Another Auss-ome win at Players

Florida Times-Union sports columnist Gene Frenette is at The Players Championship this week and offers daily content for jacksonville.com

After my wonderful projections for the Kentucky Derby -- picking none of the top three horses and saying that Big Brown would be another favorite biting the dust -- be forewarned that my forecast for win, place and show at The Players Championship should not be taken to Las Vegas.
The first caveat for any picks at this event is that it's the absolutely hardest golf tournament to do it because the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium course favors no particular player. Big drivers, short hitters and medium hitters have all won the tournament, and there's no particular advantage for left-to-right or right-to-left players.
Even if Tiger Woods were in this field, I'm not sure I'd pick him to finish in the top three. That's how unpredictable The Players really is.
So here's my untrustworthy picks on the eve of the 2008 championship:
1. Adam Scott. His 71.36 scoring average in 22 rounds at the Stadium Course is one of the best around and the third-ranked player in the world is playing as well as anybody not named Tiger. He already has a Tour win at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship this season, so he's not pressing to get into the winner's circle. More importantly, Scott has a Players title to his credit and the Australians have karma here, winning four of the past 17 times. Scott can join Steve Elkington as the second Aussie to be a two-time champion.
2. Lee Westwood. A bit of a darkhorse pick, but you can bet somebody no one expects will be on the Sunday leaderboard. Westwood has only one PGA Tour victory, back in 1998 at the Freeport-McDermott Classic, but he can be a big-time pressure player as his splendid Ryder Cup record (14-8-3) indicates. Most experts picking Europeans would favor Ireland's Padraig Harrington or Spain's Sergio Garcia to be a contender, but Westwood does have top-six finishes here in 1998 and 1999.
3. Phil Mickelson. If anyone can break through and win as a defending champion, other than Tiger Woods anyway, it's Lefty. Though Mickelson has a spotty record at best at The Players, he obviously figured something out last year after turning to coach Butch Harmon for guidance. The PGA Tour would like for television ratings to not take too big of a dip without Tiger, and the best way to ensure that is for Mickelson to be in contention down the stretch.