AT&T Classic: Pre-Tournament Notebook  This week PGA TOUR players travel to Georgia for the second of three TOUR events in 2007, the AT&T Classic in suburban Atlanta. Earlier this year, Augusta hosted the Masters Tournament, while Atlanta will host the final event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, in September. • The TPC Sugarloaf has been the AT&T Classic's home since 1997, while the TOUR first held the tournament in 1967.  Zach Johnson will tee it up in Georgia for the first time since his big Masters victory. (Hunter Martin/WireImage)
• While Phil Mickelson, the 2006 champ, isn't playing this week, Zach Johnson, who won the Masters on his last visit to Georgia and tied for second at the AT&T Classic a year ago, is in the field. • Jose Coceres is having a very nice comeback season. Since winning twice in 2001, Coceres has finished 157-152-106-182-147 on the money list. This year, however, he's made only six starts, but he's finished second twice (both in playoffs) and fifth in last week's PLAYERS Championship. He's currently 32nd on the FedExCup points list. • Since the PGA TOUR began tracking double eagles in 1970, an interesting thing has happened. A total of 95 double eagles have been made in that time span, but only once has a player made an albatross and won the tournament. That player would be Bob Gilder at the 1982 Westchester Classic. • More on double eagles: When Hunter Mahan and Peter Lonard made double eagles last week at THE PLAYERS, it marked only the fourth time since 1970 that two were made in the same tournament. The others came at the 2005 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the 2001 British Open and the 1990 INTERNATIONAL. • A little more than halfway through the PGA TOUR Regular Season, the cream is rising to the top in the FedExCup points race. World No. 1 Tiger Woods is first, world No. 2 Phil Mickelson is second and world No. 6 Vijay Singh is third. • The PGA TOUR is in suburban Atlanta this week at the AT&T Classic and local Georgia Tech fans will have a number of players to cheer for with five Yellow Jackets in the field. Playing this week in Atlanta are Stewart Cink, Tripp Isenhour, Matt Kuchar, Troy Matteson and Bryce Molder. Georgia Bulldog fans will have plenty cheer about as well with several Dawgs in the field, including Justin Bolli, Ryuji Imada and Franklin Langham. • Also in the field this week are two Champions Tour regulars -- Raymond Floyd and Larry Nelson. Nelson won the AT&T Classic in 1980 and again in 1988. Floyd never won it, but did lose in a playoff in 1982 to Keith Fergus. • Charley Hoffman began last week's PLAYERS in the worst possible way, making a quintuple bogey 9 on the 10th hole, his first of the week . He made a remarkable recovery, however, playing the rest of his first round in 2 under par in strong winds to shoot 75. He came back the next day to fire a 69 to make the cut. He ended the week in a tie for 75th. • This week, Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, will look to better his tie for second at last year's tournament. Johnson also won the event in 2004 for his first PGA TOUR title. • In addition to Zach Johnson, three other players have made the AT&T Classic their first PGA TOUR victory: Ben Crane (2003), Paul Stankowski (1996) and Tommy Aaron (1970). • Phil Mickelson is the only three-time winner in this event, along with seven two-time winners. Mickelson picked up his third win a year ago. The other multiple champions at this event are Bob Lunn (1968, 1972), Jack Nicklaus (1973-74), Hale Irwin (1975, 1977), Larry Nelson (1980, 1988), Wayne Levi (1985, 1990), Tom Kite (1984, 1992) and Scott McCarron (1997 and 2001). Of that group, only Nelson, currently a Champions Tour player, is in this week's field. • In the history of the AT&T Classic (dating back to 1967), only three players over age 40 have won the event. They include Gardner Dickinson in 1971) (43 years, 8 months, 22 days); Larry Nelson in 1988 (40 years, 9 months, 16 days); and Tom Kite in 1992 (42 years, 5 months, 1 day). • Players will be very aware of the TPC Sugarloaf's ninth hole this week. A year ago, the par 4 tied for 18th on the TOUR's toughest-holes list on TOUR with a scoring average of 4.384. While it did surrender 33 birdies, it also saw 163 bogeys or worse. Overall, the TPC Sugarloaf ranked as the 34th most difficult of 55 courses on TOUR, with a scoring average of 71.757. • Last year, 28 players posted par-or-better rounds. In only 54 holes at the rain-shortened 2005 event, there were only 10 players with all four rounds at par or better. • Phil Mickelson's 13-shot victory over Zach Johnson and Jose Maria Olazabal in 2006 was the seventh-largest winning margin in PGA TOUR history. It was the TOUR's largest victory margin since Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes. This tournament's previous-largest winning margin came in 1979 when Andy Bean defeated Joe Inman by eight strokes at Atlanta Country Club. • Since 1997, Stewart Cink has more rounds at par or better than any other player. Last year he added four more (72-69-70-71) to bring his total to 27. Second on the list is David Toms, who has 23 par-or-better rounds in that period. Both players are in the field this week. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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