European Tour Insider: Players to watch at CA

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Editor's note: Nick Dye is going to be giving PGATOUR.COM viewers an inside look at what's happening on the European Tour. Dye, who works with European Tour Radio, will be at more than 30 events this year and will file weekly columns on Wednesdays.

The World Golf Championships events have certainly brought a new dimension to the global game.

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OK, so they are hardly "new" any more. Maybe it's just me, but they still feel fresh and exciting, bringing the world's best players together on a more regular basis outside of the majors.

They are still not perfect. I'd like to see them move around to countries outside the U.S. again, but there's no denying that the world's players all have the opportunity to be present, and the focus of the world is certainly on the given venue for the week.

Take this week at Doral, for example, as the World Golf Championships-CA Championship gets under way.

EUROPE'S CHANCES

Golf has always been a game of respect. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a sport where there's such mutual regard and admiration between players of different nations.

But you can bet this week at Doral there'll be Swedes pulling for Swedes, Spanish rooting for their countrymen, Australians barracking for fellow Aussies, and Brits backing Brits.

While the majority of the European Tour members will be observers rather than participants -- it's another week until the Madeira Islands Open gets the Tour back on track -- I thought I'd pick some players to watch at Doral.

Hanson

HANDY HANSON
The affable Swede Peter Hanson will be one playing with the best wishes of many. A relative newcomer to the World Golf Championships scene, he's enjoying a tremendous season that saw him start with an excellent third-place finish behind Sergio Garcia at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. He's only once been outside the top 30 since and impressed at the recent Accenture Match Play Championship.

Since a playoff win at the Spanish Open in 2005, Hanson's game has become admirably solid and resilient, and the undoubted highlight of his career is the victory at his home Scandinavian Masters last season, making him the first Swede to win in a decade.

Something of an unsung hero in a country brimming with top golfers, Hanson reflected at the time how he'd cleaned shoes as an 11-year-old, then graduated to picking up balls from the practice grounds and played the event for 12 years before the breakthrough.

Finch

FLEDGLING FINCH
The Spanish Open provided a foundation of sorts, too, for England's Richard Finch.

The 31-year-old from Hull had his first taste of the European Tour at that event as an amateur in 2000. He became English Amateur champion in 2002 before turning pro, as a late developer, the following year.

At the end of 2007, he entered the Mallorca Classic, wondering whether he'd have playing rights for the next season. A superb, joint seventh-place finish ensured he'd be back on Tour, and he grasped the chance with victories at the New Zealand Open and Irish Open. The latter - much to his chagrin - will provide the abiding memory of Finch for most observers as he did a Woody Austin.

Having over-hit his layup shot at the last hole, he had to play his third from the banks of the River Maigue, and while he conjured a magnificent approach, he took a spectacular and premature victory dip in the process.

Larrazabal

PABLO PARTY
Pablo Larrazabal had a more deliberate victory splash. The young Spaniard claimed the French Open last season, and was promptly thrown into the lake in celebration. He's since played a prominent part in the dunking of colleagues and countrymen. You couldn't meet a more lively, exuberant and generous player. High fives are the order of the day.

And yet, the blossoming of the Rookie of the Year looked unlikely. His brother Alejandro was the one destined for greatness after winning the British Championship in 2002. Pablo caddied for his brother there and at the Masters. His father had insisted he work on the family fish farm rather than rush into the professional ranks.

At the Indian Masters last year, Pablo arrived with virtually nothing. The airline had done what airlines occasionally do and mislaid his luggage somewhere other than Delhi. He borrowed clothes and a selection of clubs from various fellow pros all too happy to help out a struggling new colleague.

Larrazabal, who missed the cut that week, voiced his opinion that he simply wasn't good enough to be playing on Tour, and yet a few months later came the inspired win in Paris, and soon he was representing Spain in the Omega World Cup. There's a touch too of Seve about his recovery shots, too. Let's hope they're not needed in Florida.

IN FORCE
The European Tour is represented in some force at Doral. Many are now familiar figures on the world stage while some are getting there: Oliver Wilson, Ross Fisher and Louis Oosthuizen, for instance. Add Soren Kjeldsen, James Kingston, Mark Brown and Lin Wen-tang to Larrazabal, Hanson and Finch and there are plenty making the grade.

Alker

ALKER HOME WIN
Steve Alker won the Louisiana Open in 2002. With respect to that event, he's now done something much more important in his eyes. He's won his home PGA event, the New Zealand Championship.

Alker has slipped from the top grade to be back to the European Challenge Tour level this season, but maybe he's on his way back up. Another Tour member, Jyoti Randhawa of India, won last week's Singha Thailand Open.

While, of course, The Honda Classic champion Y.E. Yang first came to world prominence with his unexpected win at the HSBC Champions. Yang earned a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR with his victory in Florida.