Mickelson Scouting British Open Course

By Thomas Bonk

June 29, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Phil Mickelson isn’t moping about losing the U.S. Open, and in fact, spent two days this week at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, checking out the course where the British Open will be played July 20-23.

Mickelson, a pilot, flew his jet there, accompanied by his short game coach, Dave Pelz. Mickelson’s swing coach, Rick Smith, was busy at a par-three tournament he runs with Mickelson. Mickelson pulled out of the event last week.

Mickelson’s next PGA Tour event will be the Cialis Western Open, July 6-9, at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont. Ill.

It has been one year since Birdie Kim won the U.S. Women’s Open by holing a bunker shot on the 72nd hole at Cherry Hills in Denver. Kim, 24, will be looking for some of that magic this week at the Open at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, because she hasn’t found much of it in the last months.

Kim, who is ranked 77th, has played 12 tournaments this year and missed seven cuts. She has made two cuts since April. Since she won at Cherry Hills, Kim hasn’t been in the top 20 in a full-field event.

Ranked 153rd in the LPGA in fairways hit and tied for 141st in greens in regulation, there’s only one area of Kim’s game that isn’t hurting this year. She’s tied for 13th in sand saves, which should come as no surprise to anyone after her miracle shot a year ago.

The July 3 issue of Forbes lists this year’s “Celebrity 100,” which ranks celebrities according to power and money. Let’s just say Tiger Woods is doing all right. He’s ranked No. 5 in power (Tom Cruise is No. 1), and No. 7 in money with $90 million. (Steven Spielberg is No. 1 with $332 million).

But Woods is the top athlete in power and money. The only other active athlete in the top 25 in money is race car driver Michael Schumacher at No. 15 ($58 million).

By the way, Forbes ranks Michelle Wie 70th in money with $17 million, but 74th in power, one position ahead of Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon.

Woods, who spent some time on his yacht after missing the cut at the U.S. Open, is going to play in the Western Open. In 2007, the Western Open becomes the BMW Championship to be played in September at Cog Hill. Then it will move to Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 2008, return to Cog Hill in 2009 and every second year afterward. It’s going to be part of the PGA Tour playoff series for the FedExCup.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem unveiled the details Wednesday of the 2007 FedExCup, in which the winner will receive a $10-million bonus. The FedExCup champion will be decided on a basis of points accumulated during the regular 33-week season, then performance in four PGA Tour playoff events -- at the Barclays Classic, the Deutsche Bank, the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.

Meat Greg Norman. Norman, whose business ventures tend to be everywhere but the golf course, has entered the Senior British Open, July 27-30, at Turnberry, Scotland, where he won the first of his two British Open titles in 1986.

But Norman’s thriving business empire took on a new look recently when he entered into a joint venture with an Australian company to produce a line of premium brand beef.

The top of the line? The Greg Norman Signature Wagyu, a grain-fed cut of 350-day aged Wagyu beef. Norman also is involved in real estate, apparel and wine.

Norman, 51, has not played a PGA Tour event or a Champions Tour event this year, but he was third at last year’s Senior British Open.

The PGA Tour’s Tuesday finish at the Booz Allen Classic was the first since the 1980 Joe Garagiola Tucson Open. Who won that? Jim Colbert.

Ben Curtis, 29, the winner at the Booz Allen, is one of only two under-30 U.S. players with more than one victory. Vaughn Taylor is the other.

Filling out his calendar, Fred Couples has entered the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond the week before the British Open, which he will play for the 16th time -- and where he has nine top-10 finishes. Couples, who turns 47 in October, tied for third at the Masters and tied for 48th at the U.S. Open.

Also in the Scottish field are former major winners Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Hale Irwin, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal. Tim Clark is the defending champion. Tim Petrovic and John Rollins are the other U.S. players entered.

The rain-soaked, weather-delayed, star-starved and lame-duck Booz Allen had the third lowest Sunday rating for a PGA Tour event this year, a 1.6. The only tournaments with worse Sunday ratings were the Bob Hope Classic (1.4) and the FedEx St. Jude (1.4).

The new Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings are out in time for the Open and Annika Sorenstam is No. 1, with 67 victories, one of them this year. No. 3 Lorena Ochoa has two wins this year, and No. 4 Karrie Webb won the first major of the year and has 31 career victories. Ranked No. 2 is Wie, who has not won an LPGA tournament and is not an LPGA member because she’s 16, two years short of the age requirement.

Pelz has opened a teaching facility at Calabasas Country Club and his scoring game school is scheduling a series of one-day putting and wedge clinics July 12-15, Aug. 9-12 and Sept. 6-9.

This week

All times Pacific

*--* USGA: U.S. Women’s Open

*--*

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: Newport Country Club (6,594 yards, par 71), Newport, R.I.

* Purse: $3.1 million. Winner’s share: $560,000.

* TV: ESPN (Today-Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Monday playoff, if necessary, 9 a.m.) and Ch. 4 (Sat.-Sun., noon-3 p.m.).

* 2005 winner: Birdie Kim.

*--* PGA TOUR: Buick Championship

*--*

* When: Today-Sunday.