posted January 16, 2007 at 18:33 EST in Golf Articles

You won’t see Tiger Woods teeing it up at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic this week, but you will see Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Huey Lewis, Samuel L. Jackson, Cheech Marin, and Michael Bolton. Oh, and Kenny G, Maury Povich, and Alice Cooper as well. Sound like the cast of a zany B-movie? Welcome to the annual (and popular) pro-am tourney.

Ofcourse, there will be some actual golfers at the event, which takes place on four different California courses over five days starting on Wednesday morning. Defending champion Chad Campbell is in the field this year, as well as other past winners Justin Leonard (2005), Phil Mickelson (2004 and 2002), Mike Weir (2003), Joe Durant (2001), Jesper Parnevik (2000), Fred Couples (1998), and Kenny Perry (1995). And those guys probably have a better chance at coming out on top than Yogi Berra or Craig T. Nelson.

 

Who do the oddsmakers like this week? Mickelson is the big favorite, at +550 odds, followed by Justin Rose (+1600), Campbell (+2500), Charles Howell (+2500), and Weir (+2500). Parnevik is getting +3500 odds right now, Durant is back at +4000, and Leonard is sitting at +6000. Kenny Perry is currently at +6500 odds, and Couples is a long-shot +7000. Here are the rest of the top contenders’ odds to win this year’s tournament.

Odds To Win Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

Phil Mickelson +550
Justin Rose +1600
Chad Campbell +2500
Charles Howell +2500
Mike Weir +2500
Robert Allenby +2800
John Senden +2800
Scott Verplank +2800
Lucas Glover +3000
Jerry Kelly +3500
Jesper Parnevik +3500
Bart Bryant +4000
Joe Durant +4000
Nathan Green +4000
Ian Poulter +4000
Ben Crane +5000
Jonathan Byrd +6000
J.B. Holmes +6000
Justin Leonard +6000
Tom Pernice +6000
Vaughn Taylor +6000
Bo Van Pelt +6000

The four golf courses this year are the Bermuda Dunes Country Club, the La Quinta Country Club, the Palmer Private Course at PGA West, and the Classic Club (which will host both the Saturday and Sunday rounds). The celebrities only get to play for the first four days of the tournament, so no matter how good Carson Daly is he can’t actually win the event. Sunday’s round at the Classic Club is reserved for just the professionals.

 

The purse for the tournament is $5,000,000. First-place money this week is $900,000.

Meanwhile, other top golfers will be playing overseas this week at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi Golf Championship (at the appropriately-named Abu Dhabi Golf Club) is part of the European Tour, and it was held for the first time last season. The winner of the inaugural event was actually an American, Chris DiMarco, and he’ll be back to try to repeat as tourney champ this week.

However, DiMarco isn’t the oddsmakers’ pick right now – he’s back in the field at +2000 odds. Four golfers are currently tied atop the odds list at +1000 – Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, and Henrik Stenson. Paul Casey is then next at +1600 odds, with DiMarco right after him. Here are the rest of the top tourney contenders.

Odds To Win Abu Dhabi Golf Championship

Sergio Garcia +1000
Retief Goosen +1000
Padraig Harrington +1000
Henrik Stenson +1000
Paul Casey +1600
Chris DiMarco +2000
Nick O'Hern +2500
Robert Karlsson +2800
Colin Montgomerie +3000
Johan Edfors +3500
Jeev Mikha Singh +3500
Thomas Björn +4000
Richard Green +4000
Miguel Angel Jimenez +4000
Niclas Fasth +4500
Ricardo Gonzalez +5000
Thongchai Jaidee +5000
Jose Manuel Lara +5000
Jyoti Randhawa +5000
Raphael Jacquelin +6000

When can we next expect to see Tiger Woods on a golf course? His official site lists him as playing in the Buick Invitational, which runs from January 25-28 at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. Woods hasn’t played in an event since the Target World Challenge in the middle of December; he, of course, finished in first in that tournament.

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