Sport

Woods returns in Classic close to his heart

GOLF: Tiger Woods returns to PGA Tour action at this week's Byron Nelson Classic, an event he has not missed since he became…

Tue May 07 2002 - 01:00

GOLF: Tiger Woods returns to PGA Tour action at this week's Byron Nelson Classic, an event he has not missed since he became a full-time member of the tour in 1997.

The world number one has not played competitively since he won last month's Masters at Augusta, the third time he has triumphed in the first of the year's four major championships.

"I love the tournament," Woods said on his official website of the Byron Nelson Classic, which starts at the TPC Four Seasons Resort, Las Colinas on Thursday.

"But everybody comes because of Byron. He's a wonderful man." Nelson, who turned 90 on February 4th, is one of the greatest players in the game's history and won 52 career titles, including four majors. He will forever be remembered, though, for his remarkable consistency during 1945 when he set a record PGA Tour win streak of 11 and ended the season with 19 tournament victories in all.

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The year before, he won the inaugural Dallas Open at Lakewood Country Club and, in 1968, the event was renamed the Byron Nelson Classic in honour of its congenial host.

Woods, as a 16-year-old, first met Nelson at Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles and has never forgotten the half-hour chat which the two shared at the time. "It was a neat conversation," the 26-year-old said. "He made me feel so comfortable. He went out of his way to talk to me. We talked about coaches and what I believed in." Woods has played in the Byron Nelson Classic every year since winning the event for the first time in 1997 and clearly enjoys the Las Colinas lay-out.

This week's event offers a total purse of $4.8 million, with the winner set to earn $864,000. Joining Woods in the field will be fellow world top-10 players Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els and David Toms.

Tournament golf will return to Quail Hollow Country Club next May for the first time in 24 years when a new event is staged on the US PGA Tour. The Wachovia Championship, under the four-year sponsorship of US financial services company Wachovia Corporation, will be held at the North Carolina club from May 5th-11th. Quail Hollow last hosted a tour event in 1979 when Jerry McGuire won the Kemper Open.