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This Week in Golf - May 22nd through May 25th

Mon 19th, May 2008

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - CHAMPIONS TOUR - SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, Oak Hill Country Club (East Course), Rochester, New York - The Champions Tour opens its major championship season this week with the Senior PGA Championship.

Denis Watson opened with a pair of 71s last year on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, but rallied for rounds of 69-68 on the weekend to walk away with a two-shot win over 2006 JELD-WEN Tradition winner Eduardo Romero.

For Watson, it was not only his first Champions Tour win, but it was also his first major title on any tour. Watson trailed Romero by two entering the final round, but blew by the Argentine as Romero closed with an even-par 72.

Hale Irwin has won this title four times, second only to Sam Snead's six wins in this championship. Irwin is the only player to win this title three straight years (1996-98).

The Senior PGA is the first of five majors for the Champions Tour. The other four are the Senior British Open Championship, U.S. Senior Open Championship, JELD-WEN Tradition and Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship.

The Senior British, U.S. Senior Open and JELD-WEN Tradition are slated to be played back-to-back-to-back over a four-week stretch in July and August.

The East Course at Oak Hill will host this championship for the first time. The course has hosted three U.S. Opens (1956, 1968 and 1989), the 1984 U.S. Senior Open, two U.S. Amateurs (1949 and 1998), two PGA Championships (1980 and 2003), the 1995 Ryder Cup and is scheduled to again host the PGA Championship in 2013.

Oak Hill is the only venue that has hosted the U.S. Open, the Senior Open and the Amateur as well as the PGA Championship, the Senior PGA and a Ryder Cup.

The Golf Channel will cover three hours of action the first two rounds, while NBC takes over for three hours of coverage on both Saturday and Sunday. The Champions Tour moves to Iowa next week for the Principal Charity Classic, where Jay Haas won last year.

PGA TOUR

CROWNE PLAZA INVITATIONAL AT COLONIAL, Colonial Country Club, Ft. Worth, Texas - The PGA Tour makes its third of four stops in Texas this week for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

It was five years ago that Annika Sorenstam played this event to become the first women to play on the PGA Tour in some 58 years. Sorenstam announced last week that she is stepping away from golf after this year, but cited playing the '03 Colonial as one of the highlights of her legendary career.

Rory Sabbatini flew into contention last year with a Saturday 62, but still needed a playoff to fend off Bernhard Langer and Jim Furyk.

Sabbatini was in the midst of a tremendous stretch of golf that saw him finish in the top three in four of six starts, including a second-place finish at the Masters.

The South African will be looking to make history this week. He looks to join Ben Hogan, who won this event in its first two years (1946-47), as the only back-to-back champs. Nine players have won this title more than once, but Hogan, who won it five times, is the only player with more than two victories.

As always, the Golf Channel has three hours of coverage for the first two days before handing off to CBS for the weekend. The tour moves to Ohio next week for The Memorial, where K.J. Choi claimed the title last year at Jack Nicklaus' event.

EUROPEAN TOUR

BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, WENTWORTH CLUB, Surrey, England - The European Tour heads to Wentworth this week for one of the top events on its schedule.

The BMW PGA Championship will be played at Wentworth for the 25th straight year. As Anders Hansen returns to defend his title, he will battle a field that includes six of the top 20 players in the world, headed by world No. 3 Ernie Els.

Els, who owns a house adjacent to the course, has won the HSBC World Match Play Championship six times at Wentworth.

Last year, Hansen and Justin Rose finished one stroke clear of Richard Sterne and Vijay Singh. Hansen birdied the first playoff hole to defeat Rose and win this crown for the second time.

Hansen won this title for the first time in 2002. They are his only two titles on the European Tour.

Two players have long cut streaks going at this event, with Jose Maria Olazabal making the cut 20 straight years and Colin Montgomerie advancing to the final two rounds each of the last 18 years.

The Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds. Next week is the Celtic Manor Wales Open, which Richard Sterne won last year.

LPGA TOUR

LPGA CORNING CLASSIC, Corning Country Club, Corning, New York - Young Kim broke through for her first LPGA Tour title last year as she held of Paula Creamer, Mi Hyun Kim and In-Kyung Kim to win LPGA Corning Classic.

Young Kim carded three rounds of 68 to go with a second-round 64 to win by three strokes. Kim was the third straight Asian to win this crown after Hee- Won Han and Jimin Kang.

The only player to win this crown in back-to-back years was Rosie Jones in 1996-97. Jones, who has retired from the LPGA Tour, will return to play this event for the 30th time in the event's 30th year.

Corning Country Club has hosted this event every year.

The Golf Channel has tape-delayed coverage of all four rounds this week.

Next week, the LPGA heads to South Carolina for the Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika. Annika Sorenstam is expected to compete for the second time since announcing she is stepping away from golf at the end of the year. Nicole Castrale downed Lorena Ochoa in a playoff to win the inaugural title last year.

NATIONWIDE TOUR

MELWOOD PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY OPEN, The Country Club at Woodmore, Mitchellville, Maryland - Paul Claxton became the first player in Nationwide Tour history to earn over $1 million thanks to his win at this event last year.

Claxton was playing his 269th career event on the Nationwide Tour in his 10th season. Unfortunately for Claxton, it looks like he may be headed back to the Nationwide Tour next year.

The 40-year-old has made just over $45,000 on the PGA Tour this year and has missed eight of 11 cuts between the PGA and Nationwide Tours.

Claxton is back to defend his title this week looking become the first Nationwide Tour player to win the same event in back-to-back years.

There is no television coverage this week. Next up for the Nationwide Tour is the Bank of America Open, where John Riegger won last year.

CANADIAN TOUR

LA LOMA SAN LUIS POTOSI OPEN, La Loma Golf Club, San Luis Potosi, Mexico - The Canadian Tour ends its three-event run in Mexico this week with the inaugural La Loma San Luis Potosi Open.

The event will be contested on the Jack Nicklaus-designed La Loma Golf Club.

This week's field includes four of the top five players on the money list, including last week's winner, Daniel Im.

There is no television coverage this week. After a one-week break, the tour returns to action with its Spring Qualifying event in British Columbia. The following week is the first event in Canada, the Times Colonist Open.

Where the players come to play and STAY.