DULUTH, Ga., April 2 (UPI) -- The BellSouth Classic begins Thursday at the TPC-Sugarloaf and it serves as both a tune-up for the first major of the golf season as well as a chance for others to seek a hefty payday in a somewhat depleted field.
Two dozen golfers entered in the $4 million event will participate in the Masters, but that list does not include Tiger Woods, Ernie Els or Davis Love, the convincing winner of last weekend's Players Championship.
But the field competing for the $720,000 first prize has its share of notable names. It starts with Phil Mickelson, the winner of 21 PGA Tour titles who still is in search of his first victory in a major.
Mickelson pulled out of the Players Championship to be with his wife and newborn son. The lefthander won the BellSouth in 2000 and turned in his fourth straight top-10 finish in this event a year ago.
But the best finish for Mickelson this year has been a tie for fourth at the Buick Invitational. He has dropped to fourth in the world rankings, marking the first time since December 2000 that he has not been in the top three.
"I am anxious to get out here and play, but my game certainly is rusty and I'm not going to deny that," Mickelson said. "A lot of the intricacies of shot-making and hitting wedges and short irons the right distance and getting the feel for quick greens, all that will take time."
This week's event will have an international feel.
The defending champion is Retief Goosen of South Africa, who returned to competition last week at the Players Championship after three weeks off as his wife gave birth to a boy. He failed to make the cut and admitted, like Mickelson, that he is not at the top of his game.
"Although next week is more important than this week, this is an important week and I would like to defend my title," Goosen said. "I'm really not playing all that great at the moment, but things feel like they are a little bit better after a month's break."
Goosen, the 2001 U.S. Open champion, won this event by four strokes over Sweden's Jesper Parnevik, who also is entered this week.
Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Canada's Mike Weir also will play.
The 31-year-old Harrington finished in a tie for second at the Players Championship after leading for the first three days. Ranked eighth in the world, Harrington has won six times on the European Tour and finished second on 16 occasions.
Weir has enjoyed a charmed season, winning the Bob Hope Classic and the Nissan Open and tying for third at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The lefthander, however, has done no better than 17th in his last three events.
Late qualifiers for the event include Ryuji Imada, a member of Georgia's 2000 national championship team.
