Booz Allen struggles to attract class field
BY iseekgolf.com | US PGA Tour | 2006 Booz Allen Classic | Preview | 21 Jun 2006
For those golfers backing up this week after the rigours of Winged Foot, this week’s Booz Allen Classic at the TPC at Avenel will feel like a walk in the park. With winning scores at this venue ranging between 21 under and 8 under in the eighteen stagings of the event it is clearly a much easier proposition than last week, but so too are most of the other golf courses on the planet.
The field has suffered from its position in the schedule the week after such an exhausting test last week but also from the fact that proposed changes to the layout at the Ault Clark designed TPC, which initially prompted the temporary move to Congressional last year, did not go ahead. The field this week will therefore face one of the venues less frequented by the leading players and as a consequence, the leading world ranked player in the tournament will be Irishman Padraig Harrington who to a large extent is here under sufferance.
Harrington is a player whose plight over the closing stages of the US Open was probably overlooked by many in the drama of the top four players. Harrington bogeyed the last three holes on Sunday and when you add the triple bogey he took at the last on Saturday it was very much a case of what might have been.
Harrington has indicated that the main reason for his appearance this week is because he is honouring a commitment to the tournament he made earlier in the season. He can only be commended for his commitment and the organisers are no doubt thankful for his support but whether this will convert into a good week on the course remains to be seen. He would, by all accounts, prefer to be on his way back across the Atlantic but his presence is a plus for the event.
Robert Allenby has occasionally played well at the TPC at Avenel and following what was a good week for him last week he will arrive at this event with a degree of confidence about his chances. He missed the cut at the Memorial three weeks ago but did play well at the Colonial.
This is not necessarily the sort of course that you would think would suit Nick O’Hern but he is such a fine and adaptable player that a good week would not surprise. His sixth placing last week at the US Open was his best finish in a major and surely he is destined to win an event before long.
Fred Funk has had a roller coaster time at the TPC having missed plenty of cuts but having also recorded two top threes. He is in good form at present and appears likely to feature along with Bart Bryant, who has had one or two good tournaments at the TPC and seems to be finding some form in recent weeks.
Ben Crane did well in this event last year when he was runner up despite the controversy of slow play and the Sabbatini incident. The event was played just up the road at the Congressional but he did have a reasonable finish at this course in 2004. He is in the middle of a consistent run of form at present which includes a fourth placed finish at the Colonial.
K.J. Choi, has perhaps surprisingly, only played the once in this event and missed the cut. He also missed the cut last week at Winged Foot but there have been enough glimpses of form from him of late to suggest that that record could improve significantly.
Other Australasians in the field include John Senden, Stephen Leaney, Steve Elkington, Mathew Goggin, Craig Parry, Greg Chalmers, Phil Tataurangi and Grant Waite who gets an invite as a past winner of the event.
