Wachovia Championship/Charlotte, North Carolina,On TV: Sky Sports 2, 9pm: Ernie Els believes his first appearance at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina could provide him with an ideal warm-up for next month's US Open.
This week's hosting Quail Hollow Club is regarded as a similar test to Winged Foot, which will stage the second major of the year from June 15th-18th in Mamaroneck, New York.
"I'm really looking forward to playing in the Wachovia," said Els on his official website.
"I've heard a lot of good reports about the Quail Hollow Club. It's been compared with Winged Foot and that's a hell of a golf course," added the world number five, who has not played competitively since tying for seventh at the Heritage Classic three weeks ago.
"I think the feeling is that Quail Hollow is probably good enough to host a major championship some day and it looks like my kind of golf course."
Twice US Open champion Els has produced three top-10 finishes in his last five PGA Tour starts.
He faces one of the strongest fields of the year at this week's PGA Tour event, with 10 of the world's top 11 players competing.
Fourth-ranked Vijay Singh is back to defend the title he won last year in a three-way play-off with Sergio Garcia and Jim Furyk.
World number eight David Toms, winner of the inaugural Wachovia Championship in 2003, and US Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who tied for 15th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Sunday, are also in action.
Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald lead a European challenge that also includes David Howell, Lee Westwood, Greg Owen, Brian Davis, Justin Rose and Ireland's Graeme McDowell.
Former Ryder Cup player Jay Haas will be competing against both of his sons when the action starts in North Carolina today.
It is something that has not happened on the US Tour since 1994 when Jack Nicklaus's sons Gary and Jack Jnr were part of the field with him for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Bill Haas, a member of the 2003 Walker Cup team, earned a tour card at last December's qualifying school, while eldest son Jay Jnr will make his tour debut after surviving a three-way play-off for one of the final two spots at the start of the week.
Meanwhile, organisers of the US Masters in Augusta, Georgia, plan to make charitable donations of around $3.4 million after last month's tournament.
