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

Michelle Wie, whose return to competitive golf after a dismal, injury-plagued 2007 season resulted in a last-place finish at the LPGA Tour's Fields Open on her home course at Ko-Olina Golf Club last month, withdrew March 21 from next week's Safeway International, citing an injured left wrist.

"I am extremely disappointed to miss the 2008 Safeway International," Wie said in a statement released through the William Morris Agency. "I'm so grateful to [tournament director] Tom Maletis and the entire tournament staff for offering me this great opportunity and hope to be back again next year." Wie, who was to play the Safeway on a sponsor's exemption, first hurt the wrist when she fell while running a year ago.

According to WMA, Wie reinjured the wrist when she hit a ball embedded in a thick rough at the range at Stanford March 13. She immediately consulted a doctor at Stanford, where she began her freshman year last September, and saw a hand specialist in Los Angeles March 17. X-rays, an MRI and a CAT Scan did not show any major injury. Her doctor diagnosed it as a sprain.

Wie played one PGA Tour event and eight LPGA tournaments in 2007, missing four cuts, withdrawing twice and finishing last or next-to-the-last in the three tournaments in which she completed 72 holes. Based on her play last year, and because she is not a member of the LPGA, Wie is not currently qualified for any of the major championships.

--Ron Sirak

The winds at Doral were blowing so hard on Wednesday even Tiger Woods cut his practice round at the CA Championship short, seeing more potential for harm than for good. The 18th was playing into a Blue Monster of a gale with many players hitting 3-woods into the green and some barely reaching the front edge. Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, spent his day jetting back and forth to Augusta National.

Mickelson and his caddie, Jim Mackay, left Miami at 6:30 a.m., stopped in St. Simons Island, Ga., to pick up Augusta member Fleming Norvell and then joined another member, Warren Stephens, for a casual round. They got a tour of the latest course changes, particularly the extension of the seventh green, courtesy of Masters Chairman Billy Payne and were back in Miami by 6 p.m.

"The course is in tremendous shape," Mickelson said of Augusta. "There's great coverage with the grass. It was windy up there too, not as bad as it was here. The point was to see the changes and just kind of get a visual because the ball chips and putts so different on those greens than anywhere else. Going into my off week next week (when he's scheduled a practice session in San Diego with Dave Pelz) I want to kind of have that mental picture of what I need to practice and how to do it."

While Augusta's 17th seemed like an even tighter driving hole than it had been and there was some minor softening of the ledges on the ninth green, the biggest change was the room added to the back of the seventh green. "It changes the hole because now long is OK," says Mickelson. "You can go over the green and get up and down possibly. Whereas before that wasn't really realistic."

On Thursday, Mickelson got off to a five-under-par 67 at Doral that included a double-bogey on the third hole when he hit 3-wood off the tee into a horrendous lie and his 9-iron from the rough shot right, hit the bank short and ended up in the water. By Mackey's reckoning, Mickelson hit 17 greens in the opening round but, coming off his putting performance last week at Bay Hill when he averaged over 30 putts per round, making a few birdies was crucial.

"It was important to get a few to go in," Mickelson said. "It meant a lot coming in to make those four birdies because I had to make putts on all of them. The shortest one was five or six feet. I have a lot of confidence on these greens. It's the same grass as TPC Sawgrass and they just putt and track so nice." While Mickelson's ball-striking has, for the most part, been superb this season, his putting has faltered. In a stark contrast with Woods, who ranks 14th in putting between 15 and 25 feet, Mickelson is 164th from that distance. Overall, they rank first and 39th, respectively, in putting. "It's coming," Mickelson says. "I just have to get it all together, the whole thing together."

Maybe the most visible change Mickelson has made is to his physique. He appears trim and in shape. "It's kind of a mixture of a lot of things," he says of his workout routine. "StairMaster is kind of my cardio thing. Overall I'm trying to build up strength. I'm not trying to lose weight as much as I'm trying to get physically stronger and quicker through the golf ball to accommodate some of the changes, the shorter backswing, that I've been implementing in my game. I don't want to lose distance."

--Jim Moriarty

MIAMI -- Tiger Woods has never shied away from showing his emotions on the golf course but have you ever seen him throw his hat to the ground the way he did when he birdied the 72nd hole to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational? Does anyone remember seeing Arnold fling his visor deep into the patrons around the 18th green at Augusta National? In what was no doubt an inadvertent homage 24 years apart, the only difference was the direction. Palmer launched his visor into the air, sending an entire sport into orbit on the final hole of the '64 Masters while Woods drove his down into the fringe of the 18th green at Palmer's own Bay Hill Club like he was planting his personal flag and, once again, claiming the sport for his own.

"I was knocked at how off I went," Woods said of his Bay Hill celebration at the CA Championship at Doral Golf Resort and Spa. As familiar as Woods is with golf history, however, if it wasn't intentional, it was probably subconscious. "I didn't think it was really that bad until I saw it. I got pretty excited there, didn't I? The whole week I was trying to make sure I didn't leave myself a second putt on those greens. The only hole I did that on was the 10th hole on Sunday. I ended up three-putting. I didn't want to have that happen again on 18. I just really concentrated on my speed and once the green started taking that putt sideways, it looked pretty good from where I was."

If the video clip from '08 will inevitably be associated with the one from the '64 Masters, it was also a kind of anniversary present to Woods' caddie, Steve Williams. Bay Hill marked the 10th anniversary the duo began working together. "Did you get him diamond earrings or anything?" Woods was asked.

"He would look interesting with diamond earrings," the best player in the world said of the Kiwi caddie/auto racer.

-- Jim Moriarty

(Photo: Scott A. Miller/Getty Images)

"Absolutely false," is what Tiger Woods' agent Mark Steinberg tells GolfDigest.com about the front-page story in today's New York Post that says Woods has purchased a mansion in the Hamptons for $65 million. "I have no idea where this came from," says Steinberg. "Tiger has not purchased a place in the Hamptons, and he isn't looking for a place on Long Island."

Beneath the headline "Tiger Den," is a report that Woods paid $65 million for a six-acre oceanfront mansion less than five miles from Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton. Located on exclusive Gin Lane, the estate borders the Atlantic Ocean and includes a 13,200-square-foot main residence, a 7,500-square-foot guesthouse, a pool and spa, a tennis court, a lily pond and professionally groomed gardens.

According to the Post story, nearby residents include real-estate developer Alfred Taubman, former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger and fashion designer Vera Wang.

Woods lives with his wife, Elin, and their daughter, Sam Alexis, in Windermere, Fla., near Orlando. They also own an estate on Jupiter Island, Fla.

Erik Compton, the former University of Georgia All-American and Nationwide Tour player who had a heart transplant in 1992 when he was 12, was scheduled to have an angioplasty in Miami today. Compton hasn't played a tour event since suffering a near-fatal heart attack on Oct. 3. He's on the waiting list for another heart.

"I'm too young to be going through this," says Compton. "But I have to [go through another transplant]. This is the only shot I've got."

Compton, who was diagnosed with congestive cardiomyopathy at age 9, was fishing in Miami last October when he suffered the hear attack that led him to drive himself to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he collapsed on the doorstep. Because he'd received the transplant at Jackson Memorial some 15 years earlier, Compton's medical history was familiar to the hospital's staff.

He was diagnosed with a blockage in the left main coronary artery supplying blood to the heart--a condition sometimes referred to  as "the widow maker," since a complete blockage often leads to a massive heart attack frequently resulting in death. According to Jim McLean, Compton's swing instructor, at one point during the ordeal he called his mother, Eli, to say goodbye.

Successful surgery was performed, and now he's hoping to get a new heart.

ORLANDO, FLA. -- John Daly missed his 8:40 a.m. pro-am tee time Wednesday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. PGA Tour media official Joel Schuchmann said  the tour is investigating what caused Daly to miss his time and will determine later today if he will be eligible to play in the tournament.

Failing to show up for a PGA Tour pro-am causes a player to be ineligible to compete in the tournament unless there is an excuse for extenuating circumstances.

Daly received a sponsor's exemption to compete at Bay Hill, hoping to revive a lackluster season. He has missed three cuts, withdrawn once and finished T-60 in the  Mayakoba Classic.

On Tuesday, instructor Butch Harmon, who had been trying to help Daly over the last few weeks, told the Associated Press he was not going to work with Daly anymore because of the golfer's lack of commitment. "My whole goal for him was he's got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life," Harmon said. "And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk."

Daly's mindset, Harmon said, was much different from that of world-class players. "All the guys I work with are working their [tails] off," Harmon told the AP. "John didn't have it. I like the kid, but he's got to get his head on straight. The partying and other shenanigans, if that's the way he wants to be, I don't choose to be a part of it."

Asked in a press conference about Daly Wednesday, Phil Mickelson said, "It's just not my role to talk about it or get involved in it. I wish him well. I hope things get better. I think we all do."

Update 03/12/2008: Daly has been ruled ineligible for the tournament and is not in the Arnold Palmer Invitational field.

--Bill Fields

(Photo: Marc Feldman/Getty Images)

ORLANDO -- Sean O'Hair was at Bay Hill on Monday for a 9 a.m. shotgun start -- about the same time tournament director Scott Wellington was informed by the PGA Tour that Ernie Els was pulling out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. O'Hair, who won the PODS Championship the day before, was fulfilling his obligation to play in a pro-am. Els, who won the Honda Classic eight days ago, and revealed that his five-year-old son, Ben, suffers from autism, three days ago, was backing out of his commitment to compete in Palmer's tournament.

In the case of events hosted by Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam and Byron Nelson (when he was alive), a withdrawal requires a personal touch. Controversies erupted in 2007 when Rory Sabbatini mishandled his withdrawal from Tiger's Target World Challenge and Michelle Wie did the same with Sorenstam last year at the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika.

Palmer and Els talked at the Seminole Pro-Member the day after Ernie's win, with Els telling Palmer he was "very enthusiastic" about playing in his tournament. "I was very, very surprised to hear [about Els' withdrawal] this morning," Palmer said. "I am not sure what his reason is."

Els' management team e-mailed Wellington over the weekend, informing him that Ernie was thinking about pulling out. Later Monday, Els responded to the issue of not personally contacting Palmer. "As far as I'm concerned, Arnold Palmer is the King and I will always appreciate the start he gave me in 1993," Els said. "I will speak personally to him this week to explain why I had to withdraw … I've played [Bay Hill] for 15 years and this year because of scheduling it just wasn't meant to be in particular after what's happened the last two weeks. I have things I need to take care of this week and I have to make sure my game and my body is in perfect shape in the run up to the Masters."

Els signed up for all four Florida Swing events knowing he could pull out of one. After winning the Honda Classic he missed the cut in heavy winds at the PODS Championship, and subsequently decided he wanted to spend time with David Leadbetter and strength coach Josh Saltzman to regroup after the poor outing. He told Golf Channel in another interview that he was going to be in Orlando early in the week, working on his game at Lake Nona, where he is renting the house he once owned. He is traveling back to Jupiter later in the week to practice at The Bears Club and then drive to Miami for the WGC-CA Championship, before returning to Orlando for the Tavistock Cup. He is scheduled to play the Shell Houston Open the week before The Masters.

O'Hair committed to the Monday pro-am prior to the PODS because he needed the work. Prior to winning at Innisbrook, he had missed two straight cuts and only banked $40,000 for the year. He told tournament officials that he wanted a photo taken with Palmer, and Arnold responded by meeting him on the golf course to honor the request.

"I kind of remembered after I won that I had to play in a pro-am today," O'Hair said Monday at Bay Hill. "[Pulling out] is not something  you do, I don't think. By winning, that doesn't mean I don't have to be here today. I didn't want to put the tournament in a bad spot, so here I am."

-- Tim Rosaforte

PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- At the scoring trailer near the clubhouse of the Copperhead Course, Paul Tesori (right) couldn't wait to fold up his caddie bib from the PODS Championship and stick it safely inside Sean O'Hair's golf bag. "I hope you don't mind," he told the volunteer who was collecting them, "but I'm keeping this one." Tesori has quite a collection of them at home. He's got 10 from his years spent with Vijay Singh but this one, you could tell, was special to him.

"I've got the best job in the world," Tesori said after O'Hair won the PODS by two shots for his second career victory, qualifying for the Masters (and next week's WGC-CA Championship) in the process. "I worked for Vijay for almost five years. You know, Vijay, basically you just did your work, did your numbers. He knows how to play this game with his eyes closed. So there wasn't a lot of help that you give Veej. Whereas, this guy, it's a true team. There are things you don't know at 25, things  I didn't know six years ago, that now are second nature to me."

As if to prove that fact, O'Hair was standing in front of the NBC cameras waiting patiently to go on air with Jimmy Roberts. Tesori trotted over to his player, tugged at his shirt and more or less told him to get in the trailer and sign his scorecard, TV can wait. It's not over 'til it's over.

-- Jim Moriarty

(Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Captain Paul Azinger is so determined to play the hot hand in the Ryder Cup that he doesn't care where those hands come from, as long as they're from America.

"I think if some guy wins three tournaments in a row on the Nationwide Tour and his last tournament is the week before the week I pick, I probably pick him," Azinger said at the PODS Championship. "I probably pick him because I'm pretty sure that dude is hot. I'm looking for anybody that I think is blazing hot." And, just in case you thought he was kidding about the Nationwide Tour, Azinger added, "I might not care if they come from the Senior Tour, keep that in mind."

Um, Paul, for when you get there, that's "Champions," not Seniors.

All of the changes Azinger requested to the selection system -- increase in the number of captain's picks to four and basing the point system on money, weighted to the year of the competition and the majors that season -- have been made to put together a team with forward momentum. Said Azinger, "I think the big question really is going to be after the eight guys are established, who am I going to pick? Am I going to pick the same guys or am I going to pick other guys? That's going to really be the question. I'm going to pick the guys that are hot."

And, he's not overly concerned with whether or not he knows the players well, either. "I think it's really not that important, to be honest with you, for me to know anybody. I believe that I could probably not come back out until the matches start and it would be just fine. The point list is going to speak for itself. All I [have] to do is pay attention. They don't need to know me and I don't need to know them. They are all big boys and they are all professionals and they all want the same thing I want. I just want guys that want to be there and be prepared when they show up."

Of course, one of the delicious back-stories to Azinger's captaincy is his television and playing relationship with Europe's captain, Nick Faldo. "It's a nice dynamic, I think, to the matches that he and I can banter and be fairly cordial to each other," said Azinger. "I think I was more competitive with him than he was with me. The rivalry was from me to him, not from him to me. He was more like, 'I didn't know you existed.' Whereas I was like, 'All I want to do was beat Nick Faldo.' "

-- Jim Moriarty

(Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images)

At one point, it seemed as if half the field at last week's Honda Classic was either sick or playing on a medical extension. Jesper Parnevik lost 11 pounds during his trip to Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic and Tim Herron summoned paramedics when his heart began to race on the golf course, a result, it turned out, of a sinus infection. Brett Quigley made his first cut since having knee surgery before the 2007 Fall Series, finishing T-12 and earning enough money to keep his card for the rest of 2008. And Ben Crane (T-12) and Dudley Hart (T-15) got closer to regaining full-time tour status. But 36-hole leader Brian Davis took a back seat to no one.

"I had been swinging it bad for a couple of years and not been happy," said the Englishman, who finished T-7 after weekend rounds of 73-73. "I had a back problem early [last] year. That went away and I started having pains in my neck. I played the last seven events of the season and I herniated two discs in my neck at Disney. I sneezed and I heard it pop. Because it was the last event, I just carried on. Unfortunately, it was quite a long road back."

The road included two months of therapy and inactivity. "I've been lacking in strength," Davis said after his opening rounds of 65-67 gave him a one shot lead. "Having two months [between tournaments], I thought I might as well shut down. I probably came back a little too early. It's one of those things, you've got to start playing sometime." Davis made two cuts in five starts on the West Coast, his best finish being a T-26 at the Hope.

"It was a real struggle to hang in there," Davis admitted after the third round. "I kept myself in it and I could have played myself out of it. I felt like I shot 80. I started off OK, but I hit a couple of bad shots and all of a sudden started hitting it left and right and left and then left again. I just had to hang on for dear life coming in and hanging on for dear life at the Bear Trap isn't the best thing in the world."

-- Jim Moriarty

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Zach Johnson still hasn't made up his mind what he's going to serve at the past champions dinner on Tuesday night at Augusta National during Masters week, though he has noticed the time is growing short. He remains committed to his Midwestern roots and figures corn and pork will probably work their way onto the menu. His wife, Kim, comes from the Florida Panhandle so there may be a little shrimp in the offing, too. "Some kind of surf and turf," he says.

As for his game, it's beginning to round into form but Johnson doesn't plan on doing much different in preparation for his defense. "I'll emphasize my wedges a little more and work on the speed of my putts," says the man who laid up on all the par fives and still played them 11 under par in 2007. "Nothing very different. It's worked before."

-- Jim Moriarty