It is a rare thing in the golf literary world when a single writer has two books published at virtually the same moment, but Vermont-based author Bob Labbance has managed to do just that.  One of the game’s great contemporary historians, Labbance has long been a first-class researcher, and his skills are amply displayed in each of these fine volumes, which carry us all the way back to, well...  My goodness, even before Tiger Woods.

The first title, co-authored with St. Andrews (NY) Golf Club curator Brian Siplo, is The Vardon Invasion: Harry’s Triumphant 1900 American Tour (Ann Arbor, MI: Sports Media Group, 204pp, 2008), and I must state up front...  (Continue)

- Tiger Vs. Ben:  Following Tiger Woods’ recent victory at Bay Hill, much attention was paid – quite justifiably, to be sure – to Woods’ equaling Ben Hogan’s career record of 64 wins.  Part of the congratulatory chorus, however, was predicated upon the implied notion that Tiger’s record was inherently more impressive, having been accumulated by the tender age of 32.  That he has done so much so fast is, undeniably, a special thing, but here’s an interesting point to consider:  Tiger won his 64th event in his 233rd official PGA Tour start, a dazzling accomplishment in that it equates to a 27.5% winning percentage.  Hogan, on the other hand, was forced by his 1949 car accident to follow an entirely different sort of schedule, playing only a handful of events each year from 1950 onward.  Consequently, while Hogan was 46 at the time of his 64th and final victory (the 1959 Colonial), he claimed it in only his 266th start, for a 24.1% average.  More interestingly, Hogan’s 1959 win can almost be viewed as a fluke, for it was separated from his last seriously competitive season (1953) by six years and 18 official starts.  Thus if we consider only Hogan’s “primary” years, he amassed 63 wins in 245 starts, a 25.7% rate that nearly matches the 27.2% average (63/232) that Tiger managed in claiming his first 63 titles.  This is not an attempt at building up Hogan or diminishing Woods, but rather just a reminder that a whole lot of golf’s new vs. old comparisons are far less simple than they may at first appear.

- Welcome Back:  After missing the last seven months with rheumatic pain in his shoulder and groin, Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal makes a cautious comeback this week at the European Tour’s Andalucia Open.  A 29-time winner worldwide, including the 1994 and ’99 Masters, the 42-year-old Olazabal’s last appearance came at August’s PGA Championship, where he missed the cut.  He’s playing this week on a sponsor exemption, but is downplaying expectations significantly, stating “I am going to test myself and see how I feel, how does my body react. I am coming to the Aloha Golf Club with doubts, I am not sure whether it will be a matter of just one week and then back home, or I can continue playing some more tournaments."  Olazabal is clearly still young enough to have some great golf left in front of him…if his body will cooperate.

- Too Silly For Silly Season?:  I’m not sure whether it’s the general pointlessness of the concept or the Golf Channel announcers’ constant fawning over “this great event,” but the Tavistock Cup strikes me as an event that belongs in late March; it’s way too silly to embarrass Autumn’s vaunted Silly Season with.  Fair enough; when it’s played on a Monday and Tuesday, it’s easy enough to ignore.  The more pressing question is this: If Tiger Woods had somehow found a way to win at Doral last weekend, how many of golf’s talking heads would today be arguing that Isleworth’s victory over Lake Nona in the epic event simply must count towards Tiger’s ongoing streak?

- Quotable:  “I obviously didn't read the lie very well the first chip, and then the second chip was traveling. I guess that's why you want to hit it straight” – Geoff Ogilvy on holing his fast-moving third shot – which rattled in off the flagstick for a crucial par – during the final round of the WGC-CA Championship.

- Easy Come, Easy Go:  For the many of you who dedicated off-season time to studying the Japanese ladies schedule...   The JLPGA had originally intended to spend this week playing its first-ever overseas event, a tournament tentatively named the JLPGA Australian Championship.  It was cancelled  after potential sponsorship deals fell through amidst the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, leaving the 37-event tour with an open slot this week, and demonstrating, I suppose, that we really are in a world economy now.

With the Florida swing (and its WGC climax at Doral) now behind us, this figures to be a less-than-inspiring week on three continents - though the LPGA at least brings together a strong field at the Safeway International.  Of course, as we have seen already this year, lesser fields do not always mean lesser drama...

PGA Tour:  Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Site: TPC Louisiana  -  Avondale, LA
Yards: 7,341 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Nick Watney  273   (beat Ken Duke by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: Steve Stricker (4), Jim Furyk (9), Padraig Harrington (11), Stewart Cink (13) and  Zach Johnson (20)   Other Notables: Mark Calcavecchia, Chris DiMarco, Retief Goosen, Davis Love III, David Toms and Mike Weir

Notes: This is the event’s third visit to the Pete Dye-design TPC Louisiana, having moved there after 16 years at the Jack Nicklaus-designed English Turn in 2006..........The tournament made one final visit to English Turn in 2006 after Hurrican katrina badly damaged the TPC..........New Orleans is one of the PGA Tour’s older stops, dating to Gene Sarazen’s one-shot victory over Lighthorse Harry Cooper at the Metairie Country Club in 1932..........Hall-of-Famers Cooper, Henry Picard, Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum and Byron Nelson all won on the City Park municipal layout prior to 1950, while Casper, Nicklaus, Player, Trevino, Watson, Ballesteros and Crenshaw all claimed the title during a 26-year run (1963-1988) at Lakewood Country Club..........Then rookie Kyle Reifers set the TPC course record with a 64 in 2007..........Indicative of the event’s weaker new millennium fields is the fact that 2007 winner Nick Watney was the fifth champion in the last six years to make New Orleans their first career win.

                       ENTRANTS         WEBSITE         GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

European PGA Tours:  MAPFRE Open de Andalucia

Site: Aloha Golf Club  -  Andalucia, Spain
Yards: 6,881     Par: 72    
Defending: Lee Westwood 268   (beat Fredrik Andersson-Hed and Phillip Archer by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: Lee Westwood (20) and Martin Kaymer (25)   Other Notables: Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke, David Frost, Paul Lawrie and Jose Maria Olazabal.

Notes: While most of the E Tour’s top stars are taking the week off following several weeks playing in Florida, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer are scheduled to make the trip home in time to play..........Westwood fortunately finished his Sunday round at Doral before the rains came and presumably made a timely getaway; Kaymer was on the 18th hole and thus had to layover until Monday..........This event was played from 1992-2000 under the name Turespana Masters rotating among a number of sites and claiming Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez (twice) among its winners..........The host Aloha Golf Club, a well-thought-of 1975 Javier Arana design, sits in Nueva Andalucia’s “Golf Valley” and is flanked closely by a pair of well-known Robert Trent Jones layouts, Los Naranjos and Las Brisas, the latter having hosted the 1989 World Cup under its former name, the Nueva Andalucia Golf Club..........Jose Maria Olazabal, who has missed the last seven months with severe rheumatic pain, has entered on a late sponsor exemption, and will surely be the center of attention as a favorite son and past champion.

                       ENTRANTS         WEBSITE         GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Sunshine Tour:  Chainama Hills Zambia Open

Site: Chainama Hills Golf Club – Lusaka, Zambia
Metres: 6,578     Par: 72
Defending: Steve Basson 206  (beat Lindani Ndwandwe by 1)
Field:     World Top 25:   None  Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Trevor Moore, Des Terblanche.

Notes: Stuck largely by itself as the only Sunshine event in March, the Zambia Open will draw among the weakest fields of the year, with few of South Africa’s current stars even in the country at present..........The event dates to the late 70s, with virtually all of its early winners being U.K. pros fleeing south for the winter..........South African Steve Basson is actually a two-time defending champion, having won at the Nchanga Golf Club in 2006 as well..........The host club is probably called the Chainama Hills Golf Club; it appears most frequently on the internet with this spelling, though the Sunshine Tour website lists it alternately (presumably by mistake) as “Chinama” and “Chimama.”

                       ENTRANTS         WEBSITE         GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

LPGA Tour:  Safeway International

Site: Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club (Prospector course)   -  Superstition Mountain, AZ
Yards: 6,662 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Lorena Ochoa  270   (beat Suzann Pettersen by 2)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Rolex Top 10 except Ji-Yai Shin (7), plus every top 30 regularly competing in America   Other Notables: Laura Davies, Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann

Notes: Dating to 1980, this is one of the LPGA’s longer running, more-prestigious events, including Hall-of-Famers Betsy King, Pat Bradley (twice), Patty Sheehan, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam (thrice), Se Ri Pak and Juli Inkster, plus notables Jan Stephenson, Beth Daniel, Liselotte Neumann and, on fou straight occasions from 1994-97, Laura Davies..........This was world number one Lorena Ochoa’s first win of 2007, and provided a foreshadowing of the entire season as she edged world number two Suzann Pettersen by two..........Has been at the Nicklaus-designed Prospector course at Superstition Mountain for four years after a 17-year run at the toney Moon Valley Country Club, and before that a four-year visit to the Arizona Biltmore Resort..........With Safeway ending its sponsorship of the event after this season, the future of this high-end event is presently uncertain.

                       ENTRANTS         WEBSITE         GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Champions Tour:  Ginn Championship Hammock Beach Resort

Site: Ocean Course at Hammock Beach  -  Palm Coast, FL
Yards: 7,113 yds     Par: 72    
Defending: Keith Fergus  204   (beat Hale Irwin and Mark O’Meara by 1)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup to 20 except Fulton Allem (16)   Other Notables: Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Sandy Lyle, Larry Nelson, Gary Player, Nick Price, Dave Stockton, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam and Fuzzy Zoeller

Notes: Another typically strong Champions field assembles at the Nicklaus-designed Ocean course, a solid, wind-exposed track capable of presenting a touch more challenge than some of the tour's more "relaxed" tests..........Most notable among the “Other Notables” is Tom Watson, making only his second official start of 2008..........Seventy-two-year-old Gary Player is making his fourth start, and why not?  He’s equaled or bettered his age three times in nine ’08 rounds, and only been higher than 75 once.

                       ENTRANTS         WEBSITE         GOLF COURSE          AERIAL

Elsewhere…
After taking a month off to recover from jetlag after visits to Central America and Australia, the Nationwide Tour recommences at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open, played at Le Triomphe Country Club in Broussard.  The European Challenge Tour, meanwhile, begins a three-week swing through South America (jointly sponsored by the Tour de las Americas) at Argentina’s Abierto del Centro, the European Seniors make their maiden visit to the Azores for the Azores Senior Open, and the Omega China Tour visit Xiamen for the Dell Championship.

Turns out - surprise, surprise - that Tiger won't be going undefeated after all.  Unfortunately, with so many of the world's elite slugging it out at Doral, not a lot was left over field-wise for Puerto Rico, Portugal or Thailand - though with a playoff at Madeira Island and a 16-year-old contending in Asia, there was still a fair amount worthy of our attention.

PGA, European, Asian & Australasian Tours:  WGC-CA Championship – Miami, FL

So much for the undefeated season.  As was utterly inevitable, the odds caught up with Tiger Woods at the WGC-CA Championship, for Woods hardly played bad golf, but the putts weren’t falling and in the end, Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy fired a 17-under-par 271 and held on for a wire-to-wire victory and his second WGC title.  In an event marred by multiple rain delays and not completed until early Monday morning, Ogilvy’s challenge was as much mental and physical, as he managed the rare feat of having to sleep with the lead for four consecutive night.  That extra fourth night saw him awaken two strokes ahead of Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, and three up on a Graeme Storm and a resurgent Retief Goosen, with nine holes left to play, a stretch in which Ogilvy reeled off nine uninterrupted pars to hang on and win by one.  The key came at the long par-3 13th where, after flubbing his first chip from a strange lie, he holed his fast-moving second when it hit the pin flush and fell in.  That one break was all the talented Ogilvy needed, and while nearly all of his pursuers posted late birdies to make it close, there simply weren’t enough holes left to catch him.  Woods, for his part, had seven holes to play on Monday, and gamely made three birdies, but his five-shot deficit was just too steep.  Ogilvy’s off-season included the birth of his second child and a correspondingly limited practice regimen, hence his slow start on the West Coast where he missed his first three cuts.  The victory, his first since the 2006 U.S. Open, lifts him back to 10th in the world ranking and, more importantly, provides a confidence boost to this, one of the few players on Tour who seems unflappable enough to seriously compete with the indomitable Woods.

                         FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS

                   INTERVIEWS:     OGILVY     WOODS     SINGH     FURYK     GOOSEN
 
 
PGA Tour:  Puerto Rico Open – Rio Grande, Puerto Rico

Just like February’s Mayakoba Classic, the Puerto Rico Open was played opposite a WGC event, affording numerous second-tier players a chance to pad their official earnings or, perhaps, even gain a rare victory.  With a closing 70 and a 274 total, 43-year-old Greg Kraft did just that, claiming his first PGA Tour title by a single shot over Bo Van Pelt and two-time Tour winner Jerry Kelly.  Van Pelt, who held the second and third-round lead, could only manage an up-and-down 72 on Sunday, while Kelly began the round one back of Kraft before maintaining the margin with a 70 of his own.  The victory was an emotional one for Kraft, who contracted Valley fever at the 2002 Tucson Open and has played only one full season on the PGA Tour (2006) since.  Though accomplished against an obviously lighter field, the win buys Kraft full playing privileges through 2010, which may at this point be more valuable to him than even the $630,000 paycheck.

                         FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS

                                                     INTERVIEW:     KRAFT
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Madeira Island Open – Madeira Island, Portugal

Twelve years ago, Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth defeated a young South African named Hennie Otto in a nine-hole sudden death marathon to win the Scottish Amateur Stroke play title.  This weekend in Portugal, history repeated itself.  Otto, now a 31-year-old with seven career wins on the Sunshine Tour, has never tasted victory outside of Africa, yet for 54 holes of the Madeira Island Open, he appeared to be on the cusp.  Stringing together three straight 67s, he held a five-shot lead going into Sunday’s finale, then shot a hold-it-together 72 which, though hardly terrible, left the door slightly ajar.  Forsyth, who’d missed the cut in his first five 2008 E Tour starts, obligingly stepped in, going out in 33 before finally taking the lead with a birdie at the 14th.  He three-putted the 17th for bogey, however, and after both men logged clutch birdies at the last to deadlock on 273, Forsyth ended this playoff quickly, with a birdie on the first extra hole.  The victory is Forsyth’s second on the E Tour, the first coming at the 2002 Malaysian Open.

                         FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          E TOUR STATS
 
 
Asian Tour:  Asian Tour International – Chonburi, Thailand

For three days, and rounds of 64-67-68, 16-year-old Korean professional Seung-yul Noh actually appeared on the verge of winning his first Asian Tour title, as he shared a two stroke lead at the Asian Tour International with Scotland’s Ross Bain.  But on Sunday, 33-year-old veteran Lin Wen-tang of Taiwan opened his round birdie-eagle and never looked back, ultimately shooting 64 for a 265 total and his third Asian victory since 2006.  Despite his obvious inexperience, Noh held up reasonably well, standing three under par before a double-bogey at the 16th dropped him to a 71 and his second runner-up finish of the young 2008 campaign.  Bain, on the other hand, struggled.  His Friday 62 was easily the tournament’s low round, and he followed it up effectively with a Saturday 67, but the tank ran dry on Sunday as a triple-bogey at the par-3 third triggered a disappointing 76, dropping him all the way to 20th.

                         FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          ASIAN STATS
 
 
Elsewhere…

Korea’s teenage sensation, 19-year-old Ji-Yai Shin, claimed her first victory beyond her native tour by defeating Sakura Yokomine on the first hole of sudden death at the JLPGA’s PRGR Ladies.  In a strange finish, Shin double-bogeyed the 16th hole to fall two behind, only to stumble into overtime when Yokomine returned the favor by doubling the last, deadlocking the pair at 212.

Tim Finchem is one crafty operator.
 
Keeping sponsors lined up even during economic downturns, bamboozling the major networks (save for ABC/ESPN) into believing that the FedEx Cup was worth breaking the bank for, managing somehow to run a business without letting the business’s owners (the players) see their own books...  It’s a delicate balancing act to be sure, and one which, in all seriousness, requires a masterful administrator capable of shaping an enormously diverse set of interests into a coherent, relatively smooth-running machine.
 
This week we observe one of Finchem’s pet projects, part two of the annual three-event opus known as the World Golf Championships...  (Continue)

- 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.

- Ogilvy’s Return, Act II:  Perhaps I spoke just a shade too soon when, on March 9th, I commented on Geoff Ogilvy’s return to form, for the talented Australian finished “only” 10th that week in Tampa, then tied for 14th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.  His closing round at Bay Hill, however, was a stellar 66, which matched tournament winner Tiger Woods for the lowest score of the day, and perhaps set the stage for Oglivy’s exceptional play through two rounds at the WGC-CA Championship, where his 65-67 start lead Woods by one.  With Adam Scott trailing by three and nobody else closer than six, this could well evolve into a two-man battle over the weekend, a particularly interesting prospect given my longstanding sense that Ogilvy is one of the few players out there with the mental make-up to hold together under a Woods onslaught.  I guess we’ll be finding out shortly…

- Quotable:  “It's like public speaking in front of ten people is quite awkward, but 1,000 is easier because you can kind of blend it out. It's quite similar, I think. If you hit a putt and there's one person standing directly behind the hole, it's really quite off-putting. But if there's a whole load of people you don't really notice any of them.” – Geoff Ogilvy on dealing with Tiger’s massive galleries.

- Young(er) Guns:  Much attention has been paid to Japan’s 16-year-old phenom Ryo Ishikawa, and rightly so; Ishikawa won a full-fledged Japan Tour event, the 2007 Munsingwear Open, as a 15-year-old amateur.  But now comes word of Korea’s Noh Seung-yul, another 16-year-old professional with a fast-growing  résumé.  Noh was the 2005 Korean Amateur champion and twice a top-10 finisher in major Korean professional events during 2006.  Turning pro late in 2007, he served notice at the Asian Tour’s SAIL Open in February, where he tied for second with Jyoti Randhawa and Scott Hend, four shots behind New Zealand’s red-hot Mark Brown.  He has come to the fore again this week as co-leader through the first 30 holes of the weather-interrupted Asian Tour International , shooting 64 on Thursday and standing five under par through 12 holes when darkness halted play on Friday afternoon.  And if you’re wondering why more wasn’t made of his groundbreaking finish at the SAIL Open, the answer is that the Asian Tour inexplicably neglected to mention his age, rookie status, etc. in their official press release on the event.  Perhaps their P.R. staff was too busy trying to craft their image as “the official sanctioning body for professional golf in Asia” to notice.

- Lost In Translation:  Once again battling our way through the JLPGA’s hugely garbled “translated” website, we find that another highly talented Korean teen, Ji-Yai Shin, is presently tied for first with Sakura Yokomine mid-way through round two of the PRGR Ladies Cup.  I’ll attempt to keep an eye on this over the weekend but for any interested parties, live scoring is available here.  Click on the “Realtime Scoring” link at upper right, then “To English” at the top-left of the scoring table – and bear in mind that the JLPGA only keeps this leaderboard active during live play.

- Subtly Quotable:  “Palmer To Host 50th Hope Classic; Will Finally Get To See The Classic Club In Person” – Headline announcing Arnold Palmer’s appointment at GeoffShackelford.com.

Friday's Round of the Day

Scotland's Ross Bain may be ranked 510th in the world but that didn't stop him from firing a stunning 10-under-par 62 during the second round of the Asia Tour International in Thailand.  Bain made and eagle and eight birdies over the marginally difficult Pattana Golf Resort layout, lifting himself from 34th all the way to 3rd.

- A World Championship After All:  International players are certainly right to complain that when every event is played in the United States, the title “World Golf Championship” is at best a misnomer, and at worst downright offensive.  But one look at Thursday’s leaderboard at the WGC-CA Championship indicates that on the golf course at least, the event remains highly international.  Indeed, among the top 18 finishers, only four hail from the United States – more than any other single country, granted, but representing a percentage well shy of the sort of domination routinely demonstrated by American golfers from the late 1920s right up into the 1990s.  So yes, the internationals are right to gripe about always having to travel here to play in these things, but at least they’ll have the satisfaction of taking a whole lot of American dollars with them when they go home.
 
- Small Fishes In A Big Pond: With he exception of the Match Play (which simply seeds the top 64 players in the world) one major charm of the WGC events is that, much like the Masters, they offer the stars of the distant Asian, South African and Japan tours an exempted opportunity to venture onto the international stage with the big boys.  Once upon a time, such appearances might well have seemed only ceremonial; indeed, when a Chen Ching-Po, Pete Nakamura or Takaaki Kono made the cut at Augusta, it was generally hailed as news.  So what about today?  Tied for 9th at Doral are Japan’s Toru Taniguchi and Ryuji Imada (though Imada has resided stateside since his teens), as well as India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, all of whom shot four-under-par 68s.  Also notable among players who are not regulars in either America or Europe was Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat, whose 70 places him tied for 28th.  Fairing less well were South Africa’s Andrew McCLardy, James Kingston and Louis Oosthuizen, India’s S.S.P. Chowrasia, and China’s Liang Wen-Chong, all of whom carded two-over-par 74s.

- Quotable: "He was laying back and I'm 40 yards ahead of him on most holes, yet he shoots 66 and beats me by 3 shots. He really thinks his way around a golf course." - Sean O'Hair on Tiger Wood's performance at Bay Hill.

Thursday's Round of the Day

On Doral's famed Blue Monster course, Geoff Ogilvy birdied five of his first eight holes, then added two more at the 12th and downwind 18th to card a 65 at the WGC-CA Championships.  As one of the few players other than Tiger woods to claim a WGC title, it was a nice beginning...

This coming attraction is already here, set to make his second American stroke play start this week at Doral.  Oh yes, by definition, he is unquestionably the top male under-25 golfer on the planet...

Martin Kaymer

Born: December 28, 1984  -  Dusseldorf, Germany

Hgt: 6’1”     Wgt: 165 lbs     Turned Pro: 2005

Tours: European

Professional Wins (3): 2008: Abu Dhabi Championship   +   2 European Challenge Tour titles (2006).

Generally conceded to be Germany’s top prospect since Bernhard Langer, Kaymer first came to international light in 2004, when he represented the Fatherland at the 2004 World Amateur Team Championships and claimed both the German Closed and Austrian Amateurs.  The following season he added the German Match and Stroke Play titles before turning professional, where he quickly found success on the Challenge Tour, winning in France and his hometown of Dusseldorf, and finishing 4th in earnings.  Promoted to the European Tour for 2007, he ranked 41st in the Order of Merit, was named Rookie of the Year, and finished the season ranked 76th in the world.  Proving his initial success no fluke, he then opened 2008 with his first E Tour victory, beating Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood by four strokes in Abu Dhabi.  Two weeks later, he finished 2nd to Tiger Woods in Dubai, thus cementing his position as the only player under 25 years of age currently ranked among the world top 50 (he is presently 23rd).  With a first-round loss at the WGC-Match Play in Tucson, and a missed cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he makes his third American start at the WGC-CA Championship at Doral this week.

- More Than OneAsia?:  So much for the notion that the Asian Tour will acquiesce and sign on to the new OneAsia concept anytime soon.  With its announcement of plans to “appeal” the OneAsia move to the International Federation of PGA Tours, the Asian circuit seems to have laid down the gauntlet…for now.  I can, at some level, understand the Asian Tour’s reticence; they have, after all, experienced an impressive level of recent growth which they may not particularly feel like sharing.  Further, an apparent purpose of OneAsia is to compete with the European Tour, but with eight co-sponsored events, the Asian circuit is already effectively in partnership with the E Tour – and why roll the dice with the insurgency if your nest is well-feathered with the established power?  Still, I’m puzzled by several aspects of the Asian Tour’s stance.  To begin with, they repeatedly harp on the notion that they are “the official sanctioning body for professional golf in Asia,” but the last time I checked, OneAsia lynchpin Japan was most definitely a part of Asia, and the Asian Tour has never held any authority there.  Nor, so far as I can tell, do they lord over the Omega China Tour or the new ASEAN developmental tour, so what, I wonder, instills them with such a sense of power?  And if that “official sanctioning body…” stuff sounds familiar, perhaps that’s because they were singing the same lyric several months ago while wrangling with the European Tour over sponsorship of the Indian Masters and the new Ballantine’s Championship.  On that front, the Asians may have had a case (and the events did end up being co-sanctioned) but where they get off claiming sovereignty over markets they’ve never controlled, or calling OneAsia’s highly logical concept “ignorant” is completely beyond me.

- Seeing Which Way The Wind Blows:  E Tour Internal Policy Director Keith Waters was quoted last Friday as suggesting that his organization has a “moral responsibility” to support “existing business partners like the Asian Tour” in the OneAsia dispute…though he also noted that the Euros were keeping their options open.  Writing from half a world away (and clearly not privy to whatever internal machinations are surely in play), it strikes me that the E Tour may shrewdly cite “moral obligation,” but it is certainly in their best short-term interest to back the Asian circuit, without whom they’d likely lose large portions of their winter/early spring schedule.  Of course, what George O’Grady & Co. might really like is a viable OneAsia circuit willing to at least occasionally partner with them on these “off-season” events, allowing the E Tour to fill its Far Eastern slots with more financially enticing tournaments than some of their present less-imposing joint ventures with the Asian Tour.  Thus they keep their options open…

- Check Your Sources:  ""It is hilarious ... I don't know where this comes from.  There's not an ounce of truth to it" were the words used by a Sotheby's Realty spokesperson in echoing claims by Tiger Woods' representatives that a New York Post report of Tiger's buying a $65 million home in the Hamptons is flatly untrue.  Which once again raises the obvious question: When, oh when, will legitimate news organizations stop citing reports from the Post (which famously makes it up as it goes along) as serious news?  Just amazing...

- Statistically Ludicrous:  Our friends at Ladbrokes have Tiger Woods currently listed at 4-6 to win this week’s WGC-CA Championship, absolutely ludicrous odds in a pure statistical sense, but probably an accurate reflection of how the action will shape up.  My old friend The Commodore used to make a lot of money taking Tiger against any two players of your choice, a more intriguing proposition than the Group or Match alternatives widely available on the internet.  With Tiger’s odds less than enticing, and the thought of presently betting against him being really less than enticing, I wonder if bookmakers see any larger-than-normal action on the Madeira Island or Puerto Rico Opens.  Too bad the LPGA is off this week; after Lorena Ochoa’s disastrous week in Mexico, there might have been some real betting interest there...