There must be a boatload of professional golfers spending time with their families this week, for fields are light across the board, on the PGA, European and Sunshine Tours.  Meanwhile, the Ladies European Tour offers another interesting collection of international players – but this time minus the greatness of Kingston Heath.  All told, likely not a week to measure up to the last two…but you never know.

PGA Tour:  AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am – Pebble Beach, CA

The PGA Tour begins the final leg of its California swing with the 68th edition of the former Bing Crosby Pro-Am, a storied event played six times at San Diego’s Rancho Santa Fe CC before moving to the splendid Monterey Peninsula immediately after World War II.  The event has lost a bit of luster over the last decade, due mostly to so many top professionals balking at Pebble Beach’s sometimes-bumpy greens and, perhaps more significantly, the prospect of playing three rounds with amateur partners.  Still, few are the tournaments worldwide that can match this one for venue and luster, with grand old Pebble Beach remaining the most spectacular stage of any regular (read non-Major) event in golf, Spyglass Hill still capable of scaring the world’s best (particularly in the wind), and Poppy Hills…  Well, lets just say that the old Monterey Peninsula CC layout (the Crosby’s third course from 1947-1968) was no world beater either.  Regrettably, the ’08 field will once again be a lean one, with only Phil Mickelson (#2), Jim Furyk (#6), Padraig Harrington (#10) and Vijay Singh (#11) present from among the world’s top 25.  There is a bit of supplementary star power, however, as former Major champions like Justin Leonard, Tom Lehman and David Duval will compete, as will 52-year-old Greg Norman and, for the first time since injuring his ankle last autumn, Davis Love III.  Unfortunately for TV viewers, CBS will surely saturate Saturday’s broadcast with second-class celebrities straining to be funny, but the prospect of pro-only Sunday action playing itself out over Pebble Beach’s storied finishing holes still remains an uncommonly bright one.

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European PGA Tour: Emaar-MGF Indian Masters – Delhi, India

The British Raj may have lasted for nine decades but it has taken until this week for the E Tour to make its debut on Indian soil, the occasion being a brand new event co-sponsored with the Asian Tour, the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters.  Much pre-tournament P.R. buzz has centered around the prospect of one of India’s new generation of professionals winning and given the relative leanness of the field, such an occurrence really isn’t that much of a longshot.  World #4 Ernie Els – likely to be either utterly deflated or loaded for bear following his disappointing loss in Dubai – is by far the top-rated player in the field; indeed, he is the only world top 50 slated to appear.  The homestanding Indian contingent is led by World #85 Jyoti Randhawa and #91 Jeev Milkha Singh, as well as Arjun Atwal (the first Indian to win an E Tour event – the 2002 Singapore Open) and 25-year-old Shiv Kapur.  The host site, the 7,014-yard, par-71 Delhi GG dates back to the days of British influence, though its lushly vegetated layout was redesigned by Peter Thomson’s firm in 1977.  Though not overly long, its major emphasis on accuracy will make for a stark change from the open desert landscapes of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

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Sunshine Tour: Africa Open Golf Challenge – Port Alfred, South Africa

With at least two players in the field from 11 of Africa’s golfingest countries and little in the way of overseas stars present, this, the inaugural version of the Africa Open, will truly encompass the entirety of the continent’s professional golfers.  And with the majority of the South African stars that dominate the region being absent, the door is certainly open for a lesser-known winner.  The event will be staged over the Gary Player-designed Fish River Sun CC, a windblown 6,342-metre design carved through dense native bush, and sporting some dazzling views of the nearby Indian Ocean.  The layout’s most memorable hole, by far, is the 495-metre 3rd, a par 5 which sweeps left around a bend in the Old Woman’s River.  I wonder why they liked the name of the Fish River (which runs nearby) better…

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Ladies European Tour: ANZ Ladies Masters – Gold Coast, Australia

Fresh off her thrilling sudden-death triumph in the Australian Women’s Open, Karrie Webb looks fully prepared to defend her 2007 ANZ Ladies Masters title as the event returns to Queensland’s Royal Pines Resort for the 18th consecutive time.  Last year she defeated the young Korean star Ji-Yai Shin (also her victim last week at Kingston Heath), though at the time Webb’s stunning third-round 62 garnered more headline’s than the then-18-year-old Shin’s prodigious talent.  This week, with the Masters again representing the second leg of the LET’s two-event visit to Australia, the list of foreign entries is nearly a match with last week’s, with one major addition: the #17 player in the world, Japan’s 22-year-old Ai Miyazato.  With six prior wins on this golf course, Webb is unquestionably the favorite.  There are, however, plenty of talented youngsters around to give her a run for her money.  Wet conditions resulting from torrential rains this past weekend will certainly limit practice rounds and may, regrettably, be a weeklong factor.

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Champions Tour: Allianz Championship – Boca Raton, FL

England’s Mark James will defend his Allianz title as the Champions Tour returns from a one-week hiatus and arrives in Florida, taking up residence at Boca Raton’s 36-hole Broken Sound Club.  The Champions will play the Old course (talk about your misnomers), a 6,807-yard, par-72 track laid out by Joe Lee in 1976, and far more recently renovated by Gene Bates.  Typically “Floridian” in nature (i.e. flat and water-laden), it does bear the distinct charm of not being lined by wall-to-wall housing, something of a rarity in these parts.  Strictly speaking, water is present on roughly 15 holes,  but it’s only a serious hazard on perhaps nine, most notably at the difficult 568-yard 6th (which turns left around a lake) and the 453-yard 13th, whose green juts out dangerously onto a peninsula.  Mark James was 15-under-par for three rounds last year so barring a particularly strong breeze off the nearby Atlantic, scoring should be typically “Champions Low.”

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