Aussie trio make Tour debut at Sony Open
IN: News | US PGA | Sony Open in Hawaii (2007) | Preview | by Bruce Young | 10 Jan 2007
The 2007 USPGA Tour begins in earnest this week in Hawaii with the first full field event of the year, the Sony Open in Hawaii, getting underway at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
The now traditional first such event of the season, the tournament exposes many to the PGA Tour for the first time as several of those who gained PGA Tour status via either the Nationwide Tour or Q-School get their chance to test their games in the most demanding of golf's arenas for the very first time.
The original Seth Raynor designed Waialae Country Club has been the home of the event since 1965 when Gay Brewer defeated Bob Goalby in a playoff. The course has undergone redesign and remodelling work the most significant coming in 1999.
Defending champion is David Toms who ran away with the title last year, winning by five shots over South African Rory Sabbatini and Chad Campbell, the latter of who had shared the lead with Toms heading into the final day.
Toms is back to defend his title and after an impressive best last round of 67 at the Mercedes Benz Championship last Sunday. After a 2006 season which saw Toms slip in the world rankings from a place well inside the top ten after his win last year to 19th at year's end, Toms appears to be heading in the right direction once again and is in good shape to successfully defend.
Vijay Singh won the event two years ago and has played well in each of his last three years in the event. Following his bounce back win last week on Maui he is well placed to make it two wins at Waialae and make further progress in his quest to move back up the rankings.
Jim Furyk was disappointing last week on Maui but with that outing behind him he might improve sharply and with a previous victory at Waialae, albeit eleven years ago, he will still be considered by many as one of the most difficult to beat this year. He is after all the second highest ranked player in the world.
Trevor Immelman has not played this event previously but the same was the case last week when he did so well at the Mercedes Championship. Immelman continues to impress as a rising star of the game and there is no reason why he will not feel comfortable in the conditions he will face this week.
Luke Donald will play the event for the fifth time this week and after a good solid week last week it might be that he has a very good chance to improve on his previous best showing at the Sony when 13th in 2002 on debut and again when 13th in 2005.
Davis Love has been twice runner up at Waialae and did well last week when 4th at the Mercedes Championship.
One for longer odds might just be Will MacKenzie who was so impressive when finishing fourth last week after being Singh's closest challenger for much of the week. MacKenzie appears to have benefited from his visit to Australia late last year and finished 42nd in his only appearance in this event previously twelve months ago. A triple bogey at his first hole on the final day last year cost him the chance of a much better debut in Hawaii but he seems better placed now to do well.
Stephen Ames is another at longer odds who played well last week and the Canadian has had top tens in each of the last two times he has played in this event. He had a lengthy break from tournament golf late last year although he did win the Canadian Skins game in that period.
The Australians are out in force this week with fifteen of the 22 fully eligible to play the USPGA Tour in 2007 lining up. Three of those will be playing their first events as card holders on the USPGA Tour, namely Andrew Buckle, Jarrod Lyle and Paul Sheehan.
The Australian with perhaps the greatest credentials to do well this week is Stuart Appleby who finished runner up to Paul Azinger in 2000 and 7th last year. He played well enough last week without threatening to extend his winning streak at the Mercedes Championship there.
Geoff Ogilvy's week last week was not all that impressive and that he has never made the cut in this event in four attempts, hardly augurs well for a successful week. It makes you wonder why he is playing. He is now the US Open Champion however and does have good form on Bermuda greens generally so an improvement could be expected.
Nathan Green finished fifth in this event last year when on debut on the USPGA Tour. He played well when back on the Australasian Tour leading the Australian Open for much of the tournament, winning the New Zealand Open and finishing 7th at the Australian PGA. He seemed to clear every bar put in front of him in his rookie season late year and logically he is a better player this week than he was at the same period twelve months ago.
Robert Allenby, Rod Pampling, John Senden, Aaron Baddeley, Peter Lonard, Mathew Goggin, Mark Hensby, Gavin Coles, Paul Gow and the rookies Lyle, Sheehan and Buckle make up the balance of the Australian contingent. Not only will it be an exciting week for the first timers but for the likes of Gow and Coles it represents another chance to step up to the plate at this higher level after success on the Nationwide Tour.
Oh and just for the record Michelle Wie is playing the event - but so what? Surely it is now time for her to put this tiring quest behind her in the short term. She is too good a player to continually damage her golfing and personal reputation by striving to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.
I have been one to condone this in the past but I think we are all over it now. I'm sure there was a great novelty value for the tournament organisers in the past but I wonder how much mileage and increased coverage her involvement in the event will gain now.
