Celebrate the Tiger New Year

2008-05-01 10:48

Charlotte - Not everyone is missing Tiger Woods at the Wachovia Championship this week.

"At least I won't have to deal with all his fans," Rory Sabbatini said.

Woods will miss the stop on the PGA Tour due to having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. He also will miss next week's Players Championship.

It was a year ago at Quail Hollow Club that Sabbatini said he was looking forward to being paired with Woods in the final round. Woods shot a 3-under 69 to win the tournament, while Sabbatini shot 74 and finished tied for third.

A week later, Sabbatini said Woods looked "beatable as ever." Woods responded by noting he had as many wins in 2007 as Sabbatini had in his career.

Sabbatini's been hearing it from the galleries ever since.

"There were a couple of times I wanted to bury a few clubs in a couple of people," Sabbatini said. "Now you just have to realize that, you know what, half of them are drunk and the other half, well everyone is entitled to their opinion."

Sabbatini is part of a loaded field - even without Woods - for Thursday's start to the six-year-old Wachovia Championship.

Phil Mickelson, armed with a new putter, will play his first tournament since the Masters.

Last year's runner up, Steve Stricker, is playing. So is Adam Scott, 2006 champion Jim Furyk, 2005 winner Vijay Singh and Masters champion Trevor Immelman.

In all, 18 of the world's top 25 will play after Lee Westwood withdrew on Wednesday.

Sabbatini is ranked 12th, but struggling. He missed the cut at the Masters and at last week's Byron Nelson Championship. He's finished no better than 33rd in his last six tournaments.

But the outspoken South African, who tried to convince reporters that he didn't know Woods wasn't here, thinks his return trip to Charlotte might change his luck.

"It was this time last year that the media butchered me," Sabbatini said. "So maybe it'll be a new year. Can we do a Tiger's New Year? We've got the Chinese New Year, we got our New Year. How about a Tiger New Year?"

Sabbatini and the rest of the field will face a course beloved by most golfers, but still waterlogged from Monday's 7 1/2 centimetres (3 inches) of rain. Groundskeepers were busy sucking moisture out of the greens during Wednesday's pro-am. The plan was to have shorter rough and faster greens than a year ago when Woods won by two shots over Stricker.

"I love how progressive this tournament is in having the two-layered cuts of rough," Mickelson said. "I thought that was a terrific idea, the way you could hit some shots if you miss the fairway, but if you go in the deep stuff, you're wedging out."

Mickelson has spent the past two weeks working on his struggling putting. He said his recent fitness routine, which included extensive stretching, has caused him to grow up to an inch. It's why he switched to a 35-inch putter from a 33-inch model.

"I spent two weeks working on it and trying to get it dialled in," Mickelson said. "I putted great today. I thought I hit a lot of good putts, and I'm excited."

- AP