An off year, by Tiger's standards, has put some teeth back into his competition. The player of the year award and money title remain undecided. The Chrysler Championship could be the determining factor.
By BOB HARIG
Published October 29, 2003
[AP photo]
Vijay Singh's victory at the Funai Classic at Lake Buena Vista vaulted him to the top of the money list. Singh will be at Innisbrook. No. 2 Tiger Woods will not.
PALM HARBOR - The world of golf seems to revolve around Tiger Woods, and rightfully so. He has won four straight PGA Tour player of the year awards and money titles. He has won the most tournaments of any player in each of those seasons. He is the standard.
But while Woods stays at home this week in Orlando, the Chrysler Championship at the Westin Innisbrook Resort will go on without him. And his stranglehold on those honors could be challenged.
This year, Woods has shown periods of vulnerability. He is still the best player in golf, without an argument. But he didn't win a major championship for the first time since 1998, and for the first time in five years he failed to wrap up all of the game's major awards by the summer.
With two events to go in the 2003 season, there is actually something to be decided, some drama, some intrigue. That is why six of the top 10, 10 of the top 20 and 39 of the top 50 money winners are entered.
"Well, it's nice," said Davis Love, who along with Woods and Vijay Singh is still in contention for the PGA Tour money title and player of the year award. "It's nice to keep people focused on golf all the way through the whole season. That's what (the season-ending events) were meant to do was help decide money titles and players of the year, things like that. So it's nice, it's fun. It sure makes the end of the season a lot more exciting."
And it makes the $4.8-million Chrysler Championship more compelling. The inaugural event, which begins Thursday on the Copperhead course, will not only crown a winner who will receive $864,000, but it will help determine who wins the money title, player of the year, the field for next week's Tour Championship and next year's Masters. Last but not least, it is also the final chance for players to secure their playing privileges for the 2004 season.
"It's the penultimate event of the year," said Tim Crosby, the PGA Tour's director of business affairs. "There are so many subplots. It's certainly going to be an attention-getter."
The tournament boasts four of the top six money winners but not Woods, who is skipping the event at his own peril. Singh, Love, Masters champion Mike Weir and Kenny Perry also are candidates for player of the year honors. U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk, the other contender, is taking the week off.
"It's been a great season so far," said Weir, who has won three times and is fifth on the money list. "Obviously I got off to a great start and played pretty steady throughout the year. I haven't been able to bag a win here in the last couples of months, but I'm planning on playing hard and seeing what happens. Whatever happens, I know I've given it my all."
Singh and Love have made a late push for the money title and player of the year honors, adding this tournament to perhaps propel them to the top. In fact, Love did not enter until Friday at the deadline.
"If I could win five (tournaments), I don't think I have to win the money title," Love said. "I've got an ace in the hole over Vijay and Tiger with the Players Championship. What do you do? Do you get ready for the Tour Championship and try to win that? Or do you try to win the money title and try to win both of them?"
Love elected for the latter, as did Singh, who is coming off a victory Sunday at the Funai Classic and moved to the top of the PGA Tour money list with $6,827,507. He has a $250,000 lead over Woods and would clinch the money title with a victory at the Chrysler Championship.
Although Woods said the player of the year honor is more meaningful - he has played eight fewer events than Singh - that award is very much in doubt at this point. Woods has five victories and two World Golf Championship events, but it is hard to ignore the season of Singh, who has 15 top-10 finishes and four victories.
"I feel like if I win the money title, I have a good chance of winning player of the year," said Singh, who noted that the award is voted on by PGA Tour players. "If I don't win the money title, then I have no chance. That's the way I feel. It's a matter of time to see what happens in the next two weeks."
Plenty of others will have a say, including Ernie Els, who has six official victories worldwide, more than any player, and won the PGA European Tour's Order of Merit.
Els began a trend, winning the first two events of the PGA Tour season. Unlike last year when first-time winners were frequent, 2003 has been marked by an abundance of veteran players winning multiple titles. There have been eight of them. Woods leads the way with five victories, followed by Love and Singh with four each. Weir and Perry have three wins apiece. David Toms, Els and Furyk each have two wins.
Furyk is the only major champion missing from the Chrysler field. Joining Weir is British Open champion Ben Curtis and PGA championship winner Shaun Micheel.
And everybody seems to have something at stake.
There are those in contention for the money title and player of the year; others are trying to secure their spots in next week's Tour Championship, which invites just the top 30 money winners. Anyone who is in the top 40 after this week gets an invitation to the Masters. And, of course, those who finish among the top 125 earn their PGA Tour cards for next year.
"The guys who are trying to get into the top 125, they're playing every week and they are fried," said Clearwater's John Huston, who won the 2000 Tampa Bay Classic at Innisbrook. "There are guys like myself who are trying to get in the Tour Championship, probably a handful of guys who still have a chance at player of the year. If they were to come here and win, they'd probably still have a good shot at it. It depends on your own situation."
And waiting for them will be a 7,315-yard, par-71 golf course that is well-respected by those who play it. Last year, K.J. Choi shot 267, 17 under par, to win by seven shots in the Tampa Bay Classic, but he was one of just two players who got to double-digits under par. In fact, only 34 players completed the tournament under par.
Last year's tournament, played opposite the American Express Championship, was played in sweltering September conditions. Cooler weather coupled with longer rough should make the Copperhead even more formidable.
"It's a tough, tough golf course," said Perry, who played it several times when he competed in the JCPenney Classic. "Copperhead holds its own. Guys who come in trying to keep their card ... it's tough to have to go to a place like that. I like it when par is a good score, and at Copperhead, that's the case."
"I think it's a great golf course," said Jon Brendle, a PGA Tour tournament official who has helped set up the course in the past. "I'm hoping it will do something for the tournament and bring people out. It's a great Bermuda (grass) golf course. Everybody talks about money turns these guys on, but I think a really good golf course turns them on."
A good course, a top-notch field, plenty to be gained and lost. There should be a bit of everything at the Chrysler Championship.
