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Tournament Stats:
AT&T National
July 5 - July 8, 2007
The Congressional Country Club
Bethesda, MD
Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,278
Purse: $6 million with $1.08 million going to the winner
Defending Champion: Inaugural Event
Tournament information:
At the start of the 2007 PGA season, it appeared that The International, the PGA's lone stop in Colorado, would be gearing up to host its 21st annual golf tournament. However, doubts began to arise about the tournament's future very early on in the season as the search for a corporate sponsor was at a stand-still. On February 8, 2007, tournament director Greg Vickers announced that the 2007 International would not be played, primarily due to the lack of corporate sponsorship.As soon as the date opened up on the PGA calendar, Tiger Woods, who has expressed a desire to host a tournament in the past, entered into discussions with the PGA Tour. His goal was to create an exclusive tournament that would not only fill this year's void left by the demise of The International, but for years to come. On March 7, with less than one month of negotiations behind the two parties, Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour announced that the Washington D.C. area would play host to the Inaugural AT&T National. The event takes over for the Booz Allen Classic which folded after last July after after a 39 year run with 27 of those in the Washington D.C. area. The event will be played at The Congressional Country Club in nearby Bethesda, MD.
This year's AT&T National will not only benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation, but it will recognize all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Throughout the week, over 30,000 active military personnel will be given free admission to the event.
Course information:
From the beginning, Congressman Oscar Bland and O.R. Lubring envisioned The Congressional Country Club as a bond between Washington-based businessman and politicians. In 1921, the two founders took their idea to then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in hopes of gaining the approval of one of Washington's biggest power brokers. Hoover loved the idea and agreed to become the Club's President from the breaking of ground in 1922 to its inauguration in 1924.The Congressional boasts two championship courses, the Blue and Gold; however, the Blue course has played host to every professional event at Congressional. The course was originally designed by Devereaux Emmet in 1922. Since the Blue course's creation, there have been three major changes to the golf course. Bobby Jones, in 1957, built 9 holes that would eventually become part of the Gold Course. The final 9 holes were completed by Rees Jones in 1989. In 2006, Rees Jones returned to The Congressional to redesign the Par 3 18th. The tee box and the green was flipped-flopped and the hole now plays a lot harder with the water coming more into play. The hole is now the 10th hole, and each proceeding hole was shifted backward accordingly.
The Blue course received acclaim when it was ranked 89th among "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses" by Golf Digest in 2005 and 86th in 2007. It plays as a 7,278 yard Par 70. With a course rating, of 75.4, slope rating of 142, and 11 feet on the stimpmeter, Congressional could be one of the most difficult stops on tour this year. The fairways feature a 7/16" cut of Bent, Poa Annua, and Rye while the greens are a .105" cut of Bent and Poa Annua. The course has scaled back the rough to a manageable 4" cut of Rye, Fescue, and Blue Grass.
The Congressional Blue Course can be described as having a fair amount of bunkers in almost unfair places. Unlike most courses, the 102 bunkers that line Congressional are placed in the vicinity of where golfers are aiming. No hole better exemplifies this than the par 3 2nd. The 211-yard hole has six bunkers (front, left, and right) that guard the large, undulating green. The AT&T will be at Congressional this year and next. Since the U.S. Amateur will be played at Congressional in 2009 and the U.S. Open played in 2011, the course will take a three year break with the tournament rumored to be going to RTJ in Mannass, which held the Presidents Cup for a number of years.
The Buzz:
Going out to Congressional it's amazing how perfect things look, the course looks great there are a lot of sky boxes. On the whole it takes up to a year of planning to put a tournament on, AT&T National officials had only four months. In talking about this with Joe Steranka, CEO of the PGA of America he too was very impressed that all of this could happen.A great field has been assembled, unfortunely no past winners from Congressional are in the field. Ernie Els, who won the 1997 U.S. Open decided that he wanted to spend the week with his kids in London, while Sergio Garcia, who won the Booz Allen Classic two years ago is in Europe and awaiting the British Open.
Another player that will cause some buzz is Jamie Lovemark. The orginial plan was to invite the U.S. Amateur champion but when Richie Ramsey said no AT&T officials gave Lovemark a try. The 19-year-old who just finished his freshman year at USC has had a very impressive year. Not only is he two for two in making PGA Tour cuts, including finishing T39th last February at the Buick Invitational, Lovemark almost became the first amateur to win a Nationwide Tour event when he lost to Chris Riley in a playoff at the Rochester event. Before that Lovemark wrapped up his first college season by winning the NCAA individual title which help him earn the NCAA player of the year. One thing that will be evident when Lovemark tees off is the young girls that will be in his gallery. On Tuesday he had a fair share of them just giggling over the sight of Lovemark play golf.
Talking about the young ladies and there buzz, it was fun to listen in on two 18-year-olds watching Adam Scott play. The talk was on Adam Scott's beard, it seems like he hasn't sauved in a week or two and there is no two ways about it, the scruffy look was in for these girls.
With Woods hosting this event plus having a full schedule and coming off just having a baby two weeks ago it will be interesting to see how he plays. Now of the players that have participated in there own events (Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus) the only one that was victorious is Nicklaus who won the Memorial twice.
While watching on TV this week you will notice a lot of military in the gallery, that is because the tournament will give out 5,00 complimentary tickets per day for military personal. They also have there own seating and will have special viewing area's set up. For those attending the AT&T, please thank these men and women for all they have done for us and our country in allowing us to be free and safe.
Lastly I can honestly say that the buzz on the FedEx Cup is now genuine. With seven weeks left the focus will be more on players getting into the top-25 than those trying to get into the top-144. For those in triple digits it will probably be a short series but for those that get into the top-25 it could help them to the $10 million dollar prize.
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Here are some things to look for this week:
Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the AT&T National: Key stat for the winner:
Congressional played host to the 1997 Open and will play host of the Open in 2011. Most believe that, like it would be in a U.S. Open, the key statistic will be fairways hit off the tee. The rough is at 4 inches which will be costly for players that don't hit it straight. - Experience at Congresssional will be a big help, five of the top 12 finishers from the 1995 Booz Allen are in this year's field.
- Hitting greens will be at a premium, just like in a U.S. Open hitting lots of greens goes a long way in this event. Look for the winner to hit globs of greens this week.
- Look for good putters to have a significant advantage because Congressional's undulated greens should be dried out with no significant rain in the forecast.
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