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PGA TOUR
CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK CLASSIC, Walt Disney World Resort (Magnolia and Palm courses), Lake Buena Vista, Florida - Last year, Davis Love III fired a final-round 64 to win by a shot and capture his 20th career victory and first in two years.
Love earned a lifetime exemption on the PGA Tour by reaching the 20-win plateau, the 37th player to do so in tour history. He will be in the field this week to defend his title.
But it's a bigger week for many of the other players in the field.
The Children's Miracle Network Classic is the final event of the season for players to secure their tour cards for next year. The top 125 players on the money list after the final round will earn exempt status for 2010. Players between 126 and 150 on the list will get conditional status.
Former world No. 1 David Duval currently sits in the 125th position, just $10,797 in front of Chris Riley.
Among the other players struggling to hang on to their full-time playing status are 1993 champion Jeff Maggert (127th) and Chris DiMarco (138th), who are both in the field this week.
Tiger Woods claimed his second career win at this tournament in 1996, but he hasn't played in it since missing the cut in 2005. Woods will be in Australia this week for the JBWere Masters.
Golf Channel will have coverage of the Children's Miracle Network Classic for all four rounds starting at 1 p.m. (et) each day.
The Omega Mission Hills World Cup, an unofficial event, starts in two weeks. The PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament begins a week later.
EUROPEAN TOUR
UBS HONG KONG OPEN, Hong Kong Golf Club, Fanling, Hong Kong, China - This event is appearing for the second time on the 2009 European Tour schedule.
Last November, when it marked the second event on the 2009 docket, Taiwan's Wen-Tang Lin defeated Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari in a playoff for his first tour win.
It is the second time in as many weeks that an event is making its second appearance on this season's schedule. Last week's HSBC Champions, won by Phil Mickelson, kicked off the 2009 season. This week's JBWere Masters was also part of the 2009 schedule.
This is also the final event for players to qualify for the inaugural Dubai World Championship next week.
Only the top 60 players on the European money list -- formerly the Order of Merit, now called the Race to Dubai -- will make that field. Of those 60, only the top 15 players at the end of the tournament will split the whopping $7.5 million purse (it began as a $10 million purse, but was reduced by 25 percent).
Lee Westwood leads the current money list, trailed closely by Rory McIlroy. Both players will join Lin in the field this week.
JBWERE MASTERS, Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia - World No. 1 Tiger Woods headlines the field this week at the JBWere Masters, making his first appearance at a competitive stroke-play tournament in Australia in 12 years.
The event is co-sanctioned by the European and Australasian Tours and will count towards the former's Race to Dubai standings.
Geoff Ogilvy ranks sixth on the Race to Dubai (the tour's money list) and will be in the field in his native Australia with a good chance to improve his standing.
Only the top 60 players on the money list make the field for next week's season-ending Dubai World Championship, to be played at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
As for this week's JBWere Masters -- formerly the Australian Masters -- Rod Pampling won it last year, beating Marcus Fraser in a playoff. That event also counted towards the 2009 schedule.
LPGA TOUR
LORENA OCHOA INVITATIONAL, Guadalajara Country Club, Guadalajara, Mexico - Last year, Angela Stanford captured the inaugural Lorena Ochoa Invitational with a final-round 69.
Stanford claimed a one-shot win over a soon-to-be-retired Annika Sorenstam and Brittany Lang. It was her second victory of the season.
Ochoa, in her first year of hosting duties, finished nine strokes back in a tie for 14th place. The world No. 1 didn't break 70 in any of her four rounds at Guadalajara Country Club.
Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds beginning at 4 p.m. (et) on each day.
Next week is the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship, a new event on the schedule this year. It occupies the slot that used to belong to the ADT Championship.
