As he was wrapping up his news conference after winning the Boeing Classic Sunday outside Seattle, Loren Roberts was asked if he had any tips on putting for the average golfer. Roberts, whose victory was his third of 2009 and 11th in his Champions Tour career, offered what he often has stressed about the craft he is so good at: concentrate on speed, not line.

During pro-ams, Roberts--who had 73 putts in 54 holes at the Boeing to beat Mark O'Meara by one shot--said he usually sees amateurs sometimes woefully short or long, but seldom that far off-line. "The whole thing about putting is controlling your speed," Roberts said. "Don't even worry about making it."

When fellow tour pros are struggling on the greens, Roberts said, it usually is because "everybody tries to be so firm with the left hand that they don't get the shaft swinging. Invariably, they don't have any wrist break on the backstroke. You've got to have a little swing in the shaft. On the backstroke, if you can get the butt end of the grip pointed at your belt buckle, you're going to have some swing and some natural 'hit.' If you get too dead-handed, you're not going to have any control."

From 2006-2008 on the Champions Tour, Roberts was ranked first, first and third in putting average. This year: He's No. 2.

-- Bill Fields

On a tour short on showcase events, it would seem a given that for one of them, the prestigious Solheim Cup, the LPGA would find a way to include a bloc of players that is integral to the future of women's golf.

Six South Koreans have won seven LPGA events this year, including the Safeway Classic on Sunday, when rookie Mi-Jung Hur beat Suzann Pettersen and Michele Redman in a playoff.

The Solheim Cup introduced us to several players who don't play on the LPGA and introduced us to none of the Koreans who do, including these 2009 winners: Jiyai Shin, Ji-Yung Oh, In-Kyung Kim, Eunjung Yi, Eun-Hee Ji and Hur.

Wouldn't it better for the future of the LPGA were they provided Solheim Cup exposure, to better acquaint U.S. fans with them?

For those arguing on behalf of the status quo, meanwhile, take note: Foreign players, including eight Asians, have won the last 10 LPGA events.

On those rare occasions when the spotlight finds women's golf, better to shine the light on the game's best and brightest.

-- John Strege

It was announced on Monday that Beringer Vineyards has signed on to become "the Official Wine of the PGA Tour," distinguishing it from the unofficial whine of the PGA Tour -- that every new golf course it plays is an abomination. Or so it sometimes seems, when listening to the players.

OK, so Liberty National Golf Club's greens were tougher to read than Latin. The course still produced an entertaining show featuring some of the best players in the world and one notable interloper, winner Heath Slocum.

It's interesting to note that Slocum embraced the course and its nuances (see Sam Weinman's column on the matter here), while so many around him spent the week bemoaning the assorted swales and bumps that rejected imprecision.

-- John Strege

Jim Furyk had to take four penalty strokes for playing the first two holes in Saturday's round at the Barclays with 15 clubs in his bag, a miscue that ultimately cost him $131,250. Fortunately, it hasn't cost his caddie Mike Cowan, better known as Fluff, his job.

"We've been through too much together for a long, long time," Furyk told the Associated Press. "He's been on my bag for over 10 years. He does what he does. He shows up on time. He's a good person and he's a good caddie. The last thing I want anyone to do is blame it on Mike. The fact that we both made the error is what surprises me. That's the shocker. I can see one person being a bonehead for 30 minutes, but two people is disappointing."

The mistake occurred because Furyk had been working with a 60-degree with extra bounce, but decided to go with his 60-degree wedge with lower bounce. Because of Saturday's rain, Cowan had the rain hood covering the clubs in Furyk's bag, and neither noticed the extra wedge.

Good for Furyk for sharing blame and not passing it off on a reliable caddie with whom he has worked so well over the last decade. Suffice it to say, not every golfer would have done the same.

-- John Strege

European Tour officials continue to carry the banner on behalf of speeding up play around the world, for which Eirik Tage Johansen is the latest posted boy. Johansen was hit with a slow-play fine for the second week running, this time in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

He was fined £500 for slow play at the KLM Open the previous week. At Gleneagles, the fine was £4,000. Mark Garrod, golf correspondent for the Press Association, wrote this:

"He took 19 seconds too long over a tee shot during his second round and because it was his second "bad time" of the year he was fined £4,000.

"'A slow player tightens the noose around his own neck,' said the Tour's senior referee Andy McFee. 'If he has another bad time it would be £6,000.'"

Better were the penalty to be strokes rather than money, but at least someone somewhere is wielding the prod in an attempt to alleviate the scourge of slow play. Recall that it was a European Tour official (John Paramor) who triggered a controversy by issuing a slow-play warning to Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

-- John Strege

From Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson, on Twitter: "Only one player among the top 10 at Barclays has won a tournament this year."

That would be Steve Stricker, who has two victories.

-- John Strege

Matt Gagne of the New York Daily News revealed what surely is a breach of protocol at a high-end private club, of which Liberty National surely is one.

"After finishing with a bogey on the 18th hole and carding a 1-over-par 72 in the second round of the Barclays," Gagne writes, "(Tiger) Woods blew off reporters for the second straight day and made his way to the parking lot, where he quickly changed shoes before hopping behind the wheel of a black SUV and taking off with his caddie, Steve Williams."

Changing shoes in the parking lot? The horror. What will he do next, wear a hat into the men's grill?

-- John Strege

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- If this were a team sport, it might be said that the wildcards were having a good run.

Midway through The Barclays, the first tournament of the PGA Tour Playoffs, Webb Simpson, who was 85th in FedEx Cup points standings entering the playoffs, shot a 68 Friday to take the 36-hole lead at Liberty National GC.

Simpson is at eight-under 134 and two strokes in front of Paul Goydos (49th in FedEx points) and Steve Marino (30th), with Fredrik Jacobson (107th) and Heath Slocum (124th) tied for fourth at four-under. Tiger Woods, No. 1 in FedEx points, shot a 72 on the wet, dreary day and is T-17 at even-par 142

Simpson, a 24-year-old North Carolinian in his first full year on tour, is hoping that the end of his season will have the tone of its beginning, when he had top-10s in his first two tournaments. This is the first time he has slept on the lead on tour, and he'll count it a learning experience in a year full of them.

Pressing after poor play during the Florida swing, Simpson intensified his post-round practice sessions to the point where it wasn't helping and in fact was causing him to dread coming to the course. "My fiancee [Dowd Keith] and I were talking about when I was in amateur golf, I would leave the course, usually right after the round," Simpson said, "and so we started doing that--taking a step back from practicing and trying to get most of my practicing done when I was at home on my weeks off."

Simpson was going to try to take his new position in stride a week after a disappointing missed cut at the Wyndham Championship in his home state. "I couldn't have picked a better time to be playing well," Simpson said. "But you know, I'm sure a lot of emotions will be going through my head tomorrow. I'm a big believer in prayer, and so I'll go to bed saying a few prayers tonight and come out tomorrow just like I did today."

-- Bill Fields

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - If Ernie Els plays the final 36 holes of The Barclays the way he has played the last 32, it could be a good weekend for the South African. Els was four-over after four holes Thursday at Liberty National GC but fought back and shot a one-over 72. Spurred by an eagle-2 on No. 16 Friday, Els shot a 68 to work his way into the top 10 midway through the first event in the PGA Tour playoffs.

While Webb Simpson was leading at eight-under with a two holes left in his second round, Els stood at two-under 140 with the low round in the clubhouse on a tough day of scoring. "I've got to be pretty pleased with where I am right now," said Els. "I've driven the ball well so far. My iron play feels good. My putter feels better. You know, I might even have a chance this weekend. We'll see."

Els could use more holes like the 16th, where he hit a driver from 288 yards to eight feet and sank the putt. "The golf course is such where it keeps you off balance, you don't get into a flow," said Els. "You think you string a couple of good holes together, then there's an awkward shot that you're faced with and so it doesn't really get you in a good flow. That was my case today--I hit in the water off the tee on No. 5. Some of these greens are really quite tricky. So it can test you. But I like it."

Els missed the cut in the Masters and U.S. Open but recorded solid finishes in the British Open (T-6) and PGA Championship (T-8). His putting (T-153 in putting average) has held him back, but he has been working hard on it, reviewing tapes of past putting success and recently lengthening his putter for a different feel. "This year my whole game, I've kind of pieced together again, and I've started feeling good about it now," Els said. "I [just have] to get my mind to believe that it's good now and I just have to keep going. I think I"ve gone over that little hump that it's been in. In this game, you're always working on something, and you try and get better and sometimes you go the other way."

--Bill Fields

In the midst of all the negative (and mostly anonymous) carping about Liberty National Golf Club comes this contrarian view from a man whose authority on such golf courses requires he be heard. Padraig Harrington, a three-time major champion, gave it a rave review, even after shooting a 75 on Friday.

"This is a phenomenal golf course,"he said. "I think this is good enough for a major. This is a major golf course we are playing here. This is a superb test, really puts us right on the limit. This is exactly what we should be playing. This is an excellent golf course. The actual layout of the golf course, it's a real test out there, and at all stages, you've got to pay attention. Absolutely.

"If you want us to play good golf, if you want to shoot 20-under, yeah, there's other golf courses, but it's like playing a major out there. You've got to pay attention all the time to every shot.

"I'd love to see a major here in time."

-- John Strege