PGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament

Site: Muirfield Village Golf Club  -  Dublin, OH
Yards: 7,333     Par: 72
Defending: K.J. Choi 271  (beat Ryan Moore by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: All except Tiger Woods (1), Adam Scott (4), Padraig Harrington (12), Henrik Stenson (14), Rory Sabbatini (15), Lee Westwood (20), Miguel Angel Jimenez (21), Angel Cabrera (22), Andres Romero (23) & Stephen Ames (24)   Other Notables: Paul Azinger, Fred Couples, David Duval, Tom Lehman & Davis Love III.

Notes: This is the 33rd playing of Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament, which has been played, without fail, over Jack’s Muirfield Village Golf Club every year since its 1976 inception………As one of the PGA Tour’s marquee non-Major events, Memorial boasts a virtually unmatched ledger of contemporary champions, including multiple winners Tiger Woods (the only three-time titleist), Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Greg Norman and Kenny Perry, all of whom have won it twice………Twenty-two of the previous 32 winners have been Major champions………The Memorial has honored one or more of golf’s all-time greats every year since 1976, with this year’s honorees being Tony Jacklin, Ralph Guldahl, Charles Blair Macdonald and Craig Wood.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL                  
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Celtic Manor Wales Open

Site: Celtic Manor Resort  -  Newport, Wales
Yards: 7,352     Par: 71
Defending: Richard Sterne 263  (beat Bradley Dredge, Soren Kjeldsen, Mardan Mamat & Mats Vibe-Hastrup by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: Padraig Harrington (12) & Miguel Angel Jimenez (21)   Other Notables: Thomas Bjorn, Niclas Fasth, Robert Karlsson & Colin Montgomerie.

Notes: The Wales Open is one of the newer “national” opens in professional golf, having debuted in 2000.........All eight playings have been at the Celtic Manor Resort………This, however, will be the event’s debut on the new Twenty Ten course, a large, modern design built specifically to host the 2010 Ryder Cup………Recent past champions Miguel Angel Jimenez (2005) and Robert Karlsson (2006) are both in top form coming in this week, though Karlsson’s momentum will be tested following a disappointing Sunday collapse at last week’s BMW PGA Championship.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan Tour:  Mitsubishi Diamond Cup

Site: Higashi Hirono Golf Club  -  Hyogo, Japan
Yards: 7,158     Par: 72
Defending: Tetsuji Hiratsuka 282  (beat S. Hirota & K. Miyazato by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Ryo Ishikawa, Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Shigeki Maruyama, Frankie Minoza, Tommy Nakajima, Jet Ozaki, Jumbo Ozaki & Craig Parry.

Notes: Golf course aficionados will note that the Higashi Hirono Golf Club is not to be confused with the Hirono Golf Club, Charles Alison’s Golden age masterpiece, and very likely the finest course in Japan………The Mitsubishi Diamond Cup is one of a handful of J Tour events that have been played since well before the Tour’s official formation in 1985………Scheduled to compete are both Tommy Nakajima and Jumbo Ozaki, the former a four-time winner here (including a surprising triumph in 2002, at age 48), the latter a back-to-back champion in 1996 & ’97………Australia’s Brian Jones is also a three-time winner, while the only Americans ever to claim the title are Brandt Jobe (1995) and Todd Hamilton (2003).

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf Selborne

Site: Selborne Hotel Spa & Golf Estate  -  Pennington, South Africa
Yards: 6,607     Par: 72
Defending: George Coetzee 207  (beat U. van den Berg by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes & Darren Fichardt.
 
Notes: This, the third playing of the Selborne event, is the third stop in the six event Vodacom series, the Sunshine circuit’s tour-within-a-tour………As with most of South Africa’s summer events, precious few of her elite players will be present………The Selborne golf course is a somewhat idiosyncratic design built by one Dennis Barker, the former dairy farmer who elected to transform his farm into one of South Africa’s finer resorts.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika

Site: RiverTowne Country Club  -  Charleston, SC
Yards: 6,459     Par: 72
Defending: Nicole Castrale 279  (beat L. Ochoa in a playoff)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex top 20 except Ji-Yai Shin (7) & Sakura Yokomine (17)    Other Notables: Helen Alfredsson, Laura Davies, Liselotte Neumann, Grace Park, Sherri Steinhauer & Jan Stephenson.
 
Notes: This is only the second playing of this new, high-profile event, with Annika Sorenstam’s presence (not to mention Bobby Ginn’s money) being enough to draw an elite field………Last year’s playoff loser, world number one Lorena Ochoa, will attempt to win for the seventh time in 11 2008 starts, while tournament host Annika will be aiming for her fourth ’08 triumph, as her drive to season-end retirement kicks into gear.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Champions Tour:  Principal Charity Classic

Site: Glen Oaks Country Club  -  West Des Moines, IA
Yards: 7,000     Par: 71
Defending: Jay Haas 201  (beat Br. Bryant & R.W. Eaks by 3)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Tom Watson (5), Fred Funk (12), Jerry Pate (13)   Other Notables: Isao Aoki, Allen Doyle, Bruce Fleisher, Hal Irwin, Mark James, Graham Marsh, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson, Dave Stockton, Jim Thorpe & Fuzzy Zoeller.

                     ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…
On the women’s side, the LET heads to Munich for the Hypo Vereinsbank Ladies German Open, while the JLPGA heads to Chiba Prefecture for the Kosaido Ladies Cup, and the KLPGA returns to action at the HillState SeoKyung Open.  Among the men, the Nationwide Tour moves from the Mid-Atlantic region to the Heartland for the Bank of America Open in Glen View, IL, while the European Challenge Tour returns to the U.K. for the Oceanico Developments Pro-Am Challenge in Manchester.  The European Senior circuit replaces the Challenge Tour in Poland, where it will contest the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship, while back in America, the Futures Tour visits Lake Geneva, WI for the Aurora Health Care Championship.