Virtually everything stops worldwide as we reach the year’s first Major championship, the Masters.  Thus this is one week where even if she wins by 10 shots at the Corona Championship, Lorena Ochoa gets overshadowed.  Probably.

PGA, European & Asian Tours:  The Masters

Site: Augusta National Golf Club  -  Augusta, GA
Yards: 7,445     Par: 72
Defending: Zach Johnson 289  (beat Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini & Tiger Woods by 2)
Field:   Everyone who’s physically able   Other Notables: All living past champions except Tommy Aaron, Seve Ballesteros, Jack Burke Jr., Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Nick Faldo, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus & Arnold Palmer.

Notes: This will be the tournament’s 72nd playing, having run consistently since 1934, save for World War II-oriented cancellations in 1943, ’44 and ’45.........Jack Nicklaus owns more green jackets than anyone (6), with other multiple winners being Arnold Palmer (4), Tiger Woods (4), Jimmy Demaret (3), Nick Faldo (3), Gary Player (3), Sam Snead (3), Seve Ballesteros (2), Ben Crenshaw (2), Ben Hogan (2), Bernhard Langer (2), Phil Mickelson (2), Byron Nelson (2), Jose Maria Olazabal (2), Horton Smith (2) and Tom Watson (2).........Inevitably, Tiger Woods (the Lorena Ochoa of men’s golf) enters the week as a strong favorite, but before people buy into any thoughts of invincibility, they should at least consider that he’s won only once here in the last five years.........Of the 94 entered players, 20 will be making their first Masters appearances, three will be amateurs, and 13 will be in the field as past champions.........Seven players were invited solely as a result of the recently reinstated PGA Tour tournament winner exemption, and three (Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, Jeev Milkha Singh of India and Liang Wen-Chong of China) are playing on special invitations from the committee.........Realistically, if we write off the older former champions as well as the amateurs, the number of realistic possible winners is roughly 81.  Drop current professionals whose chances would seem extremely limited (e.g. the special invitees) and that number likely falls into the mid to low 60s.........The golf course continues to have rough and recently planted trees, both of which are antithetical to the writings of original designers Bobby Jones and Dr. Alister MacKenzie.  How does this affect the event?  To my way of thinking, adversely.  Both the club and the man hired to carry out their changes, Tom Fazio, will argue that today's Masters participants hit it long, high and straight, thus rendering silly the idea of maintaining/recreating holes which rewarded smart use of the angles, shots worked one direction or the other, or even run-up approaches – and on the surface, this rationale seems at least partially logical.  What's being missed, however, is the fact even a drive hit long, high and straight can be aimed to a specific side of a fairway, and if rough has been planted where some of that short grass used to be, then a very real element of playing strategy has been removed from the equation.  An excellent example is the par-4 11th, where players used to aim either down the right edge of the fairway (to minimize the invasiveness of the front-left greenside pond on their second) or down the far left side, hoping to make the water more of a frontal, carry sort of hazard.  Today, with rough occupying both areas, everyone must aim dead center, then play identical approaches.  Fans of the U.S. Open may like such a setup, but Jones and MacKenzie are well on record as being dead set against it.

                        ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

LPGA Tour:  Corona Championship

Site: Morelia, Mexico  -  Tres Marias Residential Golf Club
Yards: 6,539     Par: 73
Defending: Silvia Cavalleri 272  (beat Julieta Granada & Lorena Ochoa by 2)
Field:   Rolex Top 20: Lorena Ochoa (1)   Other Notables: Sophie Gustafson, Lorie Kane & Brittany Lincicome

Notes: The LPGA returns to Mexico for the second time in 2008, and once again Lorena Ochoa (who has little choice) will be the sole elite player in the field………While this thus might appear an easy week for Ochoa to continue her winning ways, her lone loss of 2008 came on the first Mexican visit, at the MasterCard Classic, when a closing 68 lifted her into a tie for 8th………Tres Marias is a 27-hole, ravine-laden Jack Nicklaus design built in scenic country roughly halfway between Mexico City and Guadalajara.

                        ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Elsewhere...

The JLPGA moves to Hyogo Prefecture this week for the fourth playing of the Studio Alice Women’s Open, while the Korean LPGA begins its 2008 season at the Sports Seoul - Kim Young Joo Open.  The Canadian Tour (which does occasionally play in Canada) also opens their new year with the Spring International in Modesto, California, while for the third consecutive week, the Tour de Las Americas and European Challenge Tour are co-sponsors of a South American event, this time the Il Club Colombia Masters.  Finally, on the other side of the world, the Omega China Tour plays their third event, the Kunming Championship.