Filed under: PGA
Take a guess as to who is not at this week's PGA Tour 2011 season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.That's right. As anybody who knows the difference between a short iron and an ironing board can tell you, Tiger Woods, despite being many things in 2010, was not a tournament winner.
So, Woods, a two-time winner of the event (1997 and 2000) will be missing at Kapalua's Plantation Course Thursday when play gets under way. But at least he has an excuse.
More than a few of 2010 winners also are nowhere to be found: Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, all currently ranked among the world's top 10 golfers.
That's really not that big a surprise. Even in Hawaii, early January rarely seems to be a favorite time for many of the PGA Tour's biggest names.
Woods and Mickelson are among the big names who make a habit of starting their PGA Tour play later in the season and routinely skip Hawaii. Also, Europeans players who are not PGA Tour members don't even bother to considered the event because they would rather use their limited visits to the U.S. for other events.
The result is that while Tournament of Champions sure has a spiffy ring to it, this week's event is pretty much just like next week's Sony Open in Honolulu -- only without all the guys anyone knows anything about.
More Elliott: Why Change Clubs After Strong Season? | 2011 Predictions
Only 34 players will make up this week's field as they play for a winner's check of $1.12 million.
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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/01/05/hyundai-tournament-of-champions-preview-teeing-off-2011/
Rory McIlroy Ruud van Nistelrooy Ryan Giggs Ryan Palmer Sam Querrey
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