"We want to continue to give the local folks a great golf course and also want to maintain our rating nationally."

Steve Lynn of New Mexico's The Daily Times looks at the revenue problems of the well-regarded Pinon Hills, the most blatant example yet of water costs impacting the health of a golf operation.

Meanwhile, the golf course is watering less despite spending more on the nonpotable water.

The course spent $42,000 on 134 million gallons of water in 2004.

By contrast, it spent $151,000 on 118 million gallons through October this year while spending about the same last year on $172 million gallons.

At the same time, the course has cut its budget. The city projected a $1.35 million budget that funds the city's golf courses this fiscal year, a decline of almost $90,000 from last fiscal year's budget.

The city expects higher green fees to raise revenue by $100,000, parks department director Jeff Bowman said.

"We want to continue to give the local folks a great golf course and also want to maintain our rating nationally," Bowman said.

"Golfweek" ranked Piñon Hills the No. 4 public golf course in the nation this year.

Naturally those last two sentences provide a nice reminder to those who don't think courses overspend to appease panelists.

Westwood Affirms #1 Ranking With Runner-Up Finish

Jason Sobel on the HSBC results and Westwood solidifying his spot at the top:

For now, though, all accolades and celebration should be heaped upon Westwood, who emerged from his first week atop the world ranking by putting greater distance between himself and the competition. That he failed to triumph at the HSBC should only serve as a symbol for his career: He might not always be good enough to win, but he is indeed good enough to be the best.

Sure, it sounds like a bizarre conundrum, but in a week that began with the world's best players brandishing swords in one another's company, bizarre might very well now be the norm anyway.

The SI guys weren't so kind.

Morfit: It is a bit odd that Westwood is winning so infrequently. On the other hand, he's played golf pretty infrequently, so maybe finishing second this week isn't so bad. I'm a lot more worried about a few other players who got a lot of publicity coming into the week.

Shipnuck: I'm way past the point of getting excited about Lee Westwood racking up another lucrative top-5 finish. To paraphrase "Glengarry Glen Ross," he needs to put down the coffee. Coffee is for closers.

Hack: Second place, a set of steak knives.

Shipnuck: Third place, you're fired. That means you, Luke Donald.

"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50"

The European Tour's statistics expert Ian Barker defended the World Ranking after Butch Harmon criticized the elevation of Lee Westwood to the top spot.

"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50 and Martin Kaymer would be comfortably the world number one," Barker, the European Tour's director of information services, told Reuters.

"Anyway, Butch may well have his wish on Sunday because Martin will go to number one if he comes second in Valderrama."

“To become No. 1 you have to win and win a lot to maintain it. That’s the way it goes.”

That's Tiger sounding the least beat concerned about losing the No. 1 world ranking. It helps when you've won 14 majors.

“As far as the world ranking is concerned, yes, I’m not ranked No. 1 in the world,” Woods said Monday. “In order to do that you have to win and I didn’t win this year.”

Though I'm not sure this has proven to be accurate, but we'll chalk it up to Tiger sticking to diplomacy:

“As far as the emotions go, it is what it is,” Woods said. “To become No. 1 you have to win and win a lot to maintain it. That’s the way it goes.”

Lee Westwood won once this year at Memphis. Martin Kaymer has won four times, including a major.

Golfweek Debuts Top 40 Best New Courses List

Who knew there were enough courses for a list? Actually, forty may be the entire list of new courses which looks hefty considering next year's will be a much shorter list.

What struck me more than a couple of startling slights was the sheer comedic value of some of the course names. And I'm not referring to the ones named after their developers. In the interest of kindness, I won't name names.

"does #1 really mean anything in golf?"

Because I'm under doctor's orders to only watch 15 minutes from every hour of televised golf at courses with bunkers surrounded by rough and/or back-and-forth tree-lined routings featuring indecipherable holes, my exposure to this weekend's No. 1 world ranking talk was limited. However, I noticed quite a bit of tweeting about Phil Mickelson "choking" at the chance to pass Tiger Woods in the world rankings.

I'd sum up my feelings on this vital chase for No. 1 in the world, but reader Mr. BoJangles did the heavy typing for me:

a little off topic, but does #1 really mean anything in golf? Seriously. Why is it even discussed? It doesn't help you win majors. The only thing I can think of is the Match Play pairings, you get a one-seed. Being Ranked #1 is meaningless in every sport except college football. What was Shrek ranked? Or Graham?

Someone told me Greg Norman was ranked No. 1 for a lot weeks back in his prime. And I was like, who cares? He won 2 majors.

If Phil takes No. 1 over Tiger, what does that mean, really? Tiger's won 14 majors, Phil's won [four]. Who's going to have the better golf career when they're both retired? Anyway, that's just my rant on the golf rankings and every other ranking for that matter. I think rankings are retarded and while I'm at it, college football needs a playoff system. That will never happen.