Author: Matt Fargo - Monday, April 24, 2006

The new home course for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the TPC of Louisiana, was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and still is unplayable. There was concern whether the event would even be able to take place but group efforts made it happen and this year's tournament will be played at the English Turn Golf & Country Club, the tournament site from 1989 to 2004. Further proof of the backing lies in the winner's share of $1.08 million from a $6 million purse, which is up $500,000 from last year. This will be a special event for many, including Louisiana natives David Toms, Hal Sutton and Kelly Gibson.

Six players who have already won this year are in the field including last week's Shell champion Stuart Appleby and Masters champion Phil Mickelson. The field is not star heavy but there are some big names to follow including Retief Goosen, Stephen Ames, Chris DiMarco, Padraig Harrington, Mark Calcavecchia, Scott Verplank, David Duval, Fred Funk and Bernhard Langer. In total, 12 of the world?s top 50 will be teeing it up while 10 of this year's top 30 money leaders are also in the field. Mickelson is the early favorite and with the way he has been playing, another win is very possible.

Mickelson has won his last two events, The Masters and the BellSouth Classic the week prior to that. He has never won in New Orleans but has finished second twice, the last coming in 2004. In five starts here, he has three top ten finishes and he is the leading money leader of all players without a victory in New Orleans. Over the last 10 years of scoring, he has the best scoring average at 68.7 and he is one of only three players to have scoring averages below 69. Vijay Singh, who is not in the field this week, is one while Ames is the other.

Like Mickelson, Ames has five starts here with three top tens to his credit. His best finish was a tie for 4th in 2000 while in his most recent start in 2004 he finished tied for 7th. His big victory this year was at the Players Championship but his recent play has been very solid everywhere. He has not finished outside the top 20 in his last four starts including an 11th place finish at The Masters, the last event he was in. Ever since he was toasted by Tiger Woods at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship 9 & 8, his game has improved dramatically.

DiMarco has been having a rough go of it as of late ever since suffering a rib injury prior to the Players Championship. He has not finished higher than 52nd in three starts since then while missing the cut in two of those. He started the season with three top 15's in his first four events but has not been close since. New Orleans could be a turning point following a week off since he has had great success here. He finished tied for third last year and has three top 10's in his last four starts. A final round 80 knocked him out of contention back in 2004, his only round over par in his last 16.

One name that won't get a lot of talk is Steve Flesch, the 2003 New Orleans winner. He has been up and down this year, which is similar to his resume in this event, up and down. He has only one top 10 this year, four weeks ago at the BellSouth and he is coming off a missed cut at the Shell. Besides his 2003 victory, he has three other top10 finishes in New Orleans although all three of those were between 1998-2000. He missed the cut last year, but the return to English Turn will only help since that is where he had all of his success. He could be a big sleeper at a huge price.

Without a huge star-studded field, we could see a relative no name take home the top prize similar to Tim Petrovic last year. However, the same could have been said last week at the Shell when the field was even less sparse but a big name still prevailed. It's no guarantee that the winner will come from the 12 players that are in the top 50 in the world but it is a likely scenario with the way some of them are presently playing. The fact that this event is even taking place is satisfaction enough and the city of New Orleans deserves it.

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