Two groups after Jack Nicklaus instructed Phil Mickelson and Woody Austin to concede Vijay Singh's four-foot putt on the 18th hole Thursday at the Presidents Cup, Ernie Els faced a four-footer for par that would have earned the International squad another half-point. Els was paired with Angel Cabrera against David Toms and Jim Furyk.

As Steve Elling describes at CBSSPorts.com, Mickelson, standing directly beside Nicklaus on the apron of the 18th green, grabbed the U.S. captain by the shoulder and said, "Don't you dare give them that putt."

Damon Green, Zach Johnson's caddie, was stationed directly behind Nicklaus and said to Mickelson, "Don't worry, I've got a hold of his shirt back here."

It was all meant in jest. When Els badly missed the par-saver and blew the ball four feet past the other side of the hole, the Americans conceded the bogey and Toms tapped in from 40 inches for a bogey and a 1-up win.

The early atmosphere at the Presidents Cup on Thursday, before the U.S. swamped the leader boards in red, was reminiscent of the partisan cheering of a Ryder Cup. On the third hole, after Phil Mickelson hit a putt, someone in the gallery yelled out, "Miss it!"

Jim (Bones) Mackay walked over to the side of the green, flagstick in hand, and said, "Who's the good sportsman over here?"

It made it all the more fitting when Jack Nicklaus instructed Mickelson to concede Vijay Singh's putt on the 18th for the only International success of the day.

--Jim Moriarty

MONTREAL--It takes thick skin to be a member of Jack Nicklaus' Presidents Cup team. In a meeting with his squad last month at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the Golden Bear was going around the tables, greeting everyone with niceties until he got to Charles Howell III, who has tailed off after a hot West Coast that included a playoff win over Phil Mickelson at the Nissan Open.

According to Howell, who was sitting at a table with Zach Johnson, David Toms and Hunter Mahan, the dialogue from Nicklaus went like this:

"Zach, great job on winning the Masters green jacket, that's fantastic, that's awesome."

"David, another solid season, you are another steady, steady player."

"Hunter, you've really come along here lately. This is fantastic, young guy."

"Charles . . . you need a lesson."

Howell, who knows Nicklaus through not only the Presidents Cup but also a sponsorship deal with UBS, was quick enough on his feet to say, "My pro-am time is 7 a.m. tomorrow," but Nicklaus never showed up to give that lesson.

The Bear did, however, give Howell the featured pairing in today's Foursomes competition at Royal Montreal. Nicklaus broke up his Tiger Woods-Jim Furyk team that was so strong in 2005 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, pairing Howell with Woods (they won two alternate-shot matches at Fancourt in 2003) and Furyk with Toms.

"I think that Tiger would like to play with Furyk," Nicklaus said during his Wednesday news conference to announce the pairings. "I think [Tiger] would like to play with two or three other guys also. I think that Tiger and Charles played well in South Africa. I think Charles has been in a bit of a bump since then, bumpy road and he needs some help from somebody, and I think Tiger is the guy to give it to him. After that, my guess is it will be switched off, but I want to get Charles off to a good start if possible."

Woods and Howell will take on K.J. Choi and Nick O'Hern, but the match I'm most interested in watching is the second one out this afternoon: Mike Weir and Vijay Singh vs. Mickelson and Woody Austin. Singh handed Weir his most painful loss at the 2004 Canadian Open, and this is Austin's first international team competition. International captain Gary Player put Weir and Singh together to get the partisan crowd into it, but Austin has the potential to stir up Mickelson, who requested Woody as a replacement for the fiery partner he had in '05, Chris DiMarco.

And if you haven't logged on to weather.com to check the playing conditions, it's raining and 55 degrees this morning in Montreal, so expect a wet one when you turn on the TV at 1 p.m. for TNT's coverage.

--Tim Rosaforte

Golf's leading organizations announced today that an anti-doping policy will go into effect in 2008, but as far as we can tell there are still a lot of details that need to be worked out.

Today we're learning about the list of proposed banned substances, which goes far beyond steroids.

The second phase of the process, which will be completed later this year, will include the development of specific policies, testing protocols and penalties.

The proposed list of banned substances includes:
Anabolic Agents
Hormones and Related Substances
Agents with Anti-Estrogenic Activity
Diuretics and Other Masking Agents
Stimulants
Narcotics
Cannabinoids
Beta Blockers
Enhancement of Oxygen Transfer
Chemical and Physical Manipulation

Substances that may be prohibited at the option of individual golf organizations:
Glucocorticosteroids
Beta-2-Agonists

Shocking news: Gouge is overly agitated and in a lather again. Bomb attempts to restore order, but Gouge is clearly in a Howard Beale-Network state. This time he attempts to suggest that the USGA's rule on moment of inertia might end up being surreptitiously violated in the same way the spring-like effect rule was violated earlier this year. The only thing worse is Hugh Laurie not getting the trophy at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night. Check out the outrage at Bomb & Gouge.

Michelle Wie played her first round of golf as a college student Monday morning, completing nine holes at Stanford University Golf Course. She was accompanied by her parents, B.J. and Bo, who drove the cart while she walked.

Freshmen are scheduled to check in Tuesday, with classes starting next week. Wie, who turns 18 on Oct. 11, is undecided on a major.

While Wie and all freshmen are required to live in a dormitory their first year on campus, it is unclear how much time she will spend there. Her parents have rented a house locally.

It is also uncertain how much interaction Wie will have with the Stanford men's and women's golf teams. Technically, she is a professional golfer and not a student-athlete, but she will be allowed to use the course and practice facilities.

Wie is 53rd in the current Rolex Women’s World Rankings.

--Mark Soltau

There's nothing worse than bad greens, but like PGA Tour tournament director Mark Russell said last week, trying to grow bent-grass greens in the South is like trying to grow palm trees in Northern Canada. Russell wasn't passing the blame: This is one of the reasons why Augusta National closes down for most of the summer and why the greens at East Lake were never an issue until this year, when the Tour Championship was moved from leaf-turning chill of late October-early November to one of the hottest and driest late summers on record for Atlanta.

Whether it was Mother Nature or the affects of Global Warming, it was an embarrassment for a man who is not used to being embarrassed -- not with his type of track record for a community and golf course renovator. But just to make sure the affects of a heat wave would not happen again, course owner Tom Cousins has plans to change East Lake's greens to one of the new strands of hybrid Bermuda, either the most-established Champion or the new-age Mini Verde that was used in renovating the TPC-Sawgrass.

It won't be a knee-jerk decision, but one that is researched by director of golf Rick Burton and course superintendent Ralph Kepple and implemented in May 2008. With the course closed for the summer, East Lake should play hard and fast like this year's Players Championship by the time we reach next September.

"We met with the tour, and we could either go with a no-till method, where we go in and aerify and put springs down on top of the soil, or we could go the other way and two 2-4 inches off and add a new greens mix," Burton said Thursday. "There are pros and cons to both." East Lake's chipping green was done with the no-till technique in Mini Verdi and did fine, coming back quicker than the more radical stripping.

So back to Russell's point, why bent grass at East Lake? Well, because when the course went through its reconstruction 12 years ago, Crenshaw Bentgrass was just coming out and was considered to be better than the Bermuda being produced at the time. Plus, with Bentgrass, the course didn't have to go through overseeding in the early fall or close down in April-May to get the overseeding out.

"We had the worst heat we've ever had in August, 10 straight 100-degree days, plus drought," Burton said. "The ground temperature never got below 70 and the roots got so short, the grass just died. Even if we had the tournament in the old days the weather would have stressed the greens. We just would have had more recovery time by the first week in November."

--Tim Rosaforte

One of the game's greats died this summer at 80 without many headlines, but if you were part of professional golf in the late 1970s through the 1990s it was hard to not know John Montgomery Sr. (right, with Jack Nicklaus), or call him anything  but "Senior." He was to tournament operations what his best friend, Jack Nicklaus, was to winning majors and so it made sense that they went arm-in-arm, or needle-for-needle, for over three decades.

There was a ceremony to honor Montgomery last Friday at the TPC-Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Nicklaus spoke. So did PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who credited Montgomery's company, Executive Sports, with helping to grow the game. "A writer once said that there are three types of golf tournaments," Finchem said. "Tournaments that aren't run by Montgomery. Tournaments that are run by Montgomery. And tournaments that want to be run by Montgomery."

They held the memorial in the Jacksonville area because it was John's adopted hometown and because his impact was felt at the home of tournament golf in the years before the PGA Tour started running golf tournaments themselves. John goes back to the old Jacksonville Open, the forerunner of The Players, but he was also instrumental in the development of the Memorial Tournament as the most well-run event on tour. Someday, they should find a place for Montgomery in the World Golf Hall of Fame under the distinguished service category.

Driving to the service, Jackie Nicklaus, the eldest son of the Golden Bear's five children, made the observation that Senior always reminded him of John Wayne. When Montgomery's widow, Nancy, was told that, she grinned. John Wayne was always one of Senior's heroes, to tell you what kind of man Senior was.

I met John back in the late '70s covering the events at Inverrary and Doral, and along with Larry Dorman (then the golf writer at the Miami Herald), Senior used to tease us about our hair and our beards and our shorts--or something we wrote, especially if it put us in the Golden Bear's doghouse. John was an old-school guy who played football at Duke and worked his way up through the ranks of the FBI and Southern Bell before turning to golf. We'd imitate him and his North Florida accent, just to shut him down, or maybe do our Nicklaus imitations in front of him. He'd go off chuckling, threatening to tell Jack.

As I said, Senior loved to needle. Some of his greatest pranks occurred at Nicklaus' expense, usually around Jan. 21, Jack's birthday. Jack lives in Lost Tree Village, a gated community in North Palm Beach, Fla., but every year Senior would work his way through the guard gate transporting various forms of gag gifts. One year it was a donkey, which he tied to the mirror of Jack's Lincoln Continental. Another year he arrived by boat, spread chicken feed all over Jack's backyard and unloosed dozens of chickens. There was the monkey that did a strip tease and the five-ton pile of manure with the pin flag that said, "Happy Birthday" on top.

But if Montgomery was famous for anything, it was helping to write a page in golf history-—and perhaps motivate Nicklaus to his greatest triumph.

It was Montgomery who took a particular Atlanta Constitution article written by Tom McCollister previewing the 1986 Masters and taped it to the refrigerator at the home Jack rented in Augusta and shared with Montgomery. In the article, McCollister wrote that Nicklaus had no chance of winning, that he was done, finished, washed up. Later that week, Nicklaus won his sixth green jacket. As Nicklaus said concluding the service, John's probably still laughing about that one. It was part of the legacy he left behind.

-—Tim Rosaforte

ATLANTA--Golf's Big Two, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, spent some time with the media Wednesday, and both expressed opinions about whether they view the FedEx Cup playoffs as a success. Read the transcripts of today's interviews at the Tour Championship.

The best moment might've been when Tiger was asked if $10 million still gets his attention. . . . Woods nodded his head, slowly.

Later, Tiger confirmed on his website that he will not be playing in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda next month. Instead, Jim Furyk will join Masters champion Zach Johnson, U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera and British Open champ Padraig Harrington in the Oct. 15-17 event at the Mid Ocean Club.

--Mark Soltau

ATLANTA--It was a pleasantly low-key day at East Lake. Because practice rounds were limited due to the distressed greens, player and fan attendance was down, giving the old Bobby Jones stomping grounds and its attendant Tudor architecture the serenity of a grand urban park on a Sunday morning.

Amid the quietude, a modest ceremony in which Hal Sutton was awarded the 2007 Payne Stewart Award began on the first tee. But everything changed once the 49-year-old Sutton stepped to the podium and opened his soul.

Sutton began by saying that because lockers on the PGA Tour are assigned according to the alphabet, he and Stewart had adjacent lockers at nearly every tournament they played in for almost two decades. When Sutton related that one of the things he learned about Stewart was "how much he cared about Tracy and his children," his deep voice broke.

Recovering, he said, "I'm sorry. It's hard. I've been away from competitive golf for three years . . . you kind of get lost."

Sutton then went on a torrent of reflection that showed--through charitable efforts including the establishment of a children's hospital in his hometown of Shreveport, LA, as well as teaming with fellow Louisianans Kelly Gibson and David Toms to raise more than $2 million in aid to Hurricane Katrina victims--how much he'd found.

"I finally learned how to get my self-esteem out of something other than just golf," he said. "Something more important than chasing my own dreams."

He looked behind him to the East Lake practice tee and remembered how in 2000 he had found a swing key that helped him produce the best ball-striking in his life in winning the Tour Championship. "But I was working on the balance in my swing, instead of the balance in my life," said Sutton, who won 14 times on the PGA Tour and captained the 2005 U.S. Ryder Cup team. "When I was competing, I don't know if I ever had balance in my life. I think I would have been a better player and certainly happier if I had. That's why I tell young players. Don't be so self-serving. Think about others."

After concluding his remarks, Sutton hugged Tracy Stewart for a long time and acknowledged warm applause. Before leaving, he stopped to converse with a few members of the media.

"I left golf on my terms at exactly the right time," said Sutton, who doesn't have definite  plans to play the Champions Tour. "I didn't leave bitter. I left looking for something else. I've already been paid by the game. It's time for me to pay back. Now I wonder if my contribution will be to talk about what I've learned and pass it on."

--Jaime Diaz

HALMSTAD, Sweden--Healthy again and hitting the ball better than at any time since before she was diagnosed last April with a ruptured disc in her neck, Annika Sorenstam returned home to Sweden this week with an engagement ring and her sights set on a wedding day--but not before making one more run at trying to reclaim the No. 1 spot among women golfers she held for more than five years. Sorenstam and her finance, Mike McGee, are looking toward April 2009 as the big day, and that can mean only one thing: Sorenstam will throw all her effort into making 2008 a special season.

"It was really a special surprise," Sorenstam said Wednesday at Halmstad Golfklubb, where the Solheim Cup begins Friday, speaking about McGee's proposal last month. "There is just so much wonderful stuff happening in my life right now." Sorenstam, who turns 37 next month, opened her golf academy at the Reunion Resort this past spring, launched a website, annikasorenstam.com, and is involved in some golf course design projects. And at the State Farm Classic in Illinois two weeks ago she played her best post-injury golf, finishing T-3 at 14 under par, including rounds of 65 and 67. For the week she hit 46 of 54 fairways and 58 of 72 greens.

"I'm probably as good as I've been in a year and a half," Sorenstam said. "I had a really good showing at Springfield. I'd like to say I'm 100 percent. But I can say I have a lot to smile about off the golf course."

--Ron Sirak

ATLANTA--They might look sick and the grass is thin, but the greens at East Lake Golf Club shouldn't be a problem this week during the Tour Championship, according to Mark Calcavecchia, who played the course Tuesday.

"The greens are 10 times better than what the tour told us they were going to have," said Calcavecchia. "From what I heard, I think that might've been kind of a plan so nobody would be completely in a state of shock when they got here.

"The greens are going to be fine, honestly," he said. "Some of them don't look so good, and there are some bare spots on them, but they putt very nice. They're closer to good than they are bad, let's put it that way."

In an effort to protect the greens for the tournament, the tour canceled Wednesday's Pro-Am and initially told players they wouldn't be able to hit shots to the greens during practice rounds. That changed Monday, when players were told they could use all the greens during Tuesday and Wednesday practice rounds except for Nos. 2, 13 and 15. Back portions of the second and 13th greens have been re-sodded.

"I think the greens will be rolling about 9 to 9.5," said PGA Tour rules official Mark Russell. "Last year we probably had them rolling 11 to 12."

Still, Calcavecchia is pleasantly surprised.

"I'll give them a 6, with 5 being average," he said. "I was expecting about a 2. I guarantee all of us have putted on worse greens than these in our lives."

--Mark Soltau

One of Phil Mickelson's major, but unspoken, points of contention with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, and the reason he withdrew from last week's BMW Championship, was because he didn't believe he should be forced to play the Wednesday pro-am in Chicago after finishing the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston Monday afternoon.

Mickelson might not have handled the withdrawal tactfully--taking a shot a Finchem on national television minutes after beating Tiger Woods in a compelling finish at TPC Boston--but he does have a valid point.

It's insane to ask the guys to play four straight weeks (and seven of nine), then force a pro-am on them during one of the transition days between big-money, high-stakes events. The inmates shouldn't run the asylum, but considering the negative PR implications for the tour, Finchem should have cut a deal to appease BMW, and the German auto maker would have gotten Mickelson to stay in town after his appearance at Medinah for Bearing Point.

If the tour could substitute a clinic for the pro-am in Atlanta because of bad greens, they could certainly have compromised at Cog Hill and legitimized the concept that these are playoffs, not just another tournament.

--Tim Rosaforte

It's bad enough for organizers of the PGA Tour event at Turning Stone Resort and Casino that most of the game's biggest names will likely skip the tournament Sept. 20-23 because it falls between the Tour Championship and the Presidents Cup. Now comes word that spectators won't be able to enjoy a beer while they watch the action.

The Oneida Indian Nation, which sponsors the event, tried to get a liquor license for the resort and casino and, specifically, for the tournament, but State of New York officials said they won't decide on this matter until Oct. 3.

How big a blow is this? If you go to turning-stone.com, one of the first things you see is
a click-on that reads, "Important Notice About Alcohol at Turning Stone."

Last year during the tournament, alcohol was available in one hospitality tent for corporate sponsors, but it couldn't be served anywhere else.

--Ron Kaspriske

Senior Writer John Strege reports in this week's issue of Golf World how Jay Osmon, an assistant pro at Cattails Golf Course in Alamosa, Colo., shot a 15-under-par 56 there last week. The round broke Osmon's own course record of 62 from the blue tees, which measure about 6,000 yards on the municipal layout.

Osmon, 30, who will play in a pre-qualifying tournament for the PGA Tour's Q-School next week at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., lipped out a 25-foot eagle putt on the short par-4 18th for a 55.

"Still now I don't know if it's completely sunk in," Osmon said. "On the back nine, I wasn't trying to think a whole lot. I knew I was playing well. I just wanted to stay out of my own way."

Osmon made fives birdies and two eagles on the front nine to shoot 9-under 26. Then he holed a 15-foot eagle putt on No. 10 to keep his momentum going.

Head pro Bryce Bervig said he was flabbergasted by the news. "I fell out of my chair. I thought, 'You guys are just teasing me.' I quit. I'm never playing again. Golf has been tamed."

The FedEx Cup can't seem to catch a break.

Marred by controversy over big-name players skipping events, criticism over the points system and the $10 million deferred payday, now comes more bad news about East Lake's troubled greens. They're so bad, Golf World has learned, players in the 30-man field will not be allowed to practice on them or hit shots into them prior to Thursday's opening round of the Tour Championship. The PGA Tour is expected to announce the cancellation of the pro-am and a long-term plan by course founder Tom Cousins to close the course for a year to change the greens from bent grass to a new strain of Bermuda that is more tolerable to Atlanta's searing heat.

Henry Hughes, Executive Vice President of the PGA Tour, would not confirm the information, saying it was speculation and that a release would be issued Sunday.

--Tim Rosaforte

NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland--Ever hear the axiom if you don't like the weather in the United Kingdom, just wait a half hour. Well if you're a backer of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team, the same saying applies. Just when it looked like the GB&I squad was going to trail by two if not three points after the first day of competition in the 41st Walker Cup Match, the home side pulled out three singles wins on Royal County Down's 18th green within 30 minutes to deadlock the event at 6-6 and set-up an exciting Sunday finale (click here for the pairings).

"These last three games were crucial because if we didn't get these, it was just going to be a long, long way back," said GB&I captain Colin Dalgleish, after watching Nigel Edwards, Jamie Moul and David Horsey come to the final hole all square in their matches only to beat Kyle Stanley, Chris Kirk and Webb Simpson, respectively, with two birdies and a par. "Everybody is going to be so inspired with what happened today that I think we are all going to feel great tomorrow."

"It seems like these matches the last 10, 15 years come down to that last hole and who is making the putts," noted a slightly stunned U.S. captain Buddy Marucci. "I think we'll see more of that too."

The two sides split the morning foursomes matches 2-2 before halving the afternoon singles 4-4. Leading the way for the Americans were Rickie Fowler, one of the final two picks to the squad, and Billy Horschel. The pair won their foursomes match 4 and 3 over GB&I Walker Cup veterans Lloyd Saltman and Rhys Davies. Fowler then won his afternoon singles tilt with a 5-and-4 drubbing of Saltman, while Horschel knocked off local favorite Rory McIlroy, 1 up.

Suffice it to say, Marucci was happy with the way his guys handled the day's conditions, playing in front of roughly 10,000 spectators, mostly supporting the other side, on a links course that prior to a week ago most had never experienced.

Still, he believes that the day's experience, finally playing live matches after five days of practice, likely will bring a new perspective on the team.

"I think tonight they're going to have a different appreciation of the matches than they did last night. We had a great day of golf, but I'm sure they’re a bit wiser. They'll be a little more inspired after feeling the emotions of today."

--Ryan Herrington

LEMONT, Ill.  --  This is a hard time of year to grow grass -- at least grass suitable for a FedEx Cup event. You may remember how the greens at Westchester CC were an issue for The Barclays. Well they don't call it "Hot-Lanta" for nothing and the combination of 100-degree days and no rainfall has created a problem at East Lake GC, site of next week's Tour Championship.

A "green sheet" was sent out to the players this week at Cog Hill, warning them not to expect pristine putting surfaces when they get to Georgia. Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's tournament director was in Atlanta this week assessing the damages and trying to figure out pin positions -- but can you imagine: Somebody has a putt for the $10 million FedEx Cup payoff and it's on a substandard bent-grass green?

Tim Finchem already has, and has dispatched the reinforcements. But when it comes to killing grass, this was the unavoidable perfect storm all greens superintendents in the Southeast dread. "Severe drought, record heat, bent-grass greens," Russell told me Friday afternoon. "We're doing everything we can to get them ready, but they've suffered."

Fans are circulating air on every green. Bermuda sod has been tamped down to save some of the collars. The mowers are barely cutting the grass, so it would be impossible to give a Stimpmeter reading close to what it will be like for competition. But there was a break in the weather on Friday, with afternoon temperatures reaching only 91 degrees. The course has also been closed since Aug. 31.

"They're like the greens at Greensboro," Russell said. "They just shut down. They just stopped growing. But we're backing off barely mowing them and watering them by hand. At this point, they're not as bad as I thought they were going to be, to tell you the truth."

The greens at East Lake were never an issue when the tournament was played in the last week of October, spilling into early November. The Bermuda grass fairways were usually dormant from an early frost. Last year's event was played with temperatures in the mid-fifties on what were described as perfect greens.

-- Tim Rosaforte

Hawaiian teenager Tadd Fujikawa missed the cut today at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland, but his final shot of the tournament is one he'll remember forever. Fujikawa, 16, finished with a double-eagle 2, hitting a 3-wood that traveled 285 yards and into the hole at the 632-yard, par-5 ninth.

"A happy memory, for sure," he told reporters afterward. "I was pretty sure it would be on the green at least. But I didn't know it would go in the hole. I couldn't see it, but I heard it from the crowd. I could definitely tell it went in. It was pretty nice to finish like that."

It was the only hole where Fujikawa was under par all day. He shot a four-over 75 to finish at 10 over for two rounds and miss the cut by eight strokes.

He described his two rounds in Switzerland as "a really good experience."

"You learn that you need to stay patient out there and you have to trust your shots," Fujikawa said. "For sure you need a lot of experience. This is my third event as a pro and I need more experience to play well, I think."

England's Oliver Wilson is 11 under par (65-66--131) and leads Bradley Dredge of Wales by one shot after 36 holes. Michael Campbell, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Niclas Fasth were among the notables who missed the cut.

--Craig Bestrom

NEWCASTLE, NORTHERN IRELAND--American captain Buddy Marucci offered an interesting observation about his role overseeing the U.S. Walker Cup on Friday.

"Being over here, every day, you're concerned about something that might go wrong," Marucci said. "Before you come here, everything is on a very positive note."

Marucci's thought looked prescient a few hours later during the opening ceremony of the 41st matches at Royal County Down. As the Ballyclare Victoria Flute Band played the Star Spangled Banner, Marucci tried in vain to raise the American flag, the pully somehow stuck. Only in the last few notes was the Stars & Stripes lifted, to soft cheers.

Marucci can only hope it's not an omen of things to come.

Meanwhile, GB&I captain Colin Dalgleish didn't come away from the opening ceremony without a hiccup of his own. In announcing his team, he mistakenly skipped Englishman John Parry. He made amends and offered apologizes after getting through the last player on his squad.

It was a tough half-hour for Parry. While standing outside the clubhouse waiting for the start of the opening ceremony, a bird managed to "say hello" on the back of his team blazer. Teammate Lloyd Saltman informed him of the mess in time to get things cleaned up in the locker room.

Likewise, Parry can only hope this too is not an omen of things to come.

The pairings for Saturday's morning foursomes and afternoon singles have been set (click here to see them). Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, the low amateur at the British Open and the event's likely leading draw, will play in both sessions, surely pleasing the estimated 10,000 spectators expected to watch the matches.

--Ryan Herrington

NEWCASTLE, NORTHERN IRELAND--Trip Kuehne, ranked No. 1 in Golf Digest’s September listing of the top golfers in the world of finance and the oldest member of the American team here at Royal County Down for this weekend's 41st Walker Cup, is blunt when asked about being one of U.S. captain Buddy Marucci's 10 players despite the recent state of his game.

"I don't know if I have anything to prove or not," said Kuehne, who aside from qualifying for the U.S. Open at Oakmont has otherwise struggled on the course this summer.

Entering the two-day competition, the 35-year-old Dallas native does, however, have some history he hopes to rewrite. In his two previous appearances in the Walker Cup, in 1995 and again in 2003, Kuehne has a 1-5-1 record, with the Americans losing the cup both times. And having missed making match play at the U.S. Amateur Championship two weeks ago by 10 shots, shooting a 83 in his second round, he knows there's room for improvement.

"It was a blessing in disguise shooting the 83 [at Olympic Club]," Kuehne said after his practice round Thursday. "I'll live with 83 the rest of my life. I was able to go home and reconnect with Hank Haney and Steve Johnson. We really worked hard on my golf game and the fruits of the labor and the practice what I was able to put in have become very apparent to me."

Trying to grow his money-management firm Double Eagle Capital this summer, Kuehne admits he hasn't been able to spend the time on his game that he would like. He took most of July off from golf to focus on business, explain in part his poor showing at the U.S. Amateur.

"I think when you round out a team, Trip is invaluable," said Marucci, who played alongside Kuehne on the 1995 U.S. team. "He has the respect of every player in our country."

Kuehne, and the rest of the U.S. squad is likely to play in at least three of a possible four matches, according to Marucci.

A quick aside: Before leaving for Northern Ireland, Kuehne took in his first professional tennis match, watching Venus Williams (girl friend of Trip’s brother Hank) play her second-round match at the U.S. Open in New York.

"It was very interesting," he said. "I learned a lot. I watched her prepare and watched her match. At 35 years old I learned something from a tennis player I can apply to golf. How she got prepared for that specific match, for her competition."

--Ryan Herrington

LEMONT, Ill.--Chicago is one of the great newspaper towns, strong on voice and opinion. Between Rick Morrissey in the Tribune, and the always acerbic Jay Mariotti in the Sun-Times, it was clear on Friday morning that the FedEx Cup concept has not grown on the Windy City's sports columnists. Especially when it means the loss of the Western Open and an annual date on the PGA Tour calendar.

Both took a strong stand on the dismal crowds who showed up Thursday at Cog Hill for the opening round of the BMW Championship. They compared the atmosphere to the July 4 dates, when the atmosphere was palpable.

Morrissey's lead was about Justin Rose's crowd resembling the gathering for a country club championship. At the time, Rose was 8 under through 12 holes, threatening to shoot 59. "This is going to take time, patience and a lot of pride swallowing," wrote Morrissey. "The tournament returns here in 2009."

Mariotti wrote about the "mere trickling of followers" accompanying the Tiger Woods group. He called it a golfing funeral and used a Tiger quote to back it up: "This is about what we see for the pro-am," Woods said, noting his disappointment and referencing the competition with the Cubs and the Bears, with school being back in session and families not coming out.

"It's a totally different atmosphere," he said.

As for the rotation of the BMW to St. Louis and Indianapolis, Mariotti asks, "Since when does a massive metropolis accept losing an even to dinky Midwestern rest stops?"

Woods, the loudest and most powerful voice in the game, doesn't need a column to have his forum. The man who has won three Westerns at Cog Hill and two PGAs at Medinah, provided the theme on Wednesday, when asked what he thought about going to Bellerive in 2008.

"Hey, I didn't like the idea," he said. "This is a great town. It's one of the biggest sports towns, if not one of the biggest markets. I don't understand why we can't play here year after year. People have always come out and supported the Western. They've always come out in droves, and it's unfortunate that we're leaving."

--Tim Rosaforte

LEMONT, Ill.--There was a guy standing outside the ropes behind the ninth green at Cog Hill on Thursday who called me over as we waited for Tiger Woods to exit the scoring trailer.

"Ask Tiger who benches more," he said. "Him or K.J."

The guy looked like he worked out, so I did.

First K.J, the former power lifter:

"Oh, Tiger," said the South Korean, looking up with a smile as he signed autographs. Known when he came out on tour as "The Tank," but no longer bulked up, Choi told me he heard that Tiger benches 350 and squats 700. Tiger may look like a strong safety, but I'm told he doesn't throw around a lot of heavy weight anymore. I've seen him work out at the Las Colinas Sports Club during The Nelson and he does reps with those 25-pound dumb bells all day, thus the chiseled look.

Tiger's news conference was ending. He didn't have the skintight shirt working that caused so many comments at the U.S. Open, that had Matt Lauer ask him on the Today show if he was going to a smaller size. Tiger was loose, opinionated, in no hurry to split, but raindrops were starting to splatter on his Nike hat. It was one of those moments where you have to decide: Let the superstar go before the downpour, or ask the question.

So, I asked the question.

"Who benches more, you or K.J?"

Big smile.

"K.J., there's no doubt about it," Woods said.

"He told me you," I said.

Another big smile, from T. Woods, then the money quote:

"I know he can squat more than me. He can squat a car."

Thank you Tiger. And thanks to that guy who called me over to the ropes. In this day of new-age journalism, you've got to recognize a potentially good blog when you see one.

--Tim Rosaforte

(Photo: Donald Miralle/Getty Images) 

LEMONT, Ill.--Growing up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Zach Johnson was more a fan of Ozzie Smith and the St. Louis Cardinals than Ryne Sandberg and the Chicago Cubs. But when the Masters champion was asked to throw out the first ball at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night, and lead the faithful in a rendition of "Take Me Out The Ballgame," Johnson put on a Cubs jersey and hat, and didn't choke despite some of the pressure thrown on him by brother Gabe, who lives Wrigleyville.

First, was throwing out the first ball. Johnson's wife, Kim, asked if he was going to practice. He shrugged like it was a dumb question.

"That was the least of my worries," Johnson said after the opening round of BMW Championship. But then he told Golf World that Titleist rep Rick Nelson brought a glove and ball with him to Cog Hill, and they snuck in a few throws by the equipment trailers. Interviewed on WGN after the seventh-inning stretch, Johnson admitted that his knees had been shaking more than they would've on the first tee of a major.

As for the singing part, Johnson got good reviews from Cubs fans, even though he used to root for their arch-rivals. This is a discerning audience, judging both the words and the key. Ozzy Osbourne, the rocker, had no clue what the words were. Mike Ditka is famous for rushing through the chorus, arriving in the press box just after a golf game. And Bob Uecker was booed for substituting "Brewers" for "Cubs."

"I didn't practice them," Johnson said of the lyrics. "I read them. They had a sheet."

Johnson was also in attendance last Saturday night at Fenway Park when rookie Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter, so he had to admit doing all that at two of the nation's most historic baseball stadiums within four days was pretty cool.

--Tim Rosaforte

(Photo: Travis Lindquist/Getty Images) 

Remember Hawaiian teenager Tadd Fujikawa? Youngest boy to play in a U.S. Open when he missed the cut at Winged Foot in 2006. Youngest to make the cut in a PGA Tour event at the Sony Open in January, where he finished tied for 20th.

Then on July 12 he turned professional at age 16. Since then he has missed the cut at the Reno-Tahoe Open and a Canadian Tour event.

Today he's playing in his first European Tour event, the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. That's the tournament where Michelle Wie played and missed the cut alongside the men last year.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser, the 5-foot-1 Fujikawa received round-trip airfare to Switzerland, along with his sponsor's exemption. Temperatures have been right around freezing this week, but it's a little warmer today.

"I really like it here," Fujikawa said Wednesday. "The weather is a little cold for me, but the course is nice and it is really an honor to be playing."

Fujikawa got off to a great start with birdies on two of his first four holes today. You can follow his progress on the European Tour's website.

--Craig Bestrom

Golf Digest's Bob Carney sat in on Tim Finchem's interview at the BMW Championship today, where the PGA Tour Commissioner was grilled about Phil Mickelson's withdrawal from this week's FedEx Cup playoffs event, as well as other gripes about the playoffs format. Check out Carney's take in our Editor's blog.

Tiger Woods also addressed concerns about the FedEx Cup playoffs during his interview today.

Q: When this thing was pitched to you, the idea that the schedule was going to be so bunched, did you express reservations about your ability to play that many in a row?

Tiger Woods: We all did. We all didn't think it was in the best interest for us as players to play that much. We normally don't play that much, especially towards the end of the year. Most of the guys usually shut it down post-PGA, and maybe the only time you start playing a lot is maybe trying to get ready for the Ryder Cup.

Q: Should the tour maybe have listened a little bit more to you guys instead of scheduling the tournaments the way they are, especially going into next year when you have the Ryder Cup right after that?

Tiger: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. It's a lot of golf for a lot of guys. These are all big events. It's not like these are small events. You have World Golf Championships, followed by a major, and then you have these four events, and then you have The Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. It's a bunch of big events. It's not like you have events where most of the guys--like at Kapalua--take it easy out there and go have fun at night, and if they play good golf, great. That's not the case.

Bomb & Gouge had an interesting weekend. One got to the finals of his club championship and the other didn't. One learned something about equipment (and how you might need to match your set to your home course) and the other just got increasingly grouchy like the moribund, malcontent, sloth-like troll we all know him to be. Guess who's who. Here's a hint: With a nickname like Gouge, you couldn't get to the finals of the Antarctica local qualifier for the Drive, Pitch and Putt 10-and-under division, let alone a club championship.

Phil Mickelson confirmed to Golf World while in Chicago today for a corporate outing that he's heading home to California and will not play in the BMW Championship at Cog Hill this week.

Later, Mickelson released the following statement:

(SCOTTSDALE, AZ) Sept. 4, 2007--One day after winning the Deutsche Bank Championship and taking the lead in the FedEx Cup points standings, Phil Mickelson has withdrawn from this week’s BMW Championship at Cog Hill Golf and Country Club in Lemont, Ill.

"This decision was not an easy one to make," said Mickelson, "and in no way is meant as disrespectful to the tour or 'sending a message' to anyone. I've talked for weeks about needing to find a balance between my game, my business affairs and my family, and now is the time for me to take some time off."

Mickelson has played four events in the last 30 days and has steadily improved his performance on his way back from a debilitating mid-season wrist injury. Just prior to the Deutsche Bank win he shared seventh place at The Barclays. Only the next four players on the FedEx Cup points list--Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, K.J. Choi and Rory Sabbatini--can possibly overtake Mickelson this week.

"I'm really looking forward to returning to the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta with the momentum I've been building and, hopefully, winning the first FedEx Cup," said Mickelson.

Steve Elling, who covers golf for CBSSports.com, didn't miss the most interesting news to come out the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday. Everyone who was paying attention to golf Monday knows that Phil Mickelson beat Tiger Woods in an exciting final-round showdown at TPC Boston. The bigger story was Phil's shot at Commissioner Tim Finchem after the tournament ended. As Elling points out, we'll probably never know if Mickelson gets fined for the remarks he made during a nationally-televised interview with NBC's Jimmy Roberts, but confirmation should come later today that Lefty won't be playing the BMW Championship in Chicago this week. Don't expect to see Mickelson again until the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sept. 13-16.

. . . and speaking of W/D's from the BMW Championship in Chicago, British Open champ Padraig Harrington said Sunday he has had enough.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The idyllic setting along the Monterey Peninsula contrasts starkly with the rough-and-tumble world formerly occupied by one of the senior pros in the field at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open.

Frank Apodaca, who shot a 66 to lead seven qualifiers into the tournament, was a professional roller-derby skater for 27 years with the most famous team in the sport, the Bay City Bombers. 

"Lot of broken ribs and busted fingers from hanging on to collars and jerseys," Apodoca said Saturday after his second round. "I was a pivot skater. I'd be in the back blocking people to stop them from scoring. It was hard on the elbows."

Apodaca is 51, and he tried to qualify for the Champions Tour last year but missed by a couple of shots. He plans to give it another try this fall. In the meantime, he works in as many mini-tour appearances as his job with a building supplies company in San Jose, Calif., will allow. Two decades ago, he played in the Los Angeles and San Diego PGA Tour stops.

Apodaca retired from skating four years ago and admits there isn't much similarity between his two sports. "In golf you have to be mentally tough," he said. "In skating you just have to be tough."

-- Bill Fields

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The loop and the laughs. When informed of the death of Gay Brewer Jr. -- who passed away Friday at 75 after battling lung cancer since 2006 -- players at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open recalled each with equal fondness. Brewer could really play, and he could really tell a story.

Brewer, whose 1967 Masters title highlighted a long career on the PGA and Champions tours -- with 10 wins, and another as a senior -- was part of a generation whose swings tended to be as distinctive as their personalities.

"All those guys could play golf, but their personalities emerged, too," said three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin. "Gay was one of those guys. Everybody liked him. He showed that you didn't have to have a perfect golf swing to have excellence in your game. I would tell some of the juniors here this week to look at how Gay and other great players of years ago did it their way."

Brewer's handsy swing, in which the club wandered around unconventionally, had been with him from his formative years in Lexington, Ky. As he recalled to pgatour.com's Lauren Deason earlier this summer, his swing didn't inspire confidence at first sight.

"I'll never forget the time that my high school coach, Dr. H.L. Davis, watched me hit balls when I went out for the golf team," Brewer told the website. "After he saw the loop in my swing, he didn't think I was good enough. He took me over to a par 3 and I proceeded to hit three balls all within six feet of the hole. He told me I was on the team."

"It was a buggy whip from the get-go," Irwin said. "He had real loose hands, but he got the club back to the ball the same way every time."

Ben Crenshaw, who enjoyed Brewer's humor for many years at the Masters Champions dinner, said Brewer "was a very artful player with the most talented hands I've ever seen."

Brewer's Masters title came a year after he three-putted the 72nd hole and, along with Tommy Jacobs, lost an 18-hole playoff with with Jack Nicklaus. Brewer had one last highlight-reel moment at Augusta National in 1998 when he was 66, fashioning an even-par 72 in windy conditions in the first round. At the time he was the oldest Masters participant to shoot par or better in the tournament.

In June Picadome golf course in Lexington, where Brewer learned the game, was renamed The Gay Brewer Jr. course at Picadome in honor of one of the finest golfers produced by the Bluegrass State.

--Bill Fields

(Photo: Andrew Reddington/Getty Images)