LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Amy Mickelson wasn't about to take any credit for the way her husband, Phil, has played the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open, but there's been an undeniable bounce in his step this week that seems to be more than just about him lurking three shots out of the lead in his PGA Tour season debut.

The reigning Masters champion followed up an opening 67 with a late-blooming 69 on Torrey Pines' North Course and at 8-under 136 trails Bill Haas by three, his best position in this event since he won back-to-back in 2000 and '01.

Watching every shot for the second day in a row was his wife, Amy, who is battling breast cancer. Amy hadn't been able to walk 18 holes with her husband since The Players in 2009, the week she got back her lab results that revealed she had cancer. "I still didn't think I had it," she recalls of that day.

Phil had indicated Wednesday that his wife was doing better, but Amy's presence on the golf course these last two days brought context to just how much better she feels despite ongoing therapy and medications.

"I missed being out here," she said Friday as she watched Phil play the par-3 third hole on the North Course. "I missed the people and the atmosphere and just being able to be here for Phil. It feels like things are getting back to normal again, as much as they can be, and we're definitely feeling like we have a good handle on things mentally, which always helps you physically."

As for any help she is providing Phil, she laughed and shook her head. "Oh, I don't know about that. He's been ready to play," she said. "Honestly, I stay out of all the golf stuff."

Said Phil: "It's been a lot of fun having Amy out here this week. She just looks terrific. After a year and a half, we're in such a better place, and it's a lot of fun having her out here."

-- Dave Shedloski

LA JOLLA, Calif. - After signing for a 3-under-par 69 Thursday on the North Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course and then signing a few autographs, Tiger Woods marched to the practice putting green, not a location he frequented often during his turbulent 2010 season.

He made 42 four-footers in a row at one stretch with his favorite "gate" drill, where he putts between two tees placed just far enough apart for the putter head to pass through. Then he went to the driving range instead of the player buffet table.

Woods wasn't dissatisfied with his opening round of the 2011 season in the Farmers Insurance Open, but his post-round demeanor suggested he wasn't going to put off tomorrow any improvement he could make today.

"I probably hit the ball well all day," said Woods, who trails leader Sunghoon Kang by five strokes at the event he's won six times. "I hit just a couple of loose shots that I know what I did wrong, which was great, easy fixes and move on from there.

"I didn't leave myself any putts," added Woods, the No. 3 player in the world, who seeks his first PGA Tour victory since the '09 BMW Championship. "Every putt I had was above the hole, breaking two, three, four feet. I never left myself below the hole. When I did, I had a short one there at 7, I hit right through the birdie. So I just need to leave myself better shots. I can't put myself up there above the hole every hole like I did all day."

Woods hit only five of 14 fairways on the North Course, which was playing firm and featured much narrower fairways, but he hit 15 greens. His one measured drive, on the par-4 fourth hole, traveled 329 yards. He failed to birdie any of the par-5s, but he also didn't make any bogeys.

"I'm happy with the way I played," said Woods, who had not played in this event since '08. "It could have been a lot better if I took care of the par⿿5s a little bit more, but obviously, I didn't do that. So hopefully on the South Course I can take care of the par⿿5s and put together a little bit better round."

Woods is scheduled to play again with Anthony Kim and Rocco Mediate on Friday, teeing off on No. 1 on the South Course at 10 a.m. (PST). Woods, of course, defeated Mediate in a playoff at the 2008 U.S. Open on the South. He was asked Thursday if he and Mediate had a chance to share any reminiscences.

"No, because we didn't play that golf course," Woods said.

They will Friday. And it looks as if Woods intends to be ready.

-- Dave Shedloski

Long before Arnold Palmer piloted his first aircraft, in 1956, he was aware of the Newtonian law, "What goes up must come down." On Jan. 31, the rule will have slightly sadder, more literal implications. When Palmer, 81, pilots his Cessna Citation 10 jet from Palm Springs to Orlando that morning, it will be his last flight as pilot. His license expires that day, and Palmer has elected not to have it renewed.

(Update: see the photo gallery from Palmer's last flight here.)

"I'll still be flying in my plane as much as always, just not in the cockpit," says Palmer. "Flying has been one of the great things in my life. It's taken me to the far corners of the world. I met thousands of people I otherwise wouldn't have met. And I even got to play a little golf along the way."

Golf notwithstanding, aviation has always been Palmer's most passionate vocation. Palmer took his first flying lessons in his hometown of Latrobe, Pa., and in 1966 graduated from prop planes to the jets that for many tour players today are a standard mode of transportation -- as passengers, not pilots. Palmer's fly-bys when departing from tournaments were a distinctive signature throughout the 1960s and '70s, and his versatility as a pilot was matched by several remarkable achievements. In 1969, Palmer piloted a Boeing 747 before the aircraft had gone into commercial service. In 1976, he set a round-the-world speed record that still stands. Taking off from Denver in a Lear 36 and heading east, Palmer circumnavigated the globe in 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds.

"The people there when Arnold took off were still there when he returned," laughs Doc Giffin, Palmer's longtime assistant and chronicler of Palmer's aviation exploits. The flight included brief refueling stops in Boston, Paris, Tehran, Sri Lanka, Jakarta, Manila, Wake Island and Honolulu. "The stops were brief, but Arnold had time to ride an elephant in Sri Lanka, and in Manila he was given a gift from President Ferdinand Marcos that he still has."

Palmer continued to fly the Cessna Citation 10 -- the fastest non-military aircraft in the world -- regularly in recent years. When he relinquishes his wings, he will have logged just shy of a staggering 20,000 hours in the cockpit.

-- Guy Yocom

(AP Photo)

What did Puma do in honor of their player, Rickie Fowler, capturing the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Award? Film an ad with the young star that combines golf and motocross of course.

A new spot features Fowler playing golf while riding a dirt bike -- or more accurately, playing golf with a dirt bike. Check it out:

According to the ad's info, Fowler is a big fan of the motorcycle sport and the commercial was shot at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Naples. Hopefully, the grounds crew got a bonus that day.

A swing sequence of Fowler appeared in Golf Digest last May, but readers can expect to see a lot more of him in the magazine's pages going forward. On Thursday, Fowler was announced as Golf Digest's newest playing editor.

This week, the 22-year-old is in the field at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he finished T-5 last year as a rookie. While we don't expect to see him wearing a helmet at Torrey Pines, there's a pretty good chance he'll be clad in his custom Oklahoma-State orange at some point.

-- Alex Myers

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LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Phil Mickelson never can escape the inevitable questions about his primary foil, Tiger Woods, so it's no surprise that he handles the questions with considerable aplomb.

Asked what he expects of the former No. 1 player in the world, Mickelson replied, dryly, "I expect he'll be the Tiger we have known for over a decade. Unfortunately."

More fortunate news is that Mickelson, 40, expects to be more of the player he thinks he should be. He wasted no time Wednesday pointing out that he began his preparations for the 2011 season a week earlier than usual, on Dec. 28, and that his arthritis that derailed him for the second half of last year is under control. What does that mean for the reigning Masters champion?

"I want to try to make 2011 the year that I thought 2010 was going to be," he said.

Allowing him to be more optimistic is not only the improvement in his health, but also the continuing progress of his wife, Amy, who is battling breast cancer. "We're all in a much better place. We're all excited about 2011," said Mickelson, whose mother also is dealing with breast cancer.

As for his golf game, that is in a better place, too -- perhaps the best place it could be, in fact.

"I'm 40 years old, and I've been playing this game a long time, and I no longer need to go about changes in my game," Mickelson said. "I feel like I've worked on some things now with Butch Harmon to get my swing to where I want it to be. I've worked with (Dave) Stockton and (Dave) Pels to get my practice sessions the way I want them to be, as well as my short game putting technique. I feel this is a year where I don't have to have any change. It's a year of refinement ... developing touch, developing shot-making and getting into the nuances of hitting great shots and not having to worry about technique, and it's a good feeling."

-- Dave Shedloski

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- A refreshed and fit Tiger Woods returned to the scene of his last major championship victory Wednesday still intent on beating his peers on the golf course, but less interested in dominating the field on Twitter.

Such was the range of questioning at Torrey Pines Golf Course as Woods met the media on the eve of his 2011 season debut at the Farmers Insurance Open. Woods, who this week slipped to No. 3 in the world, appeared relaxed -- but then, why shouldn't he? He's won this tournament six times and also claimed the 2008 U.S. Open on the South Course, emerging victorious in a playoff over Rocco Mediate despite an injured knee that days later required reconstructive surgery.

Woods, 35, hasn't played this event since '08, which he won, of course, and hadn't been back since his Open triumph, the last of his 14 major titles. Having endured his first winless season in 2010 marked by personal struggles off the course and swing problems on it, he's eager to turn the page, if not new leaves, which includes connecting more with fans via Twitter and connecting better with the golf ball.

"My expectations are the same. Whatever event I enter is to win the event," said Woods, who begins his season at 9 a.m. Thursday on the No. 10 tee on the North Course with Mediate and Anthony Kim. "The determination hasn't changed. It's just that I need to be focused and put into a proper perspective. I went down a path I should never have gone, and now the determination is keeping my life in balance. If my life's in balance throughout the course of my career, I've had good years. More importantly, what's most important to me is my kids. I need to be in balance for them, and that's what it's all about."

Though he admitted that golf "falls somewhere down the list," after his children, Woods said he's worked hard on his game of late and enjoyed not only a longer off-season than in recent years, which has him feeling fresher, but also one relatively free of injury. His only issue was a sore heel for which he received a cortisone shot in early December after losing a playoff to Graeme McDowell at the Chevron World Challenge.

Woods, who has 71 tour wins but hasn't won anywhere since November 2009, spent the past month refining swing changes he made under the tutelage of Sean Foley. He's prepared, he said, to "feel the heat again." And the heat is on, with questions about just how successful he can be as he embarks on a new phase of his career, one in which he is older, wiser and facing more good young players than ever before.

"That's fine. I've heard it before," Woods said of the doubters. "I've gone through stretches where I haven't won. I've had it happen in my career before. All I have to do is keep working and stick to the game plan, just like I have in the past. I think my record kind of speaks to that."

-- Dave Shedloski

(Photo: Donald Miralle/Getty Images)