The third annual Tavistock Cup kicked teed off this morning at Isleworth Country Club. How often do you get to see twenty of the world's top golfers have a fun casual competition, in shorts no less? With a small purse of 1.7 million, bragging rights are the real prize to be had in this friendly competition.

"The Tavistock Cup is a healthy and spirited sports competition and a unique opportunity to give back to the community," said Tom Morgan, president and CEO of Hughes Supply.

Two teams from Isleworth and Lake Nona Country Clubs will be pitted against each other today and tomorrow. The first day will feature Fourball competition with the lowest 18-hole score winning the match. Four matches in all will be played today all for a total of eight possible points.

Tomorrow will feature Singles competition with both Isleworth players challenging both Lake Nona players within the foursomes. So each member of the Isleworth team will play a stroke play singles match against each member of the Lake Nona team. Therefore, each player will play two singles matches during the 18-hole round. A total of 16 singles matches each worth one point will be played on day two. The winning team will need at least 12½ points to be crowned the Tavistock Cup champion.

Last year, Annika Sorenstam even joined in the singles competition but with teammate Ian Poulter lost their match to Charles Howell III and Lee Jazen. Ultimately the event was reduced to one day after rain extend THE PLAYERS Championship and the sudden death playoff between Tiger Woods and Lee Jazen vs. Ernie Els and Retief Goosen was even halted due to darkness leaving the teams tied at 8½ The teams agreed to the tie and to share the trophy for six months each but since Isleworth won the inaugural event they are technically the defending champions.

This years teams include a who's who list of players and the teams are as follows:

Isleworth

• Mark O'Meara - Captain
• Tiger Woods
• Stuart Appleby
• Robert Allenby
• Charles Howell III
• John Cook
• Craig Parry
• Lee Janzen
• Arjun Atwal
• Robert Damron

Lake Nona

• Ernie Els - Captain
• Retief Goosen
• Sergio Garcia
• Ian Poulter
• Justin Rose
• Nick Faldo
• Ben Curtis
• Trevor Immelman
• Graeme McDowell
• Maarten Lafeber

Lake Nona and Isleworth country clubs are two of the exclusive country clubs in the world which also means the competition is closed to the public. So your only chance of watching the event is on The Golf Channel during it's live coverage and in prime time both evenings. The Tavistock Cup will be held at the Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Florida from March 27 - March 28, 2006. It can be seen only on The Golf Channel at the following times:

Mon, 3/27 12pm-5pm ET          TGC Live
Mon, 3/37 7:30pm-11:30pm ET    TGC Replay
Tue, 3/28 12pm-5pm ET          TGC Live
Tue, 3/28 7:30pm-11:30pm ET    TGC Replay

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Now that The Players Championship is finally over, it's time to move onto another week in the golf world. But this week is somewhat unique, as many of the world's elite golfers will head to Orlando instead of Atlanta to play in the 2005 Tavistock Cup. This year is special because the world's second-best player, Tiger Woods, will participate! As a matter of fact, three of the top five players in the world rankings (Woods, Ernie Els, and Retief Goosen) will be playing alongside the best female golfer in the world, Annika Sorenstam.

There are two teams once again playing against each other in the event. Team Isleworth will be led by the ever-popular Tiger Woods. Other golfers on his team include Stuart Appleby, Charles Howell III, captain Mark O'Meara, and Robert Allenby. This team will be looking to win this event for the second straight year, as they won it last year on the Lake Nona golf course 14½ to 9½.

On the other side of things, Lake Nona will be led by the formidable trio of Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and Sergio Garcia. Annika Sorenstam, fresh off her major victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, will also be trying to help Team Lake Nona defeat Team Isleworth on their own golf course. The Lake Nonanites will be thinking one thing as they tee off on Tuesday: payback.

As always, the players aren't the only attractions at the Tavistock Cup. It takes place this year at the beautiful Isleworth golf course located 20 miles west of Orlando. This course was redesigned in 2003 by Steve Smyers and Ed Seay, and it is truly a great overall test of golf. It plays 7,544 yards from the "Tiger Tees" and par is 72.

This event was originally supposed to be a two-day showing, but day one was cancelled after The Players Championship was pushed to a Monday finish. This year's event will feature only one type of event, and arguably the most interesting: singles matches. The better-ball competition will not be played this year.

The singles matches will actually be played within a foursome in this unique event. In the feature pairing on Tuesday, Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara will play against Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia. The scoring differs from any other type of match play scoring in golf. Tiger will actually be playing for a point against Ernie Els and a point against Sergio Garcia. This continues on down the line for the other groups as well. All in all, the teams will be playing for a total of 16 points this year.

The other three groups teeing off tomorrow look like this:

                      Isleworth  vs.  Lake Nona
   Robert Allenby / Craig Parry  vs.  Trevor Immelman / Justin Rose
    Stuart Appleby / Scott Hoch  vs.  Retief Goosen / Nick Faldo
Charles Howell III / Lee Janzen  vs.  Annika Sorenstam and Ian Poulter

The event is shaping up to be a very fun one. The players are playing for pride as well as a very solid purse. Each player on the winning team will take home $125,000 with each player on the losing team taking home a modest $50,000. In addition to that, the golfer with the lowest score on Tuesday will win $100,000, and the golfer that comes in with the second best score will pocket an additional $50,000.

The weather, which has been the focus of the PGA Tour this entire year, looks to be perfect for this event. The skies are supposed to be clear for the Tavistock Cup with a high of around 80°F. It should be worth watching just to see what a dry event looks like on television, and the golf is shaping up to be very sharp as well.

Speaking of television, you can watch the Tavistock Cup exclusively on The Golf Channel. Catch live coverage from 12-5pm ET or a replay from 7-10:30pm ET.

Photo Credit: © Tavistock Cup.

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