“I am now ready to play again,” – the words echo like music in the ears of golf fans worldwide as Tiger Woods, the athlete poised to become the greatest player golf has ever seen, reports that he’ll be defending his title in Tucson next week.

Of all the professional golf tournaments Tiger Woods could have selected to stage his colossal return to the game and his continued and inevitable domination over the sport – he chose Arizona. The Arizona-hosted World Golf Championships- Accenture Match Play Championship will be Tiger’s first competitive tournament since his U.S. Open victory at Torrey Pines last June. Having spent the past eight months rehabbing his knee, anyone with even the mildest interest in golf is curious about his condition and quality of play upon his return.

While the golf world is abuzz with the release of the news just a few hours ago, it is especially meaningful to Arizonans and even more so to Tucsonans, who I am sure are now re-working their plans for February 26- March 1 to accommodate some Tiger-watching time.

Adding yet another dimension to the return of golf’s mega-watt star is the fact that the Accenture Match Play will showcase the world’s top talent on the ultra-fresh fairways of the Ritz Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona. Revealed to the public a little over a month ago on January 17th, the fairways at Ritz Golf Club are primed and prepared to stage the most-anticipated tournament of the 2009 season so far. Tiger’s presence there is just icing on the cake. I imagine tournament coordinators are toasting to Tiger as I write.

Also in the field will be Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim, the two young guns who have taken advantage of Woods’s absent status. Aside from Tiger, I’ll be watching out for Rory McIlroy, the 19-year-old Irishman, who enjoyed victory at the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this season and is currently ranked 16th on the Official World Golf Rankings. Three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington, also an Irishman and ranked 3rd on the World Golf Rankings, will be onsite at Accenture as well. And the field also includes Sergio Garcia who has yet to play on American soil this season while instead concentrating on several European Tour starts.

Of the top 64 players invited to the match-play format, 17 hail from the United States, eight each from Australia and South Africa and seven from England. Other countries represented are Colombia, Fiji, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.

www.worldgolfchampionships.com.

- Nichole Brophy, Golf Editor.

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Thousands flocked to TPC Scottsdale Thursday to catch the first round of the FBR Open. Spectators and fans covered the stadium mounds as walking galleries filtered through while following their favorite PGA Tour pros. 

The top crowd getters were Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson, as always, the Arizona State alum received the loudest cheers upon teeing off on the starting hole. However, the rowdiest course location was (expectedly) the famous 16^th hole. Completely surrounded by stadium seating, this year’s 16^th hole is also equipped with not one but two gigantic electronic scoreboards so that the crowd can anticipate who will be next on the tee. 

Earlier this week, Anthony Kim, who secured two wins last year – one at the Wachovia Championship and the other at the AT&T and has quickly become a star on Tour, spoke to the press about the 16^th and the initial impressions he received. 

“There are obviously a couple of [golfers] who probably don’t like the noise,” Anthony Kim said. “But look, if you can’t play in that atmosphere, don’t come to this tournament. It’s a one-time-a-year deal, and I enjoy it so much” 

Camilo Villegas, who also won twice on Tour last season, already had a game plan for playing with 15,000 to 20,000 spectators looking on. 

“Hopefully I can hit it in the middle of the green four days and don’t get booed,”Villegas said. “The fans are crazy. I know there’s a lot of alcohol being served there. You’re going to get people yelling great stuff and then people yelling some stuff that is maybe not appropriate.” 

At days end, James Nitties (pictured), a 26-year-old Aussie with no PGA Tour wins, and Lucas Glover, a veteran of the Tour and resident of Greenville, South Carolina, sat atop the leader board.

It was around the same time that galleries who had been following their selected pairing all day started to leave and the infamous night crowd of the FBR began to trickle in. As grass-stained tennis shoes headed to the exit, high-heels and designer bags quickly made their way to the sixteenth to catch the last few groups playing the famous par-3. This atmosphere is what the FBR has quickly come to be about. No doubt there was a huge crowd that migrated from the tournament grounds across the street to the Birds Nest, where the opening night act Zowie Bowie was scheduled to perform.

Following round two, the field will be cut to the lowest 70 players and ties. 

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