BOMB: You know what? I gotta hand it to Vijay Singh for speaking the truth on a question probably 99 and 44/100ths percent of the tour players would have ducked. When asked at the BMW Championship about the contractual obligations of playing a company’s current flagship driver, Singh didn’t back off saying, “I think every guy out there is in the same situation. No matter who you look at, they have their manufacturers’ top driver. They will have to try it out unless they cannot [hit it well] and they go back to what they are used to, and I've done that in the past. That's not what the manufacturers want. Unless it's not in the contract, then you have to use what they want you to use.”

Then came the follow-up question: “Why would you ever put it in your contract?” Again, Singh explained the rationale. “Well, I do have it, but always the point is, you're going to try something new, and you never know if it's better than what you've got. … We are very greedy, you want to get the best out of the club and the newer clubs that are coming out are better when they are tested. It's not necessarily true when you take it out on the golf course. And then you realize after two, three, maybe even a month that it doesn't go as good as your old one, [and when] you go back and ask [to use your old driver] that's when the manufacturers kind of go against you.”

Bottom line: Although there is no “crap” being played by any of the guys on the PGA Tour, fact is that not everyone is playing with exactly what they want to due to contracts. It’s why Nike parted ways with Jason Gore earlier this year. Ditto Steve Elkington and MacGregor. Maybe Lorena Ochoa, who doesn’t have any equipment contracts, has the right idea.

GOUGE: I shed no tears for tour players, and I doubt very seriously the inability to execute has anything to do with the product being played. Look again at what Singh said: "We are very greedy..." In other words, tour players like professional athletes in all other sports are incredibly spoiled. They want everything, regardless of whether there is any logical reason for them to believe they're entitled to it, or that it would make any meaningful difference in their performance. At the highest level, it's strength between your ears that makes a difference. Not where the center of gravity might be located on a particular driver or set of irons. Tiger Woods has won his majors with at least five different drivers, and barely used one at all to win one last year. Of course, if you sign a contract that forces you to play equipment you don't like, you probably won't play as well as you can. All that means is you're an idiot, a rich idiot, of course, but an idiot nonetheless. The great ones don't find success in the tour vans, the great ones aren't great because they've been able to negotiate a primo endorsement contract. The great ones just win, whether with this week's driver or a broomstick and a Coke bottle. It also makes you wonder why any company hitches its star to what a single tour player does. I love my 8-year-old son Jack, and I'm pretty sure he'll do most of the things I tell him, but I'm not about to ride in the backseat while he drives my car. And by the way, what in the heck does "And then you realize after two, three, maybe even a month that it doesn't go as good as your old one..." mean? Maybe what it means is that tour players are in their own ways spiritually weak, too. But when you start blaming your equipment, you better be willing to start crediting your stuff (like your golf glove and your tees) for when you win. And that happens as often as a tour player pays a company back for an effort unworthy of his endorsement contract.