"We know, liberals, that you find golf hilariously bougie and pointless."

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The cranks at Wonkette take on liberals for feasting on sun baked Congressman John Boehner playing 119 rounds of fundraising golf last year (actually, not true) and the overall golf bashing. Of course, that doesn't stop Wonkette from also bashing golf, suggesting that politicians like Boehner and Obama only took up the game for the schmooze and old boys club benefits.
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“I'm planning on playing my way into the team.”

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Steve Elling on his exchange with Tiger Woods today over the possibility of going as a captain's pick.

Later, ESPN.com’s Bob Harig asked Woods whether a meeting with Pavin was unnecessary, a roundabout attempt to get Woods to verbally commit to playing regardless of how he made the 12-man U.S. team.

No luck with the knuckleball offering, either.

“I think if I do well this week, I should sew up my spot,” he said.

Woods drew laughs with his stubbornness, but with a simple answer, he could have cleared up the discussion and ended the questions. Let the speculation continue. This time, he rekindled the speculative bonfire himself.

Perhaps pride forbids him from even contemplating the need to be a captain's pick, or maybe he's just that confident he'll make it on points. Or both.

"PGA TOUR is not the place for learning. That's essentially it. You've got to have your game when you're out here."

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Interesting stuff from Padraig Harrington today about the success of non-Americans in the U.S. this year. At least that's where he started, but then he moved into some things I've never heard a player suggest about the advantages of starting on the European Tour.
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"So the next time I hear players or media tongue-waggers squawking about how Turning Stone CEO Ray Halbritter was going to cost some pro a spot in the field and a chance at continuing his career, I am hereby hitting mute."

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Steve Elling and Scott Michaux debate the question of CEO Ray Halbritter entering and withdrawing from his own Turning Stone event this week. Elling comes down on the side of letting the guy play, and I have to say his reasoning is an eye opener:
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"Maybe I owe USGA an apology, groove rule has made golf easier."

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John Strege encapsulates the weekend chatter about grooves:

The new grooves the USGA ordered were supposed to help restore the integrity of par. But on the soft greens at the Greenbrier Resort, the new grooves were an advantage, as CBS' Nick Faldo pointed out on Saturday. They allowed the ball generally to stop in its tracks, in contrast to how the ball might have reacted with the old grooves, perhaps spinning back off the front of the greens.

Joe Ogilvie concurred. "Maybe I owe USGA an apology, groove rule has made golf easier, controlling wedge spin a breeze, I hope it is easier for ams too?!?!?" he wrote on Twitter. "USGA repeat after me, more spin is harder, less spin is easier."

The theory makes some sense on softer greens. How many times did we see good players strike a shot around the green with too much loft and too solid of a strike, only to have the ball check up?