Augusta, May 22: Love is No. 6 on the money list. Masters champion Phil Mickelson (No. 2) is the only higher-ranked player in the Colonial field. "I love Colonial," said Love, with top-five finishes his last two trips to Hogan's Alley in 2000 and 2002. "I'm ready to play." Most of the attention at the Colonial last year was on Annika Sorenstam, who became the first woman in 58 years to play on the PGA Tour. This week, the focus is back on the men and the 7,054-yard course Tiger Woods won't play. The world's No. 1 golfer has said Colonial doesn't suit his game and indicated the par-70 course of tree-lined fairways, doglegs and difficult par 3s is outdated. "Sure, you can't hit driver every hole, but who says you have to?" said Justin Leonard, who shot a Colonial-record 61 last year. "I certainly don't think this golf course is outdated. It's a nice break from a lot of the golf courses that we play." Defending champion Kenny Perry calls Colonial "a great old course" that has stood the test of time.

Perry knows he will always be remembered as the player who won Sorenstam's tournament. But he did a lot more than that last year.



Perry followed his record 19-under par win at Colonial, his fifth overall victory and first in three years, by winning the Memorial and at 42 becoming the PGA Tour's oldest back-to-back winner since 1990.



"It was just a magical two weeks," he said.



But he wasn't finished. He was just getting started on the best stretch of his 17-year PGA career.



Perry tied for third at the U.S. Open and then won the Greater Milwaukee Open. He never had won more than once in a year, and went on to finish sixth on the money list at $4.4 million -- more than double what he had ever earned in a season.



"The pressure's not really on me because I don't really expect to duplicate what I did last year," Perry said. "What I did was incredible. It was magical."



Perry quietly got a share of the 36-hole Colonial lead last year while Sorenstam missed the cut by four strokes at 5 over.



After Sorenstam left, Perry shot a third-round 61. He led by eight strokes going into Sunday, and won by six strokes even after Leonard's closing 61.



Perry has three top-10 finishes in 11 tournaments this year. But he finished 59th at the Nelson, his first tournament since missing the cut at the Masters.



Love has five top-10 finishes in 10 events, but in the last five has finished in the top 20 only once, at the Masters (sixth).



"I feel like my game's real close," Love said. "I've been making enough birdies and enough eagles, but I'm just having a bad hole here and there, a bad day here and there, keeping me from winning.



"I'm looking forward to this summer, obviously three more majors and a lot of big tournaments coming up. So I'm pretty positive about the year's start."


Bureau Report