posted April 25, 2007 at 14:28 EST in Golf Articles

The last five champions of Sir Byron’s tournament have been: Shigeki Maruyama (’02), Vijay Singh (’03), Sergio Garcia (’04), Ted Purdy (’05) (Sean O’Hair) and Brett Wetterich (’06).

The tournament has provided good drama each of the last three years. Last year, Wetterich bested Trevor Immelman by only one stroke – a margin of victory matched by Purdy over O’Hair the year before. In 2004, Garcia claimed his win by besting Robert Damron and Dudley Hart in a playoff after they each finished with a 270. All of these winners and runners-up are listed in this weekend’s field, except for Immelman.

Wetterich is ranked 26th in the FedEx Cup standings, but missed the cut two weeks ago at the Verizon Heritage (his fourth missed cut this season). However, he has posted two top-ten finishes in 2006 (8th at The Honda Classic and 2nd at the World Golf Championships – CA Championship).

 

Purdy missed three cuts in a row, followed by a “DQ” at the Verizon Heritage, but he did finish 22nd last weekend in New Orleans.

Four of the top-ten players in the FedEx Cup are entered in this weekend’s field. It would be silly not to keep an eye on Vijay Singh (the FedEx leader), Charles Howell III (3rd place), Phil Mickelson (4th place) and John Rollins (6th place). Singh is also the highest-ranked golfer based on PGA All-Around statistics followed by Rollins (4th), Mickelson (5th) and Howell (10th).

Singh won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished 13th in his last outing at The Masters. Rollins finished 5th at the Arnold Palmer and 20th at The Masters, but has two second-place finishes from earlier this year (FBR Open and the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic).

Michelson had a great mid-February swing - winning Pebble Beach and finishing 2nd the next weekend at the Nissan Open - but he has finished no higher than 17th since then, and is coming off a disappointing 24th-place finish at The Masters.

His off-season conditioning was calculated to give him endurance this season and this weekend’s trip to Texas could be his first true test both of his psyche and his new physique. Don’t count him out.

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