Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf
Monday Apr 21 – Sunday Apr 27, 2008
  • Purse: $2.6 million;Raphael & Demaret $800,000
  • Winning Share: *TBD

Five groups to watch

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Apr. 23, 2008
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator

When the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf decided to return to its roots this year and take place solely as a team event, players quickly picked their closest friend or a long-time colleague to compete at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort course. The official 54-hole hole event is a better-ball competition that pits the legends of the game against each other.

CBS will air the weekend rounds and GOLF CHANNEL has Friday covered. If tuning in is in your plans or just keeping track on PGATOUR.COM, pay attention to these five groups:

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Lee Trevino and Mike Hill: Before the tournament switched to an individual competition in 2002, Trevino and Hill ruled the event. The pair rattled off four wins in six years throughout the 1990s, beating duos like Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player -- that'd be akin to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson teaming up today -- along the way. They'll compete in the Raphael Division, the tournament within the tournament for players ages 50-69 that concludes after two days of play.

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Fred Funk and Scott Hoch: The rest of the Champions Tour has to look at this pairing and cringe. Funk won the first event of the year and four other top-25 finishes on the Champions Tour. Why only five top 25s? He's so good he's still playing part-time on the PGA TOUR and has two top-25s there. Then there's Hoch. What's to say about a guy who's won twice in 2008 and was runner-up in last week's event? It's almost unfair that these two were allowed to partner up.

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Jay Haas and Curtis Strange: Haas is always a player to watch and for good reason -- the guy has finished inside the top 3 four times this season, is the reigning Player of the Year and has won the tournament the past two years. But there's something more interesting than that about this pairing. Strange, a World Golf Hall of Fame member for his illustrious PGA TOUR career, hasn't won in nearly three years on the Champions Tour. If he and a red-hot Haas take home the title, Strange would finally get a victory.

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Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam: The youngest pairing, Lyle and Woosnam both debuted earlier this season. Neither have contended for a title yet -- Lyle's best finish was a tie for 25th at the Cap Cana Championship and Woosnam hasn't been inside the top 50 -- but they're familiar with each other and could play off their strengths. The two are former Masters Tournament winners and teed it up at Augusta National two weeks ago, where they both made the cut and proved that 50-somethings can hang in with the young guns.

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Gary Koch and Roger Maltbie: Andy North and Tom Watson are an obvious pairing to watch because they've won the team competition at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf three years running. If not for North and Watson, though, Koch and Maltbie would likely have two more titles to their name. The two television commentators lost by a stroke in 2007 to the crafty duo and fell short by six strokes in 2006. Don't feel too sorry for Koch and Maltbie -- they did win as a team in Savannah, Ga., in 2003.

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