Solid field for Reno-Tahoe despite Bridgestone
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2006 Reno-Tahoe Open | Preview | 23 Aug 2006
With so many of the leading players from the world of golf in Akron, Ohio this week, the Reno-Tahoe Open will be played minus the game’s absolute elite but boasts a solid line-up nonetheless.
The tournament is now into its eighth year and in each of the events, it has been staged at the Jack Nicklaus designed Montreux Golf & Country Club in Reno, Nevada.
The defending champion would have been Vaughn Taylor, who has won the event for the past two years but as a tournament winner and now a Ryder Cup player he will be in Ohio.
The likely favourites are those who have played well here previously and who, despite not playing well enough to be in Ohio, have performed reasonably well of late. One player who fits very much into that category is Woody Austin. Austin had top tens in Hartford, Milwaukee and Grand Blanc in recent weeks and had a very solid week last week at the PGA Championship when 16th. He has played this event well on occasions
In better years Maruyama has played the WGC event but after a lacklustre run of form in recent times he finds himself outside of the qualifying criteria this year. Maruyama has had mixed form in recent weeks but there has been evidence that he is on the comeback trail with top fives in Hartford and the BC Open. At his best he could handle this field and it appears he is at least heading towards better form.
Chris Riley is a previous winner in this event and has played well enough in recent weeks to suggest another win would be no real surprise. He played with Tiger in round three at last week’s PGA but could only finish 41st although this is a much weaker field and he will be improved by his effort at Medinah.
Jonathan Kaye has twice been runner up at Montreux Golf Club but his recent form is not good and Kirk Triplett is in a similar situation as a previous winner.
The Australasian representation is large. Steve Elkington withdrew from the PGA but he is ready to go this week by all accounts. Jason Day has again been offered an invite, his fourth on the USPGA Tour and it will be interesting to see how the 18 year old goes against the lesser field he faces this week.
Brendan Jones is supposedly in the field but has struggled with a bad back and it might be that he has already withdrawn. David McKenzie, Greg Chalmers, Grant Waite, Steve Bowditch, Phil Tataurangi and Craig Perks are scheduled to tee it up.
It will be the first event in more than three months for Perks, who quit the tour for a break after missing twenty five out his previous twenty seven tournaments.
The tournament has prizemoney of US$3 million.
