Wells Fargo tickets available at SouthPark

  
  You can tell the Wells Fargo Championship is getting close when the ticket kiosk opens in SouthPark mall.

   The SouthPark option begins Wednesday, offering golf fans the opportunity to purchase tickets for the PGA Tour event at the Quail Hollow Club April 30-May 6. All ticket packages, from single-day tickets to premium tickets with hospitality are available at SouthPark.

  The SouthPark kiosk allows patrons to save a $10 shipping and handling fee and have their tournament tickets in hand. The kiosk will be open 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

   Weekly ticket books cost $140 apiece and does not require the same individual to use the ticket each day. Practice packages, good Monday through Wednesday when patrons are allowed to bring cameras, can be purchased for $25. Individual day tickets for each of the four tournament days are also available.

   Children under 12 are admitted free in the company of a paying adult.

   Among the players are committed to the Wells Fargo Championship are defending champion Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson, Johnson Wagner, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas.

Tiger sets Masters stage perfectly

Maybe the early spring has taken most of the azalea blooms around Augusta National but the Masters arrives in one week with the game -- and Tiger Woods -- in full bloom.

Woods' victory Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational was as impressive as it was overdue. Having gone 924 days between PGA Tour victories, Woods nailed down No. 72 at Bay Hill with a performance that thundered in its impact and execution.

Healthy, in control of his game and in command of the tournament, it felt like five years ago. After a 2 1/2-year interlude, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

For months, Woods has been saying he's close, if he could just stay healthy long enough to pull all the pieces together. Words turned his words into a trophy Sunday.

"Pure joy," is how Woods described it.

Nice words because you wonder how much of that he's had the past couple of years.

When it all starts for real next Thursday at Augusta National, after Jack and Arnie and Gary have slapped the ceremonial tee shots into the hill in the first fairway, Tiger goes after his fifth green jacket and and 15th major championship. It's been a long, long time since Torrey Pines in 2008.

Woods hasn't won at Augusta since 2005 but he'll arrive as co-favorite with Rory McIlroy, who exited there a year ago with a final-round 80 that collapsed his chances. Since then, McIlroy has been brilliant and now, it seems, Woods is in a good place again.

The Masters won't be just about McIlroy and Woods. Phil Mickelson inhales inspiration driving down Magnolia Lane. No. 1 Luke Donald is relentless. Lee Westwood still wants a major.

It's a week away. Bring it on.

The PGA Tour, like it's never been before

If the PGA Tour's adoption of the interesting but hard to calculate FedEx Cup playoffs a few years ago seemed borderline revolutionary, the tour's next step may be more dramatic.

Q-school? Going away, at least as we've known it.

Starting in January? Too late. Think October.

Surrendering the fall to football? Not anymore.

Good ideas?

Yes and no.

It's tough to summarize in a couple of sentences what the PGA Tour intends to do starting next year but here goes:

Under a new model, the PGA Tour season will still end with the Tour Championship at the end of the FedEx Cup playoffs in late September, points having been accumulated as they have in recent years. Somebody will still pocket $10 million for winning the playoffs plus their Tour Championship booty.

That will end the 2013 PGA Tour season. Players who finish 126 to 200 on the tour money list will move into a three-event 'mini playoff' with the top 75 players from the 2013 Nationwide Tour. They will play for 50 PGA Tour cards over those three events.

That will be decided concurrently with the FedEx Cup playoffs. When the Tour Championship is over, the 2014 season will begin although it will still be October, 2012.

See what I mean about complicated?

What are now the fall series events will stay in the same basic spots on the calendar but be the start of a new tour season, awarding FedEx Cup points (but perhaps only half as many as other regular events). The idea is to keep sponsors of fall events happy. You'll sense a theme here.

Qualifying school will be turned into a path to the Nationwide Tour. Forget someone like John Huh showing up at Q-school, earning his card then winning a PGA Tour event in February. It won't work like that anymore.

Why is this happening?

One reason is Nationwide's tour sponsorship ends after this year and commissioner Tim Finchem and his associates are desperately seeking a new name for their second-tier tour. The new model is intended, among other things, to raise the profile of what is now the Nationwide Tour.

"I like it," said Johnson Wagner, who played his way onto the PGA Tour via the Nationwide Tour. "I don't think six rounds at Q-school is the best test.

"It's unfortunate for the select few who would make it all the way to the tour without having any Nationwide status but it's good for the guys who have played the tour for a while and maybe a had a down period. A three-tournament set is better."

There are, as you might expect, many details to be finalized.

What to do with a guy who wins two Nationwide events and finishes first on the money list? Does he go into the mini playoffs with no advantage over a guy who finished 70th on the Nationwide Tour? How will players be seeded?

What about the guy who is 126th on the PGA Tour? Does he have any advantage for coming, perhaps literally within one stroke of keeping his tour card?

What about the admission when the FedEx Cup playoffs were created that golf can't compete with football in the fall? Now it wants to start its season in the middle of football season?

Again, why all of this?

"Any time you make a change, human nature is , why are we changing?" Finchem said in his announcement Tuesday. "You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There's another way to look at things that when things are going pretty well, that's the time to get better. That's the philosophy we have embraced."

As we know, change isn't always easy nor pretty.

In this case, it didn't seem necessary. But here it comes.

Bruce Springsteen: He's still alive out there

   Thirty-one years ago in the Greensboro Coliseum, I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play live for the first time, which put me slightly -- but not terribly -- behind the coolness curve. He had me, as the cliche goes, at "Hello, Greensboro."

   Thirty-one years later -- Monday night -- I saw Bruce and the band again in the Greensboro Coliseum and, to borrow a Springsteen-like sentiment, my faith has again been rewarded. I didn't want it to end.

   If it had to end, having him close the show with 'Thunder Road,' 'Land of Hope and Dreams' (a new Springsteen anthem), 'Born To Run,' 'Dancing In The Dark,' 'Rosalita' and 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out' was the way to send us out the door after nearly two hours and 45 minutes of new music, old favorites and a coming to grips with the reality that Clarence Clemons isn't coming back but the magic of the E Street Band isn't going away.

  Springsteen is 62 years old but seems at least 20 years younger. He doesn't play the marathon shows he did in his youth and he only slid across the front of the stage one time Monday night, splashing water on his jeans to make sure he made it last. But the magic of Bruce and the band is in the feeling as much as the music and that remains.

   He's touring in support of a new CD, 'Wrecking Ball,' a collection of songs about the recession-induced problems that have wobbled our country. The new songs are strong and angry and pointed, an odd mixture of rock, folk, Irish and gospel sounds that somehow works together. Played live, the new music -- particularly 'Jack Of All Trades' and 'Rocky Ground' -- soars in spots.

 The thing about a Springsteen show is the joy it brings, not just to the audience but to Bruce and the band. The Coliseum was full and most of the audience was like me, well into mid-life with mortgages, soft bellies and gray creeping in. A Springsteen show is a gathering, one where I saw friends was Washington, Charlotte and Columbia before the lights went down.

Springsteen's concert joy is contagious. He said in an interview a few years ago that he'd come to realize that being on stage with his band is what he's meant to do. When you think he can't give you more, he always does. It's why I have friends who've seen him more than 100 times and why, having seen him close to 15 times myself, I'm hoping he'll add a Charlotte show this fall when he and the band return from a summer in Europe. 

This tour is different because the Big Man is gone, his role on the sax replaced brilliantly by his nephew Jake Clemons, the band's new star. During 'My City of Ruins,' Springsteen alluded to the loss of Clemson and Danny Federici a few years earlier. "If you're here...and we're here...they're here," Springsteen said as chill bumps filled the big arena. I know there were chill bumps on my arms, anyway.

When he closed the show with 'Tenth Avenue,' his song about meeting Clarence, the band went quiet when Springsteen said, "This is the important part" and sang the line about a change being made uptown when the Big Man joined the band.

For more than a minute, the music stopped as Springsteen held the microphone in the air and listened to the cheers. They were for Clarence but they were also for another night like Monday night.

Photo: Bruce Springsteen performs with the E Street Band during the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas on Thursday, March 15, 2012.(AP Photo/Jack Plunkett) 

Furman Bisher, a master himself

The news Sunday evening that Furman Bisher had died came as a shock, which is a bit surprising given Bisher was 93 years old when his heart stopped.

But Furman -- it seems impersonal to call him Bisher -- seemed as if he might go on forever.

He had plans to cover his 63rd Masters next month, where he's been as much as part of the place as Amen Corner and pimento cheese sandwiches. He wasn't there at the start but he came along soon after, bringing his own style, voice and presence.

In our business of writing about the games people play, Furman was a giant. He could be gruff but he had earned that right over 70 years in the writing business. More often, though, he was a softie, Southern to the soul. To sit with him, in a press box or at lunch during a golf tournament, was often the best part of a day.

From Ty Cobb to Tiger Woods, Bisher saw the greats and shared what he saw with his readers. He had a way of pulling readers in and keeping them close.

He was born in Denton, not far from Lexington and attended North Carolina. While a student there, Bisher covered his first golf tournament, the 1938 Greater Greensboro Open. Writing about Byron Nelson, Bisher referred to him as 'Lord Byron,' a nickname that came to define one of the game's most elegant men.

Bisher worked at the long-departed Charlotte News for several years before heading to Atlanta where he wrote for 59 years for the Journal-Constitution. In the fall of 2009, Bisher pounded out another column on his Royal typewriter, handed it in and announced he had retired. Sudden and simple and on his 91-year old terms.

He kept coming back to the Masters, where he was honored with a parking place that chairman Billy Payne said was closer to the clubhouse than his own. It was a gesture that spoke to who Furman was and what he meant, at Augusta and beyond.

Furman had planned to watch golf on television Sunday afternoon but fate had other plans.

I'd love to hear what he had to say to St. Peter.

A season starts -- with a birdie

   Having covered my last college basketball game for the season, my last NASCAR race until May and having endured all the winter we didn't have during my three-day stay in Portland, Ore., last week, golf season has arrived.
 
   At least my personal golf season.

   I understand there are few things more nap-inducing than hearing someone go on about what they did or didn't do on the golf course but one of the original rules of the game commands that 'A player may only  offer personal commentary on his (or her) round of golf if said player is willing to listen in equal measure to another player's story.'

   That's why beer and dry roasted peanuts were invented.

  It's not as if Saturday was the first time I'd played golf this year but it had been a while and it was the first time in a while that it hadn't required layered clothing. To acquire a golfer's tan, one must be in the sunshine which explains why my legs were the color of out of bounds stakes, a condition I hope soon passes.

   Warm enough to send a trickle of sweat down your cheek, it was a beautiful early spring day. The bermuda grass fairways were already turning green even before the first full weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament was complete, another suggestion the global warming believers are on to something. Pretty soon, they'll have mowers on them again, tractors having gone dormant with the bermuda for months.

   One of the cruel realities of springtime golf here is that just when everyone wants to enjoy the game and the weather again, they aerate the greens. That means for a couple of weeks-- or longer if they're slow to heal -- we're forced to putt on nature's shag carpet, pock-marked by a million little holes and frosted by a coating of sand. Like a teenager at the beach.

   There is a good side to putting on aerated greens. It takes the pressure off. It can't be your fault you missed again from four feet. Look what you were putting through. It's like putting through a potato field.

   And still, I hit my opening tee past the three teenagers in my group, each of whom has college golf in their future. Then I floated my wedge shot inside their three approach shots.

   After they had missed their birdie putts, I knocked in my four-footer for three. Not a bad way to start.

   I'd go on but that would require beer and peanuts -- and listening to how you played. We'll get to that later.



 

Clemson's Glover finally ready to go

After a couple of false starts, Lucas Glover is ready to get his 2012 season underway this week at the Transitions Championship in Tampa. Glover hasn't played on tour this year after spraining his knee windboarding in Hawaii prior to the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions. He planned to play in Puerto Rico last week but wasn't certain he could handle five or six days of walking so he opted for one more week of rehab. Now, Glover is ready to go. "One hundred percent with the knee," Glover said Monday on his way to Tampa. "I'm in good gym shape. I've just got to see what kind of golf shape I'm in now. "I've been practicing the last five or six weeks as much as I could, but the walking thing was the only thing that held me back...I feel like the knee is 100 percent but I've got to put my body through the week." Glover will be in Charlotte to defend his Wells Fargo Championship title in early May, by which time he hopes to have a handful of tournaments behind him. After the Transitions, he plans to play the Shell Houston Open, the Masters and the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head. "I haven't had to make a putt that matters for anything since the first week of November so I'll be anxious and interested to see how I handle it," Glover said. "I haven't forgotten how to play or forgotten how to compete but it's just one of those things where it might take some time to get in the right frame of mind." Glover is among the early commitments to the Wells Fargo Championship, joining a list that includes Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan, Bill Haas, Johnson Wagner and Nick Watney among others. Tickets are available at www.wellsfargochampionship.com

Rory McIlroy gets what he deserves

Rory McIlroy made official with his victory in the Honda Classic what we already knew -- he's the best golfer in the world.

When McIlroy ended Luke Donald's impressive 40-week run as the official No. 1, it was the culmination of a relentless climb by the former Wells Fargo Championship winner. Like a sunrise over the ocean, you could see it coming for a while.

The question is how long might McIlroy remain the man?

He's going to be there a while.

But Tiger Woods will have something to say about it.

When Woods shot a closing 62 to finish second to McIlroy at the Honda Classic, his best final round on the PGA Tour, it was the strongest evidence yet that his talk about "being close" is genuine. Pebble Beach suddenly seemed a long time ago.

It's McIlroy, though, who has assumed the place Woods occupied for more than a decade.

There's a purity to McIlroy, both in how he plays and how he carries himself. There's still a hint of boyishness about McIlroy and a grace that seems to come naturally. Watching him hit shots, it appears effortless. He doesn't fight the game the way so many players seem to do.

McIlroy's spectacular 62 at Quail Hollow almost two years ago was a thing of beauty. It was also a welcome to the future moment.

Even when McIlroy failed on Sunday at the Masters last year, shooting a final-round 80 that made him seem momentarily both young and fragile, he responded with his record-setting victory at the U.S. Open two months later.

If there were questions about either his talent or his toughness, they were answered in 72 holes at Congressional.

Not unlike Woods in his prime, McIlroy changes the expectation level.

Remember how much fun that was?

We got a reminder on Sunday and, if we're lucky, a hint of things to come from both of them.

The Monkees, Jimi Hendrix and Charlotte

  I wish I remembered more about July 11, 1967 in the original Charlotte Coliseum than I do but I remember enough.

   I remember going to see The Monkees in concert that night, the first concert of my nearly 11 year old life, and I remember the thrill of seeing Michael, Peter, Mickey and Davy -- live and in person as the signs used to say -- and hearing the screaming noise of the kids amazed by what and who they were seeing and occasionally, hearing..

   Most of us didn't realize we were witnessing a small piece of rock and roll history, catching one of the seven Monkees shows in which Jimi Hendrix, Mr. Purple Haze himself, was the opening act. Had I known then what I know now (how many times have we all said that) I would have appreciated the opening act more than I did but, to be honest, I wasn't there to hear Hendrix.

   I, of course, think of his after hearing of Davy Jones' death Wednesday. I liked the Monkees and I still do. They were playing a reunion show outside Washington, D.C., when I was at the U.S. Open last summer and I considered going. I didn't and now I wish I had.

   Two things I remember about Hendrix that night:

   The first is walking around the Coliseum (it's now Bojangles Arena) where the stage doors are located as my mom told me that the Monkees would probably look a little different in person than on television. It was at that moment -- maybe 20 feet away -- Jimi Hendrix stepped out of a limousine.

   Not realizing at the time that Hendrix was part of the show, I momentarily wondered if Mickey Dolenz really did look that different.

   The other memory is the sound of Hendrix' guitar when he threw it to the ground and stomped off stage, obviously irritated that a bunch of kids weren't interested in hearing him play (though he'd been invited by Dolenz to join the tour). We were all waiting to 'Take The Last Train To Clarksville.'

   That's what the Monkees played when they took the stage. I'm guessing they didn't play more than 30 or 45 minutes. Their catalog wasn't particularly deep at the time but for a kid who loved watching them on television, seeing them in person was a thrill.

   I still listen to The Monkees once in a while.When 'Daydream Believer' or 'Valeri' comes on the 60s station on my satellite radio, I quietly sing along.

   I have 'Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow' and 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' on a couple of playlists for when I'm exercising.

   (Just so you know, I've moved on to a degree. I'm heading to see another Springsteen show in Greensboro in a couple of weeks).

   My friend Ron Smith still has his ticket stub from that July night in 1967 and he posted it on his Facebook page this week. I wish I'd been smart enough to keep my ticket.

   It's gone and now, so is Davy Jones and Jimi Hendrix, too. But the memories live on, happily.

  

A garage sale, First Tee style

  Looking to pick up some golf equipment and make a contribution to The First Tee of Charlotte?

   You can do both Saturday at a garage sale being held at the First Tee facility adjacent to the Charles Sifford Golf Course at Revolution Park. The sale runs from 8:30 a.m. until noon and all sales must be made in cash.

   There will be sets of clubs, individual clubs and other golf equipment.

Haney: "Maybe (Tiger) will learn something"

The Golf Channel premieres new seasons of 'The Haney Project' and 'Feherty' starting at 9 p.m., Monday, stacking Hank Haney and David Feherty back to back on a weekly basis.


Haney will work with four celebrities this time -- chef Mario Batali, actress/model Angie Everhart, singer Adam Levine and retired boxer Sugar Ray Leonard -- while Feherty's interview-based show expands to one hour with Michelle Wie and Sergio Garcia among the early guests.

On a conference call, Haney said he expects former client Tiger Woods might learn something if he reads Haney's upcoming book, 'The Big Miss,' about his time with the former world No. 1.

"(Tiger) said he wasn't going to read it but he reads everything," Haney said on the call. "So if he does read it, maybe he'll learn something...

"I think it would be insightful. Hopefully it is. I know that it's fair and honest...There's going to be quite a few things that I think people look and say, wow, I didn't know that or that's surprising or interesting."

Feherty said he's hopeful Woods will sit for an interview on his show.

"I would not rule out Tiger Woods," Feherty said. "He hasn't said no."

What would Feherty ask Woods?

"I'm tired of the whole TMZ notion that people are entitled to private details of people in the public vew of their lives," Feherty said. "It just doesn't interest me.

"I'm more interested, to be honest with you, does he feel like a human being in that at any time has he been so anxious about whether or not he's going to regain any kind of form...Is it possible for him to reach that level again? Not just him, anybody else for that matter. Have we seen the 500-year flood?"

FedEx Cup Playoffs extended through 2017

   The FedEx Cup playoffs aren't going anywhere.

   The PGA Tour announced today that it has reached an agreement with FedEx to extend the season-ending series of events for five years, taking it through 2017. The initial agreement was scheduled to end after this year but there had been indications that FedEx and the tour were making progress on an extension.

   FedEx will continue to sponsor the $35-million 'playoffs' with the winner taking home a $10-million bonus. Since its inception five years ago, the four-event season-ending playoffs have given the PGA Tour a higher profile conclusion to its season as playing fields gradually diminish until 30 players are left for the Tour Championship.

   The FedEx Cup champions have been Tiger Woods (twice), Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk and Bill Haas.

Want to caddie for Natalie Gulbis?

   Now that you've seen Natalie Gulbis on the golf course and as a body paint model in the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition -- it's okay to admit you checked her out online if you're not a magazine subscriber -- here's your chance to caddie for her.

   Yep, caddie one round for Natalie Gulbis in an LPGA tour event this year.

   It's a silent auction item up for bid Saturday night as part of fund-raising dinner being put on by the Palisades Episcopal School. Talk about good timing.

   "It's been really fun for us," said Karin Hughes, head of the five-year old school.

   Thanks for a sports marketing connection, Hughes and the school got the go-ahead from Gulbis to auction off one round as her caddie. It didn't hurt that the school announced the auction item at the same time Gulbis was making her Swimsuit Edition debut.

   If you'd rather caddie for Davis Love III, that's available at the auction, too. It's still golf but, well, different.

   Not willing to take your chances on winning the silent auction?

   Hughes said the Gulbis item can be bought in advance by anyone willing to pay $8,000 up front. If you're interested in the details, visit www.pescharlotte.org.

Photos: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images (top) and Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images (bottom).

On Phil the Thrill, Rory's return and spitting

   Observations on the PGA Tour season as the West Coast swing concludes and it's bracket-buster time in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship:

  -- The season could hardly have started better. There was the Kyle Stanley saga (both good and bad), Mickelson against Woods at Pebble Beach, Phil and Keegan Bradley making 72nd hole birdies at Riviera to force a playoff and Bill Haas beating them both.

   Local favorite Johnson Wagner and his mustache earned player of the month honors in January, splitting his $50,000 award between The First Tee and the Levine Children's Hospital.

   Mickelson has been exceptional, reminding us of both the fun of watching him play golf and his star power. He generates an energy among fans and television viewers that only one other player can and, so far, Tiger hasn't been able to win.

   -- Woods will win soon. Maybe not the Match Play or Honda but it's going to happen. There's a reason he's still the betting favorite at the Masters, though Phil should be primed for Augusta.

  -- Keegan Bradley's pre-shot routine makes me nervous. He fidgets too much and he needs to stop with the spitting before every shot. It's like watching Jim Furyk line up a putt, something I try not to do.

  -- Rory McIlroy returns to the PGA Tour this week at the Match Play. That's excellent news.

  -- Watching Dustin Johnson play is both mesmerizing and maddening. It's almost comical how far he can hit the ball and how easy he makes it appear. Next time someone says golfers aren't athletes, tell them to watch DJ.

   But tell them not to model their wedge game on Johnson's. If and when he gets it dialed in from 120 yards and in, no one may beat him. Until then, he'll continue to be alternately brilliant and very average.

  -- Sergio Garcia's 64 Sunday at Riviera was another reminder that he can still get it done. He's 32 now and without a major championship. Garcia often seems to be his own worst enemy but I still think he wins a big one at some point.

Natalie Gulbis gets her body paint on

I post this out of, uh, duty just to let golf fans and anyone else who might stumble this way know that LPGA star Natalie Gulbis is on display in this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, now available at a computer or magazine rack near you.

Based on my quick study of Gulbis' 10-photo online portfolio, there's not a golf club to be seen but that apparently isn't the reason she's in the swimsuit edition.

In fact, she's not even wearing a bikini. Gulbis is wearing body paint that looks like a bikini. Having painted a room or two myself, I couldn't help wondering if they put that blue tape on Gulbis before they began painting her, uh, pretend bikini.

The good news for golfers is Gulbis is included in the magazine as part of an athletes in body paint section, which should answer once and for all the eternal question are golfers athletes.

Check out the 10-photo slideshow on SI.com

Bubba, General Lee to go racing -- kind of

   Bubba Watson is getting his NASCAR on.

   Watson will serve as honorary race official and drive his recently purchased 'General Lee' in a parade lap prior to the Subway Fresh Fit 500 race at Phoenix International Raceway on March 4.

   In January, Watson bought the orange Dodge Charger made famous by cousins Bo and Luke Duke in 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and he recently drove his new toy to the Waste Management Phoenix Open where he was competing. Needless to say, Watson's car attracted plenty of attention.

   Watson, known for his unconventional style and enormous length off the tee, lives half the year in Scottsdale, Az., He and his wife, Angie, spend the other half of the year in Lexington, N.C.

   "There are a lot of similarities between the individual challenges and the level of concentration needed to succeed in both golf and NASCAR," Watson said in a statement.

   Watson isn't known for backing off on the golf course. He may be the same way behind the wheel of the General Lee.

Phil does it; Tiger doesn't

Waiting for the old Tiger Woods to show up - we're still waiting, by the way - the old Phil Mickelson returned Sunday at Pebble Beach in California.

It was supposed to be the Sunday when golf got Tiger all the way back, all fist pumps and red shirts on the edge of Carmel Bay. Instead, Woods added to his recent habit of playing three strong days and finishing with a whimper, and it was Mickelson who showed us what we've been missing.

It's nice to have Mickelson, 41, back, smiling and slashing, making those early-season questions about whether sunset was approaching seem as silly as they were. Obviously, Mickelson hasn't been winning as often as he did in years past, but Sunday was his 40th victory and serves as more than a hint that he has more days like it in his future.

For all the attention that has been devoted to Woods' attempt to recapture his former glory, there had been a growing suspicion that Mickelson might have lost, if not his edge, at least a measure of his intensity. But with his wife, Amy, on site and paired with Woods in the final round, Mickelson was back. He's always played golf in neon, and he did it again at Pebble Beach, turning a gray day bright.

The Masters, two months away, got a little more interesting with what Mickelson did at Pebble Beach. As for Woods, the final round was a huge disappointment. He went backward on a day when he always seemed to go the other way.

If his new swing looked OK, his body language again looked like a man fighting to contain his frustration. He missed fairways, he missed greens and he missed putts. More than anything, Woods missed an opportunity.

He'll have more, but he'll also have the scar tissue of another disappointing finish. Still, Woods is trending the right way, especially when you consider where his game has - or hasn't - been the past year or two.

For a guy who shut more doors than Master Lock, Woods is learning to do it again. It's the hardest part of tournament golf. His inability to close out his past two Sunday rounds should only remind us of how good he was because days like this Sunday never happened.

Sunday's final round at Pebble Beach was a reminder of how special Woods and Mickelson have been over the past 15 years or so. Like (Harry) Vardon and (Ted) Ray, (Ben) Hogan and (Sam) Snead and (Jack) Nicklaus and (Arnold) Palmer, they're this generation's defining pair. They arrived together on the first tee Sunday looking to recapture what they've had.

Mickelson did it. For Tiger, the quest continues.

Tiger: Ban belly putters -- and he's right

   I'm getting the sense that the future of belly putters and long putters may not be as secure as the clubs tucked into the navels of Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Bill Haas and others.

   Tiger Woods became the latest to chime on the subject of whether the longer than standard putters should be banned today when he said during his pre-tournament press conference at Pebble Beach that he thinks the clubs should be outlawed and he's spoken to Peter Dawson, head man at the Royal & Ancient, about it more than once.

   Woods solution is sensible -- create a rule that requires the putter be no longer than the shortest club in your bag. That solves the dilemma created by players anchoring putters against their bodies.

  "I believe (putting) is the art of controlling the body and club and swinging the pendelum. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to that," Woods said in his press conference.

   The subject is under review. USGA executive director Mike Davis said so last week at the organization's annual meeting. He didn't say there would be a change in the rules coming (few things move at such a glacial pace as changes in golf's rules) but he opened the door on it. There have also been published reports suggesting the Royal & Ancient is looking into whether anchoring putters against the body helps players in the wind and rain.

   Without diminishing what Simpson or Bradley or Fred Couples have done with the unconventional blade, I fall in line with Woods and others who think the game is better without belly or long putters. And I'm a guy who can three-putt from three feet -- and have.

   I've heard the dissenters point to Billy Casper and others who anchored their hands against their thighs when they putted. Change that, too, then. In no other stroke does a player anchor the club against their body. Putting shouldn't be different.

   I've also heard the argument that if belly putters were that great, everyone would use them. Obviously, everybody doesn't use them but more and more players are. Ernie Els swore he'd never use one but now he has one in his bag. Even Phil Mickelson gave it a try.

   The game changes. The ball goes forever now. Shafts, space-age materials in driver heads and computer fitting are in danger of tilting the game too far toward science and too far from skill. It may be too late to pull back on that one.

   But belly putters and long putters. It's not too late -- yet.

Kyle Stanley, from ridiculous to sublime

   The Waste Management Phoenix Open isn't necessarily the place you expect a Hallmark Channel movie to come to life.

   But that's what Kyle Stanley's victory felt like Sunday, one week removed from his gut-wrenching loss at San Diego. It had all the elements -- failure, disappointment, tears, redemption and more tears -- all in the space of eight days and a few hundred miles.

   Golf, perhaps more than any other sport given its solitary nature, has a way of getting personal and Stanley's story touches both ends of the emotional spectrum. His loss at San Diego was brutal. It was sudden and cruel, leaving him no place to hide.

   He handled it with grace and, a week later, answered any questions about how tough he might be. Most people around the game thought Stanley would come back but few, if any, expected it to happen one week later.
 
   "It's a pretty cool story," Ben Crane said afterward.

   The coolest one this season.
   

Want to buy Phil Mickelson's house?

Always wanted to live like Phil Mickelson?

Now, you can live where Mickelson lives -- if you have an extra $7.09 million you can drop on a house in Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego.

According to Market Watch, Phil and Amy Mickelson have put their five-bedroom house up for sale but, as you might expect, it's no ordinary home. It's perched on nearly five acres and it's actually three houses.

The main house, reports say, is 9,500 square feet with five bedrooms. There are also two guest houses as well as a pool and a private putting green.

There's no indication where the Mickelson are going if the house sells. They're doing just fine, though, as Mickelson's recent offer to rebuild Torrey Pines' North Course for free suggests. There have also been encouraging reports after Mickelson's daughter, Sophia, recently dealt with a health scare.