Not counting the majors and the Ryder Cup, here are the top 10 tournaments to watch in 2012.

1. Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 26-29

Officially replaces Torrey Pines as the unofficial start of the 2012 golf season now that Tiger's playing, although the field would still be pretty strong without him. Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel and Jason Day will all make the trip to the desert this year.

2. AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Pebble Beach, Calif., Feb. 9-12

There’s been a lot of buzz that Tiger Woods is considering adding Pebble to his 2012 schedule. If he does show up, he’ll be the third-biggest star here, after the course and a former greenskeeper who became the pro-am champion last year.

3. Accenture World Match Play Championship, Manana, Ariz., Feb. 22-26

March Madness comes early for golf fans. Last year, Luke Donald announced his candidacy for world’s best golfer with a dominating performance. Match play always creates some compelling drama, especially in a Ryder Cup year.

4. WGC-Cadillac Championship, Miami, Fla., March 8-11

The best players in the world are all together in a stroke-play event for the first time all year. The golf season might start at Kapalua, but it gets serious at Doral.

5. Arnold Palmer Invitational, Orlando, Fla., March 22-25

The King's tour stop is one of the crown jewels of the PGA Tour: great field, great atmosphere and great history.

6. Kraft Nabisco Championship, Rancho Mirage, Calif., March 29-April 1

Do you think having the world’s most dominant athlete in any sport (Yani Tseng) and a teenage phenom who’s won twice before even becoming an official LPGA member (Lexi Thompson) could create some stirring battles at the 2012 LPGA major? Yeah, us too.

7. Wells Fargo Championship, Charlotte, N.C., May 3-6

Less than 10 years old, the Wells Fargo Championship is already one of the most important regular events on the schedule. Wells Fargo is back in the tournament name after a couple of years as the Quail Hollow Championship. Let's hope the Michael Jordan-Tiger Woods pro-am pairing returns as well.

8. The Players Championship, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., May 10-13

Forget what the doubters say -- this is still the fifth major, and the finishing holes are as recognizable as any in the game. When Rory McIlroy was at home tweeting during last year’s Players Championship, you could tell he wanted to be there. He’ll be back this year.

9. BMW PGA Championship, Surrey, England, May 24-27

The best final round of 2011 that didn't happen in Augusta, Ga., was the playoff duel between Luke Donald and Lee Westwood at the European PGA Championship with the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking on the line. We can't wait for the rematch.

10. The Barclays Championship, Farmingdale, N.Y., Aug. 23-26

The USGA doesn't sound too keen on returning the Bethpage Black any time soon, so this year's Barclays Championship will be your best chance to see America's greatest municipal golf course, unless you want to sleep in your car.

The Big Ones:

The Masters, Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga., April 5-8

U.S. Open, Olympic Club, San Francisco, Calif., June 14-17

British Open, Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Lancashire, England, July 19-22

PGA Championship, Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, S.C., Aug. 9-12

The Ryder Cup, Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Ill., Sept. 28-30

There was a lot of bellyaching last week surrounding the PGA Championship. The lack of big names, a controversial setup and a whole lot of commercials got golf fans riled up at the season's final major.

John Huggan went so far as to say it's time to take away the PGA's status as a major championship.

Besides, in this ever-changing world, the PGA of America -- like its counterparts elsewhere, in so many ways a dying organization -- has no business running such an important event. Sweater salesmen should stick to what they do best and leave big-time golf to those who have at least a clue about the running of an elite professional tournament. Think about it. Never before in the history of the game has the gap between "golf professional" and "professional golfer" been so vast. And it's only going to get bigger.

Here's just one example of how the PGA of America is out of its depth. The television coverage here at the Atlanta Athletic Club has fallen far short of what we should be able to expect from such a supposedly important championship. In almost complete contrast to the four minutes of commercials per hour limit imposed by those charged with running the Masters at Augusta National, the telecast was a dog's breakfast at which most discerning canines would turn up their snouts.

Steve Elling counters the naysayers and reminds us that in the last 10 years, the PGA has delivered some of the most compelling finishes in golf.

Facts are facts -- it has, flat out, been the most consistently entertaining of the four majors over that span, rolling out ridiculously complicated plotlines and a series of Sundays embroidered with stress and strife.

Sometimes, and we're guilty at times, too, it's a pity that folks are rarely at a loss for words on Twitter or in sports chat rooms. Punt the PGA?

Starting in 1999, it has hands-down been the grandest of the Slams.

So what say you? Should the PGA be demoted, or is it just fine the way it is? Let us know in the comments section below.

Appleby goes long
Add Stuart Appleby to the list of players to test a long putter, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Appleby is trying out a belly putter this week at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., as he hopes to join Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Webb Simpson as players who've all had recent success with a longer wand.

If you haven't already, vote on our Front9 Question of the Week: Should the USGA and R&A ban long putters?

Padraig Harrington's laser-eye surgery commericial banned as 'misleading'
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has banned a laser-eye surgery television commercial featuring Padraig Harrington, according to The Guardian newspaper (UK), on the grounds that it was misleading consumers.

Optical Express ran a TV campaign and accompanying brochure promoting the benefits of its laser eye surgery featuring the Irish golfer.

In the ad he says: "People often ask me: how can I improve my game? I tell them the secret is to stay focused. And of course it's important to have great vision. I need to be able to look down the line, focusing clearly on the target. My advice? Visit Optical Express … It could help your game too."

The brochure featured a further endorsement and testimonial by Harrington.

The Advertising Standards Authority had previously upheld 23 of 25 complaints made against the campaign by rival laser eye surgery firm Ultralase and banned the ad on the grounds that it was misleading.

Two of the complaints challenged that the ad campaign indicated Harrington had undergone laser eye surgery, when Ultralase claimed he had not undergone surgery with Optical Express.

Golf Carts in Manhattan?
It's one thing to live in a gated community and take a golf cart to your local club, but could golf carts actually survive a commute in Manhattan? Time.com's Josh Sanburn recently took a street-legal golf cart for a test drive among New York's buses and out-of-control taxi cabs.

Tweet of the Day

According to the Sports Business Journal, CBS had a 4.3 overnight Nielsen rating for Keegan Bradley's playoff victory over Jason Dufner on Sunday. That's a 14-percent drop from the 5.0 rating the tournament earned last year, when Martin Kaymer defeated Bubba Watson in a playoff and Dustin Johnson was penalized for grounding his club in a bunker on the 72nd hole.

The numbers are down a whopping 43 percent, however, from 2009's 7.5 rating, when Tiger Woods lost to Y.E. Yang at Hazeltine.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga.-- Ten Years After is a long-forgotten rock band remembered only when a sportswriter needs a spiffy lead about something that happened ten years ago. So familiarize yourself again with David Toms, ten years after he won the 2001 PGA here by famously laying up on the final hole, because he's threatening to do it again.

On Saturday he birdied the treacherous 18th hole. That, along with an eagle-birdie-birdie stretch on the front nine helped Toms shoot 65 and play his way into contention at the 2011 PGA Championship. He finished 54 holes at two under par before the leaders, Jason Dufner and Keegan Bradley, even teed off. Given that Atlanta Athletic Club has been doling out punishment like an evil pro wrestler, Toms might be closer to the lead by Saturday night than you think.

But why no layup on 18 ten years after the big one? "I had 150 yards, which is the perfect 5-iron for me, and the pin was back right so it was perfect for my little left-to-right shot," said Toms. "But the way the crowd ooh'ed and ahh'ed up there, I was glad to get over the water."

If Toms in contention here feels like "Groundhog Day," then so be it. Toms didn't ace the par-3 15th hole this time, like he did Saturday in 2001. "Halfway through the back nine when I was rolling pretty good, I walk up to 15 and there's the plaque right next to where we were teeing off and people were saying stuff about doing it again," Toms said. "You flash back to that time. There are a lot of memories, for sure. The golf course is different, much more demanding, so I have to play extremely well."

Friday, Toms hit a 3-hybrid at the 15th that landed short of the hole and rolled to the back bunker. Saturday, he played it just short of the green but his ball plugged in the grass and stopped.

"So it's been a tough hole for me so far," Toms said.

Apparently it is, but he practically owns the 18th, which he birdied on Saturday. "Maybe I concentrate well on the tee shot knowing that I have to hit a good one," he said. "That's really all there is. It's a tough hole and I'm not afraid to lay up. I've made 4 that way when it really mattered. I know if I don't hit a good tee shot, I'm going to lay up so maybe I free-wheel it a little bit there."

Ten years after, let's see if he can do an encore.

(Photo: Matt Slocum/AP)

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. -- Officials moved the tee up on the long, par-4 18th hole for the first round of the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club on Thursday. Instead of playing its stated 507 yards, it played just 491, but it was still the hardest hole on the course with a 4.71 stroke average.

"You still have to hit it to the same area because of the way the water has cut in," said Phil Mickelson, who bogeyed the hole and shot 71, "and the fairway that turns left banks [right] into the bunkers."

So what does he think of the hole?

"It's a great par 5," Mickelson said. "And it's just, you know, it's a great par 5."

He laughed. He's not a fan.

Ryan Palmer salvaged par on the vicious dogleg left. He snap-hooked a 5-wood off the tee and yet reached the green in two with a rescue club, and two-putted. Still, he was fuming afterward.

"Driver goes through the fairway and into the bunker," said Palmer, who shot 71. "And so does 3-wood. There's a tee box back there to make it a perfect par 5 of like 530 or so yards, great risk-reward, all carry if you want to go for it in two. I don't get it. Why not just make the course a par 71?"

Tiger Woods was among the casualties of the hole, making double-bogey 6 on the way to a 77. Ryo Ishikawa also made 6 on the way to an 85. But doubles on 18 hardly stood out.

Fredrik Anderson Hed had a decent round going at 1 over through his first eight holes, but he triple-bogeyed 18. He shot 74. Charley Hoffman (75), Bryce Molder (74) and Nick Watney (70) also tripled the hole, as did Dan Olsen (78). Tom Gillis (76) made an 8.

Justin Rose, who chipped in to birdie the par-3 17th, made one of the field's nine birdies on 18. He hit 3-wood off the tee and watched his ball nearly trickle into the bunkers, then cut a 5-wood into the green that found the putting surface and rolled to within five feet of the pin. He made the putt.

"The tee shot is a bit quirky," said Rose, who shot 71. "They put the tee up 25 today, but that doesn't really help anybody. If you choose to hit driver you've got to cut it over the lake, and with a 3-wood you run out and into the bunkers at 270 yards."

Harrison Frazar (72) watched his approach splash into the water right of the green, then had to get up and down from about 80 yards to salvage a bogey.

"I don't like 18," Frazar said, "how the lake off the tee juts out a little bit too tight for guys on the tee. The angle is awkward. In a way it's forcing everybody to play from the same spot."

Tiger Woods officially entered the year's final major, the PGA Championship, on Friday. It marks the first time since April Woods will tee it up in a major championship. Woods missed both the U.S. Open and British Open this season due to knee and Achilles injuries.

The event runs Aug. 11-14 at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Before he arrives at the PGA, the 14-time major winner will get a tune-up at the Bridgestone Invitational next week in Akron, Ohio.

Woods -- a four-time PGA Champion -- hasn't played competitively since May, when he withdrew from the Players Championship after nine holes.

What was once all but assured, Woods's chase of Jack Nicklaus's all-time record of 18 majors has been stalled by injuries and personal problems. Since his infamous car crash in November 2009, Woods has gotten divorced, changed swings and swing coaches, and fired his long-time caddie.

Woods finished in a tie for 29th in the 2001 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.

More Tiger Woods: Life in Pictures | SI Covers | Chronology of Injuries

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(Photo: Hans Deryk/Reuters)

DQ'd and PO'd
The big story this morning is Jim Furyk getting bounced from the Barclays, the PGA's first FedExCup Playoff event, for sleeping through his alarm and missing his pro-am tee time. This is a pretty well-known rule, and it's very closely enforced--I distinctly remember when John Daly was disqualified for the same infraction at Bay Hill (which, in a bizarre turn of events, also got two other Tour players ejected from the tournament). So at least everyone's held up to the same standards, right? Waggleroom's Ryan Ballengee isn't so sure.

The PGA Tour has announced that Jim Furyk - currently sitting in third position in the FedExCup standings - has been disqualified from this week's first round of the Playoffs at The Barclays for missing his 7:30 pro-am tee time by five minutes. The disqualification is the set penalty for tardiness for these pro-am outings...

While I completely understand keeping non-members out of the Playoffs, this seems a bit unjust. Furyk will be impacted for four weeks because of this disqualification and his alarm clock not working. On a regular event, the penalty seems more appropriate - it has just a week's worth of impact (though longer for a guy who is on the verge of certain money list thresholds).

For a Playoff event - a major-lite Tour stop - to have a pro-am seems a little out of whack, but acceptable. To cause a guy to have such a severe penalty in his quest for $10 million, though, seems unconscionable.

Phil Mickelson missed his pro-am tee time for the Byron Nelson Championship in 2007 due to poor weather blocking his plane from making it from Alabama to Dallas-Ft. Worth's Love Field the night prior. Mickelson took his time getting to Las Colinas in time for the pro-am, but was not disqualified by Tour officials. That set off an uproar of anger about the exemption.

Somehow I had completely forgotten about that Phil exception (and how peeved a lot of Tour pros were about it). Unfortunately, I think this is a case where two wrongs don't make a right: the Tour was outrageously foolish to allow Phil to play in that tourney in 2007, and they'd be just as out of line letting Furyk play this week, because, as Dustin Johnson will tell you, a rule is a rule is a rule. That said, this rule is stupid, and they should figure out a way to change it...fast. The Tour relies on pro-ams for support, so I understand why they're so sensitive about players taking their responsibilities seriously, but there are options short of DQs that can keep the players in line. How about a fine, somewhere between $10,000-$100,000, or, even better, a percentage of their earnings from the tournament (so the better they do, the more they lose)? That way if players don't show they'll be plenty hurt, but they'll have the opportunity to earn their keep come the weekend. Still, Furyk might want to consider investing in a travel alarm clock.

Welcome back, Tiger
As a proud son (and current resident) of the Garden State, I take a lot pride in our most prized resources: overflowing cranberry bogs, copious lower-back tattoos and, of course, renowned championship golf courses. The PGA Tour returns to the jewel of Bergen County this week, Ridgewood C.C., and the local media has rolled out the welcome mat to all of the Tour's stars. Well, almost all of them...

Tiger Woods is back in New Jersey — which means certain people should be alerted. Women, in general. Perkins’ waitresses, strippers and porn stars, in particular. And, of course, given the condition of his golf game, any fans at the Barclays Classic standing near a tree along a fairway.

Woods is officially single now, with the price of his freedom — or was it Elin’s? — a reported $100 million. And while that, along with his struggle to right his career, might have the crowd at Ridgewood Country Club abuzz, forgive us if we’re not excited about his appearance in Paramus. After all, the guy has treated the state like it’s one big waste bunker.

When he was playing in the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in 2005, Woods was upset when a local golf pro accidentally parked in his reserved spot. Then at the height of his superstardom, he played most of his practice rounds at dawn, before fans were allowed on the course. When caddie Steve Williams committed an infraction during the first round of the tournament, Woods refused to disqualify himself.

He signed only a handful of autographs that week — when Phil Mickelson won the tournament and the hearts of New Jersey fans — and when his Sunday round was over, Woods high-tailed it out of town. Even though there was a chance he could have been in a Monday playoff, he couldn’t get out of New Jersey fast enough.

Last year, when the Barclays was played at Liberty National, Woods criticized the greens and called the course “interesting” — which is PGA-speak for “What a dump.” Again, autographs, or any interaction with fans, were rare.

And now, he’s back in the Garden State. Oh, joy.

It should be pointed out that the Star-Ledger, while a relatively well-respected journal, may hold a bit of a grudge against Mr. Woods. It was their reporter who tattled on Stevie Williams, saying the caddie stepped on Tiger's ball in the 2005 PGA Championship, an accusation that Woods and Co. vehemently denied. That having been said, there's no doubt that New Jersey is Mickelson territory at the moment, as is the entire Tri-State area. This week will be a good test for the "New Tiger" we've been hearing so much about. If he can keep a smile on his face, keep nodding his head and keep signing his name, he may win back the favor of some of the most boisterous fans in golf. Oh, and shooting under par wouldn't hurt.

Nothing Amateur About Chambers Bay
With all the attention the Barclay's is getting this week, the always fun U.S. Amateur is getting (typically) overlooked. While the tournament itself is great, there's some added excitement this year as it's being held at Chambers Bay, site of the 2015 U.S. Open. Here's a take on the course setup from Golfweek's Sean Martin, who sees danger for the amateurs this week...and the pros in the years to come.

Ten feet. That’s often the difference between a great shot and a bad one at Chambers Bay.

NCAA champ Scott Langley hit 4-iron to Chambers Bay’s par-3 15th hole during Tuesday’s second round of stroke play at the U.S. Amateur. The left-hander pulled it 10 feet right of his target, then watched his ball bound through the green and into a bunker. Had Langley hit his mark, his ball would’ve funneled down a slope and likely ended up close to the hole.

“It’s like playing golf in my driveway,” Langley joked about the firm conditions at Chambers Bay...

Chambers Bay’s fast, firm conditions, and extreme putting surfaces, are driving players wild at the U.S. Amateur. The conditions are exacerbated by the course’s extreme undulations and lack of rough, which can cause balls to bound more than 50 yards away from a player’s target.

Most players are paying the young course compliments, but some are leaving with a bad taste in their mouth. This is an important week for Chambers Bay, the three-year-old links-style course along the Puget Sound. This year’s U.S. Amateur, the first national championship here, is a dress rehearsal for the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.

The scoring average for the 156 players who played Chambers Bay on Monday was 79.87. Three players broke par at Chambers on Monday, with Augusta State’s Patrick Reed leading with 68. Seventy-nine players shot 80 or higher Monday at Chambers Bay. That’s more than 50 percent. Five shot in the 90s, including two 95s.

Martin is quick to point out that, while certainly tough, he's not ready to call the conditions unfair. So far it sounds like the players aren't doing too much complaining either (at least not outwardly), but I think we can all agree that amateurs tend to be a little less ornery than Tour pros when it comes to course conditions. Still, I'm excited about the possibility of a U.S. Open course that really fights back. It's not like Pebble and Bethpage Black are pushovers, but relying on weather and deep rough is old hat at the Open--fairways and greens so hard you can bounce a stone off them? Rough so thin it couldn't stop a feather? Now we're talking U.S. Open golf. Is it 2015 yet?

Tour Tweets
By now you've heard everybody and his mother's reaction to Dustin Johnson's two-stroke penalty at Whistling Straits (my mother's reaction: "My, he's tall."). As for Johnson's fellow PGA Tour pros, after the Championship festivities wound down, they took to the Internet and Tweeted their brains out. Intrepid blogger Stephanie Wei has compiled some of the best Johnson-related Tweets:

Stewart Cink: @donnabrookes there’s NEVER a doubt whether you’re in a bunker in St Andrews! Even the ones that have seen golf balls all year!
Not sure if relevant to Whistling, but after my 2004 Hilton Head waste area controversy, they rebuilt all wastes on course into bunkers.
In light of PGA finish, Augusta just announced new seating for patrons available in right greenside bunker by 18 green.

Joe Ogilvie: I’m stupified they are even considering penalizing Dustin, if anything it is Ground Under Repair.
Common sense would be to play everything inside the ropes as bunkers and every “bunker” that is outside the ropes as waste areas.
In crisis managemt never good to employ the “cover my ass” strategy as PGA seems to be doing. Never works. Admit set up was wrong & move on

John Daly: So that means the sandy cart paths that I saw & other players hit off of are also considered bunkers?!
So, a sandbar off Lake Michigan considered a bunker too if that’s what they’re sayin–

Rickie Fowler: Proud of the way my boy DJ handled the ruling--I think a bunker that fans have been standing in all day should be considered a waste bunker
No telling what I would have done…from the tv coverage I never once thought of him being in a bunker just thought it was a bare spot

Not a lot of surprises here: almost everyone either took Johnson's side or at least the compromise position that it was as much the course's fault as DJ's. A couple interesting notes though. First, there is no love lost between Tour players and the 18th hole at Whistling Straits. As much as these guys seem to admire the course as a whole, the "Dyeabolical" 18th gets no love whatsoever. Also, Wei herself brings up the possibility that several (and quite likely many) players broke the exact same rule throughout the week, they just weren't under as much scrutiny, so no one noticed. For some reason this situation kind of reminds me of that NFL game a couple of years ago when Donovan McNabb admitted he didn't know the NFL's overtime rule (and that games could end in ties). We all had a good laugh at him until we found out that half the league was equally clueless. Not a perfect analogy, I know, but that's what it makes me think of.

FYI, Tiger's finished
Being a member of the New York media, I try to give my fellow writers the benefit of the doubt--I often have to write articles that touch (or go slightly beyond) the borders of my personal knowledge/expertise, so I understand that other writers and reporters have to do the same. Usually, at those times I take a slow, cautious tone and try not to be overly dramatic. New York Magazine's Drew Magary has taken a slightly different approach...

Tiger Woods didn't win the PGA Championship [Sunday], or any major this year. Get used to that sort of thing happening, because Tiger Woods will never win another major championship again.

He's finished. He's not catching Jack Nicklaus. He's won what, fourteen majors? Well, that's what he'll stay on for the rest of eternity. It's a shame, because he has put his entire being into chasing Nicklaus, and we, as fans, have followed him for over a decade assuming that the record would eventually be in his grasp, and sooner rather than later. It's frustrating to get to this point and think that we'll never reach that moment with Woods. But we never will. There are a few reasons why.

Here are the reasons that Magary gives for his bold prediction (he goes into each with some detail):

1. What's the point?

2. He isn't made for this kind of adversity.

3. Other players are better now, and they aren't scared of him.

4. Turns out, Tiger Woods is not preternaturally immune to pressure.

5. He's not Tiger Woods anymore. So who is he?

I'm going to be completely honest, when I read the first paragraph of this story I assumed it was satire and, unfortunately, I was mistaken. In deference to Magary, I'm not sure that any of these statements is, in and of itself, incorrect (except for "What's the point," because, as the author states, the point is to beat Jack's record). The problem is that they amount more to grasping at straws than actually building an argument (in effect, he's answering the question: if Tiger Woods never won another major, why would that be? Rather than the question: How will Tiger Woods play for the rest of his career?) Yes, Tiger is struggling, and yes, his personal life has clearly taken a toll on his game, but the idea that he's "finished" is borderline absurd. T4, T4, T23, T28. Those are Tiger Woods' finishes in the majors this year. That means that when things were at their absolute worst, Tiger finished in the top five twice and the top 30 all four times against the toughest fields in golf. At the height of his powers in 1969, Jack Nicklaus went T24, T25, T6 and T11 in the majors. Good thing he didn't just pack up his clubs and go home.

PGA Championship going muni?
Some good notes from the AP's Doug Ferguson about the PGA Championship trying to find more reasonable public courses as host sites in the future.

Anyone wishing to take on the Whistling Straits course where Martin Kaymer won the PGA Championship and Dustin Johnson was buried by a bunker ruling need only to make a reservation and have $340 handy, along with $100 for the caddie.

That's still not as much as Pebble Beach.

Even so, there is a difference in public play between resort courses, such as Pinehurst or Pebble Beach, and true public courses, such as Bethpage Black and Torrey Pines.

The PGA Championship is lacking in the latter.

This came to mind last week during the PGA of America's annual news conference, in which president Jim Remy shifted the focus to public golf. He noted there are more 9-hole courses than 18-hole courses in America, and that 75 percent of the rounds played in the country are on public courses. He cited the average fee at just under $30.

"There are availability of reasonably priced golf courses, and I think that we need to get the message out that there is a real value to a family to be involved in a sport," Remy said.

So why isn't the PGA Championship going to such a course, which can provide a proper test and have room to stage a big event? It has been more than two decades — 1989 at Kemper Lakes outside Chicago — that the PGA Championship was held on a daily fee course.

"We've had discussions with a number of daily fee facilities, along with traditional clubs," PGA chief executive Joe Steranka said. "We'll step out of the box every now and then and try something. And right now, the USGA is doing a great part in taking it to the Bethpage Blacks and Torrey Pines."

Hard to say if the PGA actually follows through with this. Even though I'm sure they're sincere about trying to get more daily fee courses into their rotation, I imagine that the logistics of that are extremely tricky--especially finding a course that can hold the quality of golf/amount of spectators they need and that's not already on the Open circuit. I talked to a bunch of everyday golfers at Bethpage Black for our Open preview a couple of years ago, and while many of of them were excited and proud to be regulars on a U.S. Open course, they couldn't help but gripe at the number of tee times that had been cut to accommodate for the changes that had to be made and to let the course set up for the Open.

After a boring British Open at St. Andrews, which generated the lowest TV ratings for a final round ever, the exciting and controversial PGA Championship at Whistling Straits brought a renewed interest to golf fans. Although ratings were down about 30 percent from last year when Tiger Woods and Y.E. Yang battled it out to the finish, CBS still took the number one spot in the Nielsen ratings on Sunday evening with more than 10 million viewers. Even more interesting was the unprecedented online interest in the proceedings: According to USA Today, PGA.com drew 4.8 million live and taped video streams, which represents a nearly 700 percent increase from last year. 

The bottom line: Golf, like the rest of the world, is going digital in a big way. 

17-year old Danielle Kang wins Women's U.S. Amateur

While golf fans around the world were watching the action at Whistling Straits this weekend, 17-year-old Danielle Kang beat 17-year-old Jessica Korda to win the U.S. Women's Amateur at Charlotte Country Club. A student of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs, Kang admitted to feeling some nerves during the final round, which lasted 35 holes until she made a four-footer to seal her victory. 

"Today was very stressful," Kang said. "When I made that I just wanted to cry because all of the stress was in me. I'm trying not to show it. I'm smiling, but it's stressful, so it was really big."

Riggs, who's worked with Kang for the past year, wasn't surprised by his student's big win. 

"Danielle's swing is extremely dynamic. While the important alignments of clubface, path, and plane are nearly flawless, it's her aggressiveness that sets her apart. Playing with her older brother Alex and numerous other high caliber male golfers has forced her to step up to their level. This isn't your mom's golf swing, it is the swing of a highly skilled athlete."

Golf club president accused of selling arms to Iran

Who says golfers are boring? 63-year old Christopher Tappin, President of Kent County Golf Union outside London, is currently facing up to 35 years in a US prison. Tappin, who allegedly sold to Iran industrial batteries that control surface-to-air missiles, claims he was nailed in a sting operation in which U.S. agents pretended to be representatives from a non-existent company. If convicted, Tappin's duties and privileges at his club will be revoked. 

PLYMOUTH, Wis. - It's not always about where you play golf. Sometimes, it's just about playing.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear and breezy. After a week of humid, sweltering conditions, a real Wisconsin summer day finally broke out. The northwesterly breeze was unmistakably bringing in drier, more comfortable air, probably from Canada. This is the kind of day that makes summertime so legendary in the Badger State.

I felt an obligation to get in some golf, but time was limited. The PGA Championship's final round was in the afternoon.

This is how I found myself at Arndt's Evergreen Golf Course on Sunday morning. It was located off a stoplight intersection and sandwiched between an AmercInn and Redeemer Lutheran Church. The parking lots for all three are pretty much interchangeable.

There's a driving range in addition to the nine-hole course, which I thought was all par 3s. Actually, there were two par 4s  -- of 212 and 265 yards, but more on that later.