More Masters TV; Lehman Gets Nice Honor

Sorting through the shag bag:

-- If you can't make it to the Masters in person next year, you're going to be able to see more of it on television.

Tournament officials announced they will extend coverage by one hour on Thursday and Friday -- from 3 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. -- on ESPN. I'm just glad the Masters doesn't go wall to wall like too many events do. It's one of the ways the Masters remains special.

-- Nice move to honor Tom Lehman with the Payne Stewart award. Lehman has been one of the game's good people for many years and he seemed genuinely touched to receive the award given for sportsmanship, integrity and giving back.

-- Commissioner Tim Finchem said the PGA Tour's television ratings for 2010 are down two percent from 2009. Finchem pointed to the absence of Tiger Woods early in the year, huge ratings for the Winter Olympics and strong NFL ratings as contributing factors to an early dip in the television numbers.

-- Finchem said he expects some form of designated tournaments to be adopted at a November board meeting but he declined to get into specifics. The commissioner said several options are on the table for a plan that would push players to add tournaments they don't traditionally play once every four years.

"We're looking at different ways to accomplish what we want to accomplish," Finchem said.

-- The FedEx Cup playoffs may get tweaked again but no decision has been made. Here's why more changes are needed:

Steve Stricker entered the playoffs in second place, is the only player with three top-10 finishes in the three events, and he's fallen to fourth in the points.