Columnist Peter Benton: PGA Tour will have a very foreign flavor

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002 | 12:25 p.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

Although the 2002 PGA Tour officially got under way with last week's Mercedes Championships (for 2001 event winners only), the rank and file start their year this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Leafing through various newsletters from Tour headquarters in Florida, I noticed an inordinate number of foreign players listed this season.

The United States has 100-plus players competing while Australia, with 11 proven contestants, leads the foreign invasion with Greg Norman, Robert Allenby, Stephen Allan, Mark Hensby, Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington, Greg Chalmers, Ben Ferguson, Geoff Ogilvy, Paul Gow and Mathew Goggin.

South Africa will be represented by Ernie Els, Fulton Allem, Rory Sabatini, Tim Clark, David Frost, Andrew McLardy and reigning U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen.

Esteban Toledo is Mexico's representative, with Jean van de Velde (France), K.J. Choi (Korea), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Nick Price (Zimbabwe), Trevor Dodds (Namibia), Bernhard Langer (Germany), Emanuele Canonica (Italy), Nick Faldo (England), Richard Coughlan (Ireland) and Carlos Franco of Paraguay the lone reps of their respective countries.

Canada has Mike Weir, Glen Hnatiuk, David Morland and Ian Leggatt, with Spain's players being Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jose Maria Olazabal and last week's victor, Sergio Garcia.

Gabriel Hjertstedt, Jesper Parnevik and Per Ulrik Johansson are Sweden's representatives while Shigeki Maruyama, Kaname Yokoo and Joe Ozaki hail from Japan.

New Zealand's flag will be carried by Frank Nobilo, Grant Waite, Craig Perks, Phil Tataurangi and Michael Long. Rounding out the foreign invasion are Angel Cabera and Jose Coceres of Argentina.

In all, there are 20 foreign countries being represented by 50 players.

Apart from the above, the likes of Colin Montgomerie, Ian Woosnam and many more will be over for the majors and other special tournaments.

The PGA Tour is the most competitive in the world and to be "someone" in the golfing hierarchy you absolutely must play here.