- In the end, Ji-Yai Shin came impressively close.  The19-year-old Korean finished the Australian Women’s Open with remarkable maturity, racking up final-nine birdies at the 10th, 12th, 13th and 15th en route to a six-under-par 67 and a regulation tie with native Hall-of-Famer Karrie Webb.  But Webb, who birdied the 16th and 17th to close a late two-stroke deficit, won on the second hole of sudden death, claiming her fourth Aussie title and relegating Shin’s maiden victory outside of Korea to another day.  That day figures to come pretty soon, however, and we in America must now wonder just when we’ll begin seeing the world's 7th-ranked player regularly upon our shores.  The Korean Tour, after all - where she won 10 times in 21 2007 starts - is clearly not big enough to hold her.  For more details of Webb’s victory, check out tomorrow’s Week in Review.
 
- Long-hitting J.B. Holmes wowed the golf world two years ago by overpowering the TPC Scottsdale with rounds of 68-64-65-66, and winning the FBR Open in only his sixth PGA Tour start.  Despite the lofty predictions that inevitably sprung from such a display, Holmes has logged only three top-10s since that memorable triumph, but has managed to place himself squarely to the hunt this week with rounds of 69-65-66, good enough for a two-stroke third-round lead over Charles Warren and Jonathan Byrd.  Holmes has cited greater degrees of experience and maturity for this week’s success, and those may indeed be the answer.  Consider: While the sexier explanation is simply to note that the TPC Scottsdale is basically a bomber’s paradise, Holmes actually ranks only 25th in driving distance over the first 54 holes.  Horses For Courses, as some like to say…

- Not to make fun of anyone’s name, but shall we assume that the editors of the Sunshine Tour’s website were demonstrating a bit of humor when they began Saturday’s South African Masters recap with the words “Portly Teboho Sefatsa, who took great inspiration from…”?

Saturday’s Round of the Day

A no-brainer.  Given the common belief that Ernie Els begins 2008 at something of a crossroads, his near-flawless third-round 65 (which jumped him from an eight-man tie for 12th all the way into the lead) could not have come at a better time.  At age 38 and (apparently) recovered from a significant knee injury, the Big Easy is gathering himself for one more big run at the top, pursuing both Tiger Woods and the Masters and U.S. PGA titles that have thus far eluded him.  Should he march on to victory on Sunday and then go on to reach some of those goals, Els very likely will look back and say that it all started right here.

UPDATE: As with the Australian Women’s Open above, dramatic time zone differences require a bit of time-challenged commentary, so…  Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.  A closing 65 in Dubai does it again, with a splendid up-and-down birdie at the last lifting him just beyond the grasp of two very impressive youngsters, Germany’s Martin Kaymer (who finished birdie-birdie-eagle and thus never had a real chance to win) and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen (who bogeyed the par-5 finisher, lest he actually might have).  But the real heartbreak was reserved for Ernie Els who after making back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th, needed only one more down the stretch to force a playoff.  Coming up empty at the 15th-17th, he then boldly went for a winning eagle at the last, pumped his 3 wood approach into the pond, and pretty well torched the larger historical context I’d earlier suggested (just above).  Both Dubai and the Australian Women’s, then, have been classics.  Lets see what Phoenix has in store…