Golf Central

OK, here's nine things you might, or might not know about the heritage of the tournament now played at the TPC Louisiana...

1. Lee Trevino won in 1974 without recording a single bogey - the last player to achieve that feat on The PGA Tour.
2. It's the 11th oldest event on the PGA Tour, including the co-sanctioned Open Championship, which is the oldest by 35 years and is still called the 'British' by American golf fans who really should know better. Sorry, but it's still really annoying...
3. David Toms became the first Native Louisianan to win in 2001 with a weekend that few could ever dream of - a 63 on Saturday and a 64 on Sunday. He will be missing his first event in 13 years, having pulled out with a bad back.
4. Davis Love III had to win in 1995 to make the field for The Masters. He did just that and came second at Augusta to Ben Crenshaw.
5. 14 members of golf's Hall Of Fame have won the Zurich Classic, including Harry Cooper, Byron Nelson, Jimmy Demaret, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson, among others.
6. PGA Tour players Kelly Gibson and Steve Elkington had a hand in helping Pete Dye design the TPC course, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  
7. The last three big cheques have been written out to first-time winners on tour - Tim Petrovic, Chris Couch and Nick Watney.
8. Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen head the list of favourites this week.
9. Zurich Financial Services is an insurance-based financial services provider founded in 1872. Its headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland (quit now, before you start going on about Leadbelly and Jelly Roll Morton... Ed).

 

However staid and predictable it may seem, golf is never short of odd little curios that conveniently help us learn a little more about life in general. This week alone, Iestyn George realises that even men of enormous ego have honour, that you're only as good as your last tour win and that he already needs another holiday - preferably in Wisconsin...

 

 

Mark Brooks was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 25, 1961. Winner of the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla, he has notched up six other victories on the PGA Tour.

 

As you might well imagine, Brooks doesn't stand on ceremony when it comes to airing his views.