If you go to the SEI Pennsylvania Classic, which starts today, don't expect to follow Tiger Woods around the grounds of Waynesborough Country Club.

He won't be there.

But there will be 156 other guys playing golf for the $594,000 first prize, part of a $3.3 million total purse for the 3-year-old PGA Tour event.

One of those players is Monday qualifier Michael Hyland, a Marlton resident who survived a three-man playoff to get one of the last two spots in the tournament. Hyland fired a 71 Monday at Bellewood in North Coventry, Pa., to reach the playoff. He and Rick Stimmel claimed the two spots.

Hyland is listed to tee off at 8:48 a.m. this morning from the first tee with little-known pros Jeff Brehaut and Brad Lardon. Friday, the threesome is listed to tee off at 1:48 p.m. from the 10th tee.

According to defending champion Robert Allenby, the players come for the hospitality, and they come for the course.

``Whether it's going to attract Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or David Duval, I'm not sure,'' Allenby said. ``But I think, once word gets out, I would think you would attract a lot more great players.''

Word is getting out.

That's good news for the organizers of the PGA event, which alternates between Laurel Valley Golf Club in Western Pennsylvania and the 38-year-old Chester County layout. Chris DiMarco earned his first career victory when the tournament was played at Waynesborough in 2000.

It's been tough for the fledgling SEI Pennsylvania Classic, situated at a point in the PGA Tour calendar … after the four majors are over … when many top players are taking weekends off. In an era when most big tour stops occur at ready- made stadium courses such as PGA West and TPC at Sawgrass, the Pennsylvania Classic is an anomaly.

But the course is the event's top selling point.

``I wish we could play more courses like this one and the one we played last year (Laurel Valley),'' Allenby said. ``The tour needs golf courses like this. It's a classic design, it's been here a long time, it's well-established and it's just a beautiful countryside.''

Set amid suburban sprawl in the rolling hills of Paoli, Waynesborough presents the world's best golfers a steady diet of risk and reward.

Although the par-71 course's length of 6,950 yards rivals that of the tour's longest tracks … Augusta National is 7,270 yards and Bethpage Black, the site of this year's U.S. Open, measures 7,214 … there are definitely places to attack for low scores.

Players with world-class length off the tee will try to reach the green on the par-4 12th in one shot. Some of the hazards that give members fits won't come into play for the pros, but the greens could fool anybody.

The reads on putts can be deceptive, especially to those unfamiliar with the course, and the greens are full of tricky pin placements.

``Everyone said the course was one of the best on tour,'' said Allenby, who did not play in the inaugural Pennsylvania Classic. ``I watched it on TV. It looked like a great golf course. Last year, I knew it was at a different venue, but I said, `I'm going to go.'‚''

And Allenby was glad he did.

The Melbourne, Australia, native shot a 19-under 269 to win by two stokes over Larry Mize and Rocco Mediate. The victory was his second of the year. Although he hasn't won yet in 2002, Allenby has finished tied for third and tied for second in his last two outings, after finishing in a 10th-place tie at the PGA Championship.

Joining Allenby and 2000 champ DiMarco in the 156-player field are Pennsylvania native Jim Furyk, Mark O'Meara, Brad Faxon and Loren Roberts, all of whom know what it's like to tame Tiger.

``The players who come here are just as good,'' Allenby said. ``There are 150 of us that are pretty damn good, who can beat Tiger Woods … (but) not too often.''