I haven’t heard them use the phrase yet on television, but someone today is bound to say “This feels like a major.” And for once, that statement might not be hype.

Heading into the weekend at the Wachovia, Tiger, Vijay and Aaron Oberholser are tied for first at -6; Ted Purdy and Jason Bohn are just one back; Ken Duke is all alone at -4. But then look at the bunch at -3: Anthony Kim, Rod Pampling, Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Joey Sindelar, Carl Petterson, Rory Sabbatini and Padraig Harrington.

The group at -2 includes, among others, Stephen Ames, Steve Stricker, Jerry Kelly, Trevor Immelman, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, and Jose Maria Olazabal.

This tournament bears watching.

What I’d really like to see is a bunch of guys challenge Tiger on Sunday; certainly the guns are lined up to do so. But I’m afraid that this tournament will just read like a script from the past: Tiger gets into the lead and pulls away as the rest of the pack makes mistake after mistake.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see someone come from behind to catch Mr. Woods?

If you’re stuck in an office (or in a classroom like I am) with no way to follow this weekend’s tournament, you can go to the PGA Tour site for “Live at Wachovia”, for coverage of two of Quail Hollow’s par threes.

Surprisingly, it even runs inside FireFox on my machine that runs on Ubuntu Linux

Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods—the two most recognizable figures in sports—paired up for the Pro-Am at the Wachovia on Wednesday.

It may be one of the few times in Tiger’s life that all eyes were not on him on the golf course.

After reading Doug Ferguson’s article in Forbes, I found myself thinking that it was too bad that The Golf Channel had not provided live television coverage of the event. It looks like they had a lot of fun.

After the disappointing showing at the Byron Nelson, it’s good to see that 28 of the top 30 players are returning to the field at the Wachovia Championship. Woods, of course, is the headliner, and Jim Furyk returns as the Champion.

The Quail Hollow course is long, at 7,438 yards, and seemingly on that basis, Woods is a heavy favorite in most betting lines. But past winners have not necessarily been big bombers. Jim Furyk, David Toms and Joey Sindelar have won here in the past.

An even bigger knock against Woods: he has never won here. Interestingly, this is the first event he’s played where he hasn’t previously won since the Nissan in Feb. 2006. Woods does remarkably well in repeat performances; more than a third of his victories are on just six courses:  Bay Hill, Augusta, Muirfield, Medinah and Firestone. So if you bet against him, you couldn’t be blamed.

Still, I have him as the number one on my fantasy golf team this week. I’ve also got Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, John Rollins, Jerry Kelly, Sean O’Hair, Bubba Watson and Henryk Stenson on the roster.

I’m looking forward to watching this tournament.

An Indiana golf columnist takes PGA players to task for passing on the Byron Nelson.

I agree with his sentiments.

LIke many others, I was sure that this would be the year that the extraordinarily talented David Duval would make his comeback on the Tour. But he’s played only sparingly in the first couple of months.

The reason: his wife apparently is having a difficult pregnancy and David is taking care of her three children from a previous marriage.

“This is something unexpected,” Duval said. “I had planned on playing, but family jumps ahead of everything else.”

Good for him.

To play on Tour this year, Duval had used his one time exemption for being in the Top 25 of lifetime earnings, and his only lifeline left is his one time exemption for being in the Top 50.

The Tour should give him a medical exemption. Under the family leave act, people can take time off to care for sick loved ones. The same should apply to Duval here.

Here’s a swing analysis of 2007 Masters Champion Zach Johnson. His extension through the swing is just amazing.