Puerto Rico a chance to impress for many

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Puerto Rico Open | Preview | 19 Mar 2008

While the elite of the golfing world are battling it out some 1200 kilometres away in Miami, don’t feel too sorry for those not eligible for the World Golf Championship-CA event. The rest of the PGA Tour will head to Rio Grande in Puerto Rico this week for the inaugural Puerto Rico Open on the beachfront.

The Coco Beach Golf and Country Club (also known as the Trump International Golf Club – Puerto Rico) is a Tom Kite and Bruce Bresse designed layout on the beachfront on the north-eastern coast of the island of Puerto Rico just outside of San Juan.

The tournament will be one of four regular PGA Tour events played outside the USA this season, the others being in England, Mexico and Canada.

Although not the superstars of the game, there are several players who have already shown good form in season 2008 who have not been able to force their way into the WGC event in Miami.

None more so than Joe Durant, who has recorded four top twenties in seven starts in 2008 including a very impressive 6th behind Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines. Durant has shown a capacity to win on warm season grass greens and although he would prefer to be at Doral where he has won previously this is not a bad second option.

Brian Gay won in Mexico in similar circumstances to this on a beachfront golf course and his 21st place at Bay Hill last week was not a bad lead in to this week against a significantly weaker field.

This event opens up an opportunity for a player to secure his first win on the PGA Tour and such a player could well be John Merrick, who finished third in Mexico recently and followed up with a very solid 15th place at the Honda Classic.

Merrick is in just his second season on the PGA Tour and was forced to return to the Tour School to regain full status which he did. This is a good opportunity for the 26-year-old who has won previously on the Nationwide Tour.

Alex Cejka has been inside the top ten in two of his last three starts in fields much stronger than this and stands a good chance to do even better here. His 8th place last week at the Arnold Palmer was particularly encouraging.

The Australian contingent is headed perhaps by Michael Sim who has just three events left in his Major Medical Exemption category to secure the US$385,000 he needs to equal the number 125th player’s 2007 earnings. In the two PGA Tour events he has played this season he finished 22nd in Mexico and missed the cut at Pebble Beach. He is talented but faces a big task to retain his USPGA Tour status.

Andrew Buckle is another who received a medical exemption in 2008 after injuring himself playing touch football in April. It was a costly bit of skylarking. He has already played the one event he was granted an exemption for but gets a start here via his position inside the top 150 on the money list in 2007. Like Sim he has the game to succeed on the PGA Tour but things need to start going his way.

Stephen Leaney, Tim Wilkinson, Steve Allan, David Lutterus, Gavin Coles, Grant Waite and Phil Tataurangi are also hoping to take advantage of what is one of the weakest fields they will face on the PGA Tour this season.