This week on PGA Tour: AT&T National

The PGA Tour this week returns to the site of last year’s U.S. Open, Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C., for the AT&T National. Bet on the tournament at WagerWeb.com.

Tiger Woods will be playing the club for the first time since he won the AT&T in 2009. For the last two years the event was played at Aronimink (in order for Congressional to prepare for the 2011 U.S. Open), where last year Nick Watney went bogeyfree on his last 27 holes to beat K.J. Choi by two shots. Rory McIlroy, who won the U.S. Open at Congressional last year wasn’t able to play as he is back home in Northern Ireland playing in the Irish Open.

Along with Tiger there is a solid field as nine Top-50 players are in the field. Some of the stars competing this week are Hunter Mahan, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott Jason Day, Nick Watney, Jim Furyk, K.J. Choi, Bo Van Pelt, Martin Laird and Johnson Wagner. Furyk, of course, nearly won the U.S. Open two weeks ago at Olympic.

Tiger, the +450 favorite on WagerWeb.com, said he spent time with his two children last week and didn’t do much work on his game following the U.S. Open. In the second major championship of the year, his game left him during a lost weekend at the Olympic Club, when he tumbled from a share of the lead after 36 holes into a tie for 21st with closing rounds of 75-73 that left him six shots behind winner Webb Simpson.

“I finally have a swing that doesn’t hurt, and I am still generating power, but it doesn’t hurt anymore,” said Woods, who overhauled his swing previously with Butch Harmon and Hank Haney and is now working with Sean Foley. “I would say certainly my short game has been something that has taken a hit, and it did the same thing when I was working with Butch and the same thing when I was working with Hank.”

Woods, whose foundation runs the event, has some familiar playing partners, too, for the first two rounds. Choi won the AT&T National in 2007, while Watney won last year. While Choi and Watney have struggled this season — Watney has two top 10s and Choi just one — Woods has won twice with victories at Bay Hill and Muirfield Village.

This is Furyk’s first appearance since he tied for fourth at the U.S. Open, his second finish of fourth or better in his last three starts, Not to mention, in the three years the tournament was previously played at Congressional, Furyk finished seventh or better. He is +1600 on WagerWeb.com.

Hunter Mahan is the second-favorite at +1200. With two victories this year, Mahan has a shot at the money title, FedEx crown and Player of the Year. He could get a huge jump in all three regards with another good performance at Congressional. In four starts at Congressional, he has never finished worse than 12th. He was T11 last week at Hartford.

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