Wednesday July 28, 2010, 05:43 PM

A new US PGA Tour event, the Greenbrier Classic, makes its debut here Thursday and Zimbabwe's Brendon de Jonge expects a birdie-filled week and a wide-open competition.

"It's definitely going to be one of those weeks where it's a necessity to make a bunch of birdies," de Jonge said. "I think we're going to get a lot of wedges in our hand and it might turn into a bit of a putting contest."

De Jonge, who turned 30 last week and attended college at nearby Virginia Tech, has fired 12 of his past 15 rounds in the 60s and enjoyed his best career PGA finishes this year with a third at Puerto Rico and fourth at Charlotte.

The Greenbrier is a 7,020-yard, par-70 layout that closes with a par-3 hole and has both par-5s plus another par-3 on the back side.

Long hitters will not own an automatic edge on the field and this being a first-time event, replacing a Buick-sponsored event from last year's line-up, will help even out the field.

"It's not going to favour any one kind of player," de Jong said. "There are a lot of the holes where if you can drive it far, you can drive it over all the cross bunkers which will make it a lot easier. Fairways are fairly narrow, so you got to drive it straight as well.

"It's going to be an exciting finish."

The course has hosted such legends as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. Sam Snead fired the last hole-in-one of his fabled career on the 18th here in 1995.

"Any time there's history at a venue it's definitely going to attract a stronger field," de Jonge said. "It's pretty cool we can come to a place like this."

American Jim Furyk, ranked fifth, and 24th-ranked compatriot Matt Kuchar are the top-rated players in the field. Sweden's Carl Pettersson, who jumped to 24th on the US money list with a victory last week, is also in the line-up.

The event is played near the West Virginia State Fair with the club's new owners hoping to pool the events and a nearby casino into a moneymaker.

© 2010 AFP/sid