Big names rolling into key stretch
Mike Weir became the latest member of golf's A-List to leave his mark on 2004, winning his second straight Nissan Open on Sunday to join the growing group of the usual suspects at the top of the PGA Tour money list.
It's a group that's conspicuously missing the most usual suspect of all: Tiger Woods.
Even though Woods has thus far missed out on the fun, the 2004 season is shaping up to be a doozy. Six of seven events have been won by players ranked in the top 14, and the other was claimed by John Daly, the biggest X-factor of them all.
Ernie Els has won twice already, Vijay Singh is proving his 2003 season was no fluke, Phil Mickelson is showing his was and Daly's playing like it's 1995.
And we're just getting warmed up.
Things get serious in the next month and a half, beginning with this week's Accenture Match Play Championship. The heat gets turned up again at the Players Championship in March and it all comes to a head at The Masters in April.
| Around the tours |
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 Nissan Open Site: Los Angeles Course: Riviera Winner: Mike Weir (-17)  Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am Site: Lutz, Fla. Course: TPC of Tampa Bay Winner: Mark McNulty (-13)
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Expect Tiger to have joined the party by then.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's look back at Weir's salvage job at soggy Riviera.
The Canadian began Sunday by birdieing two of his first three holes, building a seven-stroke lead and threatening to turn the final round into a rout. But Weir only made one more birdie the rest of the way, and Shigeki Maruyama battled all the way back to tie Weir on the 16th hole with his fifth birdie of the day.
After both parred 17, Weir recovered by nearly chipping in on the 18th hole, the ball flirting with the cup before settling a foot away. He sank the title-clinching bunny for par after Maruyama missed a 12-footer that would have sent it to a playoff.
It was Weir's seventh career win on the PGA Tour, and the first title's he's won as a frontrunner; the six before had been won from behind, though you could argue he had to rally to win this one, too.
The victory is big for Weir not only because he avoided a near collapse, but because now he'll go into Augusta to defend his title without hearing questions about whether his sizzling start to the 2003 season was a fluke. He racked up three victories in his first eight events last year, but couldn't tack on a fourth in his final 13 tournaments.
David Lefort is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at david.m.lefort@espn3.com.
