- The Florida Difference:  Through 52 holes of the rain-interrupted WGC-CA Championship, Phil Mickelson is tied for 1st perhaps the PGA Tour’s more significant statistical categories, greens in regulation – yet amazingly, on the leaderboard he stands tied for 19th, some nine shots behind leader Geoff Ogilvy.  Suffice to say that seldom do we see this sort of discrepancy, for anyone hitting 76.9% of their greens in regulation almost cannot help but linger close to the lead…unless, of course, they’re struggling with the often-grainy Bermuda greens of South Florida.  And therein lies Mickelson’s problem, for he’s currently 60th in putts per green hit in regulation which, in a PGA Tour event, not surprisingly spells D-O-O-M.  And this South Florida conundrum is hardly making its debut with Mickelson; Tom Watson recorded 39 official PGA Tour victories during his Hall of Fame career, not a single one in Florida.  Conversely, Andy Bean, a native of the Sunshine State, won eleven times, four of which were on his native soil.  With that kind discrepancy, it’s no wonder Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods all moved there...
 
- Reversal Of Fortune:  Things seem to be trending upward for former world top 5 Retief Goosen, who is looking to recover from a late 2007-early 2008 slump.  Goosen began his ’08 campaign by missing the cut badly at Riviera, losing in the first round at the WGC Match Play, tying for 60th at the Honda and missing the cut at the PODS Championship in Tampa.  But a tie for 14th at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational included a pair of weekend 68s, and through 49 weather-delayed holes this week, he stands eighth at the WGC-CA Championship, and five under par through 13 holes on Saturday.  It should be noted, however, that Goosen’s “slump” actually not such a bad run by mortal standards, for while he has, in fact, logged only a single official top 10 worldwide since last year’s Masters (and that was a first-round loss in the 16 man World Match Play, which rather shakily counts as a T9), he missed only four cuts during this period – the same as Jim Furyk and one less than Phil Mickelson.
 
- Numbers Small And Big:  It was only one week ago that our Saturday Round of the Day was Nick Watney’s 70 at Bay Hill, an afternoon made unique by the recording of a pair of eagles and and eight, the latter recorded on the converted par-4 16th.  Well, apparently such a round isn’t as rare as one might think because Sweden’s Daniel Chopra essentially equaled it at Doral yesterday, eagling both front-nine par 5s (the first and the 8th) to turn in 30, before racking up eight big strokes at the 603-yard 12th.  It’s a funny game.

Saturday’s Semi-Complete Round of the Day

Proving rumors of his slowing down (just a little) to be greatly exaggerated, Vijay Singh recorded seven birdies and an eagle through his first 16 holes at the WGC-CA Championship, lifting himself from 20th to a tie for 3rd before rain curtailed play.  Of course, if he knocks it in the water and doubles the 18th tomorrow morning, this choice will look silly, but for now…

- Overnight UPDATE: It was a 50-50 split in the Far East for a pair of vaunted Korean teenagers.  In Japan, 19-year-old Ji-Yai Shin went to sudden death before defeating Sakura Yokomine at the PRGR Ladies, claiming her first official title on a tour other then the KLPGA.  Sixteen-year-old Seung-yul Noh did not fare as well on the men's side, however, his closing 71 at the Asian Tour International being good enough only for second when Taiwan's Lin Wen-Tang carded a closing 64.