Golfweek

RABAT, Morocco – The Road to Morocco might have been a slapstick 1942 comedy starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, but Paul McGinley’s route to the North African nation has been pretty humorless.

And painful.

When McGinley teed off at 10:39 a.m. local time Thursday, it ended 139 agonizing days of wondering if he still had what it took to compete again on the European Tour.

He’s still wondering.

The 43-year-old Irishman underwent the sixth operation on his left knee at the end of last season and spent the winter in rehab.

“It’s nice to be back, but it’s been a long haul,” McGinley said. “The knee is disintegrating, it’s getting weaker structurally and I’ve got to be aware of that – I’ve got to work around it.”

McGinley’s preparation for this event consisted of just two rounds of golf around Sunningdale Golf Club at the end of last week.

He limited himself to six and 12 holes at a time in practice here, six on the Red Course and 12 holes on the Blue. He spent less time practicing than normal.

It showed.

The Dubliner started his round with a birdie ...

Certainly, only a small dent has been put into the PGA Tour season and there’s no reason to look beyond 2010. Unless, of course, you’ve already had your tournament and are studying 2011. In which case, it’s worth noting that the SBS Championship has built itself a pretty impressive nucleus and we’re not even out of March.

Consider that over the first 12 tournaments, the winners have included seven players who are currently ranked within the top 30 in the world. A lot of tournament directors would love to know they already had Steve Stricker (2), Ian Poulter (6), Ernie Els (8), Camilo Villegas (12), Geoff Ogilvy (13), Hunter Mahan (21), and Dustin Johnson (29) qualified, so the folks at the SBS Championship have reason to smile.

In fact, when it was mentioned to Liezl Els that her husband’s win at the CA Championship would return them to the season-opener, she smiled warmly and pumped her fist. “We are going back to Kapaula,” she said. “It is great.”

Couldn’t agree more.

(Editor’s note: Chris Wilson has earned $33,360 in eight starts this season. He is 185th on the PGA Tour money list. Wilson is not in the field this week. He missed the cut at last week’s Puerto Rico Open.)

March 18, 2010

After the longest day of travel anyone has ever experienced, I finally arrived home late Monday night and slept in my own bed (the thought of which kept me going that day) for the first time since Jan. 3. It was quite the disappointing finish in Puerto Rico (Wilson bogeyed his final hole to miss the cut by one stroke), but sometimes things like that happen. Next time I am in a similar situation, hopefully I am able to pull from that experience and come out on the other side.

Ever wonder what life is like for a PGA Tour rookie? Well, Chris Wilson is here to tell you. Wilson, 25, will file a weekly diary on Golfweek.com to give you an insider’s view of the PGA Tour. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/TheRealCWilSon.

Now that I have two weeks away from competitive golf, I will have some time to recharge ...

The field is set for the LPGA’s Kia Classic Presented by J Golf and Paula Creamer is noticeably absent. Creamer still is searching for a support brace for her left thumb, which she first injured last summer hitting out of the rough. She withdrew from the season-opening event in Thailand last month and has been resting in her Orlando, Fla., home the last several weeks.

The Kia Classic is the first domestic event on the LPGA schedule and world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa headlines the field. Ai Miyazato, however, might command the most media attention as she aims for her third consecutive victory. Other big names headed to Carlsbad include Michelle Wie, Cristie Kerr, Suzann Pettersen and Jiyai Shin.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – One by one, familiar faces made their way over to renew acquaintances.

First, they had to overcome the astonishment of seeing Ben Bates holding court on the practice green. Then came the question: What are you doing here?

Bates grinned. It was the smile of a guy who just won the lottery. See, Bates is in a PGA Tour field this week for the first time since the Michelob Championship in October 2001. He shot 68 to earn one of four qualifying spots available into the field of the Transitions Championship.

It’s been a long wait and a long time for a guy who is overjoyed to be playing tournament golf anywhere these days. Bates, who has made his living on the Nationwide Tour since losing his PGA Tour card in 2001, has Nationwide status but hasn’t qualified for an event yet this season. Instead, he’s played in the Coors Light Open in Fort Meyers, Fla., and three Emerald Coast Golf Tour events.

“There’s usually all of 15 guys playing. I was lucky enough to win one, finish second in another, and fourth in the other. So I’m top-5 in every one ...

John Daly has a vodka drink named after him, looks like a walking advertisement for Lap-Band surgery and is a pitchman for loud pants and underwear.

If all that isn’t enough, you can now scarf down his pizza.

Daly has partnered with Perky’s Foodservice Concepts to launch the John Daly Pizza Program. The JD pizza will be available in such places as – and this is perfect – golf courses, bowling alleys, casinos, truck stops, bars and convenience stores.

On the press release, Wild Thing pronounced his pizza to be a “350-yard drive down the middle. ... Grip it and Eat it!”

Perky’s president Jim Howell, whose company supplies more than 600 food venues, called the partnership a “great combination of things Americans love, pizza and John Daly.”

Move over, apple pie and Chevrolet.

RABAT, Morocco – Jack Nicklaus didn’t win 18 majors by turning up unprepared, which is why he’s surprised Tiger Woods will play the Masters without a tournament under his belt.

The Masters will be Woods’ first tournament in fourth months, since he won the Australian Masters Nov. 15. Twelve days later he crashed his car into a tree outside his house, an incident that eventually led to Tiger admitting a string of adulterous affairs.

Woods has been undergoing therapy ever since, and has only made one public appearance. On that occasion he said he wasn’t sure when he would return to competitive golf, although he didn’t rule out “sometime this year.”

Sometime this year will be April 8, the first round of the Masters.

“I fully expected Tiger to come back to play the Masters and that will be good for Augusta,” said Nicklaus, who is in Morocco looking at new golf course projects. “But I’m surprised he is not playing some place before that, but then Tiger’s Tiger, and he’ll come back ready to play.”

Tony Jacklin was in Morocco along with Nicklaus, and was also surprised Woods would not be playing a ...

The beginning of March Madness means The Masters is right around the corner. While I’m still sweating over my tournament brackets, I’ve already settled on my Masters sleeper pick: Matt Kuchar.

The guy is on fire. In his last 12 starts dating back to the beginning of the FedEx Cup, Kuchar has six top-10 finishes, highlighted by victory at the Turning Stone Resort Championship in October. It was Kuchar’s first win on Tour since 2002.

“That kind of got me back on track,” Kuchar said. “I was playing some good golf but there’s nothing like winning a golf tournament out here. When you win on the PGA Tour, you just feel like you’re one of the best players in the world. Having that sort of feel, it can only help.”

It’s carried over into this season. In addition to a T-3 at the WGC-CA Championship last week, Kuchar finished third at the SBS Championship and T-2 at the Bob Hope Classic. All of a sudden, Kuchar’s Official World Golf Ranking has climbed to an all-time best of No. 35 in the world.

Kuchar will feel right at home at Augusta National. Who can ...

Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Dr. Cary Middlecoff have won 156 more PGA Tour titles than winless Charl Schwartzel, but Schwartzel can outspend the three of them combined at the mall.

On his Doral runnerup check alone.

Money in golf gets goofy unless you’re spending it. It’s particularly amusing when comparing money from different eras. Schwartzel gives us more fodder.

He won $850,000 for finishing second Sunday at the WGC-CA Championship. That’s more than Hogan, Nelson and Middlecoff combined. Schwartzel’s non-winner’s check alone would put him No. 505 in Tour career money, well ahead of 82-time winner Sam Snead.

Party on, Mr. Schwartzel.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Back-to-back disappointments at the Honda Classic (T-40) and CA Championship (T-65) had Rory McIlroy’s spirits a bit down when he left Miami Sunday night, but they were lifted dramatically Monday.

The secret recipe?

None other than a visit to Augusta National and a stay at the Eisehnhower Cabin.

“First time I’ve properly smiled in two weeks,” McIlroy told his agent, Chubby Chandler.

To which Chandler responded, “That’s being 20 for you. You bounced back quickly.”

McIlroy finished T-20 in his Masters debut a year ago.

March 14, 2010

Well, I’m sure everybody knows by now, but just in case you haven’t heard, I had wrist surgery on March 8 that effectively ended my rookie year on the PGA Tour.

The surgery was done in New York City. Dr. Weiland, who has performed surgeries on Jim Furyk, Luke Donald, Trevor Immelman, and several top professional baseball players, administered my surgery. The ECU tendon in my wrist was subluxation, meaning it kept popping in and out of place. My injury is very similar to that of Luke Donald. He had his repaired about two years ago.

The wrist did not hurt all the time. It only hurt when I came through impact and had to rotate my left hand over. That’s when the tendon would pop out of place. After I had been diagnosed in December, I received a shot to relieve the pain and another one two weeks ago. The shots helped and allowed me to play and practice somewhat pain-free, but after about a month and a half, the pain came back and it got progressively worse. After the second shot, Dr. Weiland told me that this was the last shot he ...

March 14, 2010

Hello again, everyone!

Since I last wrote, I have been practicing hard and getting prepared to make my first trip overseas for the year to Casablanca, Morocco! I am sitting in the Orlando airport as I write this, getting ready to leave for my trip.

This past week, I practiced and played in Orlando. I had the privilege of playing a few times at Lake Nona and that was amazing. They have a beautiful course, and I was able to play with former Women’s British Open champion Karen Stupples. She hits it a mile, and she is so nice! My dad and I also went to her house for dinner, and her husband, whom my dad has known for a long time, cooked us some really good homemade barbecue. It was a nice meal to have on one of the last nights being able to eat American food.

I also played in the Florida Women’s Open this week. I was looking at it as a good warm-up event for the season, and I am glad to have gotten three competitive rounds in before my first big-time professional event. I had one great round, so that ...

Jim McCabe: Presnell delights in ‘ultimate dream’ at Doral

DORAL, Fla. – He shares the same passion for their native land, the same love of golf, the same laid-back and passive personality that is common with Aussies.

But Alistair Presnell discovered this week that there is some separation between he and his pro golf-playing Australians like Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott, and Robert Allenby.

“I was talking to the boys the other night and they were talking about their Porsche GT3s and I’m thinking about my $5,000 car back home,” Presnell said, laughing.

For the record, the car is a 10-year-old Holden, a small GM-made.

But that record may need an update, because given the way Presnell burned it up in the final round of the CA Championship at Doral’s Blue Monster, he will be able to upgrade that set of wheels.

Presnell, the only Nationwide Tour player in the 68-player field, finished birdie, birdie, birdie – three of nine in his round of 8-under 64 that sent him roaring up the leaderboard. Starting the day tied for 24th, Presnell was joint fifth when he signed his scorecard. He ended up tied for sixth and with $214,300.

That’s ...

DORAL, Fla. – The Blue Monster, it’s not. At least not in today’s third round of the CA Championship as the field average is under par. And nowhere is that more evident than at the par-4 18th.

It is usually a brutal challenge to finish your round here at Doral, what with water all the way down the left, then in front of the green. Push it too far right and you have to deal with bunkers and trees. Up at the green, deep bunkers guard the right side.

Ah, but it’s remarkable how much easier it is when the wind is at your back like it is today.

Paul Casey is a sterling example of how different it is playing. Thursday and Friday, his second shots came from 169 and 165 yards, respectively. In Round 3, he drove it 338 yards and had just a lob wedge from 116.

More impressively, Alvaro Quiros bombed it 352 yards and had just 96 to the hole.

The shorter second shots translated into easier scoring chances. Whereas only 10 birdies were made over the first two rounds, today there have been 14 already, and the hole, which had played to ...

DORAL, Fla. – If they were handing out crystal for eagles, like they do at the Masters, Robert Allenby would need a U-Haul here at the CA Championship.

The Aussie had two more in his second-round 67, giving him three eagles for the tournament. That in itself is quite a haul, but what makes it even more interesting is the fact he’s made them on a par-3, a par-4 and a par-5.

The first one came Thursday when Allenby holed a sand wedge from 114 yards at the par-4 fifth.

In Round 2, Allenby was four holes into his round when he drilled a 5-wood at the 232-yard, par-3 13th. “Just landed perfect, a little bit of a fade, about 15 feet short of the hole, then sort of checked up,a nd then rolled up into the hole.”

He said it was his 14th ace in competition.

But it wasn’t his last eagle of the day, because after making the turn, Allenby reached the 516-yard, par-5 first in two and converted an 18-foot eagle putt.

“Each day has been kind to me,” Allenby said. Then he laughed. “But I’ve had a few little mysteries in there, too ...