New look for Michelin Championship but it's still Vegas
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2004 Michelin Championship at Las Vegas | Preview | 06 Oct 2004
A reduction to seventy two holes from the previous ninety holes and a replacement course, has seen a slight change in the nature of what we have previously known as the Las Vegas Invitational and other names, but to all intents and purposes the event retains its Las Vegas flavour.
The new course on the scene to replace the Southern Highland’s course is the Jack Nicklaus designed Bear’s Best, supposedly a collection of 18 hole replicas from Nicklaus courses worldwide although to be fair only three of them are based on a designs outside of the US and those three are from Mexican based courses.
The tournament courses, the Bobby Weed/Fuzzy Zoeller designed TPC of Summerlin, the Bobby Weed and Ray Floyd designed TPC at the Canyons and Bear’s Best, will be used in rotation over the first three days with the final round played back at the host venue, the TPC of Summerlin.
The event is played in a pro am format the first three days with the field reduced to the leading 70 professionals on Sunday.
Defending champion is Stuart Appleby, who has typically played well in Vegas. He was coming off a brilliant run of form when he arrived here last year, having finished runner up at the 84 Lumber Classic and the American Express in the preceding weeks. While his form of late has not been quite that hot, he has still played well including five top twenties in his last six starts. Appleby was also runner up here in 2002.
Phil Mickelson lines up after missing last week’s American Express Championship. He will be under scrutiny this week after a couple of ordinary performances leading into the Ryder Cup and the decision to change equipment. He has not won here but was second in 2000 and was 9th last year. Hard to be confident about him right now because of the earlier issues but he is, after all, the number four in the world.
Jim Furyk loves this place. He has been a winner here three times but it should be remembered that when he was winning, only one of the courses that will be used this week (TPC at Summerlin) was being used. He was 13th last year and this season has struggled, by his standards at least, since his return from injury, but good old Vegas might just be enough to get the juices flowing.
I would think Justin Leonard has nearly gotten over the pain of the US PGA, well perhaps not, but enough to put it to one side this week and give us a sight. He has not had many good finishes in Las Vegas but has often produced several good rounds during the event. He seemed to play well last week in Ireland and in Texas two weeks earlier so he has a very good chance.
Scott Verplank is supposedly in the field but I am not sure why. He was injured recently and has struggled in recent starts. He has played well here on occasions but is too much of a risk it would seem given disclosed form.
Can we risk any more money with Kirk Triplett? He has teased me for several weeks now getting close but not close enough. His last twenty one rounds here have been under par which is not necessarily saying a lot at a low scoring tournament but he gets one more chance from me this week and then that’s his lot.
Steve Flesch has done well here of late finishing 6th last year, 13th in 2001 and 9th in 2000. He is going okay right now and may be a chance at better odds.
Of the Australasians other than Appleby, Robert Allenby has been just so-so the last few weeks but was 9th here last year.
Geoff Ogilvy has not played much of late but his form earlier in the year was very good. John Senden, Steve Allan, Greg Chalmers, Scott Hend, Nick Flanagan, Craig Perks, Grant Waite and Andre Stolz are also in the field with several requiring desperate measures this late in the season.
The tournament carries a purse of US$4 million.
