SAN FRANCISCO -- The way Fred Couples looks at it, Michael Jordan has won six NBA Championships and knows team chemistry no matter what the sport, including golf. "I think he may be able to instill quite a bit to our team," Couples said Wednesday at Harding Park GC, where a year from this week he and M.J., along with Jay Haas, will be leading the 2009 U.S. Presidents Cup team.

"He's been to every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup that I've played in," Couples said. "He's extremely passionate about the game of golf."

While Jordan was text-messaging Tiger Woods during the Ryder Cup, he was also texting Couples direct from Valhalla with a scouting report. He may even join Couples out on tour for a few events next year to help him evaluate players. Not that Tiger wasn't texting Couples on his own, saying how much he wants to play for him, but having Jordan around would be one other reason to get Woods fired up for the event.

While Jordan is in, Couples' people are still trying to reach Robin Williams' people about the comedian being part of the team room. Not that Boo Weekley's orangutan story will be old by then, but Couples thinks Williams is the funniest man in the world, and would keep things light.

"It's not mentioned loosely. It's not mentioned to be smart-alecky," Couples said about the idea of having Williams be a part of the U.S. effort. "It's something that if he did show up -- and I have no idea if he would -- I would think it would be the funniest time ever, because once you get up in the morning, [you are laughing at him] all day long."

While Couples has Jordan and possibly Williams as part of the entourage, it still sounds as though Greg Norman's International team will be heavily favored in the celebration department.

"We can out-drink their team, I can tell you that," the Shark said. "I'll put Ernie Els up against anybody."

-- Tim Rosaforte

Fall Series already got you down? Going through your Camilo Villegas withdrawal? You wanted more than Boo Weekley on Jay Leno's couch? Well, you're not alone.

While Joe Steranka and the PGA honchos start teleconferencing on who'll be the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain, Tim Finchem and his army from Ponte Vedra will fly cross-country and assemble both Presidents Cup captains for a Wednesday news conference at Harding Park in San Francisco. To use one of the overused phrases from the election season, it's time to start ginning up interest in golf's next big Cup, scheduled for next October.

Fred Couples and Greg Norman bring star power to an otherwise slow golf news week, the big questions being: Does Freddie think he could pull off Paul Azinger's Pods System (maybe vice captain Michael Jordan was scouting); and how happy was The Shark to see old buddy Nick Faldo get trashed at Valhalla?

One other observation: Boo telling Leno and Dennis Miller how he lost his keys in the bottom of a port-o-john, going in elbow deep to retrieve them, may be better for late night than a website, but it's the type of humor that U.S teams were always lacking. As long as Boo or Woody Austin are on the team, Couples shouldn't have nuthin' to worry about. Too bad Leno didn't have enough time for Weekley's orangutan story.

--Tim Rosaforte

ATLANTA -- Camilo Villegas has no plans to challenge Lance Armstrong, but the
Colombian who won the BMW Championship has caught the rush of cycling.
Featured in Men's Fitness as one of the most finely conditioned athletes on
the PGA Tour, one can imagine golf's Spiderman all decked out in bike shorts
and jersey, hair flying out of his helmet.

"It's a new thing," Villegas explained at East Lake GC, where he goes into
the final round of the Tour Championship in a tie for fourth place. "I went
home five months ago and one of my buddies calls me up. He got a cycle and
said, 'Let's go up the mountain,' this mountain I used to drive up to get to
the golf course. I didn't know if I was going to make it, but when I got to
the top, I said, 'I love this thing.' "

Villegas returned to his new home in Jupiter, Fl., and bought an exotic road
bicycle. Three days later he called the bicycle shop, saying, "Listen, I
need a group to motivate me and get better." Next thing Villegas knew, he
was geared up and part of a cycling club that meets four days a week and
goes on rides up through Jupiter Island and along the coast of Florida for
rides of 35-60 miles, sometimes at upwards of 32 MPH.

"It's not easy," he said. "The first time I went out I was able to keep up
and man, that motivated me so much. I started working to get better, then, I
bought another bike. I sent the first one to Colombia so in Florida I ride
against the wind and in Colombia, I get to go up the mountain. It's so
peaceful. It's pretty sweet."

--Tim Rosaforte
(Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE -- There's someone missing at this Ryder Cup and it's not Tiger Woods. It's the greatest player in European Tour history (without a major), one of the all-time stalwarts in Cup history, the team's unofficial playing captain and the event's protagonist since 1991, Colin Montgomerie.

John Hopkins of The Times says a Ryder Cup without Monty is like Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, without the haggis. In this part of the U.S., that would be like Colonel Sanders without the fried chicken. When it came to this biennial tournament, Montgomerie transformed from the Mrs. Doubtfire character that American fans loved to abuse, into a lion who tore into the heart and soul of American golf. He helped bring home five Ryder Cups for Mother Europe, and was hoping for a sixth in Kentucky.

As much as leaving Darren Clarke off the team was a shock, filling Montgomerie's place leaves a larger void in more ways than just the lineup card. This is a young European team, with Padraig Harrington as its only major-championship winner. Nick Faldo is banking on Harrington, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia to fill the void, but as Harrington said Wednesday, those are big shoes to walk in.

"Colin was fantastic in [the] Ryder Cup," Harrington said. "He loved that position as the playing captain, let's say. You know, there's nobody there to fill his boots at this stage, but there's a number of players in the team who are voicing their opinions and helping out. So yeah, while I think while he's missed, he's replaceable, too."

Harrington considers himself more of a lead-by-example type, whose goal this week, "is approaching the game the right way, and not allowing [myself] to get too high or too low in the course of the matches." That approach and a quiet toughness is how the Irishman won three of the past six majors. Monty was just the opposite, rabbit-eared, moody, but also brilliant. "He was a different man when it [came] to Ryder Cup," Harrington said.

And this is a different European team without him.

--Tim Rosaforte

Is there a calm before the Ryder Cup storm? Not at Louisville's Valhalla GC, where 75 mile-per-hour wind, remnants of Hurricane Ike, uprooted trees, blew down TV towers, snapped flagpoles and caused an evacuation of the course.

Spectators were not allowed on the course Monday anyway, as both teams were scheduled to arrive and begin preparation for Friday?s opening round of the matches. There was no serious course damage, including to the 12th green, where one of four TV towers fell. Kerry Haigh, the course set-up man for the PGA of America, had not pre-planned a hole location in that precise location of the green.

Valhalla course superintendent Mark Wilson told the Louisville Courier-Journal that after a full day of work on Monday, players and spectators would hardly know a storm blew through.

"We got tree limbs, but we'll take care of it," Wilson said. "This is what a golf course superintendent does, tournament or not. I'm pretty confident that, by Tuesday, you won't know anything about it."

-- Tim Rosaforte

Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger are at it again, officially christening Ryder Cup week a day early with a mini-controversy. It's over the teams' vice captains, so how major could it be?

In Sunday's edition of The Scotsman, Faldo was quoted as saying that Azinger had some misgivings about inviting past Ryder Cup captains Dave Stockton and Raymond Floyd to be his eyes and ears behind the scenes for the United States team. Azinger fired back in an interview with Golf World Monday, setting the record straight and setting the tone for the week as both teams arrived in Louisville.

The pull-out quote in a story that was headlined: "Faldo lands a low blow" addresses several issues that have been percolating in the European press recently. Reading between the lines of Faldo's words, it sounds like Azinger confided in his old TV partner and ended up getting burned:

"I think he (Azinger] already regrets--not sure if regret is the right word--but if he did it again, I don't think those guys have brought to his team what he wanted. He's a bit like me. He feels that you've got to make the decisions yourself. Maybe those captains are from an old era and this is a new era in the Ryder Cup. He thinks he has (gone for the wrong guys]."

Faldo also made reference to Azinger having "too many cooks."

Azinger dismissed it but was not happy, calling Faldo's contention, "a total fabrication," that "had no truth to it." He claimed constant communication with Stockton, Floyd and Olin Browne over the last three weeks.

"They're there to help me observe players, give feedback," Azinger said. "They're there for me. This is not a baby-sitting service. I've got a handful of experienced people with me to reach out to."

This could be Faldo trying to deflect criticism he has received in Europe not only for his omission of Darren Clarke from his captain's picks, but also for naming only Jose Maria Olazabal as his vice captain. One of his critics is former captain Bernhard Langer.

Stockton and Floyd are also hot-button figures to the Europeans, with Stockton orchestrating the "War By the Shore" victory in 1991 that included Desert Storm camouflage worn by the U.S. team, and Floyd, who played on that team, famous for his cold stare. So by bringing up these old memories, Faldo could be accused of orchestrating a diversion; the suspicious might even say that through their relationship in the ABC booth, Azinger and Faldo plotted this.

Faldo was asked again last week about Azinger's quote in the Daily Mail earlier this year in which he said of his Ryder Cup counterpart: "I'd say he is both who he is and who he was. Some people have bought it. Some have not. But if you're going to be a p---k and everyone hates you, why do you think that just because you're trying to be cute and funny on air now that the same people are all going to start to like you? The bottom line is that the players from his generation and mine really don't want to have anything to do with him. He did what he did as a player, and there are relational consequences."

Faldo's response leaves hints that this latest shot across Azinger's bow is all just part of the game.

"We talked afterwards," said Faldo. "I might swing low once, somewhere, and then say, 'OK, we're even' . . . I don't know if I'm going to do anything tricky to get Zinger going this time. I've been moving the other way recently and believing I need my energy 100 percent focused on my team. Then I start thinking, 'Well, with Zinger it would be nice to throw him a curve ball.' "

--Tim Rosaforte

Tiger Woods isn't playing The Barclays, but this year it wasn't considered a snub. Everybody knows he world's best player is out indefinitely while recovering from knee surgery.

But that doesn't mean there weren't a couple of high-profile withdrawals from the opening round of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Lee Westwood, who played with Woods in the final group in the final round of this year's U.S. Open, and who finished T-2 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, has pulled out. For a reason, the Englishman listed "holiday,"

His countryman, Justin Rose, has also WDed, and is in Holland for the KLM Open, hoping to secure a spot on the European Ryder Cup team. Another English golfer, Luke Donald, will miss the entire playoffs after undergoing wrist surgery in London.

Also pulling out with injuries were Alex Cejka, Jason Bohn and Roland Thatcher. Bob Estes, who finished 124th in the final FedEx Cup standings, scheduled his wedding for this week and is not on the tee sheet. The field at Ridgewood CC in New Jersey will be 136 players.

-- Tim Rosaforte

When was the last time Lee Janzen stood over a putt with meaning -- and made it?

"I made one at 16 and 17, too!" Janzen proudly pointed out Sunday night, driving from Greensboro, N.C. to Raleigh for a direct flight to New Jersey for The Barclays, the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The two-time U.S. Open champion sealed his ticket to the playoffs by saving par from five feet on the 72nd hole of the Wyndham Championship -- but as he pointed out, that last putt wouldn't have meant anything without those birdies on the 70th and 71st holes.

That 2-3-4 finish gave Janzen a closing-round  67 and enough FedEx Cup points to jump from 154th to 144th in the standings and get the last playoff spot. It was the opposite of his situation last year, when he only made one cut after finishing T-13 at the U.S. Open and was bumped on the final week of the season.

"I 'hunched' it," Janzen said. "I knew I was 154th but didn't know what I had to shoot to move up."

A tie for 21st at Reno-Tahoe put Janzen in position to make his move, but he was "ticked to finish the way I did," with a 73 Sunday. He started his final round at Sedgefield CC in Greensboro with a bogey at the first hole and an out-of-bounds double bogey at the fourth, but then rallied with six closing birdies.

"I've had tournaments where there were mistakes I know I can eliminate, but I hadn't done it," he said.

Janzen's next goal is to secure his PGA Tour card for 2009, but at least he doesn't have to sit out the next month, awaiting the Fall Finish. Since 2005 he has not finished inside the top-125 on the money list and is currently ranked 151st going into the Barclays. He credits work with Steve Yellin and Buddy Biancalana at PMPM Sports. Yellin played college tennis at Penn and won the Florida State high school singles title. Biancalana was the shortstop for the Kansas City Royals in 1985.

"These are not sport psychologists," Janzen said. "They believe in a quiet mind. You see Tiger, he's got a quiet mind over every shot. You can tell he's always swinging freely, always totally free."

It's hard to have that freedom after four years of frustrating results, but seeing the ball go in the hole over those last three holes in Greensboro will surely help quite Janzen's mind.

Or at least trigger thoughts of the old days.

?Tim Rosaforte

In the back of his mind Sunday at the Wyndham Championship, J.J. Henry knew he had better places to be. Back home in Fort Worth, his wife, Lee, was a day away from delivering the couple's second child. But on the back nine at Sedgefield CC in Greensboro, N.C., Henry started delivering on his own. Six birdies were on his card over that final stretch of holes; his final-round 62 earned him a T-4 in the final regular-season event of the year.

It enabled Henry, a non-factor most of the season, to move from 177th to 135th in the FedEx Cup standings, clinching a birth in the year-end playoffs which start Thursday at The Barclays at Ridgewood CC. Henry was on his way from North Carolina to New Jersey -- by way of Texas.

"This was a heck of a bonus," Henry said Sunday night. "The baby was coming and I was on the outside looking in. But Lee understands. The most important thing is, I'll be there."

Lee was already full term, so arrangements had been made to induce labor Monday morning. The couple already knew it was their second boy and that he would be named Carson, joining 5-year-old Connor. J.J. was just trying to figure out his travel schedule, and whether there was a mandatory pro-am at Ridgewood CC on Wednesday; there is, but he hoped to get a scouting report from Brendan Walsh, a club pro and close friend who worked at Ridgewood before moving on to The Country Club in Boston.

"We'll have the baby and then I will figure out a way to get up there," Henry said "This is part of life and has been a great distraction. All this pregnancy stuff eased my mind."

--Tim Rosaforte

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- There was a "Singh" on the first page of the leader boards at the 90th PGA Championship, but it was the "other" Singh. This was not Vijay, the two-time PGA Champion who won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday. This was Jeev Milkha, and if the theme for major championships holds true this year, he is more of a threat than the Big Fijian.

Singh arrived in Michigan nursing a tender ankle. While favoring that ankle, he has won twice, the Austrian Open and the Invitational Sega Sammy Cup in Japan, which boosted him to 66th in the World Ranking. "I haven't played any practice rounds for the last seven weeks in the tournaments I've played and it's worked pretty good for me, touch wood," Singh said.

With just nine holes of practice Tuesday and nine more Wednesday, Singh went out and shot 68 Thursday to tie for the early lead with Robert Karlsson of Sweden.  Afterward, he explained it was a tendon issue that -- depending on stress and how much he's tweaked it -- doesn't allow him to put full weight on it.

Wearing a brace, Singh eagled the second and offset three bogeys with three birdies, including one of the few made on the 238-yard, par-3 17th.  After an MRI three weeks ago, doctors advised him to take four weeks off. Singh tried to barter a deal by asking for two. "My pain always comes when I hit a lot of drivers," Singh said. "I don't know, one of those tendons, the way I move my foot, the right foot, it gets me going."

It's nothing like the stress fracture and torn ACL that Tiger Woods overcame to win the U.S. Open or the surgery to remove a tumor from his lung that Masters champion Trevor Immelman overcame. It's more like the wrist injury that nearly knocked Padraig Harrington out of the British Open, which (or course) he went on to win.

More pain seemed to be suffered by the more well-known Singh, who struggled in his pairing with John Daly, and was four over after 13 holes when play was suspended. Asked if they get mistaken, Jeev played along and admitted that in practice rounds, he can hear spectators say h must be Vijay's son or Vijay's brother.

But Jeev, who is from India, and whose father was a track star in the 1960 Olympics, also points out that the Singh name is as common in his country as Smith and Jones are in the United States. "We've got millions of Singhs," he said, "and everybody is not related."

--Tim Rosaforte

SOUTHPORT, England -- Last week, when he was hanging out in Los Angeles getting ready for the British Open, Rocco Mediate decided to watch a TiVo'd version of the U.S. Open he lost to Tiger Woods. While the sentiment is that he gained more by losing, Mediate doesn't look at it that way. Instead of inspiration, he found depression.

"He was pretty bummed out," said his physical therapist, Cindi Hilfman, walking the 17th hole at Royal Birkdale on Thursday. "I told him to quit thinking about that Open. To start thinking about winning this Open. He said, 'How can I win the British Open? I can't even walk.' "

Hilfman got Mediate physically able. Mentally, he started wrapping his mind around the idea early in the round, when the rains that were coming down sideways on the practice ground abated and it was just windy and cold. These were not the conditions for a bad back, and neither was the two-group wait that Mediate had on the par-5 17th, but what happened up by the course's most controversial green indicated that Rocco hasn't used up all his magic from Torrey Pines.

Off a steep bank behind the green, he chipped in for birdie, then followed up with a closing-birdie at 18 to share the lead of the 137th British Open with Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and Robert Allenby of Australia. "Cindy is a big part of the story, and she hates when I say that, but I'm going to say that," Mediate said. "She's the one who put my back into where it belongs.  I didn't want to play over the last two years."

Mediate could have been more specific to the last two days. Hilfman came out on the course during the practice round Wednesday and on the 11th green Thursday to make adjustments on Rocco's back and keep the 45-year-old going. "There was definitely dread, yes, there was dread this morning," Mediate said. "I don't know, there's always dread it seems, at least in my case, a couple hours before I play. It's always worrying and wondering what's going to happen."

You'd never know it from his on-course demeanor, but one element that did perk up Mediate was that if he makes it through Thursday, Friday, Saturday and finds himself in position going into the final round, the guy who bummed him out so bad watching a replay of the U.S. Open is nowhere in sight.

"I'd rather him be here than not," Mediate said, speaking of course of Woods. "But the difference in this major, the first one without him in who knows how long, is whoever is there on the weekend does not have to look him in the eye. That's different.  I can assure you of that. I've seen it. It's totally different."

--Tim Rosaforte

We now know why Tiger Woods called the 108th U.S. Open his greatest achievement ever. Woods won his 14th major championship with a stress fracture to his left tibia and anterior cruciate ligament damage that will require season-ending surgery, he reported today on his website.

What Woods did not discuss were the long-term affects of the injury; some of which is obvious, some undetermined. "If he wants to go after [Jack] Nicklaus' record, he'll need a good ACL reconstruction to do it," said Dr. Jim Bradley, team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a foremost expert on knee surgery. "But this is not career threatening."

It may not be career threatening, but the general message is, it's career interrupting and perhaps career deterring. This would be Woods' second knee surgery in two months and his fourth since 1994. The more operations, the more chance for arthritis, so the window for breaking Nicklaus' 18-major record may not last what was anticipated from a super-human athlete like Woods.

Woods revealed the stress fracture or stress reaction occurred while training following April's knee surgery. According to Bradley, the standard time missed by an NFL player with a similar injury is six weeks. But what makes this a long-term absence from golf for Woods is the ACL repair and rehabilitation. According to sources, he was fitted for an ACL or "uploader" brace two weeks before the U.S. Open, in order to take stress off that part of his tender knee. "You knew after he winced one time and started walking with a flexed leg gait that he was protecting his posterior lateral corner," Bradley observed. "I don't know how he did it. He has got a great mind. He knew it was going to hurt like hell."

Woods proved his will by fighting through the pain at Torrey Pines, but he faces a longer battle now as he manages proper rehabilitation with eventual mental roadblocks. Ernie Els is the most famous modern-day golfer to require ACL surgery. The South African tore up his knee in a boating accident in 2005, came back after surgery in three months, and won almost immediately. But according to swing coaches David Leadbetter and Butch Harmon, Els still favors the knee.

"It's like rebooting a computer," Bradley said. "In pro football, we say we get a guy back (from ACL reconstruction) in six months, but in fact, they're really not right until they go through a full season. It's almost a year's time before they're back to where they were beforehand."

-- Tim Rosaforte

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Phil Mickelson has won with two drivers in his bag and five wedges, but Thursday in the opening round of the U.S. Open, the world's No. 2 player added a new spin to his course strategy.

No driver.

In an outing two weeks before the Open, Mickelson said he would only hit driver 4 to 6 times per round on the 7,634-yard layout, the longest in tournament history.

The big left-hander took it one step further by replacing his driver with a 2-iron, and going with an 11-degree 3-wood and three hybrids. (He also is carrying four wedges.) It helped his accuracy but not his score, as he three-putted the fifth hole to begin a stretch of three consecutive bogeys and make the turn in 38, three back of Adam Scott and four shots behind Tiger Woods, his two playing companions.

Maybe it was an omen that while Mickelson warmed up, the USGA was showing a replay of the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where an errant drive on the 72nd hole cost him the national championship.

-- Tim Rosaforte

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- From the middle of the second fairway at Torrey Pines South, Gary Wolstenholme (right) was half a football field behind the balls driven by two of the United Kingdom's new generation, Paul Casey and Nick Dougherty. The young bombers hit 3-woods to the top of the crest of the fairway. Wolstenholme, a 47-year-old career amateur and U.S. Open first-alternate who had been waiting at the course since Sunday, hit a driver that died in the wind.

Wolstenholme, a five-time Walker Cupper, has the distinction of being the last player in history to beat Tiger Woods in match play (in the 1995 match at Royal Porthcawl). He also took Casey down to the last hole before succumbing in the English Amateur at Royal Lytham. "We played together on the '99 team that won at Nairn," Casey said, now at the green. "He was an old man then, but he's got a big heart."

Wolstenholme will need that big heart to take on the 15,000-plus yards he will face for the first 36 holes of the 108th United States Open. The Surrey, England, native's three-day wait was rewarded Wednesday afternoon when Sean O'Hair, the young American, pulled a chest muscle and withdrew. If the length of Torrey Pines doesn't get Wolstenholme this week, humble means will.

Unemployed, living with his mother in the town of Barrow-in-Furness in the northwest corner of England, Wolstenholme -- the first alternate out of the European qualifier two weeks ago at Walton Heat -- scraped together enough for the coach ticket from London, not knowing if it was a going to be a wasted trip or a chance to play in his first U.S. Open. "You have to be pragmatic about these things," he said after spending his first three nights in San Diego. "If I didn't bogey two of the last four holes at Walton Heath, I wouldn't have been in the position I was in."

The two-time British Amateur champion flew almost 6,000 miles on a literal wing and prayer that someone would drop out. He spent $1,200 on the plane flight, $100 a night at a Comfort Inn he found 30 minutes north of the Open venue, and $110 in cab rides. He saved a few dollars by eating sandwiches in the player hospitality tent, and the USGA let him use the range, the short-game area, the practice putting green but not the golf course. Wolstenholme was at Torrey Pines every night until 7 p.m. but had to wait until mid-afternoon on Wednesday to get the news from the USGA's Danny Cink that he was in the Open. "He's Father Christmas as far as I'm concerned," Wolstenholme said of Cink.

Wolstenholme starts on the 10th tee Thursday afternoon with Richard Sterne of South Africa and Hunter Mahan, who he played against in the 2003 Walker Cup. His caddie is Andrew Cotter, a broadcaster from the BBC. The USGA did finally give him a courtesy car, a Lexus that is standard issue for all of the Open contestants. It saves him on cab fare.

-- Tim Rosaforte

(Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Tiger Woods was at Torrey Pines Sunday -- and not in a golf cart. The two-time U.S. Open champion walked the South course with swing instructor Hank Haney and caddie Steve Williams, with no signs of limping, flinching or favoring his left knee as he made his way up and down the tee boxes and ravines on the 7,643-yard layout.

Eyewitnesses described Woods "ripping" drivers and working on his sand game. Afterward, he signed autographs for a group from the First Tee and headed to the parking lot without offering comment. "Tiger is getting better every day," Haney said.

This development changes the complexion of the Open, unofficially upgrading Tiger's status from "questionable" to "probable." Woods has improved dramatically since leaving his Orlando home, where he has been rehabbing since knee surgery April 15. The six-time Buick Invitational champion played Torrey Pines June 4, but rode a cart. With Woods walking five days before the opening round, the issue now becomes how the knee holds up under competition and at least four straight days of walking -- not including practice sessions between now and Thursday.

Certainly, the Woods-Phil Mickelson-Adam Scott first-round pairing looks much better now than it did before the weekend. Scott also played the course Sunday. He is recovering from a broken pinkie finger suffered while shutting a car door at his home in Australia three weeks ago. The Australian has not played in competition since shooting 80 in the final round of the Players May 11.

Swing coach Butch Harmon told golfworld.com that Scott's finger, while swollen, held up hitting shots on Torrey Pines' kikuyu fairways and rough. Scott is expected to take Monday off and have light practice days Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to Thursday's 11:06 a.m. tee time. "He hadn't hit a shot until two days ago," Harmon said Sunday from his home in Las Vegas.

-- Tim Rosaforte

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

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Masters Sunday.

There are no two better words in golf, unless they're Tiger and Woods, Jack and Nicklaus or especially at this place, Arnold and Palmer.

You could see the anticipation already in Jim Nantz's eyes Saturday night, coming out of the CBS tower behind 18 at Augusta National, talking to Brandt Snedeker's caddie, Scott Vail. The way the curtain came down on the third round, with Snedeker and Trevor Immelman staking shots in front of Nantz's perch, raised the anticipation level for what could happen today as these two kids scrap and claw for the jacket, with a cast that includes Tiger, young Englishman Paul Casey and the sweet-swinging lefty, Steve Flesch. As Nantz told Vail, "We could hear you breathing."

It was just a classic interchange of two caddies, Vail and Neal Wallace saying the right things, pulling the right clubs, giving the right vibes a championship caddie must give in that situation--and they delivered, along with their players.

It was 50 degrees this morning walking through the gates at 9:30, and my fingers were starting to numb by the time I reached the press center. I wondered how that would affect the feel of a Snedeker or an Immelman, or a Woods for that matter. The week started hot and humid, has weathered various fronts, a fog bank and still is on time, despite 5 hour and 14 minute rounds. Somehow they always get it in.

Todd Anderson, who works with Snedeker in Sea Island, was saying Saturday night that his player feels so comfortable here, and you can see it in the young man's gait. It's like he's playing a home game. "I think he's at ease," Anderson said, as Snedeker was whisked off to the media center. "He loves this place and the way he has to play it."

Immelman looked a little tight at times, but produced a Gary Player-like shot into the home hole, where a day earlier The Black Knight kissed the green. "The kid sees himself winning and playing great and doing fantastic things in golf," says his sport psychologist, Bob Rotella.

Flesch, the everyman on the board, has defied the notion that this is too big a golf course for him, and Casey just hasn't been able to avoid the little mistakes that major championship winners can't afford. The tree branches are already swaying, and Casey has grown up playing in wind but not this kind of competitive heat.

Which bring us to Tiger, who's still trying to figure out a way, a speed that doesn't burn the left edge, a gear that he hasn't found here since 2005. If he can make a move early, get past No. 1 with a par, pick up a shot at the par-5 second, take out the driver and finally make something happen at No. 3, then it's a ballgame. We all want to see how he's going to handle that tee ball at 18, especially if it means something. Or if we get to see him save par from the 10th fairway again, or from the pine straw, over, yes over, the trees.

"I'm right there," Woods said.

Why should we be surprised? It's Masters Sunday.

--Tim Rosaforte

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Four players, none with a major-championship victory, none ever in contention before at a major, stand between Tiger Woods, his fifth green jacket, his 14th grand-slam title and the first leg of a slam. Can any of them stand up to the pressure?

Trevor Immelman: The 28-year-old South African being compared to Ben Hogan (by the patriarchal countryman Gary Player), showed he had the nerve, and the game, by sticking an approach shot on the 18th hole Saturday for a six-shot lead over Woods. As sport psychologist Bob Rotella told me in a conversation Saturday evening, "His biggest challenge is not to try too hard."

Brandt Snedeker: The lovable, long-haired cat from Nashville, also showed he had the moxie for a major by bouncing back from three consecutive back-nine bogeys with two rebounding birdies, including one at the last, just before Immelman cleaned up. "He told me on 18 tee we were going to make birdie," said caddie Scott Vail. "I was just hoping we got the right yardage." They did, 177 yards to cover, 182 to the pin, a perfect 7-iron with "Sneds" all jacked up on adrenaline.

Steve Flesch: The old man in the group at age 40, also has enough in the guts department, although lack of length may get the better of him in the winds predicted to blow through Augusta National on Sunday afternoon. As he admitted, "It's just not a name everybody expects to see up there on a weekend at a major." But less-accomplished names have won at Augusta, Zach Johnson being one.

Paul Casey: The cheeky 30-year-old Englishman who works with Peter Kostis, is just cocky enough to pull it off. "I enjoyed myself out there," he said. "We had a lot of fun, soaked up the atmosphere, and that's what I'm going to continue to do tomorrow and not worry about anybody else." One more point to consider with Casey: He's a mudder. "I think I have a good
record in bad weather," he said. "I've played in enough of it over the years, playing in Europe."

My gut: If not Woods, it'll be Snedeker, who at 27 could become what Jim Nantz called, "the next great young American player." He's got the best short game, and as instructor Todd Anderson said, "He loves this place and the way you have to play it, using his imagination, that's his game." Plus, he knows Augusta better than some of the clubs' members, having gone around an estimated 40-50 times since winning the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 2003. That gave the Vanderbilt graduate a hall pass to use the course in preparation for the 2004 Masters, which he took advantage of.

"It was almost like I was a member," he said. "I wore the place out."

Sunday, he could be wearing the green jacket. It'd go well with that retro hair and old-school visor.

--Tim Rosaforte

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- In the Champions Locker room Friday night, Fred Couples watched the flat screen TV and looked on a computer at the scores of the final groups completing their rounds at Augusta National. Two locker room attendants told the 1992 Masters champion that his cut streak was still alive, but Couples didn't have much hope. "I guess I'll find out when I get home," he said, packing a pair of shoes in a plastic bag, grabbing a handful of hats and two boxes of balls.

To use those balls and play on the weekend for a record 24th-straight time in the Masters, Couples needed help from Luke Donald, Stuart Appleby and Henrik Stenson. They were all at three over par until Donald bogeyed the 18th. But once Appleby birdied 18, the cut was locked in at three over and it was officially over, a run that began in 1983.

Couples' disappointment was more about not contending than not playing on the weekend. He was coming off a T-4 in the Shell Houston Open and Thursday and Friday at Augusta National he drove the ball long enough and straight enough to set up birdie chances -- but either not getting the ball close enough on his approaches or not capitalizing when he did left him frustrated. "Yesterday (76) was the killer," Couples said. "And the way I drove it today, I should have shot no worse than 70 and I shot 72."

A year ago at the Masters, Couples was in so much back pain he could hardly walk. He finished T-30 and disappeared for the remainder of the season, not playing again until the Skins Game in November. This week's Masters was his eighth tournament of the 2008 and he was mostly pain free. What hurt now was his pride.

Extending the streak came down to making a downhill 10-footer at the 18th. From the tower, close friend and college teammate Jim Nantz told him the cut was going to be either three over or four over. "When I hit it, I thought I made it," Couples said. But his ball slid by the cup on the low side.

Leaving the locker room, Couples bumped into 72-year-old Gary Player, the man whose cut streak he tied last year by gutting out a pair of 76s in brutally cold weather to play his 23rd consecutive weekend at his favorite tournament. Player, dressed in white, congratulated Couples on his streak and then announced that despite hitting woods for his approach shots into all the par-4s, he would return for his record 52nd Masters in 2009.

"If I didn't break 80, I wouldn't be back," Player vowed. He parred the last five holes and shot 78.

-- Tim Rosaforte

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- "Let the Fall Series be your friend" eventually was the theme for Steve Flesch. The lefty won the 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship, which didn't earn him a Masters invitation. Neither did his victory earlier in the season at the Reno-Tahoe Open, which was opposite the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. So he had two PGA Tour victories and he still did not get to play in the Masters, right?

Wrong. In the end those 2007 victories, and his play in the six post-FedEx Cup events, led to Flesch returning to Augusta National, because they were the key to him finishing in the top 30 on the final 2007 money list. Perhaps it was kind of a backdoor entrance, but demonstrated one way in which the Masters invitation system works. Fred Ridley, chairman of the competition committee, duly noted this point in a pre-Masters news conference. Flesch added to it Friday after shooting 67 to place himself inside the top five going into the weekend.

"The money list got me into Augusta, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship," Flesch said. "But it didn't get me into the Doral tournament [the WGC-CA Championship]."

Not that he's complaining. "I don't think all Fall Series events should [be worth a Masters invitation]," he said. "I think only the ones that have enough ranking points should [be worth an invitation]. I'm not discounting any of them. I think they should. They all should mean something. They all should have a value."

They had value for Flesch -- once they were added up.

-- Tim Rosaforte

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

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- The now-famous Rule 78 was designed to speed up pace of play on the weekend but what happens when 144 players go off in threesomes in morning and afternoon sessions on a cold, windswept February day at Riviera CC?

They don't finish the round, leaving many to wonder: Are 144 players too many for a West Coast tour stop -- or are these guys just too slow?

Rules officials will tell you it's the former. I put on three layers and went out to watch the last groups on Thursday afternoon, because I wanted to judge pace of play, but also to see this Dustin Johnson kid from Coastal Carolina who has three top-15s so far this year. It wasn't Dustin's fault that his group didn't finish.

Johnson plays fast and was three under when play was suspended, the best round of the late afternoon groups. Playing just ahead of him, perennially strong California player Kevin Sutherland was two under. As they were stuck with holes to play early Friday morning, Fred Couples finished in near dark by hitting 2-iron to 2 feet at the ninth and tapping in for a round of 70. In his group, into that same ninth hole, AT&T Pebble Beach champion Steve Lowery hit 3-wood from 212 yards.

Couples' caddy, Joe LaCava, called it the toughest scoring conditions he's seen at Riviera since carrying Couple's bag. It took their group roughly five hours to get around Hogan's Alley.

There were 17 players on the course when play was suspended at 5:41 p.m. David Duval (neck), and Nick O'Hern (flu) withdrew after teeing off, leaving first alternate Frank Lickliter III heading to the airport for a red-eye flight back to Florida. The Q School medalist might rightfully argue that 144 players weren't enough; he started the week as second alternate, was bumped down the list by four players who finished top-10 at the AT&T National Pro-Am (one of whom was Johnson), then moved back up with pre-tournament WDs. That's a by-product of an incredibly strong Northern Trust field that will be cut to the low 70 and ties on Friday evening -- unless the number exceeds 78.

-- Tim Rosaforte

Amid a two-year global winless streak, Sergio Garcia enters his 10th year on the world stage facing more questions than answers about his erratic putting. The Spaniard, who turned 28 in January, began the season in Qatar using a left-hand-low grip with a conventional putter. Last week at the Dubai Desert Classic he went back to the belly putter and used a claw grip Sunday. That's two putters and four grips (conventional, left-hand low, split and belly claw) in two tournaments. And we're only one month into the season.

Bob Rotella, the sport psychologist who has spent time counseling Ernie Els, believes the Big Easy will get over Dubai the way he has a decade's worth of disappointments at Woods? hand. ''The great ones can't wait to get back on the horse'' Rotella said.''Basically, Ernie missed a few putts early on the back nine, and Tiger made a couple coming in. That?s what the game comes down to.''As if he'd been talking to Rotella, a resolute Els rationalized it on his website the same way, saying he was headed to Delhi to work on his stroke before this week?s Indian Masters.

--Tim Rosaforte

Trevor Immelman is happy to see the calendar turn to 2008. Catching a stomach virus at last year's Masters and losing 30 pounds was only the half of it. After winning the Nedbank Challenge in December, Immelman, ranked as the PGA Tour's 18th-best player in Golf World's 2008 preview, thought he had a pulled muscle in his rib cage, but an X-ray showed a benign golf-ball-size tumor. He had it removed and hopes to start his season at next week's FBR Open. "It was pretty serious," said instructor David Leadbetter. "But he's very fit, and it won't be long, a week or two, before he's back to normal. He's such a quality player. He's one of those young guns who could really do something."

--Tim Rosaforte

John Daly flew overnight from Hawaii to California, then drove to Las Vegas for his first session with Butch Harmon. "If he [does] all the things I ask him to do, he'll win this year," Harmon said.

Most of the work will be between Daly's ears, but Harmon did get Daly to tighten the backswing on his wedge shots and get more extension on his follow-through with the longer clubs. "Ball-striking wise, he's tremendous," Daly said after arriving early for the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Daly has no sponsor on his shirt and no exempt status. He also said he has avoided alcohol for a week and didn't visit any casinos during his Vegas stay. "Times are tough," he said. "Only one guy could get me there, and that's Butchie."

--Tim Rosaforte

This article is taken from the Jan. 18 issue of Golf World Magazine

Rory Sabbatini wouldn't address his withdrawal from last month's Target World Challenge at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, preferring to let his new Adams clubs do his talking. Sources at Nike Golf denied Sabbatini was let go at the request of Target host Tiger Woods, but Sabbo burned so many bridges by leaving Sherwood CC early it's doubtful he will ever be invited back. As for the $170,000 he earned that week, look for him to donate it to a charity connected with the Wounded Warriors program.

Mercedes contender Jonathan Byrd took a page from Zach Johnson's book by assembling his team for a preseason  strategy session. Led by sport psychologist Morris Pickens, who also works with Johnson, they targeted parts of Byrd's game that need attention. "It worked for Zach," said Byrd, who practiced with a heavy heart after his father, Jim, was diagnosed with a stage 4 brain tumor. After surgery and six weeks
of chemotherapy and radiation, Jim watched his son fall from third to 15th with a 74 Sunday at Kapalua. With his 30th birthday coming up Jan. 27, Byrd still has more wins (three) than any American player in his 20s--and hopes to increase that total at this week's Sony Open. "Four has a nice ring to it," he said.

Sporting a teenager's attempt at a moustache, Tadd Fujikawa warmed up for the Sony by playing the Mercedes-Benz Pro-Am. He thought so much of the invitation that he flew to Maui from Honolulu for a practice round. He's able to do that now because of endorsements with Aloha Petroleum and Kraft Foods. He also has deals pending with luxury-watch and health-insurance companies. Fujikawa, who turned 17 Tuesday, also will play at Pebble and has become an affiliate member of the European and Japan tours.

--Tim Rosaforte

KAPALUA, Hawaii--The best new anecdote I heard in the pressroom Tuesday at Kapalua--and this was a hard act to follow after Boo Weekley's tale of forgetting he left two bullets in his carry-on bag at the Pensacola Airport--was Steve Stricker talking about his days working for lumber company in his home state of Wisconsin.

As Stricker, the back-to-back Comeback Player of the Year, tells it, he could have lost his right arm.

"I have a scary story," said Stricker, "and I still think about this to this day. It could have ended my career."

Stricker was asked in an interview at the Mercedes-Benz Championship on Tuesday what was the last job he held prior to becoming a professional golfer:

Stricker: It was probably at Nelson Young Lumber in Edgerton when I was in college. I worked at a lumber company during the summers. My brother works there now in the office, and I would just deliver lumber. He was nice enough to let me go and play in golf tournaments when I needed the time off, so it wasn't like a full-time summer job or something.

So you worked at a lumberyard?

Stricker: Lumberyard delivering lumber. It was good fun. [Laughter.]

Some hazard in that, isn't there?

There was some hazard. I have a scary story, and I still think about this to this day. It could have ended my career without question. I still don't know what I was doing. But I'm waving the guy back. I usually rode with the driver, they didn't let me drive very much. So we're delivering to a brand-new house, and I'm waving him back. Now he's coming back and I'm up on the front stairway, and now I get off the side of the stair but I'm still right behind the truck waving him back like this.

He's looking at me, and all of a sudden he's coming too close. Now I'm pinned up against the back of the house which is right here. So I'm like, stop, and I go like this. The back of the flatbed pushes my arm right into the new siding. Now I'm a little bit pinned right there. I finally unwedge it and leave a dent in the new siding, but I still cringe at that to this day. I didn't do that again. I was off usually on the side of the truck. [Laughter.]. That was dumb.

--Tim Rosaforte

Members at Winged Foot Golf Club decided overwhelmingly in a vote before Christmas that the U.S. Open won't be returning to their New York club anytime soon. Winged Foot had been considered among the favorites to host the 2015 Open.

The rejection was a setback for the club's board and its president, Len Horan, as well as for the USGA. "Obviously, this is disappointing," said Pete Bevacqua, the USGA's chief business officer. "I think anyone would agree the 2006 U.S. Open was a tremendous success."

The '06 Open was the first hosted by Winged Foot in 22 years, and its success was credited largely to the leadership of Horan. But many Winged Foot members felt the inconvenience of staging a major championship wasn't worth the reported $2 million netted by the club after expenses. Many among that group of members are also balking at the club's proposal for a 20-percent increase in annual dues.

"It's really just a timing issue more than anything else," said Horan, whose presidency ends Jan. 13. Horan said Sunday that the proposed dues hike resulted from the board's decision to reduce guest play and corporate outings beginning in 2008. "It had absolutely nothing to do with the Open."

The members' overriding reason for rejecting the 2015 Open was money, according to sources. It came down to one key difference between the club's deal with the USGA for the '06 Open and the proposal between the two sides for the 2015 Open. Terms for the 2015 Open called for the USGA to pay more up front as a rental fee but for the USGA to take 10 percent more from corporate sales than it did in 2006. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Winged Foot's profit for hosting the 2015 championship would have been about the same as it was for the '06 Open. That was unacceptable to members, who felt the club should profit more from an Open in 2015 than it did in 2006.

The disruption factor also played a role. In 2006 many Winged Foot members were unhappy not only that they lost the use of the club's West course for the championship, but also the East course, which became the site for corporate hospitality, catering and other elements of infrastructure. Although the USGA picked up the tab for all damages that resulted--reportedly in excess $500,000--the East course remained closed until October, nearly four months after Geoff Ogilvy's dramatic victory and Phil Mickelson's stunning collapse.

The big question now is, does this take Winged Foot out of the U.S. Open picture for good? Probably not.

Bevacqua and Mike Butz, the USGA's deputy executive director, attended a mid-December membership meeting at Winged Foot, where the club's objections were initially raised. "The message we heard over and over at the meeting and since the meeting is that even if Winged Foot decided not to issue an invitation for 2015, an invitation to the USGA [would be welcomed] in the future. The relationship between the USGA and Winged Foot is very, very strong."

Horan agreed. "It was not contentious," he said of the meeting, adding that Bevacqua and Butz received applause at the end of their presentation. "We have a diverse membership at this club. Some of our members who love the East course are just saying, 'Can't we wait a few more years?' Even among the most dissident [members], it was not an issue of not having an Open at Winged Foot. It was an issue of deferring [the invitation].''

Bevacqua also pointed out that Winged Foot in 2015 was not a done deal, and that there are other clubs who can't wait to get in the rota. "The Open is in a pretty good spot," he said.

--Tim Rosaforte

FUTURE U.S. OPEN SITES
2008--Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course), La Jolla, Calif.
2009--Bethpage State Park (Black Course), Farmingdale, N.Y.
2010--Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, Calif.
2011--Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Md.
2012--The Olympic Club, San Francisco
2013--Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa.
2014--Pinehurst Golf Club (No. 2), Pinehurst, N.C.

ORLANDO -- One of the big questions going into this year: How is The Golf Channel going to do broadcasting the PGA Tour?

One of the big questions going into next year: How is The Golf Channel going to broadcasting the PGA Tour without Don McGuire?

In a move that shocked most of its talent and production personnel, Golf Channel President Page Thompson sent out an inter-office memo on Wednesday explaining that McGuire, its senior vice president of programming, production and operations and its most experienced link with the networks, had "left the Golf Channel."

McGuire, 58 on Saturday, had one year remaining on his contract. H