Tiger Woods's plans
to stage a year-end tournament for the world's top players hit a snag on
Thursday when Europe's top two indicated they would probably not play.
Spokesmen for Colin
Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, ranked third and fifth in he world, said
their players were unlikely to be available for the stroke play event at
the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The tournament, put
on by the Tiger Woods Foundation and to be called the Williams World Challenge,
is intended to be for the world's top 10 players plus two special invitees.
It received a boost
when Spanish prodigy Sergio Garcia announced on Thursday that he would
be in the field.
But Montgomerie's
manager, Guy Kinnings, said Montgomerie had no plans to play and would
be spending that time at home in England with his family.
Westwood's manager
Andrew "Chubby" Chandler said his man had not yet been invited.
But he said Westwood
was "not inclined to accept an invitation" because he did not plan to play
in the United States again until the Match Play World Golf Championship
in Carlsbad at the end of February.
The organisers plan
to invite the top 10 players in the world rankings after the final official
money event of the year, the American Express World Golf Championship at
Valderrama which ends on November 7.
Two special invitations
would also be issued to bring the number to 12 for the 72-hole event.
The first two rounds
would be played on December 29 and 30, then after a celebrity pro-am on
Dec 31 the final two rounds would be staged on January 1 and 2.
The winner of the
$3.5 million tournament will receive $1 million and the last placed
finisher $120,000.
