No superstars but great event assured at Buick
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2005 Buick Championship | Preview | 24 Aug 2005
With the two elite events of the last two weeks well and truly over, all but one of the game’s top ten players are taking a break this week which provides for a different set of dynamics and possible outcomes on both the USPGA and European Tours.
In Hartford in Connecticut the Buick Championship gets underway despite Buick’s star recruit, Tiger Woods, not being here. Not that the world number one has played here in any case, with Buick only recently becoming involved in the event, but two time winner Phil Mickelson, who is obviously in need of a break, is not here either.
Only the world number ten player, Kenny Perry, is here from the top ten but given his recent consistency he will be the favourite. He has backed off on Sundays in recent weeks but he has put himself into contention so often that surely the door will open soon. Although Perry has not won here he has had five top tens in thirteen starts and on that alone, he deserves serious consideration as the likely winner.
First played in 1952 when known as the Insurance City Open, the event is perhaps best remembered for its association with the great Sammy Davis Jr throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, some of that time spent with a long term sponsor in Canon. Canon continued on as a sponsor until 2002, its support of the project spanning a period of seventeen years. When Canon withdrew its involvement in 2002, the event went ahead with the support of the local community but then the PGA Tour’s perhaps greatest benefactor, Buick, came to the rescue.
Since 1991 the tournament has been played at the TPC River Highland’s Course in Cromwell on the outskirts of Hartford. The venue was originally built in 1928 when the great Donald Ross’ cousin Robert, laid out the course. A minor redesign was done in 1951 by Orrin Smith, but in 1984, Pete Dye introduced his dramatic spectator mounding in order that the course could stage an event of this magnitude, but also retained much of the course’s original character. Then in 1991, Bobby Weed, who had worked with Dye originally, built eleven new holes and enlisted the advice of tour players Roger Maltbie and Howard Twitty. It is a great tournament venue from a spectator’s standpoint with vantage points aplenty and several dramatic risk reward holes over the closing stages.
The defending champion is Woody Austin, whose victory last year was his first since a superb rookie season on the USPGA Tour nine years earlier when winning the Buick Open at Warwick Hills. His victory in 2004 was out of the ordinary for him at this course as there have been few other good weeks to boast about. There have been enough good rounds in recent weeks however to suggest that a repeat win by Austin would not be the surprise it was twelve months ago.
Tim Herron is a player who never seems to play a bad round here. There has been only three rounds worse than 70 from Herron in his last 22 rounds on this course and having made seven of his last eight cuts this year and finishing with a 65 at the Reno Tahoe, he is peaking as he arrives at what must be one of his favourite courses. Even last year, while recovering from the debilitating Lyme Disease, Herron still managed to get into a playoff against Austin.
Zach Johnson is playing great golf again now after a few months of being absent without leave from the quality game he possesses. He had a strong weekend in Akron and was 3rd here last year. There are many factors pointing to an even better finish this year.
Darren Clarke is here for the first time but he did play well at Firestone and although on a restricted schedule prior he has been playing well for much of the year.
After a run of outs, Charles Howell III has been much better in his last two weeks although he has been only average in his few starts here.
Steve Elkington recovered from the let down after his great PGA week when he finished with 66 on Sunday at the NEC. He has played here on only four occasions and although he has never dome all that well, he has never missed a cut. In the form he is in, it could be a great opportunity for him to test this field to the limit. It has been a while since he won but he is getting close.
Joe Ogilvie has had a few reasonable weeks here at this event and is playing solidly enough at present to do well.
Kevin Sutherland always seems to find a way to play well here and don’t be surprised if he does it again. He has missed only three cuts in 20 starts in 2005 and in nine starts here has been outside the top twenty only twice.
Of the Australians other than Elkington mentioned above, Robert Allenby has not played here for several years and is hardly the most consistent of players this season. Peter Lonard was 20th here in 2003 but he is a bit hard to predict at present as to what he will do on any given week. Despite Gary Player suggesting he has been consistent in 2005 when selecting Lonard as a Captain’s pick for the International Team, the facts suggest otherwise.
Steve Allan, Aaron Baddeley, Brendan Jones, John Senden, Paul Gow, Scott Hend, Bradley Hughes, Michael Long, Craig Perks and Steve Bowditch round out the Australasians.
Bowditch gets to play his first ever USPGA Tour event getting a start here by invitation. The brilliant, but hard to predict Queenslander, gets his chance to taste the level of competition he will face in 2006 now that he is assured of his USPGA card next year. He was recently runner up on the Nationwide Tour after winning earlier in the season in Adelaide.
The event is worth US$4,400,000.
Photo – Anthony Powter
