PREVIEW: Wachovia Championship

The PGA Tour rolls around to the Quail Hollow Club for this week's Wachovia Championship and there is much to ponder when finalising your Fantasy Golf line-up.

Defending champion Tiger Woods is absent as he continues to recover from knee surgery but 14 other members of Pool A are in action including previous winners Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh while Phil Mickelson is the clear favourite.

The course measures just three yards shorter than Augusta though, interestingly enough, the long hitters appear not to prosper here. Last year's champion Woods did not rank amongst the top 10 in driving distance and not one player from that list featured highly on the leaderboard.

Europe's challenge will rest with the likes of Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Paul Casey but in-form Lee Westwood has been forced to withdraw with a virus though it is hoped that the Englishman will be fit to take on Sawgrass next week for the Players Championship.

Adam Scott is the tour's most recent winner having held off Ryan Moore in the Byron Nelson and he will be looking to record a second straight win for the first time in his career while Singh has a good record here, with four top-10s in his five starts.

Last year Woods (-13 ) prevailed by two from Steve Stricker and there were good showings from Mickelson and Rory Sabbatini (-9) with Anthony Kim and Stewart Cink a shot further adrift.

Masters champion Trevor Immelman is another who might come into consideration despite his missed cut last week. The South African was tied for 14th last year and lost in a play-off in 2006 to Furyk. The previous year Furyk was undone in extra holes by Singh.

Finally if one of your charges is struggling along in black figures then you should not be too despondent. Last year the cut was three over and has been over par the last three years.

Players to have entered this week:

Pool A
Phil Mickelson
Steve Stricker
Adam Scott
Justin Rose
Jim Furyk
Rory Sabbatini
Vijay Singh
Sergio Garcia
Angel Cabrera
Geoff Ogilvy
Luke Donald
Zach Johnson
Aaron Baddeley
Trevor Immelman

Pool B
Stewart Cink
Ian Poulter
Paul Casey
Stephen Ames
Stuart Appleby
Mike Weir
Tim Clark
Hunter Mahan
Woody Austin
Charles Howell III
Andres Romero
Billy Mayfair

Pool C
Nick O'Hern
Boo Weekley
Brett Wetterich
Brandt Snedeker
David Toms
Robert Allenby
JB Holmes
John Senden
Jerry Kelly
Pat Perez

Pool D
Rod Pampling
Jonathan Byrd
Camilo Villegas
Peter Lonard
Anthony Kim
Jeff Quinney
Carl Pettersson
Joe Durant
Kenny Perry
Ryuji Imada
Heath Slocum

Pool E
Davis Love III
Troy Matteson
Ryan Moore
George McNeill
Fredrik Jacobson
Steve Flesch
Fred Couples
Bubba Watson