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This Week in Golf - September 27th through September 30th
September 24th, 2007

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - PRESIDENTS CUP - 7TH PRESIDENTS CUP, The Royal Montreal Golf Club (Blue Course), Montreal, Quebec, Canada - The Presidents Cup was developed to give the world's best non-European players an opportunity to compete in team international match- play competition.

This year's event features some of the highest-ranked players in the world, including eight of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20.

The competition is played in non-Ryder Cup years and consists of 34 matches: six foursome matches on Thursday afternoon; six four-ball matches on Friday; five foursome matches and five four-ball matches on Saturday; and 12 singles matches involving all players on Sunday.

Each singles match is played to conclusion as needed. All matches are worth one point each, for a total of 34 points.

South African Gary Player will make his third consecutive appearance as the International Team captain, while the American contingent will be skippered for the fourth time by Jack Nicklaus.

In 2005, Chris DiMarco rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt at the last hole to defeat Stuart Appleby and win The Presidents Cup for the United States. DiMarco's birdie gave the United States the 18 points needed to win the Cup.

In the end, the United States won 18 1/2 - 15 1/2, giving captain Nicklaus his first Presidents Cup win in three tries as the leader. It was the first American victory in a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup since the 2000 Presidents Cup.

TNT has coverage of the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday. NBC will broadcast both weekend rounds.

PGA TOUR

VIKING CLASSIC, Annandale Golf Club, Madison, Mississippi - Last year, D.J. Trahan defeated Joe Durant with a birdie on the third playoff hole of the Southern Farm Bureau Classic for his first career win on the PGA Tour.

Since it became an official event in 1994, this tournament has been called the Magnolia State Classic (1968-85), the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic (1986-98), the Southern Farm Bureau Classic (1999-2006), and now the Viking Classic.

Even with the Presidents Cup and Seve Trophy both being contested this weekend, there are a handful of easily-recognizable names in the field. David Love III, John Daly, Fred Funk and David Duval would all make interesting winners this week -- as would Trahan, as no player has gone back-to-back at this event since it became an official PGA Tour stop in 1994.

The Golf Channel will broadcast all four rounds this week. The next PGA Tour event is the Valero Texas Open, which Eric Axley won last year as a rookie.

EUROPEAN TOUR

5TH SEVE TROPHY, The Heritage Golf & Country Club, Killenard, Ireland - This is the fifth Seve Trophy, a competition between a team from Great Britain & Ireland and a team from Continental Europe.

The GB&I captain is Nick Faldo, the six-time major champion from England. The Continental Europe team is guided for the fourth time by the tournament's namesake, five-time major winner Seve Ballesteros of Spain.

In 2005, the GB&I team won its third straight Seve Trophy by taking six of the 10 singles matches on Sunday and halving two more. The final score was 16 1/2 - 11 1/2 (only 14 1/2 points are needed to win).

The GB&I side won despite falling behind 4-1 after the first day of fourball matches on Thursday.

Next week, the European Tour returns to its normal schedule for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which Padraig Harrington won by five shots last year.

LPGA TOUR

NAVISTAR LPGA CLASSIC, Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Capitol Hill's The Senator, Prattville, Alabama - This is the inaugural Navistar LPGA Classic and the first LPGA Tour event since the Americans won the Solheim Cup two weeks ago.

The last full-field LPGA Tour event was the NW Arkansas LPGA Championship, which was shortened to 18 holes and declared unofficial after a weekend of bad weather.

Amateur Stacy Lewis, who plays college golf at Arkansas, had the best 18-hole score but was not credited with an LPGA Tour win. "It's a non entity as far as we are concerned," Doug Brecht, the vice president of rules and officials for the LPGA, said of the event.

The Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds this weekend. The next LPGA event is the Longs Drugs Challenge, which Karrie Webb won by a shot over Annika Sorenstam last year.