No one was more relieved last week at Steve Lowery’s win than me.  Afterall I did have Vijay on my “Won’t Win” list.  And I was right………….barely.  One (of the many) great things about the PGA Tour are the comebacks.  Steve Lowery, who had not won on the PGA Tour since 1994 was on no ones list to contend last week.  It will be interesting to see if he can keep his momentum going this week at the Northern Trust (formerly Nissan) Open.

This week marks the first PGA Tour event for several big names, including Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Justin Rose and Adam Scott.  Of those names Scott has the best track record here, winning in 2005 and finishing 2nd in 2006.  Notably absent from the field this week is Tiger, who has never won this event in eleven tries.  Sergio has also never won here, though coming in 6th last season, his best finish.

Northern Trust Open
Riviera Country Club – Pacific Palisades, California

Charles Howell III prevailed last season beating Phil in a playoff.  Howell plays well at Riviera, having lost in a playoff in 2003 and T6 in 2002.  With three Top 25 finishes already this season, Charles has an outside shot to defend his title, which has not been done since Mike Weir won back to back here in 03 and 04.  Howell currently ranks 24th in G.I.R % but will need to find his putter (currently 85 in Putts per Round) if he’s going to repeat.

G.I.R. is huge on this course and you will most likely find your winner in the Top 10 in G.I.R. for the week.  If the course stays dry (and no rain is in the forecast) expect to see some low rounds early. 

What Phil will show up this week?  His game is so inconsistent right now that I will make no predictions, except that he won’t win, and hope that he can prove me wrong.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say ZJ wins by a few shots over Adam Scott.

Won’t Win:  Charles Howell III, Sergio Garcia, Phil

Could Win:  Adam Scott, Rory Sabbatini, K.J. Choi

Sleepers:  Zach Johnson, Carl Pettersson, Jeff Quinney

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under 2008 PGA Previews, Northern Trust Open. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.