Welcome to Playing the Field, where we survey the key players and stories at each tournament, giving you the guys to watch and the stories to know. Today, we're looking at another early-season celebrity-stuffed pro-am. And what should you be looking at? Glad you asked ...

Sergio Garcia: Hey, look who's here! The AT&T marks the stateside debut of Garcia. He's on a typical Sergio path already -- promising starts followed by late-round misfires -- and there aren't many people left with the patience to wait for him to break through. It's a now-or-never thing with Sergio, and with a relatively weak field, it could be now.

Jim Furyk: The Undertaker has a strong record at The AT&T, and he's coming off a tournament in which he ranked first in fairways hit. Always a threat, and like Sergio, could do some damage in a reduced field.

Dustin Johnson: He's the defending champ, and he's got the down-and-dirty game to survive if the weather turns ugly. He's coming off a week in which he tied for third at the Northern Trust Open, so he's carrying some momentum into this week.

Pebble Beach: It's our first look at the host of the 2010 U.S. Open, and you can bet that the pros will be hoping it plays as easily in June as it does this weekend. The golfers will also tour the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Spyglass Hill.

The celebs: Yep, there are plenty of 'em. Tom Brady had a miraculous recovery from the injury that kept him out of the Pro Bowl and will play, as will Andy Garcia, Josh Duhamel, Chris Berman and Brandi Chastain, who presumably will keep her shirt on. You can check a full list right here.

All right, your take. Here's the field. Who's your pick for this weekend? Go!

We should all be as cool as Miguel Angel Jimenez.

I mean, seriously. The dude plays golf at the highest level on the planet, and he's an aficionado of cigars and fine wine. And he's the reigning champ of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, having knocked off none other than Lee Westwood in a two-hole playoff. 

Now, certainly, with his ponytail and ever-present cigar, Jimenez doesn't look like your typical globetrotting Man of Adventure. Westwood is surely banging his head against the wall since he once again came up short in a bid to win. But Jimenez is a crafty, sneaky old cuss, and as he's said, he's like good wines -- better with age.

Plus, you've got to love his honesty. "I did nothing during the winter, but then almost every day of the last two weeks was in the gym," he said after the win. "We did a little bit of weights, worked on cardio and abs because you need to have good balance." How many golfers would admit to doing "nothing" -- which, in Jimenez's case, probably means every day was a story that you or I would tell for a lifetime -- and how many would be able to rally to win a tournament just a few weeks later?

Jimenez is making a good bid to join the European Ryder Cup team once again, and here's hoping he makes it. He's the kind of gato we can always use. 

Golf is the only sport where you get two chances to be a young phenom. First, you bust onto the scene as a teenager and blast the ball all over the course. Then the game grinds you down until you're just another one of the pack. But once you get to within sight of 50, you start to rejoice, because there's a new chance to be a heralded rookie.

The Champions Tour may not have the flash and dazzle of the PGA Tour, but every year, it's getting a new crop of recognizable names, names who still have the game to push around their elders.

This weekend, Paul Azinger joins the Champions Tour at the ACE Group Classic at The Quarry in Naples, Fla., just a few weeks after turning the Champions-minimum 50. Azinger is poised to ride nearly as high as he's ever been; he's got the talent and the drive to succeed on the Champions Tour, and he's still basking in the glow of the 2008 Ryder Cup triumph. (Matter of fact, he's got a book coming out in May on that very subject.) 

"A month or two ago, I wasn't even excited about playing," he said late last year. "I think I can be competitive. Let's say a couple of months ago, I didn't think I could be competitive, nor did I know if I wanted to be competitive. I've got a lot of irons in the fire. You've got to be single-minded to be successful as a player." Still, the prospect of romping once again was too enticing to ignore: "I'm starting to make good progress and seeing the potential. I've had a few guys call me and say 'Hey, you're turning 50, it's going to be great.' "

While Azinger hasn't exactly lit up the leaderboard of late -- he's only made the cut in 10 of the 30 events he's played in over the last three years -- he's certainly capable of playing well enough to throw a scare into an over-50 field.

Besides, these cats have to get their wins while they can; Kenny Perry and Vijay Singh are lurking just over the horizon. 

Those of you with memories extending back five days will recall that we offered up a couple tickets, courtesy of AT&T, to this weekend's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. We asked for your choice of the best entry music for golfers, and we got some fine selections. We've chosen your winners, and here they are below:

Emile Bonfiglio offered up a few gems:

Natalie Gulbis - "Legs," ZZ Top
Ian Poulter- "I'm Too Sexy," Right Said Fred
Vijay Singh- "Mr. Roboto," Styx
Jim Thorpe- "Taxman," The Beatles
Greg Norman- "Even the Losers," Tom Petty 

And Nick Sanchez had this take for the song "Nothing Left" by As I Lay Dying (if you feel like getting fired, click that link and turn up the volume): "The lyrics are irrelevant to the topic (but it's metal so no one can understand them anyway). However, the upstanding golf fans in the gallery would be beside themselves at the harsh sounds blasting over the PA system, while at the same time the other players would be scared of the badass that would have such an intro. And out strolls ... Tadd Fujikawa, who has got to be the youngest (just turned 19), smallest (5'1," 135 lbs.) and SMILEY-EST pro golfer I've ever seen! So the entire round the other pros would be wondering if the intro was just a joke and Tad is the really nice guy that he portrays, or if he is actually a lunatic just waiting for the right moment to take his putter to the back of their head."

Puns and violence. Sold. Congrats to our winners, thanks to AT&T for the tickets, and keep your eyes open for future DB contests!

Everybody wants to know when Tiger Woods is returning, and recently TMZ, which has been stunningly wrong in much of its Tiger coverage, backed into what could be an interesting idea: Tiger could return for the Tavistock Cup.

Tavistock, for those of you who don't know, is like the world's greatest neighborhood scramble. Isleworth and Lake Nona, two ultraexclusive Orlando neighborhoods that wouldn't allow your kind, square off for a couple days of high-level golf. Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Charles Howell III, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and other pros are residents and, thus, players.

And the idea that Tiger could return for this would make some bizarre kind of sense. After all, he'd be among friends. He could get his game ready for Augusta, which is only a couple weeks after Tavistock. And it's pretty likely that he wouldn't get heckled too badly by his own neighbors. (Except maybe the guy who owns the tree he uprooted.)

Anyway, more grist for the mill. Make of it what you will.

Also, a clever little video that would've made for a big hit at the Super Bowl:

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Jim Thorpe, already facing prison as a result of tax evasion charges, has received news that he's been suspended from the PGA Tour. And get this -- he was suspended via email.

Thorpe had planned to play this weekend, but that is now not possible. He faces a year in prison, two years of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. And he must pay $2 million in back taxes, penalties and interest.

"If we can reach a compromise with the IRS maybe we can get probation," Thorpe told The Golf Channel. "I think this sentencing was a little tough."

With that in mind, the PGA Tour's suspension must seem like a second slap in the face. Look, I can almost understand the suspension. Thorpe has, in the eyes of the court, broken the law and must pay restitution. (Though how he's able to pay that restitution if he's not permitted to play is another matter.)

So yes, from a purely by-the-numbers perspective, Thorpe has not, in this instance, demonstrated the character befitting a PGA Tour player. The PGA Tour could conceivably make a case that Thorpe's actions reflect badly on the Tour. He now joins John Daly, suspended for a variety of off-course infractions, and Doug Barron, suspended for violating the Tour's substance-abuse policy, as players who have been asked to take a bit of time off from the game.

Of course, there are other golfers whom we could name who have, in recent weeks, brought much more shame and ridicule onto the game of golf than all three of the above gentlemen combined, and yet apparently go completely unpunished. It certainly seems like there's a double standard at work here -- but that would be silly, right?

But let's put aside the suspension. What's really galling about this is the email aspect. Really, Tour guys? An email? You're taking away someone's livelihood for a period of time and you can't even work up the stones to pick up a phone? That's disappointing at best, downright weaselly at worst.

Thorpe did wrong, no doubt about it. And he deserves punishment. But he also deserves to be treated with respect. The PGA Tour fell far short on that score.

Steve Stricker won at the Northern Trust on Sunday in a tournament that could charitably be described as "sparsely attended." No big names + Super Bowl Sunday + increased ticket prices = nobody showing up. But those who did saw Steve Stricker win his way into the No. 2 spot in the world. If there's any justice, he'll become a household name now, but unless he does something phenomenally stupid or criminal, don't count on it. Well, we'll always have Riviera:

Congrats to Stricker! We have our first step-up candidate of the Post-Hydrant Era. Your move, Phil and Vijay.

On a rainy weekend in Los Angeles, play kept on a-going, and the Northern Trust Open gave us our first big name winner of 2010. Who leads Riviera's rips and shanks?

Rips

Steve Stricker: At one point in the third round, it looked like Stricker was going to run away with this thing, but the second highest ranked player in the field made it interesting for a while on Sunday. That didn't stop him from claiming his first win of 2010, and his fourth win in nine months. Can we say hottest golfer alive? Stricker just leapfrogged Mr. Mickelson as the second-ranked golfer in the world.

Luke Donald: Sure, Donald didn't go home with a trophy on Sunday, but the Englishman was in need of contending. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2006, and has gone through a wrist injury, but for European fans, Donald was once the "Next Big Thing." An early-season finish like this might help vault him back to the form we were used to.

Paul Goydos: Talk about a good week. First he was named assistant captain for this year's Ryder Cup, even though he's never played in one before, and then he went out Sunday and shot a 6-under 65 to gain a tie for fifth.

The Riviera Grounds Crew: This tournament shouldn't have finished when it did, but the superintendent and grounds crew in Los Angeles should get a few days off after what they were able to accomplish. Torrential rains on Friday didn't stop play, and the course, which should have been underwater, was playable almost the entire weekend. Great job, guys.

Shanks

Phil Mickelson: He was trying to become the first three-time winner of the Northern Trust, but after an eagle on the first hole of his third round, never got it going. Lefty played the final 35 holes 4-over par, and has the new putting stroke (30 putts per round) in desperate need of a makeover. Again. 

Anthony Kim's Sunday: No word on whether Kim was out until 4 AM on Saturday, but his game sure looked like it.

Stephen Ames: Being a PGA Tour golfer is a lot of things, but a whiner isn't one of them. Ames, playing in his fourth tournament of 2010, withdrew because of the rain, admitting, "I don’t play golf for money. I play golf for fun, and this is not fun.” Listen, you have the best job in the world, you opened with a 68, and you're in Hollywood. Just because it's raining doesn't give you the option to just pull out because you're wet. There are a ton of alternates that would have gladly played in a hurricane for a chance to make a weekend cut. Withdrawing because it isn't fun is weak and insulting to other golfers wishing for a chance to be out there.

There isn't a sport in the world where confidence is as important as it is in golf. It is something I like to call the "Jason Gore Rule." Make some noise when you aren't really expecting to, and it might carry you to further success down the road.

Gore did it at the 2005 U.S. Open, when he was paired in the final group with Retief Goosen, going on to fire an 84, but warm the heart of millions of fans. After that, all he did was win three Nationwide Events, get battlefield exempted into the PGA Tour, and claim the 84 Lumber Classic that same season, his lone PGA win. Young Alex Prugh is using the confidence to make some early cheddar on tour, and after a 66 on Saturday at the Northern Trust Open, the 25-year-old Prugh might again finish in the top-10.

Last season, it was Webb Simpson, the rookie that came out hot and rode the confidence wave for a few weeks. Prugh is the 2010 version, and his two consecutive fifth place finishes, at the Hope and at Torrey Pines, have him 16th on the FedEx Cup points list and well ahead of the rookie pack that is hoping to be around for another season.

This week, at Riviera, Prugh is tied for eighth thanks to his exact same percentage each day in greens in regulation (67 percent), and that important word -- confidence.

Prugh might not be a household name, but he is doing exactly what any rookie would hope for coming out the gate ... have some early top-10s, make a check each week and avoid the end of the season stress.

If there is one trend going for Anthony Kim that he hopes doesn't continue, it is this one -- playing well in your opening event of the season, and then disappearing for the remainder of the season.

Last year he did it at the Mercedes Championship, finishing in a tie for second only to card two more top-10s the rest of the season and see enough problems in his approach that he decided to cut down his entourage and focus more on the game and less on the game.  

Friday, at a raining, miserable Riviera, Kim put together a sweet little 66 that included four two's on his scorecard and has him in the top-10 once again. Blame it on his maturity, blame it on Jay Leno, but anyone will agree that if the United States is going to have a young American claim a major anytime soon, it will probably be this fellow.

It's obvious that AK loves fame, and there isn't anything wrong with that, but we've seen it deter him twice already in his short career and that is a problem for fans of the flashy belt-buckles.

One request to Kim from us all -- focus on birdies for two more days, claim a trophy in the town you grew up in, and then go out to Hollywood and buy as many bottles as you'd like. Just make sure to win this thing before you do that.