Final Round

Just some thoughts:
1. I didn't think Rod Pampling would pull it off. But he did. Good for him.
2. I feel really bad for Greg Owen. But he did make over $500,000.
3. For Darren Clarke to be right there at the end despite all that's going on in his personal life, it makes you realize just how much talent he has.
4. Was today designated 'Blue Shirt Day' or something. Everyone seemed to be wearing blue out there.

Having Some Fun

The third round of the Bay Hill tournament was pretty fun to watch today. My favorite moment was when Sergio Garcia went wading in some water to hit his next shot. None of that sissy-boy two club lengths and take a drop stuff for him. No sir, he played the ball where it was laying. That's what I like to see in golf.

Hair Today....

Well, according to Sergio Garcia, he is still an active participant in the hair bet. I've been watching him a little bit this evening on the round two coverage and his hair does look longer than what I remember.

New Blog

I've added a new blog to the side bar. Check out One Day One Shot. I just hope this blogger hasn't been one of those photographers who've been yelled at by the golfers and caddies for making noise.

Luke Donald Wins

It came down to Geoff Ogilvy and Luke Donald there at the end of the tournament. Between the two, I was hoping Luke Donald would win. Ogilvy has already won once this year. Time for someone else to win. Johnny Miller said there at the end that Luke Donald was single. I thought I read in Golf Magazine that Donald has a long-time girlfriend. I'm going with the Golf Magazine article. Maybe Miller is just one of those people who think someone is still single until the marriage license is signed and recorded on the books. And there seemed to be a Paul Azinger lovefest going on this weekend with regard to the announce team.

Now that I've had a couple weeks to listen to the NBC coverage, I have a few comments. They also talk about Tiger Woods way too much, even when Tiger isn't playing in the tournament. But they don't try to create the story or the tourament through their coverage like some others I've commented on in the past. Since I have expressed my opinion of Lanny Wadkins, Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo, and even Frank Nobilo over on the Golf Channel, I guess I need to express an opinion on Johnny Miller now. OK, here it is: he seems to be the one commentator who genuinely loves golf and is still excited about the game (Nobilo is a close second). He has such energy in his voice when he describes the action that even if he makes some biting comments about some players, you can't fault him too much because you can tell that if he could get out there and play every week, he would and he'd have no problem kicking some players' butts. I think some commentators try to be as critical as Miller but can't pull it off as successfully because they don't have Miller's love for the game coming through in the rest of their commentary.

3rd Round

Luke Donald, David Toms, Billy Mayfair, Jeff Gove, and Geoff Ogilvy are all in contention. Paul Azinger has done well so far this week.

I read on the internet last week after that tournament a comment written by someone who was critical of Johnny Miller and NBC for Miller doing Ford commercials and commentating at the Ford Tournament. Well, today Miller talked just as much about Hondas as he did last week about Fords. I don't see a problem there. Everyone does commercials these days. You can't just pick on Johnny Miller.

Nice Quote from Last Week's Tournament

Courtesy of Golf Digest:

As usual, (Johnny) Miller spoke his mind with just a little prodding from partner Dan Hicks. When Hicks asked him about Woods leading despite missing so many fairways, he said Woods was "lucky," and added, "The gallery sure gets to see him up close." …

I read tonight on the internet that Tiger is skipping this next golf tournament. A thought has come to me after reading this. Apparently, the only way for Tiger to approach Annika's record of winning half the tournaments she enters is for him to win one then skip one. I guess anyone could get 50% of anything when you reduce the total number counted. I'll have to take a look at those who are actually playing in the tournament to see who might stand a good chance of winning. I saw that several top level players are skipping this next tournament. Maybe they just don't like Hondas?

Ford Championship: 3rd Round

Well, I guess by the time tomorrow's NBC coverage begins, there will be one heck of a human interest story ready to go on Daniel Chopra. He's in the final group with Tiger. Or else, everyone else will be forgotten, no matter how well they are playing, and the media will still be trying to make the event all about Tiger and Phil. There are several good players in contention going into the final round. I haven't had much of an opportunity to watch NBC golf coverage since I started watching golf again, so I can't say for sure how they will cover tomorrow's play. I hope the coverage will be equally divided among all those with a chance to win.

Despite the double bogey on the last hole, Camillo Villegas had a good round today and is in a good position going into Sunday. Daniel Chopra quietly went about his business and posted a score that would be good enough to get him into the final group. They should do a human interest story on him - I don't think anyone really knows a lot about him. I haven't heard much of anything about him since I started this blog last year. Rich Beem and Dean Wilson may be a factor tomorrow, and David Toms is right there again.

Golf Central

Tiger-Phil Duel. Tiger vs Phil. Tiger and Phil Part II.

What's that? Scott Verplank and Camillo Villegas also are tied for the lead at 13 under? That doesn't fit with the story the media is trying to manufacture. So, these guys don't count.

Doral

Missed the first round. Saw on pgatour.com that Tiger had an 8 under round today. Ho-hum. Boring.

Golf Central

Some guy just introduced Mike Hulbert as the 'former 3 time winner' on the pga tour. Does this mean Hulbert is no longer a winner? Did they take his trophies away? People, especially those who make their living with words, should really think before they speak.

Geoff Ogilvy Wins

For all the Ryder Cup talk that went on during this event, the winner is a man who won't even get to play in the Ryder Cup. Maybe he'll make the Presidents Cup team next year.

They really need to stop talking about the WGC as a world wide competition. Next year, they become just any other event on tour because America has to be selfish and hog all the action.

The Golf Channel needs to offer Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger their own show once their ABC contracts are up. I have a feeling they could be a lot more entertaining than Peter Jacobson and whatshisname.

The Olympics are Over

Now I can get back to golf. I watched the semifinals yesterday for the matchplay thing. I thought Davis Love and Geoff Ogilvy would advance to the finals. But between the two of them, I don't know who will win. Davis obviously loves matchplay, but Ogilvy is younger and you would think in better shape. But, Ogilvy has gone to extra holes in all but one of his matches this week, while Davis has managed to finish most of his matches early. I think it will be a good 36 hole final.

SBS Fields Open: I'm glad Michelle Wie finished well, and ahead of Morgan Pressel after the comments Pressel has made about Wie. I can't wait to see what the rankings and money list will look like now. I wonder if Wie had won the tournament, would the LPGA let her play full time then?

Off Topic: I now have the Tennis Channel on my satellite dish. I didn't know there was a Tennis Channel. I may have to watch that a bit more to see what it's like. I watched a little of it this morning waiting for the paid programming to end on the Golf Channel.

Nissan Open

Sabbatini won. Adam Scott and Craig Barlow did really well. Fred Couples did well for about three and a half rounds. The biggest news coming from the Nissan Open is that allegedly Adam Scott and Tim Clark kicked Sergio Garcia out of the hair bet because it was suspected that he was getting a trim here and there. A while back I commented that it looked like Sergio's hair wasn't growing as fast as the other two's. So, maybe he was getting his hair cut. Anyway, I think he should keep his hair at least a little long. Scott and Clark should cut theirs immediately. At least we know their hair is a result of a bet and not just back fashion sense :)

Nissan Open

Way to go Fred Couples! It's shaping up to be a good final round tomorrow. And I sure am going to miss the ABC announce crew next year. One thing concerns me though. Apparently all the players are getting sick. I hope they didn't pick up that deadly bird flu when they were overseas. And was it really the flu that sent Tiger packing, or was it the idea of seeing J. B. Holmes outdrive him the whole day since they were paired up for the third round? Heeheehee...

There's Golf on This Week?

I've been watching the Olympics all week and haven't watched any of the Golf Channel until tonight. I saw a little of the LPGA event. Checking out the scores running across the bottom of the tv screen, I saw that Justin Rose had a good round at the Nissan Open. I hope that continues. And I've noticed that Rory Sabbatini's name keeps popping up at these tournaments - he's been having a pretty good run.

I wonder if I lived in California, if I would think WV would be as beautiful as the pictures on this website: Central Coast Golf & Wine Concierge

Luck or Foresight??

As you might have noticed, Arron Oberholser has been featured in the Spotlight section of the sidebar for a couple of months now. And today he wins the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Did I have some incredible foresight in picking him for the spotlight, or was it just blind luck?

I'm going with blind luck. If I can't even get one number on the lottery, then I have no chance of actually predicting a winner of a golf tournament. But I'm happy that Arron has won such a high-profile tournament. When I watched him during the Tommy Bahama Challenge coverage, I thought he was a nice, personable guy who deserved some good fortune.

It's just too bad I didn't get a chance to watch his play. But it is Olympics time. Although today, it was a bit boring. I actually took about a 20 minute nap today.

New Footjoy Commercial

I just saw a Footjoy commercial allegedly with the sign guy and Ernie Els in a sauna/steam room. We could only see their legs and feet, and the footjoys of course. Personally, if they are going to show half naked men in a commercial, I think they should pick guys like Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Camillo Villegas, older guys like Faldo and Couples.

This leads me to a question I've had for a while: Why isn't there a 16 month calendar of golfers out there to buy? There are all kinds of 16 month calendars of golf courses, but courses would just be well manicured dog parks if it wasn't for the players who play them. Personally, I would prefer the golfers clothed if they were featured in a calendar, but they should have calendars available for purchase at Walmart and the like. If I can buy a whole 16 months of Orlando Bloom, I should be able to get 16 months of Fred Couples, Davis Love etc.

Slacker

Okay, so I haven't been watching golf much this week. I watched a little of the European Tour event this morning and saw Kevin Stadler take a two shot lead heading into the final round. And I saw some highlights from the Pebble Beach thing. I have a feeling the Australian event is probably better golf. With the Olympics on tv for the next couple of weeks I don't know if I'll be watching much golf. The Olympics is the only time you'll ever catch me watching things like luge and curling. But then, we are getting snow right now here in WV so, I might ditch the winter events and opt for nice sunny Australia tomorrow morning on the Golf Channel.

A Blurb About the Hair Bet And......

Some info on Robert Allenby

Not Golf Related

I had the tv on the Superbowl for a second and I heard one of the announcers say "What do you think they were looking at that they made him take his pants off?" That sounds pretty provocative for football. I'm glad they have a 5 second broadcast delay in place.

Tiger Can't Turn His Back For a Second

Tiger leaves the country for a week and Jim Nantz and crew give his Greatest Golfer in All the World title to J.B. Holmes. My favorite part was when Jim Nantz said something to the effect of "I don't want to get too swept away by all the hyperbole..." This was after they had already said they hadn't seen anything like J. B. Holmes since Tiger's debut in 1996. Give me a break! They saw spectacular things last year from Sean O'Hair and Jason Gore. There are spectacular events every year in whatever sport you watch. I think it's a little premature to try to equate what Tiger's done in the last 10 years with what J. B. Holmes' future could be. And this from a Non-Tiger fan. J. B Holmes did have a spectacular tournament and I could very easily become a big fan of his. He's a good ole boy type like the guys here at home. But after watching O'Hair and Gore struggle this year after having great years last year, I'm going to wait and see what happens this year.

Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes

No, I'm not singing the George Jones classic song. Yesterday during the 3rd round coverage of the FBR Open, Lanny Wadkins and Jim Nantz were lamenting that there were so few young players out there to take the place of the aging players (you know, like David Toms who's already won this year). Well, here's a quick list of some that I found who are under 30 or who are turning 30 this year:

Rory Sabbatini
Lucas Glover
Vaughn Taylor
Bubba Watson
Carl Petterson
J.B. Holmes
Geoff Ogilvy
Justin Rose
Sergio Garcia
Sean O'Hair
Adam Scott

Oh what are we to do with no young players on the tour??? Someone needs to tell Fred Funk that he can't win any more tournaments because he's too old. And let's talk about Olin Browne who won last year in the tournament that Tiger sucked at. And Mark Calcavecchia also won last year and he's no spring chicken.

FBR Round 2

JJ Henry shot a 61 today. Unfortunately, most of the time when someone shoots a really low score, the next day's round sucks. Hopefully, it won't happen to him. J.B Holmes is again doing really well. It's great to see the new guys do so well. Lucas Glover isn't brand new, but he isn't a veteran yet and I like him. I wish they would interview him more - he has a great voice. Arron Oberholser, Justin Rose made the cut and it looks like Nathan Green and Paul Azinger may also make the cut - they are still on the course as I'm writing this. Unfortunately, it looks like Jason Gore may miss the cut. He has had a really bad year so far. Maybe he shouldn't have had such a good one last year. It made the expectations all that much higher and the disappointment that much greater.

Again, I didn't get to see much of it today on tv. I did tape the whole 2 hours and with luck I'll be able to watch it tomorrow. I attempted to tape the CBS Late Nite show last night but got the pm and am thing mixed up.

FBR Open

I missed pretty much the first hour of USA's coverage but what I did see was decent. They showed several different players: James Driscoll, Joe Ogilvie, Mark Calcavecchia, J.B. Holmes, Davis Love, Jonathan Byrd, Sergio Garcia, John Daly, D.J. Trajan, Steve Flesch and Bubba Watson to name just a few. Apparently Jim Gallagher and the second string announce team aren't as concerned about manufacturing a feel-good story of the tournament as the weekend announce team seems to be.

More on the Hair Bet

Now I know why Sergio Garcia was so frustrated this past Sunday. Something about shooting 80....

Bad Choices

So, I had the choice of watching Tiger replays on the Golf channel or watching something else until the Turtle Bay coverage began. So, I chose the Grand Ole Opry on GAC. Bad choice. Wynonna was singing. And not all that well when she tried to reach the high notes. Ugh. She's singing again (and butchering one of Elvis's favorite gospel songs). Gotta go grab that remote. Hopefully Frank Nobilo is on soon.

Final Thoughts on the Invitational

CBS needs to work more on keeping the viewers informed. For about an hour and a half of the three hours of regulation play coverage, they forgot Sergio Garcia was even there. It's not like he fell back to 3 under or anything. He still had a chance all the way to the 18th, not that you would know it because CBS completely ignored him until there was no one else on the course to cover. I had to go online to get the scores because most of the time CBS would only show the first page of the leaderboard. They showed other golfers at 8 under, but not Sergio. It would be fitting if one day Dan Hicks turned to Jim Nantz and said "Sorry, Jim. I forgot you were there." These announcers need to concentrate more on reporting the news they have instead of trying to manufacture more sensational news that would bring them more advertising dollars.

Qatar Masters

Henrick Stenson won after getting second last week. Good for him. What really struck me was this guy Richard Finch. He reminds me of the blonde villain in the James Bond movie, From Russia With Love. The name of the actor is Robert Shaw.

A New Blog

I have added Royal Green to the Blogs of Note section. Check it out.

3rd Round of the Buick Invitational

Sergio's making putts. I hope this continues. Rod Pampling also shares the lead. And Nathan Green is doing great.

A comment on the announcing - even before Sergio made it to 11 under, the announcers were already stating that Sergio, Tiger and Nathan Green would be in the final group. They were totally ignoring Rod Pampling who was still in contention. They continued to ignore him until around his second or third shot on the 18th. This blatant hyping of the event to the point of darn near lying is very unethical, I don't care how much money CBS makes by doing this. It's very hard to have respect for the announce team when they are pandering this much to the almighty dollar. If I wasn't already rooting for Sergio Garcia, I would be in Rod Pampling's corner tomorrow to show him some of the respect the announce team didn't show him today. Of course, Sergio will probably have a bad round tomorrow, so I might be rooting for Pampling anyway.

An Observation

Since the new season began, I have spent most of my time watching the Golf Channel. Last week, I didn't pay much attention to ABC's coverage of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic because watching celebrities play golf (even when they are called the sexiest man alive) just doesn't interest me. But today, I was hit with an observation that I just have to comment on. CBS's coverage seems to be heavy on aerial shots and slow mo video of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods and very light on actual golf. It seems as though they show other crap while they are waiting on Tiger and Phil to get in position for their next shot. Here's an idea - there are about 70 other players out there, why not show some of them while Phil and Tiger are walking around or going potty. The Golf Channel appears to be doing a better job of showing the golf. When I can't tell that Hale Irwin's playing in Hawaii, then you know they are covering golf and not extra crap. And the European Tour coverage is lightning fast. If CBS insists on showing this extraneous video, then next year when the new contracts take effect, they can start their coverage a half hour early and show all this other stuff then.

Buick Invitational

I saw a quick interview with Tim Clark tonight on Golf Central. His voice does not match his current look. That long hair is very deceptive :)

It was good to see Sergio make that long putt on 17 today. And Brandt Jobe is doing really well. And he has a pretty cool name too.

I only got to see about an hour of golf today - part of the Buick event. I guess the big news, which was big news to me, was the John Daly thing about his wife. With all that going on in his life, he still had a better round than Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, both of whom took extra time off in the 'off season' and should be well rested and ready to go. It just goes to show you what kind of talent Daly has and how strong he is to withstand the turmoil in his personal life. I do have to wonder about the Daly Planet show though in light of what's happened this week.

A Lot of Good Golf This Week

There are a lot of good players in the Buick Invitational field and the Qatar Masters, the Turtle Bay Championship, and the Panama Championship are also going on. There are definitely not enough hours in the day to work 8 hours and watch all this golf. This work thing is highly overrated.

An Announcer I Like (So Far...)

Frank Nobilo. He seems knowledgeable and very happy to be there. Of course, who wouldn't be happy to be in Hawaii?

Abu Dhabi

What did I find most interesting? The remarks the announcers made about Sergio Garcia's wardrobe. One of them commented that his outfit the other day made him look like a jockey and that because of this comment, Sergio may not wear the outfit again. I would just like to say that I felt the shirt in particular highlighted his athletic physique and I would be happy to see him wear it again :)

Abu Dhabi

I watched the third round this morning and was surprised to see Chris DiMarco right up there at the top of the leaderboard. I really didn't think he'd do that well. I didn't think he'd do poorly either. But it's good to see him up there.

Abu Dhabi and Bob Hope

I haven't gotten to see much of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. I don't know why USA is sucking up to Phil Mickelson so much, but then it's their last year of covering golf so they probably don't care. Someone, either USA or the Golf Channel, kept saying that Chris DiMarco was playing in the Chrysler Classic. He must be really good to be in California AND Abu Dhabi. And one more comment about Phil. He said in an interview yesterday that he had to really fight with himself to keep himself off the course these last few weeks of his break. Too bad he fought so hard to NOT play in the Mercedes Championships.

Abu Dhabi - I taped the first round coverage and I'm watching it now. For me, I find that I really have to watch the European tour coverage closely because the announcers will say something important in their soft, polite voices and I miss it. And that yellow tour logo that sweeps across the screen - it reminds me of a banana. I look forward to seeing more of the tournament and hopefully, they will show some of the sights of the area. So, a lot of players are doing well in this tournament so far. It looks to be a good one. Vijay Singh should get special world ranking points to be that close to the lead after traveling all the way from Hawaii to play this week. And Sergio's hair looks pretty well groomed as compared to his Mercedes Championships look. Makes me wonder what the status of the hair bet is.

Sony Open

I think I counted about 15 or more players who scored worse that Michelle Wie this week. So, I'm glad she didn't miss the cut with the highest score. Playing the men's events will teach her in ways that playing the women's events won't. Michelle has to be 10 times better to play with the men because of the media exposure. So, she is learning very quickly about pressure and how to deal with it. I just don't see her doing well in any event while her time is divided up between so many different activities - school, press conferences, practice, training, playing and generally being a teenager. I think when summer comes, she'll improve.

The Hair Bet

Adam Scott's hair is really getting unruly. The punishment for losing the bet must be really horrible for Adam to put up with his hair like it is.

Michael Campbell Has a Website

Check it out here!

Well, I'm Glad I Now Have the Golf Channel

Hopefully, I will be able to keep it next year when I will need it.

PGA Tour for 2007 goes to two networks

DOUG FERGUSON

Associated Press

HONOLULU - The PGA Tour will be found on only two of the three major networks starting in 2007 under six-year deals announced Wednesday with CBS Sports and NBC Sports, with the first two rounds of every tournament and selected other events relegated to The Golf Channel.

The deal culminates a massive shake-up on the PGA Tour, which began last year when commissioner Tim Finchem unveiled a new schedule that will include a season-long points race that leads to a playoff system of three blockbluster events and the Tour Championship.

......................................... click here for the rest of the article ......................................

A Pretty Good Article

/noticias.info/ By Dave Shedloski
PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent

HONOLULU -- Think of the PGA TOUR as a movable feast for its members. They have 48 tournaments to choose from, a veritable smorgasbord of golf played in a variety of beautiful or exciting locales and on storied or enthralling golf courses. And the kicker is that $255 million will be disseminated along their journey.

Of course, no one can play every week, though some have tried -- and on the Champions Tour, Dana Quigley was renowned for his unyielding consistency. As independent contractors, players have the right to select where they play and how much, though a minimum of 15 starts is required to retain their cards.

How they fashion their schedules is a crucial component in their careers. Many players, including perennial contenders like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, build their slates around the four major championships: the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. Others adhere to segments of the calendar or juggle dual memberships on the PGA TOUR and an international entity like the European Tour. Some favor particular areas of the country or even particular strains of grass. Some just listen to their internal clocks.

.......................... click here for the rest of the article ..............................

Sony Open

More Hawaii! I don't know if that's a good thing or if they are just torturing me.

Vijay is defending champion but Michelle Wie is grabbing all the headlines. And David Duval is supposed to play this week. I really hope he does well. It's a shame for me to come back to golf after all that time away to find him gone. Adam Scott will be playing so we can see how far along he is with the hair bet. I think Sergio should keep his new look. It's quite fetching.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Sergio Garcia.

Final thoughts on the Mercedes Championships

1) Carl on ESPN is annoying. I can't stand announcers who don't get things right. Along the same lines, that interviewer during the Appleby interview will never live down getting the "56 holes without a bogey" question wrong. Obviously, that interviewer had not been watching the tournament, or he knows very little about golf.

2) Lucas Glover wins a car! Yay for him! I think they should interview him a lot. He has a great accent.

3) Jim Furyk is going to be big this year. I think the new commercial he does for the Srixon ball is going to give him a lot of confidence that he's now one of the 'big boys' in golf. And I got tired of hearing all the announcers say that he had a home field advantage. He admitted he has maybe played 5 rounds at the Plantation course that weren't tournament rounds. I imagine if he's in Hawaii, he's got other plans than to play golf.

4) It's good that several of the players at the Mercedes championships will be playing in the Sony Open. I look forward to seeing them again. Hopefully, Jason Gore and Sean O'Hair will do better. If Brad Faxon is playing, hopefully he will improve too.

5) Vaughn Taylor was a quiet one this week. It's a shame no one spent any real time talking about him considering how well he played.

New Blog

I added a new blog to the side bar. Check out Travelling Golfer.

The Mercedes Championships

The Golf Channel is ruining me. I never get on here an post anything now that I'm watching it all the time. Oh well, let's see what I think so far about the tournament.

Sergio Garcia is doing very well in this tournament. Hopefully he won't have any bad rounds today or tomorrow.

My favorites, Jason Gore and Brad Faxon, have fallen prey to my jinxing ability.

Even with all that wind, I would still rather be there than here. Here it's barely 40 degrees and we had snow flurries this morning.

So, did Tiger skip the tournament because his father isn't feeling well, or because he wanted more of an off season??? One of the announcers said Tiger's dad wasn't feeling well, but he also made excuses for the others who skipped (Retief, Phil, and Padraig) so I can't be sure if that was an excuse or if I should actually have a little feeling for Tiger this week.

Reportedly, Mark Calcavecchia text messaged Tiger and said something like "thanks for skipping this one, more money for me." At least that's what the announcers said. My question is this: How does one get Tiger's cell number to text message him? You would think with him being the most famous golfer currently out there, that would be a closely guarded secret. But players have his number? If this had been baseball, football, or basketball, every tabloid in the world would have Tiger's number by now. More proof of why golf is the best sport in the world.

On the Eve of Round 1

Just a few thoughts on what I've seen and heard so far, thanks to the wonderful Golf Channel:

Stop talking about who's not playing this week. It's going to be a great tournament without them. I don't know why people think that golf is dead without the precious top 3 or 4 in the field. You can't beat Sean O'Hair, Jason Gore, Brad Faxon for human interest stories and excitement, and Vijay and Stuart Appleby for expected competitiveness. I think the media is deliberately doing this as a way to try to control some money issues behind the scenes - talking up the importance of the lack of a 'good' field to maybe reduce the price of tv contracts or something. And then to get someone like Phil Mickelson to make comments like he did in that Mark Rolfing interview only supports the media's position. It can be quite Machiavellian if you're in to conspiracy theories.

As for Mickelson's notion that to fix the tour they should force players to play x number of tournaments a year or lose their playing privileges - I love to repeat that I don't play golf and therefore am not knowledgeable enough to have any really good opinions on some of these things, but I do have to wonder what an idea like this would do to the international players. Those guys may not want to commit that much time to the American tour if they make their homes in other countries. If that's the case, then we could actually end up with the best international players not playing in America at all, which would totally suck. Maybe that's Mickelson's intention, to lessen the competition and make it easier for him to win tournaments out there. Who knows. But I would rather see Retief Goosen a few times a year here in America than none at all. And I liked how Mickelson told Rolfing that he thought that people should step up and run the tour like a business and if it was in the best interest of the tour he would have no problem doing what he was told and play certain tournaments. Sure, he's all for the best interest of the tour, but not until he's forced to be. Until then, he'll skip tournaments when he wants and the tour can get by on its own I guess.

As I've said in the past, I'm not a Tiger Woods fan. But, you all will be pleased to read that I've nearly come to the conclusion that if I had to choose between Mickelson or Woods, I'd almost have to pick Woods at this point. However, I think that's just because Tiger knows when to keep his mouth shut.

And all the Golf Channel analysts are predicting that Sergio Garcia will win a major this year. I sure hope they don't jinx him. I would love to see him win, but I don't know if his putting will let him. Hopefully, he's worked on it and will kick butt this year. They had one prediction that a certain golfer would reach the top 3 in the world rankings - I won't name the golfer because every time I mention him, I jinx him, but I hope he does climb up in the world rankings.

Tommy Bahama Challenge

I finally got to see this today. It was taped quite a while ago. It was thoroughly enjoyable. Until the local news woman interrupted to tell me that nothing had changed and those 13 miners were still trapped in a mine in Upshur county. It's great that they broke into the programming for no reason. That woman must have an inflated opinion of herself. Anyway, it was good to get to know the players better.

Good Story

Clark brings smile to a child
Dan Nicholl at Arabella
Sun, 27 Nov 2005

The Nelson Mandela Invitational finished on a perfect note at Arabella on Sunday, with Tim Clark's victory allowing the South African star to make good on his pledge to give his winnings to a hearing-impaired girl in Cape Town in need of a cochlear transplant.

Clark and professional partner Vincent Tshabalala won the betterball competition, a combined two-day total of 17-under-par giving them a four shot victory over Gary Player and Trevor Immelman. And with R250 000 to share between them, Clark's money will enable Siobhan, a young girl he met earlier in the week during a visit to the Carel Du Toit School For The Hearing Impaired, to get the operation she needs to enable her to hear. And with the golf serving as a vehicle for charity, Clark's gesture was an appropriate touch, as was the victory in the fourball alliance for Player's team, with the event host having celebrated his 70th birthday in November, and marking it with a birthday party on Saturday night. The real celebration came on Sunday, however, as Player, Immelman, Coca Cola South Africa Division Executive Director Alex Maditsi and former American football star Ahmad Rashad combining superbly, a 27-under-par total putting them four shots clear of Lee Westwood, Simon Hobday, singer Ronan Keating and Coca Cola Africa Division President David Lyons. Dressed in matching orange shirts and beige trousers, Player and Immelman had a large gallery following them, and the Black Knight was delighted with the outcome. "It's the first time I've won," he said afterwards, and paid tribute to his team members, who were equally enamoured with the win. "I've won a lot of trophies, but this one is going to the top of the pile, even topping the Superbowl," Rashad said after picking up a win on debut. Playing off a five handicap, the genial American struck the ball cleanly and putted well, providing perfect back-up to the professionals. Clark's victory will be a perfect warm-up for the Nedbank Golf Challenge next, where he will be joined by Retief Goosen, who looked slightly below par at Arabella, conceding that he wasn't entirely happy with his swing. No such problems for Clark, however, and while the return of Ernie Els will be the big story at Sun City, the quiet South African could be a good outside bet on his current form; if he does pull off another win, the loudest cheer will come from a little girl in Cape Town — and soon enough, she'll be able to hear those cheers, one of the many children to benefit from a weekend of golfing charity par excellence.

Preliminary Thoughts on the Mercedes Championships

First, I'd like to say that the writer of the article in the previous post had some really good points about Woods' and Mickelson's 'reasons' for not playing in certain events. Second, I can't wait to see the players who will be playing in this tournament. They are all exciting and I'm especially looking forward to seeing the first time winners play. I hope Brad Faxon does well. I think he had some surgery late in the year last year. Here's a list of everyone I'll be watching: Jason Gore, Brad Faxon, Sergio Garcia, Lucas Glover and Sean O'Hair.

Here's the complete list as PGA Tour's website had it at post time:

Stuart Appleby	Jason Bohn	Olin Browne
Bart Bryant	Mark Calcavecchia	Michael Campbell
K.J. Choi	Ben Crane	Brad Faxon
Fred Funk	Jim Furyk	Robert Gamez
Sergio Garcia	Lucas Glover	Jason Gore
Justin Leonard	Peter Lonard	Sean O'Hair
Geoff Ogilvy	Kenny Perry	Tim Petrovic
Carl Pettersson	Ted Purdy	Wes Short, Jr.
Vijay Singh	Heath Slocum	Vaughn Taylor
David Toms

With this list of top players, I doubt I'll find a second to think of Mickelson or Woods this week.

Mercedes Championship

Mercedes deserves full field
By Rob Collias, Sports Writer

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson don’t realize what they’re missing.

The winners-only, $5.4 million Mercedes Championships will kick off the PGA Tour schedule this week at a revamped Kapalua Plantation Course without Woods, Mickelson and five other golfers ranked in the world top 10.

Organizers of the eighth Mercedes played at Kapalua certainly lament the fact that No. 2 Vijay Singh, No. 6 Sergio Garcia and No. 7 Jim Furyk will be the only members of the current top 10 in the 28-man field, but the intrigue is still there for the biggest tournament this side of The Players Championship, the Tour Championship and the majors.

Woods said he needed time off after a grueling 2005 that included several stops on the unofficial silly season that starts after the Tour Championship in November.

Mickelson is skipping this event for the fifth consecutive time, seemingly because he doesn’t play well on the 7,263-yard Plantation Course. He came three weeks early in 2001 to get a feel for the course and still finished tied for 28th, 16 strokes behind Furyk’s winning effort.

No. 5 Ernie Els gets an excused absence because he was injured for most of 2005 and didn’t get the PGA win required for attendance.

Ditto for No. 8 Adam Scott, who won the Nissan Open, which did not count as an official title because rain shortened the tournament to 36 holes.

Nos. 9 and 10, Colin Montgomerie and Chris DiMarco, both came close, but did not win an event, either.

No. 4 Retief Goosen and No. 17 Padraig Harrington are both skipping the Mercedes, electing not to make the trip from South Africa and Ireland, respectively.

All of that is understandable, but Woods and Mickelson are head-scratchers.

Woods said he expects to start his season on Jan. 26 at the Buick Invitational. Is it a coincidence that Woods is sponsored by Buick and will not be driving in the Mercedes? Probably, considering he has been at six of the previous seven events on Maui, missing only the 2003 tournament due to offseason knee surgery.

Excuses are in the eye of the beholder, but Woods’ explanation that he needs time off to recover

is the bothersome part of all this. He finished in a tie for 14th in a 16-man field three weeks ago at the Target World Challenge, which he hosts annually in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

“I haven’t had an offseason,’’ Woods told The Associated Press when he announced he would not be at Kapalua. “And I need one.’’

No doubt, golfers need an offseason, but why not take it during, you know, the offseason?

Not that Woods, who turned 30 on Friday, or Mickelson need more exposure, but this event gets more coverage on The Golf Channel and ESPN than any except the “big six’’ mentioned above. TV coverage is a comment on the prestige of the event.

The absence of Tiger and Lefty will instead leave that much more attention for other players.

Bart Bryant, Jason Gore and Tim Petrovic, who all have Tin Cup stories, are in the field

For Michael Campbell – the U.S. Open winner from New Zealand – the Mercedes will be one of only two PGA events on his schedule outside of the Players, World Golf Championships and majors. Two-time defending champion Stuart Appleby of Australia will be back, too.

Next year could be a different story, even for as reluctant a tourist as Mickelson.

The Tour took a page from the Nextel Cup and will use a season-long points system next year, with a 10-tournament chase for player of the year honors to end the season. Part of the reason for the change is to avoid players skipping out on events.

Mickelson, for example, took a pass on the Tour Championship because he wanted to spend Halloween with his family.

By the way, Halloween was the Monday before the Tour Championship started. Maybe those Lear jets just don’t fly as fast as they used to.

Will a system that has done well in the down-home atmosphere of NASCAR work in the stodgy, upper-crust golf world? That definitely remains to be seen.

The Tour has always had season-long races, however – on the money list, for berths in the Tour Championship and for the scoring title.

The Mercedes shouldn’t need to offer any extra incentive.

It always offers a stacked field, and now the Plantation Course has a new look after a $1 million, four-month renovation that included the replacement of all 18 greens.

Bryant, who won two events last year – bringing his career total to three – put it best.

“You know, everybody is real excited, all the players, other than maybe two of them,’’ he said.

This event is hardly dependent on Woods and Mickelson – in 2003, Els put on a show for the ages when he finished a PGA Tour-record 31 strokes under par. The breathtaking scenery with whales breaching in the Pacific is enough for a lot of snow-bound Mainlanders to watch.

Woods and Mickelson each played in 21 official events in 2005, including an epic duel at the Ford Championship in February. Whether they are tired, or don’t like the course or the model of car sponsoring an event should not be an excuse. Barring injury, this is a tournament that should be on their docket.

Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@mauinews.com

Tiger Week hasn't been so bad on the Golf Channel this week. I did get to see Sergio Garcia win the Omega European Masters Saturday morning. And I've been watching the Golf Academy show today. Right now Jason Gore is on there. I like Jason Gore, he's so friendly and happy all the time. I have noticed that this Golf Academy show does happen to be half infomercial when people have dvds and books to sell. One thing's for sure - I'm going to be the most knowledgeable non-golfer out there after watching all this how-to stuff.

This is a pretty good article

Spontaneous Moments Spark Some Golf News

Doesn't Take Much To Change My Mind

I'm watching the first day coverage of the Tavistock Cup on the Golf Channel (yes, I know it's a rerun). Anyway, I have now changed my mind on the idea of letting the men wear shorts when the weather gets hot. One look at Tiger Woods in those shorts was all it took. Long live long pants! You'd think Steve Williams would give Tiger some pointers on getting better legs.

To Bed and Beyond

Last night I stayed up until midnight watching Fred Couples play Michael Campbell in New Zealand for Shell's Wonderful World of Golf. This morning, I awoke to Angel Cabrera and Nicholas Fasth dueling it out in some European Tour event. This golf channel is a wonderful thing. Even if this week is Tiger Week. Next week starts tons of Hawaii coverage and I can't wait. If I had money, I'd be in Hawaii.

Big Break 4

The Golf Channel keeps replaying the final round that determines the winner of the whole show. Both of the competitors, Guy and Paul, keep talking over and over again about not be committed. I'd be concerned if I was the woman in their lives. Committment seems to be a problem for them. And after watching the players commentary on their performance, I have to wonder how any serious competitive golfer can be sane. It seems these two, or at least Paul, really got into psychoanalyzing his play. Sometimes too much introspection can be a bad thing.

Update

I have discovered that part of the 'big break' is that the winner gets to play in a couple of tournaments that they wouldn't have otherwise had access to. It would be nice if the Golf Channel would tell you these things in the first few seconds of the show. Not everyone has access to the internet to be able to look these things up. I'm still not entirely sold on the Big Break V Women's Edition. But it is in Hawaii so it can't be all that bad.

Merry Christmas To Me

I got myself the Golf Channel for Christmas. I was planning to get it after the first of the year, but I got it early so my dad could watch some of the new channels included in the 180 channel package from Dish Network today when we had our Christmas dinner here at the house. He has the 120 channel package. So, I've been watching the Golf Channel for a few days and so far it's ok. I don't really get this Big Break thing. I'll have to head over to the golf channel's website and see if the purpose of this show is posted. So, far it's just people I haven't heard of playing golf on tv. Is being on tv the 'big break'? Or does the winner get something else out of it? Oh, and it would be just my luck that next week is Tiger Woods week on the Golf Channel. I can't believe I have to pay for that.

I've also spent some time watching the Military channel, History International, and the Biography channel.

Ernie's Not Watching the Right Shows :)

There will no longer be Tuesday pro-ams on PGA Tour

Posted: Tuesday December 20, 2005 6:50PM; Updated: Tuesday December 20, 2005 6:50PM

PGA Tour events run by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were distinctive because the pro-am rounds were on Tuesdays.

That won't be the case next year for the Memorial of Nicklaus or Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had said it would be best for all pro-ams to be held on the same day, and both tournaments confirmed they will move theirs to Wednesdays.

"I'm not objectionable to it," Palmer said. "In the beginning, we tried to do some extra stuff to make it attractive to the players, but now the indication is the guys want to come in on Tuesday night and play Wednesday in the pro-am as their practice round."

Memorial tournament director Dan Sullivan said a move to Wednesday was in the works long before the tour got involved. He was concerned about players who had been with their families over the Memorial Day weekend and might have to rush to get to Ohio for a Tuesday pro-am.

The PGA Tour has a policy that players must take part in the pro-am if they want to compete in a tournament. Phil Mickelson missed the Memorial last year, saying he wanted to spend three days at Pinehurst to prepare for the U.S. Open and couldn't get back for the pro-am.

Sullivan said the Memorial, which honors star players each year, would move that ceremony to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays. The pro-am is for only 18 players and features a shotgun start on 12 holes. That will take place at 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays, allowing others to practice in the morning.

The Tour Championship also has a Tuesday pro-am, and Mickelson used that as an excuse not to play this year. That pro-am also will move to Wednesday.

"There will be no Tuesday pro-ams next year," said Andy Pazder, the tour's vice president of competition. "That helps some players who have an obligation Monday and Tuesday, whether it's an outing or a commitment to sponsors."

Masters scare

Former Masters champion Fred Couples already has played Augusta National five times in two trips since the course opened after more changes to lengthen six holes.

He shot a 64 a few weeks ago but kept that nugget from players who came by his locker two weeks ago at Sherwood Country Club and milked him for information.

The first hole is 20 yards longer and now plays 455 yards, making it difficult to get up the hill.

"The last day, I hit 3-wood into No. 1," Couples said, neglecting to tell them it was 8 a.m. and not quite 50 degrees, so the ball wasn't traveling all that far.

He was asked what he hit on No. 7, which was lengthened 40 yards. It played as a 2-iron and a wedge when Couples won in 1992. He told them he killed a drive and had a 5-iron left.

David Toms walked by.

"It's perfect for you, the way you hit your 5-wood," Couples told him.

After they all left wide-eyed, Couples winked and said, "I've got them all scared now. It's not that bad."

LPGA awards

Heather Daly-Donofrio has received the William and Mousie Powell Award for behavior and deeds that best exemplify the spirit, ideals and values of the LPGA Tour.

A Yale graduate who returned to coach at her alma mater while keeping a full schedule, Daly-Donofrio has won twice and averaged 22 stars a year. She balanced her time inside the ropes this year with serving as president of the LPGA Tour and co-chair of the search committee for a new commissioner.

Amy Read was honored with the Heather Farr Player Award, given to the LPGA player who shows determination, perseverance and spirit in fulfilling her goals. Farr died in 1993 after a 41/2-year battle with cancer.

Read has fought through injuries to her ankle, wrist, shoulder and knees, and has had eight knee surgeries since 1995. That was followed by two shoulder surgeries earlier this year, and doctors discovered she had Lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease.

Read is on the course nearly every day with hopes of playing Monday qualifiers to get back on tour.

Open changes

Royal Birkdale is the latest British Open venue to strengthen its links by adding 154 yards, 16 fairway bunkers and redoing the 17th green.

The Open returns to Birkdale in 2008 for the first time since Mark O'Meara beat Brian Watts in a playoff.

"Royal Birkdale has always been a strong Open venue, and we feel that by introducing these changes, that challenge can be maintained," Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson said.

The most significant change is likely to be No. 6, a par-4 that will play 499 yards. A bunker will be added at the left corner of the dogleg right, 280 yards from the tee. Another bunker will be added left of the green.

In 1998, the sixth hole was the toughest at Birkdale, yielding only 16 birdies and playing to an average of 4.62.

Change of luck

Tiger Woods has his red shirt for Sunday. Michael Campbell once wore red socks for luck.

But not anymore.

"That was about 10 years ago," the U.S. Open champion said with a smile. "I did for a while, yeah. At the (1995) British Open, I wore red socks. And then I started missing cuts, so I changed back. They're black and gray now."

The last time anyone remembered Campbell and his red socks was in the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa, were Woods beat him, 5 and 4.

Divots

Tour officials had been leaning toward taking the World Cup to China in 2006, but instead it will be moving to the Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados, site of Tiger Woods' wedding last year. ... Vijay Singh will be playing next month n the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, to be held opposite the Bob Hope Classic. Also playing Abu Dhabi are Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia and John Daly. ... The 2007 Senior British Open will be held at Muirfield to coincide with the 50th birthday of Nick Faldo, who won two of his three claret jugs there.

Stat of the week

Ever since Augusta National changed its qualifications in 2000, only five Americans have had to rely on top 50 in the world ranking to get into the Masters.

Final word

"Daytime television is pretty depressing." _ Ernie Els, on the low point of a year in which he spent four months recovering from knee surgery.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

South African Airlines Open

Check out the recap written by the Undaunted Duffer. It's very good.

Goosen, Els Set for South African Golf Battle

By VOA Sports 17 December 2005

South Africa's Retief Goosen Leads Ernie Els (AP Photo)

Two-time U.S. Open champions Ernie Els and Retief Goosen of South Africa are set for a final-round battle at the South African Airways Open golf tournament in George, South Africa.

Goosen shot a 4-under-par 69 in his third round Saturday and is 7-under-par 212 for the tournament.

Els, playing in only his third tournament since undergoing knee surgery, is three strokes off the lead at 4-under-par 215. Els also fired a 4-under-par, 69 in his third round.

Overnight leader Ross Fisher is tied with another South African Darren Fichardt for third place at 3-under-par, 216. Fichardt shot a 4-under-par 69 Saturday while Fisher had a 5-over-par 78 in his third round.

The tournament is being played on the Gary Player-designed Fancourt Golf Club Course, a par-73 layout that measures 6,799 meters. This year's winner takes home more than $189,000.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

Birthday Present

Today is my birthday. April, from work, got me a golf courses calendar for my cubicle wall. She suggested that I print and cut out pictures of Sergio Garcia and position them on the pictures of the courses. So far I have him surveying a putt and posing after a tee shot. I might add a few other golfers to that ColorForms-like approach to my new calendar. Fred Couples would be a good choice for something nice to look at while I'm trapped in the cube farm.

The Bet

I finally found pictures of Sergio Garcia since his participation in the hair bet began. See the previous post about the bet made between Garcia, Tim Clark, and Adam Scott regarding letting their hair grow out. Here's a link to Getty Images. I can now say that I think Adam Scott so far is looking the best of the three. I think Tim Clark's hair grows faster than the other two. And Sergio I think will win because his hair doesn't seem to be growing in such a way to aggravate him, unlike Adam's or Tim's. Hopefully, we'll get to find out who wins the bet. I think it was blind luck that I found that news stoy in the first place.

I Agree With This Blogger's Comments

Check out this post by MediaGuru.

I agree that people who complain most about the season lasting so long seem to be the ones who play those silly season events. No one forces these guys to play ANY golf at all. They make out their schedules. They are responsible. Believe me, I'm just a lowly worker bee at my place of employment, but even I know that I control my vacation leave and how hard I work when I'm there.

Updates

I've added a few blogs to the Blogs section of the sidebar. Check them out!!

Target Challenge

Luke Donald won the event and over One Million dollars. Davis Love came in last and won $160,000. If any of those guys would like to spread a little of that around, they are welcome to email me for my address - LOLOL!!!!! Of course, with my luck, I'd end up having to pay some kind of tax on it. A pox on taxes, I say!

Tiger's Tournament

So, I've watched a little bit of this Target event that has aired on USA and will be on ABC this weekend. Tiger has done the hostly thing and stayed out of the hunt, allowing his invited guests to take the main stage. I got to see Tim Clark yesterday with his growing hair (see the previous post about the bet). I don't think I'll get to see much of the event tomorrow. I'm expecting a furniture delivery tomorrow at the same time ABC is airing the event.

Good Wholesome Fun

By Geoff McClure
December 8, 2005

GIVEN the sort of money that they earn, the likes of Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia having the odd friendly bet among themselves would hardly be here or there, really. Well, that's what we thought until we caught up with Scott, the affable young Queenslander, on the eve of the Australian Masters at Huntingdale yesterday. Scott, you may remember, was the focus of our attention two weeks ago when he turned up at the Australian Open with an unruly mop of hair — quite a contrast for a bloke who cares about his grooming so much that only a few months ago he was voted by Esquire magazine as one of the 10 best-dressed men in the world. In fact, it was so unruly he was asked at a news conference if he was growing a mullet but denied he was, saying only: "It's just growing long for the time being." Well, not only has Scott's hair grown appreciably in the past fortnight but we now discover there is, in fact, a very good reason for it. It's all to do with a bet he had recently with Spaniard Garcia and another PGA Tour player, South African Tim Clark, on who could grow the longest mop before getting so sick of it they had to cut it off. Now the exact size of the wager is not known but what we can tell you is there's a lot at stake, and it is not necessarily just the money. Quizzed about it yesterday, Scott admitted his hair was "getting out of hand" but hinted there was no chance of him backing out just yet. Noted Scott: "There's too much pride at stake."

Winners

Colin Montgomerie, Jim Furyk, and Robert Allenby all won this weekend. I don't know who won the Father Son Challenge - my tv station went out mysteriously.

The Father Son Challenge

Apparently one of the rules of this even, broadcast on NBC this weekend, is that the father had to have won a Major Championship. Would they really tell Tiger Woods that he couldn't enter this event with his dad??? I think that's a stupid rule. Why does winning a major have to be a requirement? Fuzzy Zoeller played with his daughter, not a son. Should that be allowed?? I guess as long as he won a major, it's ok. You have to wonder why some rules are more important than others.

Nedbank Challenge

Sun City, South Africa (Sports Network) - Angel Cabrera stumbled to a triple- bogey on the 17th hole Saturday and fell into a three-way tie for the lead after three rounds of the Nedbank Challenge.

Cabrera posted a two-over 74 to end at seven-under-par 209. He was joined there by South African Tim Clark, who carded the low round of the day, a five- under 67, and Australian Adam Scott (68). Defending champion Retief Goosen posted the only other sub-par round, as he shot one-under 71. He stands at six-under-par 210 and was joined there by former U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk (72). Cabrera, who led after round two, played the front nine at plus-two with a birdie, a bogey and a double-bogey. However, he birdied the 10th and 11th at Gary Player Country Club to get back to nine-under. The Argentine tripped to a bogey on the 12th. Cabrera birdied the par-five 14th for the third round in a row, then birdied the 16th to climb to 10-under. Cabrera struggled badly at the 17th. He found some deep rough off the tee and chose to layup. His third shot bounded over the green and into the water. Cabrera played his fifth just short of the green. He managed to get up and down for triple-bogey, but his lead was lost. Clark opened with back-to-back birdies from the first. He birdied Nos. 8 and 9 to move to six-under. Clark sank a birdie on the 11th and another on the 12th before a bogey on 14 dropped him to minus-seven. He parred his final four holes to remain there. Scott played the front nine at two-under with three birdies and a bogey. He bogeyed the 10th and 13th, but got those shots back with an eagle on the 14th. The Australian closed with consecutive birdies from the 17th to share the lead. First-round leader Darren Clarke stumbled to a four-over 76 to drop to three- under-par 213. He fell into a tie for sixth alongside Luke Donald (75). Ernie Els, playing for the first time since July knee surgery, carded a one- over 73. He stands at minus-one, where he was tied for eighth place by Chris DiMarco, who shot a third-round 72. Sergio Garcia, like Cabrera, was victimized by the 17th. He quadruple-bogeyed the 17th en route to a 74 that dropped him to 10th place at two-over-par 218. Kenny Perry, plus-seven, and Stewart Cink, 11-over-par 217, round out the 12- player field.

Ernie Els' Return

Ernie Els making comeback after surgery

SUN CITY, South Africa — Ernie Els is back after the longest layoff of his career and unconcerned that playing tournament golf will aggravate his sore knee.

The two-time U.S. Open champion, who also won the 2002 British Open, injured his left knee in a boating accident in July and underwent surgery.

"The knee is still uncomfortable, but the doctor assures me there's no way a golf swing will damage my knee," Els said Wednesday. "It tends to swell up at the end of each round and that's the worst part really."

He returns to tournament play Thursday in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

"It's been 4½ months since I played in a tournament," Els said. "I'm feeling pretty anxious. I felt very unsure the first time I played 18 holes."

Els did so at the end of October in Wentworth, England. This time, he'll face hot and humid conditions on the 7,832-yard, par-72 Gary Player Country Club course against several top players.

Els is the most experienced player in the 12-man field with 13 appearances and three victories. But he faces a tough group led by defending champion Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Luke Donald.

"It helps if you've been here before because then you're used to the crowds, the course, the grandstands and everything else," Els said. "I'm just fortunate to have my health back, to be playing again. The last 20 weeks or so have been a period of reflection for me."

Also entered in the $4 million event are Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke, Angel Cabrera, Stewart Cink, Tim Clark, Kenny Perry and Chris DiMarco.

Clarke finished third in 1999 and fourth in 2003, but has won at Sun City — in the Dimension Data Pro-Am.

Furyk has posted low rounds here. He shot a 64 in 1998 and a 66 last year — the lowest round of the week.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge

Sun City - Only four first timers have ever won the Nedbank Golf Challenge at their first attempt and the last time that was achieved was in 1986 by Mark McNulty.

There are three newcomers in this year's field - Angel Cabrera of Argentina, American Stewart Cink and Englishman Luke Donald - and it is the latter who believes he can break the mould this year.

"I don't see why not," said the 27-year-old shortly after scoring a two-under-par 70 in Wednesday's Pro-am.

"There's no reason why I can't do well here. I like the way the course is set up. It suits my game," said Donald. "Any consistent player with good control who can hit accurate iron shots can do well here."

All the first-time winners came in the early years of the tournament. The initial event was won by Johnny Miller while American Ray Floyd took it the next year. German Bernhard Langer won at his first attempt in 1985 and McNulty achieved the same feat a year later.

Donald is also delighted to be paired with South Africa's Tim Clark on Thursday morning. "Tim and I have become quite good friends. We both have very similar games so we're not exactly going to be out-driving each other by 40 yards.

"It's a good draw for me."

Cink, who at 40-1 is the biggest outsider in the field, said he did not expect to be given a hard time by South African fans.

"All over the world people obviously cheer for the hometown favourites but they do appreciate good golf. I would think South Africans are no different."

He added that with regard to Sun City itself, the reality was even better than anything he had ever been told about. "I have come with my wife and kids and I have to say this place is unbelievable. I think you can stay here for a couple of months and not do the same thing twice.

"This is probably the best resort I have ever seen in my life."

Cink is paired with Spain's Sergio Garcia on Thursday while Cabrera will play with Australian Adam Scott.

A New Blog!

I've added a new blog to the side bar. Check out GolfingZen.

2005 Skins Game

Highlights:

Fred Funk in a skirt for letting Annika Sorenstam outdrive him.

Observation: Fred Couples' Shirt - it kept changing color from peachy-coral to yellow. I hope he has better attire for the second 9 tomorrow.

A Tournament In My Future

I think I've decided which PGA event I would be attending should I attend an event next year. I think it will be the WGC event in Akron, Ohio in August. I would have a better chance of seeing all the big time players and some International players as well since it's a world golf championship event. And according to mapquest, the tournament is only about 2 and a half hours away from where I live. I just don't know what days I would attend or if Mom and Dad would dog sit for me while I'm gone.

For My International Friends

Is it true that people in England have to pay big bucks for a 'license' to WATCH tv?????? That's what I gathered from this BBC article. This is outrageously stupid. I thought Americans were taxed a lot, but this just takes the cake. Soon you all will have to obtain a 'license' to vote for the idiots who create these taxes.

Bobby Clampett Gets On My Nerves

I'm watching the Grand Slam of Golf coverage. Yesterday, Clampett said that Phil had no chance because he'd been off for 5 weeks. Phil was leading at the time. And he predicted yesterday that Vijay would win. Today he said that everyone knew how the tournament was going to end (aka Tiger winning) it was just a matter of watching Tiger get there. Give me a break!

As for my views on the tournament, I'm hoping Michael Campbell makes a few birdies coming in. I really don't want him to end up last. I'd like to see everyone end up within 3 or 4 shots of each other.

And of course, they would have to show beautiful, sunny, warm Hawaii while I'm here in cold, snowy WV.

Tiger Woods' House

Hooked On Golf Blog has a gallery of pictures of Tiger Woods' house. Pretty much the only thing I liked about the house was the wood floors. I don't know why anyone would need two tvs in a bedroom when you have a view that spectacular, or a wife like he has. Maybe she's the one who needs the tvs. Anyway, check out the gallery and click on a few of the ads to make the blog a little money while you're at it :)

A Rose By Any Other Name

Some of you might know that my parents have moved out of the house and I now live alone. (yay!) Well, I've always wanted a home that I could name, like those old plantations and all those old places in England and such. For a long time I've thought about what that name might be and could never really come up with an appealing choice. Well, this week I found a good name for my house, and I have the World Golf Championships to thank for it. Vilamoura sounds perfect. Don't know what it means, but I guarantee at least 99 Percent of the people here in WV won't know what it means either. I hope no one tries to sue me for this :)

While I'm on the subject of names, I found this cool website that lists many, many golf courses and has broken the list down into cute categories. It makes you think about the people who names these courses. Check out Fun With Golf Course Names.

A Little Info

I found this article about Miguel Angel Jiminez and Sergio Garcia. I don't think there's anything new there about Sergio, but I did learn a little bit about Jiminez.

A New Blog!

I've added a new blog to the blogs section in the sidebar. It is called Golf Spot and it looks to be a good place to get European Tour news. I know I'll be checking it out regularly since I can never get around to keeping up with the European Tour.

Anyone Interested in a Novel?

Wayne Smith sent me an email to let me know that he has a book coming out. It's called "The Hole of the Third Eye, A Fable of Golf, Zen, and Life". You can find out more by clicking here and here.

New Website

I've added the website, www.golfhomeconnect.com to the blogs section. It's not exactly a blog but the guy emailed me and asked me to make mention of the website. It is devoted to featuring golfing communities.

The Handsome Pair

Well, Fred Couples and Adam Scott are leading at the Shark Shootout. It's very thoughtful of them to give the girls something to look at. LOL!

The Shark Shootout

I know the event has a long sponsor inspired name, but I can't remember it all. Anyway, I got to watch it today since I was home from work. Jason Gore is continuing his excellent play. One of the male announcers said the most attractive pairing was the Couples/Scott pairing. I thought it was odd that a man would make that comment, but I guess Fred and Adam are just so darn good looking that even another man has to make note of it. LOL! I look forward to watching this event for the next two days.

Southern Farm Bureau Classic

Heath Slocum wins this tournament. Followed by Carl Petterson and Loren Roberts. And it looks like about 4 players had a fourth round 7 under score today.

Bart Bryant Wins

I'm glad Bart Bryant won today. Everyone on USA's PGA Tour Sunday show picked either Tiger Woods or Retief Goosen. They didn't give Bryant a chance. So, I'm glad he kicked butt today.

Great News

I have satellite tv again. Yay!

Now, why didn't my local ABC station air golf today? I had to sit through horrible football games waiting on the satellite installation guy. Up until this point I didn't know what to think about the new proposed PGA schedule and how it was supposed to end earlier in the year so as to not compete so much with football. Now I do know what to think. Maybe the networks would actually air golf when they are supposed to with this new schedule.

And really, Tiger was playing today. I can't believe college football meant more to ABC than Tiger Woods.

Southern Farm Bureau Classic

Tom Pernice Jr is following his good play from last week and is currently in the lead. John Cook is kicking some butt out there and shares the lead with Pernice and 4 others. It looks like this tournament will be a good one too with many players who have been on a roll lately contending.

The Tour Championship: Round 2

Ben Crane had a good round with 5 under par today, 7 under for the tournament. Retief Goosen and Bart Bryant are in the lead with a two day total of 10 under. Kenny Perry, Sergio Garcia, and Davis Love were among those who backed up on day 2. And Sean O'Hair suffered though a second 3 over par round today.

The Tour Championship: Round 1

I took a look at the leaderboard thinking I would spotlight some good players, but they are all good players. So, here's a list of the top five names on the leaderboard after round 1:

Bart Bryant
Retief Goosen
Kenny Perry
Sergio Garcia
Tiger Woods

Bart Bryant had a 62 today.

A Response to the Pro-Am Story

I have never been to a PGA event. I had always figured tickets would be expensive, although recently I have checked out the websites of some of the events and found ticket prices very reasonable. However, I have been thinking of going to the Memorial Tournament this coming year. I plan to check out the schedules for the Senior Tour, the Regular Tour and the Nationwide Tour to see what events are close to me here in WV. After reading the Pro-Am story and finding out that Sergio Garcia signed autographs for fans the whole time he was out there, I'm thinking I really should go to one of these tournaments. The next problem would be getting up the courage to ask for an autograph. I couldn't even speak to Tom Wopat (Luke Duke from the Dukes of Hazzard) when I stood in the autograph line at a county fair years ago. Maybe I could just wear a shirt with "May I please have your autograph?" written across the front and back. LOL!

Changes to the Tour Schedule

A revamped US PGA Tour calendar outlined on Wednesday could result in a further drain on the European and Asian Tours as more of the world's top players focus attention on a proposed big money FedEx Cup.

Starting in 2007 the PGA Tour calendar will centre around the Cup, a points-based competition that will lead into a late summer playoff and culminate with the Tour Championship in September that could see the winner walk away with $10 million.

From January to August players will earn points at every tournament to provide the seeding basis for a playoff built around three blockbuster events followed by the Tour Championship.

"I think that it's going to bring us (top players) a bit more together throughout those first probably eight months of the year," said Spain's Sergio Garcia. "Certain months of the year you're going to see a lot more of us than you usually see.

"Scheduling for top players like we are will definitely be a bit different than it is now. We'll be playing a lot more here in the US and I think that's always great."

Under pressure from advertisers to bolster faltering late season television ratings and from players for a more compact schedule, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem revealed his blueprint for the future during his 'State of Tour' address.

It was delivered on the eve of this year's season finale which begins on Thursday at the East Lake Golf Club.

THOUGHTFUL PLANNING

While the new format could monopolise the top players in the meaty part of the calendar, the shorter defined season could also open the door for a return to the European and Asian circuits later in the year.

Australia's Adam Scott believes it will be possible to keep his European and US PGA Tour cards with thoughtful planning.

Asked how it would affect him he said: "It's tough to say because I haven't seen the schedule yet. But I don't think it will have an effect on being able to play both tours.

"As long as majors and world golf events still count for both I think it's not too hard to get up 11 events in Europe.

"I'm sure the Tour and everyone will take that into consideration when making the schedule because they want players like Sergio, who's European, to be...over here as well and not making decisions on whether to play the PGA Tour or in Europe.

"It's a little more compact, intense season with the FedEx Cup. And it gives players the opportunity at the end of the year to take some time off, for myself and the international players to go back to Australia and play events without having to be dragged into December and playing at Christmas time."

The Pro-Am

A close-up view at the Pro Am

By RONNIE RAMOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/02/05

Tiger Woods spent Tuesday playing golf with a U.S. Senator, the president of CVS/pharmacy and the president of the restaurant company that owns, among other things, all those Longhorn restaurants.

"We were hoping we would be playing a scramble," said Tom Ryan, CVS/pharmacy president.

Ryan, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Woods played their own ball. No hitting the best shot of the foursome stuff (the pros did play the course at 7,153 yards; the amateurs at about 6,800 yards). Tuesday's Southern Company Pro-Am was that unique day when amateurs could walk down the fairway with the best players in the world. The hacker with a 20 handicap is hitting balls out of the same sand bunker Vijay Singh just escaped.

Not sure how that putt breaks? Sergio Garcia, come over and tell me what you think.

"It's an amazing experience, seeing it from the player's perspective," said Danny Yates, who played with Garcia. "You can see exactly what they're facing — what it's like to hit out of the rough. That's pretty cool." Yates, a scratch golfer, is not easily impressed. He's played on two Walker Cup teams and then served as the U.S. captain two other times. Even he was jazzed about the opportunity to play with Garcia. "Who wouldn't be — walking down the fairway with Sergio, having him look at your putts."

Mark Lazarus, president of Turner Entertainment Group, said the experience is unique to professional golf. "You can drive a race car, but not when other NASCAR drivers are out there. Out here, you are walking alongside the best in the world. It's fun and a real treat."

But before you walk the fairways, you have to get off that first tee. In front of a crowd, right after Woods has launched one. Any tips? "I try to look at it as just another round of golf," said Gene Lee, president of RARE Hospitality International, Inc. which owns the Longhorn and Capital Grille restaurant chains.

Dean Myers, a Coca-Cola vice president who played with Stuart Appleby, said he was nervous about his first tee shot. "Then my wife reminded me that no one really cares how you're going to hit the ball," he said. "It went right down the middle."

The pros, used to the crowds — and the required pro-am rounds — take it all in stride. "You get used to the crowds, it's part of the game," Garcia said.

Garcia, overcoming jet lag from his trans-Atlantic flight the day before, was not pleased with his game Tuesday. Yet he signed autographs on every hole, helped his amateurs line up most of their putts and said hi to any kids who came by.

When Yates' tee shot on a par 3 landed 10 feet from the hole, Garcia turned to the crowd and said, "That's our pro."

Forget the amateurs, said Myers, the Coca-Cola vice president. "This Pro-am is a great opportunity to see the pros play up close without the crowds," he said. A ticket good for Tuesday's Pro-am and today's practice round was $25. "It's one of golf's best-kept secrets."