Ford Championship at Doral

[Thrash13]

Well, it's March and the PGA Tour season is really starting to heat up. March is probably my favorite golf month on the PGA Tour because there are stops at Doral, Bay Hill, and Sawgrass. And then The Masters is only a month or so away. It's a great time for a golf fan.

Anyway, this week's event is at Doral. Like Everardo said in his PGA Preview , it's the first time in 2006 the top-seven will be in the same field. The field is great, and the course is great. Something has to give.

What are your predictions?

I'm going with The Goose. He made it the farthest out of all the #1 seeds last week at LaCosta, and he plays tough courses very well. Actually, he plays all courses well. I think he will steal the spotlight this week at Doral. I'm also looking forward to seeing a "rested" Sergio Garcia. I was upset he didn't play last week, so he better play good this week.

[iacas]

Tiger Tiger Tiger!

I'm also looking for a good week from Camilo Villegas, I think Chad Campbell will play well, and Zach Johnson is going to carry over some of his match play mojo to score well here.

[kugino]

yeah, i thought it was the best tournament of 2005...it was nice to see Lefty actually have some fight in him, even though he did eventually lose.

so, the oft-asked question will once again be raised: tiger or the field?

i'm going to put a vote in for ernie. he's swinging better and might just surprise us this week...

[The Undaunted Duffer]

I'm looking for Charley Hoffman, Tim Clark and Chris DiMarco to make some waves this week. I know, a little left-of-field, but who knows.

Hoffman had his first top 10 last week in Tucson, and Clark and DiMarco just rock.

[! BuBbA wAtSoN !]

Hey, Im really looking forward to the Ford Championship, i hope big bubba gets another top 5, and im also hoping davis love III and lucas glover have great weeks too especially at this challenging course! I also think that ernie will post a good performance... and looking forward to watching sergio again! I really think the course is set up for the longer hitters, but some of the holes have water so many players may struggle especially players with lower driving accuracy's. Lets all hope for a great weeks play at Doral!!!

[jeffgladchun]

Like Erik, I'm looking for Tiger and Villegas to make some birds. Also, I'll be watching Faldo's play closely, its not often he plays the PGA Tour anymore and I love him.

[iacas]

You always take the field, unless it's the field against Annika Sorenstam. Or maybe Tiger at Augusta. But even at the Masters, taking the field would have won you 1.5x as often as Tiger.

[flap]

I am looking for Phill to break out this week as it is his sponsers tourney.Also DL3 is on the road again to great play.

[iacas]

I am looking for Phill to break out this week as it is his sponsers tourney.Also DL3 is on the road again to great play.

That's one long road!

Hopefully he can avoid the injury potholes this year.

[jeffgladchun]

Just checking the leaderboard during my lunch hour and man oh man am I glad to see my boy Camilo at the top of the board. Tiger is only on 3 or 4 but he's already -2.

Going into this week I expected this tournament to be an exciting one and from the looks of it it won't disappoint.

[iacas]

Just checking the leaderboard during my lunch hour and man oh man am I glad to see my boy Camilo at the top of the board. Tiger is only on 3 or 4 but he's already -2.

Tiger is -3 through 4 (and 21'3" from bird on 5, so probably just a par). At this point, with Woods and Villegas on my team, I'm just glad Na actually decided to play this week.

[Thrash13]

Yeah, props to the folks who predicted good things from Villegas. He is leading at this point in time, although it looks like it's going to be anybody's week. There are lots of great golfers within a few shots of the lead, and there are still a lot of great golfers on the front nine.

Nonetheless, -7 isn't shabby at all for Villegas. I knew I should have picked Verplank on my team!

[jeffgladchun]

I noticed this when checking out some of today's stats at Doral.

Funk with the longest drive of the day? More surprisingly is the fact that its well over 300 yards and there was little to no wind today.

[iacas]

I noticed this when checking out some of today's stats at Doral.

That's goofy. I wonder if they were just messing with him and it was actually someone else. What hole is that? Why was there no "closest to the pin" stat?

I watched Tiger's first nine on TourCast and his second nine yesterday on USA. He played pretty well. I'd say he had his B+ game. And that's scary, -8 on the Blue Monster in the afternoon with your B+ game.

[Baynative]

Friday AM ... The leader board is popping this morning! Good interviews yesterday from Tiger and Phil, too.

Phil mentioned how exciting a showdown can be while Tiger said it doesn't matter who he plays, he just blocks it out and goes after the course. Then Tiger exited quietly while the "phony" Mickelson stuck around and signed autographs.

[iacas]

I watched the recap of the 2005 show on TGC last night. Part of it anyway before the wife made me start playing back Survivor on the TiVo (speaking of which, does that Danielle have some fake boobies or what?!?!).

Anyway, he said "when Tiger made that eagle on 12, I was psyched. I wanted to play Tiger at his best." My immediate thought was to call out "bullshit!" and make Phil show his cards, cuz I really doubt deep down Phil wanted to lose (again) to Tiger. Should he eventually win something against Tiger at his best, I'm sure he'll be proud, but that hasn't happened. And perhaps never will (last year's PGA coming the closest, I think, except that Tiger couldn't putt).

[Thrash13]

It's definitely starting to look like Deja Vu on the leaderboard. Mickelson and Tiger are at the top again, and it should be fun this weekend. I'm going to try to TiVo some of the action today because I didn't watch any yesterday.

It's also good to see Zach Johnson up there at -10. And it's always nice to see Lee Janzen shoot a 65. :)

The Goose is going to have to go really low tomorrow to get in the thick of things. He can do it, but I doubt it will happen. My prediction looks like crap so far. :/

[kugino]

i'd say he was closer to an A- than a B+...even tiger said after the round that he played like the first 9 holes against stephen ames. he hit something like 78% of fairways? he's hitting his driver well, which means he's swinging well...

and yes, danielle's boobies do look fake ;)

i take everything phil says with a grain of salt, but i did like his comments and reactions after the tournament because he was actually pissed. he wasn't just smiling and saying "the right things"...he said he was angry...finally, phil. and then he proceeded to have a so-so rest of the year (with one, major, though)...go figure.

looks like it'll be a great weekend again. i hope no one reaches 14-under so tiger and phil play with one another...will it be twosomes or threesomes on the weekend?