The PGA Tour will feature 48 tournaments in 2003, one fewer than last year, but some interesting off-season developments have the fans waiting in anticipation for yet another fine golf season.
While this gives the world's No. 1 player a plenty of time to rest after a busy winter and to prepare for the Masters in April, Woods has never missed that much time because of an injury in his professional career. It will be interesting to see how he copes with such a long hiatus and the inevitable rust that will come with it.
The second-ranked Phil Mickelson will also miss some time in spring. His wife, Amy, is expecting the couple's third child, and, as he has done so in the past, Mickelson will choose to be with his family for an extended period rather than with his fellow Tour pros.
It's great that Phil Mickelson, as a public figure, is consistently showing his family-first values, but one can't help but question his dedication as a professional athlete. This is a fine line on which Mickelson has been treading. One also wonders if Woods would do the same if he were married and his wife were having a baby.
After some time off, Woods is going for an unprecedented third straight Masters title in April. Although he has made a career out of doing the unthinkable and the historic, Woods will not recover from his break in time to pull off this feat. Sergio Garcia has the length, the short game and the imagination needed to win at Augusta, so he will win his first major amid the club's membership controversy.
Padraig Harrington finished in the top-10 in three of the four majors in 2002, and he will do even better this year by winning the U.S. Open, also his first career major. He can grind out with the best of them, and no other golfer has improved as dramatically over the last three years as Harrington has. He will breakthrough this year.
Woods will be in his mid-season form by the time the Open Championship rolls in, and by stomping the field there, he will take his revenge on that one major that embarrassed him last year. With this win, Woods will become the second player after Jack Nicklaus to win each major championship at least twice. Tiger will have another banner year, winning six times and sweeping yet again the money, scoring and the Player of the Year titles.
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