MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- In all the talk about the wealth of talent on the LPGA right now there may be no player who gets short-changed more than Mickey Wright. Her 82 victories are second only to the 88 by Kathy Whitworth and her 13 major championships rank second only to the 15 by Patty Berg. What makes it all the more remarkable is that Wright pretty much stopped playing a full LPGA schedule at age 34.

In reporting Lorena Ochoa's withdrawal from the Ginn Tribute because of the death of her uncle earlier this week, I said she is trying to join Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley as the only players to win three consecutive LPGA majors. In fact, if Ochoa wins the McDonald's LPGA Championship next week it would move her within one of a feat accomplished only by Tiger Woods -- and Mickey Wright: holding all four professional major trophies at the same time.

Woods turned the trick with the last three majors of 2000 and the first of 2001. Wright captured the U.S. Women's Open and the LPGA Championship in 1961 and then picked off the 1962 Titleholders Championship and the Western Open before Murle Lindstrom stopped the streak by winning the U.S. Women's Open.

Part of the reason Wright's major accomplishment has gone overlooked is because the LPGA has had seven different tournaments serve as majors during its 58-year history. Also, the order of the events designated as majors has varied at times.

Currently, the LPGA majors -- in order -- are: the Kraft Nabisco Championship, McDonald's LPGA Championship, U.S. Women's Open and Ricoh Women's British Open. The du Maurier Classic, the Western Open and the Titleholders Championship have also been majors at various times.

The Titleholders went away after 1966, returned for one year in 1972 and then disappeared for good. The Western Open went belly-up after 1967. There were years when the LPGA, which began in 1950, had as few as two majors. It has consistently had four since 1983 when the U.S. Women's Open, LPGA Championship, Kraft Nabisco and du Maurier were on board. The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier in 2001.

To set the record straight -- which is important because this could be a record-setting year for Ochoa -- the only two players to sweep all the LPGA majors in a year were Babe Zaharias (1950, when there were only three) and Sandra Haynie (1974, one of 10 years in which there were only two majors).

Pat Bradley is the last player to win three LPGA majors in a single season (1986) and won three in a row over 1985-86. If you want to talk about domination, from 1958 through 1964, Wright won 12 of the 28 LPGA majors contested, capturing three in 1961, the year she started her run of four straight.

-- Ron Sirak

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Lorena Ochoa, who withdrew from the Ginn Tribute at RiverTowne CC Tuesday when she learned her uncle was serious ill, said Thursday on her Website that Pedro Ochoa, brother of her father, Javier, had died at age 73 in Guadalajara, Mexico. No cause of death was given, although the Website said Pedro Ochoa had been sick for some time.

According to lorenaochoa.com, Ochoa will return next week at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, where she will try to win her second major championship of the year and third in a row. Only Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley have won three consecutive LPGA majors. Ochoa, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings, has won six times in nine starts this year and 2O times since April 15, 2006.

Suzann Pettersen is the defending champion at the McDonald's, which is played on Bulle Rock GC in Havre de Grace, Md. Ochoa finished T-6 at Bulle Rock last year, six strokes behind Pettersen.

--Ron Sirak

Apparently, there will be no comic relief during the U.S. Open in San Diego. A dinner show starring comedian Jay Leno, scheduled for the eve of the final round, on the dock adjacent to the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway in San Diego Harbor, was canceled.

Proceeds from the show were to have gone to the San Diego Junior Golf Association from which Phil Mickelson and Craig Stadler came. The show was canceled essentially from lack of sufficient interest to cover the cost of staging it.

Two months ago, San Diego natives Billy Casper and Gene Littler hit biodegradable golf balls off the deck of the USS Midway to promote the event.

-- John Strege

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings, withdrew from the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika on Wednesday, citing her uncle's ill health. Ochoa, who has won six of her nine starts this year, practiced at RiverTowne CC Tuesday, then informed tournament officials she was returning to Mexico.

"I am very sorry to have to withdraw ... But my uncle is very ill," Ochoa said in a statement. "I need to be with my uncle and my family right now." She was replaced in the field by Eva Dahloff.

It's the second consecutive year the $2.6 million event -- the highest purse outside the U.S. Women's Open and the Evian Masters -- has been impacted by an unexpected event. Last year, Nicole Castrale's victory was overshadowed by "88-Gate" -- Michelle Wie's withdrawal after 16 holes, citing a sore wrist, after an LPGA official informed her agent she would be disqualified for the rest of the season if she failed to break 88. She was 14 over par at the time. Wie is playing a Ladies European Tour tournament in Germany this week.

"My thoughts and prayers are with Lorena and her family at this time," Sorenstam said. "She is a tremendous ambassador for our game and we will miss her this week."

Ochoa, who has played nine of the last 11 LPGA events, was fined $25,000 by the LPGA for skipping the Corning Classic last week under a rule that requires players to compete in each event at least once in a four-year cycle. Sources close to the situation said Ochoa's WD at the Ginn had nothing to do with the Corning fine, although the controversial rule is likely to be revisited at the end of this season. With eight titles to defend this year, three events in Mexico, three majors she didn't win in 2007 and big-money events like the Ginn, it is difficult for Ochoa to find a week to take off.

She is scheduled to play next week at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, the second major of the season. Ochoa won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April and, having won the Ricoh Women's British Open last August, will be trying to join Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley as the only two women in LPGA history to win three consecutive majors.

-- Ron Sirak

DUBLIN, Ohio -- In a sign of how things have changed on the PGA Tour, most players have little or no contact with tournament directors or hosts until they show up at the course. And few thank their hosts after an event.

"It's a different age and day," Jack Nicklaus said Tuesday at the Memorial Tournament, where he serves as host.   

Nicklaus found out last Friday that top-ranked Tiger Woods would be skipping the tournament to recover from knee surgery.

"Mark Steinberg [Woods' agent] called me the day after he had his knee surgery [April 15] and said Tiger's goal was to be back for the Memorial Tournament," said Nicklaus. "He called two or three times last week and said Tiger's plans were to get here Friday. I mean, they sent a check for renting a house and everything else. He was ready to come.

"But then Mark called back and said he went out and tried to play Thursday and couldn't. He said he couldn't put the weight on his knee, couldn't turn it."

Nicklaus harbors no ill feelings.

"It's OK," he said. "I don't think I ever talked to Tiger on the telephone."

Nicklaus said one of the best things Arnold Palmer taught him was to send a sponsor a thank-you note after playing in a tournament.

"So every tournament I ever played in, I always dropped the sponsor a note," said Nicklaus.

How often does Nicklaus get notes from players after the Memorial?

"We get one or two," he said. "But not very many."

--Mark Soltau

The unsettled nature of Ernie Els' schedule continued this week as he reported Monday on ErnieEls.com that he'd be taking this week off and not playing the Memorial as he had planned.

Tuesday, that changed.

"He is coming, absolutely," Memorial tournament director Dan Sullivan told Golf World Tuesday morning. "He left London in a plane and is heading this way. Yesterday's website said he was not playing until St. Jude [Stanford St. Jude Championship next week]. Today's website said he was playing Memorial. Some wires must have gotten crossed in his office over there."

It isn't the first time this year Els has changed his mind about playing in a tournament. Els entered the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at the last minute in February, after originally saying he wouldn't make his 2008 U.S. debut until the Florida swing. A few weeks later, he withdrew on tournament week from the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Last week, Els missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship at his home course, the Wentworth Club, in England.

"Having had an unscheduled weekend off, I'm obviously keen to get back into the swing of things again," Els says on his website. "Originally, this week was going to be a gap in my schedule, but I've changed my mind and decided to play in the Memorial. It's one of my favorite tournaments of the year and I love Jack's course, Muirfield Village. I figure it'll be a good week to try to get back some positive vibes in my game. I'm really looking forward to it."

"Ernie is very much looking forward to playing in The Memorial," Els' agent, Chubby Chandler, told Golf World. The South African won Jack Nicklaus' tournament in 2004, which until his victory at the Honda Classic in March had been his last victory on U.S. soil.

--Tim Rosaforte

The unsettled nature of Ernie Els' schedule continued this week as he reported on his web site that he will take a week off before playing the Stanford St. Jude Championship and will not play this week's Memorial as he had planned. This news comes just one day after Els' agent, Andrew (Chubby) Chandler told Golf World that he was traveling to Ohio and was "very much looking forward" to playing the Memorial.

Els has now withdrawn on tournament week from events hosted by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus this year. He also said he wouldn't play the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, but changed his mind at the last minute, entered the event and lost a first-round match. Last week, Els missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship at his home course, the Wentworth Club, in England. He did not indicate why he was skipping the Memorial.

Vijay Singh also withdrew from the Memorial because of a rib injury, leaving Jack Nicklaus' tournament at Muirfield Village GC with just six of the top 10 players in the world. Adam Scott and Tiger Woods also aren't playing the Memorial.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The number of players who passed on the opportunity to play the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill CC begs the question: Why?

"Guys have to walk for four days?" Scott Simpson said, positing the most interesting theory.

Thirty-seven players from the alternate list eventually made the field at Oak Hill. The Champions Tour allows players the use of carts, but the Senior PGA Championship is conducted by the PGA of America, which does not permit carts.

"I'd love to see us get rid of carts," said Simpson, for whom the walk Saturday was rather pleasant. Simpson birdied five holes on the back nine en route to a one-under-par 69 that was one of the few sub-par rounds shot over three days. "We're trying to do it. I don't know if that had something to do with it, with the weather forecast and slogging around in it."

The scouting report on Oak Hill might have been a deterrent, too. "It's pretty much the same setup we had for the '89 U.S. Open," Simpson said. "It's tougher than we're used to. You just can't hit greens out of the rough. If it was me I'd cut the rough down a little bit.

"But I can't imagine not wanting to be here. It's a great course and this is [the Champions Tour's] original major."

-- John Strege

Tiger Woods has decided not to play in next week's Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus. He had until 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday to enter, but his office notified the PGA Tour that he would not be participating.

A three-time winner of the event, the top-ranked Woods has not competed since a second-place finish at the Masters Tournament last month and underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on April 15.

Although Woods has been pleased with his rehabilitation, he will not discuss it until next Tuesday during a press conference for the AT&T National, to be played July 3-6 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., where he is the tournament host.

Typically, the recovery period is 4-6 weeks. Woods is expected to play in the U.S. Open Championship, June 12-15 at Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego, CA. He has excelled on the South Course at Torrey, winning four-consecutive Buick Invitationals and six overall.

The 32-year-old Woods has made five appearances on the PGA Tour this year, winning his first three starts. He also has a second and a fifth-place finish, and leads the circuit in earnings with $4.4 million.

-- Mark Soltau

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The number of players who took a pass on the Senior PGA Championship is staggering, though the missing may have saved themselves a heap of aggravation. Those who chose to play were largely staggering, too. Score this one a knockout for Oak Hill CC.

Thirty-seven alternates made the field for a variety of reasons, not all of which were medical. Fulton Allem, for instance, decided he would rather play in the PGA Tour's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (he's a past champion there). On the basis of how difficult Oak Hill was playing through the first two rounds, he may have made the safer choice.

"Probably the toughest course I've played ever in my PGA Tour career," said Tim Simpson. And he's among those in contention, finishing 36 holes in four-over-par 144.

Cold and windy weather has compounded the difficulty quotient of a course that is challenging without help. Throw in rough that was 3 1/2 inches deep to begin the week and no further explanation is necessary as to why only one player bettered par in the first round and the entire field was over par by Friday afternoon after first-round leader Jay Haas made double-bogey on his sixth hole.

"Our group, 108 holes between the three of us for two days, we had six birdies," Joey Sindelar said. "That's pretty bizarre. It tells you that it's a pretty tough job out there."

Or as Simpson, one of his playing partners, said the day before, "I had two skins today. Sam Torrance got one there at the end on No. 8. And Joey Sindelar was shut out. Birdies are few and far between."

-- John Strege