People reporting on future of Tiger's marriage
It may be stating the obvious, something that People magazine excels at, but its sources say the Tiger Woods-Elin Nordegren marriage is all but over. Not only did Elin not attend the Masters, but she was also reportedly outraged by the controversial Nike commercial that included a voiceover by his late father. People said Elin flew out of Florida, leaving her two children behind with nannies, for an unknown destination.

"Elin was violently angry over this commercial and thought it was a cheesy thing to do," one friend tells PEOPLE. "She wouldn't have gone near the Masters under any condition, but that just made her madder. She is over Tiger. I wouldn't be surprised if she files for divorce sometime soon."

So far, though, it's only been talk among friends. No legal papers have been filed, and it hasn't even been confirmed that she's retained a divorce attorney.

Still, another friend says Nordegren has run out of patience with Woods, taking offense with his return to golf – she had been led to believe he was going to take more time off.

"She's so far beyond hurt now. If she were angry or if she hated him, they might still have a chance to work it out. But she's beyond that. She's numb. She just doesn't care anymore. She's like, 'Whatever.' Elin's not the type to get all weepy or have pity parties for herself. She mourned the loss of this marriage, and now she's moving on. It's the only thing she can do."

Rice's Nationwide debut
Jerry Rice is going to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer, but first he's going to take a shot at professional golf. Rice thinks he's good enough to compete, and since he's hosting this week's Nationwide Tour event -- the Fresh Express Classic in Hayward, Calif. -- he took one of the tournament's exemptions. Art Spander covered Rice's delusionary plans for the San Francisco Examiner:

Rice showed up at Stanford Golf Course maybe 15 years ago to hit a few balls, and an undergrad named Tiger Woods asked him if he wanted a game. Jerry declined, explaining he wasn't very good and didn't want to embarrass himself.

"Next time," Rice told Golf Digest magazine, "I'll say yes."

He said Tuesday in a conference call that he just hopes to make the cut.

"These guys are really good golfers," Rice said. Not that anyone doubted it. Some 70 percent of the players on the PGA Tour had their start with the Nationwide, including recent major winners, Zach Johnson (2007 Masters) and Lucas Glover (2009 U.S. Open).

"To line up against these guys," confirmed Rice, "I'm honored ... I can hold my own."

Rice is wrong about holding his own. He has said his best score is 68. If his average score was 68, then he could hold his own. Thinking he's got a chance to make the cut indicates that he has no idea about the quality of play on the Nationwide Tour or about what it's like to compete in a serious golf competition. This isn't "Dancing With the Stars," Jerry. You're probably not breaking 80 in either round, but thanks for hosting the event, and thanks for taking up a spot in the field that a real player could've used.

Harbour Town looking for a sponsor
The Harbour Town lighthouse is a symbol as well known as any on the PGA Tour. The Heritage has been a stop on the tour for 42 years, and it's had financial issue before, but like a lot of other tour events the future is  mostly cloudy. Rex Hoggard outlines the challenges on GolfChannel.com:

The Heritage's days may be numbered. Late last year Verizon, the title sponsor since 2006 when Verizon Business purchased MCI, pulled the corporate plug after this week's cocktail party, and despite the best efforts of tournament director Steve Wilmot, a cozy home and a unique slot on the schedule, no one in corporate America has come buying.

"We have a unique product and a special event, a lot of things on our side but it's a difficult economy," Wilmot said.

Last month Wilmot said he'd pieced together enough zeroes, between $7 million and $8 million, to assure the tournament's existence through 2011 but the Tour seems lukewarm to stopgap measures. Even the South Carolina legislature got into the act, earmarking a $10 million loan to keep the event going through next year.

Simply put, find a sponsor or find yourself the Champions Tour's newest stop. The Buick Open was played for the last time last year. The Milwaukee stop became a footnote in 2009. Seems the modern Tour has little use for charm when cash is king.

"You don't get a smile at every event," said Boo Weekley, the circuit's quintessential son of the south and a two-time winner at Harbour Town. "This week and next week in New Orleans . . . they were put together. You've got the camaraderie of the south. To me it's about playing the game. It's not about how much money you can make."

Bless his deep-fried heart, but it is likely Weekley is in the minority in this respect. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has been clear on this, there will be no retreat in purses. Not on his watch. All of which means the cruel combination of a bear economy and a Draconian business model could cost the circuit one of the most-looked-forward-to stops of the year.

Weekley's shoulder has hurt his game
Speaking of Weekley, Alan Blondin has an update on him for the Sun News. You were wondering what ever happened to the man who reminded some of Jethro from the Beverly HIllbillies? Weekley, a highlight of the U.S. Ryder Cup victory in 2008, suffered a partial tear of the labrum in his left shoulder last May at the Players. He has struggled ever since he got hurt.

"It feels like it's been an uphill climb ever since, my ball-striking, my driving. Every stat that I felt that I was good at has gone downhill. Now I feel like I've got to climb my way back up out of it. No, golf ain't been fun lately, not for a while."

If there's a venue that can assist in Weekley's quest to make the game more enjoyable, it's Harbour Town Golf Links. Weekley has played in the Verizon Heritage three times. He earned his only two PGA Tour wins in his first two visits in 2007 and 2008, chipping in on the final two holes to earn his first title and winning by three strokes in the encore. He tied for 13^th last year, and his highest score in 12 Heritage rounds is a 1-over-par 72.

"I've got the feeling that this week is the week I come back, that I feel like I can do something," Weekley said. "... It's good to always come back to a place where you won. I'm hoping I can carry that trend, keep the mojo going this year. It's been a struggle so far this year, I'm hoping to find something here to turn it around."

Gay's wife offers her take on Tour life, Verizon Heritage
One way to add to the down-home charm of the Heritage Classic is a personal touch. Kimberly Gay, wife of defending champion Brian Gay, is writing a diary for the Hilton Head Island Packet. According to Kimberly's diary, The Gays are still recovering from their first Masters appearance.

The par-3 contest Wednesday at the Masters was one of life's great highlights, really. To see our girls caddying for Brian and see how they enjoyed that experience was just awesome.

Then, Brian was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame, so we had a party on Friday night. We decked out the house we were staying in with orange and blue, and we were staying in a Georgia Bulldogs fan's house, so thank goodness they weren't home.

And then this week started with the opening ceremonies for the Heritage, and that was just a huge thing for us as a family. We decided to deck everybody out in tartan plaid and show support for this community that is working so hard to keep this event alive...The parade certainly brought tears to my eyes behind the sunglasses. We love it here, and to be a part of that in the way we were was just a great way to start the week.

Tom Lehman, that old geezer -- he's 50 -- has played three solid rounds of golf at Hilton Head: 70-69-68. "You see a pattern here?" says his longtime caddie, Andy Martinez. Lehman, of course, will be trying to win the tournament, and 67 would get him to 10 under, which won't come close to winning it but would give him a sold top 10-finish and another reason to keep playing his golf on the kids' tour and not the Champions.

At the Transitions Championship last month, Lehman was the third-round leader but blew-up with a closing 75. A long day at the office. On Sunday in Hilton Head, he'll be in the fourth-to-last group and I don't see a big number coming. He's putting again with a short putter, as he was when he won the British Open, and when he didn't win all those other majors, and he's a cagey player. Fred Funk was the oldest player in the field, at 52, but he missed the cut. Lehman's right there. Pretty darn cool.

Hilton Head must be a hard place for Will MacKenzie to play golf, what with all the various water-sports going on just beyond the O.B. stakes. He's a surfer and a kayaker, but also a superb iron player, who really should play well on the oldish Pete Dye gem here.

I don't think you'd call him a gifted putter, but it's not for lack of trying. At the Honda Classic last month I saw him on the practice green with a windbreaker over his head, and he's tried all manner of grips. But I think he's a real believer in the claw, and I'll be eager to see how he makes out on the tiny greens at Hilton Head, the kind of course where you can make the cut on the number, as MacKenzie did, and still get in the hunt.

Anyway, the reason I think he must be a true Claw man is because of a photo I saw the other day in The New York Times. It showed Willie Mac in caddie gear, helping his attractive wife, Alli, line up a one-yarder. It was a charity thing, with all the ladies wearing the same thing: funky two-toned shoes; argyle above-the-knee socks; a short white skirt; and (in the case of Mrs. Will MacKenzie) a kinda tight blouse, Paris Hilton glasses, windblown hair and a white golf glove. She looked very nice but not like she was going to get a sponsor's exemption into an LPGA event anytime soon. And her putting grip? THE CLAW!

Ernie, Ernie, Ernie. What's the deal with you? You missed the cut last week at the Masters, and you come to the Low Country -- Hilton Head Island, S.C. -- and suddenly you're the Big Easy again. Three under in Round 1 and I'm looking and the guess here is that you'll go lower in Round 2.

The Boomeister beat you here down the stretch with some crazy hole-outs, but this could be a week for you to win again for the first time since last year's Honda. Really, you're better than that, Ernie. Phil missed the cut in Houston but then had a memorable Masters. He said he wasn't really trying to win Houston, he was trying to get ready for the Masters by playing high shots, which were a disaster in the high winds of Houston.

Anyway, we'll take your good golf where we can get it, and if it's a week after a major, so be it. But really, Ernie, you're better than this. Here's hoping we see the real Ernie on Friday, and that it sets up a good weekend on one of the loveliest courses the Tour goes to all year.

Where's Boo been? Ever since his triumphant hobby-horse bit at last year's Ryder Cup, it's been all quiet on the Weekley front. I miss the guy something fierce.  It can't always be hunting season, can it? He won at Hilton Head last year. He won at Hilton Head the year before. The way he's been going lately, we'd just like to see this sweet shotmaker and irresistible personality back in the hunt again. I'll be eager to see what he does in the opening round.

Boo Weekley shot a second-round 71 at The Players. Afterwards, he came to the interview room and called me a liar.

Well, no. Now that I’m reading the transcript, I see that it’s his daddy that Boo called out.

Here’s the background. I wrote a “Boo at the Masters” feature for SI Golf Plus, and the gist of it was that Weekley probably isn’t as winningly dense as he pretends to be. As evidence I quoted his pharmacist dad, Tom Weekley, who said, “They talk about Boo not knowing much about the Masters, but he’s read books and books on Ben Hogan. You can’t read that much about Hogan and not know about the Masters.” He added, “It’s not really a front, but there’s a side of him that people don’t know.”

Tom Weekley’s comments could have been overlooked, but Boo followed up his T-20 finish at the Masters by driving to Hilton Head the following week and successfully defending his Verizon Heritage title. So the pressing question of spring has been: Is Boo for real?

Fast forward to this afternoon’s Boo conference. Craig Dolch of The Palm Beach Post raised his hand and said, “There was a story in SI a couple of weeks ago, and they quoted your dad as saying you know a lot more about golf than you let on.”

“Daddy’s full of it,” Boo said, getting a big laugh. “Daddy wasn’t never there. I mean, he was there, but, like, he said I read a bunch of Hogan books. I read TWO Hogan books, and they were my neighbor’s.”

While the reporters puzzled over the significance of owned books versus loaned books, Boo tried to distance himself further from his elitist dad. “He said I probably read every Hogan book there was, I think somebody quoted him saying.”

That somebody, of course, would be me.

Boo finished his answer to Dolch by refuting allegations that he actually pays attention to Tour news. “I do watch a little more golf,” he said. “But I mean, that ain’t nothing. If I’m laying around the house at night getting ready to fall asleep, I’ll flip over and see what is golf, what is on. But I ain’t going to sit there and just watch it.”

That’s a non-denial denial if I ever heard one. But trust me, it’s genuine Boo.

(Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Image)

Two ladies seated at a shaded table behind the 18th grandstand here at Harbour Town Golf Links weren't getting much business when I walked past Friday afternoon, and it made me feel embarrassed.

They were selling cookies to raise money to send boxes of cookies to American soldiers overseas as part of Treat the Troops, a non-profit program that was started by Hilton Head Island resident Jeanette Cram, who's been doing this since the first Gulf war. It's an all-volunteer effort to support U.S. soldiers.

Jeannette is the Cookie Lady, and her helpers are officially known as the Crumbs. Friday, her crumbs behind the 18th green were having only modest success convincing spectators to buy a homemade cookie for $1 or sponsor a box of homemade cookies to be mailed to soldiers.

Their sign featured photos and notes of thanks from soldiers. Here was one from the Seabees: "Our appreciation is beyond words. A single cookie is enough to make my fellow troops realize again why we are here."

Here's another from a soldier named Tim: "Today, you made a bunch of Marines smile."

A staff sargeant stationed in Afghanistan expressed his deep thanks and wrote, "I shared the cookies with my whole platoon!"

Cram and her Crumbs make the batter, bake the cookies, pack them and ship them to soliders stationed around the world. They also include notes and letters from those who donate.

One more note from a solider in Iraq: "There are solders here who go all year and don't receive a package. It makes a difference!"

For details, go to treatthetroops.org. It's a 501 (c) (3) charity. I spent my recent NCAA basketball pool winnings to sponsor some boxes. How about you?

Hilton Head is a party town. There are restaurants and bars all around the lighthouse, and a common sight on the course is the kid on spring break in flip-flops, drink in hand. It's not sloppy drinking, like you might see in the French Quarter in New Orleans or in Fort Lauderdale, but in Hilton Head the party starts early and ends late.

And then there's a world away, maybe a half-mile across a briny bay from the Hilton Head lighthouse, on the island called Daufuskie. Maybe you've read the Pat Conroy book, "The Water is Wide," about his experiences teaching on that island, long before golf ever came there. Now there are three courses on the island. It's a resort, but it's still a world away. There are no cars on the island, no bars, just a few restaurants -- and 63 holes of golf.

Matt Kuchar, the Tour player, took the small, charming water taxi to the island on Wednesday and played the Rees Jones course there. The brackish breeze on the trip over will clear the cobwebs. Maybe that helps one's golf, maybe it doesn't. No matter. A change of scenery is a good thing.

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Players, years ago, used to drive the Tour. Now, of course, they fly. In Florida, every so often, players will drive from one stop to another, but the Florida schedule has changed in the past couple years, so the well-worn paths have changed. There's only one tried-and-true drive left: Augusta to Hilton Head.

The Hilton Head tournament has followed the Masters for decades and every year there's a dozen or so players who make the drive from the Deep South to the Carolina Lowlands. There are many ways to go. One route is SC-78, through Bamberg, S.C., hometown of the great Mookie Wilson, the old New York Met.

It's a wonderful drive, miles of nothing and farms and little towns, and a reminder of what used to be and what, it's nice to find out, still is.

View route to Hilton Head through Bamberg, S.C.