It's been a while since Tiger Woods has walked between the ropes at a professional tournament, but will be treating Bay Area golf fans with his presence this weekend, makiing his first appearance since the PGA Championship.
Thats right folks, PGA tour action returns to the Bay Area, along with the former number one in the world, at the Fry's.com Open at Cordevalle Resort in San Martin. This tournament usually has a strong field, but with the addition of Mr. Woods it becomes one of the most premier tour stops this time of year as all eyes in the golfing world turn towards the left coast.
Many fans would ask why Tiger would chose this event to play in at this time of year? Tiger has a long-lastiong relationship with Fry's.com Open president Duke Butler, and is also looking for a tune up before this year's President's Cup. Woods is also a Stanford Alum and California native, couple that with a strong field on a solid course, it was a perfect place for Tiger to work on his game. Tiger's agent Mark Steinberg checked out the course last year after the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, though Tiger himself has never scoped out the track.
Along with Woods, defending champion Rocco Mediate will join the likes of Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Paul Casey, Trevor Immelman, Steve Elkington, David Duval , and Justin Leonard as part of this year's field. Native Californians Ricky Barnes, Spencer Levin, Kevin Chappell, Joseph Bramlett, Zack Miller and Tom Pernice Jr. will all be in attendance as well, so there will be no shortage of players to watch this weekend.
The tournament will be played October 5-9 as part of the PGA Tour's Fall Series, with 132 players vying for their part of the $5 million purse and $900,000 payout to the eventual winner. This will be the sixth year of the tournament's existence, with more than $3 million in donations for local charities earned to date and more than $800,000 earned in 2010 alone.