RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF. --- Not only is the Kraft Nabisco Championship a major with a pro-am -- as are all the LPGA majors except the U.S. Women's Open -- it is a major with two pro-ams. As if that doesn't annoy players enough, the normal buzz on the range at Mission Hills escalated to a barely contained roar Wednesday morning when three players were disqualified for pro-am violations. Past KNC champion Helen Alfredsson, Maria Hjorth and Shanshan Feng were sent packing for missing their pro-am tee times.

Alfredsson and Hjorth were both alternates and were not on the tee on time to serve as fill-ins for players who withdrew. Feng was scheduled to be in the pro-am and joined her group after it teed off but was told she was outside the five-minute grace period window. Alfredsson was on site and eating breakfast when she found out she was needed, hurried to join her group on the second hole but was told she was also too late.

All three appealed their case.

-- Ron Sirak

British bookmakers are known for taking bets on just about everything, but they seem to be outdoing themselves on the issue of Tiger Woods and the Masters.

William Hill and Ladbrokes both offer the standard bet, Woods to win, the latest odds of which are 4/1. William Hill is offering 26 different propositions involving Woods and is considering 10 more, including whether wife Elin will be there.

Among the propositions already available: Whether he'll hit his opening tee shot in the fairway (4/9); whether his opening tee shot will hit a tree (5/1).

-- John Strege

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Hee Kyung Seo, the KLPGA member who won last week's Kia Classic in a runaway, says she's not sure she wants to join the LPGA, which she can now do based on her victory at La Costa. But the word is that she is considering making the jump a lot more seriously now, especially after learning that one of the major concerns she has -- qualifying for the KLPGA Hall of Fame -- is not as much of a problem as she originally feared.

To get into the KLPHA Hall of Fame, Seo needs to win 20 times on that tour. With 11 victories already at the age of 24 she is more than halfway there. And since as an international member of the LPGA she need only play 10 events a year to fulfill her tour obligations, it seems as if she can juggle both schedules rather easily.

Seo, who is in the field this week at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, need only look at the LPGA schedule to see how easily she can juggle the two tours. The next LPGA event isn't until April 29 in Mexico and between the Kraft Nabisco and June 10 there are only three LPGA tournaments. Seems like plenty of opportunities to work in some KLPGA stops.

One thing is certain: Extremely helpful LPGA types are explaining the situation to Seo. Don't be surprised if an announcement by her that she wants to accept LPGA membership is made sometime n the not too distant future.

-- Ron Sirak

ORLANDO -- Reporters are paid to ask questions. Ask enough and bad questions are inevitable -- but still serve a purpose.

Then there was this exchange from Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

A reporter from the United Kingdom asked a PGA Tour rookie paired with Scotland's Colin Montgomerie in the third round if he, "felt he were in the presence of greatness."

The rookie was Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer and two-time club champion at Bay Hill Club where he grew up under the tutelage of the legendary player. Saunders just smiled politely and then offered a polite answer. "He's done a lot of great things, and he's a great player, and he's meant a lot to the game."

(LONG PAUSE)

An American writer followed up. "Would it be safe to say you're used to being in the presence of greatness?"

"Uh, yes," Saunders, holding back a laugh, said with a tone that suggested, "No, duh."

--Dave Shedloski

John Daly, entrepreneur, as he did in 2009, intends to set up shop in Augusta during the week of the Masters, hawking his merchandise from his motor home.

"I'll be parked at WINDSOR JEWELERS 2635 Washington Road -- see ya'll there," he wrote on Twitter Saturday morning.

"So--IS EVERYONE gonna stop by my Merchandise Booth the week of the Masters! Will have all new merchandise & I'll be there-- BEING JOHN DALY"

-- John Strege

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Pre-round adjustments are essential for professional golfers, but Joe Ogilvie took it to a new level Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. His reward was a bogey-free 6-under-par 66 on the Championship Course at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, a 10-shot improvement.

Just 25 minutes before his second-round tee time of 12:43 p.m. EDT, Ogilvie retreated to the Bay Hill clubhouse, where an assistant pro in the club repair room bent his R9 irons one degree upright. "It's not recommended doing something like that, but I needed to turn it around, and it worked," said Ogilvie, who carded the low round of the day and moved up 81 spots into a tie for 23rd at two-under 142.

Oh, but that wasn't all. He also put a new putter in his bag, switching from a TaylorMade Rossa to an Odyssey 2-Ball. And if all that weren't enough, on the sixth hole, he abandoned his cross-handed putting grip for a conventional one. He converted a 25-foot par putt at the sixth and then registered six of his seven birdies over the last 11 holes.

The reason Ogilvie had his irons worked on was because he was losing shots way right after changing his setup. He is standing taller to the ball, bringing it in closer. "I've gone to 3 degrees flat four weeks ago to 1 degree upright in my irons, so it's all pretty radical stuff," Ogilvie said. "Hey, it worked. I'm starting to figure it out. Or at least I hope I have."

-- Dave Shedloski

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- In-Kyung Kim is a South Korean who for a time was a vagabond in the U.S., having lived in South Carolina, Maryland and Florida before moving to San Diego County in 2007 and finding a place with which she was comfortable.

She lived in the seaside community of Encinitas first, then bought a house in the upscale community of Rancho Santa Fe, where she lives on a golf course, Morgan Run Club & Resort. However, her home course here is La Costa Resort & Spa, site of this week's LPGA event, the Kia Classic Presented by J Golf.

Advantage Kim.

"I know the wind direction," she said following a second consecutive round of three-under par 69 on Friday to move into contention in her bid for a third victory on the LPGA. "Everybody can see it, but I played here before, so I know exactly how much. It gets strong in the afternoon.

"Last year, I played the Samsung (at Torrey Pines) but I hardly go to Torrey Pines and play. I didn't feel much advantage. But I play here a lot, more than any other course in San Diego, so I think that gives me an advantage, knowing the course."

Kim is a former U.S. Girls' Junior champion, who came to the states to attend a golf school in South Carolina. She was unhappy there, so moved to Maryland and stayed with friends. From there, she went to Florida and lived alone. "I didn't like being by myself," she said, "so I came here. My family's friends live here and they look after me. I love it here."

-- John Strege

ORLANDO, Fla. - Four-time Masters champion Arnold Palmer, who on Wednesday said that Tiger Woods needed to "open up" to the media, on Friday applauded the news that Woods has agreed to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. Monday, April 5 at Augusta National Golf Club.

Woods is the only press conference scheduled for the first day of Masters week in Augusta, Ga. It will be his first press event in nearly five months, since he won the Australian Masters Nov. 15 in Melbourne. Twelve days after that win, his 82nd worldwide, Woods crashed his SUV into a tree near his home, igniting a media firestorm about his personal life.

"I think that's wonderful that Tiger is going to talk to everybody," Palmer told Golf World on Friday at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, where he is host of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. I think the quickest way for him to regain his honorable position in the game is to open up and get it all out there and get on with things."

Palmer had said on Wednesday that he thought it was time for Woods to meet with the media. "I think it's up to him to do and say whatever he feels he needs to do to redeem the situation, put it in the proper place," Palmer, 80, said on the eve of his event, where Woods had won six times, including the last two, but skipped playing for the first time in his career. "My opinion, as I said, I was going to keep to myself. But I suppose the best thing he could do would be open up and just let you guys shoot at him. And that's just my thought."

He expanded on that thought a bit on Friday. "As long as you keep going around corners and not giving everyone the full story, there's going to be questions out there," Palmer said. "Everyone wants to know what he's thinking, what he's doing, and if he tells them, then the chance of his golf becoming the primary focus again increases."

Palmer also agreed with Tom Watson, another former Masters winner, that Woods needs to do more for the game and to show more respect for the game, something the No. 1 player promised in his prepared remarks February 20 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., that he would try to accomplish when he returned to competitive golf.

"Yes, he needs to do that. And he can," Palmer said.

--Dave Shedloski

What began as a casual outing with friends turned into a record-setting performance by Phil Mickelson on Monday. Tuning up for this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, the 39-year-old Mickelson fired a course-record 14-under-par 58 at The Plantation Golf Club outside Palm Springs in Indio, Calif. The old record at the club, where Mickelson is a member, was a 61 by Nathan Nouskajian in 2002.

After playing 18 holes in the morning with another member, Bobby Schaeffer , Mickelson stopped for lunch, then decided to play nine additional holes before meeting his wife, Amy. He proceeded to shoot a 7-under 29.

"Bobby was the one who talked him into keeping going," Tim Kunick, an assistant pro at Plantation, said from the golf shop Friday morning. "He said he'd play two more, and when he birdied those two holes, he decided to stay."

After adding a birdie on the 12th, Mickelson parred 13 and 14 before birdieing his last four holes to shoot 58. According to Kunick, Mickelson played the full yardage of 7,042 yards, and putted everything out.

"He had to get out of here quickly, but he was pretty excited," Kunick said. "The golf course is actually playing extremely difficult. The greens are firm and fast, and the rough is pretty long. To shoot even in the mid-60s here is very impressive. To break 60 is phenomenal."

Mickelson seems to have kept that momentum going at Bay Hill, where he just made the turn in his second round after shooting a 32 on the front nine. At the time of this post, he is 5-under for the tournament and in a fifth-place tie.

The Plantation Course was designed by Brian Curley and Fred Couples in 1996. Couples and former NFL quarterback John Brodie are among the honorary founding members.

-- Golf Digest Digital Staff