KAPALUA, Hawaii -- The grandstand surrounding the ninth
green was packed, and it was only a quiet Monday afternoon at
Kapalua, with no more than a dozen players on the Plantation
Course.
Everyone anticipates a blockbuster season on the PGA Tour.
Vijay Singh starts the year at No. 1 for the first time in his
career. Tiger Woods showed signs of recovering his game late last
year, while Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen could make
it crowded at the top.
Singh knows his nine-victory season that took him to No. 1 was
old news when the calendar changed.
"Everybody is going to be starting level," Singh said.
"You've just got to get in front as quick as possible and see if
you can stay there. That's the way I've always thought, and
hopefully I'm going to start that way again."
And that leads to seven questions about the 2005 season:
^What does Singh do for an encore?<
Singh is curious how he will handle the expectations, although
they won't be as great as when Woods tried to follow up on his
nine-win season of 2000. Woods went 10 weeks at the start of the
'01 season without winning and had to face questions about a slump.
Then he won three straight, including the Masters for his fourth
straight major.
Keep in mind that Singh won only one time through the Masters
last year, and no one questioned his game. That won't be the case
in 2005, and he can take a load of pressure off by winning at least
once on the West Coast Swing.
Odds are against him winning nine times again, although if he
plays the same schedule -- his 29 starts last year matched his
career-high -- there is no reason he can't win a half-dozen times.<
^Was the end of the year a mirage for Tiger?<
Woods gained renewed optimism by winning his final two
tournaments of the year with a game that looked vaguely familiar.
Still, no one will take the Dunlop Phoenix (Japan) or the Target
World Challenge (silly season) too seriously. Still, it was enough
to raise expectations.
Woods is playing two of the first three tournaments, and he
might face more scrutiny than Singh.
The real test will be the majors. If Woods fails to win the
Masters, it will be the longest stretch without a major in his
career. Another question is whether Woods' cut streak (133
tournaments) can survive another year.
^Will the majors haunt the Big Easy?<
Els will remember 2004 as the year the majors got away -- all
four of them. He had three putts on the 72nd hole to either win or
get into a playoff, and missed them all. He shot 80 in the final
group at the U.S. Open.
He might have found the secret to getting sharp for the four
biggest weeks of the year, but four close calls in one year creates
a lot of scar tissue. The Masters is what he wants the most, only
Els might be the next in a long line of players who felt Augusta
National owed them one (Ken Venturi, Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman,
David Duval).
His best bet might be the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, which
should feel like a U.S. Open.<
^What will Phil do next?<
That 8-inch vertical leap at Augusta National is the most vivid
reminder that Mickelson no longer is hounded as the best player to
never win a major. Coming within five shots of winning all four was
a statement that Lefty has these majors all figured out.
Still, his magical year ended after the PGA Championship. The
Ryder Cup was a disaster, and his 59 at the Grand Slam of Golf
doesn't count. Memories being short, he'll probably have to prove
himself again the first three months of the year to be considered a
major force going into the Masters.<
^Will anyone in their 20s emerge as a legitimate star?<
Assuming Woods is an old man at 29, golf still is searching for
a player in his 20s to emerge as a rival for the next decade. Adam
Scott became the youngest winner (23) of The Players Championship,
but the best bet is Sergio Garcia. He already has won five times on
tour and, unlike Scott, is becoming a regular contender in the
majors.
Other possibilities are the English trio of Justin Rose, Luke
Donald and Paul Casey. Charles Howell III is too young (25) to be
forgotten. Even though he has won only one tournament, he has never
finished lower than 33rd on the PGA Tour money list.<
^What about the old guys?<
Tom Kite once advised Jay Haas to keep playing on the PGA Tour
as long as he could, because once someone goes to the Champions
Tour, it's hard to go back to regular golf. Haas has made the Tour
Championship the last two years, and at 51 will be trying to make
the Presidents Cup team.
Kite, meanwhile, is using a career-money exemption to return to
the PGA Tour. But if he fails to compete, he might be a victim of
his own advice.<
^Can Tim Finchem work magic on another TV deal?<
No one will be pulling harder for Woods than the PGA Tour
commissioner, who will start negotiating the next television
contract this year. The last two times Finchem sat across from the
networks were in 1997, when Woods won the Masters by a record 12
shots, and in 2001, when Woods won the "Tiger Slam" -- four majors
in a span of 294 days.
It's all about timing.
And the tour is positioned to provide some drama that will have
everyone watching.