Sony Open Preview: Test for the New Guys

Filed under: PGA, Golf Odds and Ends

Now, everybody gets to play.

The Sony Open in Hawaii, the PGA Tour's first full-field event, tees off Thursday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. After last week's winners-only Tournament of Champions got the season started, now everybody gets to play -- well, at least a field of 144.

The field has attracted only Steve Stricker (No. 6) and Jim Furyk (No. 7) from the World Golf Ranking's top 10, but has 22 of the 34 players who competed last week in Kapalua, including winner Jonathan Byrd and defending tournament champ Ryan Palmer.

There's also Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Davis Love and Zach Johnson, giving the field more than a fair share of glamor names.

The week is also the annual coming-out party for the season's rookie class. Twenty-six of this year's 35 rookies will make their debut , 15 of them age 25 or younger.

Jamie Lovemark, 22, will get much of the fresh-face attention. Lovemark, out of the University of Southern Cal, was the youngest-ever winner of the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year last season. He won once and finished runner-up three times to surpass Stewart Cink (1996) and Nick Flanagan (1997), who both turned 23 the year they won the award.

 

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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/01/12/sony-open-preview-test-for-the-new-guys/

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