With most of the world's male elite taking the week off, discerning eyes should zero in on the LPGA event in Clifton, New Jersey.  The ladies are certainly missing a number of ranked players as well, but with Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam in attendance and appearing poised for a major battle, they've got all the field they need...

PGA Tour:  AT&T Classic

Site: TPC Sugarloaf  -  Duluth, GA
Yards: 7,293     Par: 72
Defending: Zach Johnson 273  (beat Ryuji Imada in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: Stewart Cink (15) & Zach Johnson (22)   Other Notables: David Duval, Steve Elkington, Retief Goosen, Lee Janzen, Greg Norman & Corey Pavin.

Notes: Beginning life as the Atlanta Open back in 1934, the AT&T Classic ranks among the PGA Tour’s older stops, though it was not contested from 1948-1966………The AT&T was played the week before the Masters prior to 2007, and while its present post-Players Championship slot would figure to draw a stronger field, such has thus far not proven to be the case………Defending champion Zach Johnson, an Iowa native, is a two-time winner here which, combined with his 2007 Masters title, means that Johnson has never won a PGA Tour event outside of the state of Georgia………World number two Phil Mickelson is a three-time winner here (2000, ’05 &  ’06) but will not be participating this week………Fifty-three-year-old Greg Norman makes a rare PGA Tour appearance, but only because the TPC Sugarloaf was designed by his firm.

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European PGA Tour:  Irish Open

Site: Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort  -  Adare, Ireland
Yards: 7,453     Par: 72
Defending: Padraig Harrington 283  (beat Bradley Dredge in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: Padraig Harrington (12) & Lee Westwood (20)   Other Notables: Niclas Fasth, Martin Kaymer, Robert Karlsson, Colin Montgomerie & Charl Schwartzel.

Notes: The Irish Open dates to 1927, when the great George Duncan captured the inaugural title at Portmarnock………With his 2007 victory, Padraig Harrington became the first native winner since John O’Leary in 1982, and  will now attempt to join Harry Bradshaw (1947 & ’49) as the only Irishman to win the title more than once………Ben Crenshaw (1976) and Hubert Green (1977) have been the only American winners………In the modern era, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie have all claimed the title three times.

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Japan Tour:  Japan PGA Championship

Site: Raysum Golf Spa & Resort
Yards: 7,125     Par: 72
Defending: Toshi Izawa 283  (defeated Satoru Hirota by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Ryo Ishikawa, Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Wen-Chong Liang, Frankie Minoza & Tommy Nakajima.

Notes: Toshi Izawa defends at one of the J Tour’s marquee events………Only five overseas players have taken this title since its 1972 debut: Min Nan Hsieh (Taiwan) in 1979, David Ishii (USA) in 1987, Brandt Jobe (USA) in 1998, Dean Wilson (USA) in 2001 and S.K. Ho (Korea), a two-time winner in 2004-05 – and both Ishii and Wilson are of at least partial Japanese descent………Three-time winner Tommy Nakajima is scheduled to compete, as is the legendary Jumbo Ozaki, a four-time winner here who thus far in 2008 has withdrawn from the Token Homemate Cup and the Tsuruya Open, and been DQ’d after one round at The Crowns.

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Sunshine Tour:  Nashua Golf Challenge

Site: Gary Player Country Club & Lost City Golf Course  -  Sun City, South Africa
GPCC: Yards: 7,831     Par: 72          LCGC: Yards: 6,983     Par: 72
Defending: Warren Abery 207  (beat Adilson da Silva by 4)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Marc Cayeux, Darren Fichardt & Des Terblanche.

Notes: This is only the second playing of this event, which draws a typically lean Sunshine Tour summertime field………The event is contested in a pro-am format over 54 holes, with the first 36 holes being split between the neighboring courses and the last round being contested of the Gary Player Country Club course.

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LPGA Tour:  Sybase Classic presented by ShopRite

Site: Upper Montclair Country Club  -  Clifton, NJ
Yards: 6,433     Par: 72
Defending: Lorena Ochoa 270  (defeated Sarah Lee by 3)
Field:   World Top 20: Lorena Ochoa (1), Annika Sorenstam (2), Karrie Webb (5), Cristie Kerr (6), Jee Young Lee (10), Momoko Ueda (11), Morgan Pressel (14), Stacy Prammanasudh (15) & Seon Hwa Lee (19)    Other Notables: Helen Alfredsson, Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann, Jan Stephenson.

Notes: The roots of this event go back to the 1970s, though in its present form it dates to 1990………Prior to 2007, it enjoyed a long and successful run at New York’s Wykagyl Country Club before moving across the river to New Jersey………World number one Lorena Ochoa is the two-time defending champion, having also claimed the final Wykagyl playing in 2006………Only nine of the world top 20 are scheduled to compete this week, but with both Ochoa and a streaking Annika Sorenstam present and at the top of their games, it’s doubtful too many observers will be looking beyond numbers one and two………Will this be the week the two finally battle it out on a Sunday afternoon?

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Champions Tour:  Regions Charity Classic

Site: Robert Trent Jones Trail – Ross Bridge  -  Hoover, AL
Yards: 7,473     Par: 72
Defending: Brad Bryant 204  (defeated R.W. Eaks in a playoff)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Jay Haas (3), Tom Watson (4), John Cook (6), Craig Stadler (7), Fred Funk (10), Andy North (17)   Other Notables: Isao Aoki, Bob Charles, Bruce Fleisher, Hubert Green, Hale Irwin, Curtis Strange & Fuzzy Zoeller.

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Elsewhere…
On the women’s side, the JLPGA returns to Fukuoka for the ninth playing of the Vernal Ladies, the KLPGA gathers for the Korean Women’s Open, and the Futures Tour visits the American heartland for the Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship.  On the men’s side, the Nationwide Tour returns to South Carolina for the BMW Charity Pro-Am, the Euro Challenge Tour journeys to Italy for the Piemonte Open, the Omega China Tour features the Shanghai Championship, the Canadian Tour the Iberostar Riviera Maya Open (Mexico) and the Tour de las Americas risks being nationalized at the Copa 3 Diamantes in Venezuela.