TEEING OFF
Five things to look for on the professional golf scene:
1. The Kelly Tilghman saga moves on today, when the Golf Channel play-by-play announcer ends her two-week suspension when she works the first round of the Buick Invitational.
Tilghman taped some opening comments to address her situation -- she made a racially insensitive remark about Tiger Woods at the Mercedes Championship at Kapalua, Hawaii.
Woods, who has received some criticism for not being more upset with Tilghman, said last week’s Golfweek cover that had a drawing of a noose kept the issue alive when it might have faded away.
“I thought the incident was pretty much handled and was over. . . . As I said earlier, she’s been a great friend over the years and everyone makes mistakes, and she certainly regrets what she said and what happened.
“The Golfweek cover just perpetuated it. It was over and handled between us, and we had moved on from it.”
2. Drug testing is coming to the PGA Tour on July 1, and Commissioner Tim Finchem said it’s a necessary step in sports these days, even if he’s troubled by at least one portion of the program -- that it runs contrary to the notion that golfers police themselves in the game they play.
“When you go into the testing arena, I think the biggest concern is that the tradition of the players knowing the rules, playing by the rules, and if you violate the rules you call a penalty on yourself, things about testing are contrary to the fundamental that’s in the sport . . . a fundamental that doesn’t exist in some other sports.”
3. His voice was raspy and he thinks he may be battling bronchitis, but Phil Mickelson said he’s ready to play. His schedule is full. Torrey Pines is the first of five straight weeks, which means Mickelson will play the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, planning to commute to Riviera from his home in Rancho Santa Fe.
Mickelson said he skipped last week’s Bob Hope because that would have meant six straight weeks of tournaments.
4. Fred Couples may make a change in his fundamentals at Torrey Pines. Couples isn’t comfortable on the greens, and he’s considering the previously unthinkable -- ditching his belly putter.
“I’m two-putting every green, even if I putt between my legs,” said Couples, who tied for 56th at the Hope.
Couples nearly gave up on the long putter in mid-tournament. He has been using the belly putter for six years, after losing confidence in the conventional putter. Even with the belly putter, Couples hasn’t been anchoring it against his body, but the conventional putter puts a strain on his back because he has to bend over in his stance.
“But now I may need to go in another direction,” he said. “What would you suggest, under my chin?”
Last year, Couples’ putting average of 1.733 would have ranked tied for fourth with Woods if he had played enough for his statistics to qualify. The 2007 PGA Tour average was 1.793.
5. He birdied his last three holes to make the cut on the number at the Hope and wound up tied for 70th, but Scott McCarron is hoping for something better this week. The Hope was his first tournament in a year and a half because of surgery on his left elbow.
“When I’m standing over a shot, I don’t even think about it at all,” McCarron said. “There was a point where I was wondering if I might not be able to come back at all.”
McCarron, 42, a three-time PGA Tour winner, hadn’t played since June 2006 after he tore the muscle that runs from his wrist to his elbow.
McCarron is playing on a major medical extension carryover, which means he has a total of 13 events to earn $485,171, equal to No. 125 on the money list in 2006. That’s when he last played, and made $175,727. If he’s successful, McCarron will play out the major medical extension for the rest of the year.
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A SLICE OF LIFE
Mike Weir, who lives in Draper, Utah,
said he didn’t work on anything even remotely connected with golf during the off-season:
‘Just my turns on the
ski hill.’
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STAT OF THE WEEK
Tiger Woods, who has won the Buick Invitational the last three years, is trying to become only the fourth player to win the same event four years in a row. The others are Young Tom Morris at the British Open, Walter Hagen at the PGA Championship, Gene Sarazen at the Miami Open and Woods at Bay Hill. And Woods has two more shots at four straight this year, at Doral and at Bridgestone.