One tournament that could use a boost is this month's Bob Hope Classic. Phil Mickelson gave life to the gathering in the desert until tournament organizers introduced the hated, ultra-windy Classic Club into the rotation in 2006. Although the course has since been taken out of the rota, Mickelson hasn't returned since shooting a wind-blown final-round 78 there in 2007. (A spokesman says that Left y probably won't be joining the Hope this year, either.)

• When drug-testing was just starting in golf in 2008, Tim Herron was among those who wondered aloud if the first guy who got busted would be left twisting in the wind, without representation or help of any kind from a players' association. That seems to be the case for Doug Barron, who tested positive for testosterone and a beta-blocker at the St. Jude Classic last June. Barron was dealt a one-year suspension by the PGA Tour on Nov. 2, and has had to scramble to put together a legal team. "We need help; we can't just be run over like this," Barron said. "The Tour is trying to bully us out of here. I'm not going to go away. I feel like I have a legitimate case. Out of 50 phone calls from my peers, I've gotten not one negative phone call." Perhaps the Barron case will spur one thing you thought you'd never see: a Tour players' union.

• If you're wondering about Y.E. Yang's uneven play since the PGA Championship, blame his travel schedule. "We left for Korea the evening of the Presidents Cup and arrived in Seoul at 5 a.m.," says Yang's swing coach Brian Mogg. "We went right from the airport to the tee for the skins game. Yang played a 72-hole tournament, finishing 10th. We left Korea and got to Bermuda Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. just before he was to tee off in a pro-am." Mogg says that once Yang gets more rest and time to work on his game, he will prove that he is not a "one-win wonder."