"What is an amateur doing in the same group as major champions?"

Doug Ferguson explains how the unusual Tiger Woods pairing for this week's Frys.com Open came about. (He's playing with amateur Patrick Cantlay and 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen.)

The PGA Tour has been tweaking a few groupings this year to help make it more appealing for TV viewers. It starts with eight groups of three players - four groups in the morning draw, four in the afternoon draw. Twenty players are taken alternately from the world ranking and the FedEx Cup standings. The other four come from the winner’s category.

However, the tour now can have one “wild card” to swap out from the four players in the winner’s category. This week, Cantlay was chosen, and then put in the same group as Woods.

Jack: Tiger Can Still Win More Majors; Now Can We Just Pick An Olympic Architect!

Making the rounds in South Korean (ESPN, AP), here's the unbylined AP story where he made comments suggesting Tiger can still pass his mark, Tiger is a fine Presidents Cup selection, all while urging the Olympic golf course process to move along. When does the hard sell become desperation?
Read More

Rocco: "A lot of guys are happy Tiger isn't playing well. I'm not."

Ron Kroichick talks to Frys.com Open defending champ Rocco Mediate about Tiger's entry into the Fall Finish event. Rocco is "disgusted" with the direction of Tiger's game.

"I love the way he plays, but I'm disgusted with what's going on with him because it's sad for our game," Mediate said Tuesday from Pittsburgh, where he will play in this week's Nationwide Tour event. "A lot of guys are happy Tiger isn't playing well. I'm not. ...

"We need to have Tiger back at the top, because he's the draw. It's fantastic all these other kids are winning, but they're not Tiger Woods."

And he's not wild about the swing:

"The physical motion is wrong," Mediate said. "To get that stress off his body is a piece of cake - the guys working with him just don't know. Sean knows some stuff, but what's going on with Tiger is not correct. That's why he keeps breaking and that's why the ball keeps going sideways."

Mediate also took a none-too-subtle swipe at Hank Haney, Woods' previous coach.

"Starting with Haney until now, it was a complete and absolute destruction," he said. "If it was me (as Woods' instructor), I would say to Tiger, 'Look, dude, I'm not helping you. You're getting worse. You've broken down three times and you've had 57 knee surgeries. It's not happening.' "

I think I smell a V-Harness in Tiger's Frys.com Open locker!