MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- In all the talk about the wealth of talent on the LPGA right now there may be no player who gets short-changed more than Mickey Wright. Her 82 victories are second only to the 88 by Kathy Whitworth and her 13 major championships rank second only to the 15 by Patty Berg. What makes it all the more remarkable is that Wright pretty much stopped playing a full LPGA schedule at age 34.

In reporting Lorena Ochoa's withdrawal from the Ginn Tribute because of the death of her uncle earlier this week, I said she is trying to join Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley as the only players to win three consecutive LPGA majors. In fact, if Ochoa wins the McDonald's LPGA Championship next week it would move her within one of a feat accomplished only by Tiger Woods -- and Mickey Wright: holding all four professional major trophies at the same time.

Woods turned the trick with the last three majors of 2000 and the first of 2001. Wright captured the U.S. Women's Open and the LPGA Championship in 1961 and then picked off the 1962 Titleholders Championship and the Western Open before Murle Lindstrom stopped the streak by winning the U.S. Women's Open.

Part of the reason Wright's major accomplishment has gone overlooked is because the LPGA has had seven different tournaments serve as majors during its 58-year history. Also, the order of the events designated as majors has varied at times.

Currently, the LPGA majors -- in order -- are: the Kraft Nabisco Championship, McDonald's LPGA Championship, U.S. Women's Open and Ricoh Women's British Open. The du Maurier Classic, the Western Open and the Titleholders Championship have also been majors at various times.

The Titleholders went away after 1966, returned for one year in 1972 and then disappeared for good. The Western Open went belly-up after 1967. There were years when the LPGA, which began in 1950, had as few as two majors. It has consistently had four since 1983 when the U.S. Women's Open, LPGA Championship, Kraft Nabisco and du Maurier were on board. The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier in 2001.

To set the record straight -- which is important because this could be a record-setting year for Ochoa -- the only two players to sweep all the LPGA majors in a year were Babe Zaharias (1950, when there were only three) and Sandra Haynie (1974, one of 10 years in which there were only two majors).

Pat Bradley is the last player to win three LPGA majors in a single season (1986) and won three in a row over 1985-86. If you want to talk about domination, from 1958 through 1964, Wright won 12 of the 28 LPGA majors contested, capturing three in 1961, the year she started her run of four straight.

-- Ron Sirak

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Lorena Ochoa, who withdrew from the Ginn Tribute at RiverTowne CC Tuesday when she learned her uncle was serious ill, said Thursday on her Website that Pedro Ochoa, brother of her father, Javier, had died at age 73 in Guadalajara, Mexico. No cause of death was given, although the Website said Pedro Ochoa had been sick for some time.

According to lorenaochoa.com, Ochoa will return next week at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, where she will try to win her second major championship of the year and third in a row. Only Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley have won three consecutive LPGA majors. Ochoa, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings, has won six times in nine starts this year and 2O times since April 15, 2006.

Suzann Pettersen is the defending champion at the McDonald's, which is played on Bulle Rock GC in Havre de Grace, Md. Ochoa finished T-6 at Bulle Rock last year, six strokes behind Pettersen.

--Ron Sirak

Apparently, there will be no comic relief during the U.S. Open in San Diego. A dinner show starring comedian Jay Leno, scheduled for the eve of the final round, on the dock adjacent to the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway in San Diego Harbor, was canceled.

Proceeds from the show were to have gone to the San Diego Junior Golf Association from which Phil Mickelson and Craig Stadler came. The show was canceled essentially from lack of sufficient interest to cover the cost of staging it.

Two months ago, San Diego natives Billy Casper and Gene Littler hit biodegradable golf balls off the deck of the USS Midway to promote the event.

-- John Strege

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings, withdrew from the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika on Wednesday, citing her uncle's ill health. Ochoa, who has won six of her nine starts this year, practiced at RiverTowne CC Tuesday, then informed tournament officials she was returning to Mexico.

"I am very sorry to have to withdraw ... But my uncle is very ill," Ochoa said in a statement. "I need to be with my uncle and my family right now." She was replaced in the field by Eva Dahloff.

It's the second consecutive year the $2.6 million event -- the highest purse outside the U.S. Women's Open and the Evian Masters -- has been impacted by an unexpected event. Last year, Nicole Castrale's victory was overshadowed by "88-Gate" -- Michelle Wie's withdrawal after 16 holes, citing a sore wrist, after an LPGA official informed her agent she would be disqualified for the rest of the season if she failed to break 88. She was 14 over par at the time. Wie is playing a Ladies European Tour tournament in Germany this week.

"My thoughts and prayers are with Lorena and her family at this time," Sorenstam said. "She is a tremendous ambassador for our game and we will miss her this week."

Ochoa, who has played nine of the last 11 LPGA events, was fined $25,000 by the LPGA for skipping the Corning Classic last week under a rule that requires players to compete in each event at least once in a four-year cycle. Sources close to the situation said Ochoa's WD at the Ginn had nothing to do with the Corning fine, although the controversial rule is likely to be revisited at the end of this season. With eight titles to defend this year, three events in Mexico, three majors she didn't win in 2007 and big-money events like the Ginn, it is difficult for Ochoa to find a week to take off.

She is scheduled to play next week at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, the second major of the season. Ochoa won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April and, having won the Ricoh Women's British Open last August, will be trying to join Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley as the only two women in LPGA history to win three consecutive majors.

-- Ron Sirak

DUBLIN, Ohio -- In a sign of how things have changed on the PGA Tour, most players have little or no contact with tournament directors or hosts until they show up at the course. And few thank their hosts after an event.

"It's a different age and day," Jack Nicklaus said Tuesday at the Memorial Tournament, where he serves as host.   

Nicklaus found out last Friday that top-ranked Tiger Woods would be skipping the tournament to recover from knee surgery.

"Mark Steinberg [Woods' agent] called me the day after he had his knee surgery [April 15] and said Tiger's goal was to be back for the Memorial Tournament," said Nicklaus. "He called two or three times last week and said Tiger's plans were to get here Friday. I mean, they sent a check for renting a house and everything else. He was ready to come.

"But then Mark called back and said he went out and tried to play Thursday and couldn't. He said he couldn't put the weight on his knee, couldn't turn it."

Nicklaus harbors no ill feelings.

"It's OK," he said. "I don't think I ever talked to Tiger on the telephone."

Nicklaus said one of the best things Arnold Palmer taught him was to send a sponsor a thank-you note after playing in a tournament.

"So every tournament I ever played in, I always dropped the sponsor a note," said Nicklaus.

How often does Nicklaus get notes from players after the Memorial?

"We get one or two," he said. "But not very many."

--Mark Soltau

The unsettled nature of Ernie Els' schedule continued this week as he reported Monday on ErnieEls.com that he'd be taking this week off and not playing the Memorial as he had planned.

Tuesday, that changed.

"He is coming, absolutely," Memorial tournament director Dan Sullivan told Golf World Tuesday morning. "He left London in a plane and is heading this way. Yesterday's website said he was not playing until St. Jude [Stanford St. Jude Championship next week]. Today's website said he was playing Memorial. Some wires must have gotten crossed in his office over there."

It isn't the first time this year Els has changed his mind about playing in a tournament. Els entered the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at the last minute in February, after originally saying he wouldn't make his 2008 U.S. debut until the Florida swing. A few weeks later, he withdrew on tournament week from the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Last week, Els missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship at his home course, the Wentworth Club, in England.

"Having had an unscheduled weekend off, I'm obviously keen to get back into the swing of things again," Els says on his website. "Originally, this week was going to be a gap in my schedule, but I've changed my mind and decided to play in the Memorial. It's one of my favorite tournaments of the year and I love Jack's course, Muirfield Village. I figure it'll be a good week to try to get back some positive vibes in my game. I'm really looking forward to it."

"Ernie is very much looking forward to playing in The Memorial," Els' agent, Chubby Chandler, told Golf World. The South African won Jack Nicklaus' tournament in 2004, which until his victory at the Honda Classic in March had been his last victory on U.S. soil.

--Tim Rosaforte

The unsettled nature of Ernie Els' schedule continued this week as he reported on his web site that he will take a week off before playing the Stanford St. Jude Championship and will not play this week's Memorial as he had planned. This news comes just one day after Els' agent, Andrew (Chubby) Chandler told Golf World that he was traveling to Ohio and was "very much looking forward" to playing the Memorial.

Els has now withdrawn on tournament week from events hosted by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus this year. He also said he wouldn't play the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, but changed his mind at the last minute, entered the event and lost a first-round match. Last week, Els missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship at his home course, the Wentworth Club, in England. He did not indicate why he was skipping the Memorial.

Vijay Singh also withdrew from the Memorial because of a rib injury, leaving Jack Nicklaus' tournament at Muirfield Village GC with just six of the top 10 players in the world. Adam Scott and Tiger Woods also aren't playing the Memorial.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The number of players who passed on the opportunity to play the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill CC begs the question: Why?

"Guys have to walk for four days?" Scott Simpson said, positing the most interesting theory.

Thirty-seven players from the alternate list eventually made the field at Oak Hill. The Champions Tour allows players the use of carts, but the Senior PGA Championship is conducted by the PGA of America, which does not permit carts.

"I'd love to see us get rid of carts," said Simpson, for whom the walk Saturday was rather pleasant. Simpson birdied five holes on the back nine en route to a one-under-par 69 that was one of the few sub-par rounds shot over three days. "We're trying to do it. I don't know if that had something to do with it, with the weather forecast and slogging around in it."

The scouting report on Oak Hill might have been a deterrent, too. "It's pretty much the same setup we had for the '89 U.S. Open," Simpson said. "It's tougher than we're used to. You just can't hit greens out of the rough. If it was me I'd cut the rough down a little bit.

"But I can't imagine not wanting to be here. It's a great course and this is [the Champions Tour's] original major."

-- John Strege

Tiger Woods has decided not to play in next week's Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus. He had until 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday to enter, but his office notified the PGA Tour that he would not be participating.

A three-time winner of the event, the top-ranked Woods has not competed since a second-place finish at the Masters Tournament last month and underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on April 15.

Although Woods has been pleased with his rehabilitation, he will not discuss it until next Tuesday during a press conference for the AT&T National, to be played July 3-6 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., where he is the tournament host.

Typically, the recovery period is 4-6 weeks. Woods is expected to play in the U.S. Open Championship, June 12-15 at Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego, CA. He has excelled on the South Course at Torrey, winning four-consecutive Buick Invitationals and six overall.

The 32-year-old Woods has made five appearances on the PGA Tour this year, winning his first three starts. He also has a second and a fifth-place finish, and leads the circuit in earnings with $4.4 million.

-- Mark Soltau

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The number of players who took a pass on the Senior PGA Championship is staggering, though the missing may have saved themselves a heap of aggravation. Those who chose to play were largely staggering, too. Score this one a knockout for Oak Hill CC.

Thirty-seven alternates made the field for a variety of reasons, not all of which were medical. Fulton Allem, for instance, decided he would rather play in the PGA Tour's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (he's a past champion there). On the basis of how difficult Oak Hill was playing through the first two rounds, he may have made the safer choice.

"Probably the toughest course I've played ever in my PGA Tour career," said Tim Simpson. And he's among those in contention, finishing 36 holes in four-over-par 144.

Cold and windy weather has compounded the difficulty quotient of a course that is challenging without help. Throw in rough that was 3 1/2 inches deep to begin the week and no further explanation is necessary as to why only one player bettered par in the first round and the entire field was over par by Friday afternoon after first-round leader Jay Haas made double-bogey on his sixth hole.

"Our group, 108 holes between the three of us for two days, we had six birdies," Joey Sindelar said. "That's pretty bizarre. It tells you that it's a pretty tough job out there."

Or as Simpson, one of his playing partners, said the day before, "I had two skins today. Sam Torrance got one there at the end on No. 8. And Joey Sindelar was shut out. Birdies are few and far between."

-- John Strege

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Handicapping golf tournaments that don't include Tiger Woods or Lorena Ochoa tend to be a fruitless endeavor given the vagaries of the game, but there is an evident favorite at the Senior PGA Championship this week. A favorite son, to be precise.

Jeff Sluman is a native of Rochester, N.Y., and is a member at Oak Hill CC there, site of the Senior PGA. Though he lives in Chicago, he still has family in Rochester, including brother Brad, who runs a restaurant, the Pittsford Pub, a short ride from Oak Hill. Sluman also has a long-time relationship with Craig Harmon, Oak Hill's head pro for 37 years.

"I've probably got about 500 rounds under my belt here," Sluman said, "but [except for] the '89 U.S. Open and the 2003 PGA and now this, you don't see the golf course in this type of condition with the speed of the greens and rough and that. But essentially I know where to go and what to stay away from. I certainly feel like I can play the golf course well."

So it was that Sluman finished round one of the Senior PGA near the top of the leader board, shooting an even-par 70 on a difficult course made harder by the cold, windy conditions.

"I think anybody teeing off at 8 o'clock like we did would have taken 70 and got a cup of coffee and stayed in the clubhouse," he said. "But that's the best I could do."

He's happy as well that he did not play himself out of contention, as he has done here in the past. You see, there is a downside to a home game, too.

"Golf's a very challenging game at best," he said, "but when you really want something and try too hard ... well, judging by my past experiences in Rochester, I haven't played very well. I finally relaxed out there and started to play some good golf.

"I'm going to go out and try and compete the next three days and if I have a chance to win on Sunday, regardless of what happens, I'll take it as a great week," said Sluman. "Just playing well in front of my family and friends means a lot to me."

-- John Strege

On Monday, a package was delivered to Greg Rita's house in Jacksonville. It was from the Boston Red Sox.

"My favorite team," said Rita, a popular and successful PGA Tour caddie who worked for Curtis Strange and John Daly, among others. Rita was with Scott Hoch on the Champions Tour last year when he collapsed, and later was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

During the recent Players Championship, Rita visited with some of this old friends, including members of the media. Stories were written about him and his wish to take son Nicolas to Fenway Park when Nicolas is 5. He is now 3.

"To do that, I have to beat this thing," said Rita. "Anyway, I opened up this package and there was a baseball in bubble wrap. I had just returned from rehab. I later find out that Tom Werner (Red Sox chairman) had read an article in the Boston Globe by Jim McCabe about my situation. But that isn't half of it. The ball was signed by one guy. Jon Lester."

The Red Sox left-hander missed most of the 2006 season while he was treated with a rare form of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He returned to pitch in the clinching game of the World Series for Boston last year. Then on Monday, hours after Rita received the autographed baseball at his home, Lester pitched a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals.

"I feel something going on," concluded Rita. "Something good."

--Bob Verdi

Professional golf moved a step closer to the unanimity on drug testing it will need if next year's bid to become part of the 2016 Olympic Games is to be successful Wednesday when the PGA of America said it will follow the testing protocol adopted by the World Golf Foundation at this year's PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. At a meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., on Monday the WGF discussed a strategic plan for a preliminary presentation it is going to make to the International Olympic Committee May 26 at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In its announcement Wednesday, the PGA said it has adopted the PGA Tour's Substance and Methods List, calling it the Prohibited Substance List, and will use it as a condition of competition for the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills GC and that it will be incorporated into the Captain's Agreement for the Ryder Cup. The PGA Tour and the European Tour plan to begin drug testing in July. The LPGA Tour began in February but it has had only one test, which the tour said after the fact was a trial run and then changed agencies running the testing program.

The most significant holdout on testing is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which said last month it was delaying its planned drug testing at this year's British Open until next year. "We played a leading role in the development of a policy of which we are very proud," said the R&A's chief executive, Peter Dawson. "But it is very important that players understand what it is about and given that quite a number of players do not play on the PGA or European Tours we decided that it will not start at the Open this year." The British paper The Guardian said Dawson was concerned that the Asian Tour and the Sunshine Tour in Africa were not totally in line with the policies of the other tours. Dawson said testing will begin at next year's championship.

Proponents of efforts to get golf into the Olympics, which most everyone associated with the game feels would be the most significant grow-the-game initiative ever, point to three factors as reasons they are optimistic this bid will be successful: 1) With the PGA Tour now on board the IOC will feel there is no obstacle to prevent the best players in the world from participating; 2) The emergence of world-class players from traditionally non-golf countries like Mexico and India will make it easier to sell golf to the IOC; and 3) Bringing drug testing in line with the other sports will be absolutely necessary to get the game in the Olympics.

-- Ron Sirak

DULUTH, Ga. -- When Tiger Woods called about his July 4th tournament in Washington, D.C., AT&T answered the phone. And who wouldn't want to associate their corporate name with the best player who ever lived? It hasn't hurt Nike much.

On the other hand, the departure of AT&T left the old Atlanta Classic, 40 years young this year, in critical condition. Tournament director Dave Kaplan says they continue to actively pursue potential sponsors, noting that two solid prospects he declined to name will be on the premises this weekend. One of the companies actually contacted the PGA Tour immediately after AT&T pulled out last November and has remained interested throughout but, clearly, not interested enough to put anything in writing, so far. Kaplan also noted one corporation expressing an interest in Atlanta several years ago was UPS, though the FedEx Cup has effectively closed that avenue. The fact is, a down economy is a lousy time to be looking for someone with deep pockets.

"If it was 18 months ago or 18 months from now," Kaplan says almost wistfully. "We've talked to everyone in Atlanta that would be capable, where it would make sense." He also indicated the March Tampa event lacking a title sponsor, the ex-PODS, was close to inking a deal. While Kaplan says the PGA Tour has been very supportive (Who would want to lose one of America's largest metropolitan markets?) he also knows there will be a limit to how long Ponte Vedra will wait to potentially move a tournament now slotted in the Fall Series into a coveted 2009 May date. Could Bobby Ginn's real estate and resort empire be on the move?

-- Jim Moriarty

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The longest Open won't be as long as advertised, the United States Golf Association revealed on Monday. For next month's national championship, the South Course at Torrey Pines will measure 7,643 yards, according to the Open scorecard, which would make it the longest in Open history by 379 yards.

But Mike Davis, the senior director of rules and competition for the USGA, said that number is deceiving. "I feel very confident saying we will not play that length one day of the championship," he said.

Davis said the USGA will utilize the variety of tee boxes available to them, resulting in a course that will play "somewhere in the neighborhood of 74 [7,400 yards] and change up to 75 [7,500 yards] and change." That's a big neighborhood, notwithstanding the USGA's benevolence in backing it down somewhat.

"We really feel mixing up teeing grounds adds another challenge to the test," Davis said. "It allows us on certain holes to propose different things that the architect was trying to do when he designed the golf course."

Under consideration is shortening a par 4 to a length that would give players the option of attempting to drive the green. Davis declined to reveal which holes are under consideration, but the par-4 second is a strong possibility. A new tee box there has extended the hole to 389 yards, but there is a forward tee that would place the distance at 319 to 329 yards.

The South Course is nearly Open ready, incidentally. The kikuyu fairways are perfect, while the rough, a mixture of kikuyu, rye and poa annua, is deep and thick and expected to get thicker as the kikuyu continues to grow as the weather warms.

"It's a warm-weather grass," Davis said. "It's definitely going to be growing in June. I think that, in and of itself, will change the golf course rather significantly, because it's such a thick, coarse-bladed grass that it's very hard to get a club through it."

-- John Strege

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Another day, another gadget. For $25 per day, or $75 for the entire tournament, fans at the Players Championship can rent something called a Kangaroo TV. It hangs around your neck with a strap, weighs maybe a pound, and allows you to watch the telecast while you're out baking in the sun. I would liken it to the "black box" that Peter Kostis takes with him while roaming the fairways for CBS, except that Peter has never let me near his black box. He must have heard about my stormy relationship with computers.

Whenever I touch anything more high-tech than a hair dryer, it goes into convulsions and ceases to work. (When I touch a hair dryer, it just looks at my scalp and laughs.) Anyway, the PGA Tour has been kind enough to let us writers use the Kangaroo TVs for free, because the tour knows we only pay $25 for luxury items, like a suit of clothes. The sight of a reporter actually walking a golf course is noteworthy in itself, so the prospect of us being out in the heat watching what we usually watch in an air-conditioned press tent stopped traffic at the Stadium Course. Or maybe it's just my advanced age.

One lady saw me fiddling with my Kangaroo TV and asked if I needed help. I think she thought it was my dialysis machine. If it was, I would be in trouble, because, not surprisingly, I had problems with all the buttons. Besides the actual telecast, you can punch in just the action at the fabled 17th hole, or go to the scoreboard, or the stat center or create a search for your favorite player. I don't have a favorite player, which is just as well because I couldn't get past the screen welcoming me to the Kangaroo TV world and offering "simple instructions".

I didn't bother using the earplugs, either, because there was nothing to hear. I have no idea what you do with a Kangaroo TV in the rain, but according to the grim weather forecast, we'll find out Sunday. You could never carry a Kangaroo TV around at the Masters, where you can't bring anything through the gates except your wife, but I'm not going to knock progress. When I returned the gizmo, the lady noticed I had barely dented the five hours of battery time. "Didn't you like it?" she asked.  "Oh, very much," I replied. "I'm just saving energy."

--Bob Verdi

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Maggert withdrew from the Players last night due to the death of his older brother Barry, who died in a plane crash in Colorado.

According to the Carbondale (Colo.) Valley Journal, Barry Maggert, 55, died Thursday, when the plane he was piloting crashed in the mountains west of Denver. The Gilpin County Sheriff's office said Maggert and a 23-year-old passenger were bound for Boulder and the graduation of Maggert's son, Lee, when the crash happened. The unidentified passenger survived and called 911. Barry Maggert's twin sons Lee and Bryant are both 23 years old.

Jeff Maggert, who shot 72 in the first round of the Players, withdrew after learning of the tragedy Thursday night. Commissioner Tim Finchem released a statement offering condolences to Maggert and his family.

"This is obviously a tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Jeff and his family," Finchem said. "The PGA TOUR is here with any support we can offer the Maggerts during this difficult time."

--John Antonini

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Whatever happened to Craig Perks? Well, the 2002 winner of the Players Championship is at this year's tournament. He just didn't bring his clubs, which is understandable since he announced his retirement after the 2007 season.

"I don't know that I needed to 'announce' it," said Perks. "I just wanted to walk away quietly, which is what I did."

At 41, Perks is beginning a career as a teacher. Also, he's doing some broadcasting this week on the world TV feed, and with "Live @ the 17." He's scheduled to drop in on the Golf Channel, too.

Last but not least, Perks attended the Champions Dinner. "I was honored and proud to be there, just as I was honored and proud to win this tournament," said Perks.  "I might have been a one-hit wonder, but nobody can take that away from me."

Alas, his 2002 triumph that included chip-ins on Nos. 16 and 18, Perks never won again on the PGA Tour. At the end of that season, he studied statistics and saw his name near the bottom in several categories.

"So, I made a complete overhaul of my swing," Perks said. "It didn't work.  Then I tried to go back to my old way, and wound up caught in between. I made one cut the last two years and was just awful. I felt like I was an embarrassment to the game, and maybe even a distraction to playing partners. I played a lot of practice rounds by myself, and hit a lot of balls at the corner of the range."

Perks is creating a performance institute in Broussard, La., near Lafayette, where he settled after completing college at Southwest Louisiana. That's a long way from his home in New Zealand, but he met wife Maureen while in school, and their two children are also quite content in Cajun Country.

Asked if he wants to be the next Butch Harmon--a world-class teacher who doubles as a TV analyst--Perks said that given the support he received from his family through tough times, "I'd rather be a world-class husband and father."

--Bob Verdi

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- On Wednesday afternoon at the Players, a TV crew was testing its audio by throwing ice cubes in the pond that surrounds the 17th green to mimic the sound of a golf ball plopping in the water. That audio got a workout during Thursday's opening round, when 20 balls found the pond, leading to a bunch of double bogeys, a couple triples and one quadruple-bogey 7. At just 148 yards, a wedge for most players, No. 17 could be had in the morning calm but caught up fast thanks to a gusty afternoon tailwind. In the end, 105 of 141 players hit the green and 22 made birdie, but more good rounds died at 17 than anywhere else. Here's how five pros played it on Thursday:

MATT KUCHAR
Score on 17: 7
First-round score: 78
When Kuchar stepped onto the 17th tee, the wind was blowing harder than it had all day. His tee shot landed just past the pin but took a giant leap into the pond. Hitting from the drop area (85 yards from the hole), Kuchar again flew the ball too far. Rinse and repeat. A second try from the drop area, his fifth shot, cleared the bulkhead fronting the green by two steps, setting up a two-putt for quad and 41 on his opening nine (he started on No. 10).

TIM CLARK
Score on 17: 6
First-round score: 77
One of the few players to hit 9-iron on 17, Clark liked his shot in the air, only to see it bounce once, twice, three times and dribble off the back and into the water. He nearly dumped his next shot, from the drop area, into the hazard. Big relief, but it didn't last long. Three putts from the front of the green led to a triple-bogey 6.

ERNIE ELS
Score on 17: 6
First-round score: 72
Els' triple on 17 was particularly tough to swallow because he played the first 16 holes in two under. With the wind gusting at his back, he tried to lay off a wedge, after putting his sand wedge back in the bag, but chunked it in the water short. He played from the drop area, skidding his next shot through the green and nearly into the pond again, then took three to hole out. The good news: He regrouped and birdied the difficult finishing hole to post an even-par round.

ANDRES ROMERO
Score on 17: 4
First-round score: 77
In Wednesday's practice round, Romero was horsing around behind 17 green, hitting flop shots and chipping up the walkway that leads onto the island. Little did Romero know he'd actually have to hit one of those shots on Thursday. His tee shot carried the green and rolled down the walkway into the rough. It didn't help that the path is surfaced in fast-running artificial turf; his ball might have stopped in real grass. After hitting a spectacular pitch off a downslope that released 15 feet by the hole, Romero two-putted for bogey. Disaster averted.

PHIL MICKELSON
Score on 17: 2
First-round score: 70
Playing in the calm morning conditions, Mickelson went back to his bag three times before settling on a wedge for his tee shot. It proved worth the extra strategizing, as Mickelson stuck his ball to four feet and rolled in the birdie putt. He bogeyed 18 but still finished  two under, four off Sergio Garcia's first-round lead.

TOP 5 SHOTS OF THE DAY ON 17:
Tommy Armour III: 17 inches (birdie)
Dean Wilson: 2 feet, 5 inches (birdie)
Paul Casey: 2 feet, 10 inches (birdie)
Johnson Wagner: 3 feet, 5 inches (par)
Phil Mickelson: 4 feet (birdie)

--Peter Morrice

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- New-look Stewart Cink shot a nifty, little 71 Thursday at the Players that included three birdies in his first four holes and a water ball on 17. With six top-10s in 10 events this year, Cink is third on the tour's money list and third in FedEx points, but it's something he did off the course that made heads turn during round one at TPC Sawgrass. Cink shaved his head.

"I've seen a lot of myself on TV this year and didn't like seeing the band of black going around the back of my head," Cink said. "I wanted to look 35, not 55. I don?t know if it's in or out, but it's in to me. There's no going back."

Cink said that, out of the blue, a company called Head Blade sent him a gadget. "It has a loop that fits around your finger and you just run your hand over your head," he said. "It gives you a smooth shave."

Cink said he wasn't embarrassed or disturbed that the company singled him out for the product. "Not at all," he said. "They sent it to my agent at the Masters, and I got it a week later."

After discussion with wife, Lisa, Cink used the razor for the first time a week ago. "It takes 10 minutes, including the lather," he laughed. As for his round, Cink said the "Cinkmeter reads adequate and not fulfilling of potential." His 71 leaves him tied for 23rd.

--John Antonini

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The marquee pairing among the morning groups at TPC Sawgrass is the threesome of Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson and Rory Sabbatini. All three wowed the gallery by making birdie on the par-5 16th, before Mickelson got the fans into a frenzy by hitting his approach on the island-green 17th hole to four feet. He made the putt for birdie to get to two under through eight holes but couldn't keep the momentum going on 18, making bogey on his ninth hole of the day to finish his first half of the course at one under. (Stenson, who bogeyed 17 after his tee shot into the water, finished the front nine at one over, while Sabbatini was at even par).

Mickelson, the defending champ, is looking to become the first player to repeat as Players champion, and he knew it wasn't going to be easy. "The greens are faster and firmer, and because of that, the greens being so small, they're tough to hit," Lefty said in a pre-tournament interview. "They're two feet faster on the Stimpmeter than they were last year and because of the firmness the ball runs out a lot more on your approach shots, and it's difficult chipping."

Only four defending Players champions have finished in the top-10 the following year: Jack Nicklaus (T-5) in 1977; Mark McCumber (T-6) in 1989; Tom Kite (T-5) in 1990; and Adam Scott (T-8) in 2005. McCumber came the closest to repeating. He was two shots off the lead entering the final round, but shot 74 Sunday to finish four back of winner  Kite.

Meanwhile, Masters champion Trevor Immelman withdrew before his round because of an illness. Immelman said he woke up early in the morning with an upset stomach and vomiting and returned to his Orlando home to recover.

--John Antonini

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Hey, tour players, what's in your wallet?

Ever wonder who on tour is generous with his money, and who's a little, as they say, short-armed when reaching for his wallet. This might help answer the question.

On Wednesday during the Players Championship, the PGA Tour conducts a closest-to-the-pin competition for tour caddies. It's a hilarious scene where players and caddies swap roles, the pros giving yardages, picking clubs and psyching up their guys, the caddies taking the swings. A fun little event, but two things make it noteworthy: First, the venue is the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, the famous island green, and second, the players are asked to drop their own cash into a kitty (a big plastic jar sitting on the tee).

Here's how it works, the pros play a normal practice round, but after they hit their shots on 17, they walk to a special tee set up for the caddies. That's when the roles reverse. It's also when the players are put on the spot to make a donation, this year to benefit the Bruce Edwards Foundation for ALS Research. The winning caddie used to get half the cash, but this year the tour put up a gift instead, an HP laptop valued at $1,750. As a surprise bonus, tour player Robert Garrigus said he'd add a 42-inch plasma TV for the winning shot.

Now, anyone who's ever played Sawgrass has felt the anticipation of playing No. 17. Once you clear the tree line on 16 and get your first glimpse of that little island, you can't take your eyes off the thing. Even if you're not playing in front of 5,000 fans and another gazillion on TV, your heart makes a beeline for your throat. The shot isn't much, anything from a 7-iron to a wedge, depending on wind (140 yards for pros; 128 for caddies), but there's no bailout. Short, long, left, right--all in the drink.

So who put up what? Let's start at the high end. The following players gave $100, the biggest number we know of: Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas, Tom Pernice, Ryuji Imada, Nathan Green and Kevin Stadler. At the other end, some players didn't put anything in the jar, including Fred Couples, Mark Calcavecchia, Retief Goosen, Charles Howell III and Zach Johnson ("I don't have my wallet"). To be fair, we're only naming players we saw donate (or not donate) or heard about from a reliable source, and only during part of the day; some caddies made donations, which they could have been doing for their players; some pros might be giving in other ways or at other times. Whatever the case, it was great tour-player watching.

Teacher Butch Harmon donated a hundred bucks and promised another hundred to any caddie in the group he was walking with who hit (and held) the green. None did. Bart Bryant was light on cash when he got to 17, so he slipped $10 in the pot but in a classy move sent someone back with 100 more. Sergio Garcia was playing with Villegas, and when Camilo produced a Ben Franklin, Sergio said, "That's for me and him" and left it at that. Here's a few more donations we're pretty sure about, although these players could've slipped an extra twenty by us: Vijay Singh ($40), Angel Cabrera ($25), Trevor Immelman ($20) and Stewart Cink ($20).

One player (hint: He almost won a major last year) said he didn't have any money on him, so he hit up one of his playing partners for $100. Then put $20 of it in the jar. We can only assume he later made good on the loan--or else cleared a smooth 80 bucks.

But enough about tour players. The winner of this year's closest-to-the-pin contest is Jeff Willett, Brian Bateman's caddie, who hit a shot to one foot, five inches. Willett's was by far the best of the day, including all those from tour players. Sure, there were plenty of skulls, chunks, yanks and shoves, even a few shanks, but lots of really good shots, too. Of the 117 caddies who participated, 63 found the water, most of them short (a few dismally so). Here's the rest of the top 5: Casey Kellogg (Imada's caddie) 6 feet, 5 inches; Todd Sunderland (D.J. Trahan) 7 feet, 10 inches; Kenny Tolles (George McNeil) 11 feet, 7 inches; and Don Donatello (Kevin Na) 14 feet, 7 inches.

With $5,436 raised for the Bruce Edwards Foundation, everyone seemed to go home happy, whether they gave a little or gave a lot. Or gave at the office.

--Peter Morrice

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- While stuck in traffic on my way to the TPC Sawgrass early Wednesday afternoon I caught a few minutes of the local ESPN Radio broadcast. One of the hosts asked the guest, a local golf broadcaster, who he thought the fans would miss more at The Players Championship this week: John Daly or Tiger Woods?

Neither of the tour's biggest names--biggest in one sense for Woods, another for Daly--is here this week, but both generally have large galleries and will be missed. Woods, of course, is rehabilitating his left knee after having surgery after the Masters and will not be playing at the TPC Sawgrass for the first time since he turned pro. Daly, on the other hand, is not at the Players because he's not playing well enough. And if the recent video of Daly playing without shirt and shoes is any indication, he's not really missing the PGA Tour.

Anyway, I took the question to 20 members of the gallery hanging around the grassy knoll next to the 17th hole as the caddies played their annual closest-to-the-pin competition Wednesday afternoon, and, although the sample is small, these fans miss Daly more. (Although, with full disclosure, the sample was skewed. Seven of the 13 who voted for Daly were holding cups of beer in various stages of capacity, including five, um, gentlemen, who shouted Daly loud enough to be heard in Jacksonville proper, some 20 miles away.)

So, yes, the Players gets underway tomorrow, without Daly and without Woods, but with just about every other member of the top 100 on the World Ranking. What they'll find at Sawgrass is a course that is fast and firm with greens running at 13 (13!) on the Stimpmeter. The temperatures Wednesday afternoon reached the upper 80s, and similar highs are expected the entire week.

"I don't anticipate the scores to be too good, to be honest," said Masters champ Trevor Immelman. "Right now the speed [of the greens] is perfect. It's the firmness that's going to be tough to handle if the breeze picks up."

Phil Mickelson won at 11 under a year ago. Don't be surprised if the winner is in single digits to par this week. Which is what the tour wanted when it moved the tournament from its traditional March slot to the second week in May last year. It didn't want to go on without Woods, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have.

--John Antonini

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Without question, the happiest face around this Players Championship belongs to Greg Rita, a popular veteran caddie who showed up from his nearby home to visit many friends on the PGA Tour.

Rita, 52, hadn't been at a regular event for a year, because he had been working for Scott Hoch on the Champions Tour. Then in September, Rita collapsed and was later diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Surgery was performed Nov. 7, and he's endured it all since--radiation, chemotherapy, seizures, pneumonia, spinal tap.

"But this is the greatest therapy of all," said Rita, whose presence at the course brought things to a screeching halt as players, caddies and tour types dropped whatever they were doing to greet him with smiles and hugs.

Although Rita wears a scar around his head and has dropped some weight, he looked like a man who is up for the fight against cancer.

"I'm going to will this thing away," said Rita, who caddied for Curtis Strange's consecutive U.S. Open victories in 1988 and 1989 and was on the bag when John Daly won the 1995 British Open.

Besides his appearance at the Players, Rita got to hang out with many of his buddies a couple evenings ago when Paul Fusco, Steve Flesch's caddie, and wife Pam had some of the boys over to their house not far from where Rita and wife Kelley reside.

"A great night," said Greg, who undergoes physical rehab almost daily because, as he says, "my body has been torn up." Rita anxiously awaits his next MRI in June--"I pray it's clean"--and takes 40 pills a day, but he doesn't require any medicine to retain a goal he set when doctors delivered the bad news.

"Our son Nicolas is 3," said Rita, a serious Boston Red Sox fan. "When he turns 5, I'm taking him to Fenway Park."

--Bob Verdi

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- If slow play on tour was the talking point in last week's players meeting in Charlotte, then ADD sufferers will have a hard time watching the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Phil Mickelson recently played a practice round there, and made it sound like six-hour rounds will be the norm.

"It was funny watching some of the amateurs play," Mickelson said at his Players Championship news conference Tuesday. "I was getting ready to tee off, and this group in front of us, probably an 8-handicap player, hit a nice drive out there, 230, he hits it in the first cut of rough, not even the thick stuff but the first cut. They could not find it and he takes a hack at it with an iron, and it dribbles a foot. He hacks again and it dribbles a foot, until he finally picks up and puts it in the fairway."

Asked how long it took to play behind that group, Mickelson never gave a definitive answer. "Fortunately he kept dropping it in the fairway," Mickelson said. "He looked like Hogan hitting it from the middle of the fairway. We kept stepping on balls in the rough, and it wasn't anything nearly like what it will be. It wasn't overgrown like last year where they overgrew it and then cut it back. But that kikuya grabs the club so much that it's going to be an interesting test."

In those conditions, how does Phil Mickelson think Matt Lauer, Justin Timberlake, Tony Romo and contest winner John Atkinson, an 8-handicapper, will do in the Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge that will be played on the Friday before U.S. Open week begins? Armed with information from short-game coach Dave Pelz, Mickelson had devised an answer:

"The biggest area of difference is off the fairway," Mickelson said. "But it will be very interesting and comical to watch that challenge of trying to break 100. There's just no way that statistically (it will happen). You know, Pelz brought the ShotLink out to the World Amateur and had thousands of players and did all the statistical analysis on it. And a 10-handicap when they get moved back to tour-caliber-distance golf courses, just yardage alone, not counting greens or the rough, shoots 92, on average. It is what it is; that's the numbers.

"When you throw them on a 7,600-yard golf course, you don't even need rough; it's going to be in the 90s. You throw rough in there, you don't have the pin placements and the greens, it'll be 90 or 100. And when you throw in the pin placements and the greens, it's not even a fair challenge."

?-Tim Rosaforte