Peter Lonard didn't think his runner-up finish at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was enough to get him into the Masters. "It'll probably be on my TV screen while I'm drinking beer or something," said the 39-year-old Australian after his final-round 69 kept him one back of Zurich winner Andres Romero. "Unless I win next week." But Lonard got some good news Monday when the updated World Ranking was released. Lonard climbed from 72nd to 46th and earned a last-minute invitation to Augusta National. Players in the top 50 after New Orleans who were not already exempt into the Masters will be invited. Joining Lonard on that list are 26th-ranked Martin Kaymer and 35th-ranked Justin Leonard. Kaymer, who won in Abu Dhabi on the European Tour in January, and Leonard, who has four top-10s on the PGA Tour this year, had secured their berths weeks ago and were just awaiting the official announcement. The only remaining way a player can get into the Masters is to win this week's Shell Houston Open.

AVONDALE, La. -- Les bon temps did not roule Friday afternoon at the Zurich Classic when Bubba Watson and Steve Elkington had a catfight on the back nine of the TPC Louisiana. Apparently, what happened was this:

Bubba detected some movement while he was trying to play his approach shot from the right rough on the 10th hole. He felt it wasn't the first time Elkington was moving at inappropriate times and unleashed a torrent of expletives, a portion of which was captured by the Golf Channel's microphones.

Afterward, Elkington and Watson settled their differences in the scoring hut. They were playing with Shigeki Maruyama who emerged from the glass-walled tent with his usual smile, bobbing and weaving like Sugar Ray Leonard. "Big problem," Shigeki said as he walked away.

Elkington, who finished the day three shots off Briny Baird's lead of eight under par, left without speaking to the media. Watson, on the other hand, apologized to virtually anyone who wasn't moving, as it were. He said he and Elkington had "hugged it out."

"I want to apologize to everybody in the tournament," Watson said. "Everybody who heard it, whoever saw it, especially Steve and Shigeki and their caddies. I heard something and I took it out on them and shouldn't have done it. I apologize to the tournament, to anybody that's involved in this tournament, all the volunteers, all the caddies, the spectators, the kids that came out here. I'm not like Charles Barkley. I'd love to be a role model. I make mistakes. My mistake was I got angry today.

"Everything's good. He's not mad. He's looking at me like this is like his son, basically. I'm a lot younger, he took me aside and said, 'Look, be strong in what you're doing and make sure you don't do that.' I apologized to him as best I could."

--Jim Moriarty

Everyone would likely agree that it is altogether a good thing that the United States Golf Association has added municipal courses to the U.S. Open mix. That said, Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego won't remotely resemble a municipal course when the Open is played there in June.

"I've been playing there since 1981," former Torrey Pines men's club president Art Stromberg said, "and I've never seen the condition that good. The fairways are beautiful. They're all kikuyu now. The ball sits up like it's on a tee. They even have sand in the traps."

They even have sand in the traps. That says it all, of course. Its condition is pristine, which is not how the public usually finds it.

The way they're finding it these days is long and hard. Joe DeBock, the head professional, said that rounds are taking upwards of six hours now, mostly the result of players searching for lost balls in the rough.

The Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Club, in fact, has enacted, temporarily, a local rule in the interest of speeding play in its tournaments: After a five-minute search for a lost ball, the player can drop another and take a one-stroke penalty, rather than stroke and distance.

--John Strege

AVONDALE, La. -- According to news accounts in the New Orleans Times-Picayune -- which incidentally remains the best-named newspaper in the United States  -- world-renowned Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme was struck in the left arm by a .22 caliber bullet randomly falling out of the sky as he set up his cooking station on the practice ground of the TPC Louisiana at the Zurich Classic Tuesday.

Though the bullet left a hole in the chef's cooking jacket and a small cut on his arm, Prudhomme gamely never left his post. In an effort to follow up on the news reports (and to inform accounting as to the reason for the rather sizable meal voucher), we dined last evening at Prudhomme's K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. While there was no information available concerning the shooting itself, the food remained delicious.

-- Jim Moriarty

SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. -- Michelle Wie's withdrawal from this week's Safeway International because of a wrist injury disrupts her competition schedule built around a leave of absence from Stanford University's spring quarter. It likely also means she won't return to competition until the second week of May, according to those close to the situation.

According to Wie's managers at the William Morris Agency, Wie aggravated the left wrist she injured while running last year while practicing at Stanford earlier this month. Apparently, she was practicing shots out of the rough, where she spent much of 2007, and on one shot there was a ball embedded under the ball she was hitting, causing the injury.

Wie left Stanford last week to try to play as many events as possible before the fall quarter begins in late September. She is not eligible for next week's Kraft Nabisco Championship, has no gate power in Mexico for the Corona Championship the following week and so annoyed the Bobby Ginn people when she unleashed "88-Gate" on them at last year's Ginn Tribute that she won't be invited to the Ginn Open in three weeks.

Sources familiar with the situation say Wie has been invited to the Michelob ULTRA Open May 8-11 and will play there. There are two events between the Ginn and Michelob, but the sources say the Wie camp is willing to be more conservative this year and not try to rush her back from the injury as they did in 2007.

Wie's absence at Superstition Mountain will have no impact on this year's attendance at the Safeway International. Record crowds jammed the course last year without Wie and organizers expect more of the same in what players are hoping will not be the last year for the tournament. Safeway has announced it will not be back as sponsor next year, opting to focus its golf spending on the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore., in August.

Losing the Safeway International would be a serious blow for the LPGA. The bar has been set very high here both in terms of the quality of the course and the way the players are treated. All of the top 75 from the 2007 money list are in the field this week, a clear demonstration of the popularity of the event. If anyone is even remotely interested in sponsoring an LPGA event, this is the one to jump on: Great venue, golf-crazy community and a spot on the schedule the week before the first major of the year. What's not to like?

--Ron Sirak

IRVING, Tex. -- Under sunny skies with a solid drive in the fairway off the first tee Tuesday morning, course architect D.A. Weibring christened the redesigned TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas course. It was a symbolic strike for a $10 million project that was close to Weibring's heart and dogged by persistent rains once the renovation began May 10 of last year.

"There were a lot of people who didn't think we'd be standing here," said Weibring, on hand for a preview of the layout that will host the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in late April. "We're real happy to be at the finish line. I'm not sure we'd want to start over."

The travails of the re-do, which Weibring completed with his partner at Golf Resources Group, Steve Wolfard, seemed a bit of a distant memory on this clear morning. Although the last portion of the course wasn't sodded until mid-October, a heavy overseeding of winter rye has the course looking good.

The new greens are smooth, a sharp contrast to the mediocre putting surfaces that caused so much consternation during the 2007 Nelson. As to amplify that point, TPC director of golf Paul Earnest casually holed a 60-foot putt using a driver on the 18th green. "That's a good omen right there," said Weibring, who admitted during some of the more trying days of his job to pausing by the 9 1/2-foot statue of Nelson near the first tee and asking for a little divine intervention. "I'd say, 'I know you're close to 'the man,' we need a little help here.' "

While utilizing the old routing, Weibring and Wolfard produced a cleaner design by improving sight lines, softening mounds, relocating 165 trees and trying to provide players with more options, particularly around the greens. "We tried to do it naturally so it fit the eye and made it fair," said Weibring, who heard plenty of comments from PGA Tour players that they didn't like the number of "awkward" tee shots. Dallas-area residents and tour pros J.J. Henry and Harrison Frazar were consultants to Weibring.

The result is more visually appealing layout that Weibring and tournament officials hope will eventually lure more top players back to the tournament that was so closely linked to Nelson, one of golf's great gentlemen and a fixture at the tournament for decades until his death in 2006. Weibring said his motivation was "to pay respect to Byron. That started at the top and went all the way down to the guys that are still out there on the course working."

The Nelson has a tough spot on the schedule this year, two weeks after the Masters and before the Wachovia Championship and the Players. "It's a very challenging date," Weibring said. "I've been on the record about that. I don't think that's the way you show respect for Byron and the tournament raising the most [charity] money on tour."

First things first. If Henry's peers who do come and compete next month like the new look as much as he did when he played the layout Monday, things will be looking up. "I was blown away," Henry said before heading off to New Orleans for this week's tournament. For now, it was simply time to take a bow.

--Bill Fields

SCOTTSDALE -- Most of the "Rwanda Six"--the group of LPGA pros who traveled to the tiny African nation on a humanitarian mission involving AIDS orphans--had a reunion Monday at Desert Highland Golf Club in a fund-raising clinic for Golf Fore Africa, the charity started by Hall-of-Famer Betsy King. King was joined at the clinic by Juli Inkster, Reilley Rankin, Katherine Hull and teaching pro Wendy Poscillico--all of whom went to Rwanda last October--as well as by Pat Hurst and Angela Stanford. Renee Powell, who also made the trip to Rwanda, was unable to attend because of recent knee surgery.

As always, Inkster steals the show when handed a live microphone. When introduced as a member of the 2007 U.S. Solheim Cup team she was quick to add: "The winning U.S. Solheim Cup team," coating the word winning with a ton of emphasis. Asked about the spirit of the competition, in which the Americans won on the road for just the second time, Inkster said: "It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose. That was our team-room motto."

When asked during a question-and-answer session about how she gets back on track when things go awry during a round, Inkster said she takes out an 8-iron and tries to make small swings to get her rhythm back. Then she said, "The key to getting back on track is to put the bad things that have just happened out of your mind. No one was better at that than Nancy Lopez. But we just think Nancy didn't remember the past."

Inkster had a fascinating explanation of her warm-up routine that displayed how individual a golf game is. "I'm a feel player," Inkster said. "My swing is based on tempo and timing. So I hit a lot of short irons in my warm-up. I may only hit two or three drivers. I figure if I set my timing with my short irons the rest will follow. Also, the wedges are your scoring clubs, don't ever forget that."

Hurst is another feel player and when she was asked if she plays a fade or a draw she answered, "It depends on the day. I just play whatever I have that day." Hull also gave a great tip when she talked about laying up to a comfortable distance on par-5 holes you can't reach in two. "Most club players just bang away on the second shot and leave an awkward distance for their third shot. My sand wedge is my 85-yard club. I love that distance and that's what I lay up to if I can't get there in two."

Asked, on a scale of 1 to 10 how nervous they would be in certain situations, Inkster shouted out "zero" when a practice round was thrown out. Hurst, Stanford, King and Inkster have played in the Solheim Cup and agree it's the most nervous they've ever been. Then Inkster was asked how nervous she'd be on the final hole of the U.S. Women's Open if she was paired with Annika Sorenstam and they were tied for the lead. Always the competitor, Inkster stared as if she were imagining the situation and said, "I'd be nervous." Then, after a perfectly timed pause, she added, "But I'd bring her down."

Among those watching the clinic was Cheyenne Woods, the niece of Tiger who'll be heading to Wake Forest in the fall on a golf scholarship. In less than a year of existence, Golf Fore Africa has raised more than $200,000 to help the village of Mudasomwa in Rwanda.

--Ron Sirak

MIAMI -- On a day featuring the fits and starts of a man crossing an icy street on crutches, Geoff Ogilvy took a four-shot lead into the final round of the WGC-CA Championship only to see his advantage cut in half by Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh by the time darkness fell at Doral. Play was halted with Furyk having completed the par-5 10th and Singh and Ogilvy just behind him in the fairway.

"A long day," Ogilvy said of the early start completing the third round Sunday morning, followed by the weather delays in the afternoon. "I warmed up four times. It's a bit fatiguing, going out, warming up, getting in the van, driving all the way out, coming all the way back, in the air-conditioning, out of the air-conditioning, in the air-conditioning, out of the air-conditioning. That wears you out. Yeah, it's frustrating."

Lurking in the distance was Tiger Woods, trying to beat the odds and keep his winning streak alive. "I'm sure he probably thinks he has a chance," Ogilvy said of Woods who started and finished the afternoon five behind. "We've seen him do crazy things before. But Jim and Vijay have won a fair few tournaments and Adam (Scott) has won a few. There are some pretty tough players right up there. He doesn't only have to catch me, he's got to catch me and pass Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen and Adam Scott. It's a pretty stellar leader board. I've got my work cut out just beating any of those guys."

No one gained more ground Sunday afternoon than Steve Stricker, who saved par from just inside the hazard line on the 18th to close with a nine-under 63, finishing at 13-under 275, four behind Ogilvy's lead of minus 17. "It wasn't hard for me because I had a good round going," said Stricker of the frequent stopages in play. "I really had nothing to lose. I wasn't scaring the leaders at all. I've got a four in a row stretch [starting] here, [then] New Orleans, Houston and the Masters and I'm trying to build up toward that Masters and this is a good start."

Furyk finished his morning round with a pair of birdies to get in contention, then made four in a row on the front nine to highlight an outgoing 33. "If I want to win the golf tournament, I'm going to have to make a bunch of birdies again tomorrow," Furyk said.

-- Jim Moriarty

MIAMI -- While it's true the only thing more boring than a weather delay at a golf tournament is a Pauly Shore film festival, there were, nonetheless, a few interesting developments before and after the deluge washed out play at the WGC-CA Championship at Doral Saturday. It's fascinating how every Spring the whiff of distant flowers at Augusta brings out the red numbers in golf's finest players as each attempts to firm up their games for the year's first major championship.

Everyone knows Augusta National is one of Tiger Woods' "happy places," as the CA Championship leader Geoff Ogilvy calls the courses where Woods so often dominates. The third-round threesome was among the players returning to finish  Easter Sunday morning with Ogilvy assuming a four-shot lead at 16 under par. But while Woods was busy wrestling the Aussie tag-team duo of Adam "Facebook" Scott and Geoff "The Flying Quote" Ogilvy, others were coming into shape, too.

Among the notable names was Vijay Singh, the 2000 Masters champion who finished in the top 10 there every year from '02 through '06. Earlier this year Singh couldn't keep his "new" swing under control and he lost the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in a playoff. This week, he changed from a standard-length putter back to the belly and led the group of five players at minus 12.

While Singh made the biggest move Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning with a nine-under 63, another familiar name from the last two Masters, Tim Clark, got to 11 under before he dropped a shot from a tough lie in the wet rough Sunday morning on the 16th. "I really struggled the start of the year," said Clark, who was runner-up to Phil Mickelson at Augusta in '05 and shared the halfway lead last year. "Last week I found my swing again and that felt great and that gave me confidence coming here and I just had to figure out what I was doing with the putting. I got that sorted this week. I'm looking forward to Augusta now. You don't want to be going there playing badly. Now that I feel like I'm playing well, you kind of get excited to go back and play."

Singh and Clark weren't the only ones cobbling something together in advance of Augusta. After a mediocre opening to his season, all of a sudden Jim Furyk was on the leader board with Singh at 12 under. Mike Weir, the '03 Masters champion, was five under in his third round. Retief Goosen, who finished second at Augusta last year, had his best showing of the season last week at Bay Hill and worked his way into the logjam at minus 12, too. The Masters defender, Zach Johnson, is a shot behind Clark.

There were two names missing from the list of usual suspects, however. The first was Ernie Els. The winner at the Honda Classic just three weeks ago was six over par for the tournament but suffering from the flu all week. "I'd like to put some good rounds together when I start feeling better," Els said. "Obviously, I've got the Houston tournament before the Masters."

Not part of the conversation was Colin Montgomerie, who came to the CA needing a high finish to earn an invitation back to Augusta. His opening rounds of 75 and 74 left him with the stunned and vacant look more often associated with people trying to change planes at Miami International.

-- Jim Moriarty

MIAMI--One of the three players tied for fourth at six under par after the second round of the WGC-CA Championship hadn't even gotten over his jet lag yet. Jeev Milkha Singh qualified to play at Doral when he lost to Graeme McDowell in a playoff at the Ballentine's Championship in South Korea last Sunday, moving him into the top 10 on the European Order of Merit and earning a fast trip to South Florida.

Though Singh didn't arrive in Miami until Tuesday night, he was planning on coming to the States anyway. The first Indian golfer ever to play in the Masters, Singh finished T-37 last year at Augusta and was invited back again in '08. In fact, Singh was in the Masters before he was in Doral.

"I'm in Abu Dhabi and I've missed the cut," Singh says. "I've had the flu for the whole week and I'm lying in bed. I mean, I'm beat up completely. I'm lying in bed and my mobile rings. Someone says, 'Hi, is this Jeev? This is Buzzy Johnson from the Augusta National Golf Club.' He said, 'Jeev, what are you doing?' I said, 'I'm lying in bed. I'm running with the flu.'

He said, 'Jeev, you better come out of bed because Augusta National extends the invitation for you.' I said, 'Buzzy, you know what, I'm out of bed. I'm jumping. My flu's gone.' " Singh even asked if he could confirm his acceptance over the phone or if he needed to do it in writing. Johnson allowed as how they'd take his word for it.

Singh, 36, who was awarded the Indian equivalent of a British knighthood, the Padma Shri, last year, has an unusual move at the top of his swing. A self-taught player, his club points well left of the target, then he reroutes it on the downswing. Singh's father, Milkha Singh, nicknamed the Flying Sikh, was an Olympic runner in the 400 meters, competing in the 1960 Olympics in Rome where he finished fourth, though all four runners broke what was, at the time, the world record.

Singh got to eight under par Friday before he double-bogeyed the ninth, his last hole of the day. "I played really well today and got lucky also," he said.

On the third hole, Singh's 12th, he drove it in the first cut but pushed his second shot into the water. He took a drop, then slam-dunked his fourth with a sand wedge from 68 yards to save par. "It was a bogey-free round until the ninth. I just hit it short of the flag in the rough, short of the bunker. Trying to get too cute with it, left it in the rough, chipped it on and two-putted for a double. Otherwise I think I handled myself really well today."

Singh birdied the fifth from inside three feet and the 16th from inside eight feet, in addition to birdies at the sixth and eighth, to finish six behind the halfway leader, Geoff Ogilvy.

--Jim Moriarty