By Kim J. Harmon

CROMWELL – The field may have been weak, the timing of the tournament may have been unfortunate, and the crowds may have been well off previous highs, but at least the $4.2 million Buick Championship (the former Canon Greater Hartford Open) had plenty of drama.

With the absence of guys like two-time winner Phil Mickelson and defending champ Peter Jacobsen, the worst thing that could have happened would have been either a blowout (ala Tiger Woods at the Masters) or an unknown winning the tournament

But Woody Austin – a guy who had been winless since capturing the 1995 Buick Open and who, at times, has struggled just to hold on to his card – parred the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with Tim Herron at the TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell and won a whopping $756,000.

For his trouble, Herron took home $453,600.

And talk about drama: At the end, eight golfers finished within two shots and another eight finished within four shots.

Okay, all week the story seemed to be the small crowds. For the St. Paul Traveler’s Celebrity Pro-Am last Wednesday, there were some 10,000 fans in attendance … a 71% drop from two years ago (and a 33% drop from last year) according to estimates provided by the Cromwell Police Department.

Overall, attendance was down 51% from two years ago and 41% from last year.

But of course, a lot of that can be attributed to the poor timing of the tournament, coming so soon after the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits and the $7 million WGC-NEC Invitational at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. That, in turn, led to a weaker field (no two-time champ Phil Mickelson and no defending champ Peter Jacobsen, who was at the JELD-WEN Tradition Tournament in Aloha, Oregon).

So, maybe the tournament did not have the juice it normally has, but for those who stopped by the TPC at River Highlands, they got a closer than usual look at the golfers and while there weren’t as many ‘name’ golfers in the past, former GHO champs like Olin Browne (1998), Brent Geiberger (1999), Nick Price (1993) and Mark Brooks (1988) were on hand as well as popular favorites such as Fred Couples (who failed to make the cut), Brad Faxon, Ryder Cup team member Fred Funk, Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton (who also failed to make the cut) and Corey Pavin as well as local products such as Jerry Kelly, Tim Petrovic and JJ Henry.

On top of that, tournament officials were blessed with near perfect weather for the Buick Championship … at least for the first three days. Saturday and Sunday did bloom bright and sunny, but also very hot and humid.

And on Sunday, play began with Funk nursing a one-stroke lead over Tom Byrum and Corey Pavin and a two-stroke lead over Hunter Mahan and Joey Sindelar. Both Austin and Herron were three strokes back at the start of play.

Funk is on the Ryder Cup, Pavin has a lot of fans, Sindelar is a regular in Cromwell, and Herron – aka ‘Lumpy’ – was fighting through a bout of Lyme Disease. So there was a lot of stuff going on that final day, where attendance was only off 21% from the previous two years.

The Canon Greater Hartford Open was one of the most well attended stops on the PGA Tour, but when Canon pulled out after Peter Jacobsen won it all last year, officials had to scramble to find a major sponsor.

The tournament may have taken a step back in 2004, but a return to a more positive June or July date in the near future could see it on the rebound.

Final scores –

270 – Woody Austin and Tim Herron; 271 – Zach Johnson, Tom Pernice, Jr. and Fred Funk; 272 – Jason Bohn, Matt Gogel and Corey Pavin; 273 – Jeff Sluman, Kevin Sutherland, Todd Fischer and Tom Byrum; 274 – Arjun Atwal, Brad Faxon, Jerry Kelly, Robert Damron, Omar Uresti, Hank Kuehne, Kirk Triplett, Hidemichi Tanaka; 275 – Loren Roberts, Craig Barlow, Frank Lickliter II, Bo Van Pelt, Jose Coceres and Hunter Mahan; 276 – Tim Wilkinson, Garrett Willis, David Peoples, Olin Browne and Brent Geiberger; 277 – Tim Petrovic, Craig Bowden, Heath Slocum, John Senden, Kevin Na, JL Lewis, Ted Purdy, Cameron Beckman, Joe Durant, Jay Williamson, Joey Sindelar and Daniel Chopra; 278 – Billy Andrade, Brian Kortan, Jonathan Byrd, Billy Mayfair and Jason Dufner; 279 – Chris Nallen, Pat Bates, Aaron Barber, Ken Duke  and Skip Kendall; 280 – JJ Henry, Mike Heinen, Vaughn Taylor and Bart Bryant; 281 – Matt Weibring, Bill Haas and Bob Burns; 282 – Craig Perks, Ryan Palmer, Esteban Toledo, Aaron Baddeley, Michael Allen and Pat Perez; 283 – Hirofumi Miyase, Russ Cochran, Steve Pate and Robert Gamez; 284 – Roland Thatcher, Scott Simpson, Justin Rose and Brian Harman; 285 – Tag Ridings and Patrick Sheehan; 286 – Dicky Pride and Deane Pappas; 292 – Scott Hend.