SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--At the behest of U.S. captain Paul Azinger, the Ryder Cup format will be altered during this September's matches against Europe with foursomes preceding four-balls on each of the first two days. The last time this order was in effect was 1999, when the U.S. rallied to win 14 1/2 to 13 1/2 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., although the turnaround was generated by strong play during the Sunday singles, allowing the Americans to rally from a 10-6 deficit.

"I'm not saying we're better than Europe at foursomes or alternate shot than Europe is," Azinger said. "I just want to make a change. We've made some huge changes elsewhere, like with the selection process. Why not the format too? They've killed us the last two Ryder Cups playing four-balls before foursomes, for whatever reason. Why not try something different?"

Since 1973, when the Ryder Cup first featured morning foursomes followed by afternoon four-balls, the Americans have a 3-2-1 record.

The format of foursomes preceding four-balls has been used during several recent Ryder Cups, an exception being in 1997 when Europe's captain Seve Ballesteros requested a change shortly before the event began. However, in the last two Ryder Cups, each a rout by Europe, the four-balls have been played in the morning on Friday and Saturday, followed by the foursomes in the afternoon.

Earlier this month, Azinger revealed that he will make his four Captain's picks on Sept. 2, three weeks after the normal post-PGA Championship announcement. During that time period, two of the three FedEx Cup events--the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship--will be contested. "Why not wait until the last possible moment?" Azinger said. "If a guy who doesn't make the top eight on points happens to win either of those tournaments, you have to like his chances of being a captain's pick. That's the whole idea, to have guys on our team who are in form and playing well at the time." The Sept. 2 press conference will take place in New York, and, according to Azinger, the PGA of America has been supportive of all his suggestions. "They've pretty much given me free reign," he said. "They want to win the Ryder Cup back as much as I do, and we're trying to do everything we can to make it possible."

The 37th Ryder Cup will be staged Sept. 19-21 at Valhalla G.C. in Louisville. Shortly after he was named captain, Azinger instituted a significant change in team selection whereby he will be afforded four picks, instead of two, to fill out his 12-man team. Azinger is to discuss the format change later Wednesday at a press conference.

-- Bob Verdi

In preparation for its first foray into drug testing beginning July 1, the PGA Tour held two separate meetings last week before the Buick Invitational. Players were informed about details, prohibited substances and procedures. Several golfers voiced objections to the possible scenario of being examined in their homes, even during off-weeks. Inasmuch as the tour's policy was not collectively bargained, because golfers do not have a union, some think the scope of the system could constitute a violation of privacy.

"There is no question in my mind what they've done is not right," said Frank Lickliter II. "Not only did the tour ram this thing down our throats, they're telling us they can come knocking on my door on Christmas Eve and ask me for a urine sample. Are they kidding? They're passing that off as legal? I can tell you one thing for sure, if some inspector guy comes around with a cup in his hand, he's going to have a hard time getting on my property. And then he's going to have an even harder time getting off my property after I'm done with him."

Lickliter aired his complaint during the afternoon seminar attended by several dozen fellow pros. He said that later on, commissioner Tim Finchem told him not to worry. "Tim said even though it's written in the policy that they can test us anytime, anywhere, nobody will be coming to our houses," Lickliter went on. "Well, that's nice of Tim to tell me that while I'm still hot. Meanwhile, it's still there in black and white on a piece of paper that they can do whatever they want. This isn't like baseball, where the players have to approve whatever measures management tries to impose on them. They just threw this at us and told us, 'This is the new law.'"

Finchem said that drug testing is not his favorite pursuit, but "it unfortunately can't be avoided. This is part of the world of sports today. Testing by definition is a process that speaks to the notion that you don't believe a player when he says he's following the rule."

Finchem rued that such a mindset is "counter to the culture" of golf, where participants call penalties on themselves and therefore "something that's troubled me for a long time." Finchem concluded that drug testing as such will be "difficult for the players, and difficult for all of us as we get into that arena."

-- Bob Verdi

The first four weeks of the PGA Tour season have seen its winners post some pretty low numbers (Tiger Woods' 19-under mark at Torrey Pines just continued the trend) and this week's FBR Open at TPC Scottsdale could produce the lowest winning score yet. Last year, Aaron Baddeley took the title by shooting 21 under par, marking the fourth time in seven years that the eventual champ reached 20 under for the week. The scoring average at the Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish course was 69.85, its lowest-ever total, and marked just the second time in 20 years that it has been in the 60s. The hardest hole a year ago, the 469-yard, par-4 11th, ranked as the 211th toughest on tour. Ony three other holes were among the top 500.

But no matter how easy the course plays, all eyes will be on the 16th hole. The 162-yard, par-3 with the most boisterous gallery on tour yielded 72 birdies in 2007, but no aces. Ryuji Imada came closest, leaving his tee shot nine inches from the cup. Everybody remembers Woods' hole-in-one in 1997, but the last player to make a 1 there was Mike Sposa, who plunked one in the cup in the second round of the 2002 event.

Baddeley won a year ago because he made putts--especially the long ones. Badds was 8 for 23 on putts from more than 20 feet, including four of six from 20-25 feet. His average distance of putts made in a round was 120 feet, 11 inches. The flatstick helped him shoot 64-64 on the weekend to beat John Rollins by one and Jeff Quinney by 2.

--John Antonini

Jerry Pate went almost 24 years between his last victory on the PGA Tour and his first on the Champions Tour, so what if almost 24 months elapsed between his first senior win and Sunday's triumph at the Turtle Bay Championship?

The oft-injured Pate, driven off the PGA Tour because of shoulder woes when he was only 28, kept his game tidy in extreme winds on Oahu that made the final round on Turtle Bay's Palmer course quite a challenge--from tee to green and once you got there.

"I was playing with Scott Simpson," Pate said Monday morning, "and he had about a 30-foot putt on the 16th hole and putted it right off the green into a hazard. The ball just kept going."

The final round began as a dogfight among the final pairing of Gil Morgan, Jim Thorpe and Bernhard Langer, but the trio had its problems. Pate, four strokes behind when the day began, birdied Nos. 8-10, then settled in with seven straight pars that pretty much settled the outcome, giving the 54-year-old his first win since the 2006 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am at 5-under 211.

The week was an emotional one for Pate, who dedicated his victory to the memory of Justin Wilk, the 25-year-old son of his good friend Kevin Wilk, who died unexpectedly Jan. 8. "It was devastating for Kevin," Pate said. "He had gotten an e-mail from his son the day before he died, talking about much he was looking forward to this year, and then, boom, the next day they find him dead. I told Kevin I was going to Hawaii for two tournaments, and I was going to win one of them for Justin."

An Alabama physical therapist, Kevin Wilk guided Pate through many hours of rehabilitation following the golfer's shoulder surgeries in 2003 and 2006. "This game is so crazy," Pate said. "I won in Tampa two years ago then got hurt a month later and had to have another surgery. And then after being out of the game for six months, I kind of lost my putting. All last year I had a mechanical flaw--I was kind of dragging the putter grip back first and creating a bad angle with my left wrist. I tell you, I was missing putts from a foot. It's not like I was nervous and had the yips, I just mechanically couldn't release the putter."

Pate, 41st on the 2007 money list, finally figured out what was wrong with his putting stroke last fall, and he came into the new year confident that a career with so many detours might go smoothly for a while. Sunday's win makes him fully exempt and has broadened his optimism.

"I can challenge them," he said of tour standouts such as Jay Haas and Loren Roberts. "Those guys are great players. But history says that before I was injured, when my putting was solid, I could compete with anybody. This is exciting for me."

--Bill Fields

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Kevin Streelman won't win the Buick Invitational on Sunday, but he warrants your rooting interest in a high finish given his overnight climb from obscurity into a pairing with Tiger Woods on Saturday and the obvious joy with which he embraced it.

Streelman, 29, is a career mini-tour player (he played the Hooters Tour in 2007), who took the most arduous route to the PGA Tour, by surviving all three stage of tour qualifying last fall (and tieing for 14th in the final stage). He needed to birdie four of the last five holes just to make it to the second stage.

His Q-school status wasn't sufficient to ensure him a berth in the Buick; he was the third alternate. He went to Torrey Pines anyway on the chance that enough players would withdraw prior to the start of play that he would get in. On Thursday, he was sitting on the putting green, contemplating his imminent trip home to Phoenix when he learned that Matt Goggin had withdrawn, and if he could get to the tee in four minutes he was in.

"I ran to the first tee and [hit] the fairway and my putter got hot," he said. Streelman opened with a 67 on the North Course at Torrey  and followed it with a 69 on the South Course  Friday, good enough for solo second place, four strokes behind Woods heading into the third round. His reward: a Saturday pairing with Woods (and Stewart Cink).

He went into the pairing with an attitude that served him well, expecting nothing other than a learning experience.

"It's going to be very gratifying and a tremendous learning experience, to be able to walk next him, probably a little bit behind him, to just see what he does and try and compare," he said. "Obviously, it's going to be a huge ordeal out there, but it's going to be great. If I play great, great. If I don't, it's going to be a tremendous learning experience that hopefully I'll be able to build on down the road."

Streelman played admirably alongside Woods, considering his dearth of experience in front of a crowd. A double-bogey at the ninth and three back-nine bogeys cost him a final-round pairing with Woods, the inevitable winner, but a top-10 finish is within reach (he's tied for 11th through 54 holes).

The Buick is just the sixth PGA Tour event for Streelman, a Duke graduate for whom ascension to the PGA Tour has been laborious. In 2004, he Monday qualified for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (he missed the cut). At the time, he was sponsored by a Chicago concern, and when he went to Los Angeles the following week to attempt to qualify for the Nissan Open, he called his sponsor to request money for the entry fee. "They stopped taking my calls," he said. "To this day, I have not heard a word from this guy. So I was stranded. I was living in Chicago and stranded in Southern California, with probably $400 in my bank account."

Whatever the outcome  Sunday, he won't be stranded in Southern California because of a cash shortfall. That much is certain.

-- John Strege
(Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

LA JOLLA, Calif.--Anthony Kim is not aging before our eyes (though it should be noted that he's no longer the youngest member of the PGA Tour), but he is determined to mature before our eyes, to wit: heretofore known more for his mouth, he's now all ears.

Kim, 22 (tour rookie Jason Day is 20), has been mentored by Mark O'Meara, with whom he partnered in the Merrill Lynch Shootout in December, and he began listening, attempting to absorb some of the wisdom that O'Meara had to impart.

"He just said, 'patience,' about 84 times," Kim said, explaining that he's attempting to take away from his budding friendship with O'Meara. "I had to get it through my head."

The payoff may already have begun. In the first start of his second season on the PGA Tour, Kim tied for third at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic last week. Then on Thursday, a cool, wet day at Torrey Pines G.C., Kim shot a four-under par 68 on the North Course, which placed him on the Buick Invitational leader board.

"I'm playing smarter," he said. "I've been trying to do that the
last six tournament rounds (five at the Hope, one at the Buick). I've been playing with guys like Mark O'Meara and Jeff Sluman and I'm playing a lot smarter than I would have.

"We made a pretty dumb par (at the Merrill Lynch Shootout), and it was like water off his (O'Meara's) back. In the past I would have been hot. Patience, he said. I had to get it through my head."

O'Meara and Kim played three rounds together at the Merrill Lynch Shootout and also had dinner together a couple of times there.

"He wants to win," O'Meara said. "He's got a little bit of an attitude, but he's grown up a lot."

O'Meara cited an interview he overhead last year, when Kim said he could not understand why he hasn't won yet. "You're not going to win every week," O'Meara told him. "If you try and force it too hard you're
always going to get in your own way. So you've got to let it come to you and be patient. Then when you win, it will build on itself. You'll learn from that."

--John Strege
(Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

LA JOLLA, Calif.--Kelly Tilghman returned to the broadcast booth for the Golf Channel on Thursday at Torrey Pines Golf Course for the first round of the Buick Invitational. Tilghman, who served a two-week suspension from her company for making a racially insensitive comment during a telecast with partner Nick Faldo at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, read a taped, on-air apology prior to Thursday's broadcast.

"I'm Kelly Tilghman. It's an honor to be with you again. In a recent live broadcast I used an inappropriate word that was offensive to many. Over the last two weeks, I've taken time to reflect and truly understand the impact of what I said. While I did not intend to offend anyone, I understand why those words were hurtful. I am terribly sorry for any hurt that I've caused. I would like to express my deepest apologies."

--Mark Soltau

LA JOLLA, Calif.--Tiger Woods' goals are never modest, of course, and truth be told he expects more of himself that others expect of him. So it should come as no surprise that his goal for 2008 is to win the grand slam. He even said on his website recently that "it's easily within reason."

Anyone advancing the notion that he's put unnecessary or undue pressure on himself by publicly acknowledging that he's aiming so high hasn't been paying close enough attention to where his arrows have been landing over the years.

"If Tiger Woods thinks he can win something, I don't know if anybody is going to argue with him," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said.

The grand slam venues this year are generally a comfortable fit for Woods--Augusta National, where he's won the Masters four times; the South Course at Torrey Pines, where he's won the Buick Invitational three straight years and five times; and Royal Birkdale, where in the 1998 British Open he missed a playoff by a single shot. Only Oakland Hills, site of the PGA Championship, has not been especially kind to Woods.

"I like Oakland Hills," Woods said Wednesday in a news conference at Torrey Pines, where he will make his 2008 PGA Tour debut in the Buick Invitational on Thursday. "I liked it when I first played there in '96
(in the U.S. Open). Those greens are the key to that golf course. You've just got to figure them out. I think that's when you're going to have to spend a little bit more time in the practice rounds in preparation, trying to figure it out."

Bobby Jones remains the only player in history to have won the grand slam, in 1930, when the slam included the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur, in addition to the U.S. and British Opens.

"It's the development of my game over the years," says Woods, explaining why winning the slam is within his field of vision. "For most of my career, I've won more than four tournaments per year, and all I have to do is win the right four, and I've done those a few times. I think if you put it all together, have luck on your side, all the stars will line up, and it certainly is possible. A couple years  ago, I came within four shots of winning or being in a playoff on all four, so this year, I think it's possible."

As for the notion that his expectations are unreasonable and that he might be setting himself and others up for disappointment, he replied, "Well, I've had that happen before, won two majors in a row and people say, 'What's wrong with you?' It is what it is. The question is do I see it as a possibility, and I say, 'yes.' A lot of different factors go into it, and hopefully all those factors line up for me. The venues this year, I like all of them, but I've liked all the venues in the past. It's just a matter of getting your game coming together at the right time and getting all the right breaks."

Among the factors that represent potential obstacles is Phil Mickelson, who also is making his 2008 PGA Tour debut at the Buick.

"He's obviously a very comfortable player and he should be," Mickelson said. "He's won countless events and double-digit majors. But I think this year I should be able to put myself in contention as well, and I look forward to the opportunity to competing against him."

Mickelson, who proclaimed himself recovering finally from a respiratory ailment that has dogged him for months, has been working on strength training to help accommodate a shorter swing on which he has been working with instructor Butch Harmon.

"As we shortened the golf swing a little bit, I needed to have a little bit more speed to keep the same distance and hopefully have more accuracy," he said. "I've had to strengthen my lower body to be a bit more stable, and then I've had to strengthen my upper body to be able to accelerate.

"I feel very comfortable with the swing changes that I've made over the past nine months. I believe that heading into the 2008 season I'm much better equipped to drive the ball well, better physically equipped to accommodate the changes that Butch Harmon and I are implementing. I feel like I'll be able to drive the ball in the fairway and not have the big misses."

--John Strege

At the USGA Annual Meeting on Feb. 9, incoming president Jim Vernon, executive director David Fay and the rest of the governing body's brass will have some good news to share on the financial front. Golf World got an early look at a copy of the 2007 annual report that will be released in Houston while working on a story for this week's issue on the USGA's outlook for the coming year. The report shows that the USGA and USGA Foundation had a net income of $1.21 million on revenues of nearly $137 million for the year ending Nov. 30, 2007. Net assets at year's end were $253.3 million.

The 2007 figure is modest compared to the USGA's reported net income $8.4 million in 2002, $4.4 million in 2004 and $2.3 million in 2005. However, a year ago, the governing body had a deficit of $6.12 million on revenue of $126.6 million, so things are moving in a positive direction.

An interesting note: For the first time in USGA history, revenues from the association's championships and team matches, including broadcast rights, broke the $100 million mark.

--Ryan Herrington

John Daly hasn't gotten much love lately. The Angry Golfer has given him the business for railing against the PGA Tour's new cut policy. And last week he withdrew from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic with a rib injury he says he originally incurred at last year's Honda Classic when he tried to stop his swing because a spectator took his photo. Daly confirmed he is considering a lawsuit against the event's insurance carrier--even though he is asking Honda tournament director Ken Kennerly for an exemption in 2008. We began to feel sorry for big lug, so we searched the web for some Daly dedication and we found it in this blog by Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski. Somebody still loves ya, Big John.