Golf Central

This week the PGA Tour remains in the 50th State for the first full-field event of the season. The Sony Open takes place at the Waialee Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii and has a prize fund of $5.3 million. Here’s whom I’m backing to take away the loot…

Stephen Ames @ 20/1 with Coral: Ames finished just one shot out of a play-off at last week’s Mercedes-Benz Championship after closing with a seven under 66. His game is well suited to the Waialee course; he is a great striker of the ball, has a tidy short game and is an excellent player in the wind.

Charles Howell III @ 28/1 with Coral: His six starts in this event have netted three top four finishes, including a second place finish last year and third place in 2005. He finished in a respectable tie for eighth place last week and, considering his record in this event, his price represents definite each-way value.

Chad Campbell @ 45/1 with VC bet: Campbell recovered from a poor start at the Mercedes-Benz to play the last three rounds in 13 under par. All four of his PGA Tour wins have come on Bermuda grass and he finished runner-up in this event two years ago. Another whose price represents good each-way value.

Englishman Paul Casey may be taking an unusual route to realising his dream of playing on his third straight European Ryder Cup team - by playing the PGA Tour in the United States full-time.

Casey hasn't been a regular PGA Tour card-holder since the 2005 season, but the big-hitting 30-year-old from Cheltenham has announced he's taking advantage of his fully exempt status in the US this season. Said Casey: "The way I want to get in the Ryder Cup is world ranking points," he said. "It doesn't matter where I play, I just need to play well."

The European team will be composed of five players at the top of the European Order of Merit, which began its tally in September. The next five eligible players will come off a list of Official World Golf Rankings points, also earned since September. With Casey eligible for all four majors and the three World Golf Championships events, he'll only need to add four regular Euro Tour events to keep his card on this side of the pond.

He's in a similar position to the red-hot Swedish-Indian Daniel Chopra, who wasn't dreaming of the Ryder Cup until two wins in the last three months on the PGA Tour; and Jesper Parnevik, the stylish veteran who finished off his 2008 on a hot streak. All three can take solace from knowing that they'll also be under the watchful eye of the man who matters most: European captain Nick Faldo, who will spend most of 2008 broadcasting from the US PGA Tour.

On this day, and a year apart as fate might have it, the top two young heart-throbs of the modern PGA and LPGA Tours were born - Colombia's Camilo Villegas, and California girl Natalie Gulbis.

Needless to say, the women in the galleries stop and cool themselves off when the Latin god Villegas swaggers by, muscles rippling Springsteen-like in his stylish J. Lindeberg duds ... and by the same token, the fellas sigh when the curvy blonde bombshell Natalie saunters past in a cute little blouse-and-skirt combo (or when she wears even less in her ubiquitous calendars) ...

That's one Exploding Divot for me, and none for you ...: Oh, now you're going to tell me you told me so.
Yep...: Well, how much money did you put on Daniel Chopra to win anyway?
Nothing. I'm not a gambling man. But I gave you the tip...: Thanks anyway. I backed him and made £50.
Good! You're buying the mai-tais then...: Fair enough. I thought it was pretty great that we had some real excitement in the first week of the PGA Tour.
Indeed. Although it wasn't a classic playoff by any means ...: Not really. Pretty untidy. But then again, so was The Open last year. Just goes to show that you don't need Tiger and Phil to be involved to have a thrilling finale.
Oh now you're going to start waxing poetic about the thrills of tournament golf ...: Hey, that's what we do. It's right on the tin: In Golf We Trust!
Gotta admit Steve Stricker was a bit unlucky ...: Yeah. I want a ball marker just like Chopra's. If Stricker's putt on 18 hadn't hit Chopra's mark he might have won the tournament right then and there.
As Maxwell Smart would say: 'The old funky ball marker on the 18th at Kapalua trick" ...: Wonder if Chopra learned that one off his Playstation?
Hey you've got to admire a guy who does his scouting of golf courses on Playstation and goes on to win...: Speaking of scouting, do you reckon Nick Faldo learned anything this week? It might have been an untidy playoff, but it could have been a Ryder Cup singles preview really, now that Stricker is No. 3 in the world.
Well, Faldo was a bit mum about things in the booth ...: But surely if Chopra keeps playing like this, the big Swindian might play his way on to Nick's Ryder Cup team. Anyway, I'm hungry, let's go get a mai-tai and a bite ...
Still thinking about Stephen Ames are you? ...: In my nightmares, mate ... Always in my nightmares.

On this day in history is a very good day to be born indeed if you intend to become a golfing great, because three legends of the game were born on this day - Nancy Lopez, Paul Azinger and Dr Cary Middlecoff.

Lopez was born January 6, 1957 in Torrance, California, and of course went on to become a stereotype-breaking LPGA Hall of Famer. A Mexican-American, Lopez was lauded as a "progressive woman of colour" - but of course, it helped that she had game, as well.

Breaking onto the Tour in 1978, Lopez won nine tournaments her first year and eight in her next. She went on to roll up 48 LPGA Tour victories, including three major titles, and was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987 at the age of 30. ... Happy 51st, Nancy ...