BC Open provides opportunity for many
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2005 BC Open | Preview | 14 Jul 2005
The BC Open provides many players not able to get a start at the British Open this week, the chance to make progress on the USPGA Tour money list and perhaps take advantage of the absence of the leading players of the USPGA Tour.
The event is played at the En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott New York State and has been played at that venue since 1972. An original Ernest Smith design, the course was remodelled by Michael Hurdzan in 1998.
The favourites for the event are likely to be defending champion Jonathan Byrd, who in finishing 13th last week at the John Deere Classic showed he is in even better form than he was prior to this event last year. His final round 64 last week will have him arriving at a venue that means a lot to him in a good frame of mind.
Hank Kuehne, who played so well last week when second at the John Deere, has played well at this layout in the past two years and despite some ordinary form prior to last week, he obviously enjoys playing here and second last week is a good recommendation.
Jonathan Kaye withdrew from the Barclays two weeks ago but his form prior was good and finished third here a few years back.
The Australian John Senden has yet to win on the USPGA Tour but he is playing solidly enough of late to contend in this weakened field. His 10th place last year suggests he has no real problems with the layout and this provides a great opportunity for him to contend for his first win in the US. Given that he has seldom done that in his playing career it will be intriguing to watch how he handles the situation if he is able to do so.
Other Australasians in the event are Aaron Baddeley, Steve Allan who has played well here previously and who featured at the US Open for so long, Paul Gow, Bradley Hughes, Michael Long, James McLean, Aron Price and Grant Waite and Gavin Flint who will play in his first USPGA Tour event.
The event is worth US$3 million.
