- Major Hype:  It’s upon us again ladies and gentlemen, as the PGA Tour cranks its P.R. machine into overdrive in their unceasing effort to convince the world that the Players Championship somehow counts as a “Fifth Major Championship.”  Make no mistake, I’m a big fan of the Players.  It’s got a powerhouse field competing over one of modern golf design’s most unique and exciting courses – and with the most innovative/controversial hole in the competitive game at the par-3 17th, there is always the guarantee of drama down the homestretch.  In fact, I daresay that it is only the PGA Championship’s place in history – the fact that the winner is forever immortalized as a Major champion – that makes it more compelling viewing (for me) than the Players.  The problem here is that the PGA Tour simply can’t leave well enough alone when it comes to marketing their product – and one really has to wonder if even a single TV viewer or newspaper reader pays any more attention to this already-great event because someone tries to convince them that, like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy, there is a fifth Major championship.  Of course, the argument can be made (and likely is within the hallowed halls of Ponte Vedra Beach) that this sort of hype is okay because while it may not help, it surely can’t hurt the product…but I’m not positive that I agree.  As an example, I’d point to the FedEx Cup which, upon its inception 17 months ago, the Tour tried to ram down the media and public’s throat like a presidential campaign ad.  The overkill became so relentless that when Tour media people began introducing tournament winners in the press tent as “our champion, and the winner of god-knows-how-many FedEx Cup points,” it drew audible groans and laughter from reporters.  Pretty soon the columns began to appear portraying the Cup as, well, not quite the earth-shaking event that Tim Finchem envisioned, and despite the Commissioner’s repeated assurances of its great success, the inaugural FedEx Cup seemed to fall somewhere between the Greater Milwaukee Open and the Tour Championship on most people’s scale of importance.  The Players Championship is a well-established franchise, and thus likely suffers less from this branding overkill…but wouldn’t it be nice if the Tour just let it stand on its own merit?  Enough already.

- Legendarily Quotable:  “Using carefully chosen phrases like "challenge to the modern-day player" and "increased player capability," Dawson, not for the first time, disguised the fact that the current "programme of significant change" that is well under way at every Open venue has virtually nothing whatsoever to do with the players themselves and virtually everything to do with the collective and joint abrogation of responsibility by the R&A and the United States Golf Association when it comes to their (lack of) legislation on the modern golf ball. Had today's equipment been properly regulated over the last decade and a half, it is a safe bet that the likes of Augusta National and the Old Course at St Andrews, to name but two classic courses that have been forced to endure unnecessary change, would not have had to be screwed up to the extent they have been.”  - John Huggan, on R&A Secretary Peter Dawson’s detailing the changes foisted upon Royal Birkdale in preparation for the 2008 Open Championship.

- Playing For Book Money?: With an estimated $19 million dollar annual income – which ought to cover her Stanford tuition with (a little) room to spare – there surely isn’t any pressure on Michelle Wie to earn a massive paycheck at this week’s Michelob Ultra Open in Williamsburg, Virginia.  But coming off yet another wrist injury which has sidelined her since February, one has to assume that the now-18-year-old Wie must feel a bit of internal pressure to begin returning her to the form that made her the most famous early teens golfer since Bobby Jones from 2004-06.  She’s practiced for a solid month with David Leadbetter (what happened to school?  Did he move to Palo Alto?) and, smartly, is downplaying expectations, but with a limited competitive schedule for the second straight year, it’s not like Wie will have a month’s worth of consecutive outings to ease back into form.  Either way, she remains a compelling story – though it also says a great deal about the hugely marketable product that is today’s LPGA that her return is, well, second-level news.  Now, if Wie were to find herself, say, slugging it out with Lorena Ochoa on Sunday…  Well, you never know…