Click here to listen. It may be quite presumptive of me to claim that Phil Mickelson’s chances have vastly improved (as has the rest of the field at the upcoming Wachovia Championship) now that Tiger Woods has withdrawn due to arthroscopic knee surgery. Woods is the defending champion and for him to be rehabilitating puts the players on the PGA Tour at ease. But seeing Phil’s face smattered across the television screen as the big draw makes you really wonder if the Golf Channel and CBS Sports are doing enough to create excitement. Perhaps the secret ingredient might be more face-time for ...

Click here to listen. Yesterday the Pope pre-empted golf, proving that religion trumps sport, at least on network television. Whether or not you were interested in Sunday Sermon, broadcasters forced you to watch Pope Benedict XVI at Yankee Stadium, bringing about the PGA Tour’s decision to stream live coverage on the internet. For those without an internet connection, flipping the remote yesterday provided little in the way of diversity. If Tiger Woods was heavily in the mix, would CBS-TV interpose both Pope Benedict and golf? Or, would Tiger be relegated to a spot in the sports section of Monday’s newspaper? I wonder ...

Click here to listen. The hype surrounding the possibility of two drivers in his bag didn’t help Phil Mickelson’s bid to win a third Masters Tournament. Both Els and Mickelson fumbled around to get “the perfect fit” this week, combining Callaway I-Mix heads and shafts depending on their particular “game plan". Mickelson claimed that the course length urged him to carry two drivers but my belief is that Callaway needed Phil to promote these clubs which seem to work more for a professional than the average “Joe". It didn’t work. Mickelson should have toyed with an extra wedge in his golf bag ...

Click here to listen. Lorena Ochoa’s impressive victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship have golf bloggers scurrying to find comparisons between her elevated game and that of the incomparable Tiger Woods. After all, both Woods and Ochoa won their respective last major event of 2007 and both are rolling through a green light towards achieving the exalted Grand Slam. Even Lorena feels that 2008 might be the one where she tops Tiger, jokingly(?) stating just before her 26th birthday, “Maybe next year (2008) I improve (on) his year, but this year has been pretty similar, and I enjoy the that they ...