DULUTH, Ga., March 31 (UPI) -- Players Championship winner Adam Scott and four world top 10 players are among the entrants in the BellSouth Classic on the Sugarloaf course at Duluth, Ga.
The tournament begins Thursday with many top players missing from the field as they prepare for the season's first major, the Master's, a week later at Augusta, Ga.
Scott won the Players title, nicknamed the "fifth major," by a shot over Padraig Harrington, ranked eighth in the world. Scott's victory boosted him to No. 12 on the world list.
Harrington (No. 8) is also in the BellSouth field. Mike Weir, the defending Master's champion who failed to make the cut in the Players tournament, is the highest-ranked player entered at No. 5. Others include Stuart Appleby (No. 9) and Phil Mickelson (No. 10). Mickelson won the tournament in 2000.
Also contending is defending champion Ben Crane, whose four-shot win in the 2003 BellSouth Classic was his first on the PGA Tour.
First prize in the event on the par-72, 7,292-yard Sugarloaf course is $810,000.
