin.

Notes: This is the 40th playing of this event, which debuted with Arnold Palmer’s victory in 1969......It has been played the week after the Masters since 1983, a time slot which would be considered undesirable by many events, but which has worked here because 1) Pete Dye’s seminal Harbour Town layout remains a great draw, and 2) Many players consider Hilton Head an ideal spot to decompress following the pressures of Augusta.........No less than 10 Hall-of-Famers have won here, though the king of Harbor Town has surely been Davis Love III, who has claimed the title a remarkable five times (1987, ’91, ’92, ’98 and ’03).........Only Bernhard Langer (1985) has ever followed a Masters win with a victory here – and that distinction will remain his alone as Trevor Immelman is not playing this week.........Though modestly renovated over the years, Harbor Town remains an icon in the history of American golf course design, having largely reversed the trend towards longer, duller tracks of the 1950s and ‘60s by itself at the time of its 1969 opening.........It’s closers, the 185-yard 17th and 452-yard 18th, are among the most distinctive in golf.

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European & Asian Tours:  Volvo China Open

Site: Beijing CBD International Golf Club  -  Beijing, China
Yards: 7,321     Par: 72
Defending: Markus Brier 274  (beat Scott Hend by 5)
Field:   World Top 25: None   Other Notables: S.S.P. Chowrasia, David Howell, Soren Kjeldsen,, Wen-Chong Liang, Graeme McDowell & Louis Oosthuizen

Notes: The European Tour co-sponsors this post-Masters event with the Asian Tour, but given the massive travel distance from Augusta, its chances of drawing a strong field are, at present, minimal.........This is the event’s fifth playing, with past champions including Stephen Dodd, Paul Casey and Jeev Milkha Singh, of whom only Dodd (who did not play at Augusta) will be present this year.........The Beijing CBD International Golf Club is a four-year-old course wedged onto a tight property east of downtown, and is hosting the event for the first time as the event makes its debut in China's capital.

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Japan Tour:  Token Homemate Cup

Site: Token Tado Country Club  -  Nagoya, Japan
Yards: 7,083     Par: 71
Defending: Yui Ueda 276  (beat Dong-Hwan Lee by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Ryo Ishikawa, Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Jet Ozaki, Jumbo Ozaki, Craig Parry, Toru Taniguchi

Notes: The Japan Tour begins its 24th official season (though it existed in a less-organized state well before 1985) with the Token Homemate Cup in Nagoya.........The field includes a full compliment of Japan’s best players, but few foreigners beyond the handful that regularly compete on the J Tour.........This is the event’s 19th playing, during which it has seen six foreign winners, the sole American champion being Todd Hamilton in 1995.........Japan’s all-time greatest player, 61-year-old Jumbo Ozaki, is scheduled to play, having won the event (by one over Carlos Franco) in 1997.

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LPGA Tour:  Ginn Open

Site: Ginn Reunion Resort (Independence course)  -  Reunion, FL
Yards: 6,505     Par: 72
Defending: Brittany Lincicome 278  (beat Lorena Ochoa by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex top 20 except Ji-Yai Shin (7), Sakura Yokomine (16) & Yuri Fudoh (18)    Other Notables: Laura Davies, Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann, Grace Park, Jan Stephenson.

Notes: World number one Lorena Ochoa will attempt to win her fourth LPGA event in a row against a near-elite field just south of Orlando.........Ochoa is coming an 11-shot victory at the Corona Championship (in her native Mexico), a light-field event.........The rout (her second 11-shot triumph of 2008) raised her average margin of victory in four 2008 triumphs to an astonishing 8.5 strokes.........Annika Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen, joint runners-up two weeks ago at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, are ranked 2nd and 3rd worldwide and will attempt to slow the Ochoa juggernaut.........This is only the event’s third playing, with past champions being Lincicome and, in the 2006 debut, Mi Hyun Kim.

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Champions Tour:  Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am

Site: TPC Tampa Bay  -  Lutz, FL
Yards: 6,873     Par: 71
Defending: Tom Watson 209  (beat Andy Bean & Jay Haas by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Fred Funk (4) & Scott Simpson (19)   Other Notables: Bob Charles, Hubert Green, Hale Irwin, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson & Mark O’Meara.

Notes: The Champions Tour returns to Florida’s west coast for the 21st playing of an event which has existed, under multiple sponsors, since 1988.........Both of the Tour’s two-time winners, Bernhard Langer and Scott Hoch are in the field, though Langer might be feeling a bit winded after two days Augusta National’s trying conditions last week.

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Elsewhere...
The Ladies European Tour plays their first full-field Continental event of 2008, the Women’s Spanish Open, at the Panoramica Golf & Country Club in San Jordi.  The JLPGA (the Life Card Ladies) and the KLPGA (the Woori Investment & Securities Championship) are also in action, making this the first week of the year that all four major Ladies tours are in action simultaneously.  The developmental Futures Tour will also tee it up, visiting Louisiana for the Pelican Classic.  On the male side, the Nationwide Tour visits Georgia for the Athens Regional Foundation Classic, the Canadian Tour remains in California for the Stockton Sports Commission Classic, while the Tour de Las Americas offers up the Chile Open.

Virtually everything stops worldwide as we reach the year’s first Major championship, the Masters.  Thus this is one week where even if she wins by 10 shots at the Corona Championship, Lorena Ochoa gets overshadowed.  Probably.

PGA, European & Asian Tours:  The Masters

Site: Augusta National Golf Club  -  Augusta, GA
Yards: 7,445     Par: 72
Defending: Zach Johnson 289  (beat Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini & Tiger Woods by 2)
Field:   Everyone who’s physically able   Other Notables: All living past champions except Tommy Aaron, Seve Ballesteros, Jack Burke Jr., Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Nick Faldo, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus & Arnold Palmer.

Notes: This will be the tournament’s 72nd playing, having run consistently since 1934, save for World War II-oriented cancellations in 1943, ’44 and ’45.........Jack Nicklaus owns more green jackets than anyone (6), with other multiple winners being Arnold Palmer (4), Tiger Woods (4), Jimmy Demaret (3), Nick Faldo (3), Gary Player (3), Sam Snead (3), Seve Ballesteros (2), Ben Crenshaw (2), Ben Hogan (2), Bernhard Langer (2), Phil Mickelson (2), Byron Nelson (2), Jose Maria Olazabal (2), Horton Smith (2) and Tom Watson (2).........Inevitably, Tiger Woods (the Lorena Ochoa of men’s golf) enters the week as a strong favorite, but before people buy into any thoughts of invincibility, they should at least consider that he’s won only once here in the last five years.........Of the 94 entered players, 20 will be making their first Masters appearances, three will be amateurs, and 13 will be in the field as past champions.........Seven players were invited solely as a result of the recently reinstated PGA Tour tournament winner exemption, and three (Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, Jeev Milkha Singh of India and Liang Wen-Chong of China) are playing on special invitations from the committee.........Realistically, if we write off the older former champions as well as the amateurs, the number of realistic possible winners is roughly 81.  Drop current professionals whose chances would seem extremely limited (e.g. the special invitees) and that number likely falls into the mid to low 60s.........The golf course continues to have rough and recently planted trees, both of which are antithetical to the writings of original designers Bobby Jones and Dr. Alister MacKenzie.  How does this affect the event?  To my way of thinking, adversely.  Both the club and the man hired to carry out their changes, Tom Fazio, will argue that today's Masters participants hit it long, high and straight, thus rendering silly the idea of maintaining/recreating holes which rewarded smart use of the angles, shots worked one direction or the other, or even run-up approaches – and on the surface, this rationale seems at least partially logical.  What's being missed, however, is the fact even a drive hit long, high and straight can be aimed to a specific side of a fairway, and if rough has been planted where some of that short grass used to be, then a very real element of playing strategy has been removed from the equation.  An excellent example is the par-4 11th, where players used to aim either down the right edge of the fairway (to minimize the invasiveness of the front-left greenside pond on their second) or down the far left side, hoping to make the water more of a frontal, carry sort of hazard.  Today, with rough occupying both areas, everyone must aim dead center, then play identical approaches.  Fans of the U.S. Open may like such a setup, but Jones and MacKenzie are well on record as being dead set against it.

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LPGA Tour:  Corona Championship

Site: Morelia, Mexico  -  Tres Marias Residential Golf Club
Yards: 6,539     Par: 73
Defending: Silvia Cavalleri 272  (beat Julieta Granada & Lorena Ochoa by 2)
Field:   Rolex Top 20: Lorena Ochoa (1)   Other Notables: Sophie Gustafson, Lorie Kane & Brittany Lincicome

Notes: The LPGA returns to Mexico for the second time in 2008, and once again Lorena Ochoa (who has little choice) will be the sole elite player in the field………While this thus might appear an easy week for Ochoa to continue her winning ways, her lone loss of 2008 came on the first Mexican visit, at the MasterCard Classic, when a closing 68 lifted her into a tie for 8th………Tres Marias is a 27-hole, ravine-laden Jack Nicklaus design built in scenic country roughly halfway between Mexico City and Guadalajara.

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Elsewhere...

The JLPGA moves to Hyogo Prefecture this week for the fourth playing of the Studio Alice Women’s Open, while the Korean LPGA begins its 2008 season at the Sports Seoul - Kim Young Joo Open.  The Canadian Tour (which does occasionally play in Canada) also opens their new year with the Spring International in Modesto, California, while for the third consecutive week, the Tour de Las Americas and European Challenge Tour are co-sponsors of a South American event, this time the Il Club Colombia Masters.  Finally, on the other side of the world, the Omega China Tour plays their third event, the Kunming Championship.

The women dominate the agenda this week with the playing of their first Major championship, the Kraft Nabisco in Palm Springs.  With The Masters scheduled for next week, the men's tours offer a full slate of events, but only the Shell Houston Open features a substantial field.  Definitely a week for the ladies...

PGA Tour:  Shell Houston Open

Site: Redstone Golf Club (Tournament course)  -  Humble, TX
Yards: 7,457     Par: 72
Defending: Adam Scott 271  (beat Stuart Appleby & Bubba Watson by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: Phil Mickelson (2), Steve Stricker (4), Adam Scott (5), K.J. Choi (7), Geoff Ogilvy (11), Padraig Harrington (12), Angel Cabrera (17), Aaron Baddeley (18), Trevor Immelman (25)   Other Notables: Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Jose Maria Olazabal.

Notes: The Houston Open dates to 1922, tying it with the Texas Open as the third oldest non-Major championship on the PGA Tour, trailing only the Western Open (1899) and the Canadian Open (1904)………This is the sixth playing at the Redstone Golf Club, following a three-decade stint at the TPC at the Woodlands………Jimmy Demaret and Jack Burke Jr’s Champions Club hosted it five times between 1966-71………This is its second year being played immediately before The Masters………Though many of the game’s all-time greats eschewed playing the week before Majors (e.g. Nicklaus, Watson and now Tiger Woods), Houston boasts a fairly strong field with 10 top-25s and three of the top five………Since 1999, Hal Sutton (2001) and Fred Couples (2003) have been the only American winners………Much has been made of the course being groomed in a manner similar to Augusta (a smart P.R. move) but any suggestion that this helps to meaningfully prepare players is silly; Redstone is built on pancake-flat terrain and, though in spots watery, bears little strategic resemblance to what remains of Augusta National.........World number three Ernie Els was initially entered but withdrew on Tuesday due to illness.

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European PGA Tour:  Estoril Open de Portugal

Site: Oitavos Dunes  -  Estoril, Portugal
Yards: 6,894     Par: 71
Defending: Pablo Martin 277  (beat Raphael Jacquelin by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None   Other Notables: Darren Clarke, Stephen Dodd, David Howell, Charl Schwartzel, Thomas Bjorn.

Notes: By any other name, the Portuguese Open………The event dates from 1953, when Scotland’s Eric Brown won the inaugural at the Estoril Country Club, which hosted the first 18 playings………No native has ever won the title, and little-known Hal Underwood (1975) is the only American winner………Last year’s event was historic as the winner, then-20-year-old Pablo Martin, was the first amateur ever to win an official E Tour event………The former Oklahoma State Cowboy will defend his title as a professional………This is the event’s second visit to Oitavos Dunes, a 2001 Arthur Hills design which, constructed over some semi-links-like terrain, little resembles much of Hills’ more modernized American work.

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Asian Tour:  Philippine Open

Site: Wack Wack Golf Club (East course)  -  Mandaluyong City, Phillipines
Yards: 7,053    Par: 72
Defending: Frankie Minoza 278  (beat Gerald Rosales by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Frankie Minoza, Thaworn Wiratchant.

Notes: As in South Africa, with virtually all foreign players eligible for The Masters already in America, this will be a particularly lean field………Event dates to 1962 but has only been won seven times by natives, including twice (1998 & 2007) by defending champion Frankie Minoza, the finest international competitor ever produced by the Philippines………Of primary interest to Western fans may be the site, for the incomparably named Wack Wack Golf Club dates to the 1930s and has long been viewed as the nation’s best………Long-memoried Americans may recall it as the site of a 1963 Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between Dave Ragan and then Philippine Open champion Celestino Tugot.

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Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf Free State

Site: Bloemfontein Golf Club  -  Bloemfontein, South Africa
Metres: 6,344     Par: 72
Defending: Ulrich van den Berg 202  (defeated B. Vaughan by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Darren Fichardt, Hennie Otto, Des Terblanche.

Notes: Another lean-field South African event, though in addition to domestic veterans Botes and Terblanche, Darren Fichardt and Hennie Otto – European Tour regulars – are scheduled to compete………This is the first leg of Vodacom’s annual “tour within a tour,” a six-event pro-am series during the Sunshine Tour’s much quieter winter season………Readers viewing the course aerial can also see the adjoining Schoeman Park Golf Club immediately to the west, site of the old Schoeman Park Open and other more modern Sunshine Tour events.

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LPGA Tour:  Kraft Nabisco Championship

Site: Mission Hills Country Club (Dinah Shore course)  -  Rancho Mirage, CA
Yards: 6,673     Par: 72
Defending: Morgan Pressel 285  (beat Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew & Suzann Pettersen by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex top 20 ++

Notes: This will be the 37th playing of the LPGA’s annual first Major championship of the season, though the then-Dinah Shore did not have Major status for its first 11 playings (172-82)………All 37 editions have been contested over Mission Hills’ Dinah Shore course, a 1970 Desmond Muirhead design which was for many years known as the Old course………Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa enters as a Tiger Woods-like favorite, having won twice (by a combined 18 shots!) in three 2008 starts………The field is predictably elite, the only big name missing being Michelle Wie, thrice a top-10 finisher here during her young career but presently nursing her re-injured wrist………Last year, 18-year-old Morgan Pressel claimed the first victory of her much-anticipated professional career, charging home with a 69 to edge Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew and a faltering Suzann Pettersen by one………Winner traditionally dives into the moat that surrounds the island 18th green, a tradition started by colorful Amy Alcott in 1988.

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Champions Tour:  Cap Cana Championship

Site: Punta Espada Golf Club  -  Cap Cana, Dominican Republic
Yards: 7,260     Par: 72    
Defending: Inaugural Event
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Loren Roberts (7)    Other Notables: Andy Bean, Hale Irwin, Sandy Lyle, Graham Marsh, Larry Nelson, Nick Price, Ian Woosnam and Fuzzy Zoeller.

Notes: The Champions make their debut in the Dominican Republic at the Punta Espada Golf Club, a spectacular seaside course designed by Jack Nicklaus at the island’s eastern tip………Coming off an eight-stroke victory at the Ginn Championship in Florida, Bernhard Langer is an obvious favorite here.

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Elsewhere…
The Nationwide Tour visits northern California for the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship, while the Tour de Las Americas and the European Challenge Tour co-sponsor another South American event, the Argentine Open.  On the women’s side, the JLPGA returns to action with a brand-new event, the Yamaha Open, while in Europe, those LET players not invited to the Kraft Nabisco will journey to Alicante, Spain for the VCI European Ladies Cup, a team event featuring pairings from 20 European nations.

With the Florida swing (and its WGC climax at Doral) now behind us, this figures to be a less-than-inspiring week on three continents - though the LPGA at least brings together a strong field at the Safeway International.  Of course, as we have seen already this year, lesser fields do not always mean lesser drama...

PGA Tour:  Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Site: TPC Louisiana  -  Avondale, LA
Yards: 7,341 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Nick Watney  273   (beat Ken Duke by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: Steve Stricker (4), Jim Furyk (9), Padraig Harrington (11), Stewart Cink (13) and  Zach Johnson (20)   Other Notables: Mark Calcavecchia, Chris DiMarco, Retief Goosen, Davis Love III, David Toms and Mike Weir

Notes: This is the event’s third visit to the Pete Dye-design TPC Louisiana, having moved there after 16 years at the Jack Nicklaus-designed English Turn in 2006..........The tournament made one final visit to English Turn in 2006 after Hurrican katrina badly damaged the TPC..........New Orleans is one of the PGA Tour’s older stops, dating to Gene Sarazen’s one-shot victory over Lighthorse Harry Cooper at the Metairie Country Club in 1932..........Hall-of-Famers Cooper, Henry Picard, Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum and Byron Nelson all won on the City Park municipal layout prior to 1950, while Casper, Nicklaus, Player, Trevino, Watson, Ballesteros and Crenshaw all claimed the title during a 26-year run (1963-1988) at Lakewood Country Club..........Then rookie Kyle Reifers set the TPC course record with a 64 in 2007..........Indicative of the event’s weaker new millennium fields is the fact that 2007 winner Nick Watney was the fifth champion in the last six years to make New Orleans their first career win.

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European PGA Tours:  MAPFRE Open de Andalucia

Site: Aloha Golf Club  -  Andalucia, Spain
Yards: 6,881     Par: 72    
Defending: Lee Westwood 268   (beat Fredrik Andersson-Hed and Phillip Archer by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: Lee Westwood (20) and Martin Kaymer (25)   Other Notables: Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke, David Frost, Paul Lawrie and Jose Maria Olazabal.

Notes: While most of the E Tour’s top stars are taking the week off following several weeks playing in Florida, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer are scheduled to make the trip home in time to play..........Westwood fortunately finished his Sunday round at Doral before the rains came and presumably made a timely getaway; Kaymer was on the 18th hole and thus had to layover until Monday..........This event was played from 1992-2000 under the name Turespana Masters rotating among a number of sites and claiming Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez (twice) among its winners..........The host Aloha Golf Club, a well-thought-of 1975 Javier Arana design, sits in Nueva Andalucia’s “Golf Valley” and is flanked closely by a pair of well-known Robert Trent Jones layouts, Los Naranjos and Las Brisas, the latter having hosted the 1989 World Cup under its former name, the Nueva Andalucia Golf Club..........Jose Maria Olazabal, who has missed the last seven months with severe rheumatic pain, has entered on a late sponsor exemption, and will surely be the center of attention as a favorite son and past champion.

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Sunshine Tour:  Chainama Hills Zambia Open

Site: Chainama Hills Golf Club – Lusaka, Zambia
Metres: 6,578     Par: 72
Defending: Steve Basson 206  (beat Lindani Ndwandwe by 1)
Field:     World Top 25:   None  Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Trevor Moore, Des Terblanche.

Notes: Stuck largely by itself as the only Sunshine event in March, the Zambia Open will draw among the weakest fields of the year, with few of South Africa’s current stars even in the country at present..........The event dates to the late 70s, with virtually all of its early winners being U.K. pros fleeing south for the winter..........South African Steve Basson is actually a two-time defending champion, having won at the Nchanga Golf Club in 2006 as well..........The host club is probably called the Chainama Hills Golf Club; it appears most frequently on the internet with this spelling, though the Sunshine Tour website lists it alternately (presumably by mistake) as “Chinama” and “Chimama.”

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LPGA Tour:  Safeway International

Site: Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club (Prospector course)   -  Superstition Mountain, AZ
Yards: 6,662 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Lorena Ochoa  270   (beat Suzann Pettersen by 2)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex Top 10 except Ji-Yai Shin (7), plus every top 30 regularly competing in America   Other Notables: Laura Davies, Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann

Notes: Dating to 1980, this is one of the LPGA’s longer running, more-prestigious events, including Hall-of-Famers Betsy King, Pat Bradley (twice), Patty Sheehan, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam (thrice), Se Ri Pak and Juli Inkster, plus notables Jan Stephenson, Beth Daniel, Liselotte Neumann and, on fou straight occasions from 1994-97, Laura Davies..........This was world number one Lorena Ochoa’s first win of 2007, and provided a foreshadowing of the entire season as she edged world number two Suzann Pettersen by two..........Has been at the Nicklaus-designed Prospector course at Superstition Mountain for four years after a 17-year run at the toney Moon Valley Country Club, and before that a four-year visit to the Arizona Biltmore Resort..........With Safeway ending its sponsorship of the event after this season, the future of this high-end event is presently uncertain.

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Champions Tour:  Ginn Championship Hammock Beach Resort

Site: Ocean Course at Hammock Beach  -  Palm Coast, FL
Yards: 7,113 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Keith Fergus  204   (beat Hale Irwin and Mark O’Meara by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Fulton Allem (16)   Other Notables: Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Sandy Lyle, Larry Nelson, Gary Player, Nick Price, Dave Stockton, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam and Fuzzy Zoeller

Notes: Another typically strong Champions field assembles at the Nicklaus-designed Ocean course, a solid, wind-exposed track capable of presenting a touch more challenge than some of the tour's more "relaxed" tests..........Most notable among the “Other Notables” is Tom Watson, making only his second official start of 2008..........Seventy-two-year-old Gary Player is making his fourth start, and why not?  He’s equaled or bettered his age three times in nine ’08 rounds, and only been higher than 75 once.

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Elsewhere…
After taking a month off to recover from jetlag after visits to Central America and Australia, the Nationwide Tour recommences at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open, played at Le Triomphe Country Club in Broussard.  The European Challenge Tour, meanwhile, begins a three-week swing through South America (jointly sponsored by the Tour de las Americas) at Argentina’s Abierto del Centro, the European Seniors make their maiden visit to the Azores for the Azores Senior Open, and the Omega China Tour visit Xiamen for the Dell Championship.

With the year’s second WGC event being played in Miami, all eyes will yet again be focused on America, and specifically on Tiger Woods.  The LPGA and LET are taking the week off, leaving a supporting cast of “second” events in Puerto Rico, Madeira Island and Thailand, any of which might provide some drama – but very likely drama played out among lesser-knowns.

PGA, European, Asian & Australasian Tours:  WGC-CA Championship

Site: Doral Golf Resort & Spa (Blue course)  -  Miami, FL
Yards: 7,266 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Tiger Woods  278   (beat Brett Wetterich by 2)
Field:   World Top 50: All, except Padraig Harrington (#11)     Other Notables: The rest of the field

Notes: The second of three annual WGC events, this one featuring a field of 77 culled from the World Ranking, FedEx Cup standings and Orders of Merit around the world..........Event replaced the old WGC-American Express in 2007, as well the many-named PGA Tour event played at Doral since 1962..........In addition to entering with five straight PGA Tour wins, Tiger Woods is a three-time defending champion here, the most notable victory being a one-shot triumph over Phil Mickelson in 2005..........Only Craig Parry, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk have won at Doral among the remaining 76 entries, Parry most memorably; he holed a 6 iron to eagle the second hole of sudden death (the 18th), defeating Scott Verplank in 2004..........Though the 16th and 17th will yield birdies, the 476-yard par-4 18th (the famed Blue Monster) was the PGA Tour’s toughest hole in 2007, averaging 4.625 strokes.

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PGA Tour:  Puerto Rico Open

Site: Coco Beach Golf & Country Club  -  Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
Yards: 7,569 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: New Event
Field:   World Top 50: None     Other Notables: Mark Brooks, Ben Curtis, Lee Janzen, Tom Kite, Tom Lehman, Shaun Micheel, Larry Mize, Bob Tway

Notes: This will be the first full-field, fully sanctioned PGA Tour event ever played in Puerto Rico..........The unofficial Dorado Beach Open drew players during the 1950s and ‘60s, as did the Puerto Rico Open on the old Caribbean Winter Tour..........The host club is a 36-hole Tom Kite-designed facility (hence his sponsor exemption) with a composite of all four nines being used this week..........The club has recently been bought by Donald Trump, so this is our first look at what will inevitably soon be marketed as “the greatest course south of the North Pole,” or some such drivel.

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European Tour:  Madeira Island Open

Site: Santo da Serra Golf Club  -  Madeira Island, Portugal
Yards: 6,826 yds     Par: 72
Defending: Daniel Vancsik (Argentina)  270   (beat David Frost and Santiago Luna by 7)
Field:   World Top 50: None     Other Notables: Paul Lawrie, Stephen Dodd, Notah Begay III

Notes: Has never been a major fixture on the E Tour schedule, often being scheduled in the slot immediately following the Asian swing and/or when many stars are playing in Florida..........Beyond Mark James in 1993, the biggest names among past champions include Matts Lanner (twice), Niclas Fasth, Des Smyth and Jean Van de Velde..........The Santo da Serra Golf Club is a 1991 Robert Trent Jones design and occupies land upon which the game has been played since 1933.

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Asian Tour:  Asian Tour International

Site: Pattana Golf & Sports Resort  -  Chonburi, Thailand
Yards: 7,200 yds     Par: 72
Defending: New Event
Field:   World Top 50: None     Other Notables: Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee

Notes: The second inaugural event in as many weeks on the Asian Tour……….relegated to a tough week on the schedule as regional stars like S.S.P. Chowrasia, Liang Wen-Chong and Chapchai Nirat are playing  at the WGC……….Not to pick on a fledgling event, but it surely isn’t these smaller tournaments that are inspiring the Asian Tour to abstain from supporting OneAsia.

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Elsewhere…

The JLPGA contests the first of two consecutive inaugural events this week at the PRGR Ladies Cup, at the Tosa Yasu City Country Club in Kounan.

The PGA Tour enjoys a strong-field week as it returns to Arnold Palmer’s annual Bay Hill Invitational, while the E Tour breaks ground with its first visit to Korea.  Lorena Ochoa hosts a lighter-than-expected field at the MasterCard Classic and the Champions remain in Southern California…but in the end, most eyes will surely focus on Bay Hill…

PGA Tour:  Arnold Palmer Invitational – Orlando, FL

The PGA Tour moves to central Florida this week for the 43rd playing of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, an event which began life in 1966 as the Florida Citrus Open, and which has been played at Bay Hill since 1979.  This year’s field will be the third strongest (behind the WGC-Match Play and the Northern Trust Open) of the young 2008 season, with 14 of the world’s top 25 in attendance, highlighted by numbers one and two, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson (#3 Ernie Els was a late withdrawal).  As if Woods isn’t enough of a favorite already, he won at Bay Hill for four consecutive years from 2000-2003, and is presumably extra familiar with the course from his times living at nearby Isleworth.  Among the 12 additional top-25s slated to play are defending champion Vijay Singh (who edged Rocco Mediate by two a year ago) and 23-year-old German Martin Kaymer, the lone under-25 in the world top 50 who will be making his PGA Tour debut this week.  The 7,239-yard, par-70 Bay Hill course is a much-renovated 1961 Dick Wilson design fairly typical of the region, relying, by necessity, far more on sand and water than any natural subtleties of the flat Florida landscape.  It is a layout widely known for its difficult finishers, primarily the 485-yard par-4 16th (a converted par 5), the 219-yard, watery 17th and the 441-yard 18th, whose green curves nearly 90 degrees around the corner of a rock-lined pond.  TV viewers can consider themselves lucky, as these are among the three most interesting holes on a solid – but hardly spectacular – layout.

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European & Asian PGA Tours:  Ballantine’s Championship – Jeju Island, Korea

The European Tour makes its final Far Eastern stop this week at the inaugural Ballantine’s Championship, a tournament co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour and the first E Tour event ever to be played in South Korea.  With the majority of the world top 25 spending the week in Florida, the field is relatively lean here, though bright lights include world #5 K.J. Choi (admirably making the long journey home for the occasion) and #10 Padraig Harrington (whose reasons for choosing this over Bay Hill are anyone’s guess).  Adding more flavor is an eclectic mix of round-the-worlders which includes Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, South Africa’s David Frost, Japan’s Shingo Katayama, Americans Chris DiMarco and Anthony Kim, Scotland’s Sandy Lyle (tired of the Champions Tour already?) and the Philippine’s ageless wonder Frankie Minoza.  The event is being played on Jeju Island, a scenic volcanic landmass located well south of the Korean peninsula.  The host Pinx Country Club’s 7,361-yard, par-72 course was designed by the late Ted Robinson and appears to have a bit more substance to it than most of the prolific American’s sterile – but waterfall-laden – stateside creations.

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LPGA Tour:  Mastercard Classic – Huixquilucan, Mexico

The LPGA makes its fourth start of 2008 (all outside of the continental United States) by journeying south of the border to the fourth playing of the MasterCard Classic just outside of Mexico City.  Needless to say, world number one Lorena Ochoa will be the event’s centerpiece, largely because she is one of Mexico’s greatest sporting heroes, but also because after whipping the field at Singapore’s HSBC Champions event by 11, she is fast approaching a Tiger-like degree of dominance.  Unfortunately, Ochoa stands alone among the world elite in playing here, as two-time winner Annika Sorenstam, Suzann Petterssen, Paula Creamer, Karrie Webb and Cristie Kerr are all taking the week off.  The host Bosque Real Country Club is a tough and rolling 2002 Robert von Hagge design with some predictable gimmickry (an island green at the par-5 ninth, for example) and long enough walks between greens and tees that golf carts have generally been afforded even LPGA players and caddies.  But like most von Hagge designs, it is by no means dull, its 6,876 yards providing plenty of test, even at 7,400’ of altitude.

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Champions Tour:  AT&T Champions Classic – Valencia, CA

The Champions Tour returns to one of its longer-running events this week, for the AT&T Champions Classic has existed, under various names, since 1990, initially being played at Los Angeles’s venerable Rancho Park and the  Wilshire Country Club before moving to the distant northern suburb of Valencia.  Tom Purtzer is the defending champion and will face the standard weekly Champions field, plus a pair of notable older entries, four-time Major champion Raymond Floyd and 1997 U.S. Senior Open winner Graham Marsh.  Design critics frequently pan the 6,973-yard Valencia Country Club, but the Robert Trent Jones design does have its share of stimulating holes, particularly down the stretch where the 523-yard 15th and 198-yard 16th are water-guarded, and the 546-yard 18th plays long and uphill.  And besides, organizers should be commended for not moving the event across the street (the 5 Freeway, actually) to the site fee-free TPC Valencia, which would really be bad.

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Elsewhere...

Toshimi Kimura is the defending champion as the Japan LPGA Tour plays its second event, the Accordia Golf Ladies Open, at the Quingdao Golf Club in Miyazaki Prefecture.   In America, the women’s developmental Futures Tour begins their 2008 circuit at the Bright House Networks Open, in Lakeland, Florida.

Another week which figures to be quiet - unless one has been waiting eagerly for Sandy Lyle's debut on the Champions Tour.  The PGA Tour's PODS Championship at least includes a revived Ernie Els in its field, while far, far away, the Japan LPGA - whose translated website is too garbled for me to provide their events with major coverage - kick off their 2008 campaign in Okinawa.  

PGA Tour:  PODS Championship – Palm Harbor, FL

Week two of the Florida swing takes the PGA Tour northwest to Tampa’s Innisbrook Resort, where Mark Calcavecchia defends his 2007 title at the PODS Championship.  Many of the world’s elite remain on post-WGC-Match Play hiatus but there will still be a bit of star power here, chiefly in the form of world number three Ernie Els (fresh of his confidence-boosting victory at the Honda Classic) as well as fellow top-25s Steve Stricker (4), Justin Rose (7), Stewart Cink (16), Geoff Ogilvy (17), Trevor Immelman (21) and Scott Verplank (23).  Near misses Paul Casey (26), Stuart Appleby (27) and Stephen Ames (28) are also set to start, supplemented by notables like Retief Goosen (36) and the aforementioned Calcavecchia (40), now 47 but still in fine form, as his sturdy challenge at last week’s Honda Classic clearly demonstrates.   Play will be contested for the eighth straight year  over Innisbrook’s Copperhead course, 7,340-yard Larry Packard design which actually did time in Golf Digest’s Top 100 during the 1980s, and remains a well thought-of resort test.  The Copperhead utilizes water considerably less than most of Florida’s more ambitious courses (it only seriously affects play on six holes), instead relying on its many tree-lined doglegs and some distinctly un-Florida-like elevation changes for much of its challenge.  As Sunshine State venues go, the Tour could (and has) done much worse.

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European & Asian Tours:  Maybank Malaysian Open – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The European Tour nears the end of its Asian swing with a visit to Kuala Lumpur for the 47th playing of the Malaysian Open, an Asian Tour standard for nearly five decades but an E Tour co-sanctioned event only since 1999.  With many international stars awaiting the WGC-CA event in Florida (March20-23), the E Tour’s spring schedule on the Continent, and April’s Masters, the field will be predictably light, with nary a world top 50 member to be seen.  There are, however, a cadre of solid young players from India (including Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa) and South Africa (Charl Schwartzel and Anton Haig) in attendance, in addition to established names like 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell, England’s David Howell, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn and Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke.  The host course, the Kota Permai Golf & Country Club, measures 6,979 yards (par 72) and previously hosted Randhawa’s sudden death victory (over Terry Pilkidaris) at the 2004 Volvo Masters of Asia, thus making it familiar to (and providing an advantage for?) the Asian half of the field.

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Champions Tour:  Toshiba Classic – Newport Beach, CA

The Champions Tour returns to Southern California for the 14th playing of the Toshiba Classic, a traditionally low scoring event hosted by the Newport Beach Country Club.  Leading the field is Scott Hoch, winner of back-to-back Champions events during February’s Florida swing, and a participant in last week’s Honda Classic on the PGA Tour (where he tied for 65th).  Beyond the usual senior suspects, this week’s field boasts rare appearances by both Lee Trevino and Gary Player, as well as Isao Aoki.  It also marks the Champions debut of former Masters and British Open champion Sandy Lyle, a formidable competitor on the world stage during the 1980s, but only a quiet presence since  The Newport Beach layout dates to 1953 and, being relegated to a fairly compact property, measures only 6,584 yards.  Despite multiple renovations (most recently by Ted Robinson in 1998), it remains susceptible to low numbers, hence Tom Purtzer’s course-record 60 in 2004.

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Elsewhere

The Japan Ladies Tour opens its 37-event schedule this week on the island of Okinawa, where Midori Yoneyama defends her championship at the 16th Daikin Orchid Ladies.  The European Senior Tour strides far afield to start its campaign with the DGM Barbados Open at the Royal Westmoreland Golf Club (with Ian Woosnam making his senior debut), while the Euro Challenge Tour heads south to begin its 2008 season at the Tusker Kenya Open.

The marquee event this week, by far, will be the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore, which is being widely billed as the Lorena vs. Annika showdown, but which also features a jackpot overall field for anyone taking the time to notice. On the men’s side, with the WGC Match Play behind us, there will be lots of “spending time with my family,” as the world’s top three players (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker) and seven of the top 10 are scheduled to take the week off. The highest-ranked player competing is world #4 Ernie Els – but his previous week’s work consisted of exactly 13 holes on Wednesday, so lingering fatigue shouldn’t be much of a problem.

PGA Tour: Honda Classic – Palm Beach Gardens, FL

It wasn’t so many years ago that the Florida swing was deemed the unofficial start of the PGA Tour season, and its first event, Doral, boasted a field as strong as many Major championships. Doral still rides high (boosted substantially by becoming a WGC event in 2007) but the Honda Classic now kicks off the swing, and its field, though hardly terrible, will not be confused with a Major…or even the Northern Trust Open. Ernie Els heads the list of seven world top-25s in attendance, though after #7 Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia (#13), Angel Cabrera (#14), Luke Donald (#16), Zach Johnson (#19) and Trevor Immelman (#21) all reside outside of the top 10. This will be the second of six playings at the PGA National Resort’s Champion course, a typically watery Florida layout best know for a pair of dangerous back-nine par 3s (the 179-yard 15th and 190-yard 17th). The present track bears only limited resemblance to the George and Tom Fazio design which originally occupied the site – a course which, despite eventually requiring not one but two complete Jack Nicklaus renovations (in 1990 and 2002), was deemed strong enough by the PGA of America to host the 1987 PGA Championship. Go Figure.

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European, Asian & Australasian Tours: Johnnie Walker Classic – Gurgaon, India

Boasting only Major champions among its winners from 1993-2003, the Johnnie Walker Classic has long enjoyed a strong international reputation. In 2007 and ’08, however, the schedule makers have dealt it a tough hand by placing it immediately after the WGC Match Play, a cruel trick which, given travel time from Tucson to New Delhi (nevermind the Jakarta-to-Tucson trek of the previous Sunday) pretty well guarantees a limited field. Still, three prominent top-25s – Adam Scott (#5), Vijay Singh (#11) and Ian Poulter (#24) – will be making the trip, as will top-64’s Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Soren Hansen and Colin Montgomerie. Also worthy of attention is defending champion Anton Haig, a 21-year-old South African currently ranked 191st who last year edged countryman Richard Sterne and England’s Oliver Wilson in a playoff in Phuket. This year the event moves to the DLF Golf Resort outside of New Delhi, a 7,176-yard Arnold Palmer design that is actually lit for night action – a potentially valuable commodity in these days of ultra-slow professional play.

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Sunshine Tour: Mount Edgecombe Trophy – Durban, South Africa

With the Sunshine Tour’s higher-profile summer season winding down, the field will be especially light this week at the Mount Edgecombe Golf Club; indeed, not a single player ranked among the world top 100 is scheduled to appear, and only Mark Murless (#5), Louis Moolman (#6), Chris Williams (#7), Adilson da Silva (#9) and Warren Abery (#10) will be present from among the top 10 in the Sunshine Order of Merit. The host layout, the Mt. Edgecombe Golf Club’s No.1 course, dates to 1935, when it was laid out in then-rural country north of Durban by South Africa’s first great international player, Sid Brews. Updated by Hugh Baiocchi in 1992, it is today best known for its own version of “Amen Corner,” a watery stretch which includes the par-5 14th, par-3 15th and par-4 17th.

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LPGA Tour: HSBC Women’s Champions – Singapore

It took until week three of the LPGA season for world number one Lorena Ochoa to make her 2008 debut – and to begin what figures to be a memorable season dueling former queen of the hill Annika Sorenstam for worldwide supremacy. Curiously they begin their battle far from either’s homeland, at the inaugural HSBC Women’s Champions, an event designed ostensibly for last year’s LPGA tournament winners but which, through various exemption categories, is open to pretty much all of the world’s top 60-70 female players, plus winners of select events throughout the Far East. Fans and media may focus primarily upon the two superstars, but with the top 17 female players in the world (and 18 of the top 20) present, numerous others figure to be heard from before it’s all said and done. The host facility, the Garden course at the Tanah Merah Country Club, is situated adjacent to Changi International Airport near Singapore’s eastern tip. Measuring a modest 6,457 yards with a par of 72, it is a water-laden track originally built by Thomson, Wolveridge & Fream, then redesigned by one Max Wexler (who I am not even familiar with, nevermind related to). If comparisons to the male pros are in any way instructive, scoring may not be terribly low, as Ian Woosnam shot “only” 272 (16 under par) before defeating Andrew Coltart in a playoff when the club hosted the 1996 Johnnie Walker Classic. Let the 2008 fun begin.

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All eyes will be on Tucson this week as the world's top 64 players (actually 64 of the top 65 with Brett Wetterich nursing a shoulder injury) battle it out at the WGC Match Play...though a little attention should be paid to the LPGA's Fields Open as well.  Elsewhere, more opportunities for the non-elite to build their portfolios without the big dogs around...

PGA, European, Asian & Australasian Tours:  WGC Accenture Match Play Championship – Marana, AZ

The first of the season’s WGC events, the Accenture Match Play, returns for its 10th edition, this time visiting the South course at The Gallery at Dove Mountain for the second straight year.  The only match play event on the American tour, the Accenture represents an obvious departure from the day-to-day grind of 72 hole medal play – a circumstance perhaps responsible for a rather eclectic group of winners which has included surprises like Jeff Maggert, Darren Clarke (who notably defeated Tiger Woods in the 2000 final), Steve Stricker (in his first incarnation) and Kevin Sutherland.  Of course, there have been pedigreed victors as well, for Woods himself is a two-time winner (2003 and ’04), and he was followed by Major champions David Toms (2005) and Geoff Ogilvy (2006).  And then there is defending champion Henrik Stenson, not yet a Major winner but certainly the hottest player in the world when he defeated Ogilvy 2 & 1 in last year’s final.  The 7,351-yard, par-72 South course was designed by John Fought and offers a bit more playing interest than many desert layouts, utilizing the site’s natural elevation changes and drywashes within the target golf concept required by Arizona’s water-oriented limitations on turfed acreage.  That said, like many PGA Tour site decisions, the choice of Dove Mountain was surely more about money than about finding a layout replete with the sort of go-for-it-or-not shotmaking options that can so spice up a match play event.  But even so, watching the 64 best players in the world slug it out in a series of head-to-head encounters represents a different – and generally more engaging – sort of golf altogether.  And besides, one of these years, Woods, Mickelson and Els will all reach the semis, and then things will really get fun…

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PGA Tour:  Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun – Quintana Roo, Mexico

With the top 64 players in the world battling in Arizona, the field for the second Mayakoba Classic is predictably light, its highest-ranked player being Australian Peter Lonard (world #65), with #77 Joe Durant, #79 Ryuji Imada and Korea’s Yong-Eun Yang (#117) next in line.  There are, however, several popular former stars to liven things up including Major champions Greg Norman (the course’s architect), Nick Price, Corey Pavin and Lee Janzen, plus the Human Sponsor Exemption, John Daly.  Also playing is defending champion Fred Funk, who’s ’07 playoff victory over Jose Coceres made him, at age 51, only the second man (behind Craig Stadler) ever to win a PGA Tour event after having won on the Champions Tour.  The host course, known as El Cameleon, is a 6,923-yard, par-70 test which winds through tropical jungles and mangrove forests and, on two occasions, emerges along open Caribbean beaches, making an attractive backdrop for what remains, at least with the current schedule, a secondary event.

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Asian Tour:  SAIL Open Golf Championship at Jaypee Greens – Noida, India

The parallels between India’s SAIL Open and the PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Classic are obvious: each is limited to second-field status (due to being scheduled opposite the WGC Match Play event), each offers a smallish purse, and each is played over an out-of-the-way golf course built by Greg Norman’s increasingly active worldwide design firm.   Predictably, however, there is a bit of gap between the fields, with the SAIL boasting only Jyoti Randhawa (#82) ranked among the world top 100, though China’s, Liang Wen-Chong (#101) is close, and recent winner S.S.P. Chowrasia (#164) and Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant (#210) have certainly proven their competitive mettle.  The host club, which anchors a real estate development, is a 7,347-yard, par-72 test which, given a generally flat site, relies largely on water, plus some 88 bunkers, for its challenge.  Big layout, small field - and a real opportunity for the few world-class players present (most notably Liang or Randhawa) to pick up a quick victory.

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Sunshine Tour:  Telkom PGA Championship – Johannesburg, South Africa

The Sunshine Tour arrives in Johannesburg this week for the Telkom PGA Championship, a standard event not to be confused with the venerable Alfred Dunhill (South African PGA) Championship.  Since most of the nation’s elite stars would currently be playing overseas anyway, the effects of the WGC Match Play are less acute here, leaving a field headed by world top 100’s Charl Schwartzel (69), defending champion Louis Oosthuizen (81) and James Kingston (88), as well as 21-year-old European Tour  regular Anton Haig, recent South African Masters winner Marc Cayeux and Order of Merit stalwarts Garth Mulroy (2nd) and Mark Murless (4th).  Play will be conducted over the Country Club of Johannesburg’s Woodmead course, a near-7,500-yard track generally cited for its toughness – but with its last two winning scores being 267 (Gregory Bourdy) and 266 (Oosthuizen), there may not truly be such a thing as “tough” anymore.

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Australasian Tour:  Moonah Classic – Victoria, Australia

The brand-new Moonah Classic is, like last week’s New Zealand PGA, an event co-sponsored with the American Nationwide Tour, limiting its field largely to second-tier players, plus regional stars like Peter Senior, Peter O’Malley, Peter Fowler and Peter – I mean, David Smail.  The biggest item of interest then, may very well be the venue, the Open course at Moonah Links, a high-profile public facility owned by the Australian Golf Union and laid out over rugged dunesland on the Mornington Peninsula.  Built by the legendary champion Peter Thomson and his partner Michael Wolveridge, Moonah is billed as the first links-style stadium course and is, at any rate, of great proportion, its 6,783 metres equating to nearly 7,500 yards of undulating, windblown terrain.

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LPGA:  Fields Open in Hawaii – Honolulu, HI

The LPGA completes its two-week Hawaiian swing with the Fields Open at the Ko Olina Resort where, despite the absence of world number one Lorena Ochoa, interesting storylines abound.  Chief among them is former number one Annika Sorenstam, who last week began her 2008 season with a win at the SBS Open and who, with another victory here, just might begin drawing Ochoa into her sites.  Also present is world number two Suzann Pettersen (herself looking to close a substantial gap with Ochoa), perennial world top 10s Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr, six Parks, seven Kims and Hall-of-Famer Se Ri Pak.  Literally meeting the Tour halfway is a cadre of young Japanese stars led by Ai Miyazato, Momoko Ueda and Sakura Yokomine (the latter on a sponsor’s exemption), and then there is the lone player in the field perhaps able to command more attention than even Sorenstam, Michelle Wie.  The now-18-year-old Wie begins her ’08 season here following an injury-riddled ’07 that she’d surely wish to forget – so where better to re-start than on her home turf?  Though not quite a seaside layout, the Ko Olina Resort course is situated close enough to the coastline to make wind a factor.  The typical Ted Robinson design will be played at 6,519 yards (par 72) and features the usual Robinson staples of modern bunkers generally fanning away from fairways and greens, and water hazards flanked by man-made waterfalls.  With the event’s two previous winners, Meena Lee and Stacy Prammanasudh, each logging 54-hole totals of 14-under-par 202, only particularly strong breezes seem likely to prevent another rush of low scoring.

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With the great majority of the world's elite descending upon the former Los Angeles Open (in preparation for next week's WGC Match Play event in Tucson), overseas tours are being left a bit high and dry field-wise for the next few weeks.  Definitely an opportunity for the up-and-hopefully-coming to bank some early Order of Merit earnings while the pickings are good...

PGA Tour:  Northern Trust Open – Pacific Palisades, CA

The first really big-time field of 2008 will assemble at Los Angeles’s iconic Riviera Country Club this week for the 82nd playing of the newly renamed Northern Trust Open, the oldest civic-sponsored event on the PGA Tour.  Advance reports have dwelled on the absence of Tiger Woods (whose résumé still lacks a triumph in his hometown event), and both Ernie Els and Henrik Stenson will also be missing, but no matter.  With 17 of the world’s top 20 players present, World Ranking points and top-flight action figure to be plentiful.  The history of this event reads like an encyclopedia of golf, and even moreso when it has been played at Riviera, where fully 19 of 36 winners have been Major champions, and virtually every great player has competed since the days of Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen.  Particularly for course design aficionados, this is an annual highlight of the golfing calendar, as Riviera likely offers as many architecturally important holes as any layout on earth.  And those so inclined will want to watch all of the TV broadcasts because many of the elite holes come well before the finish, most notably the famed par-3 6th (with bunker carved within the confines of the putting surface), the uphill par-4 9th and the splendid 315-yard 10th, perhaps the finest short par 4 in all of golf.  The Tigerless storyline will dominate the previews – as it must these days – but with this field and this golf course, chances are that just like last year, when Charles Howell III beat Phil Mickelson in a playoff, Tiger’s absence will be pretty well forgotten by Sunday afternoon.

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European & Asian PGA Tours: Enjoy Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open – Jarkarta, Indonesia

The fourth playing of this modern edition of the Indonesia Open returns to its 2005 birthplace, the Cengkareng Golf Club, where Finland’s Mikko Ilonen will defend the title he won by a single shot at the Damai Inda Golf & Country Club in 2007.  Ilonen will do so against a fairly limited cast, for while this event is co-sponsored by the European Tour, the vast majority of international stars have packed off to America for the springtime, leaving world #60 Colin Montgomerie, Ilonen (#73),  Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng (#82) and Darren Clarke (#238, but getting serious again in the aftermath of his wife’s untimely death) as the star attractions.  The Cengkareng layout dates only to 1999 and sits adjacent to Soekarno-Hattan International Airport, so noise will definitely be a factor throughout the week.  Despite featuring a run of several long back-nine par 4s, it will almost certainly yield some low scoring – such as the stunning 255 (only one off the all-time 72-hole scoring record) posted by Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant shot while winning the 2005 title.

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Sunshine Tour: Vodacom Championship – Pretoria, South Africa

Though Ernie Els is idle and Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini and the rest of the South African elite will be playing in America, the eighth edition of the Vodacom Championship will still enjoy a fairly strong regional field.  Top draws include Charl Schwartzel (world #72), Louis Oosthuizen (#80) and James Kingston (#112), as well as seasoned Sunshine Tour stalwarts like Desvonde Botes, Hennie Otto, Des Terblanche, Deane Pappas and Zimbabwe’s streaking Marc Cayeux.  The event has been played at the venerable Pretoria Country Club since that club’s complete Gary Player renovation in 2005, with Schwartzel taking the title in 2006 and Richard Sterne defeating Oosthuizen (this year’s prohibitive favorite) in a playoff in ’07.

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Australasian Tour: HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship – Christchurch, New Zealand

The New Zealand PGA is actually one of professional golf’s older events, dating to 1920 when it was won at the Hamilton GC by the famous trick-shot artist – and hugely underrated player – Joe Kirkwood.  With the ebb and flow of the modern tournament scene, it today finds itself co-sanctioned by America’s developmental Nationwide Tour, an odd but convenient union that provides the Nationwide a chance to go abroad for two weeks (they also co-sanction next week’s Moonah Classic) and the Australasian Tour, one assumes, with a bit more working capital.  The field then, is largely of the Nationwide variety, though a handful of bigger Australia/New Zealand types (including 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and veterans Peter Senior, Peter O’Malley and Greg Chalmers) are scheduled to appear.

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LPGA Tour: SBS Open at Turtle Bay – Kahuku, Hawaii

Following in the footsteps of the Champions Tour, who played this same Palmer course at the Turtle Bay Resort three weeks ago, the LPGA begins its 2008 season at the SBS Open, where Paula Creamer returns as defending champion.  Unfortunately the Tour opens without world number one Lorena Ochoa, as well as four more LPGA regulars ranked among the top 10 (#3 Karrie Webb, #8 Juli Inkster, #9 Mi Hyun Kim and #10 Se-Ri Pak), leaving the torch to be carried by Creamer, #2 Suzann Pettersen and #4 Annika Sorenstam, as well as a reasonably strong supporting cast, both domestic and foreign.  Among those assembled, the 37-year-old Sorenstam may be the most newsworthy as she continues her comeback from early 2007 back surgery, as well as her prospective pursuit of Mickey Wright (82) and Kathy Whitworth’s (88) career victory records.  Another compelling comeback story, that of 18-year-old Michelle Wie, won’t begin until next week’s Fields Open.  The Turtle Bay golf course is a 1992 Arnold Palmer design which, owing to its location at Oahu’s northernmost tip, is both scenic and frequently windblown.  The ocean itself never comes into play, but several lagoons as well as a large, central marsh regularly do.

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Champions Tour: ACE Group Classic – Naples, Florida

The Champions Tour crosses Alligator Alley to the west coast of Florida, spending the week at Naples’ Quail West Country Club.  Defending champion Bobby Wadkins heads up a 70-man field which, in addition to the Champions’ standard roster, will include appearances by Hall-of-Famers Raymond Floyd, Gary Player and Lee Trevino.  The golf course, a 1991 Arthur Hills design, wends its way through some native Florida jungle on the front nine, then reverts to the region’s more common homesite-lined style on the back.  Water is meaningfully in play on eight holes, but seldom is it particularly invasive; with a typical player-friendly Champions setup, scoring should, as ever, be surrealistically low.

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