I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving last week, but it’s time to get back to business. I wanted to write about Michelle Wie missing her sixth cut in six tries in men’s events. However, I have picked on her enough in past editions of Thrash Talk. Instead, I’m going to focus on something a little more positive this time around.
David Duval ultimately comes to mind after playing so well last week in Japan. Duval has played awful since the start of the 2003 PGA Tour season, making just eight cuts in 49 starts. That is shocking, considering Duval was arguably the best golfer in the world in the late-90s. Last week, Duval teed it up in the Dunlop Open in Japan, and the final results were pretty positive. Duval started off great, fizzled a little down the stretch, but still finished in a tie for eighth.
One of the many perks of winning a major championship on the PGA Tour is getting the opportunity to play in Hawaii at season’s end against the other major championship winners. The golfers get to showcase their respective talents on national television in a two-day event. The four men will play 36 holes over the two days, and the winner will walk away $400,000 richer.
The 2005 PGA Tour season may be over, but there is still good golf being played around the globe. The final World Golf Championship event of the season takes place this week in Portugal. Two-man teams from 24 different countries will be battling it out for their respective country’s bragging rights.
The field for the Tour Championship is small, but the prize money is awesome. The best players on the PGA Tour battle it out all year to make it into the top-30 on the money list, and the Tour Championship is their reward for doing so. The field this week will be playing for an overall purse of $6 million, with a little over a million going to the winner. The golf courses selected for this event are always respectable, and this week is no different. 
The Chrysler Championship is the last full-field event before the season-ending Tour Championship. There is really only one key story to keep an eye on this week, and that is the race to finish in the top-30 on the PGA Tour money list. Sure, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Adam Scott, and David Toms are all top-ten golfers playing this week, but those guys have their spots wrapped up. The guys near the 30th position will be sweating it out the most this week.