ESPN Golf

This is a week of lasts on the PGA Tour. The Chrysler Championship is the season's last full-field event, and it marks the last chance for players to secure status for next year and the last chance for some stars to get their first win of 2006. It's also the last time Chrysler will be sponsoring the tour stop in Tampa and the last time it will be held in October. Starting next year, the currently unsponsored Tampa Bay Championship at Westin Innisbrook Resort will be held in March, giving the west Florida area two tournaments in five months.

But we won't look ahead to 2007 just yet. The field this week is quite impressive, even though the world's three best players are missing. Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson are not playing, but the next four players on the World Ranking (Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els) are in attendance. So are seven members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team and captain Tom Lehman.

That's likely the same number of top seven players and Ryder Cuppers you'll see in the Tour Championship next week. Mickelson, who has already opted out of East Lake; Woods, who's noncommittal at this point; and Els, who's perched precariously on the 30 spot on the PGA Tour money list, might not tee it up next week. But the lure of competing for a guarateed six-figure check is why so many names are in the field in Tampa. Of players ranked between 31 and 40 on the PGA Tour money list, only Steve Stricker (ineligible) is not in the field. Thirty-five players ranked between 31 and 70 are playing, all hoping to win enough money to unseat Els at 30th in order to play one more week.

If the past three years of this six-year-old tournament are any indication, the winner will be a pretty good foreign-born player. K.J. Choi, Goosen, Singh and Carl Pettersson have won the last four years -- and if you don't think Pettersson is pretty good, you haven't been paying attention. Of the four, only Choi needs a win to play next week.

The Westin Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead course is relatively flat, but it's long and challenging. Two of its par 4s -- Nos. 6 and 16 -- were among the toughest on tour in 2005. In the tournament's history, the winning score has fluctuated between Singh's 18 under in 2005 and Pettersson's 9 under a year ago. Pettersson won by landing his approach shots close to the pin and making par, when par was a good score. He wasn't overly long off the tee, but he was accurate and hit a lot of greens in regulation. Singh accomplished his win differently. Although he, too, hit tons of greens, he got there by hitting the long -- but not necessarily straight -- ball. However, he hit his approaches to less than 25 feet from the pin, good for 23 birdies on a course that played easier than it would a year later. In 2005, seven players had a lower score than the 275 Pettersson would win with a year later.

Bottom line, it depends on how much wind there is. The current forecast calls for 15- to 20-mph breezes on Friday and thunderstorms Saturday. The rest of the week should be sunny and calm.

Joe Durant: I like Durant's ball-striking ability and his recent form. He won at Disney because he finally found his putting stroke. Plus, he knows how to win back-to-back tournaments (2001 Hope, Genuity). Those were two completely different events in different parts of the country. It should be easier to repeat when you don't have to leave the state you just won in.

Retief Goosen: The only international player in my top four, the 2003 champ hasn't had a great year with his short game, his accuracy or his putting, but I'm hoping a setting where he once had success might bring his game around. Goosen has one win in each of the last five years on tour. He could make it six this week.

Frank Lickliter II: Another player who makes plenty of birdies despite not hitting the ball a long way. Plus, he's hot. He was T-2 last week and fourth the week before that. It's a similar recent pattern to that of Troy Matteson and Durant, who rode top-10 runs to victory.

Charles Howell III: Another player trying to turn his season around, Howell has had three top-20s in his last five starts, including a T-9 a week ago at Disney. He likely needs the $572,400 a solo second would earn him if he wants to play the Tour Championship.

John Antonini is a senior editor for Golf World magazine