Welcome Back PGA Tour.

Most of you probably aren’t aware of this, but today is the official opening day for the 2006 PGA Tour season. The Mercedes Championship is the first event of the year and it should be a great tournament as Stuart Appleby goes for his third straight title. This is a real attempt at a third straight title too, not one of those USC-depends-on-how-you-look-at-it kind of attempts. Be sure to tune in.

In looking ahead, if 2006 goes anything like 2005, it should be an amazing year. 2005 was a great spectator season for me. I was able to make it to six events, including two majors. Thanks to Elliott who joined me for five of them and Sam and Gary who joined me for one each. A heartfelt thanks go out to Ben and Candace for all of their hospitality last year. It was awesome to be able to get out and support them.

This wouldn’t be a season opening post without some reminiscing. Here are the top five moments of the 2005 PGA Tour season:

5 – Bart Bryant’s magical season. Proving that age and injury couldn’t slow him down, 42 year-old Bart Bryant went on to win two of the biggest tournaments in 2005, the Memorial and the season-ending Tour Championship. A class act all the way, he also managed to pick up the Ben Hogan Award, given annually to a player who has overcome serious illness or handicap.

4 – Jack’s final majors. Jack Nicklaus said goodbye to the major championships he once dominated as he played in his final Masters and British Open tournaments. A birdie on the final hole at St. Andrews concluded the career of arguably, the game’s greatest player.

3 – Tiger silences his critics. For the past few years it seemed you couldn’t hear about golf without someone announcing the end of Tiger Woods’ dominance. It wasn’t, and in 2005 Tiger proved it. He went on to an emotional win at the Masters and followed that up with another major title at the British Open. He also won over $10 Million in prize money and easily captured his seventh Player of the Year Award.

2 – The US wins the President’s Cup. The US hasn’t done well in international team play as of late, but in the final match on the final day, Chris Dimarco rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt to win the President’s Cup. It was a dramatic win and the first in international team events since 2000. Watch the Ryder Cup this year to see if the wins continue.

1 – Jason who? Not many people knew of Jason Gore before the US Open, but since then he’s become one of the most popular players on Tour. This relative unknown went into Sunday’s round in the final pairing with Retief Goosen only to blow up with an 84. His popularity soared and the offers for sponsor’s exemptions on the PGA Tour poured in. Jason took none of them and announced he would finish the season out on the Nationwide Tour. Finish he did. He went on to win three straight tournaments and earned a promotion to the PGA Tour. From there he had another bout with the number 84, but this time it was much sweeter. In thrilling fashion, Jason Gore won the 84 Lumber Classic finishing one of the most amazing rookie seasons in golf history.

There you have it. And finally, one golf prediction for 2006, Ben Curtis will win a tournament this year.