PGA Tour in Hawaii for 2008 starter
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship | Preview | 01 Jan 2008
For the 10th consecutive year the Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore designed Plantation Course at the famed Kapalua Resort on the island of Maui in Hawaii will this week play host to the PGA Tour’s season opening Mercedes Championship.
Essentially known as the Tournament of Champions, as it brings together the winners on the PGA Tour over the previous twelve months, the event has been sponsored by Mercedes since 1994, although it was not until 1999 that it moved from its earlier homes in Nevada and California to Hawaii.
The tournament has perhaps suffered in recent years due to the game’s leading players deciding to not start their campaigns until a few weeks into the season and again this year the world numbers one and two, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, will miss the event.
Woods is scheduled to start his PGA Tour season at the Buick Invitational on January 24th while Mickelson has the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in mid-January earmarked for his 2008 return. Woods last played the event in 2005 while for Mickelson it has been seven years (2001).
Also absent in 2008 are the British Open Championship winner, Padraig Harrington and Australian Adam Scott who was runner up in 2007, leaving a field of 31 of the 35 players who were, as winners of PGA Tour events in 2007, eligible to tee it up.
Scott’s first event of 2008 will be the European Tour’s event in Abu Dhabi in mid-January. Surprisingly the most dominant figure in this event in recent years, Stuart Appleby, will not be amongst the field. Appleby did not win in 2007 and as a consequence he will not be able to add to the three titles he won consecutively from 2004.
Let’s look at those that will be on Maui starting with the defending champion, Vijay Singh, who finally won last year after one or two agonising near misses in earlier attempts. Singh defeated Adam Scott by two shots thus preventing a fourth consecutive win by Australians in the event.
2008 was an indifferent year for Singh however as although he won again at Bay Hill, a mid season slump saw him slip to number 10 in the world. He did however finish the season off with several encouraging finishes.
Jim Furyk was the last American to win the event when he beat Rory Sabbatini in 2001 but there appears to be a great chance for the Americans to atone this year.
Furyk’s recent third place at the Target Challenge suggested he was finding a little form after an ordinary last few week of the regular season in 2007. At #3, Furyk is the leading world ranked player in the field and having finished inside the top ten in each of his last eight starts in this event he has an impressive record at the Plantation layout.
Aaron Baddeley will play this event for the second occasion, his first effort last year hardly encouraging but he would go on to record his best PGA Tour season by far in 2007 and coming off a recent win at home he is poised to successfully tackle of field of this class.
Baddeley has proven that he can play well in Hawaii finishing runner up to Ernie Els at the Sony Open in his first ever USPGA Tour event as a cardholder.
K.J. Choi finished runner up to Ernie Els, albeit eight shots in arrears, in this event in 2003 and is a significantly better player now than he was then. His most recent tournament was in late November when finishing runner up at the Hong Kong Open and after a season in 2007 where he won twice on the PGA Tour, finished 5th on their money list and reached the top 10 in the world, there is no reason why that elevation in status can’t continue.
Any player capable of victory on the USPGA Tour, as all in this field have done, is a potential winner of the event but those who have played well here previously and those with the most credentials appear the likely chances to get their 2008 season underway in the best possible fashion.
