Tiger Woods followed a near-miss at the Abu Dhabi Championship with a Sunday fold at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Does the 14-time major champ and 71-time PGA Tour victor need to learn how to win again? Hank Gola of The New York Daily News puts this question to Nick Faldo, Johnny Miller and Brandel Chamblee and gets differing responses.

I asked the first question, whether Tiger Woods needs to learn how to win all over again and they took it from there. I thought I’d run the entire transcript. Here goes:

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I do. I believe, because what we have seen, his incredible record in the past, leading after 54 and converting was ridiculous. But now we have seen about four now times when he's been right there, good enough to get into contention but not good enough to finish it off. And I think that’s when you discover all of those little things that you can't really put your finger on, what it takes to finish it off. But the bottom line is trust, or self belief, self confidence in your ability. We have seen a few swings and a few putts that -- we watch Tiger scratch his head, let alone scratch your own.

JOHNNY MILLER: I don't know if the word is learn how to win again. But like Nick said, he's got to go do it is all it amounts to. The more tournaments that he’s sniffing on the lead and doesn’t pull it off, even starting with the Masters last year, that great charge on Sunday, it looked like he was going to do it and just sort of fizzes out. The more of those that he has, the more scar tissue you get, and you know, the tougher it is to make those putts. He used to do it, like, ‘Hey, it always goes in for me. Why not be confident?’ And all of a sudden, they are not going in, and he needs a lucky win or something, or a couple of guys gag or something and he wins. He just needs to win. That's what I said all along; I don’t care he did win at Sherwood, but I don’t know if that totally convinced him that that was a real win. He needs to do it on Tour with a PGA Tour win.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: You know, I think he knows how to win. I don’t think he’s forgotten how to win. I just think he’s forgotten how to swing.

Lee Westwood says Europeans have advantage at Accenture Match Play

While PGA Tour members have been battling in California (with a stop in Phoenix), European Tour players have been playing in the Middle East for the last month. Lee Westwood said Tuesday that all that desert golf pays off for European players when they get to the Accenture Match Play in Tucson.

Q. Do you see the Middle East swing as being very beneficial, and has some characteristics similar to this golf course out here? Does that give the Europeans an advantage as they've shown winning the last couple of years? Do they have an advantage coming into this tournament because they play Dubai and Abu Dhabi?

LEE WESTWOOD: It's very similar playing the Middle East as to here. The greens will be very similar, and some of the golf courses are fairly similar. So it's probably good preparation for this tournament, yeah.

Q. Do the Europeans have an advantage?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah.

Westwood also talked about his decision to give up alcohol.

Q. This non use of alcohol

LEE WESTWOOD: You can't comprehend that, can you, Alex?

Q. I actually can. Do you think this is just one more thing that can help you?

LEE WESTWOOD: I don't drink a lot, anyway, to be perfectly honest. But I just felt like stopping altogether.

Q. When you say you feel better, what do you mean exactly?

LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I mean after Christmas I was trying to lose weight. There's a lot of calories in alcohol. So it was the easiest place to cut it out for starters.

Q. What were you up to?

LEE WESTWOOD: 97 kilos [214 lbs], something like that.

Q. So it's just the weight?

LEE WESTWOOD: The main reason, yeah. I like a break every now and then.

Schwartzel wants to master the grill at Augusta National

Just when you thought the Champions Dinner at the Masters couldn't get any cooler, 2011 champ Charl Schwartzel asked Augusta National if he could hold a South African "braai" barbecue this year. (By tradition, the previous year's champion chooses the menu of the storied, champions-only Tuesday night dinner during Masters week.)

Q. Charl, is it true that you're going to do something unique at the Champions Dinner with the meal and where does that stand?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Well, I mean, we were going to try and do a barbecue. In South Africa we call it a 'braai'. I don't like very formal dinners. I thought of keeping it very relaxed, sort of standing around a fire and cooking the meat.

Q. Is that what you hope to do?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: That's what I hope to do. Only thing that could stop me probably if there's too many people. Then it's very difficult to do the meat yourself. But we're still waiting for confirmation if it will be allowed, see how it works.

Q. Charl, I'm curious. When you presented Augusta National that you wanted to cook your own meat, I'm wondering what their initial response was.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't know. Their initial response was obviously, We'll come back to you on that. I think it took them quite by surprise, maybe expecting something a little more different or more the way they always do it. I just find sometimes that I don't enjoy these functions that are formal. You sit down, the food comes. I like it to be fun and relaxed, something that everyone will eat. If you bring in funny sort of foods, not everyone eats it. That's not what you want. I think everybody must be able to eat it and everybody must be able to enjoy it. That's what I do when I'm home on my off time. Basically every night I cook meat on the fire. Yeah, I thought that's something to do.

Q. If they give you the go ahead, what meat are you throwing on the grill?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, I don't know. We'll put some lamb chops, fillet steaks, a thing we call boerewors. It's a sausage that is very sort of famous in South Africa. I'm going to get to some South African shops in the United States and order some of those sausages and things.

Schwartzel spoke to reporters via telephone Tuesday at a Masters media conference, where he talked about another trapping of Masters tradition: the green jacket.

Q. You kindly came to the Golf Writers Dinner at the Open and wore the green jacket. How many times did you wear it over the previous year and what was the most fun, interesting occasion that you wore it?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: There's something about the jacket. Every single time you put it on, you get this very, very proud feeling. I wore it I don't know how many times. It traveled with me the whole of last year. Basically every single function that we went to, I wore it. I have no idea. I mean, I played 36 tournaments last year. I must have worn it more than 20, 25 times at some functions. Every time you put it on, it's a special moment. 

Tweet of the Day

From CBSSports.com's Steve Elling...

Keegan Bradley took to Twitter to perform some damage control after this weekend's Northern Trust Open. No, Bradley did not apologize for his performance after losing to Bill Haas in a thrilling three-way playoff. Instead, Bradley said he was sorry for spitting on the course.

Bradley, the 26-year-old who won the PGA Championship as a rookie last year, is often seen on television spitting on the course, which caught the eye of British golf instructor and TV commentator Denis Pugh as he watched the Northern Trust Open. Pugh also noticed Bradley's geological pace of play.

But Pugh didn't stop there. He asked his more than 7,000 followers to send tweets to Bradley and Bradley's sponsor Cleveland Golf to complain about the spitting and slow play.

Clearly, Pugh's message was heard. Afterward, Pugh accepted Bradley's apology although he noted that it covered only spitting, not pace of play.

Of course, Bradley is not the only member of the PGA Tour who spits on the course. Tiger Woods is often criticized for spitting on the golf course. Back in 2008, our former colleague Farrell Evans weighed in on this issue, concluding that the problem wasn't that Woods spits on the course, but it was the way he spits.  

A good Southern man should never chew gum in public, but spitting is permissible just as long as it's not on the town square sidewalk or near a lady.

Tiger is not a good practitioner of the art of spitting. The saliva must come out of the mouth in a tight rope. Tiger’s tends to come out like a water hose meant to wet the widest space possible. Also, he’s just not a spitting type of guy. What do I mean? He’s a golfer from Southern California, not Salinas or Sacramento or Selma or San Antonio.

Boo Weekley is good at it because he knows the context of spitting. He knows the history and has seen good men, hardworking men, perform one of the working man’s greatest crafts.

It's a skill that was perfected by real country folks, working-class poor people who lived through the Depression. They spit, but they knew good manners. A kind word and a handshake and opening doors for women and old folks. Yes sir and no sir. Ask a man about his day, and he told you about how grateful he was that he could support his family and that there was good rain last night.

For these people, spitting was a ritual, a way to pause between parts of a story. I call it fluid punctuation.

Ben Crane mannequin stops burglary in Denmark

Gotham City might still need a hero, but Copenhagen already has Ben Crane, thank you very much.

A Crane mannequin foiled a burglary attempt at a sporting goods store in Denmark's capital city. USA Today has the details:

A mannequin of Crane holding a golf club thwarted a late-night robbery Feb. 17 in the Copenhagen, Denmark, headquarters of Show Me Golfers, a golf app that Crane endorses. According to ShowMeGolfers, the burlgar(s) broke a window to gain entry but did not take anything, fleeing at the shadowy image of Crane. The alarm, however, went off, and upon arriving at the scene, police officers pulled their guns on the Crane lookalike and asked him to drop his gun before realizing it was a mannequin.

No one — not even the mannequin — was hurt in the incident.

"I am pumped. This is awesome," Crane enthusiastically said Monday at the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play Championship. "It's weird, I'll tell you that. But it's great news. And I technically saved a major robbery. When the cops got there, they soon realized I had it all under control."

Michelle Wie goes gluten-free to improve golf game

If it worked for No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic, it's good enough for Michelle Wie.

In Singapore for the HSBC Women's Champion tournament, Wie said she's switched to a gluten-free diet like the one that helped Djokovic, according to AFP.

"I heard that story that he turned gluten free and became number one in the world," Wie on Tuesday told a press conference in Singapore ahead of the $1.4-million HSBC Women's Champions tournament starting Thursday where she will be competing.

"I think it's really motivating me," she said in response to a question from AFP. Djokovic, who has battled allergies in his career, has credited a gluten-free diet as one of the key reasons behind his surge to the top of men's tennis.

Like the Serbian, Wie is also allergy-prone and has tweeted earlier this month that her hands are less swollen after omitting gluten from her diet.

"I am allergic to everything in this world, I don't really digest food very well," the 22-year-old Hawaiian of Korean descent said. "So I just thought maybe if I cut out gluten, I can feel better because I heard that it causes inflammation, everything... but it's been week three and I feel a big difference."

Tweet of the Day

The last time Tiger Woods played the Honda Classic, he hadn’t even won a U.S. Amateur yet. It was 1993, and the tournament was held at Westin Hills G&CC in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Tiger missed the cut. Still, there’s good reason to like Tiger’s chances when he rejoins the Honda field at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in a couple of weeks. Speaking with the Palm Beach Post, Tommy Roy, NBC Sports’s top golf producer, noted:

“…I think this golf course is right in his wheelhouse.

“If you look at the stats through the years, the leaders always play the Bear Trap well. Those three holes [Nos. 15-17] require cut shots most of the time, depending on the wind, and that's playing right into Tiger's strength with the power cut that he's playing. The other factor is that he always putts well on Bermuda greens.

"It would seem this golf course is almost perfect for him."

Finchem on the Tiger Effect

The Honda will benefit from Tiger’s presence, but Tim Finchem continues to preach that TW’s not essential to the success of the Tour. Earlier this week the commish told Jill Painter of the L.A. Daily News:

"It's always good to have everybody play. Tiger has gotten into a schedule that in his mind works, and we have a great respect for that. It stands out when the best player over the last 15 years doesn't have a tournament on his schedule. Tiger Woods is bigger than life.

"People are surprised to learn Tiger plays in one of three events on average. And yet, over the last 15 years, all of our tournaments have grown. While it's nice [if Woods plays], it's not fundamental."

Mr. Commissioner, you might want to see these numbers

The Tour may not flat-line when Tiger stays home, but as has been well documented, TV ratings suffer. Matt Yoder at awfulannouncing.com underscored that point by delving deep into the ratings of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which enjoyed a huge boost with Charlie Wi Tiger Woods in the mix last Sunday.

It's only one tournament examined in a vacuum, but the ratings data from Pebble Beach tell an interesting story. Here are the numbers since 2000 of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am (thanks to the acclaimed person behind TVSportsRatings, whoever he or she is) with the total average number of viewers for CBS's weekend coverage and what it means for the PGA Tour... 

2000 4.1
2001 5.9 
2002 4.5 
2003 4.1 
2004 4.1 
2005 5.0 
2006 3.3 
2007 3.6 
2008 2.9 
2009 1.6 
2010 1.9 
2011 2.9 
2012 5.7

A few takeaways from those numbers...

*Tiger Woods made his first appearance this year at Pebble Beach for the early season tournament since 2002. Woods played at Pebble Beach in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2012. The average number of viewers for those 4 tournaments was 5.05 million, including a Monday finish in 2000 (thus the low 4.1 number). The average number of viewers for the 9 tournaments Tiger didn't play at Pebble from 2003-2011? Just 3.27 million. That's an increase of 54% for Pebble Beach when Tiger has played since 2000.

…As long as the PGA Tour is so utterly dependent on Woods for ratings success, how can they expect to be healthier without Tiger's presence? Even in 2012, it's a question the PGA Tour is still seeking an answer to.

Tweet of the Day

LA traffic is 3rd World-esque.

— Joe Ogilvie (@ogilviej) February 17, 2012

Last month, Meg Mallon was picked to lead the U.S. team at the 2013 Solheim Cup. So who's going to captain the European squad? Well, not Annika Sorenstam. On Golf Channel's Morning Drive show Thursday morning, Sorenstam announced she has declined an offer to be the European captain. She also made the announcement on her website.

The Solheim Cup has been an important part of my career, and I hope to one day lead the European team. However, after working with Captain Alison Nicholas and her team this past year as Vice Captain, I saw firsthand the incredible amount of work and dedication it takes to be the Captain. With my young family, foundation, businesses, and other commitments I have already made to try and help grow the game, I simply cannot provide the necessary time that the European team, Solheim family, and the entire event deserves.

Something doesn't add up
I was told there would be no math with this job, so fortunately Golfweek's Alex Miceli points out the absurdity of Phil Mickelson earning fewer world ranking points from his win at Pebble Beach than Tiger Woods did for his win at the Chevron in December.

When Woods beat Zach Johnson by a stroke at the Chevron, which is an unofficial event, he earned 44 world-ranking points and moved from 52nd in the world to 21st in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Mickelson, with his two-shot margin against Charlie Wi at Pebble Beach, earned only 38 points. That also was 10 less than the 48 points that Rafael Cabrera-Bello gained for winning the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the same amount that Lee Westwood garnered for winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge, a 12-man exhibition event in South Africa in December.

Golf gets really social
Players can't tweet during their rounds, but starting this week players sponsored by TaylorMade will have a Twitter hashtag on their hats, #driverlove. The hashtag name plays off the club company's recent advertising campaign. Mashable has the details.

While other sports have added interesting social media twists to their players and fields, golf is a game deeply rooted in tradition and not necessarily eager to humor cutting-edge fashion trends and tech fads. But that leaves an opening for brands willing to innovate, according to TaylorMade’s chief marketing officer, Bob Maggiore.

“For our sport as whole, the social media space has really been a slow-moving river,” Maggiore told Mashable. “So it’s interesting for us, because we’ve kind of given up on doing certain things the old way. We like to get out in front and try different things.”

Tweet of the Day

Drinks are on me!!!!!!!! Hole in one today on number 12!!! The car was sitting there but didn't get it! What the heck! Not cool! #tease

— Paula Creamer (@ThePCreamer) February 16, 2012

Looks like even Tiger Woods has given up on that vaunted “intimidation factor.”

As part of the buildup to the release of his Tiger Woods EA Sports PGA Tour 13 video game, Woods has posted some of his childhood pics on Facebook. And, yes, they’re adorable.

The new gimmick in this year’s edition of the popular golf game is the “Tiger Legacy Challenge” mode, where you can compete as Tiger throughout all the eras of his career: from junior golf through his amateur titles to the Tiger slam. You can even hear Tiger’s father, Earl, yelling at Tiger while he gets ready to swing to sharpen his son’s focus. Here’s a video preview:

Woods also gave some interviews to EA Sports about his childhood, where he talks about his father and his memories of his famous appearance on “The Mike Douglas Show” as a 2-year-old, and what “Tiger par” was growing up.

Tiger Woods EA Sports PGA Tour 13 is scheduled for U.S. release on March 27, the same day as former coach Hank Haney’s book about his time with Tiger, “The Big Miss.” The regular edition is $59.99 on Xbox 360 and PS3; the special Masters Collector's Edition is $69.99.

Golf replaces skiing as winter sport in mild Northeast winter
Bloomberg News reports on golf’s emergence as a winter sport in the unseasonably mild Northeastern U.S. this season.

Without snow in metropolitan areas, Northeast golf courses have capitalized, drawing players throughout the winter and doing maintenance and renovation months earlier than normal.

The Mattawang Golf Club, a semi-private course in Belle Mead, New Jersey, hosted almost 1,000 rounds in January, including one 60-degree Saturday on which the course drew 190 golfers, said Mahlon Dow, the club’s head professional and manager.

“That’s a good number in June,” Dow said in a telephone interview. “It looks like October out there.”

Ernie Els: Take my belly putter, please
Ernie Els joined Tiger Woods in calling for a ban on belly putters this week at the Northern Trust. One difference though: Els is actually using a belly putter. He explains:

Q. You mentioned the short putter. The USGA has said they're taking a fresh look at the belly putter, long putter, anchoring. Do you welcome that? What do you think about that?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I think so. Although I've used it, I've used it for, what, six months now, I feel the same as most of the traditionalists. I feel that no club should be anchored to your body. I don't know how they're going to go around it, maybe use a putter as long as you want as long as it's not anchored to your body any way, even up your arm. You see a lot of the guys use it in their armpits now. Nothing should be anchored to your body, and I believe I still believe that. I was in such a state that I felt that I needed to change something, which I did. I went to the belly. It hasn't really helped me that much, but it has helped me. But I'm for it. Ban it. It's fine.

Tweets of the Day

If you exit Riviera CC and go right a half mile, that's where OJ's house was. A little further down is Nicole's.

— Stewart Cink (@stewartcink) February 15, 2012

This is a photo hanging in Rivera.40's or early 50's. People having been putting like this for a very long time! twitter.com/Keegan_Bradley…

— Keegan Bradley (@Keegan_Bradley) February 15, 2012

CBS reported having the highest ratings in 15 years during the final-round coverage of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, according to Geoff Schackelford.

CBS Sports’ final-round coverage of the AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM on Sunday, Feb. 12 (3:15-6:30 PM, ET), which saw Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods paired together with Mickelson firing a 64 to win his fourth Pebble Beach title, delivered the highest rating for the final round at Pebble Beach in 15 years (5.8/13; Feb. 2, 1997) with an average overnight household rating/share of 5.1/10, up 96% from last year’s 2.6/6 in the metered markets.

Unfortunately, what golf fans thought was going to be final-round coverage from Pebble was actually college basketball. CBS broadcasted the end of the Illinois and Michigan game before finally switching over to Pebble Beach. How did upset fans voice their anger for the delay? According to Golf Digest, Twitter was the medium. 

Onlooker speaks up

At this weekend's Women's Australian Open in Melbourne, a spectator from the crowd spoke up and saved Karrie Webb from making a big mistake. According to The Age, on the 13th green fellow opponent Yani Tseng asked Webb to move her marker one putter-head length to the side to clear her line. After Tseng putted, Webb went to move her marker back but in the wrong direction. She was about to pull the trigger when a man yelled: "Excuse me!"

''I just blanked it. I don't even remember moving it the other way, but I guess I moved it the other way. About 15 people standing on the other side of the hole (said). I was just about to pull the trigger and he spoke up. Which really caught me off-guard. In the end it saved a two-shot penalty. It was quite courageous of him, to speak up, and I'm thankful for it.''

Webb waltzed over to the man, a local club golfer, and handed him her golf ball after putting out. ''It saved me a couple of shots,'' she said later.

Tweet of the Day

Phil Mickelson is now undefeated vs. Tiger in their last 5 final head-to-head rounds. He's Tom Coughlin and Tiger is Bill Belichick.

— Rick Reilly (@ReillyRick) February 13, 2012

The golf world has been wondering for a couple of years now whether or not Tiger will ever regain his dominance, and for good reason. When Tiger's in the field TV ratings are often close to 50 percent higher than when he's not. There's arguably never been a golfer, let alone any professional athlete, that's captivated the general public's attention like Eldrick. If he fades away to journeyman status the game of golf and the many businesses that surround it will suffer. If he can reproduce some of his former glory everyone around the game, including the fans, will benefit greatly. So will he or won't he? According to USA Today, opinions vary: 

"I honestly don't think there is a reason why he won't get back to No. 1 and being the best again," says Keegan Bradley, reigning PGA Championship winner and 2011 PGA Tour rookie of the year. "He's going to find a way."

"I don't know if he will rule the roost anymore," Dustin Johnson says. "He has struggled, but he's been injured. And he's had a few incidents that have thrown him for a loop. But I think he has everything back on track. He will be a force, I'm sure. He is one guy you are going to have to beat out here. But there are a lot of other guys you're going to have to beat, as well."

Interesting that two young PGA Tour superstars have such different opinions, but together they represent what most golf fans probably think -- "Tiger's healthy again and will do what he's always done," or, "Tiger's going to get some more wins but he'll never dominate again." Delving further into the debate, Steve DiMeglio of USA Today offers nine reasons why Tiger will or won't be king. The No. 1 question? Injuries, of course. 

1. Insult to injuries

PRO: "I've been able to train again," Woods says. "Rehabbing and training are two totally different scenarios. I've been rehabbing pretty much the entire last couple of years. Now I'm healthy enough to train without issue. My body's feeling explosive again. … I can literally train all day now."

CON: His left knee. Dating to 1994, when he had two benign tumors removed and scar tissues repaired, he's had four operations on his knee, including a major reconstruction in 2008 after he won the U.S. Open. "That's the only worry," CBS golf analyst David Feherty says. " For a right-handed player, there is probably no such worse problem you can have. Your frame has to absorb that shock of the swing, and all the energy dissipates into the left knee area."

Tweet of the Day

During his live Super Bowl special, David Feherty sat down with Tim Tebow and pressed the young QB if leading the nation could be in his future after he finishes leading mediocre football teams to playoff berths. Feherty pleaded his case to Tebow, saying, “Would you ever think of running for office? Please? Because, here’s the thing, we’ve got Romney and Gingrich here at the minute and I don’t know what anybody else thinks, but they’ve got the sort of faces you never get tired of punching.” 

Tebow didn’t completely knock the notion, though, responding, “For me, it could be something in my future. It’s something I’ll have to think about and pray about.” 

Check out an excerpt of Feherty’s interview with Tebow in the video below, as well as extended clips from his Super Bowl special. 

Golf Boys reunion 

It may not be as big news as the Beach Boys's 50th anniversary reunion and tour, but for a brief moment, Ben Crane and Bubba Watson, one-half of golf’s favorite boy band, kept the party going on TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole. Missing in action from the impromptu concert was Rickie Fowler, who was in a different playing group at the Phoenix Open, and Hunter Mahan, who was busy getting cut in Qatar. 

I may be alone in this, but I never get sick of Ben Crane’s racing helmet and goggles. For more images of the Waste Management Open’s party hole, check out our gallery here. 

Nager appointed as USGA’s 62^nd president 

During the USGA’s annual meeting in Houston, Glen Nager was announced as the 62nd president of North American golf’s governing body, reports Ryan Ballengee. Nager has been elected to serve a one-year term and hopes to keep the organization focused on challenges faced by predecessor Jim Hyler, including improving participation and environmental stewardship in the game. 

“At a time when the game faces increasingly complex challenges, we must recommit ourselves to the USGA’s mission,” Nager said at the annual meeting. “To sustain the game, we must do more. We have to promote a more enjoyable, more affordable and more welcoming experience for golfers – without fundamentally changing the game itself.” 

Nager, 53, resides in Washington, D.C. where he is a partner in the Jones Day law firm. He has an extensive background in constitutional law and has argued 13 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Nager is also a single-handicap golfer and was named the volunteer general counsel of the USGA in 2006. He most recently served as chairman of the USGA’s Rules of Golf, Commercial and Compensation committee.

Tweet of the Day

I need to get my sponsors' logos on my helmet. It's obviously good luck...and fashionable too. Golf's biggest headwear trend since the visor

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) February 6, 2012

Waste Management got some bang for its sponsorship buck Thursday when mad bomber Gary Woodland tried to drive the green at the par-4 10th on the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale. Woodland’s ball never made it to its intended destination, instead vanishing into a row of Waste Management recycling bins short and right of the green. Gary McCord handled the trash talk…

Woodland two-putted for his par. He was one-under through 15 holes when the first round was suspended due to darkness.

For FedEx Cup points leader, competitiveness is all in the %$#&! family
If you’re impressed not only by Johnson Wagner’s ’stache but also by his steel, give some credit to his fiery mother and smack-talking brother, reports Karen Crouse of The New York Times:

Johnson’s stiff upper lip in competition can be traced to the family golf games he played growing up, contentious rounds that featured thrown clubs and hurled invectives — mostly by Wagner’s mother, Betty. Her sons describe her as the fiercest competitor in the family, with Johnson Wagner running a close second. 

And then there’s his supportive bro, T.J.:

Johnson Wagner sometimes hated his outings with his brother, who played golf at Washington and Lee from 1996 to 2000.

“My brother used to like to get under my skin,” said Wagner, who starred at Virginia Tech. “He knew how to push my buttons. I remember one time I hit a bad drive and he made fun of me, and I tomahawked my putter and it hit the windshield of the cart and shattered it.”

And the sweet, loving vibe at family game night:

...the combativeness that Wagner learned to bottle up on the golf course is uncorked when the family gathers to play board games like Cranium.

“Both my brother’s wife and mine have been brought to tears,” Wagner said. 

Mickelson’s lawyer “very close” to identifying Lefty basher
The attorney who is representing Phil Mickelson in Lefty’s quest to “out” a menacing message-board poster says they are nearing their goal. Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic checked in with the lawyer, Glenn Cohen, after Mickelson’s opening-round three-under 68 at the Waste Management Open Thursday.

Cohen was happy to hear his client played well while he focused on the dirty work. And it's dirty all right. As Cohen recounted some of the things posted about Mickelson and his wife, he grew madder and madder.

"Enough is enough," he said. "It has to change. We're very close to finding out who this is."

Tweet of the day

RT @DazDavy @Graeme_McDowell if not a golfer... What would u have been??>>broke

— Graeme McDowell (@Graeme_McDowell) February 3, 2012

The 2016 Rio Olympics are still more than four years away, but Rory McIlroy has already discussed his dilemma of choosing which nation to represent at the Games -- Ireland or Great Britain. McIlroy's countryman Padraig Harrington is the latest to weigh in, and the three-time major-winner says the most pro-Irish thing McIlroy can do is to play for Great Britain. Here's Harrington's rationale, according to the Irish Times.

"I'm fascinated with all this conversation about who we declare for," the Dubliner told Setanta Sports in a new program called The Cut Line, to be aired at 10 p.m. on Saturday evening.

"If Rory and Graeme declare for Great Britain, it means we get two more Irish guys into it - as in myself and Darren Clarke get to play. You see the system works if you're in the top fifteen, you can have more than two from the country.

"So, if somebody wants Rory to be as Irish as he can be, he better declare for GB and we get two more guys in. When it comes down to it, it will be a complete no brainer because nobody is losing out, you're actually just gaining a couple of more spots for Irish guys."

An Olympic gold, he says, could be a "career-defining" moment, that "will have relevance in time".

Is Harrington's opinion patriotic or self-serving? And is there any guarantee that in four years he and Clarke would be the two best Irishmen after McIlroy and McDowell? Let us hear it in the comments section below.

It's Never Too Early...
...to start talking Masters. This week Golfodds.com released its odds on the Masters. Looks like some insiders believe that Tiger is back. Here are the favorites, according to the site.

Odds to Win 2012 Masters:

Tiger Woods 9/2
Rory McIlroy 8/1
Phil Mickelson 15/1
Lee Westwood 20/1
Luke Donald 20/1
Adam Scott 25/1
Jason Day 30/1
Dustin Johnson 30/1
Nick Watney 40/1
Rickie Fowler 40/1
Martin Kaymer 40/1
Charl Schwartzel 40/1
Sergio Garcia 30/1
Matt Kuchar 40/1
Hunter Mahan 40/1
Steve Stricker 40/1
Anthony Kim 40/1
Webb Simpson 40/1
Bubba Watson 50/1
Justin Rose 60/1
Geoff Ogilvy 60/1
K.J. Choi 50/1
Graeme McDowell 60/1
Padraig Harrington 80/1
Retief Goosen 80/1
Paul Casey 50/1
Ian Poulter 60/1
Jim Furyk 60/1
Zach Johnson 80/1
Keegan Bradley 60/1
Angel Cabrera 100/1
Y.E. Yang 80/1
Gary Woodland 80/1
Ryo Ishikawa 100/1
Ryan Moore 100/1
Ernie Els 80/1
Brandt Snedeker 60/1
Bill Haas 80/1
Bo Van Pelt 80/1
Field (All Others) 15/1

Where would you place your money? Our favorite picks off this board are McIlroy, Watney and Choi.

Hallway Golf Video of the Day
NBC released a new video of Samuel L. Jackson's appearance on Jimmy Fallon, where the two celebs clash in a round of "Hallway Golf." (Fallon is actually a big golf fan, in case you missed it on Golf.com.)

Tweet of the Day