At Aronimink, a chance to make an impression

Aronimink Golf Club poses a daunting challenge to golf's best players as one of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour in 2010. But it's easy for anyone to fall in love with the place, especially if he plays well.

That's the way it is for Justin Rose and Ryan Moore, who finished 1-2 in last year's AT&T National. And it could be like that for any of the 118 other players who have returned to Newtown Square to compete there for the second and final time in the event, which begins Thursday.

Although the field doesn't have a lot of marquee names, with just six of the top 20 tour money-winners and without the injured Tiger Woods, there are plenty of players looking to gain a win and build momentum with nine events remaining until the FedExCup playoffs.

One who would like to break into the win column this week is Moore, who fired a final-round 65 here in 2010 and finished a stroke short of Rose. He enters the tournament coming off another final-round charge last week in the Travelers Championship, in which he once again came in 1 shot off the winning number.

Last week's performance and his strong finish last year at Aronimink are a nice combination for the 28-year-old Moore, who has one career tour victory.

"That was one of my better rounds of the year, definitely, if not maybe the best," Moore said Wednesday of his 65. "This course is not easy, and you really have to do everything well. You have to control yourself all the way around the golf course. To do that on a Sunday when I was close and to at least put some pressure on [Rose], that was great."

Rose, 30, established a course record of 64 in the second round and parred the last eight holes to grab his second tour victory in three tournaments.

"The course brings ball-striking into the equation as much as anywhere we've played all year," Rose said. "You've got to hit the fairways - very difficult to play from the rough. I think you've got to be very patient and you've got to have great strategy. It's a golf course where it's not going to necessarily be 20 under par. I like that."

A total of 11 PGA Tour tournament winners from 2011 will be chasing the $1,116,000 first prize from the $6.2 million purse, including two-time champion Mark Wilson; former U.S. Open titlist Lucas Glover; and Nick Watney, at No. 15 the highest-ranked American in the field.

Aronimink favors good ball-strikers and good putters, and, statistically speaking, quite a few from each category are in the field.

Rose, Hunter Mahan, Boo Weekley, and Bill Haas are among the Tour leaders in greens in regulation, while Rickie Fowler, Kevin Na, and Glover are doing well in putting.

Mahan is among a host of players in the field who were not here last year. He last was here in 1997, when he played in the U.S. Junior Amateur along with Glover, Trevor Immelman (the runner-up), Steve Marino, and Sean O'Hair, now an Aronimink member and resident of West Chester.

"It's the type of golf course we don't get to play very much," Mahan said. "You just have to figure out the tendencies of the golf course and on the greens. There's always some sort of theme to a golf course, and I'll try to figure out the theme first. I just have to put my thinking cap on and make sure I gain as much knowledge as I can in a short amount of time."

There's an interesting mix of players in the sense that 13 of the top 15 finishers from last year's AT&T National, and nine of the top 12 from last week's Travelers, are playing. Of course, Moore was second in both events.

He sounded excited to be back.

"It's a good, straightforward golf course," Moore said. "There's nothing too tricky about it, and I think I like that. It's just right there in front of you. There's not too much trouble, too many hazards. It gives you a chance to hit a good shot on every hole. It's not overpenalizing."