The women dominate the agenda this week with the playing of their first Major championship, the Kraft Nabisco in Palm Springs.  With The Masters scheduled for next week, the men's tours offer a full slate of events, but only the Shell Houston Open features a substantial field.  Definitely a week for the ladies...

PGA Tour:  Shell Houston Open

Site: Redstone Golf Club (Tournament course)  -  Humble, TX
Yards: 7,457     Par: 72
Defending: Adam Scott 271  (beat Stuart Appleby & Bubba Watson by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: Phil Mickelson (2), Steve Stricker (4), Adam Scott (5), K.J. Choi (7), Geoff Ogilvy (11), Padraig Harrington (12), Angel Cabrera (17), Aaron Baddeley (18), Trevor Immelman (25)   Other Notables: Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Jose Maria Olazabal.

Notes: The Houston Open dates to 1922, tying it with the Texas Open as the third oldest non-Major championship on the PGA Tour, trailing only the Western Open (1899) and the Canadian Open (1904)………This is the sixth playing at the Redstone Golf Club, following a three-decade stint at the TPC at the Woodlands………Jimmy Demaret and Jack Burke Jr’s Champions Club hosted it five times between 1966-71………This is its second year being played immediately before The Masters………Though many of the game’s all-time greats eschewed playing the week before Majors (e.g. Nicklaus, Watson and now Tiger Woods), Houston boasts a fairly strong field with 10 top-25s and three of the top five………Since 1999, Hal Sutton (2001) and Fred Couples (2003) have been the only American winners………Much has been made of the course being groomed in a manner similar to Augusta (a smart P.R. move) but any suggestion that this helps to meaningfully prepare players is silly; Redstone is built on pancake-flat terrain and, though in spots watery, bears little strategic resemblance to what remains of Augusta National.........World number three Ernie Els was initially entered but withdrew on Tuesday due to illness.

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European PGA Tour:  Estoril Open de Portugal

Site: Oitavos Dunes  -  Estoril, Portugal
Yards: 6,894     Par: 71
Defending: Pablo Martin 277  (beat Raphael Jacquelin by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None   Other Notables: Darren Clarke, Stephen Dodd, David Howell, Charl Schwartzel, Thomas Bjorn.

Notes: By any other name, the Portuguese Open………The event dates from 1953, when Scotland’s Eric Brown won the inaugural at the Estoril Country Club, which hosted the first 18 playings………No native has ever won the title, and little-known Hal Underwood (1975) is the only American winner………Last year’s event was historic as the winner, then-20-year-old Pablo Martin, was the first amateur ever to win an official E Tour event………The former Oklahoma State Cowboy will defend his title as a professional………This is the event’s second visit to Oitavos Dunes, a 2001 Arthur Hills design which, constructed over some semi-links-like terrain, little resembles much of Hills’ more modernized American work.

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Asian Tour:  Philippine Open

Site: Wack Wack Golf Club (East course)  -  Mandaluyong City, Phillipines
Yards: 7,053    Par: 72
Defending: Frankie Minoza 278  (beat Gerald Rosales by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Frankie Minoza, Thaworn Wiratchant.

Notes: As in South Africa, with virtually all foreign players eligible for The Masters already in America, this will be a particularly lean field………Event dates to 1962 but has only been won seven times by natives, including twice (1998 & 2007) by defending champion Frankie Minoza, the finest international competitor ever produced by the Philippines………Of primary interest to Western fans may be the site, for the incomparably named Wack Wack Golf Club dates to the 1930s and has long been viewed as the nation’s best………Long-memoried Americans may recall it as the site of a 1963 Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between Dave Ragan and then Philippine Open champion Celestino Tugot.

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Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf Free State

Site: Bloemfontein Golf Club  -  Bloemfontein, South Africa
Metres: 6,344     Par: 72
Defending: Ulrich van den Berg 202  (defeated B. Vaughan by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Darren Fichardt, Hennie Otto, Des Terblanche.

Notes: Another lean-field South African event, though in addition to domestic veterans Botes and Terblanche, Darren Fichardt and Hennie Otto – European Tour regulars – are scheduled to compete………This is the first leg of Vodacom’s annual “tour within a tour,” a six-event pro-am series during the Sunshine Tour’s much quieter winter season………Readers viewing the course aerial can also see the adjoining Schoeman Park Golf Club immediately to the west, site of the old Schoeman Park Open and other more modern Sunshine Tour events.

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LPGA Tour:  Kraft Nabisco Championship

Site: Mission Hills Country Club (Dinah Shore course)  -  Rancho Mirage, CA
Yards: 6,673     Par: 72
Defending: Morgan Pressel 285  (beat Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew & Suzann Pettersen by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex top 20 ++

Notes: This will be the 37th playing of the LPGA’s annual first Major championship of the season, though the then-Dinah Shore did not have Major status for its first 11 playings (172-82)………All 37 editions have been contested over Mission Hills’ Dinah Shore course, a 1970 Desmond Muirhead design which was for many years known as the Old course………Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa enters as a Tiger Woods-like favorite, having won twice (by a combined 18 shots!) in three 2008 starts………The field is predictably elite, the only big name missing being Michelle Wie, thrice a top-10 finisher here during her young career but presently nursing her re-injured wrist………Last year, 18-year-old Morgan Pressel claimed the first victory of her much-anticipated professional career, charging home with a 69 to edge Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew and a faltering Suzann Pettersen by one………Winner traditionally dives into the moat that surrounds the island 18th green, a tradition started by colorful Amy Alcott in 1988.

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Champions Tour:  Cap Cana Championship

Site: Punta Espada Golf Club  -  Cap Cana, Dominican Republic
Yards: 7,260     Par: 72    
Defending: Inaugural Event
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Loren Roberts (7)    Other Notables: Andy Bean, Hale Irwin, Sandy Lyle, Graham Marsh, Larry Nelson, Nick Price, Ian Woosnam and Fuzzy Zoeller.

Notes: The Champions make their debut in the Dominican Republic at the Punta Espada Golf Club, a spectacular seaside course designed by Jack Nicklaus at the island’s eastern tip………Coming off an eight-stroke victory at the Ginn Championship in Florida, Bernhard Langer is an obvious favorite here.

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Elsewhere…
The Nationwide Tour visits northern California for the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship, while the Tour de Las Americas and the European Challenge Tour co-sponsor another South American event, the Argentine Open.  On the women’s side, the JLPGA returns to action with a brand-new event, the Yamaha Open, while in Europe, those LET players not invited to the Kraft Nabisco will journey to Alicante, Spain for the VCI European Ladies Cup, a team event featuring pairings from 20 European nations.