Lorena Ochoa is having a banner year on the LPGA tour and is leading the money list, but Karrie Webb is trailing her by about $300,000, and is also having a great year. This year has been an important one for Ochoa because she was developing a reputation of not being able to close the deal, but she’s proved to herself that she can pull the trigger when it matters most.

You only need to look back to the LPGA’s first major of the year when she drilled a 5-wood over water with all the marbles on the line. Granted, she didn’t make the eagle putt, but it took Karrie Webb holing out from the fairway to put Ochoa away. From that day forward, Lorena knew she could hit the shot when it mattered.

Even though Ochoa has garnered a lot of attention this year, Annika Sorenstam is still reigning champ (and darling of the media) and she will not give up the money title without a fight. Look at duel the both of them had a few weeks ago in Sweden when they battled all weekend.  In any case, look for the fall season of the LPGA to finally matter to more than a few people.

It appears that Tiger Woods has taken a leadership role on this year’s Ryder Cup team. Reports indicate that he took out the Ryder Cup rookies for a “get-to-know-you” dinner after he won this past Sunday. Not only that, but both he and Mickelson rescheduled their “previous commitments” so that they could join the rest of the team for the “bonding” trip to the K-Club.

I wonder if Tiger and the rest of the team is feeling some pressure this time around to at least be competitive and possibly even win. I do think it’s somewhat noble of Tiger to play “virtual” captain and provide some practical leadership, and probably a little playing advice. Probably the most ironic part of this is that this group of rookies will more than likely not be heard from again on a Ryder Cup team.

However, color me skeptical, but I think it’s going to take the top-5 players to play their absolute best and remove any possiblity of putting pressure on the rookies to help close the deal. Even if the Americans have a substantial lead come Sunday singles, the rookies inexperience will be exposed for all to see. Of course, the rooks could surprise everyone and run the table for the singles. Stranger things have happened.

Okay, this is the last time, I promise.  No more raggin’ on the Senior circuit.  If you watched the Jeld-Wen tournament this past weekend (what’s a Jeld-Wen BTW?), you no doubt noticed the Golf Channel had their big guns (minus Kraig Kann) covering the festivities.  Considering the Golf Channel made a sizeable investment in TV rights to cover the Senior’s, it behooves them to throw the first-team at this event, but is it too little, too late?  On the other hand, it kinda raised a red flag when I saw the Golf Channel making this kind of effort at the last major of the year for the Seniors.

These guys can play, but does anybody really care?  More importantly, is anybody really watching?  I don’t think it’s any coincidence that as Hale Irwin winds down his incredible career and visits the winner’s circle less, viewership has also dropped.  We love someone that dominates a sport, see Tiger Woods, and Irwin absolutely owned the Champions Tour for the better part of 10 years.  He also didn’t look like the “typical” senior out there: overweight, cancer-stick hanging out of the mouth, hacking it around trying to collect a paycheck.   Irwin prided himself on being in shape and in-condition to not only play, but to win.

Peter Jacobson made some noise and would have been a great ambassador, but he’s too banged-up to be a real factor on the tour.  Loren Roberts is a great player, but can’t carry the tour and generate TV ratings.  This tour needs Greg Norman to actively participate, or I just don’t see it lasting as a legitimate entity.

Tiger Woods won his 4th consecutive tournament today by outlasting Stewart Cink in a 4-hole playoff.  This was hardly vintage Woods as he struggled coming in while Cink was making clutch birdies to tie him.  Woods clearly was struggling with the flat-stick on the closing holes as he either came up short, or was blowing it by the hole.

Lucky for him, Cink isn’t Mickelson, Singh, or Els as Tiger would have probably lost if one of the big guns were in the playoff.  It was a little odd seeing Tiger struggle, after watching him the past weeks completely own his swing and not doubting his ability.  Today was different, but as has been said for years now, Woods can win with his “B game” if his opponents are not on their “A games”, and Cink was clearly not on his “A game” in the playoff.

One other interesting note is that this years tournament must have started earlier than normal so as not to run into daylight problems as has happened in the past.  That also meant that the tournament was tape-delayed, but you could actually watch real-time progess on numerous golf sites.

Tim Finchem and Tiger Woods came out this week with differing views on whether drug testing needs to be implemented on the PGA Tour.  Woods said he didn’t think anyone was using performance-enhancing drugs, but felt it was better to be proactive than reactive about it.

While strength-conditioning has been a constant on the tour for the last 10 years or so, sheer muscle alone does not a golfer make.  The PGA and Nationwide tours are full of guys that can hit the ball 350 yards without really breaking a sweat.  Does that make them legitimate contenders?  Hardly.  Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes were all the rage at the beginning of the year this year because they hit the ball incredible distances, but  where are they now?

My opinion is that if a professional golfer wants to try performance-enhancing drugs, let him.  It would be so obvious that other players would certainly let PGA officials know if they suspected something was amiss with another player.  Golf is such an exacting game that extra mass and muscle without talent means nothing.

I’ve said before that Jack Nicklaus was my golf idol when I was learning the game.  He had that same presence Tiger does when he walked onto a golf course.  I saw him play at an event in the early 80s and I was sitting in the bleachers early one morning before any of the pros had teed off watching them at the range hitting balls.  There must have been 20 or so guys on the range that day, with their caddies and others hanging round them.  All of a sudden you started hearing, “here comes Jack, here comes Jack”.  I watched him leave the area near the clubhouse and make his way towards the range and as he got to the range (and I’ll never forget this), the mass of people on the range literally parted like the red sea, in deference to Nicklaus.  All of a sudden it was, “morning Jack, how are you Jack, do you want to hit balls here Jack?”.  It was like a king had walked onto the range.  He respectfully said he’d go to the end of the range so as not to bother anyone.

I followed him that day for most of the holes and it was an education that I never forgot.  He concentrated, and planned each shot with more focus than anyone else I had ever seen play.  His caddie would walk off a yardage, then Jack would, then they’d talk about it and only when he was ready would he pull the club out and hit.  He left nothing to chance and was the ultimate strategist on the golf course.

So where am I going with all of this?  Nicklaus wants to make Valhalla (site of the ‘08 Ryder Cup) more difficult to compensate for the technology that is golf today. He made somewhat of a backhanded comment about Tiger saying, “I can’t imagine beating all the players in the world hitting irons and leaving all the woods in the bag like he did at the British Open.”  Quite frankly, I really don’t think technology had much to do with Tiger’s win, and it’s because he played irons off the tee and mid to long irons into the greens.  It’s funny that Jack forgot to mention that the British Open was played with a smaller golf ball than was used in America and the American players absolutely loved the extra distance it went, not to mention the hole looked much bigger.  So give Tiger a British 1972-era golf ball and see how far he hits it.  End of story.

Sadly, Nicklaus is sounding more and more bitter about the fact that Tiger is probably going to break his major wins record.  And by making the courses longer and longer, they’re just playing right into the hands of the big hitters.  Only guys like Tiger, Phil, Vigay, Ernie, Retief, and Sergio will be able to compete, and I don’t think that’s what they ultimately want.

Call me a little to sensitive on this one, but from my perspective, it appears that most of Tiger’s fellow tour professionals aren’t giving the man credit where credit is due. Most of the comments regarding his current major streak are along the lines of “yeah, he’s playing well, but he’s getting all the breaks too”. That’s not to say that his peers should be treating him like someone that walks on water, but at least acknowledge the accomplishment of what he’s done. It’s been said that Tiger reads everything that’s said or written about him and he uses this as necessary to motivate him as need be. So, if you’re one of his peers, why on earth would you give him even more reason to bury you? Also, consider that he know could care less if you outdrive him, he’s still going to beat you from further back in the fairway. Ouch, that hurts.

When Nicklaus was King, there was mutual respect on both sides, however even his top competitors knew that ultimately they were a notch below him. Nothing wrong with that. I remember Lee Trevino saying (even in his prime) that Nicklaus was the best golfer in the world and he considered it an honor when he could challenge and beat him (and he did). Now, if you know anything about Trevino, he was the ultimate competitor and even resorted to gamesmanship (much to the chagrin of Nicklaus) sometimes. However, Nicklaus knew he was in a fight whenever he teed it up with these guys. Remember that Watson dominated the British Open in the late 70s, and Jack gave Watson his due respect.

There’s been a lot of debate about Tiger’s peers vs. Jack’s peers, and who’s had the toughest competitors. I grew up watching Nicklaus play and I would say that Nicklaus had more consistent competitors. You could always count on Watson, Trevino, Player, Palmer, Weiskopf, Miller to challenge Jack. I think the talent field of today is much deeper, but every year or so, it’s someone new that’s challenging Tiger. There hasn’t been anyone of today that has sustained as Tiger’s competitor.

This is an old school thought, but I firmly believe it’s more about the money today. And not that I’d be motivated any differently if I was good enough to play on the PGA tour. There’s a great book called “A Good Walk Spoiled” by John Feinstein that gives a real insight to tour life (granted, it’s probably 10 years old), and it’s eve-opening to read what it was like back in the day to struggle and make a living on tour.

Was reading about the latest television numbers for the Geriatric Tour and quite frankly, it doesn’t look good for the Champions Tour, at least from a TV perspective. Reports indicate through 14 weeks of coverage on the Golf Channel, the Champions Tour is averaging less than 100,000 viewers. For comparison’s sake, the LPGA is averaging more than twice that number for its tournaments on the Golf Channel. If you’re buying air time as an advertiser, then you’re losing money and you are also subsidizing the tour this year. Gotta believe corporate CFOs aren’t too happy about this.

Now, it could be argued that viewership is down because the Champions Tour is on a cable channel, and not everyone that has cable automatically gets the Golf Channel. That’s a fair argument, but the other side of that coin is that the odds of broadcast TV (CBS, NBC, ABC) picking up the Champions Tour is slim to none, as it would be financial suicide.

So can the tour survive? It’s hard to say, but without major drawing power like Greg Norman, the odds are slim.

I’ve been giving Tiger’s so-so record in the Ryder Cup some thought. There’s no question he’s the best player on the planet, but it appears on the surface that the Ryder Cup might not interest him enough to give it his all. On the contrary I believe. The Ryder Cup is a team event by its nature. Twelve guys get together, (supposedly) bond, drink beer, share a truth stick, and generally get to know each other for 2 weeks out of every 2 years.

There’s only one problem with this scenario. Each and everyone one of the guys on the Ryder Cup team are Tiger’s opponents 98% of the time. The more he lets down his guard and allows them to peer into his preparation and mental approach, the more they’ll understand how to beat him at his own game. Given Tiger’s drive to win majors, what possible value does he get out of the Ryder Cup that’s worth allowing his opponents to look into his soul? I think this applies to Phil Mickelson to some degree as well. He literally doesn’t even practice with the team on the same course! It’s not that he’s not friendly, he’d just rather not share his prep time with anyone.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both Woods and Mickelson have begged off the initial “bonding” experience in Ireland already because of prior commitments. The less time they spend with the “guys”, the better off for them in the long run. Think about it; if you were one of Tiger’s peers (and I use that term loosely), wouldn’t it be incredibly enlightening to just hang with the man for a couple of weeks and do nothing but watch how he prepares? You can’t put a price tag on that experience.

Tiger is so singularly focused on winning that the Ryder Cup just doesn’t fit his model, and quite frankly, you can’t fault him for that. I’ve said before that I think the Ryder Cup should revert back to it’s true roots and make it a fun event with relatively little pressure. A blind draw each day would add a true element of fun and take the “us vs. them” mentality out of it. Picture Tom Lehman and Ian Woosnam taking their pairings out of a hat each day and just saying, “play on, and we’ll meet at the 19th hole at the end of the day!”. Yeah, I know I’m dreaming.

Tom Lehman finalized his 2006 Ryder Cup team by selecting Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank for his Captain’s picks. Cink has been playing the most consistent of all the potential Captain’s picks, but quite frankly, that’s not saying much. There was absolutely no movement on the Ryder Cup team from last week’s event, which means all those guys that could have made moves into the top 10, went the other way and disappeared altogether.

On paper, this American team reminds me of the Bad News Bears, but much older. However, like the Bad News Bears, this team may suprise us all and make this year’s Ryder Cup very competitive. It sounds good at least. Of course, Lehman could do what the Europeans did a few years back when Torrance (I believe) sat all of his b-list players until the Sunday singles. That approach could work, but it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on just a handful of players who couldn’t afford to lose any matches.

If I’m Lehman, throw caution to the wind and let the young guys get some experience and have fun at the same time. This is the Ryder Cup, an event that is supposed to be akin to two local clubs going at it for bragging rights. What would be even more entertaining would be to have a blind draw everyday for every match. Why not?