SteveElling

ORLANDO -- For the second year in a row, Tiger Woods might be hosting a gazillion-dollar golf tournament mostly in absentia.

With his name in the tabloid and mainstream media headlines for all the wrong reasons, Woods is set to host the Chevron World Challenge in suburban Los Angeles later this week, although given the embarrassing news events of the past four days, whether he’ll play is anybody’s guess.

And we do mean anybody.

Tournament director Greg McLaughlin said Sunday afternoon that Woods has not indicated whether he will play or not. Woods missed last year’s tournament while recovering from knee surgery, although he did attend.

“I don't know what his plans are right now,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin was reached a few minutes after Woods had released a statement regarding his solo crash into a hydrant and tree outside his home last Friday morning. In the statement attributed to him, Woods complained of bruises and soreness. He sustained facial laceration in the collision, which left him semi-conscious and mumbling incoherently, according to law-enforcement authorities.

Woods is tentatively scheduled to address the media at Sherwood Country Club, the tournament site, on Tuesday, although the mention of soreness and physical damage certainly gives him an out.

If Woods doesn’t show, he traditionally hasn’t played again until the PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines, set for the last week of January – eight weeks down the road.

Moreover, the woman with whom Woods is alleged to have been conducting an extra-marital affair is said to be in Los Angeles already, meeting with celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, a notorious publicity hound. If any news briefings are held by Allred and her client, Los Angeles is about the last place Woods will want to be -- especially because he'd be within easy reach of the media covering his tournament. Woods on Sunday all but begged for personal privacy as he sorts through his decidedly uncharacteristic situations.

The Los Angeles Times printed a multi-page special section about the tournament in its Sunday paper, with Woods on the front. Now it looks as though his spot in the 18-man field might be filled by another player. McLaughlin said he has several players willing to fill the spot if it comes to that.

Unlike a traditional tournament, there is no commitment deadline, per se.

“We have until Thursday to decide,” McLaughlin said.

The event, with a staggering $5.75 million purse despite the limited field, is set for broadcast on the Golf Channel and NBC.

ORLANDO – Back in August at the Bridgestone Invitational, Tiger Woods gave one of golf's traffic cops a public tongue lashing after the world No. 1 was warned in the final round about his pairing's slow pace of play.

This time, Woods isn't bothering to speak with authorities at all, but he's still slow-playing them.

For a second day in a row, attempts by the Florida Highway Patrol to interview Woods were rebuffed. This time, as FHP investigators were en route to speak with Woods and his wife on Saturday about the details of the odd crash, which took place just a few feet from his driveway at Isleworth Country Club, his agent contacted the agency to say the couple was unavailable.

On Friday, hours after the solo crash had occurred, FHP officials visited Woods at his house and were told by his wife, Elin, that he was sleeping. They agreed to return Saturday, but that meeting was preempted by a call from Mark Steinberg, his manager at IMG.

The FHP released a statement saying the meeting has been postponed until Sunday and offered no reason for the delay.

“As to why, you would need to ask him [Steinberg],” FHP spokeswoman Kim Montes told CBSSports.com in an email message. 

Calls seeking comment and clarification about the latest delay, both to Woods’ personal spokesman and IMG officials, were not immediately returned.

Unlike the fire hydrant and the tree, Woods has hardly addressed the issues surrounding the crash head-on. There’s been no explanation about where he was headed at 2:25 a.m., why his car veered over a curb on the opposite side of the street and into the hydrant and tree, both situated just a few feet from his mansion’s driveway.

In the absence of any explanation, the soap-opera aspects surrounding the accident, whether real or imagined, continue to fuel the fires of guesswork and gossip. Why Woods declined to meet with investigators, since his friends believed he was home on Saturday, recuperating, remains unclear. His wife was photographed leaving through the Isleworth front gate earlier Saturday in another vehicle.

Photos of the damaged Cadillac wrapped around the tree were posted online Saturday afternoon by an Orlando station WFTV, showing moderate damage to the right-front portion of the vehicle. Based on the photos, had the SUV missed the tree and continued forward at the same angle, it might have collided with his next-door neighbor’s house.

Whether the damage to the vehicle was enough to have rendered Woods bloodied and unconscious, as was reported by the first officers on the scene, is a continuing matter of speculation as the crash particulars have been widely dissected, ad nauseum.

The FHP indicated that the 911 calls related to the wreck would be released Sunday, after being reviewed by the agency’s investigators. To date, the source of the emergency call has not been identified.

Montes declined to comment on whether there was a domestic dispute between Woods and his wife that preceded the accident, as some news outlets have reported, citing unnamed sources. The bizarre tableau, magnified by Woods’ decision to evade comment or clarification, has turned a seemingly minor fender-bender into a global media issue engulfed by increasingly high levels of speculation and scrutiny.

Network reporters were camped outside the gates of the posh Isleworth enclave all morning Saturday, filing live remotes and awaiting the FHP as it rolled onto the private property to speak with Woods.

The FHP was the last law-enforcement agency on the accident scene early Friday morning and has yet to speak with Woods or scrutinize the lacerations on his face to see if they appear consistent with those sustained in an accident.

Even some of Woods' closest friends associated with the professional tours, John Cook and Charles Howell, had yet to hear back from him regarding where he was headed and what happened at that unusual hour.

"That's still the million-dollar question," Cook said Saturday.

ORLANDO – If the public feels like there is much left to learn about the particulars of Tiger Woods’ curious car crash in the wee hours after Thanksgiving Day, get in line.

His friends remain equally in the dark.

Two prominent professional players and Orlando-area neighbors who were invited to Woods’ wedding five years ago haven’t been able to reach the sequestered superstar, who is apparently hunkered down inside his Isleworth Country Club home, waiting for authorities to arrive Saturday to begin formally questioning him.

Contacted at midday Saturday, John Cook and Charles Howell, who were on the Isleworth grounds when news helicopters began buzzing the course on the morning after the Woods crash, said they are as befuddled as anybody because of the news blackout in the Woods camp.

Why was Woods in his car at 2:30 a.m., where was he headed, and what happened that caused him to drive headfirst into a hydrant and tree on the wrong side of the street?

“A day later, that remains the million-dollar question,” said Cook, a longtime friend.

Cook said he was across the street from Woods’ house on Saturday morning, hitting balls on the driving range, when Woods’ housekeeper was spotted walking the family’s pet dogs.

“I talked to her for a moment and all she was that he was OK,” Cook said.

Other than that, details have been nil. Cook said he spoke with the director of Woods’ charity and got precious little enlightenment, either. Cook’s phone call to Woods wasn’t returned, he said.

“I have no more of a clue what happened than anybody else,” Cook said. “I think his phone probably blew up.”

Howell, one of Woods’ longtime friends and another Isleworth resident, said he sent Woods a text message expressing concern.

“I have not heard word one back,” Howell said.

Both players said the feeding frenzy has reached ridiculous proportions. Cook said that as he left Isleworth after lunch on Saturday, “there were 50 or 60 people out there at the front gate, doing remotes," he said.

“It was crazy,” Cook said. “Cars were everywhere, either from media or people just out there, I guess, just watching.”

ORLANDO – The semi-long arm of the law will be knocking on the front door of Tiger Woods’ home on Saturday, sometime after 3 p.m.

That’s when an accident investigator from the Florida Highway Patrol will be dropping by his Isleworth Country Club mansion for a follow-up interview related to his head-scratching wreck of early Friday morning.

As it turns out, it will mark the first time the FHP has spoken with Woods, which will certainly give the conspiracy theorists some grist for the gossip mill.

Woods crashed his Cadillac SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree on the opposite side of the road, just feet from the driveway of his home, at around 2:25 a.m. on Friday. The FHP report released later that day indicated that the accident was not alcohol-related, which could certainly prove true, but that assessment represents a degree of guesswork.

According to FHP spokeswoman Kim Montes, paramedics first arrived at the accident scene after receiving a 911 call from an undisclosed source, followed by local Windermere police. The FHP was called and asked to handle the accident report because Isleworth isn’t technically located within the Windermere borders.

By the time the FHP arrived, however, Woods had already been transported to Health Central hospital in nearby Ocoee. When the FHP arrived at the hospital to debrief Woods, he was being treated and could not be interviewed, Montes said. Woods reportedly lost consciousness after the impact with the tree.

Nobody is making wild accusations, mind you. Montes said there was no evidence at the accident scene to suggest that alcohol was involved.

“Before you can ask for a blood draw, you have to have probable cause,” she said.

Moreover, if, over the course of the investigation, there’s reason to suspect that alcohol was consumed, the possibility also exists that no blood samples were taken at Health Central during his treatment for injuries sustained in the crash, she said.

The Windermere chief of police, Daniel Saylor, reiterated that there was no reason to suspect Woods had been drinking. But the particulars of the crash seem curious and the injured Woods was said to be "mumbling" and struggling to remain conscious when authorities arrived.

"My two officers at the scene basically explained to me that they had no indications there was any alcohol or anything involved like that,” Saylor said Friday night. “That part of the investigation, usually they will test the blood when they go to the hospital. But that’s nowhere for me to say here or there. That’s FHP’s investigation.”

And FHP was late to the accident site. That meant the Windermere officers were the lone police authorities to see Woods at the scene. Saylor's officers told him there were no signs he was drinking based on, “first indications of his breath, and talking to him and the way he was acting."

Not that the conversations were lengthy, since Woods was bleeding from the mouth. “He was conscious enough to be able to speak a little bit," Saylor said.

Asked what Woods said, Saylor added: "Nothing. He was mumbling, that was it.”

Saylor and Montes explained the jurisdictional overlap. Windermere police responded even though it was out of their jurisdiction because of a mutual-aid agreement with the Orange County Sheriffs Department. The sheriff’s department doesn’t handle minor traffic accidents, and handed off to FHP, Montes said. By the time FHP arrived, Woods was gone.

The FHP dropped by Woods’ house later on Friday for a follow-up talk about the incident, but his wife Elin said he was sleeping. As a courtesy, they agreed to return Saturday.

 ORLANDO – Whether she’s cresting or crashing, the record continues to prove that Michelle Wie attracts attention like few other figures in golf.

The 20-year-old won for the first time as a professional on Sunday in Mexico, and even though the Golf Channel broadcast of the event was shown on a tape-delay basis in the early evening, the controversial Stanford student blew her male peers out of the water in the ratings game.

According to GC data released Thursday, the broadcast rating of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara was double that of the live broadcast of the PGA Tour’s season finale at Disney World.

Moreover, she smoked Tiger Woods, whose victory at the Aussie Masters was shown Sunday morning, also on a tape-delayed basis. All three were Golf Channel broadcasts.

The network reported Thursday that the Wie victory had the best Sunday rating of the three tournaments (0.72), followed by the Woods win (0.62) and the Children’s Miracle Network Classic (0.36) at Disney, won in a three-man playoff by Stephen Ames.

While the viewing numbers are hardly huge compared to other sports and must be kept in context – the LPGA rating number means an average of 754,000 viewers were watching Wie play at any given moment – it underscores her potential as a golfing draw card.

The Wie ratings figure represents the highest for any single LPGA tournament round broadcast on cable television this year and was double the Golf Channel’s typical viewing numbers generated by the women’s tour. In other words, her win in Mexico was watched by more people than the major-championship rounds televised this year by ESPN and TNT.

All of a sudden, the anecdotal evidence is starting to pile up.

Maybe this forthcoming U-grooves ban isn’t such a big deal after all.

Nike officials confirmed to CBSSports.com that not only did Stephen Ames win the PGA Tour season finale at Disney World on Sunday with a complete set of conforming clubs, but so did another Swoosh staffer playing a half-world away.

Tiger Woods.

Woods won the Australian Masters last weekend, having jettisoned his two non-conforming wedges for new configurations in his 56- and 60-degree clubs, a company official said. Woods had otherwise been using conforming groves in his other irons all year.

The general thought is that the new USGA grooves rule, set to take effect on major tours worldwide on Jan. 1, will prompt players to think twice before bashing away mindlessly with the driver, because playing out of the rough won’t be as easy.
 
Nobody could definitively say that Ames or Woods altered their tee-shot strategies much. Given that Woods has already won with conforming clubs and others are still making the transition, it stands to reason that he's already a leg up for 2010 -- like he needs another edge, right?

Ames, 45, broached the grooves subject without prompting on Sunday night after he won the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in a playoff, his first victory in exactly two years.

“I'm winning with these grooves in the bag and that also tells me, great,” he said. “This is a great plus, especially coming out of this Bermuda rough here, where it really flies out of.

“Kentucky blue, the rough's very rough. I'm not sure how it's going to react yet, but the Bermuda rough you're definitely going to get more fliers and everything. We got a couple, and the way the ball was reacting on the greens and everything, it was perfect. I think it was perfect for me adding a win [and] to it with these grooves is even better.”

Nike staffer Michelle Wie, for those who wondered, has not yet made the grooves transition. She won for the first time as a pro at the LPGA event Sunday in Mexico.

 

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Rickie Fowler got the red-carpet treatment this week, complete with an escorted tour of all four theme parks on the Disney World property.

He might have flirted with becoming only the second guy since Tiger Woods to earn enough money immediately after leaving college to bypass PGA Tour Qualifying School, but he's still only 20 years old, too.

So when Disney hooked him up with a Fastpass, allowing him to move directly to the front of the lines, he was running wild.

"I just told her, take us to the best rides in each of the parks," Fowler said.

Shortcuts in golf are a bit more difficult, however.

After an opening round that left him one stroke off the lead, Fowler flattened out the rest of the way at the Children's Miracle Network Classic, finishing in a tie for 40th that means he'll have to spend the first week of December at Q-school finals after all. Still, it was a run that indicated the smallish Californian has big-time game, perhaps enough to compete out here full-time if he can get through the last stage of qualifying.

"I had a great last month, and I will find a way to get out here," Fowler said. "I feel like I can play with these guys. I have put up a couple of good finishes.

"You never know, it could be going to Q-school, it could be a few years of grinding it out trying to get exemptions, but we will find a way to get out here."

The way he played in the Fall Series, that's no hollow promise. Fowler entered the tour's season finale as the hottest player around -- even though he technically had no permanent status or membership -- after finishing T7 and losing in a playoff in his first two pro starts on the PGA Tour. A top-10 finish this week would have earned him enough to make the top 125 in earnings, which would have secured his tour card for 2010 and allowed him to cool his jets while others were enduring the six-round Q-school finale, set for Dec. 2-7 in West Palm Beach.

Fowler finished with $571,090 in his three starts as a temporary member, good for No. 136 on the money list. That at least allows him to skip the second stage of Q-school next week. He's ready for bigger things, as evidenced by his play and his Disney theme-park outing.

"I stayed away from the kiddie-ride area," he said. "I'm more into the big-kid rides."

After three pro starts in the major leagues, we had figured that out for ourselves.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- This time around, the sea change looks like it's moved from a trickle to a potential tsunami.

At last year's PGA Tour season finale at Disney World, a not-so-grand total of one player was displaced from the top 125 players on the money list, the yardstick by which tour eligibility is largely decided for next season.

This week, the list of casualties seems certain to be both longer and more identifiable.

Bubble boy David Duval, a former major championship winner who entered the week at No. 125 in earnings, missed the cut Friday at the Children's Miracle Network Classic and has left his fate in the hands of others.

Rest assured, this year, the buzzards are circling.

"I feel that the overall picture of the year, I feel like it was mostly successful," Duval said after missing the cut by seven shots.

It was an improvement on his results from the past six seasons. But it wasn't enough for him to secure fully exempt status in 2010. Rich Beem, who started the week at No. 124, made the cut on the number and can breath easily, at least for the moment.

In all, of the 11 players between Nos. 121 and 131 in earnings entering the week, four missed the cut, including Robert Garrigus at No. 123. With Duval in danger, two of the three most vulnerable positions on the money list are up for grabs.

Players such as Chris DiMarco (No. 138) and Tim Herron (No. 128) stand to create the most havoc. The two multiple winners both entered the week outside the top 125 and currently stand in a tie for fourth, which could leapfrog them past dozens of players if the maintain their spots through Sunday night.

That's not even factoring in whatever movement happens among the players just outside the 125 muster themselves. Starting with Chris Riley at No. 126, five of the next six players on the list made the cut and can still improve their position and salvage their 2010 seasons.

Duval, easily the biggest name on the cusp, said he hadn’t decided if he would play at Qualifying School finals in Dec. 2-7, though he has sent in his entry check.

"I don't know, not certain when it is, first of all," he said. "I think it's in December, first couple weeks maybe. And then, you know, I would probably -- if you were going to bet, I'd probably not plan on going."

A look at the status of those closest to the top-125 cutline:

$No.  Player               Cutline Status
121   Ricky Barnes      Bogeyed last hole Friday, but made cut on number. 
122   Steve Flesch       Exempt through 2010 already, so MC didn’t hurt.
123   Robert Garrigus  Shot pair of 74s to MC and better hope for bad weather.
124   Rich Beem         Shot sloppy 73, but made cut on the number at 2 under.
125   David Duval       Blew up in both rounds, is certain to be dislodged.
126   Chris Riley         Bogeyed last hole but made cut by two. Looking good.
127   Jeff Maggert      Clutch 69 Friday ensures chance at moving up.
128   Tim Herron        Major mover of day, is tied for fourth place.
129   Matt Jones         Got in as last alternate, fell flat with opening 78 to MC.
130   Jimmy Walker    Is tied for 23rd place and can still mount weekend rally.
131   Will MacKenzie   Exempt in '10; Is T23 and can derail others by moving up.

 

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- England's Justin Rose, who has split time on the two biggest world tours with typically strong results, has three words of advice for European media darling Rory McIlroy, who has been mulling the same career path.

Go for it.

McIlroy, the game's top young European talent at age 20 and one of golf's biggest newsmakers overseas, this week ended months of speculation about his future when he announced his intention to join the PGA Tour in 2010. The native of Northern Ireland also will continue to play on the European Tour, where he won earlier this year in Dubai and has rocketed to No. 17 in the world rankings.

McIlroy played in 11 PGA Tour-sanctioned starts this year and earned $849,749, which easily put inside the top 125 on the U.S. seasonal money list, qualifying him for membership in '10 as long as he plays in the requisite 15 events.

Rose, who shot 65 to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Children's Miracle Network Classic on Thursday at Disney World, has ridden the fence on two tours for six years.

"At the end of the day, if you are gifted a PGA Tour card, you should take it," Rose said. "You don't have to worry about stages of Q-school. It can be hard to get a card [in the States]."

That wasn't a problem for McIlroy, who played in the four majors and three World Golf Championship events and demonstrated that he has a game that travels well. His management firm was resistant to the idea of PGA Tour membership, figuring it could wait another year or two, but McIlroy said he was attracted to the deeper U.S. purses and plentiful world-ranking points. He noted that three weeks ago, the Las Vegas event had a $5 million purse even though nobody in the field ranked in the world top 25.

"He's young and single and traveling's not a big deal," Rose said. "It's the time to spread yourself out and see what you can do."

Spreading can become a synonym for diluting, of course.

When Rose first took up membership in the States, his world ranking took an immediate hit. Playing 15 times in the States and 12 in Europe -- although several tournaments count toward membership on both circuits -- set him back a bit. Rose, 29 and pegged as a rising star a decade ago, didn’t secure his first spot on a Ryder Cup team until last year.

The American side of the pond generally presents tougher competition, week in and week out, Rose said. Success is hardly assured.

"I think he probably does think it's going to be easy because he's a fantastic player and he's showing all the signs right now of coping with it perfectly well. But it is difficult, there is no doubt about it.

"It's a tough tour to play over here. I think the strength and depth is phenomenal. It takes time to get used to the golf courses, used to different conditions. Experience is a very powerful thing."

McIlroy played in a string of U.S. events in the spring starting at the Accenture Match Play and finished in the top 20 in his first five starts. He made the cut in all four majors.

"He obviously feels pretty comfortable over here," Rose said. "I think his game really suits here -- he hits the ball high and long and putts pretty well. I think to be one of the best players in the world I think you need to be able to play well in America, and I guess the sooner the better. For me I think, why not?

"Yeah, there are risks involved. I mean he's done so well so early, it would be easy to kind of sort of -- I don't want to say a big fish in a small pond -- but I think it's important that he pushes himself right now because at the end of the day all he should be doing even at this age and how good he is, is just try and keep getting better and better and better."

The occasionally frosty relationship between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson has thawed, if not evolved into an outright armistice, bordering on a comfortable alliance.

Over the past year or two, the game's two biggest guns have become downright tolerant of one another, exchanging good-natured taunts and barbs, not to mention gifts and condolences. It has made for entertaining theater at times.

When Woods' first child was born, Mickelson sent a kid-sized ping-pong table as a gift. It also doubled as a reminder of sorts that Lefty had schooled Woods in ping-pong in the team room at a previous cup competition. Woods recently sent Mickelson some conciliatory text messages when it was learned that Lefty's wife and mother had cancer. Woods' father died of the same ailment. 

Seated near one another at the interview-roon dais at the Presidents Cup last month, Woods kept looking down at the tabletop and smirking, shaking his head whenever Mickelson offered some crazy answer to a media question. It's easy to tell that they have come to enjoy giving each other the needle.

Another example came this week in China, where both are playing in the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Woody and Lefty appeared at a publicity stunt along the waterfront two days before the tournament started and Woods couldn't resist offering up a little trash talk. Here's the text of the barb, offered as Mickelson was nearby, grinning.

Question: With golf becoming an official Olympic sport, will you compete to win a medal in 2016?

Woods: "Well, I have to qualify first in 2016. Christ, I'll be 40 years old in 2016."

Moderator: "Still young."

Woods: "Younger than Phil." (Laughter).

It's interesting to note that, over the years, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus became friends after fiercely competing on the course and in the business world for decades. Maybe that's finally happening with Woods and Mickelson, who have more in common than they might believe.

With young guns Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark given last-minute reprieves into the event via other means, tournament officials at Walt Disney World went a different direction with their last free pass into next week’s PGA Tour season finale.

Yet the recipient’s name, if not the story, ought to be familiar by now. 

The Children’s Miracle Network Classic on Tuesday gave an invitation to medical marvel Erik Compton, who for the second year in a row received one of the event’s four sponsor exemptions.

On May 20, 2008, Compton received his second heart transplant and was competing in tour-sanctioned events an astounding five months later, a compelling story that generated headlines throughout golf. The former University of Georgia standout is the only known professional sports figure to have competed after having undergone two heart transplant surgeries. 

The Disney event marks his fifth PGA Tour appearance of 2009. He missed the cut in Puerto Rico and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but finished T44 at his hometown Honda Classic and was T76 at the Memorial Tournament. He made the cut last year at Disney.

Last week, Compton won a first-stage event in the annual PGA Tour Qualifying School by seven strokes, a key step in securing a spot on a sanctioned tour in 2010. 

Disney tournament officials for days were weighing who to hand the last of their invitations, but when the Viking Classic was rained out last week, up-and-coming hotshots Fowler and Lovemark were automatically added to the Disney field, which meant they didn’t need an exemption to play. The two former college stars lost in a playoff a week earlier at the Frys.com Open in Arizona, giving Fowler two top-seven finishes on tour in as many pro starts.

The Viking Classic rainout helped opened the door for Compton, who turns 30 on Nov. 11, the day before the Disney tournament begins.
In April, Compton received the Ben Hogan Award from the Golf Writers Association of America, given annually to a player who has remained active in the game despite a handicap or serious illness.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- He could have gone in any of a variety of directions.

Cornered at the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the class of 2009, Tim Finchem wanted no part in any hot-button discussion regarding a guy who won't be setting foot inside the hallowed hall. Unless he buys a ticket.

The loquacious commissioner of the PGA Tour, who for years resisted testing for performance-enhancing drugs because he believed there was no reason to believe cheating was taking place among his players, was uncharacteristically mum when one of his players finally flunked an exam.

Was this inevitable?

Was he disappointed or embarrassed?

What about surprised?

He stood there looking at three 80 mph fastballs fired over the plate by yours truly and didn’t take the bat off his shoulder, even though he quite likely should have been swinging from the heels as a means of defending the sanctity of the game.

"I don’t have anything to say," Finchem said.

How about, "OK, so maybe I was wrong."

In what is believed to be the longest disciplinary suspension ever meted out by the tour, journeyman Doug Barron on Monday was suspended for one year for testing positive for undisclosed performance-enhancing drugs, the first player banned under the new doping policy.

In a way, perhaps it's understandable that a player like Barron was the first player ever to be benched for violating the new edict. His career was fading faster than a 40-handicapper's tee ball. Barron, 40, made 238 career starts over his career in the game's big leagues, but has been mostly stuck on the developmental Nationwide circuit for three seasons. Barron had last played fulltime on the PGA Tour in 2006 and was fighting to revive his career.

Prominent or hugely relevant, he isn't, but that didn't minimize the potential news impact.

The tour, which implemented the anti-doping policy in mid-2008, issued scant details, including what banned substance was involved. The tour has a lengthy appeals process, which involves testing of a B sample, so the positive test result could have taken place months ago. Barron's suspension was effective immediately, which in a perverse twist means he'll make as much money in tour-sanctioned events in 2010 as he did in 2009 -- zero.

Barron played four times this year on the Nationwide and once on the PGA Tour and didn’t make a cut. The Nationwide began testing for drugs in September, 2008.

Approached before the ceremony, Finchem didn’t offer any opinion, much less illumination, on the tour's public-relations black eye.

"I don’t have anything to say," Finchem said. "Nothing I can say, no comment. It is what it is; all you need is right there in the statement."

Not exactly. Finchem resisted the implementation of testing for years, claiming he was personally certain that golf didn’t have the same cheating issues as other sports. It has a different culture, he insisted, where honesty rules the day.

For sure, one positive test isn't much in this era of blood transfusions and hyperactive hypodermics, but Barron's it nonetheless test results certainly besmirched the reputation of the game and put a dent in Finchem's holier-than-thou persona.

Barron wasn't exactly a beacon of clarity on the matter.

"I would like to apologize for any negative perception of the tour or its players resulting from my suspension," Barron was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the tour. "I want my fellow tour members and the fans to know that I did not intend to gain an unfair competitive advantage or enhance my performance while on tour."

Art Horne, Barron's agent, said his client and the tour agreed not to say much on the matter, including whether Barron tested positive accidentally, which seems to be the implication.

"I wish I could say more, but I can't," Horne said.

Or won't. The tour stated when the policy was adopted that it would "out" the players who tested positive, but the organization stopped far short of telling the whole story. He took a performance-enhancing drug, but wasn't seeking to gain a competitive edge?

Barron isn't exactly the rippling-muscle type. In fact, he looks like an average schlub.

"One of the funniest things I've heard today is when one of his friends called him to say, 'If you were trying to build more muscles, you did a pretty bad job,'" Horne said.

There was some collateral damage. The Barron news, to a large degree, cut the publicity legs out from under the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Monday in St. Augustine, which had some staffers at the museum rightly grousing about the timing, since this is the biggest day of the year for the game's shrine.

Finchem indicated that he waited to make the Barron announcement until he informed the PGA Tour Policy Board, which met earlier Monday in a nearby hotel at the World Golf Village.

"I took the opportunity to inform the board beforehand," he said.

At least he told somebody about it, right?

Forever and ever, as it relates to gaudy corporate signage and material marketing things, the purity of the Masters has been held sacrosanct.

In fact, Augusta National even re-labels the bottled water sold at the course with a generic Masters logo. There are no free plugs allowed for the beer, food or corporate sponsors at the club's green-grass cathedral.

They didn't say no-go to the logos at their latest tournament venture, though.

Check out the photo from the first round of the club's newest game-growing venture, the Asian Amateur Championship, which began Thursday in Hong Kong amid much ado on the new tournament web page.

See the fourth photo down: http://www.asianamateurchampionship
.com/en.aspx

Evidently, Augusta National and the R&A, who jointly are running the event, don't mind growing some waistlines along with the global game itself. After all, a starchy diet based on rice isn't as delicious as a few hundred grams of All-American saturated fat and deep-fried fun. Old Colonel Sanders is one of four corporate sponsors.

There's nothing at all wrong with having sponsors to defray costs of a worthy project, mind you. It's just that the photo was jarring because of the corporate contrast with the decades-old Masters mindset.

For the ANGC members in Augusta, this might be a good weekend to hit the course, because half the greenjackets are overseas. Among the identifiable members in the AAC photo are club chairman Billy Payne, former USGA chief Fred Ridley, and longtime members Johnny Harris, Craig Heatley, Jeff Knox and Rob Johnson.

The new commissioner of the LPGA is being presented Wednesday morning in New York City.

Clearly, indroductions are needed.

With a background that includes positions in the toothpaste, hockey- and golf-equipment businesses, the LPGA rolled out 44-year-old Michael Whan as its replacement for the ousted Carolyn Bivens, who resigned at midsummer amidst a nasty player mutiny.

If you said "What?" when you read Whan, you are not alone.

His name had not surfaced in reports and he wasn't on anybody's known short list of candidates. Not that many outlets were tracking the search, in all honesty.

Golfworld magazine said the hiring was "a bit of a surprise," which might be selling it short. There were numerous dalliances with more public sports figures along the way, including WNBA president Donna Orender, a former PGA Tour official who declined interest early in the search process, and Peter Bevaqua, the chief business officer at the USGA. Former U.S. Tennis Association president Arlen Kantarian was also considered, according to reports.

CBSSports.com learned at mid-summer that Cindy Davis, who runs Nike's golf division, was offered the job soon after Bivens retired. Bob Wood, who preceded Davis at Nike, said his successor wasn't even asked to interview for the position before it was proffered, but that she quickly elected to stay put.

While he has experience at golf manufacturers Wilson and TaylorMade, Whan's background also includes a stint at a company that made a teeth-whitening product.

He'll need to fast put a million-kilowatt smile on the fading LPGA to rescue the tour's foundering ship, which is what got Bivens ousted in the first place.

As they might say up the road in Napa, located a few miles north of San Francisco, so much for giving the U.S. victory some room to breathe.

One day after the eighth Presidents Cup was completed, the folks steering the ship at that other little team soiree held a press conference in Wales to talk about the 2010 Ryder Cup, and it fast became apparent that the European side was monitoring the progress of their future American foes.

In fact, appearing at Celtic Manor, the site of the Ryder matches in 12 months' time, it was clear that captain Colin Montgomerie took great notice of Tiger Woods' 5-0 performance at Harding Park in San Francisco.

"Well, it's very interesting that he seems to have this team game down as well as the individual one now -- we're all thrilled," Monty said, causing an eruption of laughter. "Five points out of five can never be -- well, there's never a European ever achieved that feat in Ryder Cup play. So it proves how that type of feat is.

"So five out of five is always a fantastic feat, and as I said, this will be difficult enough to try and regain the Ryder Cup without Tiger Woods; never mind if he's back to his top form and winning five points out of five, it makes our job even tougher. So we have to counteract that by playing as well as we can against him and also the other 11 players on that team."

Monty appeared alongside American captaincy counterpart Corey Pavin, who personally watched some of the proceedings in San Francisco before heading to Wales. Last year, the American side won the Ryder in Kentucky despite not having Woods on the roster.

"I hate to say here in front of Corey and our American friends, but it makes it a better win if we can regain the Ryder Cup with Tiger Woods in it," Monty said.

Woods teamed with spectacular results with new running mate Steve Stricker at Harding and the pair went 4-0, taking turns carrying the burden for each other and rolling in acres worth of putts. Pavin was asked it if was a safe assumption they'd be paired again in Wales, and shockingly, indicated that it wasn't.

"I would say that's not safe to say, but you can say it if you like," Pavin said. "I have not made any pairings yet. You have to assume that Tiger and Steve will both make the team, as well.

"We'll see. It's a long time from now and obviously both are in tremendous form right now. They are playing fantastically; and you put any two players together that are playing well, they are going to be a tough team to beat."