Europe captain Colin Montgomerie targets Woods’ scalp

Europe captain Colin Montgomerie wants the United States’ Tiger Woods to be present if his team regain the trophy in October 2010 at Celtic Manor.Woods missed the USA’s comprehensive 2008 win in Kentucky after undergoing knee surgery. But the winner of 14 Majors displayed ominous form during the weekend’s Presidents Cup event in San Francisco. Montgomerie said: “I think it makes it a better win if we can regain the Ryder Cup with Tiger Woods on it.” The Americans have not tasted Ryder Cup success on British or Irish soil for 16 years. But Europe captain Montgomerie knows Woods has the potential to heavily influence the outcome of the 38th Ryder Cup when it is contested in Wales in October 2010. “It will be difficult enough to try to regain the Ryder Cup without Tiger Woods, never mind if he is back to his top form and winning five points out of five,” added Montgomerie.

“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. Ryder Cup veteran Montgomerie knows many of his prospective team will familiarise themselves with Celtic Manor by playing in next summer’s Wales Open. “It goes without saying that in the Wales Open, if I have one of my European potentials or probables or possibles – or whatever you call them to win by a few shots here (Celtic Manor) does them no harm at all,” he added. Montgomerie also revealed he would like Welsh representation – either in his team or among the all-important support staff. “If I don’t have a Welsh representative on the course playing, I would like to have some sort of Welsh help in the background,” he stated. “I think it is good for everybody; the fact that, what, 65-70% of the spectators here will be Welsh. “It’s only right that I would encourage some of the backroom staff, if you like, to be of that nationality.” Europe’s crushing 16.5-11.5 defeat in America last year meant an uneasy ride for captain Nick Faldo, prompting claims that he did not enjoy the same rapport with his players as previous European captains such as Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer. Montgomerie, though, believes there will be no issues next year. “I think one of the reasons I was asked to become Ryder Cup captain was because I was still in a playing capacity,” he added. “Nick had not played for a number of years really fully on the tour, and was over in the States in a commentating position and I think found it more difficult, therefore to communicate with the team on a day-to-day basis than I would be able to do playing with the team around.

It is a driver’s course, this. If you get out of position on the tee, then you are playing defensive for your second shots

Source: Europe captain Colin Montgomerie targets Woods’ scalp

Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements.

Woods has won fourteen professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player, and 67 PGA Tour events, third all time. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour.
Background and family

Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record nine times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has tied Jack Nicklaus’ record of leading the money list in eight different seasons. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf’s increased popularity is attributed to Woods’ presence. He is credited for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences as the first person of African American descent to win the Masters, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history.

Woods was born in Cypress, California to Earl (1932-2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (1944). He is the only child of their marriage but has two half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and one half-sister, Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray. Earl, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mixed African American (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent) and Native American (25 percent) ancestry. Kultida (née Punsawad), originally from Thailand, is of mixed Thai (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent), and Dutch (25 percent) ancestry. This makes Woods himself one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch.[14] He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a portmanteau he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian).[15] Since his mother is Thai, when world famous golfer Tiger Woods came to Thailand for a tournament in 2000, the Thai authorities tried to bestow on him royal decorations. The government even offered him Thai citizenship since his mother is Thai. However, the golfer politely turned it down.[16] Woods has a niece named Cheyenne Woods who is a promising young golfer on the LPGA tour.

At birth, Woods was given “Eldrick” and “Tont” as first and middle names, respectively. His middle name, Tont, is a traditional Thai name.[17] He got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given the “Tiger” nickname. He became generally known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf, he was simply known as “Tiger” Woods. He grew up in Orange County, California and graduated from Western High School in Anaheim in 1994.

Woods is a Buddhist. He has said that his faith was acquired from his mother and that it helps control both his stubbornness and impatience.
Marriage

In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model. They were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as an au pair. They married on October 5, 2004 at the Sandy Lane resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados and live at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. They also have homes in Jackson, Wyoming, California, and Sweden. In January 2006, they purchased a $39 million residential property in Jupiter Island, Florida, which they intend to make their primary residence. Their Jupiter Island neighbors will include fellow golfers Gary Player, Greg Norman and Nick Price, as well as singers Celine Dion and Alan Jackson. In 2007, a guest house on the Jupiter Island estate was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning.

Early in the morning of June 18, 2007, Elin gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, in Orlando. The birth occurred just one day after Woods finished tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open. Tiger chose to name his daughter Sam because his father said that Tiger looked more like a Sam. On September 2, 2008, Woods announced on his website that he and his wife were expecting their second child. Five months later, it was announced that Elin had given birth to a boy, named Charlie Axel on February 8, 2009.
His Career

Woods was a child prodigy who began to play golf at the age of two. In 1978, he putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy Golf Club in Cypress, California, and at age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC’s That’s Incredible. In 1984 at the age of eight he won the 9–10 boys’ event, the youngest age group available, at the Junior World Golf Championships. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.

While attending Western High School in Anaheim at the age of 15, Woods became the youngest ever U.S. Junior Amateur Champion, was voted Southern California Amateur Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, and Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year 1991. He defended his title at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, becoming the first multiple winner, competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World Player of the Year and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year in 1992.

The following year, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, and remains the event’s youngest-ever and only multiple winner. In 1994, he became the youngest ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, a record that stood until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee. He was a member of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships and 1995 Walker Cup. Later that year, he enrolled at Stanford University, and won his first collegiate event, the William Tucker Invitational. He declared a major in Economics and was nicknamed “Urkel” by his college teammates.[40] In 1995, he defended his U.S. Amateur title, and was voted Pac-10 Player of the Year, NCAA First Team All-American, and Stanford’s Male Freshman of the Year (an award that encompasses all sports).[41][42] He participated in his first PGA Tour major, the Masters Tournament, and tied for 41st as the only amateur to make the cut. At age 20 in 1996, he became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles and won the NCAA individual golf championship.[43] In winning the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship, he tied the record for an amateur aggregate score of 281. He left college after two years and turned professional.

1996–98: Early years and first major win

With the announcement, “Hello World,” Tiger Woods became a professional golfer in August 1996, and signed endorsement deals worth $40 million from Nike, Inc. and $20 million from Titleist.[45][46] He played his first round of professional golf at the Greater Milwaukee Open, tying for 60th place, but went on to win two events in the next three months to qualify for the Tour Championship. For his efforts, Woods was named Sports Illustrated’s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.[9] He began his tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, a link to his college days at Stanford and a color he believes symbolizes aggression and assertiveness.

The following April, Woods won his first major with a score of 18 under par, The Masters, by a record margin of 12 strokes, becoming the youngest Masters winner and the first African American to do so.[49] He set a total of 20 Masters records and tied 6 others. He won another three PGA Tour events that year, and on June 15, 1997, in only his 42nd week as a professional, rose to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings, the fastest-ever ascent to world No. 1. He was named PGA Player of the Year, the first golfer to win the award the year following his rookie season.

While expectations for Woods were high, his form faded in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won one PGA Tour event. He answered critics of his “slump” and what seemed to be wavering form by maintaining he was undergoing extensive swing changes with his coach, Butch Harmon, and was hoping to do better in the future.

Source: Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods wins Presidents Cup for US

Tiger Woods holes the winning putt as the United States won the Presidents Cup for a sixth time in eight events against the International team.The US led 12½-9½ going into Sunday’s 12 singles matches, and Woods’s 6&5 win against Yang Yong-eun gave them the decisive fifth point in San Francisco. Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, Anthony Kim and Sean O’Hair took the US to the brink with victories early on Sunday. Woods won all five of his matches as the US triumphed 19½-14½ overall. The US are now unbeaten in five Presidents Cup matches on home soil. Open champion Cink beat Australian Adam Scott 4&3 in the second match out before Mahan came from two down after four holes to edge Colombian Camilo Villegas 2&1. Moments later, Kim completed a 5&3 win over Australian Robert Allenby before O’Hair trounced South African Ernie Els 6&4.

In the ninth match out, Woods was up against Yang, the South Korean who had come from two shots behind the American to win the USPGA championship at Hazeltine in August. Yang’s victory, the first major title for an Asian-born male, ended Woods’s 100% record of winning all 14 of his majors when leading going into the final round. But Woods was too strong at Harding Park, though he was unaware that, with six matches still on the course, his putt on the 13th green had secured the win for captain Fred Couples’s side. “All I knew was I was trying to get my point and I was five up trying to make it six,” said Woods. “I didn’t look at any boards. I saw we were down six matches at one point so I just kept my head down and tried to extend my own lead. “We played great as a team and the captain did some great pairings.

606: DEBATE

What are your thoughts on the US Presidents Cup win?

RobH

Source: Tiger Woods wins Presidents Cup for US

McIlroy wants to reprise McDowell pairing

Rory McIlroy is hoping his successful partnership with Graeme McDowell at the World Cup of Golf will convince Colin Montgomerie to pair the friends at the Ryder Cup next year.The Northern Irish duo, representing Ireland at the 55th World Cup of Golf, hold a three-shot lead going into the weekend at Mission Hills after shooting a second round four-under-par 68.
After their blistering opening round 58, McIlroy said he hoped Montgomerie, Europe captain for next year’s clash with the US, had been watching. He expanded on his thoughts on Friday.
“Everyone knows I’d love to play with Graeme in the Ryder Cup, there would be nothing better,” the 20-year-old said.
“I think we would make a great team, but it’s not up to me to decide and we’ve still got a long way to go. We still have to make the team.
“I think we do team up very well and I think that showed today. It wasn’t the easiest of 68s by any means, but we sort of grinded it out and we put together a good score.”
The world number 10 was particularly pleased with the way the pair had responded to a double bogey at the 15th by birdying the following two holes.
“I think we showed tremendous character,” he said. “We didn’t let a couple of mistakes get us down on the golf course.
“We talked about body language there on 16 after walking off the tee box saying, ‘look, let’s walk positively up this fairway and try and get a couple back,’ and that’s what we did.”
McDowell, the world number 46, made his Ryder Cup debut at Valhalla last year, earning 2.5 points as Europe lost to the US.
If they achieve their ambition and play together at Celtic Manor in Wales next October, the Ulstermen will be hoping for plenty of chances to show off their celebratory shoulder bump.
“It just says something about the attitude we are trying to have on the golf course,” said McDowell, who is 10 years his partner’s senior.
“We are trying to have a good time, and playing golf with this guy is a lot of fun and I certainly enjoy it. I think it’s an attitude we will be trying to maintain over the weekend.”

Source: McIlroy wants to reprise McDowell pairing

Herman keeps cushion after two rounds in Australia

FRINGAL, Victoria, Australia— It is not unusual for a record-breaking round to be followed the next day by a less than rousing one. That was not the case Friday with American Jim Herman in the second round of the Nationwide Tour’s Moonah Classic in Australia.

After shooting a flawless first-round 62 to set a new Moonah Links course record and grab a four-shot lead, the former Donald Trump employee added a 2-under 70 in very windy conditions to maintain the lead by three shots.

Aussie Steven Jones is Herman’s closest pursuer. The 25-year-old posted the day’s low score of 67 to finish at 9-under 135.

Two players are tied at 7 under, Andrew Buckle of Australia and Fabian Gomez of Argentina, with identical two-day tallies of 69-68-137.

A pair of Aussies, Steven Bowditch and Andre Stolz, join Canadian Jon Mills and Doug LaBelle of the U.S. in a tie for fifth at 6-under 138.

The 32-year-old Herman missed the first three greens but saved par on each with putts from 4-feet. His other par save came on the 15th hole. Birdie putts were produced from 15 feet and 4 feet on the sixth and 14th holes, respectively. Additional birdie opportunities of 15 feet or less on the first four holes of the back nine were not converted.

The winds that are so familiar to the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne picked up considerably on Friday producing scores that were almost two shots higher on average than Thursday.

“Today was a totally different game,” the leader said. “The wind really picked up on the back nine. It was tough out there. I definitely made more putts yesterday. I may have used them all up.”

Herman, who spent two years as an assistant professional at Trump National in northern New Jersey, has been bogey-free over the first 36 holes. He had 10 birdies Thursday and added two more Friday.

Despite the 16-hour time difference, Herman received much encouragement from family and friends in Florida and elsewhere in the States after his first round.

“I got lots of emails of congratulations … but not from Mr. Trump,” Herman said. “I’m sure my former boss is keeping him informed.”

A non-winner in two full seasons on the PGA TOUR’s official proving ground, the Cincinnati, Ohio, native had a strong start in 2009 with a tie for fourth in Panama and a third in New Zealand, his Tour best, in the first four events of the year, only to fade in the second half. Herman missed the cut in his last six events to fall out of the top-60, which is the cutoff for fully exempt and conditional Tour status. He was a last-minute addition to the Moonah field when a fellow Nationwide Tour member withdrew a few days prior to departure from America to New Zealand two weeks ago. Herman missed the cut there last week.

“I didn’t have a lot of good vibes at the end of last year,” he said.

The birth of his first child, a girl, in October and having an off-season to refresh himself has buoyed the likeable Herman this week at Moonah.

Like the player he is chasing, Jones is seeking his first tour win at this level.

A resident of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Jones has won a number of lower-tier events in Australia while aspiring to make a name for himself among the PGA Tour of Australasia’s elite. His resume also includes a victory on the Gateway Tour in Arizona in the U.S.

The 156-player Moonah Classic is co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia, with the field split evenly between the two tours.

Second-round notes:

• Moonah Links played decidedly more difficult on Friday at 73.799 vs. Thursday’s 71.855.

• The first round produced 21 eagles and 537 birdies … the second round just three eagles and 395 birdies.

• 75 players shot 1 over or better to make the 36-hole cut.

• It’s not often that par-5s play over par in professional golf played at this level. Two holes at Moonah have slightly over-par averages after two rounds—the secnd and fourth, with the 18th just a shade under par at 4.95 and the 15th playing to an average of 4.89.

• Defending Moonah Classic champion Alistair Presnell is tied for 17th after rounds of 71-70.

• Last week’s Michael Hill New Zealand Open champion Robert Gates posted a 72 today to go along with yesterday’s 71. He is tied for 37th at 1 under.

• Ryan Hietala did not post a 4 on his scorecard until his 15th hole today. He had nothing but 3s and 5s to that point. He finished 4-4-3-5, ending his round with eight 3s, eight 5s and two 4s in a round of 72. His 147 total missed the cut by two.

Phil Mickelson is ditching the Ping Eye2 … for now

On Wednesday at Riviera, site of this week’s Nothern Trust Open, Phil Mickelson spoke up, and it is as heated and intense as you will see Lefty with a camera on him.

As you have been blundered with over the last week, Mickelson’s wedges have been the hot topic, as fellow touring pro Scott McCarron called Phil out for it, naming the use of the Ping Eye2 wedges “cheating.” Phil, who has been adamant about the stupidity of the rule change, spoke up again at his disgust with the USGA and their inability to hammer this down, but admitted that he will not be carrying the Ping Eye2 wedge this week, out of respect for his fellow pros.

I respect these players out here. I like and respect these players. And last year when my wife and I were at one of our low points, these players came together and did one of the nicest things that could have ever been done to show support, and it meant tons for me. And out of respect for them, I do not want to have an advantage over anybody, whether it’s perceived or actual.

So this week I won’t be playing that wedge. My point has been made. I won’t play it.

Phil went on to say that McCarron approached him and apologized, leading Mickelson to say, “I appreciate him being a big enough man to do that.”  That doesn’t stop the fact that Phil is the ring-leader in this attack of the rule and the USGA. Phil is upset, for good reason, because the area regarding what is and isn’t legal remains gray.

Basically, it is up to one rule maker determining what wedges can and can’t be played, and Mickelson has continually said that it adds too much strain on the players and the manufacturers. While he said that he would ditch the controversial wedges for now, Phil gave the USGA some serious warning — if things don’t change, the Ping Eye2 will be back in the bag.

I hope that the governing bodies get forced into changing their rule making process. I hope there’s more transparency amongst the governing body. We cannot have one man have arbitrary power over this. It’s frustrating for players, and it’s extremely frustrating for manufacturers, and I hope all this stuff gets changed.

If it doesn’t, if there’s no pressure amongst these organizations to make changes, I will immediately put the club back in play.

No matter your thoughts on Phil, I think it is obvious that he isn’t the only pro upset with what is going on with the new groove rules. People have spoken up left and right about the pain that this has caused, and Mickelson, being the top golfer in the game playing right now, took it upon himself to raise cain at the PGA and the USGA. Obviously there is a ton that needs to get ironed out, and Phil even admitted that these changes help him, but he said that he wants what is best for the game of golf, and right now, this isn’t it.

Before last week, I thought there were a ton of things that might knock Tiger out of the headline of the golfing world, but I never in my life thought it would be a wedge made back in the early ’90s. Winners in all this? Mickelson, Ping, and eBay sellers. The losers are the people that keep getting ripped by the defending champion of the tournament that starts on Thursday (That would be Lefty himself).

The Amateur Side: A club can really fly if you put your back in it

I am not what you’d call a “good” golfer. Unlike my writing compatriot Shane Bacon, who’s actually played on minitours and tried to qualify for various opens, my handicap generally hangs around the drinking age — which is appropriate, since I employ aluminum cans far more than long irons while on the course.

These days, I’m extraordinarily casual about my golf game. Put my drive deep in the woods? Eh, I’ll drop. Dredge a canal beneath my ball while trying to work my way out of a sand trap? No big whoop. Misread a six-foot putt for birdie? Huh. That kinda sucks.

(And yes, I am a guy who makes his living pointing out the foibles of professional golfers. I get the irony. Every time I write a critical post, a commenter will always email me with some variant of the “Those who can’t do, write about those who do” line. Yes, exactly.)

Anyway, I wasn’t always so sanguine about my golf shortcomings. No, there was a time when I was every bit as much a rageaholic as the late Tommy Bolt pictured there at right. I’d sling clubs, I’d cuss, I’d snarl at the ball, I’d generally make an utter ass of myself … all the while playing poorly enough that I’d miss the cut in a no-cut event.

Yeah, I was that guy. The one who makes your entire round miserable because he can’t get up-and-down for his double bogey.

Anyway, I had my epiphany in a relatively pain-free way. I’ve read stories of guys clocking their buddies in the face with drivers, guys lacerating their legs with the jagged ends of clubs they’d just smashed against trees. Thankfully, I didn’t put my father in the hospital or toss a club onto a busy highway and cause a 10-car pileup. (Though that would’ve been cool.) For me, it was a simple number that did me in. That number? Four.

You can probably guess how this is going to go.  The scene: a 167-yard par-3 at Callaway Gardens’ Mountain View course. I tee off, and naturally, the ball drifts a bit to the right. I end up maybe 10 feet off the green, 30 feet from the cup, no big deal. Up-and-down isn’t unreasonable here.

Well, I got the “up” down just fine. The ball went up, and up, and up, and over the far edge of the green. Dammit! OK, bring it back, save bogey. And again, I flew the green, the ball settling now 20 feet beyond where it was originally. And it happened again, and again. In all, I flew the green four times. My partners were snickering at me, and my blood pressure was rocketing like The Old John Daly’s after pounding down a plateful of Hooters’ wings.

So finally, I sent the offending club on its way, hurling it up and over the green in roughly the same arc as the last four shots. And then, as I watched the club helicopter into the late afternoon air, looking just like the intro to M*A*S*H, I finally had that age-old epiphany: you’re not good enough to get this mad. And you never will be.

And man, it was like a light switch. I haven’t thrown a single club since, haven’t embarrassed myself out on the course for anything other than my shot selection and execution. And you know what? The game’s a hell of a lot more fun now. I’d love to tell my younger self that and save him some ulcer-generating heartache that probably took a couple years off my life. But I’m betting that idiot would’ve wrapped a club around my neck.

Monty wants a piece of Tiger at the Ryder Cup

Colin Montgomerie continues to fire shots in advance of this year’s Ryder Cup, saying the event will be “diminished” if Tiger Woods doesn’t play.

Speaking in advance of the Dubai Desert Classic this week, Montgomerie was of generous spirit toward Woods, but there’s also a bit of subtext at work if you’re so inclined to look.

“I do think it will be diminished if he doesn’t play, but at the same time that’s up to him and America,” Monty said. “Any event he enters is a bigger and better event because of him, and I hope he does play.”

Nice, right? Except that the Ryder is all about gamesmanship, and Monty is smart enough to know what he’s doing right there. First off, he completely undercut the U.S.’s victory in 2008, which was achieved without Woods. If you were so inclined, you could also see it as a shot at 2008 captain Nick Faldo, who was unable to defeat a Tigerless America.

Monty also notes that the decision for Woods to play is “up to America,” or, more properly, American captain Corey Pavin. If Woods comes back before the Ryder, does Pavin hold Woods out because of … well, whatever? Of course not, but considering how insane the Ryder Cup crowds can be, Tiger will put up with metric truckloads of crap from the European galleries.

Still, that should only encourage him even more. And Monty appears hellbent on making this the most awesome-quote Ryder Cup ever. Can’t wait. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Tom Watson: Not a fan of Tiger Woods’ behavior

When you’re talking golf legends, Tom Watson sits — at worst — on the level just below Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. He’s an elder statesman, a man worthy of respect, and when he speaks, you’d damn well better listen.

And now, at last, he’s spoken out on Tiger Woods.

In an interview with Kansas City’s NBC affiliate, Watson described Woods’ penchant for extramarital dalliances as “bad for our game” and “something he needs to get control of.” And then he turned his attention to Tiger’s famed temper tantrums.

“His swearing and his club throwing, should, that should end,” Watson said. “That’s not part of what we want to project as far as the professional golf tour is concerned.”

Watson had previously contacted Tiger via letter about the tantrums, like this one here, but hadn’t made the contents of his letters public. His willingness to do so now indicates a marked change in the way that pros are dealing with the Woods question.

There’s a lot of supposition that Woods will come back at Augusta because of the insulation that he’ll have from the media. But if he’s losing the support of golf’s elders, Augusta may not want him back just yet.

Tour players accuse Phil Mickelson of ‘cheating’ with old clubs

The PGA Tour season’s not even a month old, and we’ve already got our first major controversy. And Phil Mickelson has played exactly 18 holes, and he’s smack-dab in the middle of it.

At issue are new club groove rules that went into effect on Jan. 1. Long story short: golfers were using specially-cut grooves on their clubs to spin the ball more sharply and play more effectively out of the rough; the penalty for putting a shot into the rough was thus minimized. So the USGA and the Royal & Ancient, two of golf’s major governing bodies, decreed that such grooves were illegal and could not be used on Tour starting this year. (For more detail, check our handy guide to the new rules right here.)

However, golfers are expert at wiggling their way out of tough situations, and they discovered that a lawsuit Ping filed against the PGA Tour and the USGA way back in 1993 exempted wedges made before 1990 from the new rules. (Don’t try to figure it out, just accept it.) Lo and behold, what should turn up in the bags of golfers like John Daly and Phil Mickelson but some vintage Ping Eye 2 wedges, clubs that are old enough to legally drink.

The golfers’ decision to squeeze through the loophole hasn’t sat well with many of their peers. “It’s cheating, and I’m appalled Phil has put [the grandfathered club] into play,” Scott McCarron, a three-time Tour winner, told the San Francisco Chronicle.”All those guys should be ashamed of themselves for doing that … As one of our premier players, (Mickelson) should be one of the guys who steps up and says this is wrong.”

“I don’t like it at all, not one bit,” added Rocco Mediate. “It’s against the spirit of the rule.”

Mickelson conceded at a Wednesday press conference that while he knew the Eye 2 clubs didn’t conform to the new rules, they nonetheless were legal, and that was good enough for him: “All that matters is it’s OK under the rules of golf.”

Ah, there it is: the “rules of golf.” To a great extent, the USGA has no one to blame but itself for this situation. If the USGA allowed the Pings in, it can’t then turn around and arbitrarily say they’re not legal. Golf is defined by its rules, and selective enforcement here is no more justifiable than, say, taking a free drop when your ball doesn’t end up exactly where you’d like it.

But … golf is also a sport of self-policed rules. You call your own fouls. And from that standpoint, it makes sense that other players would expect Phil to step up and say that the spirit of the law ought to take precedence over the letter of the law. If he were to publicly distance himself from the clubs, plenty of other pros would, too.

Regardless, this is an early reminder of how it’s going to be for Phil. In the absence of Tiger Woods, with the expectation that Phil will take over the No. 1 slot, every move he makes will be scrutinized, dissected and criticized. And if he wins, it’ll only get that much worse.