"No one but stray bloggers has alleged that Mr. Pavin made his decisions based on religion—as golf picks they're fairly unassailable. But the subject is close to the surface."

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Don't worry, the stray bloggers will be replaced by British tabloids soon enough after John Paul Newport looks at the role religion might or might not play in American Ryder Cup team selection (Thanks reader Mel for the link).
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Golf Digest Scooped: Butch's Guide To Tiger's Gamesmanship Techniques (And How They Can Help You Psych-Out Your Hated Rivals)

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In an ideal world, Butch Harmon's keys to understanding Tiger's best gamesmanship ploys would have made such great reading in the pages of Digest. Instead, Steve Elling shares Tiger's keys and how learning about them has allowed Phil Mickelson to play better when paired with Woods, as was the case again Sunday at Cog Hill.
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The Stack And Tilt Wars: "I'm not going to say the person's name, whoever Tiger is working with, you know, he's got Andy and Mike's DVD, his book, and he always calls them asking questions."

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Charlie Wi, following Friday's round at Cog Hill, was asked about Stack and Tilt's status on the PGA Tour.

And I know that you're probably referring to Aaron Baddeley and Mike Weir, but Aaron Baddeley was the worst ball striker on the PGA TOUR before -- well, you should laugh because it's a fact. It's a stat that we -- and Andy and Mike, to their credit, took him -- he won three times with Andy and Mike, and also took him to inside top 20 in the world. And if that's not good enough for Aaron, well, it is what it is.

And also Mike Weir, he was also one of the worst ball strikers on TOUR, and it took him to -- he won two times with Andy and Mike and make $6 million in two seasons with Andy and Mike, and he thought that wasn't good enough. If you look at -- they're not here this week, so maybe they should be working with Andy and Mike.

And they're good friends of mine, too.

Andy and Mike or Aaron and Mike? Uh, probably the first two.

Q. I might be reading too much into it, but just the way you introduced them early in the press conference, you're working with them and they're the Stack & Tilt guys, do you feel they've been under an unnecessary attack lately?

CHARLIE WI: Well, yeah. All the players know and all the caddies know who all the best teachers are out here. They're really quiet. They don't go around looking for press or anything. But I think that because it is different, other teachers have a tendency to bash them. Maybe they might be one generation ahead of them, but in the end they're not teaching something that is new. They're teaching geometry, and geometry works for everybody. If you're 200 pounds, if you're 6'3", 5'5", everybody, geometry is the same with everybody.

You know, if you guys had a chance to sit down with them and talk to them about golf, you know, you would see that they know what they're talking about, and they have a huge following. I'm not going to say the person's name, whoever Tiger is working with, you know, he's got Andy and Mike's DVD, his book, and he always calls them asking questions. They know what -- they definitely know what they're talking about.

 You just had to bring Tiger and what's his name Sean Foley into this, didn't you?

Q. I don't remember it. Do you take it personally, I guess, because you're still working with Andy and Mike, and they seem to be criticized in various publications, and the guy that Tiger is working with is getting a lot of attention?

CHARLIE WI: Yeah, and I think that there's an article coming out in Golf Digest, and there was a big problem with Andy and Mike and the person that's working with Tiger because the pictures that are in the Golf Digest is pretty much straight out of their golf book that they have released.

Andy approached him and said, hey, I don't think it's fair that you're using our material. But he goes, well, you know, they asked me a question and said who do you look up to as teachers, and he said that my first teacher is Andy and Mike, the Stack & Tilt guys, so we'll see when the publication comes out if he did say that or not.

The Battle Of The Swing Instructors. It would be so much more fun than Big Break Daufuskie Island.

"And anybody good enough to play it knows what a wreck it is."

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As a conoisseur of player complaints, I have to say that the Cog Hill bashing is some of the toughest I've read and somewhat oddly timed considering that last year was the debut of Rees Jones' reestoration. But maybe what this speaks to is just how much mediocre design work--it's not like this is their first cup of Rees--the modern player will look past if a course is in good condition. If it's not, maybe the floodgates really open?
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"Beating the Yanks is nice, but it pales in significance to pound, euro and dollar signs."

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John Huggan helps us understand the politics at play for the European Ryder Cup squad. Though I still don't know how it explains Padraig Harrington's selection after making two non-WGC European Tour appearances this year.

For the European Tour -- whose budget for the next four years will largely be predicated on the financial success or failure of the upcoming contest -- that is all-important, even more than ultimate victory. Beating the Yanks is nice, but it pales in significance to pound, euro and dollar signs.

So, as much as possible, tournament sponsors must be satisfied with the level of participation by the tour's star names. And anything (such as the lure of Ryder Cup points) that encourages more of those luminaries to play more of their golf in European Tour-sanctioned events is part of the tour's overall business model. That's also why executive director George O'Grady turns an Admiral Nelson-like blind eye to the ongoing abuse of his own rule forbidding the payment of appearance money to his members or invited guests.

The allocation of five Ryder Cup places to those qualifying from the so-called "European points list" as opposed to four from the "World Ranking list" is another part of the same plan, one that hopes to see the likes of Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Justin Rose spending more time with their own families than with Uncle Sam's nieces and nephews.