Tiger shuns Tour Championship in Atlanta

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2006 PGA Tour Championship | Preview | 01 Nov 2006

We have finally reached the end of the line as far as season 2006 on the USPGA Tour is concerned with just this week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta to play.

This, however, is a Tour Championship with a difference as the number one and four players on the 2006 money list, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will not be in Atlanta as they both appear to have enough for the moment.

It creates somewhat of a farce of the tournament, given its title, with arguably the PGA Tour’s two greatest stars absent. The tournament organisers and the remaining competitors will no doubt still talk it up but to a large extent it is false bravado and a sad indictment on the missing players themselves.

The venue for this year’s event will again be the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The course at the East Lake Golf Club is close to 100 years old. Originally built and designed by Tom Bendelow, it was remodelled by Donald Ross in 1915 then again in 1959 by George Cobb and in 1994, after the course had lapsed into a poor state as a public facility, Rees Jones extensively rebuilt it to the level it is at now.

The 2006 champion was Bart Bryant, who completed a breakthrough year in 2005 when he added this title to his Memorial Tournament victory by beating Tiger Woods by a remarkable six shots. Unfortunately for Bryant there is no provision for a defending champion in the field and he will watch from elsewhere as another golfer takes his crown.

Jim Furyk has had a break of two weeks but is back as the highest money winner in 2006 in the field and although he has yet to win this event he has often been well placed at East Lake.

Ernie Els has been solid at this venue and has played beautifully in the last month or two. He could well finish the year off in the US with his first win of the year.

Vijay Singh is a great performer at East Lake having won in 2002 and finished runner up in 1998 in addition to many top ten finishes. He played well in Orlando two weeks ago but that aside he has not been at his best. There is a feeling he could contend here however.

In four starts in this event, three of those in Atlanta, Retief Goosen has finished inside the top ten. Despite a missed cut in Tampa, Goosen’s earlier form has been very good in 2006 and his very good record on this golf course would suggest another big week is in store.

Another with a very similar vein of good form and a good East Lake record is Davis Love III, who turned the corner a month or so ago. He has not won this event but he is on the verge of playing the sort of golf that has made him one of the best in the world over the last ten years.

Adam Scott might have made a mistake by playing last week when missing the cut in Orlando but he will return to East Lake where last year he finished 7th and where he was 21st in 2004 after a slow start.

Geoff Ogilvy, Stuart Appleby and Rod Pampling are the other Australians in the field with Ogilvy and Pampling playing the tournament for the first occasion while Appleby has performed well on occasions.

The money list has already been decided and the absolute stars are absent and as such the event takes on a less than glamorous finale than it should be given the hype surrounding the PGA Tour all year.