Fuente: © Southern Africa Tour
http://www.sunshinetour.com/

SOUTHERN AFRICA TOUR: American Express excitement at The Grove

/noticias.info/ After the excitement of the Ryder Cup on the weekend, golf fans have just enough time to settle down before the 2006 World Golf Championships - American Express Championship gets underway at The Grove, England.

With only a few days to go, let’s get up to date with all facts from The Grove.

First, no less than seven South Africans are in the world-class line-up to compete for a share of the $7,500,000 prize money on offer. World number six, Retief Goosen leads the local challenge alongside Ernie Els, the 2004 American Express Championship winner.

Els returns to the event after a one-year hiatus last year due to his knee injury and subsequent surgery last summer, searching for his first PGA Tour win in two years, when he won the 2004 event by one stroke over Thomas Bjorn at Mount Juliet Conrad in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Also in action will be Trevor Immelman, Tim Clark, Rory Sabbatini, Sunshine Tour Order of Merit winner, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen.

Schwartzel (1) and Oosthuizen (3) qualified by way of their final 2005 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit ranking and will be joined by Sunshine Tour member, Gregory Bourdy of France, who finished second in the rankings courtesy of his victory at the Telkom PGA Championship.

Last year, 11 players made their WGC American Express Championship debut, including South Africa’s Warren Abery and Schwartzel. The 21-year old Schwartzel tied for 18th and finished tops among the 11 players.

In the six years of the American Express Championship, the 54-hole leader/co-leader has won three times, Tiger Woods in 2002 and 2003, and Els in 2004.

Woods (2002 and 2005) and Els (2004) are the only American Express Championship winners to record four rounds in the 60s. In his 2002 victory, Woods’ lone bogey came on the 72nd hole – he was attempting to become the first player since Lee Trevino (1974 Greater New Orleans Open) to play 72 holes without a bogey and win.

FAST FACTS:

Dates: September 25 to October 1, 2006
Venue: The Grove; Hertfordshire, England; Par: 36-36--72; Yardage: 7,120. The Grove is a 7,152 yard, par-72 championship golf course, designed by American architect Kyle Philips. Defending champion: Tiger Woods
Woods has won 11 of 21 World Golf Championships starts since the series’ inception in 1999, including four American Express Championship titles. Those American Express titles came on four different courses in Spain, Ireland, Georgia and California.

The full field for this year’s WGC – American Express Championship:
Robert Allenby
Stephen Ames
Stuart Appleby
John Bickerton
Thomas Bjorn
Gregory Bourdy
Paul Broadhurst
Bart Bryant
Angel Cabrera
Chad Campbell
Michael Campbell
Paul Casey
K.J. Choi
Stewart Cink
Tim Clark
Darren Clarke
Ben Crane
Chris DiMarco
Luke Donald
Simon Dyson
Johan Edfors
Ernie Els
Jim Furyk
Sergio Garcia
Lucas Glover
Retief Goosen
Padraig Harrington
J.J. Henry
Tim Herron
Tetsuji Hiratsuka
David Howell
Trevor Immelman
Thongchai Jaidee
Zach Johnson
Robert Karlsson
Tom Lehman
Davis Love III
Colin Montgomerie
Sean O'Hair
Nick O'Hern
Arron Oberholser
Jose Maria Olazabal
Louis Oosthuizen
Rod Pampling
Craig Parry
Tom Pernice, Jr
. Carl Pettersson
Ian Poulter
Brett Quigley
Jyoti Randhawa
Rory Sabbatini
Charl Schwartzel
Adam Scott
Vijay Singh
Henrik Stenson
Toru Taniguchi
David Toms
Scott Verplank
Anthony Wall
Lee Westwood
Brett Wetterich
Dean Wilson
Thaworn Wiratchant
Tiger Woods notas_de_prensa_archivo