Diego. Many of the highly-touted pros took to Abu Dhabi to play in the HSBC Golf Championships where young Pablo Larrazabel took home the crown beating out Phil Mickelson and Rory McIroy. While other PGA pros took to California in the Humana Challenge to play a course dominated by Patrick Reed all weekend notching his first PGA Tour win of the young 2014 season.
We will start in Abu Dhabi quickly as Larrazebel hit a big final birdie putt plus not many mistakes ensuring the unknown Spaniard a win against the top dogs. On the other hand, Mickelson had a bizarre double hit leading him to hit right-handed and caused him a tripe bogey on the final back nine. This is what we have come to expect with Mickelson through in the past decade. He wins tournaments, but he costs himself other ones by playing irrationally. But it was good to see both Phil and Rory especially get off to hot starts to their golf season. Always good when everyone is in form early on.
As for the Humana, it is too easy of a course. PGA West needs to consider how to change the course or move the location of the tournament to a nearby course in California. I like seeing players at least be challenged a little bit. Reed had a such a lead after firing off three straight 63's that a Zach Johnson 62 on the final day did not beat him even though Reed was merely one under for the day. Johnson is playing great golf to start the year for those who have not noticed. Even though this course is not the toughest, the fact Reed now has two wins under his belt at 23 is worth noting. I will be interested to see how he handles some of the more difficult courses on tour in the months to come.Now for the Farmer's Insurance Open where Tiger Woods holds court as the personal owner of this tournament. He has won it a record-setting seven times. It begs the question... What should our expectations be of Tiger in this tournament? The answer is probably to be in the top five, and have a chance to win it on Sunday without the pressure of 'He needs to win this tournament.' This is one of the few tournaments in Woods' wheelhouse, and he usually takes advantage of those tournaments. It also asks the question, who will dethrone Tiger on this course?
There are a bevy of good golfers who have won this tournament before, and are playing this weekend along with other names to keep an eye on. I do think golfers play better with Tiger in the first couple rounds versus the last two meaning I could see Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker whom finished fourth last year find some success. With Mickelson playing good early golf, it is hard to rule him out and won here three times even if the last win was in 2001. Brandt Snedeker finished second to Tiger last season and won the event in 2012 meaning he should be up there again this year. There is no real wild card here as it is a loaded field, but Bill Haas is a name to watch with three top 10 finishes at Torrey Pines in the past.
With football taking a week off, it is a good weekend to get familiar with golf again. It should be a great tournament and maybe we will give a Tiger/Phil final pairing for old times sake.
Charlie.
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