Tiger Woods at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. (Getty Images)

With no plans to bring the U.S. Open back to Bethpage Black in the near future, it appeared the famed New York muni might fade from the major championship picture in professional golf. That is until Tuesday, when PGA of America president Ted Bishop revealed his desire to bring major-caliber golf back to the Black Course to Newsday's Mark Herrmann.

Ted Bishop, the new president of the PGA of America, said Tuesday that one of his goals in office is to bring the PGA Championship and/or the Ryder Cup to Bethpage Black.

"We've just got some things to sort out with some dates in the future, but there is no decline in my interest," said Bishop, who took office last month. He and new chief executive officer Peter Bevacqua are in New York to name the 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Thursday.

"Honestly, I would have to tell you that if you asked me my goal for the next couple of years, it would be to make some kind of an announcement that something is going to happen at Bethpage," Bishop said.

The Black Course at Bethpage State Park hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens, won by Tiger Woods and Lucas Glover, respectively. The USGA has announced host venues through 2019, when Pebble Beach will take the reins, and the Black is not on the list. The last PGA Tour event to be played there was this year's Barclays, the first of the four 2012 FedEx Cup playoff events.

The Callaway Pebble Beach Invitational, now in its 41st year, is the only event in golf that features players from the PGA, LPGA, Champions and Web.com tours all competing against each other.

The field includes a wide variety of players, including big names like Annika Sorenstam, Fred Funk, Juli Inkster and Jonas Blixt; new pros like Cheyenne Woods and Luke Guthrie; and 324 amateurs, according to the The Herald of Monterey County.

"I'm really looking forward to competing in this year's Callaway Invitational at Pebble Beach," said Sorenstam, who'll have her husband Mike on the bag as caddie. "Callaway has been a wonderful partner of mine for my entire career and now beyond, and the Monterey Peninsula is one of our favorite places to spend time."

The tournament, which uses a tee placement system based on the average length of shots on each tour to give each player a fair chance at the $300,000 purse, will take place Thursday through Sunday at Del Monte, Spyglass and Pebble Beach. There will be a cut after Saturday's round, and the top 40 golfers will advance to a final round at Pebble.

Crooked Stick made the most of its turn hosting the last week's BMW Championship, complete with marquee leaderboard. So what if Rory McIlroy quashed some of the drama Sunday by proving once again that he's the world's best golfer? Lately, he tends to do that regardless of where he's playing.

Turns out, even before all that, the Carmel, Ind., track had tossed its name into the ring for the 2020 PGA Championship, according to Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star.

A formal presentation was made to PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka and managing director of championships Kerry Haigh on Aug. 30 and the BMW Championship served as a proving grounds of sorts.

"The golf course works and the market is outstanding," Ted Bishop, vice president of the PGA and director of golf at The Legends Golf Club, Franklin, Ind., said Monday. "It just gets down to logistical issues the site presents and, I think, if they can be worked out, there is a great chance it's going to happen."

First, though, Crooked Stick is working to wiggle itself into the BMW's rotation. Currently, sites are set through 2014, when BMW's sponsorship deal runs out. The Western Golf Association, which throws the party, will need to get another deal in place before picking future locales.

Fair to say the audition went well, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. Crowds far exceeded last year's event in Chicago, despite some traffic issues. And TV numbers -- aided by a who's who of golf's last decade vying for the title -- saw a big boost, jumping 160 percent over last year, according to Sports Media Watch.

The takeaway: If Crooked Stick stays on the straight and narrow, we'll see it again soon enough.

Last week at the PGA, Rory McIlroy has a pretty standard Sunday routine for a 23 year old: take a nap, oversleep, play some golf and then celebrate by letting himself "indulge in two Diet Cokes and a cookie."

Well, the first part of that is standard. And, of course, in between, he ran away from the best golfers in the world to win his second major. And then treated himself to soda. So maybe Rory McIlroy isn't your boilerplate twenty-something.

But the man himself did shed some light on his big day at Kiawah during an interview with Scott McCarron on the Golf Channel's "Morning Drive."

"It was such a long day. I think we had to get up at 5:00 to finish our third round so we're posting by 7:45. Actually, something that people don't know, I went back home -- and everyone was talking about how I showed up -- you know, I only showed up half an hour before the tee time in the [afternoon]? I actually took a nap, and my dad had to come wake me up. He said to me, "Rory, you realize you got to play some golf this afternoon?" And I...didn't know where I was, but I was so tired.

So I got back home after I won. There's just a few people there, and I let myself indulge in two Diet Cokes and a cookie.

Two! And a cookie! He must have been bouncing off the proverbial walls. Of course, Keegan Bradley told host Scott McCarron earlier that the Wanamaker Trophy can hold 17 1/2 pints of ... liquid. So Keegan surely drank a bit more soda after his win last year. It's OK, though: Rory (and, apparently, the trophy itself) could use a rest.

All that said, there is one sort of cookie that would be an indulgence for anyone. Specifically, one emblazoned with your own face. Few people have that peculiar joy available to them. McIlroy is one of them.

According to the Belfast Times, "biscuits" with Rory's visage are a hot item at one bakery in his hometown of Holywood in Northern Ireland:

Within three hours of going on sale, 300 German biscuits carrying the face of Rory McIlroy had disappeared from the shelves of Skinner’s Bakery.

By noon on Monday, workers at the Holywood bakery were frantically preparing another batch.

“It’s because he’s a Holywood boy,” was how co-owner Valerie Skinner explained the success of their best-selling product.

And not to ruin McIlroy's surprise, but it looks like his extended family plan to throw a little Hollywood-style bash for Rory when he get's back:

Rory’s uncle Colm said: “There are no plans for a party yet — but we will definitely do some celebrating.”

Remember, Uncle Colm, to buy a whole bunch of Diet Coke. Looks like the cookies are covered.

Watch the entire 10-minute interview here:

As you probably guessed, covering golf can be a glamorous gig. Like being the prince of Monaco, or a Kardashian. Just look at this group of intrepid reporters being whisked away to another tournament.

It was a sleepy group of scribes, shooters and golf geeks on the 6 a.m. shuttle this morning. #PGAChamp twitter.com/DavidDusek/sta…

— David Dusek (@DavidDusek) August 10, 2012

Yeah. It's pretty posh. Then again, none of those guys are Holly Sonders, host of Golf Channel's "Morning Drive." And, no offense to any of the intrepid scribes pictured, but golf fans probably like Holly Sonders more than they like any of those guys.

That's why she doesn't travel by bus. According to a photo she tweeted Tuesday, she doesn't even travel by commercial airline. After missing her scheduled flight to the Wyndham Championship, the tournament sent its charter jet to pick her up so she could make the pre-event festivities.

Can't make my flight to Wyndham Championship draw party/ Pro-am so tournament director sent this to get me. Pretty cool twitter.com/HollySondersGC…

— Holly Sonders (@HollySondersGC) August 14, 2012

Yeah, Holly. That is pretty cool. And the mini-red carpet is a nice touch. Please, grab as many peanuts as you can. The huddled masses in the press tent are starving.

Rory McIlroy elevated his game Sunday at the PGA Championship, but he couldn't do the same for CBS's TV ratings.

Running opposite the last day of the Olympics, Sunday's golf marathon drew a 3.9 overnight rating for Jim Nantz & Co., according to Sports Media Watch. That's down nine percent from last year, and 22 percent from 2010. In fact, this year's final round drew the lowest ratings since the PGA last ran against the Olympics in 2008 (when it drew a 3.0). According to the article, that year marked the tournament's lowest audience share since "at least" 1995. 

In addition to the Olympics, Tiger Woods's final-round fade didn't seem to help matters. The 2009 event, where Woods lost a Sunday duel to Y.E. Yang, drew a massive 7.5 rating -- nearly twice this year's crowd.

News isn't all bad for the PGA: It still drew more viewers than the final round of this year's British Open (which got 3.3). Granted, that broadcast takes place early Sunday morning in the U.S., so it doesn't benefit from the PGA's meaty Sunday afternoon time slot.

The real upside of being Santa Claus -- aside from the elves and idolization -- is the offseason. He works one hard, 24-hour shift, and then gets 364 days of vacation. So you have to wonder where he spends all that down time.

Well, according to a Getty photo brought to our attention by Yahoo!'s Devil Ball Golf Blog, he may have spent some time on Kiawah Island over the weekend watching PGA Champ Rory McIlroy. You be the judge:

Hopefully St. Nick didn't bring his reindeer to the Ocean Course. With all those gators, he'd probably be out a ride home.

The PGA Championship puts Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III in an odd spot. In his head, he's eyeing the play of Ryder Cup hopefuls; on the course, he's beating most of them.

Love shot an even-par 72 in his opening round Thursday. And then, according to Randall Mell of GolfChannel.com, Love went straight from the course to Kiawah Island's Sanctuary hotel, where he had dinner with the top 20 players in the American Ryder Cup standings.

If that was weird for Love, it was probably worse for Kyle Stanley: Good luck making your case to the coach after he just beat you by eight!

Of course, if Thursday was tough on Kyle, it was equally unsettling for Phil Mickelson. Lefty, who has slipped to eighth in the standings -- the last automatic spot -- played with Love and lost by a shot. The pairing led to some unusual first-tee conversation. As Love said:

“We talked about playing together yesterday, so we would get that out of the way,” Love said. “I told Phil not to grind. Phil and I have been playing a long time. There’s not much awkward left for us.

“He is trying to make the team, because he doesn’t want to have to be picked. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to make the cut, or to win, that’s thinking about results. I told him just to go play this tournament and not worry about things.”

The pair also played with Irishman Padraig Harrington. No word if they were rattling any coins in his backswing. Never too early to start: The Ryder Cup is less than 50 days away.

As our own Gary Van Sickle has reported, logistics are a bit of a problem at the PGA Championship, it being on an island and all. So how do you survive Glory's Last Traffic Jam on the access road to Kiawah Island? Same way you did as a kid: Use your Imagination!

If you're like Scott Michaux, golf writer for the Augusta Chronicle, that means imagining you're part of something more exciting. Like the mob.

Michaux filmed the bus trip from the media hotel to the media tent, and set the footage to the Sopranos theme song. Spoiler alert: his South Carolina drive includes more trees and golf courses, and fewer smokestacks, toll booths and pink pigs than the original. Here's the "The Road to Kiawah" in full:

The big takeaways from Wednesday's press conferences at the PGA Championship? The course is long, paspalum is true, and it's as hard as ever to win a major. Here are some highlights from the day's pressers:

ERNIE ELS
Fresh off his with at The Open, Els talked about his new-found calm, his relationship with Adam Scott, and what sort of player has the advantage at a rain-soaked Kiawah.

Q. How would you describe the way you felt, your emotions, whatever, since playing the back nine at Olympic Club, and if it was calm, where did that come from?
Els: I think just being more secure of what you're doing and basically my routine was really good. You know, and I feel whenever you have a good routine, the pre-shot routine into your golf shots, and you're clear in your mind of what you want to do, there's not too many things flying around in your head. I was just more secure of what I wanted to do. And I think that obviously started at the U.S. Open, I felt that, and obviously it was a lot better at The Open.

Q. Do you feel you have had and will have the level of credit for winning The Open this year, or do you think what happened with Adam could become a dominant story in some ways, and that would be unfortunate?
Els: I think you're going to remember what Adam did. There's no two ways about it. And then hopefully people remember the putts that I made, because I still shot 32 on the back nine to give Adam something to think about. You know, I think for the short term, probably they are going to think about Adam's mistakes that he made, and I think long term, eventually my name is going to stay on the Jug (chuckling).

Q. Along those lines, I know you spoke with Adam Sunday at Lytham; have you spoken at all with him since then?
Els: Yes, we have. We've spoken. We stayed in the same hotel last week and saw him a couple of times. I'm actually playing nine holes with him this afternoon. So as I say, I've known Adam since he's come out here ten years ago, and we have got a pretty good, close relationship. He's a good friend of the family and of mine. You know, if he needs any help to win a major, I'll definitely give it to him; if he needs any encouragement, I'll give it to him. He's a great friend.

Q. Does anybody who cannot hit the ball 300 not have a chance in this thing because of the softness in the fairways?
Els: Yeah, I mean, everybody's got a chance in the field, but I think it definitely helps the super long bombers, Bubba, Dustin, Tiger, the real long guys that can fly it 320. Those guys can reach all four par 5s now, where I can hit it 300, but I can't fly it 320. So I'm probably going to lay up on all of the par 5s. Doesn't take me out of the tournament, but you know, it definitely gives those real super long bombers a great advantage around this golf course now. There's no run out there. It's just plugging where it is.

ADAM SCOTT
Scott, who came up on the losing end of Els's Open, spoke about the course, lessons learned, and how good it feels to get another shot at a major.

Q. From what you've seen so far, perspective on The Ocean Course?
Scott: I've had three pretty good looks at it, twice last week and then I played Monday morning this week. I feel like I'm getting a fairly good understanding of the golf course. It's obviously very long and very severe if you're off line. It's going to test every aspect of your game. But certainly, I believe there's no secret recipe to it. If you can hit some fairways and greens, you're going to give yourself a chance to score well. Start with a focus on ball-striking and work on it from there

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your strategy playing when the wind is very high? At Lytham, you did very well in the wind, I noticed you didn't hit it particularly lower than usual it seemed to me. How do you approach playing in the wind?
Scott: Well, it's different at Lytham than, say, playing here. Obviously the ball runs a lot on a links course and there's often an entryway into a green on the ground there.So if you can control your ball flight low, you can keep the ball out of the wind and have it not as affected, and I was swinging well and had everything under control. I drove the ball great. I teed it very low and just hit very low, hot runners off the tee and they were going straight all week. I was at a huge advantage, because I was hitting a lot of drivers out there and playing somewhat aggressively I guess.

But probably a different story here if the wind gets up, because you're still going to have to hit the ball in the air. There are a lot of forced carries off tees and there are some forced carries into greens, so there's no option of running the ball along the ground up on to the greens. You just have to really have to stand up there and hit a great shot. And it's kind of an educated guess on how much the wind will affect your shot. If you hit the shot well, you'll have a good idea how much it affects it, but if you mis-strike it, it's up to Mother Nature to determine where your ball is going to finish.

Q. You put on a clinic through three rounds at Lytham last month; if you find yourself in the same position here on Sunday, are you worried about some of those feelings creeping back, some of those emotions that maybe you were feeling on the back nine there at Lytham?
Scott: I don't think I'd be worried about it. It may or may not happen. You know, if I was in that position again, I'd feel like I'm playing pretty good. So at that point, I'd be quite confident.

But, the couple of things that I took out of it, hopefully put into practice at that point and not let that happen again. It's certainly not something you'd like to make a habit of, and I never have; I've generally been a good closer of golf tournaments in my career. You know, I'd like-- if I was in that position, I'd like to turn it around this time and close the golf tournament out.

RORY MCILROY
McIlroy rated his season, gushed over the conditions, and even took a stab at the spelling bee.

Q.Comment on what you've seen so far from practicing and preparing on the course for this championship. McIlroy: Yeah, it's a long golf course, a big golf course. It's a golf course you not only have to hit it well, but you really have to think about what you're doing out there. You know, you really have to pick your spots where you want to hit it, and obviously with the weather the way it's been this week, that's going to play a pretty big factor, too.

But you know, I like what I see. I think the course is in phenomenal shape. I love the greens. I love the paspalum. I think the ball rolls really, really well. So I'm looking forward to the week.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about the paspalum greens. I wonder if you could tell us at what stage in your life you first heard that word, if you can spell it for us, and your general thoughts.
McIlroy: P-a-s-p-a-l-u-m, and the Bear's Club actually have paspalum. We practice on paspalum all the time; me, Luke, Keegan, Dustin. It's something we are quite used to and something I was talking to Luke about yesterday, something that the guys that are members of the Bear's Club might have an advantage because we are used to how it reacts and we practice on that stuff on our off-weeks, so it's actually quite nice.

It's very spiny. When you see guys chipping off of greens and hitting wedge shots, it bites a lot. Even as I said earlier, when the greens are firm, just this certain type of grass, it just really grabs the ball. So you can be aggressive with your chip shots and definitely aggressive with your wedge shots, too.

Q. How would you rate your year to date, and what are you pleased with and what are you disappointed with?
McIlroy: It's been good. You know, there was a few goals I set myself early at the start of the year, which I achieved; getting to No. 1 in the world, and playing well, winning a tournament early.

And then the second half of the season has been-- it's still been pretty good. It's been a little bit more of a struggle. But you know, I feel like I'm playing pretty well, so, I mean, if I had to give my season a grade to this point, I'd probably give it a B. There's still a lot of golf left to play, but very happy with some of the golf that I've played this year. You know, I've still got a lot of good golf to look forward to.