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Big Six Gear Up for Intense Battle in Oak Hill

Posted August. 12, 2003 22:07,   

한국어

This year`s US PGA Championship, set to begin on August 14 at Oak Hill CC, Rochester, New York, has every reason to steal the spotlight. The US PGA tends to determine who wins the PGA Tour player of the year, an award that Woods has won the last four seasons.

With Woods dominating fields and named the player of the year, PGA Championship had been nothing but one of four majors for the last four years. This year, however, things are different. Big six including Woods will be locked in a good race to win the crucial championship. Whoever will win the title will also become the player of the year.

The title given by PGA Tour at the end of the season is considered the most valuable price for PGA golfers. Winning a major significantly affects voters at PGA, who will decide the player of the year.

In fact, David Dubal was the top on both the money and winning list and had the lowest average scores in 1999, ahead of Woods. But the title was awarded to Mark Omera, who was on the seventh on the money list, since he won two majors, the Masters and the British Open that year.

If one of three this year`s major champions, Mike Weir of Canada (the Masters), Jim Furyk (the U.S. Open) and. Ben Curtis (the British Open), wins LGP title, Woods will fail to become the player of the year for the fifth straight year.

If they lose, however, Woods and Davis Love, who have won four titles this year, will have a chance to compete for the year-end title. Love, who set his winning record of four at The International on August 11 after playing 18 years with PGA, will find fat chances of becoming the player of the year for the first time.

`White Shark` Greg Norman of Australia is the only player who won the title without a major. In 1995, he was the top on the money list with three wins, and he beat four major winners, Ben Crenshow (the Masters), Corie Paybin (the US Open), John Dalley (the British Open) and Steve Elkington (the PGA Championship), to win the title.

Will one of this year`s three major champions score another win to become the player of the year, or will it be a fierce battle until the end? This year`s US PGA Championship will be an exciting event for sure.



Young-Sik Ahn ysahn@donga.com