Perhaps the sponsor CareerBuilder is appropriate for this week’s stop on the PGA Tour.
It’s a shame but it’s come down to this, you now have a strange name for what used to be a very popular name — The Bob Hope Classic.
Today’s question — where are the stars this week?
They are certainly not in Palm Springs where the “name” players are basically Zach Johnson, Patrick Reed and maybe, perhaps Phil Mickelson, who carries the “Ambassador” title position for this event.
That’s it.
Reed’s the only top 10 player in the field and he’s not much fun unless he can scream, yell, turn red-in-the-head fired-up. That’s his Ryder Cup persona and it doesn’t carry over to the PGA Tour. Reed doesn’t do reserved very well. But at No. 9, he the guy at the CareerBuilder.
Where are the stars?
They are on the other side of the world in the Middle East — Abu Dhabi to be exact.
Rickie Fowler won his only tournament there last year. He lost a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama in Phoenix but that was about it for Rickie, who once talked about invading the “Big Three” of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. Things change. Day stayed at one, McIlroy has worked his way back to No. 2 thanks to his FedEx playoff charge and Player Of The Year in 2016 Dustin Johnson is No. 3. Fowler has fallen all the way to 14.
Nonetheless, Rickie’s one of many stars playing in the HSBC Championship at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
No. 3 D.J. is there and fourth-ranked Henrik Stenson is making his season debut after a career-year in 2016. Alex Noren makes it three players in the top 10 and Danny Willett joins Stenson and D.J. to make it three of the four major champions from last year in this star-studded desert field.
Meanwhile back at the CareerBuilder, news came on Wednesday that “Mr. Ambassador” is going to play. He will play alongside Bill Haas, who performed well there last year. Three cheers for Lefty!
Meanwhile, back in Abu Dhabi, you can check out a great field without having to tune in to the CareerBuilder.
What will probably transpire in Palm Springs is that the tournament will live up to the name of the sponsor. You should have a bunch of lesser-knowns from the PGA Tour appearing in contention. Last year it was Jason Dufner becoming a CareerReBuilder with a victory. David Lingmerth, Andrew Loupe, Kevin Na and yes, Mr. Ambassador played quite well there last year and tied Na and Loupe for third.
Guys looking to build their careers — Adam Hadwin, Luke List and Jamie Lovemark — were all in the top 10.
Yeah, it is a CareerBuilder.
Meanwhile back in the desert we can keep tabs on Rickie as he makes his 2017 debut against some really great competition. If he can repeat, then maybe everyone can get excited about Rickie again.
The most exciting things that happened to Rickie this offseason revolved around him partying in L.A. with the Ryder Cup in possession and buying that new riverfront mansion not far from his former riverfront home, the old modest one.
Speaking of modest, that’s about the best way to describe the CareerBuilder field.
You’ve got modest in Palm Springs.
You’ve got flashy over in Abu Dhabi.
Take your pick.
