It Has a Foreign Feeling

If the most important piece of equipment at the Nissan Open isn’t a driver, it’s probably a visa. Riviera Country Club looks like the international terminal this week, with foreign-born players making up close to 30% of the 144-player field.

Part of the reason for that is a chance for players to stay sharp for next week’s Accenture match-play event at La Costa, a $6-million tournament for the 64 top golfers in the world rankings. But Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland said there was another explanation.

“If this tournament wasn’t at a venue as revered as Riviera, there would be a lot less international players here,” he said.

Clarke, Colin Montgomerie, Eduardo Romero and Niclas Fasth all received sponsor exemptions and are part of an international field that also includes Jose Maria Olazabal, Bernhard Langer, Aaron Baddeley, Shigeki Maruyama, Nick Price and Steve Elkington.

Baddeley, a 22-year-old Australian (though he was born in New Hampshire), says playing with established international stars is a resource that he uses as often as possible. When he won the 1999 Australian Open as an amateur, his playing partner the first two rounds was Montgomerie, from Scotland.

“It was so good,” Baddeley said. “I enjoyed playing with guys like Colin. If you can pick up one small, little thing being around them, it can make a difference between winning and losing.”

Baddeley stuck close enough to Ernie Els at the Sony Open in Honolulu to force him into a playoff, where Els prevailed.

Since then, Baddeley has missed the cut at Phoenix and at the Hope tournament and tied for 72nd on Sunday at Torrey Pines.

Baddeley said he has spent a lot of time on the range working with his driver, trying to eliminate moving it inside on his downswing. But he remains encouraged by how close he came at Honolulu and what he learned from the experience.

“It told me that if I play well, I can win out here,” he said. “As long as I keep working hard, I don’t see any reason why I can’t.”

In the early going this year, the guys carrying the foreign passports with their boarding passes also haven’t seen any reason why they can’t win.

In fact, until Davis Love III won at Pebble Beach in the fifth event of the tour, no U.S.-born pro had won this year. South African Els won at Kapalua and at Honolulu, Vijay Singh of Fiji won at Phoenix and Canadian Mike Weir won the Bob Hope.

International players have made their marks in majors, even in the Tiger Woods era. Since 1996, foreign-born players have won eight majors, or the same number that Woods has won since 1997.

European teams have won three of the last four Ryder Cup matches.

There has been a general contrast in style of play between the regulars on the PGA Tour and players who are more committed to international tours, but the differences may no longer be as pronounced.

Foreign-born players are more creative around the greens, hit lower-trajectory shots and bump-and-run the balls onto the greens.

PGA Tour pros play strictly air-ball, lofting high arching balls onto soft greens.

Clarke says those contrasting styles are close to becoming stereotypes, if they aren’t already.

“To generalize broadly, they hit it higher over here, and maybe a silly answer, but we don’t play in weather as good as this,” he said.

Phil Tataurangi of New Zealand says there is indeed a difference in style of play.

“The guys that commit themselves mainly to playing in Europe, you notice a lower ball flight,” he said. “It’s because of the wind. On the other hand, there are a lot of guys who play the U.S. tour solidly, don’t do a lot of these type of shots. You see it in their techniques.”

Besides the weather issue and how it relates to style of play, there is also the difference in course conditions. Courses on the PGA Tour are almost uniform in their manicured fairways and immaculate, soft greens accompanied by little rough; international players are accustomed to harder fairways and greens that are tougher to hold.

“We get a lot more wind where I come from, so you have to move the ball, work it from side to side,” Baddeley said. “And the courses we see here on the PGA Tour are perfect every week.”

Michael Campbell of New Zealand says forget the weather and the courses, there isn’t any difference in the style between international players or PGA Tour pros. Maybe there was at one time, Campbell said, but it doesn’t exist anymore.

“Most of these guys play all over the world,” he said. “It’s an international tour, a world tour. We see each other every week. There are guys like [Jesper] Parnevik and [Nick] Price who live here. Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia are PGA Tour members.

“There is no style, except their own.”

*

United Nations

Foreign-born players in the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club:

*--* ARGENTINA

*--*

Angel Cabrera...Cordoba

Jose Coceres...El Chaco

Eduardo Romero...Cordoba

*--* AUSTRALIA

*--*

Robert Allenby...Melbourne

Stuart Appleby...Cohuna

Greg Chalmers...Sydney

Steve Elkington...Inverell

Peter Lonard...Sydney

Geoff Ogilvy...Adelaide

Craig Parry...Sunshine

*--* CANADA

*--*

Ian Leggatt...Cambridge

Stephen Ames...Calgary

Glen Hnatiuk...Selkirk

Mike Weir...Sarnia

*--* ENGLAND

*--*

Luke Donald...Hempstead

*--* FRANCE

*--*

Thomas Levet...Paris

*--* GERMANY

*--*

Alex Cejka...Marienbad

Marco Dawson...Freising

Bernhard Langer...Anhausen

*--* JAPAN

*--*

Yasuharu Imano...Tokyo

Toshi Izawa...Kanagawa

Kenichi Kuboya...Tokyo

Shigeki Maruyama...Chiba

Akio Sadakata...Napa

Hidemichi Tanaka...Hiroshima

Kaname Yokoo...Tokyo

*--* MEXICO

*--*

Esteban Toledo...Mexicali

*--* NEW ZEALAND

*--*

Michael Campbell...Hawera

Craig Perks...Palmerston North

Phil Tataurangi...Auckland

*--* NORTHERN IRELAND

*--*

Darren Clarke...Dungannon

*--* PARAGUAY

*--*

Carlos Franco...Asuncion

*--* SCOTLAND

*--*

Colin Montgomerie...Glasgow

*--* SOUTH AFRICA

*--*

Fulton Allem...Kroonstad

Tim Clark...Durban

Brenden Pappas...Phalaborwa

Nick Price...Durban

Rory Sabbatini...Durban

*--* SOUTH KOREA

*--*

K.J. Choi...Seoul

*--* SPAIN

*--*

Sergio Garcia...Castellon

Jose Maria Olazabal...Fuenterrabia

*--* SWEDEN

*--*

Niclas Fasth...Hisingsbacka

Per-Ulrik Johansson...Uppsala

Jesper Parnevik...Stockholm

Carl Pettersson...Gothenburg