"I'm sure he answered a lot of questions today."

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Jim Furyk, runner up to Tiger at the Memorial, after a mightily impressive final round showing and with some transcript fine-tuning:

Q. Jim, after Charlotte and the players, Tiger wasn't really himself in those last rounds. Do you feel that there was like a vulnerability about him, or was that it?

JIM FURYK: I wish you'd all quit piecing him off. That's about all I have to say about that. Wish you'd just quit chapping him so much and make him come back and keep proving stuff.
I don't think -- you know, Tiger woods is always Tiger woods. He can't be 100% every week, but I'm sure he answered a lot of questions today.

"I'm able to get my ball count up"

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While Mark Wilson and Matt Bettencourt are leading the Memorial, the focus is on all of the big names rounding into form for the U.S. Open.

Bob Harig reports that Tiger shed some new light on his knee breakdown last year.

A year ago, Woods was among the few who knew that his season was in peril. He had hoped to play the Memorial Tournament following arthroscopic knee surgery just two days after the Masters, but he learned a week before this tournament in 2008 that he had suffered stress fractures in his left leg.

"I practiced way too hard to get ready for this event," he said. "That's when I broke it."

Steve Elling says that Tiger's practices have been more limited than we originally thought:

Only in the past few weeks has Woods been able to bash balls as often as ever, because he didn't want to overstress the knee. He has only recently stopped icing the knee after rounds and instead has been able to adjourn to the range, where he can get post-round work done. Up until last month, he hadn't been able to practice after playing for two years because of his sore knee.

"I'm able to get my ball count up," he said.

Now maybe he can get his win count up, too.

Woods is gradually sneaking up on his standard form, having hit 35 of 42 fairways and 40 of 54 greens, which both rank in the top eight in the field. After starting the day tied for 24th, he moved up to a four-way tie for seventh in a group that includes Ernie Els.

Elling also reports on Geoff Ogilvy's amazing 63 Saturday after his dreadful performance Friday.

"Spend an hour taking out your aggression on a golf ball," he smiled. "It's quality alone time, Geoff time."

It might be Geoff time on Sunday night at this rate, when one Jack W. Nicklaus might be handing him a fat check and a shiny crystal trophy. Ogilvy, who won the U.S. Open three years ago, has already won the season-opener and match-play events, tying him with Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson for most wins this season.

His results of late have been largely middling, though Friday skewed more toward largely maddening.

"I woke up on the wrong side of the bed," he said. "Everything was getting to me. One of those days."

He took the sour disposition to work, too.

"I don't like carrying on like I did at times yesterday," said Ogilvy, one of the brightest players on tour. "It must have looked silly."

"Tiger has played no role that I'm aware of"

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Jerry Stewart on the AT&T's move from Poppy Hills to MPCC's Shore Course.

Other speculation as for the change revolves around Tiger Woods. Woods, who earlier this year announced a new deal with AT&T, hasn't played in the Pro-Am since 2002. Nutt dismissed any connection between the move and Woods, at least from the Foundation's standpoint.
"Tiger has played no role that I'm aware of," Nutt said.

Ron Kroichick notes this about Poppy Hills:

At any rate, the unfortunate element of Wednesday's announcement is the impact on the Northern California Golf Association, which owns Poppy Hills. The NCGA is a strident advocate of public golf, especially through its popular Youth on Course program designed to get kids involved in the game.

The NCGA had a two-year rolling contract for Poppy to remain in the AT&T rotation. Tournament officials renewed the deal in December, meaning they apparently were committed to Poppy through 2011. Don't be surprised, then, if the NCGA challenges the legality of this move.

"We're disappointed and we don't really understand it, because we have a contract," NCGA president Michael Hexner said. "If there are issues with Poppy Hills, why didn't they mention it in December? Why didn't they mention it two or three years ago?

"We're the only course (in the tournament) people can play for $55. We're the Harding Park or Bethpage Black of these venues. We're kind of stunned they would walk away from the course that provides all the volunteers for the tournament."

You may recall I reported a while ago that Tiger was pushing for a move away from Poppy Hills. I also noted in that post--which dealt with Nicklaus putting down Tiger's ability to speak "intelligently" about design--that the Bear should be careful because Tiger did not look favorably on Jack's new Dove Mountain course in Tucson, home to the match play.

Ah how times have progressed...they are currently rebuilding most of the greens at Dove Mountain.

I wonder if Jack and Tiger talked about that Wednesday? Intelligently, of course.

"I didn't even yell fore"

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Bob Harig explains the genesis of Wednesday's one-off, dare I say historic skins game featuring Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods:

Morgan Stanley is meeting its financial obligations to the tournament, but company representatives decided to downplay their role. Included was canceling the Wednesday pro-am that was to be filled with only Morgan Stanley people.

Their loss was golf's gain.

Stewart Cink will likely post more about the round with Jack, Tiger and Kenny, but he appeared to get in at least one on-course Tweet, melting hearts at LPGA headquarters.

To the fella who confused me with Camilo, "Mucho gracias amigo!"

Steve Elling shares this from the rainy round:

While the players were warming up, Nicklaus was hitting chip shots around the practice putting green as Woods was rolling putts nearby. A little too closely nearby, as it turned out.

The Bear shanked a wedge shot and the ball rolled over and nearly hit Woods in the foot, causing huge laughs from everybody.

"I didn't even yell fore," Nicklaus said.

There was plenty of kibitzing between the pair about their kids, golf course design and other topics as they walked along during the nine-hole match. When Nicklaus rolled in a birdie putt to win the first two skins, he laughed and slapped high-fives along the gallery ropes, shrugging as he said, "even a blind squirrel."

Jack Says It Was All The Tour's Fault!

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I love starting the day off with a big chuckle and how can you not giggle reading Doug Ferguson's story about last year's over-the-top setup at Muirfield Village. I only laugh because I know from talking to various folks at the tour that there are two courses where they have much less course setup say: Bay Hill and Muirfield Village.

And of course, there is that evidence of Jack's bunker furrowing concept to reinforce his role. And his hatred of flogging. And there's that minor detail that Phil Mickelson would have skipped the week regardless of his wife's health, all because of the excessive setup ploys.

Ah...Slugger's taking one for the team...

"We were over the top last year," said Slugger White, the PGA TOUR official in charge of setting up the course.

The fault fell to Jack Nicklaus -- at least that's the perception of most players.

After all, this is the course Jack built for a tournament he has hosted since 1976. Nicklaus built his career around the majors, and he wants the Memorial to be the next best thing.

But even Nicklaus was troubled by the high grass, not to mention the complaints.

"The one thing I never liked as a golfer was hack-out rough," Nicklaus said Tuesday. "I've always felt that if you put the ball in the rough, there should be some chance of playing a shot to reach the green, but not be able to control the ball like you would normally. I think recovery is a beautiful part of the game."

Just not on my course!

"I don't think Mr. Nicklaus or the TOUR liked what came out of last year," said Steve Rintoul, the TOUR official who oversaw the course setup this year. "The rules committee, in conjunction with Jack, thought it better to have shorter rough."

Ultimately, the TOUR has the final word in how the course plays.

But if Nicklaus is the one taking the heat whenever someone complains, then why not just take full authority of his golf tournament?

Nicklaus chuckled at the suggestion.

"We are part of the TOUR," he said. "What I want to do is cooperate the best I can, have middle round on what I want to do and what the players like. My feeling is, do I want them to not like it? Of course not. I want everybody to be happy, everybody to enjoy it. But not everyone thinks the way I think. I'm 69. Guys are 40 years younger than I am, or more. They haven't been brought up the way I was.

"It's more my job to adjust to them than their job to adjust to me."

Uh huh.

"People like to bring up dirty laundry, I guess."

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Bob Verdi writes about Kenny Perry's first remarks about the FBR Open incident.

Kenny Perry looks as though he has lost no sleep whatsoever over a "controversy" concerning an "incident" surrounding his victory at the FBR Open last February. In fact, he's somewhat puzzled that people are talking about it without talking to him.

Now I was out all day so I had only seen Verdi's take thanks to the readers who emailed the link to Bob's story. Only later did I read the transcript and the combination of Verdi's observation with the transcript probably won't make this go away.

Now, I know it's a bit unfair to Perry since there wasn't much he could say at this point that would help make the video more palatable. And it's perhaps unfair to parse his words from a transcript since the tone may have been tough to grasp, but sheesh, this is rough...

Q. Kenny, I know you talked about this earlier this morning. What do you suppose this playoff wedge thing from Phoenix has taken on such a life of its own on the Internet? I don't know that I've heard you talk about it. I was wondering what your take on all that is and why it won't go away.

KENNY PERRY: Well, I mean, I said the truth will set you free. I looked at it, and I thought it was crazy, my first impression.

I went to Charlie Hoffman, and I asked Charlie. Charlie, do you have a problem with it? That would be the only guy, if he had a problem with it, it would have really upset me, if he thought something was done wrong there.

You know, doesn't that mentality speak directly to something I wondered about recently: self policing gone awry to the point that the opinion of one's fellow competitors supersedes the Rules of Golf?

He said that's crazy. You didn't do nothing wrong. Patted me on the back. And saw the Tour came out -- I wasn't in the closed door. The Tour went in. I wasn't with the Tour staff when they made their -- they shot back with their remark saying, we saw nothing wrong. I mean, I just let it go.

That's life, isn't it? People like to bring up dirty laundry, I guess.

How is it dirty laundry if it is clearly not a violation?

Q. You were just trying to figure out how high the grass was and where the crowd was?

KENNY PERRY: You're allowed to.

To figure out how high the grass is? No kidding?

You're able to sole your club. Did you watch it? Did you actually watch that last hole?

Q. Everybody has seen it.

KENNY PERRY: I soled my club on the ball. Did you watch me sole it left of the golf ball? Then I went and hit the shot.

I don't think that quite describes how things transpired.

When you're in the rough, you just need to find the bottom so you can figure out how high the ball is sitting up in rough.

Find the bottom with about many stabs of the fire stoker? Sorry, here's the close up.

Q. You kind of hit a chunky running shot out of there anyway.

Oh, so the shot was lousy, therefore whatever precipitated didn't matter?

It wasn't like you hit some spinner that stuck it a foot from the hole, right?

KENNY PERRY: I hit it 25 feet from the hole. It's not like I hit a great shot. I mean, I don't know. What do you all think? Someone brings something up four months down the road. I didn't understand. We're going to go looking in the archives of all the players who have been on TV and see what they've done? I didn't understand that part of it.

That is a fair point that no one has been able to answer. Then again, the Super Bowl had started, so we now know just how many people were watching golf.

I've got a camera guy five feet behind me. He's right there looking. I turned around and looked at him.

If I thought I was doing something wrong, I definitely wouldn't have done it there.

Scribblers in attendance, did Kenny leave behind a large hole and a mound of dirt next to the podium?

Once that was -- I didn't hear nothing about it after that. There was nothing else said. So I just assumed it was dead. not after this press conference!

Q. When was this brought to your attention?

KENNY PERRY: When I finished the Sunday round at the Players. They came and told me about it. I was just stunned.

Q. Did they just walk up to you and say, by the way, you didn't cheat?

KENNY PERRY: No. They said you're going to have to answer some questions about this video. I didn't quite understand.

Rick George came and talked to me. And then I met with Alex Miceli. He was out there. And talked about have you heard anything about this video? Which I didn't know.

And then the Tour came out with their saying there was nothing been done wrong here.

After this press conference? Maybe not.

"What's up with CBS and Clark's wrists?"

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In this week's SI/Golf.com/Golf Mag/Golf Nation/No-Longer-Stuck-With-AOL opus, the gang kicks around Tim Clark's latest disappointing loss. Thankfully they don't dwell too much on his playoff approach shot that hit the 17th hole flag (a bad break but I'm not sure if it would have been as close as some thought), and instead discuss other issues related to Clark...

Damon Hack, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Clark pulled a LeBron James after the loss. He refused to come to the press room (though he did give a couple of quotes to Tour PR). He said he will take nothing positive from the loss and that he had a lot of work to do in closing out tournaments.

And...

Gorant: What's up with CBS and Clark's wrists? I always thought it was pretty common knowledge that he has a congenital condition that prevents him from turning his hands palm-up. That's why it's difficult for him to chip, but the CBS guys never mentioned that. They just kept saying he prefers to putt from eight feet off the green because he isn't a good chipper. Is this supposed to be an off-limits topic?

Herre: Interesting point. You'd think Peter Kostis would be all over something like that.

Geeze Peter, your own team is picking on you now!

IBF's 68 Has Clampett Dreaming Of Masters Return

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After a stunning opening 68 in Ian Baker Finch's first competitive round since 2001 (!!), sources inside the CBS back-up announcer trailer report that Bobby Clampett was seen optmistically searching Travelocity for flight info to next year's Masters just in case IBF should go on to win the Crowne Plaza at Colonial.

We love Ian and are thrilled about his great play. But you better not abandon us in April. We can't handle any more Hogan's Bridge references.

On a serious note, Ron Sirak puts the performance in context.

What Baker-Finch accomplished in the first round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational may not live in my brain as one of the most memorial moments I have witnessed, but it will linger in my heart as one of the bravest and most touching. His two-under-par 68 nearly 12 years after he shot a 92 in the British Open was a testimony to his courage as well as his considerable skill.

"I'm older now," he said after the round in which he made five birdies and three bogeys about fighting his nerves. "I just tried to stay in the moment. I never had second thoughts about doing this. Hey, I can still play the game." Of that there is no longer any doubt.

"It's a pretty seamless kind of change."

/

Looks like there was a new type of rally killer in Geoff Ogilvy's sitdown with what remains of the working press.

First, the rally...Geoff talking about the nuances of the Colonial course changes:

GEOFF OGILVY: Yes, it's actually quite nice that they've made some changes that you kind of keep looking at going, did they change that, did they not change that? It's a pretty seemless kind of change. Most of them I think is better, the course is better for it. A few extra bunkers here and there. The tees, a lot of them they look like they've just gone down a couple of feet which gives it a different look and probably makes it play a little longer in some respects because you are down a little bit. They cut the back of some of the greens, the ball is going to run away from a few more greens than it did before. All in all, pretty good changes. I would still like to see a couple of trees in a few places come out of this course. Apart from that, it's one of my favorites courses and probably nearly every guy in the field, if you polled them, it would be in their Top-5. And they haven't done anything to damage that by changing the course. A lot of times they change courses these days, that can happen. So fortunately that probably improved it. It's nice.

Q. Hi, Geoff, I'm doing interactive marketing for the tournament this week running the Twitter for the guys. I have a question from one of the followers. What part of your game is feeling best this week and what part of your game might not be feeling the best that you need to focus on to be successful this week?

The followers taking priority over the writers? Oh I smell an emergency meeting of the GWAA Directors! Wait, the new prez writes for the PGA Tour, maybe not!

Later on, Ogilvy on how the changes will impact play:

GEOFF OGILVY: In some cases for sure. I don't know if the fourth tee went back, but it feels like it's longer than it was. It definitely went down three or four feet. I think which makes it almost feel uphill. But that's always been a hard hole. The third is going to play a little trickier off the tee. It looks exactly the same, but the bunkers are 20 yards further to carry. They are not such an extreme carry, but our line has changed 20 yards from where it was the last 10 years. So getting it into your head you have to aim it 20 yards further right than you have been for the last eight or nine years is hard. You are used to teeing it up right next to the right-hand tee marker and hitting a driver in the normal spot, r the 3-wood in a normal spot. That line is now moved over and that's hard to get into your head. When you change a golf course subtlety like they have here, that we've played so many times. 12 is the same. 12 we've always blown it over the left bunker. Not many guys will be able to get it over there now. So it's hard to get it in your head you have to aim it up the fairway as opposed to aim it over the bunker. So it's more that sort of trickiness. The par-3, 13, I think it might actually be easier than it was before, even though it's 10 or 15 yards longer. 14, it's adjusting to the bunkers that are on the inside of the dogleg, not the outside of the dogleg. You are so used to stepping it up, autopilot, the normal spot, your driving lines are going to change on the 14th hole. It's more awkward changes like that, rather than out and out difficulty.

"Cink To Miss Remainder of Season to Concentrate on Twitter"

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Nice Stewart Cink exclusive reported by Bob Smiley.

Speaking of Cink and Twitter, he posted this Monday:

Heading out for CrownePlaza. Looking forward to seeing the changes at Colonial. Some angst when they tinker with the great tracks.about 14 hours ago from Tweetie

I doubt there's much to worry about since Keith Foster, who did such a super job at Southern Hills, also did the Colonial work. The ASGCA website features this short interview with Foster about touching up a beloved classic.