Kodak Challenge May Serve Useful Purpose After All

Jim McCabe explains that Rickie Fowler may add the Disney stop and much needed star power to the tournament if he has a chance to win the $1 million Kodak Challenge.

Certainly, players have taken note, though Fowler insists he stood on the 16th tee and wasn’t focused on the Kodak Challenge. It was his seventh hole of the day, he was already 3-under and looking to go even deeper, since what we have going on out here is a good, old-fashioned birdie-fest.

“It’s just another hole,” Fowler said.

But once he made birdie? Fowler’s smile was as bright as his green hat, green shoes, and green belt.

“Got the 4 today. We’re going to try to go out and make 3 (next).”

Las Vegas, Attendance And The PGA Tour

Ron Kantowski says one of the things holding the Las Vegas stop back from a FedExCup slot is its paltry attendance. Surely it's not because of a lack of hard work and devotion from host Justin Timberlake who deserves a better date than October.

But on the attendance...

Attendance always has been an issue at our PGA Tour stop, at least since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson stopped playing here. The PGA's fall schedule has become the domain of whippersnappers and mostly anonymous big hitters trying to fatten their wallets and hang onto their Tour cards. So attendance is an even bigger issue now, especially with myriad tournaments losing title sponsors, creating opportunities for others to take their spots on the spring FedExCup schedule, the domain of players such as Tiger and Phil.

Somehow I'm not buying that. But if it's the case that attendance is that vital, great news Vegas! Attendance has been so dismal this year you just may look well-attended!

Monty Cheats...Death In Car Accident; IMG Lays Groundwork For BMW Sponsorship

The Daily Record has all of the details of Monty's car A80 accident.

A shaken Monty said: "I was driving through road works when a van travelling towards me suddenly burst through the cones and slammed into me.

"A fraction of a second later my car was hit by a lorry and another car as well and I began spinning out of control.

"I was trapped as the side of the car was compressed and the air bags were holding me back - but the passenger door suddenly opened and I was pulled to safety thanks to other drivers who had witnessed the accident.

Wow, those are some strong people! I mean, emotionally, to gather themselves and help such a large, err...significant man out in a time of need.

"It was a terrible shock and I am lucky to have come out of it relatively unscathed - thanks I am sure to the car I was driving."

Well it's good that he has such a sturdy car, since after all, he does have a bit of history with speeding and a suspended license.

A spokesman for the golfer said: "Colin Montgomerie suffered shock and severe bruising to his left side after his BMW 7 series was struck by a transit van that swerved across the road into the path of his car.

Chop, chop Guy Kinnings, get Munich on the line. The synergy here is too good to be true!

"Anthony Kim is an animal 115 bottles then to top it off a 25k bottle of Dom, which he showered the dance floor with..."

After Anthony Kim's efforts to be the next John Daly WD from this week's Justin Timberlake event in Vegas, Steve Beslow at golf.com follows up on the Las Vegas Review Journal report with details of Kim's thumb injury and extensive quotes from IMG that you want to check out if searching for a warm chuckle to start the day.

When I asked Kim's agent about the extent of AK's thumb, which had apparently been been bothering him earlier in the week, IMG's Dave Haggith described it as part of the "recovery process."

Haggith also said that the incident at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino--where Kim was reportedly admonished for being loud and rowdy--has nothing to do with Kim's WD from the tournament.

"The two are completely unrelated," says Haggith, who also believes the media coverage of the incident at the Bellagio as been overblown. "He was being boisterous and he was asked to calm down and he was compliant."

This was nice image...unless you're his accountant.

The LVRJ story isn't the only one that describes Kim's "boisterous" Vegas nightlife, however. Palms Casino's DJ Exodus treated his followers to this tweet at 3:02 AM Tuesday morning:


No word yet on whether or not Dom Perignon has been approved as a treatment for a torn thumb ligament, but I hear the clinical trials have been very encouraging.

Look Out Jack And Annika: Shark And Ochoa Issue Press Release With Olympic Design In Sight!

I don't know about you, but they do skew a lot younger than Jack and Annika, the other previously announced Olympic design wannabes!

Lorena Ochoa (former No. 1 player in the world from 2007-2010) and Greg Norman (winner of 91 tournaments worldwide and the No. 1 player in the world for 331 weeks) announced a partnership to jointly design championship and resort golf courses worldwide. To start this historic partnership, the two golf superstars have contacted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in hopes of being selected to co-design the golf course that will host the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

I actually feel sorry for whoever had to field that call.

This golf course design partnership is born in mutual admiration of each other's accomplishments within the golfing world.

The mutual admiration society breaks out in sentence two! That could be a press release record.

Greg Norman has had tremendous success designing golf courses worldwide including numerous courses in Lorena's home country, Mexico. Norman designed the El Camaleón Golf Club which hosts the first and only PGA TOUR event in Mexico. El Camaleón opened to rave reviews from the tour players and is entering its fifth year of hosting the Mayakoba Golf Classic on February 23rd thru 27th.

This partnership oozes synergy. Greg knows all of the best private airports in Lorena's country. Game, set, match!

Lorena recently launched her own design company, and the Ochoa brand is very strong in Mexico and South America. Combining Lorena's appeal in Mexico and South America with Greg's 23 years of golf course design experience will present a unique offering to the golf course design client.

The four still left on the planet.

This partnership will showcase their vision for the next generation of golf course design, offering relaxing, scenic playable courses for both men, women and junior golfers. These two talented individuals, successful both as professional players and golf course architects, will offer men and women alike, regardless of age and ability, a golf course that will turn a normal round of golf into an "experience."

Oh? I can wait to see that. A long, long time from now.

Lorena Ochoa and Greg Norman each operate numerous businesses, charitable programs and diverse activities related to the game of golf and will continue to do so in an effort to grow the game of golf. This new collaboration on golf course design will extend worldwide and will be handled as a separate entity to that of their own respective brands and will be utilized only for those special projects that require the synergy of these two champions to produce an even greater golf course.

Glad we got that clarified. Was that copy and pasted from the actual contract?

Greg Norman: "Lorena has achieved an incredible amount of success in the golf world in a relatively short period of time and working with her will give me the opportunity to co-design courses with another professional golfer with different views or philosophies than my own. In particular, she will bring a ladies perspective to the playability element which is sure to improve the course in that regard. There are specific projects where doing a co-design with Lorena will better fit the client's needs and in these cases we both look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with the other. The fact that we're friends only makes the process that much more enjoyable."

Hey, they've actually met!

"If the committee decides it's going to be me as the next captain, I need to talk with them beforehand to see how we can solve the possible inconvenience that I may not be on the Tour playing that much."

You have to love Jose Maria Olazabal's honesty about his health and prospects to serve as 2012 European Ryder Cup captain if asked.

"I have been thinking about it for a long while and that's why I put the issue on the table. So I can see the situation where I will have to say 'no' and that will be only because of my health.

"But if they appoint me I somehow have to be close to the players, somehow be able to compete alongside them, talk to them, to see how they think, and just be close to the Tour through the qualifying process."

Eh, just got a satellite dish and sign him up I say. The players couldn't stand Monty and he got along okay, so why not Ollie who they like?

"I thought I was going to be fine, but I got the first question thrown at me and I was trying to think."

I'm a little behind in my reading and just got to Jason Sobel's engaging Q&A with Hunter Mahan about the Ryder Cup and his post-round emotions.

Q: You're not usually a very outwardly emotional guy. How did it feel to display your emotions like that in public?

A: That's what the Ryder Cup does. It brings a lot out of you that you maybe didn't have before. It's either win or lose. You know, there's no in between. There's no, "Oh, I played well and finished fifth." It's just so much more definitive. Everybody feels it -- Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink. The European team, how much emotion they have. It just brings something out of you that you don't even realize. It grabs ahold of you because it's different than any other tournament. You're playing with a team and cheering on other guys that you usually play against. It's a whole different animal, but it's one of the most amazing tournaments there is.

"It's all still there."

Ron Green Jr. visits with Ben Crenshaw during the Pinehurst No. 2 rehab.

"You may get a great lie or be up against a pine cone or against wire grass," Crenshaw says. "You wonder why Ross was so enamored with what he saw. It's just sandy, impoverished soil but it's ideal for golf."

The fairways are wide and follow the original lines created by Ross. More than half the sprinkler heads have been removed at No.2, leaving the restored natural areas to take what the weather gives them.

There is an art to bringing back the natural look of No.2. Crenshaw stands in a sandy area, recently cleared and now being cultivated. He talks about the fun of placing clumps of wiregrass so that there's no pattern to it, spreading them like the wind might, and the options that will evolve over time when weather and fallen pine needles fill in off the fairways.

Green also talks on this video about what he's seeing, allowing us to get a glimpse of the work behind him.

"He is one loose cannon."

What happens in Vegas...ends up in the newspaper!

Thanks to reader NRH for Norm's Las Vegas Journal-Review item on Anthony Kim continuing his image rehab at the Bellagio during this week's tour stop.

"He is one loose cannon," said a dealer, who said Kim may have set a personal record for F-bombs while playing high-stakes craps over the weekend.

Maybe it was the heartbreak of not securing a European Tour card for 2011?

"To play two links courses in succession just might too much for some players."

I've been pondering the quote of Johan Edfors all day when today's Vardon's suggest that links golf is not something their precious swings can handle for more than a week at a time.

From Bernie McGuire's report on Loch Lomond losing the Scottish Open to an unnamed links course in 2011 or 2012.

But switching the event may not suit everyone. Swede Johan Edfors, winner at Loch Lomond in 2006, said: "To play two links courses in succession just might too much for some players.

"The Open is a hard enough week as it is, given the tough conditions you're likely get."

"As part of the suit, the plaintiffs filled a notice of mechanic’s lien against the resort hotel."

Wondering if the whole Greenbrier success story has been a little too good to be true now that Brad Klein reports they are being sued for unpaid bills to a golf course contractor?

The suit, filed by Aspen Corp. of Daniels, W.Va., concerns extensive landscaping work on the Old White Course and the resort’s grounds in the run-up to this year’s inaugural Greenbrier Classic, held July 29-Aug.1 and won by Stuart Appleby. Phone messages left with Greenbrier owner Jim Justice were not immediately returned. The lawsuit was filed Sept. 29 in Greenbrier County Circuit Court and includes a demand for a jury trial. As part of the suit, the plaintiffs filled a notice of mechanic’s lien against the resort hotel.

Representatives from Aspen Corp. would not comment and referred questions to attorney John H. Tinney, senior partner in The Tinney Law Firm of Charleston, W.Va. Tinney said he has not heard from Justice or his attorneys.

Klein also notes that Lester George is no longer their consulting architect, a red flag raiser after his heavily praised renovation.

"Just seven years ago, 11 Tour events were sponsored by automotive companies, or more than one in three Tour events with a title sponsor."

Adam Schupak on Hyundai looking like the new sponsor at Kapalua, noted this about car companies as PGA Tour sponsors...

If Hyundai finalizes a deal, it would become the third automaker to make the Tour a cornerstone of their marketing efforts, joining foreign-makers Honda and BMW. In its heyday, autos – arguably more than any other industry – supported golf. Just seven years ago, 11 Tour events were sponsored by automotive companies, or more than one in three Tour events with a title sponsor. That figure dropped to six in 2007 before plummeting to just two this season.