Jeff White

It's up to European PGA Tour to reach out to eastern Bloc

A few months ago, I was in Montreal, covering the Presidents Cup.

During one of the press conferences - if memory serves, it was to the end of the event - Gary Player launched on a mini-tirade about the need to bring golf to more countries. He said, using the Presidents Cup as an example, that such an event should start being held in eastern Europe. He singled out the former Eastern bloc countries as one of the regions into which golf desperately needed to make inroads.

Hey, he’s got a supporter in me. As I’ve written elsewhere, golf has been slow to grow in central and eastern Europe. The European PGA Tour is the obvious candidate for this job. My colleague Tim McDonald has written about the Euro Tour’s affinity for filling in golf markets where the PGA Tour proper doesn’t have much of a presence, and I think he’s right.

But let’s face it, there ain’t no money, golf wise, in central and eastern Europe - at least at the level to compete with the Emirates or Asia. Still, look for some of the lessor Euro tours to slowly begin breaking into the region in the coming years.

Just the other day, the European Champions Tour announced that it will make its first visit to Poland next year for the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship, to be played at Krakow Valley Gold and Country Club next may.

I guess that’s a start.

For now, here is WorldGolf.com staff writer Brandon Tucker’s review of Krakow Valley.

Michael Campbell gives back to New Zealand

Go on, admit it, I know you’ve been wondering where former U.S. Open Champ Michael Campbell has been up to all these years after his victory in 2005.

Well, he hasn’t been doing much, but it seems that he’s still the marquee draw for the The Michael Hill New Zealand Golf Open, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this week.

The European PGA Tour is reporting that the Kiwi will become the “official Ambassador to the New Zealand Open” this week. He’s won the event once before. He’s pledged to donate his winnings - NZD 1.5 million - to the New Zealand Junior Golf Foundation.

It’s nice when a golfer doesn’t forget where he comes from. Upon winning the ‘95 Open, Campbell, who is of Maori descent, launched the Michael Campbell Foundation, which helps promote the game on the island.

The New Zealand Open is the country’s richest sporting event, with businessman Michael Hill as the lead sponsor.

The Hills Course is nestled near Queenstown, beneath the Southern Alps on New Zealand’s South Island.

The tournament is co-sanction by the Euro Tour and the PGA Tour of Australia.

Note to Myrtle Beach starters: Enough already with the pre-round lectures

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Golf is a relatively straight forward game, not difficult to comprehend even at its most arcane. And even the best golf courses in the world have more in common with the rank-and-file than not. Fundamentally, if you’ve been on one golf course, you’ve been on them all.(I’m talking fundamentally, folks.)

So I wonder why all these starters around Myrtle Beach feel the need to preface your round of golf with a 10-minute rundown of “rules” and “instructions"? On a recent trip, it started as an oddity, morphed a bit into an impertinence and finally settled firmly down in the realm of an annoyance.

I have a raw dislike for rules, especially when delivered by someone of faux authority. When it comes to golf courses, it’s all the more maddening because, really, how many rules can you have that are unique? You’re expecting to be told that here you are not allowed to play the blue tees unless you are over 6 feet tall, or some such things. Instead, you’re told to fix your divots and your ball marks and that carts can go off the path only on NOs. 3, 6, 14 and 17 - all stuff that can be taken care of with a sign (and usually, in addition, is!).

Note to starters: We know that the white stakes are the 150 markers, the red 100, just like we know No. 14 comes after No. 13.

I wouldn’t have that much of a problem with any of this if these pre-round dressing-downs weren’t always conducted by some grumpy geezer with a clipboard and a knowing expression suggests the thought: I can kick you the hell off this track. Myrtle Beach has some of the rudest, most humorless starters I’ve ever seen.

They don’t even make an effort to lighten up.

At Prestwick, the starter said to my group, “Now gentlemen I’m going to tell you how to play this golf course.”

“Let me guess, hit the ball straight?” I said. Ok, so not the greatest comeback, but he didn’t crack a smile.

At Long Bay, I was on the putting green when my group was summoned to the tee (nearly 15 minutes ahead of our start time). I continued to putt. “Jeff, come over here,” one in my group said.

I said, “Just fill me in later.” But the starter stood there and made it clear that he would not start without me. When my attention flagged a little bit during his monologue - “The white tees, gentlemen, are 150-yard markers” - he said to me, “Young man, please pay attention.”

I could never shake the feeling during these moments that this old man was simply sizing my group up, seeing if he liked our kind.

I’m sorry, we just don’t need this. I know the job of the golf starter was invented to give old men something to do before senility sets in, but we would all be better served if Myrtle Beach starters took themselves, and all these “important” but trivial rules, a little less seriously.

Is Chris Baldwin serious about Justin Timberlake?

I’ll say this at the outset: I often agree with much that TravelGolf.com’s Chris Baldwin has to say. Not everything, but a lot. More often than not, Baldwin is spot on with his takes on the game, and I usually admire his willingness to take unpopular positions and hang his opinions out there.

That bit of throat-clearing now over, I did a double-take at Baldwin’s most recent blog entry: Impossible to overestimate the impact of Justin Timberlake as new host of Las Vegas’ PGA tournament.

Yes, it seems that Baldwin thinks that boy-toy Timberlake is really going to have them lining up to watch this desert snooze-fest next fall. You begin reading, wondering whether Baldwin is writing with tongue firmly planted in cheek before you groan at the hard fact that he’s being serious.

I’ll agree on one thing: Attaching any celebrity’s name to the event is better than its last incarnation: The Fry’s Electronics Open. But getting all excited that this event now has a new lease on life thanks to Timberlake is missing the fact that it still belongs to the PGA Tour’s dreadful Fall Series, nearly two months of “Who cares?” golf rendered all the more meaningless by the faux drama of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Timberlake isn’t going to convince NBC to cover the event; it’s still destined for the wilderness of cable TV coverage. And Baldwin suggests that Timberlake will help grow the gallery. I can’t see that many grown men fighting for scalped tickets on the basis of catching a glimpse of Timberlake’s silky golf swing (to say nothing of the fact that Timberlake is only playing the pro-am. Thursday through Sunday play will still be dominated by the working golfers of the Tour’s lower echelons, trying to eek out next year’s card).

Of course, maybe a top player will have a daughter who will convince him that “he’s just got to meet Justin.”

I know Timberlake is a hell of a golfer - I read somewhere he’s a six handicap. He’d destroy me on the course. I know he’s got real enthusiasm for the game. And I don’t mind his name on a PGA event.

But I’m just calling for a little realism here. Timberlake won’t make any significant difference to an event buried in the desert of the PGA Tour’s Fall Series schedule.

And I hope that Baldwin isn’t inflating Timberlake’s affect as a thanks for getting some face time with the superstar last year.

I think Baldwin’s better than that.

Should a golf course's 18th be hard or easy?

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Should an 18th hole be hard or easy? Should it let you down softly into the clubhouse and give you a jolt of confidence (all the more important after a tough round)? Or should it make you work to get home. A hammock hole (just lay back and relax), or a hole that brings things to a dramatic and challenging finish?

I think most of us would agree that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. No one wants to get a beat down on the home hole, especially if the round has not been going, um, well. Many of us step up to the final tee a little fatigued, calouses scabbed over a bit on our hands. Some of us are down to our final two balls. But I think there’s not many out there who want a cake walk in. We expect something from the closer: It’s the last thing we walk away remembering, and the course architect only has one chance to make a final impression. On the great golf courses, the 18th can tie in the best characteristics of the entire preceeding 17 holes in one solid par 4 or par 5, (sorry, but I think par 3 closing holes are nothing but cop outs).

In the past month I’ve played a lot of golf, and have seen a range of closing holes. Some are simply forgettable: Take No. 18 at Sugarloaf Golf Club in Maine. This is the best public golf course in Maine and one of the 100 best public runs in the U.S. It’s a great course - hard and thoughtful in all the right places. But No. 18 stinks. Sorry, it just does. It’s a nondescript, longish par 4 with a very gentle dogleg left to an open green. The woods aren’t really in play. That’s it. It’s boring, and what’s worse, it is in the middle of nowhere. Unlike the majority of courses that choose to close out a round back at the clubhouse, Sugarloaf’s No. 18 is in the middle of the woods, and the ride back takes nearly 5 minutes.

Then there’s No. `18 at Heritage Village Country Club in Southbury, Connecticut. It’s a par 5 (I’m partial to par 5 closers because I think it gives the broadest range of golfers a chance to make par), but very reachable in regulation for duffers and, for those long-of-club, reachable in two. It’s a nice dogleg left, with an uphill second and third shot to a green framed by pine, deep bunkers and the white barn of the clubhouse as a backdrop. It’s a tough approach (whether you’re hitting your second or third) because the green is a plateau, and you have to consider the pin placement before you hit: This is one of the most undulating greens I know, full of swales and shelfs and you simply cannot be on the wrong side of the pin without kissing any hope of a five or six goodbye. It’s accessible, but not, by a long shot, a gimmie. That’s the way it should be.

Whether we’re looking for a lot or a little in a closing hole, I’m betting most golfers would raise their hands against a hole that plays tricks. Some tricks are fine throughout the round, but I think on No. 18 a hole should play pretty straightforward (though straightforward does not have to equal easy). What you see should be what you get, which is why I’ve been thinking a lot about No. 18 at Glen Dornoch. If you haven’t already, check out Brandon Tucker’s fine review of this beautiful, challenging golf course just north of here. No. 18 gives him pause, too. I know - I was playing with him on this particular day.

No. 18 at Glen Dornoch is certainly not a boring closer, and it throws enough terrain at you to be truly memorable - pressed up as it is against the Intracoastal Waterway, with a gentle dogleg left fairway that runs, quite a long way, to the clubhouse. But its the tee shot on No. 18 that led us to cry trickery (though the cries weren’t that loud). You see, the tee shot sets you up to believe that you can drive a giant waste area directly in front of the tee that, if accomplished, cuts much of the distance out of the hole and leaves you with a very managable approach home. The alternate is almost unbelievable: A tee shot nearly 90 degrees right of the fairway you see running down to the green and clubhouse. It looks as if you’re shooting up another hole, and it obviously leaves you so far from the green (in affect, turning the par-4 into a par-5) that it lends even more weight to the conceit that the course architects must mean for you to take it over the waste area. I mean, who would shoot way over there?

Of course, the waste area is undrivable, or at least for mere mortals. Tucker is a big hitter, and caught every bit of his drive. It looked like it had a chance for sure, but when we inspected the fairway the ball had not carried the hazard. It was gone. Tucker said something along the lines of, “That’s not right.” At the time, I had to agree.

Still, I guess I’ll take a deceiving hole like No. 18 at Glen Dornoch over a truly forgettable closer. It was probably a fitting end to a great course that threw some pretty good challenge at you. In fact, if any of you out there have played this hole, or plan on playing Glen Dornoch some time soon, drop a line and tell me how you did.

I played to the right (though not as far right as the tee tries to make you go), and it was definitely a long way home from there.

Performances in PGA Tour majors hurt Ernie Els, helped Justin Rose

Justin Rose was recently crowned the European PGA Tour’s Player of the Year, winning the coveted Order of Merit and simultaneously snapping most of our attention away from what were other, more marquee Euro tour golfers that seemed to be having a hell of a 2007.

There was Angel Cabrera winning the U.S. Open. There was Padraig Harrington winning the British Open. Euro Tour veteran Ernie Els seemed to wake up during the second half of the year and contend in nearly every event the was playing in.

But there was Rose hoisting the storied Harry Vardon Trophy. I thought: Rose? He wasn’t even representing the International side in the Presidents Cup.

Rose’s year went down like this: $4.3 million in earnings, two wins (the Master Card and Volvo masters) and nine top-10s out of a mere 12 events played.

But you could make the argument that Els, who finished second on the Order of Merit, had the better year: $3.7 million in earnings, two wins (the South African Open and the HSBC Matchplay Championship) and 12 top-10 finishes in 18 events played.

But the Order of Merit, Europe’s money list, comes down to earnings, not performances, and it seems what gave Rose the edge over Els is a slightly better performance record at the majors this year. Rose never finished outside 12th in any of the majors (including finishing fifth at the Masters and 10th at the U.S. Open). Els finished fourth at the British Open and third at the PGA Championship, but also 66th at the Masters and 51st at the U.S. Open.

The small amount of money separating Rose and Els came down to those bad finishes at the Masters and U.S. Open for Els.

But it was really Harrington’s Order of Merit to lose - which he managed to do. Harrington’s 2007 saw $3.6 million in earnings, two wins (the British, and the Irish Open) and seven top-10s in 15 events. But he had the same uneven performance as Els in the majors: Seventh at the Masters, 92nd at the U.S. Open, first at the British, 42nd at the PGA Championship.

Still, it really took his lawn-chair like fold at last week’s Volvo Masters at Valderrama to seal his Order of Merit choke. Harrington was trailing Rose by four strokes heading into last Sunday’s play, but he putted terribly even as Rose was coming back to the field (Rose eventually won in a playoff), including missing a five footer on No. 17 for birdie. Harrington finished fourth, and called it “a real opportunity lost.”

For Rose, who burst on the scene 10 years ago at Royal Birkdale only to struggle to make a cut for the next two years, ending the Euro Tour season on top was sweet. “It’s a relief,” he said.

He can thank his play in the biggest events of the year - that made the difference.

On another note, you got to hand it to the European players. While the PGA Tour takes essentially a two-month hiatus before the 2008 season kicks off in January (a longer break if you are of the mind that the season really ended with the FedEx Cup), the Euro Tour’s 2007 season ended last week at the Volvo and the 2008 season promptly kicked off today in China for the HSBC Champions, where Niclas Fasth and Vijay Singh are in the early lead.

Rest? Who needs rest?

Myrtle Beach: Where the weathermen don't have to be right

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Here’s a question: Can anyone working in America today besides a weatherman be so consistently wrong and still keep his job?

Think about it. How often has your local “meteorologist” been wrong, and I mean dead wrong , on his “forecasts"? And how often have you feared that a bad call at work might lead to some, I don’t know, trouble with the higher ups? Trust me, whatever you do out there, if you were wrong as often as weathermen, you’d be out of a job.

Yet night after night they keep coming back.

OK, they’ve got a better excuse than you and I: Nature. “Can’t predict nature,” is the anticipated cop-out (which, of course, calls into question the very need for a meteorologist in the first place). “We have the data we have.”

Yes, I’m a little pissed. I arrived here to play golf in Myrtle Beach four days ago, at the time of a months-long drought that was really the talk of the town. My first night, the weatherman laid it out: Big rain was coming for Wednesday, extending into Thursday morning. “And man,” he said with an pitch of gravitas, “do we need it.”

No doubt the state of South Carolina does. I don’t. I’ve come here to play golf. The drought can play on.

Wednesday came: A brief, hard shower, but sun for the most part. Thursday I squeezed a round in, but not much sun. Then Friday, the alls-clears day according to the man on the boob tube, it rained. And rained. And rained. I played a very wet 27-holes at Sandpiper Bay Golf Club not far from North Myrtle Beach, and had the course essentially to myself. Now the same weather man says we’re in for it through tomorrow. More rain. Heavy rain.

“And man do we need it,” he said tonight. You know this feeling, whenever weather conspires against golf: I wanted to kill him. Or at least talk to him in a stern fashion.

As I write this it’s night and the rain is beating an incessant tattoo on the rooftop, against the widow leading out onto Ocean Drive. It almost sounds like the surging surf, though that’s on the other side of the condo, out of earshot.

Damn the weather.

The Balsams in New Hampshire: America's polling station

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. - In a little more than a year from now, America’s eyes, if not the world’s, will be focused on this little hamlet in the mountains of New Hampshire’s North Woods - if only for about 30 minutes.

Every presidential election, Dixville Notch, population 18-20 (depending on who you ask), casts the nation’s first votes, at 12:00 a.m. on the first Tuesday of November.

New Hampshire law says that once every registered voter has had his say in a particular town, voting stations there can close and votes can be tallied. In Dixville Notch, the whole process takes around 15 minutes - after which a broadcast goes around the world reporting who is officially leading on election day long before the rest of the country rouses from bed and slinks off to the polling stations.

It’s an old American political tradition, and it all plays out here at the Balsams, an elegant golf resort hemmed in by steep crag and dense forest, on the edge of a man-made lake.

The Balsams is Dixville Notch. It serves as the community’s de facto town hall. Most of the two dozen residents of the town work at the resort. The town’s mayor plays the drums in the jazz band that plays sleepy sets late into the evening in the hotel’s tavern.

Just the other day, the town held it’s annual voter registration right in the hotel. Eighteen showed up to register.

“We’re unique,” says Alex, who works the front desk. “Every registered voter gets his own voting booth. We make sure of it. So, the whole process is over pretty quick.”

How many people registered the other week?

Alex said 18. “We used to have as many as 30 registered voters,” said Alex, who works the front desk. “But it seems to go down every year.”

But that doesn’t mean that Dixville Notch will fade from significance. You can bet that at midnight on Election Day 2008, the two main presidential candidates and hords of media will all be crammed into the Ballot Room at the Balsams, where the town’s citizens cast their votes.

The nearest town, 12 miles away, doesn’t go to the polls until 8 a.m.

People come to the Balsams to see this ballot room, which is really just a meeting room with walls festooned with pictures and newspaper articles from past elections. But people also come for the golf, an old Donald Ross track that sits along the ridgeline above the valley.

I am checking that out at first light tomorrow morning.

Golfing in Maine? You'll have some great beer to choose from

NEWRY, Maine - I’m sitting on the slopes of Sunday River Ski Mountain, at the Sunday River Brewing Co., drinking the Sunday River Summer. Yeah, it’s Fall, I know, but this brew is seriously quaffable.

Which got me thinking about some of the secondary benefits of golfing in Maine. Pretty much everywhere you’ll end up will have a microbrewery nearby. This state is replete with really solid local brews - in Carabassett Valley, in Farmington, in nearby Bethel. Check out the Granary Brewpub in Farmington, the Sugarloaf Brewing Co. in Carabassett Valley, or stuff from the Casco Bay Brewing Co. or Stone Coast Brewing Co. in Sunday River.

Indeed, you could almost tailor your Maine golf vacation along a beer trail. And it’s not just in Maine: New England has always had a good tradition of local brewing, and even the beers that have long since ceased being local secrets and have entered wider distribution are still loyally drunk by locals.

In a few days I’ll be in Vermont, and I’m already anticipating some Catamount seasonal or something from Otter Creek.

Hunting for pearls at Sugarloaf Golf Club

CARABASSETT VALLEY, Maine – If you play Sugarloaf Golf Club here, then you’ll quickly learn all about Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s ‘String of Pearls’.

Jones designed the course about 20 years ago. The string consists of Nos. 10-15 that wind along the southern branch of the Carabassett River (some say ‘pearls’ come from all the boulders that are strewn along the riverbed and take up position along side, or in the middle of, the holes.

It’s as impressive a series of holes as you’ll find anywhere. No. 10 is an easy par 4 with breathtaking views (and a tee shot to a fairway 165-feet below). No. 11 is a par 3 equally as elevated. No. 12 is a reachable par 5 with the river running down its left hand side. No. 13 is a longish par 4 that’s narrow and sloping. Nos. 14 and 15 are the signatures, a par 4 and par 3, respectively, that each include greens completely surrounded by the rocky river, giving golfers two very demanding forced carries.

Jones as had a little friendly squabble with the club in recent years. The club considers No. 10 to be the course’s signature hole (tough to argue with the view). Jones says the course’s signature hole is No. 15. Who wins? Both, I guess.

When Jones a few some years back came out with his book The Golf Courses of Robert Trent Jones Jr. the cover shot is No. 15 at Sugarloaf Golf Club.

Play golf in New England's Fall

BELGRADE LAKES, Maine - New Englanders consider Fall their birthright, the best time of year.

On about this time of year, especially up here, summer is a distant memory (it probably only lasted two months or so anyway). The days grow increasingly short, and there is a bite to the air, a suggestion of something not that far off, maybe only a week or two away: the first frost. From there, well, it’s a ski ramp down into winter.

But that’s in a little bit. Now there’s only the crispness leading the way. Oh, did I mention the leaves? Yellows, crimsons, scarlets - whole forests that look like canvases sponge-painted bright by Bob Ross.

It was Steinbeck who said that the beauty of the Fall in New England is so all encompassing, so vast , that you simply cannot remember one fall from the next - so that each year it comes rather as a surprise.

Sorry for all this drip. But I’m a New Englander, and I’ve been away from this for too long.

It’s in this spirit that I began today a little tour through some favorite old New England haunts, and I aim to play golf along the way. I’m making my way south, slowly, and my goal is to play at least a round or two, hopefully more, in every state I pass through.

Things got off to a good start today, in the western lake region of Maine, 15 miles out of the state capital, Augusta. Belgrade Lakes Golf Club runs improbably along a spit of land between the lake they like to call Great Pond and a long inlet. It’s a beautiful piece of land, and the golf course itself throws a lot of different terrain at you, everything from long, flat fairways to ridgelines that can either elevate a green or a tee.

It’s a player-friendly track, but no push-over. There’s plenty of holes you can score on - and when you don’t, you’re left scratching your head and wondering “What happened?” (Answer = the greens).

The folks here take pride in the conditioning of the course. Greens run firm and true, the fairways are well cropped, and the rough is deeper than you’ll find on a lot of public courses.

But the best part is that this place is all about golf. There’s no clubhouse, no 19th hole, no driving range, barely a parking lot. It’s just 18. Holes. Of. Golf. Period.

I’m off for the Carrabassett Valley tomorrow for two rounds at Sugarloaf - one of Golf Digest’s 100 best public courses in the country.

Check back soon at WorldGolf.com for my full review of Belgrade Lakes, plus a photo gallery.

And if you live in New England, I’ll keep an eye out for you on the road.

Mike Weir beats Tiger Woods in Presidents Cup

MONTREAL - Mike Weir did today what few have done: Survive a Tiger Woods comeback.

Trailing by one stroke with two holes to play, Weir held on to beat Woods 1-up in what was today’s most highly anticipated match-up.

Woods was down by as many as three points, but went on a torrid run on the back nine, winning four or five holes. But Woods could not close the deal on the 17, barely missing his birdie putt. Weir stepped up and made birdie.

On 18, the first time Woods had played the hole this week, his drive found the tall grass near the water. He ended up in the green side bunker in three. With Weir 15 feet from the pin, Woods needed to hole his chip. He nearly did, the ball stopped a foot short of the hole.

Woods then conceded the match.

“I had to play my absolute best today to beat him. It was a heck of a match,” Weir said.

The United States wins Presidents Cup

MONTREAL - The United States has won the 2007 Presidents Cup today, after Stewart Cink clinched it by beating Nick O’Hern 6 and 4.

It is the first time the Americans have won the Presidents Cup outside the U.S.

Earlier, Phil Mickelson bested Vijay Singh 5 and 4, and Scott Verplank beat Rory Sabbatini 2 and 1.

Tiger Woods and Mike Weir are all square heading into 18.

Phil Mickelson has Vijay Singh for lunch

MONTREAL - Phil Mickelson has put the first point on the board today for the American side at the Presidents Cup with a romp over Vijay Singh, 5 and 4.

This could have been a real battle. Instead, Vijay left his game at home. Lefty had his way with the Fijian, making birdies at Nos. 2, 10 and 12. Singh did his part to help, making bogey on Nos. 3 and 6.

The points now stand 15.5 to 7.5 in favor of the Americans. The Internationals are leading in only three matches, the Americans in six and three matches are all square.

Presidents Cup: The four other matches you should be following

MONTREAL - Driving into the Presidents Cup today, I saw a sign outside a cheap hotel that read, simply, ‘Go Mike’.

There’s probably scores of those signs all over the place here today, because the biggest story in Canada is Mike Weir’s match-up against World No. 1 Tiger Woods.

There’s no denying the draw in this singles pairing, and given the fact that the Presidents Cup itself could well be won after the first three matches (the United States only needs three points to win), the Weir-Woods head-to-head will still give us a reason to stay tuned (there’s no way the fairways would be remotely as packed as they are today without this match).

Still, there are 11 other singles matches going off today, and a glance down the sheet reveals some intriguing pairings. Of course you’re going to be watching Woods and Weir. But here are four other matches you should follow as well.

Phil Mickelson vs. Vijay Singh: For anyone who’d hoped for a Woods-Rory Sabbatini match-up (for the junk-talking component), the Mickelson-Singh match-up brings a little bit of that flavor, the idea that these two guys, not the best of friends, will go at it out there.

There’s no love loss between Mickelson and Singh, since that 2005 dust-up at the Masters when Singh, playing with Mickelson, called a rules official and challenged the length of Mickelson’s spikes. Mickelson got a pass from the official, but the two had a heated exchange in the locker room following the round.

Nicklaus, asked if anything went into the decision to pit Lefty against Singh, said no. Player had simply thrown Singh out there, and Nicklaus looked at who had not been assigned a match. Not sure I buy that one.

Woody Austin vs. Angel Cabrera: There’s been no more gutsy player out there this week than Austin. Sure, his record (1-0-3)isn’t so hot, but it’s those halves that have made such a big difference to the American team. Austin singled handedly earned a crucial halve on Friday when partnered with David Toms by making birdie on the last three holes in their match against Rory Sabbatini and Trevor Immelman. Then yesterday, in the afternoon four-balls, Austin, partnered with Mickelson, made a crucial birdie on 17 to help eventually earn another half point, this time against Adam Scott and Retief Goosen. When other players say “I’m just thrilled to be here,” it always smacks of sports cliche. This guy actually means it .

Cabrera has played better this week than his record (1-2) indicates - 10 birdies in his four-ball matches alone. Plus, he had to carry his Saturday partner, K.J. Choi, in his four-ball match against Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink, and might’ve won that match had Choi been able to make any putts. He’s a formidable presence on the golf course, and a crowd favorite.

Zach Johnson vs. Adam Scott: I think some of the bigger matches of the day could go against the U.S. It’s the ’smaller matches’, if you will, that could help keep the U.S. momentum going, and one of those matches is Johnson-Scott.

Both have played well all week. Johnson’s been steady, hasn’t lost a match all week, and though he hasn’t made many birdies, he hasn’t made many bogeys either. Scott hasn’t won a match yet, but he’s had a hot putter: Eight birdies in his four-ball matches.

Hunter Mahan vs. K.J. Choi: This should be a W in the International Team column, but Choi has been ineffectual this week. He’s struggled with the putter, and there have been questions about his health - though Player denies that there’s anything wrong with Choi.

Choi’s had a hell of a year - but so has Mahan. This is another late match that could factor into things, if the International Team can manage to mount a charge in earlier matches.

The Presidents Cup’s biggest slap in the face

This goes to the decision to put Jim Furyk in the day’s last match, against Retief Goosen. In any other event, putting Furyk in the anchor spot would be a vote of confidence, like saying the whole Cup could come down to the wire and there needs to be someone down there who can get the deciding point. But with the U.S. only needing to win three matches all day, there is little likelihood that the Cup will be decided by the 34th match. This is a meaningless match-up.

And it’s a slap in the face to Furyk. With perhaps the exception of David Toms, there has been no more steady player on either side than Furyk. He’s 3-1 in the Presidents Cup this year, has scored three points for the U.S., and he’s a veteran of past Presidents and Ryder cups. He should have been given a match in the meat of the order. Instead, he’s playing dead last, against a player who is 2-2 this week, and the sides of the fairways will be quiet save for the faraway roars of other matches that might matter.