Golf Central

On this day in 1980, Sergio García - one of many who hold the dubious claim to be "best golfer to lack a major championship" - was born in Castellon, Spain.

When the charismatic García exploded onto the golf scene in 1999 as a precocious 19-year-old with the nickname El Niño, he was immediately tagged as a star of the future. Sergio's entrance to the big time was unforgettable: he pulled off a miracle shot wrapped round a tree and nearly chased down Tiger Woods to win the '99 PGA Championship at Medinah, finishing second.

With his charm and enthusiasm, there was never been any doubt of García's popularity on both sides of the pond, and there has been a reasonable amount of success as well. The Spaniard has won six times each on both the US and European Tours. He has proven star quality, from his expensive sports cars to his famous ex-girlfriends (tennis star Martina Hingis and Greg Norman's daughter, Morgan-Leigh).

And there is no question that Sergio has compiled one of the greatest Ryder Cup resumes in history. The key man on Europe's last four Ryder Cup teams, Sergio has put together a nearly bulletproof record of 14-3-3 in golf's showcase team event. But as we head into 2008, everyone is still waiting for that little bit more ...

What the hell do Boo Weekley's bullets, Thaksin Shinawatra, and Daniel Chopra's Playstation have to do with this grand game of golf that we know and love? You might ask, and we are here to answer, with the 10 things we've learned from golf this week that have made us a bit more worldly wise than we were a week ago (which is not hard, since we were hungover a week ago).

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) ...