What-you-need-to-know-about-golf-in-2011

This week marks the real start of the golf season with the PGA Tour's first full-field event at the Sony Open in Honolulu. The first round was washed out Thursday because of heavy overnight rain that left too much water on Waialae Country Club. The first two rounds will be played today and Saturday, with 36 holes played Sunday.
  

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Free Press sports writer Carlos Monarrez highlights what you need to know about golf -- and its Michigan ties -- in 2011.
WHEN WILL TIGER PLAY?: Tiger Woods is expected to make his season debut Jan. 27 in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he has won seven times. For the first time in his career, Woods, 35, is coming off a winless season. In 12 tournaments, Woods had only two top-10 finishes -- albeit both were four-place ties in the Masters and the U.S. Open -- and he lost the top spot in the world ranking for the first time in more than five years.
MICHIGAN MEN: The Great Lakes State will boast two players on the PGA Tour this year. Rookie Justin Hicks, 36, grew up in Riverview and graduated from Grosse Ile High and Michigan. He earned a promotion from the Nationwide Tour's money list last season. Veteran Tom Gillis, 42, of Lake Orion had a strong season in 2010, when he won $1.16 million and finished 76th on the money list. Gillis will open the season at the Sony.  

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THE MAJORS: This year's rotation features the Masters on April 7-10, the U.S. Open on June 16-19 at Congressional in Bethesda, Md., the British Open on July 14-17 at Royal St. George's in England and the PGA Championship on Aug. 11-14 at Atlanta Athletic Club.
SENIOR MOMENT: Speaking of majors, the U.S. Senior Open returns July 28-31 to Inverness Club in Toledo, which hosted the seniors' most prestigious major in 2003. Let this year's tourney whet your appetite for next year's installment at Indianwood Golf and Country Club in Lake Orion.
FARR ON HOLD: With a major coming to the Toledo area and the economy still wheezing along, the Jamie Farr tournament, a longtime fixture on the LPGA tour, will take a one-year hiatus.
MICHIGAN WOMEN: But as one women's event exits, another enters. The Futures Tour, the LPGA's main developmental tour, comes to the Upper Peninsula when Sweetgrass Golf Club near Harris hosts the inaugural Island Resort Championship on June 24-26.
HAPPY 100TH: The venerable Michigan Amateur celebrates its centennial by going Up North. This year's event will be on the Heather Course at Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs.
WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR: The 2012 golf calendar in Michigan could be a whopper. We'll have the U.S. Senior Open and the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, plus the Farr near Toledo and a potential return of the PGA Tour with a General Motors event as a possibility at Detroit Golf Club.  
    

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