This Week in Golf - February 12th through February 15th
Posted: Mon Feb 9 5:08 PM
***** This Week in Golf - February 12th through February 15th *****
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - PGA TOUR - AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO- AM, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California - Vijay Singh, the 2004 champion, is scheduled to return to action this week.
Singh, ranked No. 4 in the world, had a small surgical procedure on his right knee earlier this year and targeted this week as his return.
He may be looking for some measure of revenge after squandering a three-shot lead on Sunday last year, when he played an awful first playoff hole and lost to Steve Lowery.
Padraig Harrington will be the top-ranked player in the field at world No. 3, while No. 5 Phil Mickelson will be seeking his fourth Pebble Beach title.
Players compete with amateurs for the first three rounds. The cut will be made following the third round with the low 60 players and ties and the top 25 teams making it to Sunday. Golfers rotate between Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills and Spyglass before the final round is at Pebble Beach.
The Golf Channel will have coverage of the first two rounds, with CBS broadcasting the weekend action. Next week is the Northern Trust Open, which was won last year by Phil Mickelson.
LPGA TOUR
SBS OPEN AT TURTLE BAY, Turtle Bay Resort (Arnold Palmer Course), Kahuku, Hawaii - Annika Sorenstam's retirement leaves the LPGA Tour's season-opener without a defending champion.
Sorenstam, who stepped away from the game in December, won last year's SBS Open by two shots for her 70th career LPGA title and first since Sept. 2, 2006. She went on to claim two more victories last season.
The tournament will also be missing world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, who has three career top-15 finishes at Turtle Bay but hasn't played there since 2007.
Filling the superstar void will be 19-year-old Michelle Wie, who begins her first season as a member of the LPGA Tour after winning her card at Q-school in December.
Also making the trip to Hawaii will be 2007 champion Paula Creamer, 2006 winner Joo Mi Kim and 2005 inaugural champion Jennifer Rosales. In Ochoa's absence, world No. 2 Yani Tseng will be the highest-ranked player in the field.
The Golf Channel will have coverage of all three days of the tournament. The LPGA Tour will take a one-week break before returning for the Honda LPGA Thailand.
EUROPEAN TOUR
MALAYSIAN OPEN, Saujana Golf and Country Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - The European Tour returns from a one-week break for this week's Malaysian Open.
World No. 11 Anthony Kim, a rising star on the PGA Tour, will headline a tournament that became the first co-sanctioned event between the European and Asian Tours in 1999.
Defending champion Arjun Atwal of India will not be back to defend the title he won last year while holding off 2007 winner Peter Hedblom of Sweden. It was Atwal's third European Tour win and second at the Malaysian Open.
Hedblom will be joined in the field by fellow past champions Thongchai Jaidee (2004, 2005) and Alastair Forsyth (2002).
The Golf Channel will have three hours of tape-delayed coverage for all four rounds beginning at 9:30 a.m. (et) each day. The European Tour heads to Australia next week for the Johnnie Walker Classic, where Mark Brown won last year.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
ALLIANZ CHAMPIONSHIP, The Old Course at Broken Sound, Boca Raton, Florida - The Champions Tour returns from a two-week break for the Allianz Championship, the second official event of the 2009 season.
Last year, Scott Hoch birdied three of his final four holes to topple Brad Bryant and Bruce Lietzke by a single stroke to claim his second win on the Champions Tour.
This marks the first Champions Tour event of the year outside Hawaii. Bernhard Langer won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship last month in Kaupulehu-Kona.
The Golf Channel will have coverage of all three rounds. Next week is the ACE Group Classic, which was also won by Scott Hoch last year.
