It's official: Lexi Thompson is coming to the LPGA Tour. The 16-year-old phenom who two weeks ago won the Navistar LPGA Classic by five shots, had her petition for full-time membership approved Friday by LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. Here is the full statement:

LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan today approved Lexi Thompson’s petition for LPGA Tour membership beginning in 2012. “Lexi Thompson is a unique talent who continues to grow, develop and mature both on and off the golf course,” Whan said. “I recognized her unique talent when I gave her the opportunity to earn her way onto the LPGA via the 2011 Qualifying Tournament. In the process of earning her way onto the Tour, she beat an elite field at the Navistar LPGA Classic that featured 15 of the top 20 players on the Rolex Rankings and 45 of the top 50 on the LPGA Official Money List. Additionally, her ability to handle the success and disappointment inherent to this game testifies to a level of maturity that I believe makes her capable of handling the emotional rigors of professional golf at the highest level. Therefore, effective at the start of our 2012 season, Lexi will officially become a member of the LPGA Tour.”

Thompson’s win at the Navistar LPGA Classic was her first official LPGA victory and qualified her for the season-ending CME Group Titleholders at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 14-20, 2011. She also jumped 80 spots on the Rolex Rankings to 44th in the world with the victory.

“Clearly, there is great enthusiasm and excitement as Lexi begins her LPGA career,” Whan said. “I think her future is bright and I hope she makes the most of this opportunity.”

By rule, a player between the ages of 15 and 18 years of age must petition the Commissioner for special permission to apply for membership, which Thompson’s management group did on Thursday, Sept. 29.

There are at least three ways a deliveryman can draw the ire of his customers: show up late, show up with the wrong order, show up and steal their golf clubs. Such was the fate of Atlanta Falcons placekicker Matt Bryant [right], whose sticks—valued at more than $3,000—were swiped from his garage by a Chinese-food deliveryman a couple weeks ago. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the bizarre details:

"He went into the open garage, took the clubs, delivered the food and went on his way," said Braselton Police Assistant Chief Lou Solis. Kristian Vail [the deliveryman], who was arrested on Sept. 22, faces felony burglary charges.

Maybe he was looking for Maxfli Noodles?

Investigators found the clubs on the Internet using their serial numbers, Solis said. Vail had traded the clubs and golf bag to Michael Gibson, 22, for 80 Ecstasy pills, Solis said.

All but three of the clubs have been recovered, Solis said. A Midtown jazz club owner returned one club that he said he bought from Gibson for $120, according to Solis. He won't be charged.

One of Bryant's prized clubs—a Scotty Cameron putter—has yet to be recovered. "Matt Bryant wasn't too happy about that," said Solis. 

For Gustafson, talking more nerve-wracking than playing

Pressure isn’t standing over an eight-footer to win a decisive match. Pressure is answering questions under hot, bright lights, in front of a rolling camera, while battling a maddening speech impediment. That’s the challenge Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson faced in the run-up to last week’s Solheim Cup when she agreed to sit for a rare interview with Val Skinner of the Golf Channel. Gustafson this week told Golf Digest’s Stina Sternberg:

"I told Val, 'this is worse than actually playing in the Solheim,' even though I was alone in a room with the camera rolling. I probably sat there for an hour talking, answering questions they had written down. Once I'd done a decent job I tried to improve on it. Then the Golf Channel had to cut out the bad stuff."

When asked if she'd do it again, Gustafson says, "I'd love to do more of this, but it remains to be seen if anyone out there would be interested in putting in the time. It's hard, because I never think [my stutter] is as bad as it actually is. I guess I should know better by now."

Gustafson is too modest to say it, but it was as clutch a performance as we saw all week:

The icing: She went a perfect 4-0 in Ireland to win MVP honors for the Euros.

Mediate recalls the putt “for my life”

Next week marks the one-year anniversary of Rocco Mediate’s thrilling win at the Frys.com Open, which was “the golfing equivalent of a wild game of H-O-R-S-E, with Mediate pouring home shot after improbable shot,” writes Ron Kroichick in the San Francisco Chronicle. Battling a balky arm, Mediate jarred an ace on Thursday and holed out from the fairway for eagle in each of the three ensuing rounds. On Sunday, he faced a five-footer at 18 for the win.

…Mediate knew exactly what was at stake. He would earn a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour if he made the putt, taking him to his 50th birthday in December 2012.

Mediate suspected the arm problem was serious, so missing the putt was not something he wanted to contemplate.

He made it.

"It wasn't for the money or the trophy—it was for my life," Mediate said, not above occasional hyperbole. "In essence, I was finished [on the PGA Tour] if the putt didn't go in. ... It was the whole world, everything."

The next day, an MRI exam showed tendon tears in Mediate's arm, near his elbow. The injury wasn't severe enough to require surgery, but it proved troublesome enough to persist well into 2011, despite various attempts at rehabilitation. He called the injury "an absolute nightmare" and described his arm as "OK at best" heading into this week's tour event in Las Vegas.

In other words, don't expect a repeat performance.

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An early start (or a late night?) for Kevin Chappell, who is in the field at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Vegas:

[Matt Bryant photo by Mike DiNovo-US PRESSWIRE]

When LPGA commissioner Mike Whan comes to work today, he'll likely have a petition for membership from Lexi Thompson's team waiting on his desk, according to Golf Channel's Randall Mell.

Bobby Kreusler, Thompson’s agent, told GolfChannel.com that he will file a petition Thursday seeking a waiver for Thompson of the LPGA rule requiring tour members to be at least 18 years old. He spoke by telephone with LPGA commissioner Mike Whan Wednesday about the pending filing, which looks more and more like a mere formality to Thompson being granted tour membership privileges next season.

Kreusler is filing the petition so Thompson, 16, can claim the membership privileges that go with her victory at the Navistar Classic two weeks ago. He is, however, seeking to defer membership until next season, which an LPGA source said is vital to clearing the way to Whan’s granting a waiver.

Later in the article Mell writes that Thompson isn't eligible for any of the remaining LPGA events, except for the season-ending tournament of champions event, which she earned by winning two weeks ago.

Hall of Fame Needs Repair
ESPN's Bob Harig is the latest writer to chime in with his suggestions to fix the World Golf Hall of Fame. The voting process is clearly flawed when players such as Sandy Lyle are not in, and the fact that Peter Alliss is also not in is a crime. He was a fine player in his day, and he's easily been one of the top broadcasters of all time. And if inducted, he'd probably give one of the best HOF speeches ever.

And if you haven't already, read John Huggin's excellent piece on the ridiculous "International Ballot."

Golf Among Best Sports Movies?
Yesterday in the Golf.com offices, we debated the best baseball movie of all time after SI's Joe Posnanski ran a poll on his blog. (I flipped a coin between Major League and Bull Durham). Time recently took it a step further and tried to name the 25 All-Time Best Sports Movies. And, yes, Caddyshack made the list. The big snub? Happy Gilmore! It combined hockey, golf and mixed martial arts. Come on!

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Good news, (male) golf fans.

LPGA rookie Belen Mozo [right] will be featured in the upcoming ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue, according to USA Today's Michael McCarthy.

It's not the first time a golfer has appeared in the Body Issue. Last year, Camilo Villegas was photographed in his familiar Spider-Man pose with nothing but his putter. Two years ago, Christina Kim, Sandra Gal and Anna Grzebien were photographed together for the issue.

McCarthy spoke with ESPN The Magazine editor-in-chief Chad Millman and confirmed that Tiger Woods is not in the issue -- he's probably done posing shirtless since that Vanity Fair cover. But fortunately the magazine did land Mozo, a rookie from Spain who made six cuts in 13 starts this season.

Which golfer, male or female, would you like to see pose in the next Body Issue? Leave your answers in the comments section below, or on our Facebook wall.

(Photo: Rich Schultz/AP)

At a news conference on Tuesday where he was announced as a Presidents Cup captain's pick, Tiger Woods said he’s practicing regularly and his strength and explosiveness have returned to his golf swing. 

We're practicing very hard up at Medalist, and I'm playing as much as I possibly can, something that I hadn't not done all summer, because I hadn't been cleared to do it. Now I have the clearance to do that. My training sessions are great. Strength has come back. My explosiveness has come back through my training, and now just trying to get my feels back, and it feels great.

Sean has come down a few times, and we've worked, and we had wonderful sessions. And really looking forward to playing next week at the Fry's, and after that, I'm playing at the Aussie Open in Sydney, and really looking forward to getting my game rounded for The Presidents Cup.

Woods also said he is looking forward to playing again. Woods missed the cut at the PGA Championship in August and failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Next week’s Frys.com Open in Northern California will be his first event since the PGA.

I am looking to get out there and compete, no doubt. That's something that I have pretty much -- and I played two events, but didn't play very well in those few events at Akron and the PGA. Really excited to get back out there and compete, and knowing that I'm finally healthy enough to do it now, and I've practiced, something I had not done in preparation for Akron and the PGA. But now that I've actually practiced, I've gotten even stronger in my lifting sessions, so things it are definitely shaping up quickly.

 I'm playing in two stroke-play events prior to that to get myself ready for The Presidents Cup, and granted, it is match play, and you know, we as Presidents Cuppers, we play every day, which is very different than The Ryder Cup. Every player must play every day. So knowing that going down there, we are going to be basically playing all four matches, it's fun. It's something I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully Stricks is healthy enough and Mr. Couples will be nice enough to put us together again, something I'm looking toward to and hope that will happen.

If Woods doesn’t enjoy the Frys.com Open, Justin Timberlake said he’d love to have Woods in the field at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas next year, according to The Las Vegas Sun. 

When Timberlake first started working with the event four years ago, he tried using his celebrity to contact several top golfers for commitments to play with aspirations of enhancing the event.

“I reached to a lot of golfers,” he said. “You know, you want the field to be as big and bad as possible.”

But with Woods, Timberlake said he didn’t want to bother the world’s most sought-after golfer during his rehabilitation.

“I was just trying to be respectful of that,” Timberlake said. “For someone that’s dealing with an injury I don’t want to make them feel terrible because they can’t make it.”

Keegan Bradley disappointed about not making Presidents Cup team  

PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley is a thoroughly 21st century athlete so he responded to news that he didn’t get a Presidents Cup pick on Twitter.

Bradley should still make sure his passport is in good standing. U.S. Captain Fred Couples said that if Steve Stricker can’t play due to injury (he has a herniated disk) then Bradley will take his spot.

Rory McIlroy’s next goal: Learn to win with his B-game

Ian Chadband of The Telegraph (UK) checks in with Rory McIlroy after his star-making 2011 season and learns that McIlroy is now focused on turning his good days into great ones.

“When I’m 100 per cent, I won the US Open by eight shots, was six shots ahead in the final round in Dubai and, after being on the cut line, shot 16 under at the weekend to win Quail Hollow by four. So when you’re on, you kind of feel untouchable. I'd take it if this happened to me four or five times a year.

“But it’s being able to win when you’re not playing your best; that’s the secret I want to find. Turning those second, third and fourth placed finishes, when I’m not playing my best, into wins is basically what I’m trying to do now.

“On the course, in my mind I think I’ve changed a little bit too. Everyone says ‘let it happen, don’t force it’ but I don’t think that’s the right way to go for me. I’ve got to say to myself ‘look, I’m good enough, I’m going to make this happen and win’ instead of shrugging ‘oh, we’ll just go out and see what happens’. I’m getting a little bit more ruthless and maybe there’s a bit more self-belief too.”

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What do you buy the world's No. 1 women's tennis player, who can buy anything? Rory McIlroy decided to get his girlfriend Caroline a lob wedge—with their celebrity couple name on it.

We haven’t seen a couple this cute since, well…

FedEx Cup still has too much math
While Bill Haas’s thrilling playoff victory over Hunter Mahan gave a boost to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff system, Ron Green Sr. of The Charlotte Observer says the playoffs are still too complicated.

There is so much arithmetic involved in that exercise, even the winner, Haas, didn’t know for sure he had claimed the fortune until his wife assured him he had.

Figuring out who was leading near the finish and then who won is not something you do on your fingers and toes. You need a mathematician and a bunch of possibilities that could give a computer a headache.

The Fed Ex Cup competition is supposed to be a big finish to the season like the World Series or Super Bowl, but it misses the mark. It’s interesting as it comes down to the wire but it’s not exciting when somebody has to tell you who won and why.

NBA’s Stephen Curry makes hole-in-one
Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry is spending the lockout the way we would if our Golf.com corporate overseers locked us out: playing golf. According to Reid Cherner of USA Today, the sharp-shooting guard hits from downtown on the course as well.

Curry, a nifty golfer growing up, got his first hole-in-one Sunday. It came on the 143-yard, Par 3 third hole at Half Moon Bay Golf Links' Ocean Course.

When he was at Davidson, Curry talked about golf helping his basketball game.

"I would say when things aren't going well, and in golf that happens a lot, you have to find your way through it and turn your game around,'' he explains. "I don't know if there is a direct comparison but when you don't have your shot going you have to stay calm and keep your composure and find other ways to be an influence on the court."

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From Steve Elling of CBS Sports...

On Monday, 2012 Ryder Cup captains Davis Love III and Jose Maria Olazabal held a press conference at Medinah Country Club, site of next year's Cup, and went on a media tour of Chicago to publicize the tournament.

One stop on the tour had the veterans hitting balls off the Trump International Hotel and Tower onto a floating green in the Chicago River. All of the action was for a good cause: the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup Magnificent Moments fundraising campaign donated $100,000 to benefit local charities. Check out the video below to see how they did.

Each week, 15 staffers from SI Golf+, Golf Magazine and GOLF.com vote for their top 10, awarding 10 points to their first choice and proceeding in descending order to the 10th player, who gets one point. The points are then added and the ranking calculated. Tell us your top 10 in the comments field below.

RANK (TOTAL VOTES, FIRST PLACE VOTES, LAST WEEK'S RANK)

1. Luke Donald (148, 13, 1)
- Last three finishes: T3, Tour Championship; 4, BMW Championship; T3, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 1

2. Rory McIlroy (133, 2, 2)
- Last three finishes: 3, KLM Open; T3, Omega European Masters; T64, PGA Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 3

3. Lee Westwood (100, 0, 3)
- Last three finishes: 5, KLM Open; T6, Omega European Masters; T8, PGA Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 2

4. Charl Schwartzel (80, 0, 4)
- Last three finishes: T42, BMW Championship; T21, Deutsche Bank Championship; T12, PGA Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 13

5. Webb Simpson (60, 0, 5)
- Last three finishes: 22, Tour Championship; 5, BMW Championship; 1, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 12

6. Keegan Bradley (55, 0, 8)
- Last three finishes: T11, Tour Championship; T16, BMW Championship; CUT, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 27

7. Steve Stricker (50, 0, 6)
- Last three finishes: 15, Tour Championship; WD, BMW Championship; T42, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 4

8. Dustin Johnson (35, 0, 7)
- Last three finishes: T23, Tour Championship; T65, BMW Championship; T42, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 5

9. Adam Scott (32, 0, 9)
- Last three finishes: T6, Tour Championship; T37, BMW Championship; T8, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 9

10. Jason Day (30, 0, NR)
- Last three finishes: T6, Tour Championship; T22, BMW Championship; T61, Deutsche Bank Championship
- Official World Golf Rank: 7

Others receiving votes:
Nick Watney (24)
Bill Haas (17)
K.J. Choi (16)
Matt Kuchar (14)
Darren Clarke (8)
Phil Mickelson (7)
Martin Kaymer (6)
Hunter Mahan (3)
Thomas Bjorn (2)
Y.E. Yang (2)
Fred Couples (1)
Justin Rose (1)
Bubba Watson (1)

NBC's broadcast of the Tour Championship, in which Bill Haas won the tournament in a playoff and the FedEx Cup for a total of $11.44, drew a 1.4 overnight Nielsen rating, a minor improvement on the 1.3 rating Jim Furyk's win brought last year, according to the Sports Business Journal.

In the five years of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the highest Sunday ratings for the Tour Championship came in 2009, when Phil Mickelson won the Tour Championship and Tiger Woods won the FedEx Cup, and 2007, when Woods won both. Those years drew a 3.3 overnight rating, according to the SBJ. 

For comparison, the final round of this year's Masters, won by Charl Schwartzel with Woods tying for fourth, had a 10.4 overnight rating. Rory McIlroy's U.S. Open win had a 5.1 overnight and Darren Clarke's British Open victory had a 2.6; Woods missed both tournaments with injury. The PGA Championship, in which Woods missed the cut, had a 4.3 overnight rating during Keegan Bradley's win.

Butch Harmon criticized his former student Tiger Woods for hiring caddie Joe LaCava away from Dustin Johnson. Harmon, who is now Johnson's swing coach and had recommended that Johnson hire LaCava, said Woods should have asked Johnson's permission to speak with LaCava about the job, which has been vacant since Woods fired his longtime caddie Steve Williams in July. On Sunday, Harmon told Sky Sports he was "shocked" by the move.

"The thing that bothered me the most was T.W. not calling Dustin and asking if he could talk to Joe. That's the way it's done. I'm a little disappointed with the way Tiger handled it. But I'm not surprised."

But Tiger’s camp has a different version of the story, stating that LaCava reached out to them. LaCava corroborated this story on Woods's website.

“I contacted Tiger and Mark [Steinberg] because this is a unique opportunity to be part of something very special. Tiger and I have been friends for a very long time, and I know what he can do. I want to thank Dustin for the opportunity to work with him, and I wish him nothing but the best.”

According to Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian UK, the Johnson-LaCava partnership wasn't a perfect fit.

This comes as no surprise to those close to LaCava, who was apparently telling friends at last month's US PGA Championship in Atlanta he had quickly become disillusioned with life on the fairways with Johnson. The caddie is a well-rounded individual, an old-school type who found it hard to come to terms with his young employer's free-wheeling style on and off the course. In short, they were a bad match.

Pace-of-play woes at Solheim Cup
While this year’s Solheim Cup might go down as the most exciting edition of the biennial event, very few people wanted it to go on any longer. The prescribed pace of play was an extremely generous 5 hours and 20 minutes. On Day One alone, three out of four afternoon matches exceeded that timeframe. John Huggan of Golf Digest Woman has the details:

“It wasn't pretty but it was definitely ponderous. A huge factor in the slowness being the much-criticized need of so many players to have their caddies line them up for both full shots and putts. It is surely time for that time-consuming and often-pointless practice to be outlawed.”

Obama and Clinton tee it up
President Obama and former President Bill Clinton played golf at Joint Base Andrews golf course in Maryland on Saturday. According to USA Today's David Jackson, Obama said that he and Clinton discussed various strategies for creating jobs as they played.

During a speech last night to the Congressional Black Caucus, Obama said he and Clinton talked about creating jobs, as well as Republican opposition to higher taxes on the wealthy to finance a new jobs plan.

"They say it kills jobs -- oh, that's going to kill jobs," Obama said. "We're not proposing anything other than returning to the tax rates for the wealthiest Americans that existed under Bill Clinton."

"I played golf with Bill Clinton today," Obama said. "I was asking him, how did that go? Well, it turns out we had a lot of jobs. The well-to-do, they did even better. So did the middle class. We lifted millions out of poverty.

In a written statement, the White House said Obama and Clinton played for about four hours and were joined by Clinton’s longtime aide Doug Band and White House Chief of Staff William Daley. No scores were disclosed.

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