AT&T NOTES
BETHESDA, Md. – In the weeks following the news that Tiger Woods would be hosting his own PGA Tour event and that it would be an invitational with a limited field, sparks flew among some players on Tour.
While major championship fields are 156 players and most PGA Tour events have fields of 144, Woods’ AT&T National, taking place this week at Congressional, had 120 players.
Those who were opposed – Rich Beam (who’s in the field this week) was most outspoken about it – complained that the smaller field would eliminate some Tour players who are grinding it out and trying to win Fed-Ex Cup points and win back their Tour cards.
Rocco Mediate, one of the more outspoken players on Tour, spoke to that topic yesterday, and he didn’t mince words.
“Play better – shut up and play better,” Mediate said after his pro-am round. “It’s an invitational. We’ve got 47 tournaments a year and seven or eight of them are invitationals. Just play better. I don’t care who it offends or who it [ticks] off. You want 144? Too bad. Play next week. Play [better] last week.
“Arnold Palmer and Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus have had these [invitationals] for years and nobody ever complained, and now [Woods] has one and people complain.”
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Fred Funk spent his Fourth of July last night at the White House, where he had dinner with the president and his family and presented President Bush with a golf bag with the “G.W. Bush 43” embroidered on it. Inside was a driver with a red, white and blue shaft.
Funk is the former University of Maryland golf coach who played in his first PGA Tour event in 1982 at Congressional.
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Former President George H.W. Bush was at Congressional yesterday for a military celebration, and he joined Woods for the last two holes of his pro-am round.