During the third round of The Players Championship, it appeared — at first glance — that Lee Westwood whiffed a shot on the first hole. Which made us, mere mortals, feel much better about ourselves. For about a minute. Then, we saw the slow-mo version, where Westwood’s club hit the tree in his downswing, causing him to completely miss the ball.

So, it wasn’t a *true* whiff, but it still cost him a stroke. Minor details! I’ll just continue lying to myself that he did indeed whiff because it makes me less depressed about my game (or lack thereof).

Ernst and young

Derek Ernst started the week as fourth alternate for the Wells Fargo Championship. After notching his best finish in his rookie year, T47 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, he rented a car to drive to Athens, Georgia, for the Web.Com Tour event.

On the way there, Ernst got a call that he would replace Freddie Jacobson, who had been the fourth player to withdraw.  To avoid a $1,000 drop fee, the 22-year-old UNLV grad had to drive back and return the car to Athens and rent another car to get to Charlotte.

In a strange week at Quail Hollow, where the greens weren’t exactly up to par and the weather felt more like Scotland than Charlotte, it was only fitting that Ernst, who had missed five of seven cuts this season, was crowned the champion. (continue reading…)

Rory back to being the ultimate driving machine

Phil Mickelson still has nine holes to play, but he’s cruising so far, rolling in four birdies on the front nine to take the outright lead at eight-under. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the guys who teed off in the morning wave on Friday at Quail Hollow Club.  (continue reading…)

Cute alert!

It’s Wednesday before The Masters and it feels like Christmas Eve. I’ve been trying to explain that to my roommate, a non-golfer, who knows nothing about the game. She is insisting it can’t be Christmas tomorrow without presents and she will be incredibly disappointed if she doesn’t wake up to a tree with pretty lights with gifts underneath it.

“Yeah, dream on,” I told her.  (continue reading…)

In case you missed it, you can watch a wrap-up of tidbits from the first round of the Shell Houston Open. I also answered some reader questions.

Here’s one for you guys: How often should I be doing these wrap-up/Hangouts? Every day? Every other day? Thoughts?

Oh, by the way, thanks to Johnny for suggesting the name “Wei-ing in” — I think that’s a winner!

I took the stage this evening in the interview room shortly after 54-hole co-leaders Michael Thompson and Luke Guthrie finished their press conferences. The lighting was quite bright, so I’m not sure why I kept looking up — perhaps I’m just drawn to shiny things?

Right when I ended the Hangout, I realized I forgot to mention one of the funny coincidences of the day. After David Lynn outplayed Tiger Woods in the third round, he was immediately whisked away by a drug-testing official.  Lynn, a 39-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour (longtime European Tour player), said today was only the second time he’d ever been tested (and of course, the other time was in Europe), which I thought was interesting considering the discussion lately about the Tour’s non-rigorous drug-testing policy and its lack of transparency.

Before I bid you a good night, in case anyone is interested, here are some quotes from Tiger following his third consecutive even-par 70. (continue reading…)

The Westwoods: Father-son bonding

The first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am kicked off this morning at the three different venues: Pebble Beach Golf Links, SpyGlass Hill Golf Course and Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Shore Course. Rookie Henrik Norlander is off to a fast start — he’s five-under through 11 at Pebble. Hunter Mahan is five-under through nine holes at Pebble. So is Matt Every, who has three holes to play.

There are some tidbits from the pre-tourney festivities that I wanted to share before we get into the tournament. (As you may have read in previous posts or tweets, I don’t have internet at the motel I’m staying at this week, so good news is I can’t work once I leave the media center, and bad news is I can’t work once I leave. Ah well — life goes on.)

(continue reading…)

Bill Murray wore this two years ago at the event. Seriously.

We saw some entertaining antics that veer from golf’s usual decorum at the Waste Management Phoenix Open last week. Well, the “fun” continues at Pebble Beach, where the rich and the famous play with the pros for the “pro-am” portion of the event.

It’s probably just me, but it seems like there are more bold-faced names than usual on this year’s list, which can be found here — though I have an updated version below, with additional entries, like Jim Harbaugh (the brother who was on the losing side of the Har-Bowl Super Bowl) and Condoleezza Rice. Also, I’ve noted their pro partner in parenthesis.

(continue reading…)

Hey dude, you going to America? Yeah? Cool, me too, dude.

It seems like just a few years ago the European Tour was gaining momentum in its claim for star power that rivaled the U.S. PGA Tour. Wait, it was!

With the economic downturn in Europe and loss of sponsors, many of its finest players have decided to jump ship and base themselves in America (while still maintaining their European Tour membership but keeping the number of starts at the bare minimum). With the PGA Tour boasting 28 of the top 30 players in world rankings in the upcoming 2013 season, the U.S. defection movement is now complete, wouldn’t you say? (continue reading…)

Nice Effing Pants celebrates the wackiest, ugliest and coolest pants — or skorts and now shorts — in golf — from the pros to the weekend hacker.

Charl Shorts-zel

What’s that smell in the air? Money grabs! Yep, it’s silly season, which might be the best part of the year for some players — it’s laid-back, unofficial and lots of money for just showing up. (I wish the same rule applied for the press, even though I’m not in Turkey this week!)

Eight of the best players in the world — Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Webb Simpson, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose and Charl Schwartzel — have gathered in Antalya, Turkey, for the Turkish Airlines World Golf Finals, $5.2-million exhibition.

Besides collecting a guaranteed check, with last place receiving $300,000, there are other perks, such as wearing shorts. (Yes, shorts!) The pros, who must wear pants at nearly every other event (except the U.S. Open qualifier), were given the option of showing off their dangerously-pasty legs this week. (continue reading…)