Rejuvenated Rocco returns for Buick Open
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Buick Open | Preview | 24 Jun 2008
The PGA Tour heads to Grand Blanc, Michigan this week for the 50th anniversary of the US$5,000,000 Buick Open. As it has been in all but six of the years since its inaugural staging in 1958, the event will be held at the Warwick Hills Golf Club about 90 minutes drive to the north west of Detroit.
The Warwick Hills layout was originally designed in 1957 by James Gilmore Harrison and then redesigned 12 years later by Joe Lee. It measures 7127 yards and is considered to be a low scoring golf course with winning totals between 15 and 24 under par the norm.
The defending champion is Brian Bateman, who narrowly defeated Jason Gore, Justin Leonard and Woody Austin last year by holing a 14 foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole to claim his first PGA Tour title.
The man with the almost unbelievably consistent record at this event, Jim Furyk, starts as the favourite in the absence of multiple winners at Warwick Hills – Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh. Furyk has been inside the top ten in eight of his last nine starts at this venue including a win in 2003. Furyk has not been at his best in recent starts but a return to Warwick Hills might be just the tonic he requires.
Justin Leonard was a winner earlier in his career at this venue and returned after an absence of several years in 2007 to finish runner up. Leonard had a good enough week at the US Open with a 36th following an impressive win in Memphis.
It is hard to imagine that Kenny Perry is not going to figure at some stage late in this event. He is a previous winner of the event and, like Furyk, regularly plays well at Warwick Hills. He is in the middle of a great run of form at present and has been in contention almost every time he has played in recent weeks.
One player of interest this week and a previous winner here is Rocco Mediate, who returns to tournament golf after his heroics at Torrey Pines. There will be a lot of interest in how he backs up but irrespective of how he performs he will have attracted a lot of new fans as a result of his gutsy effort at the US Open.
Scott Verplank has shown a little improvement in recent weeks and as another with a good record at this venue he deserves to be considered as a chance.
Brandt Snedeker returned to form at the US Open with a 9th, his weekend performance of 68 and 71 at Torrey Pines particularly impressive. He finished 10th in his first start in this event last year and must be a genuine chance to do well.
Lucas Glover has played this tournament well in each of his last two starts in the event. He indicated last week at the Travelers Championship, especially early on, that his game is getting back to the level that he is capable of and if he can find a way to stop beating up on himself he could be a factor this week.
Australasians are here in force with seventeen in the field. This might be the sort of golf course to suit Nick O’Hern who is certainly finding his game again after shaky start to the season. It would be of some surprise if O’Hern didn’t figure amongst the leading Australians despite the fact that this is his first time at Warwick Hills.
Rod Pampling missed the cut last week at the Travelers Championship but his form prior was very good and, although he has not played this course well in previous years, he could improve significantly in 2008.
Jason Day and Peter Lonard produced good tournaments last week on their return to the PGA Tour following injury breaks, while Mathew Goggin, Nathan Green, John Senden, Gavin Coles, Stephen Leaney, Mark Hensby, Brett Rumford, Andrew Buckle, Matt Jones, Nick Flanagan, Steve Allan, David Lutterus and New Zealander, Tim Wilkinson, complete the Australasian challenge.
At the completion of this event many of the field will head south to Dearborn to attempt qualifying for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale at two venues where a total of 12 places are available in the Open field starting on July 19th.
