Mickelson aims to extend winning streak

Phil Mickelson makes his first appearance since winning the Masters as the US Tour returns to the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans this week.

Mickelson will be hunting for a third successive victory, having preceded his Augusta triumph with a 13-shot demolition of the field at the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta.

With the TPC Louisiana course having suffered too much damage from Hurricane Katrina, the tournament switches back to English Turn - which means Lee Westwood returns to the lay-out on which he enjoyed his one and only success in America in 1998.

The US Tour was the first major sports organisation to commit its return to New Orleans for 2006, with commissioner Tim Finchem saying: "We are proud that we committed last November to bring the tournament back, even though we knew it would be a challenge and that we would have to change venues.

"We knew it was extremely important for the host organisation, its charities, title sponsor Zurich and certainly for the city of New Orleans to return. We also saw this as an opportunity to utilise our resources to bring special focus to the city's recovery efforts to a number of corporate leaders that partner with the PGA Tour."

Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell, who finally made his first halfway cut of the year in Houston last week, also play while American Andrew Magee makes his second straight start after surgery in February to remove a cancerous tumour from his left kidney.