Who is LeBronold Palmer, you ask? It's actually a "what." Specifically, it's a shoe, according to Jonathan Wall at Yahoo's Devil Ball Golf blog. That's right: King James's new Nike basketball shoe, the "LeBronold Palmer 9 low" is a shout out to The King, Arnold Palmer. Or, at least, a shout-out to a certain delicious canned beverage that shares a name with a professional golfer (an image of the beverage is emblazoned on the insole). Unclear which. LeBron tweeted out a picture of the shoe earlier this week. Drink it in, folks:

A lot about this is hazy, but one thing here is clear: it's impossible to see those shoes and not hear Jan Hammer's synth-y theme to Miami Vice pinging in your head. Welcome to 1986, Miami, prepare to ride a New Wave. Our current over/under on how many pairs Pat Riley will purchase: seven.

Fairway Feud
The Casta del Sol golf course in Mission Viejo, Calif. is usually a quiet place to play the game of kings. Most courses are. But on Thursday things went Royal Rumble in the 18th fairway, as ABC 7 of Los Angeles reports. According to police, that's where Michael Payne picked a fight with the entire foursome ahead of him. The cause? Payne allegedly claimed they were stealing the golf balls he couldn't find:

Investigators accuse the 46-year-old Payne of punching one golfer in the face, then attacking Chambers' friend with a golf club, bashing him on the wrist as the victim tried to leave in a golf cart.

"He got in the cart to go get the marshal and go get help, and then he was chased down by the golfer with a golf club," said Chambers.

Payne then allegedly ran to the hillside.

The wrist looks like the worst injury. His playing partner put it in terms sure to horrify anyone who loves the game: "It's bad enough that he's not going to be golfing here anytime soon."

Tweet of the Day

Between Bubba and Webb, the POY race may wind up being determined by diaper duty.

— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) July 13, 2012

We don't get to see Alvaro Quiros very often on this side of the Atlantic. There's a reason: Our imperial par 4's are just too dainty. On any given day, the Spanish cannon is bound to be the longest hitter on any given golf course.

He put that length to use (sort of) during a practice round Wednesday. Quiros hit the single rarest shot we'll see all week, acing the 288-yard par-4 seventh. Unfortunately, his albatross is also the single most meaningless shot we'll see all week, tied with every other ball struck between Monday morning and Wednesday night.

The Golf Channel had a camera rolling, because, as they are wont to tell you, the Golf Channel has golf covered. Watch closely: it rolls in like the world's longest mini-golf putt.

Doubt anything like that happens in competition, but if we're seeing double-eagles, expect the USGA to build walls around the cup…

D.J. Raises Cain
Dustin Johnson bombed a few doomed golf balls into McCovey Cove from AT&T Park Wednesday night, prior to throwing - err, bouncing - out the first pitch at the Giants/Astros game. MLB.com has the video (the pitch comes 35 sec. in).

Breaking down the pitch: D.J. looks like a pitcher, but his mechanics could use some work (under-striding, over-throwing). Between Johnson and Rory McIlroy on Tuesday, golfers at Giants games have a single combined strike so far this week. Breaking down the drives: Notify the Coast Guard in Oakland.

We're not sure bombing golf balls into a massive body of water is the best way to tighten your game before facing Olympic's fairways, but a little golf was the perfect warm up for Giants starter Matt Cain. The pitcher was allowed one swing by his GM, and he smoothed one out there and into the cove. (D.J. estimated that Cain's cut carried 310.)

And with the hard stuff out of the way, Cain went on to throw the Giants' first ever perfect game.

Pest Control
How much bug spray does it take to keep pests off U.S. Open participants? According to SFGate.com, 550 bottles. No word on whether it will keep reporters away from Tiger/Phil/Bubba.

Tweet of the Day:

Dustin Johnson hasn't played a Tour event since mid-March, and he surprised everyone when he withdrew from the Masters with what Johnson said was a back injury sustained while lifting a jet ski. Speculation on DJ's situation has run rampant in the interim, with a variety of conspiracy theorists suggesting he eloped, or more commonly, that he was serving a drug-related suspension. However, according to his agent, David Winkle, Johnson is legitimately injured and getting ready to resume play, according to Steve Elling at CBS Sports.

“Dustin is not serving a drug suspension,” Winkle said evenly. “I will make it clear -- he has been injured. He is playing golf again, he is very rusty but champing at the bit to get back out there.”

As of now, Johnson has committed to play the Memorial in two weeks, then Memphis, and then the U.S. Open in San Francisco. He currently ranks 21st in U.S. Ryder Cup points.

Players grabs big attendance and ratings
While TV ratings weren't through the roof for The Players Championship this past weekend, attendance went up big. According to tournament officials attendance numbers reached more than 162,000 for the week, up about 20 percent from last year's event. About 35,000 came to watch the Sunday action alone. 

"A lot of things went right for us to have the week we did," Players executive director Matt Rapp said. "The temperatures were moderate, and we didn’t have the rain delay we had last year [on Saturday]. The hospitality areas we created or upgraded were huge hits. Military Appreciation Day was very popular once again [around 20,000 people were on the course Wednesday]. And we had a very popular guy with strong local ties in contention every day and eventually winning the tournament, and that always helps local interest."

TV ratings, while not nearly as impressive, looked to be pretty solid as well. Thursday's viewership was up about 5 percent over 2011, and ratings for Friday's telecast, which featured Tiger Woods playing late in the day, increased 86 percent over last year, making it the most watched early-round telecast since The Golf Channel started covering the tournament. Saturday's numbers were also up more than 50 percent over last year. 

Feherty and the President
David Feherty sat down recently with President Bill Clinton. Check out this preview clip where Feherty asks Clinton, "What the hell would possess you to do this?"

Kaymer, Rose, Schwartzel and McDowell are top seeds in Euro Tour Match Play event
The Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin near Marbella has some big names raring to take each other on this week including Sergio Garcia battling Alvaro Quiros, and Justin Rose taking on Robert Rock. The top ranked player in the event, Martin Kaymer, will play Rafael Cabrera-Bello in the first round. The unusual event features eight groups consisting of three players each. After a round robin the two top players in each group go on to a knock out round. Here's more salient info on the tournament: 

The top 16 seeds are as follows (in group order):

(1) Martin Kaymer and (16) Rafael Cabrera Bello

(2) Justin Rose and (15) Robert Rock

(3) Charl Schwartzel and (14) Nicolas Colsaerts

(4) Graeme McDowell and (13) Robert Karlsson

(5) Sergio Garcia and (12) Alvaro Quiros

(6) Peter Hanson and (11) Paul Lawrie

(7) Brandt Snedeker and (10) Thomas Bjorn

(8) Ian Poulter and (9) John Senden

The remaining eight players (with world ranking positions in brackets) are: (65) Branden Grace, (66) Retief Goosen, (70) Darren Clarke, (119) Jbe Kruger, (126) Camilo Villegas, (133) Tetsuji Hiratsuka, (175) Tom Lewis, (218) Richard Finch.

The top 16 seeds are the only ones involved on Thursday and holder Poulter will start the action off against Senden at 12.05pm local time (1105 BST). The other eight players then have two games on Friday to decide the last 16.

Tweet of the Day

Media room at @hpbnc includes ping-pong table, foosball, Wii and a slushie machine. In related news, I'm moving in.

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelGC) May 15, 2012

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. This ranking aims to be an of-the-moment measure of who’s playing the best right now. Tell us your top 10 in the comments field below.

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

1.  Rory McIlroy (149, 14, 1)   - Last three finishes: 3, WGC-Cadillac Championship; 1, Honda Classic; 2, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 2

2. Luke Donald (132, 1, 7) - Last three finishes: 1, Transitions Championship; T6, WGC-Cadillac Championship; T33, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 1

3. Lee Westwood (90, 0, 3) - Last three finishes: T29, WGC-Cadillac Championship; 4, Honda Classic; 4, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 3

4. Justin Rose (77, 0, 6) - Last three finishes: T29, Transitions Championship; 1, WGC-Cadillac Championship; T5, Honda Classic
- Official World Golf Ranking: 8

5. Phil Mickelson (76, 0, 2) - Last three finishes: T43, WGC-Cadillac Championship; T2, Northern Trust Open; 1, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
- Official World Golf Ranking: 13

6. Keegan Bradley (72, 0, 4) - Last three finishes: T8, WGC-Cadillac Championship; T12, Honda Classic; T17, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
- Official World Golf Ranking: 20

7. Hunter Mahan (64, 0, 5) - Last three finishes: T24, WGC-Cadillac Championship; 1, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship; T24, Northern Trust Open
- Official World Golf Ranking: 12

8. Bill Haas (29, 0, 8) - Last three finishes: T29, WGC-Cadillac Championship; T33, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship; 1, Northern Trust Open
- Official World Golf Ranking: 15

9. Charl Schwartzel (22, 0, 9) - Last three finishes: MC, Transitions Championship; T4, WGC-Cadillac Championship; T5, Honda Classic
- Official World Golf Ranking: 6

10. Bubba Watson (21, 0, 10) - Last three finishes: 2, WGC-Cadillac Championship, T17, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship; T13, Northern Trush Open
- Official World Golf Ranking: 16

Others receiving votes:
Brandt Snedeker (15)
Steve Stricker (14)
Kyle Stanley (11)
Mark Wilson (11)
Webb Simpson (9)
Matt Kuchar (8)
Sang-moon Bae (7)
Jim Furyk (5)
Johnson Wagner (4)
Bo Van Belt (3)
Tiger Woods (3)
Martin Kaymer (1)
Alvaro Quiros (1)

AUGUSTA, Ga. -– The Boom Group of the 2011 Masters partially self-destructed Friday, with two players escaping with minor injuries while the third was a casualty of the cut line. Alvaro Quiros, Jhonattan Vegas and Gary Woodland, who provided thrills while going 12 under for their last six holes Thursday, were less scintillating Friday, when Quiros and Woodland managed only 73s and Vegas missed the cut with a 76.

“Frustrating,” said Woodland, who made two double-bogeys and missed a 30-inch birdie putt on 18 to finish at 2 under for the tournament. “I let that one go. I had an opportunity to play good and I didn’t do it.”

Vegas was followed by about a dozen close friends in green “Team Vegas” shirts, but they didn’t have much to cheer for Friday.

“We played junior golf together since we were 11,” said Carlos Alvarez, one of the small army of green-shirted Vegas supporters who like Vegas lives in Houston. “I used to beat him all the time. He always hit it long, but his short game got a lot better when he moved to America.” 

After firing a 65 to share the first-round lead, Quiros made three birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey to drop to 6-under, tied with Geoff Ogilvy (second straight 69) and four behind leader Rory McIlroy (69).

“It’s the first time in a long time that I can check the clubs of the other colleagues,” Quiros said, smiling about the length of all three players in his threesome, which he led in driving distance, 302.5 yards to 294.25 (Woodland) and 281.25 (Vegas).

Come to think of it, Quiros was smiling about just about everything. Told that his caddie, Gareth Bryn Lord, was having trouble converting from yards to meters in his first week with the long-hitting Spaniard—Bryn Lord used to work for Robert Karlsson—Quiros smiled.

“Well, I didn’t know that,” he said. “But after that I’m going to pay more attention to the yardage.” Asked if Woodland might have learned any Spanish, Quiros said no, he and Gareth speak English. “So if he learns any Spanish, it’s not recommended,” Quiros said, prompting laughter in the press room. Even Ronald Townsend, the green jacket who sat next to Quiros to moderate his interview, smiled and chuckled throughout the interview.

Quiros is contagious like that. He even smiled about the group’s atrocious play on the par-3 12^th hole. In between clubs from 156 yards, Woodland lost an 8-iron right and into the water, took a drop, hit his third into the back bunker, barely nudged his fourth out of the sand and onto the back fringe, and chipped in for 5. Quiros hit into the same bunker off the tee, left his second shot in the sand, got his third out and two-putted: 5. Vegas, who missed long and left, chipped way past the hole and two-putted for a 4. The three players took a total of 14 shots, five over par, on one hole.

“No, nobody said a word,” Quiros said when he was asked if anyone cracked a joke on the 13^th tee. “But you can see Gary Woodland’s face and my face, too; it wasn’t the proper moment to say a joke.”

He was smiling when he said it.     

(Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images)