Course plays into hands of big-hitters

The other morning, Nick Faldo strode purposefully to the first tee here at Atlanta Athletic Club for a practice round. A few hours later, much of the spark had been sucked from his body. "This is too long for me, it's a long, slugger's course," he remarked.

Coming from a player competing in his 58th consecutive major - the longest streak of any active player - it was a statement of confirmation: the Highlands course for the USPGA championship has been set up to play into the hands of the big-hitters.

And few players, if any, hit the ball longer than Tiger Woods. It's little wonder he has walked about with something resembling a smirk during practice. Although he has failed to replicate his dominance of last season, Woods - seeking to become the first player since Walter Hagen took the third of four successive titles in 1926 to claim three in a row - is, yet again, the man everyone has in their sights.

Woods has made this championship. In terms of history, and prestige, the PGA has traditionally been considered the weakest of the four majors, lumbered as it is with a smattering of club professionals (25 of them this year).

But Woods's victories - combined with changes in the entry criteria that have allowed a record 49 non-US players and 95 of the world's top-100 into this year's field - have helped make it the strongest field in the world this year. The tournament is a sell-out and ticket scalpers line the approach roads to course.

The course, however, has been prepared to put the driver back into use. There are five par fours measuring over 450 yards, with a finishing hole - at 490 yards - where Bernhard Langer, for one, believes many players will be forced to lay-up. The premium for players will be on avoiding the rough, the clinging Bermuda grass variety cut to a height of three and a half inches, but anyone managing to hit long, straight drives on to the fairway will at least have the opportunity to aim at greens that are generally large and generous.

"It's nice to see that a course can still play as tough as this with relatively flat greens, and that says how good it is from tee to green. It doesn't need greens that slope wickedly," said Colin Montgomerie, who comes in with two wins under his belt from his last five outings.

"It's a great golf course, no tricks to it and everything is straightforward. These are old-style greens, with no dead elephants in them," remarked Woods, who knows full well that this, more than most, is his kind of course.

But he hasn't been the only player licking his lips in anticipation these past few days. David Duval, winner of the British Open, is like a man who has shaken a monkey off his back; and, of those yet to win a major, Phil Mickelson, with nine top-three finishes this season, and Sergio Garcia, a two-time winner on the US Tour this summer, have been making loud noises about their own chances.

In practice on Tuesday, Colin Montgomerie played with Garcia (and Ernie Els and Retief Goosen) - and was amazed at the amount of confidence the Spaniard had. "He's hitting the ball longer and straighter but the funny thing was that he was also giving us tips, telling us how to play shots out of the rough and things like that.

"Ernie and I looked at one another at one stage and thought 'this is different', but Sergio is playing with tremendous confidence and he does truly believe that he could finish in the top three, two or one, whatever it is, to clinch his berth in the Ryder Cup team."

Indeed, the Ryder Cup scenario is running like a sub-plot through this championship. The US team will be finalised after the event and, with $5.2 million in prizemoney, the way is also open for a number of European players to make significant moves. Garcia, incidentally, is 20th in the European table and needs to move into the top 12 to earn a place in next week's NEC Invitational in Akron. Otherwise, he intends to play in the final counting event, the BMW, in Germany at the end of the month.

Garcia's form in the US probably makes him the most obvious European candidate to end a poor challenge for this particular major. Not since Scottish-born Tommy Armour won in 1930 has a European player won this championship - but there are 23 of them in the field (including the three Irish challengers Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley) this week and a number of them are very bullish about their prospects.

Two years ago, Woods had to look over his shoulder at Garcia before winning at Medinah; last year, he got involved in a toe-to-toe battle with Bob May. The suspicion is Woods, back from his three-week sojourn away from competitive golf, will again be one of the central figures in this year's showdown.