DULUTH, Ga. -- PGA TOUR players descend on the Atlanta metro area this week for the first of two PGA TOUR events this year. This week's AT&T Classic is part of the FedExCup Regular Season, with 25,000 points available. Four months from now, the final event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup -- THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola -- will be held at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club.

While Atlanta has a rich PGA TOUR history, so, too, does Zach Johnson. The 2007 AT&T Classic champion also won this event in 2004 and tied for second in 2006. In four tournaments, he has earned $2,284,650, an average of $571,162 per start. Last year, Johnson tied with Ryuji Imada in regulation and then defeated him by making birdie on the first playoff hole.

Stewart Cink, a four-time PGA TOUR winner and a former All-American at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, will be making his 13th consecutive appearance in the AT&T Classic. Cink is off to a solid campaign, with six top-10 finishes in 2008, including a runner-up finish at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, a tie for second at the PODS Championship and ties for third at the Masters Tournament and the Buick Invitational.

Cink always enjoys the shortest commute of anyone in the field. The Cinks make their home at TPC Sugarloaf. He is also a member of Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club, the permanent home of THE TOUR Championship.

World Golf Hall of Fame member Greg Norman, the designer of TPC Sugarloaf, will make his first start at the AT&T Classic since 2004. Norman played in the Classic the year Sugarloaf opened, firing a 10-under 278 to tie for fifth. Norman, winner of 20 PGA TOUR events, will be competing for the third time on the 2008 PGA TOUR.

Earlier this season he played in the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. He also played in the 2008 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Before the start of the 2008 season Norman's last appearance at an official regular season TOUR event was the 2006 International.

The TPC Sugarloaf was Greg Norman's first U.S. design. Since finishing TPC Sugarloaf, he has designed an additional 32 U.S. courses.

Since New Zealander Bob Charles won the first Atlanta stop in 1967, only two international players have won in the 36-year tournament history. South Africa's Retief Goosen was victorious in 2002, and he was joined by Canada's Dave Barr in 1987. Six of the last 13 PGA TOUR events have been won by international players.

Though the AT&T Classic began in 1967, this is the 40th edition of the tournament. The numeric discrepancy is due to two factors: the 1974 event was actually the inaugural Tournament Players Championship (now known as The Players Championship), which, in its early years, rotated to different venues. In 1976 there was no Classic played because of the U.S. Open being contested at the Atlanta Athletic Club. From 1967 through 1996 the tournament was played at the Atlanta Country Club. It moved to TPC Sugarloaf in 1997.

Only three players have posted four rounds in the 60s since the AT&T Classic moved to TPC Sugarloaf. David Duval did it when he won the 1999 tournament. That same year Davis Love III did the same en route to a tie for seventh. Phil Mickelson put together four rounds in the 60s in 2006 when he won for the third time.

In four appearances at the AT&T Classic at TPC Sugarloaf, Zach Johnson has to like what he's seen. In those four tournaments in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, Johnson has two victories (2004 and 2007), has nine rounds in the 60s and has only one over-par round in the 15 rounds he's played (poor weather shortened the 2005 tournament to 54 holes).

The secret to Johnson's success has been how he's played the four par 5s at TPC Sugarloaf. In his career, he has 29 birdies on the holes and is a combined 24-under. He has been particularly effective on the 18th hole, having never recorded a bogey there and making nine birdies, one eagle and five pars.

The two players who finished Nos. 1 and 2 at The Players Championship made the biggest jumps in the FedExCup standings. Sergio Garcia who won at TPC Sawgrass, went from No. 115 to 14th in the standings, while the man he beat in a one-hole playoff, Paul Goydos, improved from 146th to 42nd. Tiger Woods continues to lead Phil Mickelson by 6,899 points, with Stewart Cink, Anthony Kim and Vijay Singh rounding out the top five.

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