Epic entrance. Epic athlete. Let's do this @mcilroyrory #TeamNike twitter.com/nikegolf/statu…

— Nike Golf (@nikegolf) January 14, 2013

So pumped to officially be a Nike athlete!!! Can't wait to do many great things in the SWOOSH! @nikegolf

— Rory Mcilroy (@McIlroyRory) January 14, 2013

This @mcilroyrory presser is like "Hello World" all over again, only the world already knows Rory. #Nike does everything big!

— Paul Azinger (@PaulAzinger) January 14, 2013

Who cares what Faldo has to say about Rory making a change. Good for you Rory. Nike is the best to be associated with. #athletefirst

— David Duval (@david59duval) January 14, 2013

My opinion is that Rory will only improve his distance control with new ball/irons. But what do I know...

— Francesco Molinari (@F_Molinari) January 14, 2013

Darren has taken his name out of the running for Ryder cup captaincy. It would be fantastic to have Paul Mcginley as the 2014 captain.

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) January 14, 2013

RC captaincy should be a 1 time thing... Everybody deserving gets their chance and moves on... Would love to play under Paul McGinley in '14

— Rory Mcilroy (@McIlroyRory) January 13, 2013

Ryder Cup captain being picked tomorrow here in Abu dhabi. On a personal note idlove to see Paul Mcginley get it.

— Shane Lowry (@shanelowrygolf) January 14, 2013

I hope Paul McGinley gets his chance, he's been an amazing Vice Captain and deserves an opportunity #2014RyderCup

— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) January 14, 2013

In complete shock, thanks everyone for the nice texts and tweets twitter.com/russhenleygolf…

— Russell Henley (@russhenleygolf) January 14, 2013

Congratulations @russhenleygolf on your fantastic first victory on the @pgatour in the @sonyopen in Hawaii. My best throughout the season.

— Gary Player (@garyplayer) January 14, 2013

Wow.. Henley, can I have a puttinglesson?! #whataclutchputter

— Anna Nordqvist (@ANordqvist) January 14, 2013

#49ers #BeatThePackers twitter.com/ThePCreamer/st…

— Paula Creamer (@ThePCreamer) January 13, 2013

If ur out watching #Sony today. Just yell out the #patriots score!! Please!! Go pats give @danny__woodhead the ball see what he does with it

— Keegan Bradley (@Keegan_Bradley) January 13, 2013

What a crazy game this is. I took Atlanta -2. Need this field goal to push my bet.

— Graeme McDowell (@Graeme_McDowell) January 13, 2013

Wow watching falcons is hard work, I am worn out! What a game!!

— Davis Love III (@Love3d) January 13, 2013

Steve Marino fell just short of his first PGA Tour win on Sunday, but Ferd Lewis at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said Marino has Michelle Wie to thank for helping him settle into the pressures of playing golf at the highest level. Back in 2007, Marino, a rookie just out of Q-school, was paired with Wie at the Sony Open.

It was an experience that, at the time, he had compared to being "kind of thrown into the lion's den."

But for all his trepidation and taut nerves, Marino not only survived it, finishing in a tie for 34th, but won points with the gallery for the aplomb with which he handled the pairing. He joked with her, encouraged her and, in the process, steadied his own nerves.

Looking back, Marino was able to say, "In a way I think that actually helped me, my first event on the PGA Tour, getting paired with Michelle Wie. There were so many people around, I think it was good for me to experience something like that right off the bat, and it gave me some confidence to realize that I handled it well and I made the cut and I didn't get overwhelmed by the situation. So, yeah, I think it was definitely a good thing for me. That was a big confidence booster for me."

Harrington keeps tinkering
This week's European Tour event in Abu Dhabi marks the debut for most of the top players in the world. It also marks the debut of Padraig Harrington's new swing, according to Brendan O’Brien at the Irish Examiner.

By his own reckoning, the man from Stackstown has made anything up to 20 nips and tucks over the last four weeks. Most of them are minor alterations and he couldn’t quite remember them all but he gave it a hell of a good old rattle.

Here’s just a taster…

He has changed his choice of grips, weakened his grip, lowered his hands on the club, altered his routine for practising putts and changed his ‘trigger’ which, for him, was two big ‘waggles’ before he hit his shot.

Of all his latest experiments, the trigger is the big one — a mental nuance rather than a physical one — a tricky procedure which other players have addressed with varying degrees of success in the past.

I'm not going to be an armchair swing instructor, but at 39, Harrington better hope his swing changes take hold fast. He's quickly running out of time while trying to fix a swing that was good enough to win three majors in two seasons.

But this little nugget from O’Brien should give Harrington fans hope that he can regain his major-championship form:

It was also interesting to hear Harrington say that, contrary to popular belief, he first began to pick at his game five years ago and not just after he won his third major in the space of 18 months, the 2008 US PGA Championship at Oakland Hills.

Clark on the DL?
We're only two weeks into the PGA Tour season and there are already several players dealing with injuries. Geoff Ogilvy cut his finger on a piece of coral and withdrew from Kapalua. Zach Johnson smashed his toe before the season opener. Now Golfweek's Alex Miceli reports Tim Clark, who tied for second at the Sony Open, might be out for this week's Bob Hope after dealing with a painful blister on his toe during Sunday's 36-hole marathon finish.

Clark, who shot 66-64 in the 36-hole finish at Waialae Country Club, was limping with a blister on his left little toe late Sunday while practicing on the range for a possible playoff. That didn’t happen, as Mark Wilson sealed his third PGA Tour victory with a 16-under 264 score in the rain-delayed Sony.

Clark plans to fly to La Quinta, Calif., site of the Hope, and then decide whether he can play.

Tweet of the Day

IanJamesPoulter: Just watching the Pats vs the Jets in the bar. I need to get into this football.

HONOLULU -- This week SI Golf+ correspondent Stephanie Wei is at Waialae Country Club covering the Sony Open. One early season hot topic involves PGA Tour pros volunteering to wear microphones during events. Wei, who did an extended interview with Justin Rose and wrote on the topic in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, offers insights from more players:

There's already so much coming at the players down the stretch that they don't want in their heads — whether it's fan noise, handling the pressure or what their playing partners are doing. The more they can block out, the better. Even if you physically forget you're wearing a mic, there's a chance you suddenly remember it and it causes you to lose your focus for a split second. Having something so close to you, like the mic, that reaches out so far and wide, can be quite bothersome to some players. Even if the coverage isn't going to show a player and caddie talking about the hot blonde in the right-side of the gallery, there's still someone listening. So what? Again, it's a personal thing.

Some players might feel like they have to put on a show and try to be funny. Instead of being themselves (not saying that it's not entirely possible for a rare breed), they overdo it and play up their personality (or lack thereof). For example, at the announcer-free Nationwide Tour event last September in Boise, Hunter Haas was mic'ed up and he seemed like he was being overly self-deprecating to amuse the audience. He won the tournament and it's hard to imagine someone having so much success with such a supposed negative view of his own game.

Rose made it clear that he was all for miking players and he'd be more than happy to wear one if it were a silly season or exhibition event, but he wouldn't be the first to raise his hand. He's not alone. Golf Channel asked four or five guys to wear a mic during the first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, but none of them would do it. (The players chosen were popular and their tee times lined up with prime TV telecast hours.) Just to clarify, players would only be mic'ed in the first and/or second rounds, as the Tour doesn't allow it over the weekend.

Eventual champion and first-round co-leader Jonathan Byrd was the only player who agreed to wear one last week, but it didn't happen due to technical difficulties. Defending champion Ryan Palmer is scheduled to be mic'ed up in the first round of the Sony Open (if it ever stops raining).

Read the full article.

More of Stephanie Wei's coverage from the Sony Open.

Follow Stephanie Wei on Twitter.

HONOLULU -- Jerry Kelly, the 2002 Sony Open champion, withdrew after completing 11 holes Friday.

Kelly, who came into the week fighting lower-back pain, was 3-over-par in his second round and 7-over for the tournament when he stopped play. Although the Tour was unable to confirm his reason for quitting, it was believed to be his lower back.

Wilkinson was playing out of a ditch on the par-4 eighth hole Friday when his ball ricocheted off a rock embedded in the ditch and came back and struck him in a soft spot around his collarbone.

The lefthander, who shot a 7-over 77 in round one, was 1-under in his second round when he was struck by his own ball and withdrew for precautionary reasons. He was getting iced in the lockerroom.