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BOB HARIGTiger Woods never plays the week before the Masters, but others, like Phil Mickelson, prefer it. Players agree on one point: to each his own.
There are several tournaments on the PGA Tour that Tiger Woods routinely skips, but this week's BellSouth Classic outside of Atlanta is the only one that knows it has no shot at ever getting the world's No. 1 player.
Not if it is going to be played the week before the Masters.
Woods won the BellSouth in 1998, but skipped his defense the next year when the tournament moved to the week before the year's first major championship. He has yet to return.
Though the TPC at Sugarloaf course is just two hours from Augusta National, and has many of the same characteristics, Woods prefers to spend the week before most majors at home working on his game at Isleworth.
He's not alone.
Only 20 in next week's Masters field are playing in Atlanta.
One of them is Phil Mickelson, who is still searching for his first major but believes the way to prepare best is to play.
"It takes time to figure out what allows each player to play their best," said Mickelson, who has three consecutive third-place finishes at the Masters and eight top-five finishes in majors. "I know that Jack Nicklaus used to skip the week before a major. I tried that for a while and I just didn't perform as well.
"As my career went on, I found that by playing the week before and only having three days between competitive rounds, I was much fresher, more mentally ready to play in a major championship than having 10 or 12 days off. So I like to play the week before."
International players such as Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and Ireland's Padraig Harrington are playing in Atlanta before heading down I-20 to Augusta, as is Players Championship winner Adam Scott.
And so is defending Masters champion Mike Weir, who took a three-week break before missing the cut at last week's Players Championship. He got in two days of practice at Augusta National before the Players.
"When I come into these couple of weeks, I like to try to work on my fade," said Weir, who is left-handed. "That's not a natural shot to me, right-to-left. My natural shot is left-to-right. I've been practicing that the last couple of weeks. It works well going forward."
Ernie Els likes to play the week before a major. He won at Loch Lomond in Scotland before last year's British Open, and likes playing the Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club in suburban New York before the U.S. Open. But he's skipping this week, opting to play a practice round at Augusta National today.
"Yeah, I think at the end of the day, it's maybe better to play a lot of competitive golf leading into a major to see where you are in the competitive environment," Els said "(But) I didn't have a great experience in Atlanta. Nothing against the golf course. ... I think it's a good course before the Masters because the greens are very similar. ... But I just didn't feel good on that course.
"I think I've got a pretty nice formula. My majors have been pretty good the last couple of years."
Davis Love is trying to get his timing down. Last year he won the Players Championship two weeks before the Masters, then won the MCI Heritage the week after. In fact, he's won the Players twice and the Heritage five times. At the Masters, he has no victories but five top 10s, including two seconds. His lone major title came at the 1997 PGA Championship.
"Obviously I've prepared well for this time of year, better probably than any other time of year," said Love, who is not playing the BellSouth. "I think the secret is to not try so hard. Let it happen and play your game. Enjoy the competition and get lost in what you're doing and not think about that it's the Players Championship or the Masters.
"The hardest thing about (majors) is there's only four a year. You only get those four chances, and I think if we're at Honda, Bay Hill and Atlanta and Hilton Head, and there's another one the next week, you say, "I'm real close, I'm going to win the next one, I'm going to patient.' It's hard to be patient when you've got the Masters and you have the U.S. Open and you say, "Dang, I have to wait until April again.' So your anxiety is higher, and you have to learn to deal with it. It takes some guys longer. The guys who get to No. 1 in the world figure it out faster."
Woods has it figured out pretty well. He has never played the week before the Masters, U.S. Open or British Open. Four times since he turned pro in 1996 he has played in the Buick Open preceding the PGA Championship. Woods won the 2000 PGA in a playoff the week after tying for 11th at the Buick. In 2002, the last time he played the week before a major, he won the Buick Open, then finished second to Rich Beem at the PGA.
Whatever works. Woods has won eight majors.