"People make the mistake of thinking golf on the PGA Tour is what American golf is."

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Australian Golf Digest's Rohan Clarke interviews Mike Clayton and they post a preview online. A couple of highlights:

People make the mistake of thinking golf on the PGA Tour is what American golf is. America is full of incredible golf courses but it's a huge mistake to think tour golf is what American golf is. Tour golf is entertainment golf, that's not American golf. Those courses don't rate in terms of the great American golf courses.

And this on Royal Melbourne:

The middle of the fairway was never the best place to play to the hole from. You always had to go to the edges to get to the best line because the greens were hard and it was windy. I guess you just grow up thinking that's what all golf is like. You watch golf now and it's just hit the fairway, hit it between the lines. Kick field goals between the posts. So my philosophy is shaped initially by Royal Melbourne, which was the best example of what golf was about in Melbourne. I played St Andrews in 1984 and you get totally confused by that place. You see there's no rough, really. Figure it out for yourself where to play. So my philosophy is don't tell anyone where to go. Don't dictate to the player anything. Just give them space and let them figure it out for themselves where best to play it. So if they're strong at one part of the game, they can use that strength somewhere.

"People today understand that being in movie theaters, church or somewhere rings are frowned upon, they get that."

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That's the PGA Tour's VP & COO Andy Pazder speaking about the new cell phone policy going forward starting with the Honda Classic.

“We learned that the fans were very conscientious about keeping their phone on silent,” said PGA Tour Exec VP & COO Andy Pazder. “That really was the easiest piece of the puzzle to solve. People today understand that being in movie theaters, church or somewhere rings are frowned upon, they get that. We had a ring or two, but that was very minimal."

"Forstmann's lawyers said he never would have bet against Woods since IMG represented him and would benefit if Woods won tournaments."

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Thanks to Pete Finch for Tweeting William Cohan's in-depth look at the lawsuits filed against IMG owner Ted Forstmann. The story has remained off the radar as a TMZ item. But this gets into details which, while still leaving suit-filer James Agate's credibility in some doubt, leaves little question that Forstmann loves to bet, helped put Agate in debt with the IRS and Forstmann was undoubtedly betting on things he shouldn't have been betting on as the IMG leader. Worst of all, he Forstmann is not denying that he ran his bets through Agate, who worked through bookies in Vegas and Costa Rica.

Legal or not, after Forstmann bought IMG, which represents major sports stars, and then kept placing bets through Agate -- often on IMG's clients -- his gambling fairly reeked of poor judgment. The Tennis Integrity Unit has said such betting violates its rules but that Forstmann's betting occurred before its creation; an NCAA spokesperson says Forstmann is not under its jurisdiction "but that the expectation is that those providing services to the NCAA will not wager on sports." While Agate, by all accounts, including his own, seemed to grow increasingly desperate and unstable, Forstmann has come around to the view that he made a mistake; he has since instituted a ban on college-sports gambling at IMG.

There wasn't one before?

As for the explosive charge of betting against Tiger, it still sounds sketchy. Though not sketchy enough to likely offend Woods or any other client learning that the boss could be rooting against you.

Agate also claims Forstmann bet "several times against" Tiger Woods, also an IMG client, to lose to Vijay Singh, another (now former) IMG client and onetime friend of Forstmann's. Forstmann's lawyers said he never would have bet against Woods since IMG represented him and would benefit if Woods won tournaments. Agate's charge "defies logic and common sense," they wrote. (Of course, by betting for Federer in 2007, Forstmann was necessarily betting against IMG client Nadal.)

But how much does IMG really benefit from Tiger winning tournaments?

On a less important note, there was this:

That's when Agate gave a copy of the proposed suit to gossip website TMZ. Forstmann was served the lawsuit, plus a copy of the still-unfiled complaint with the betting records, two days later on a Saturday in the parking lot of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, near his home in Southampton, N.Y.

A few weeks later, hearing nothing from Forstmann, Agate filed the amended complaint with the betting information. All hell broke loose.

Compton In At Riviera

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We lose Ernie Els to a ""sore neck"" (note the double quotes) and Graeme McDowell ended up not entering after committing to recharge his batteries one more week, but I'm more than happy to see Erik Compton Monday qualify to the Northern Trust Open along with Pepperdine great Jason Gore. Randall Mell reports.

Even better, the qualifiers all go from the putrid Eisenhower Course at Industry Hills to the splendor of Riviera!

"I hope it happened in time, because I don’t have a whole lot of time left."

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Sean Martin posts a Q&A with Frank Chirkinian on the CBS producer/director's Hall of Fame induction.

Q: What is your thought on golf on TV today?

A: I’m ambivalent about that. I think that there are too many graphics on the screen today. They miss an awful lot of live golf shots. That was my forte. I showed a lot of golf shots live, and therein lies the difference. My only problem is that it looks like they’re all doing the same thing. They all look alike.

Finding An LA Marketing Groove?

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Too bad the forecast for this week's Rain Dance Open at Riviera stinks, because we probably won't know if PGA Tour Championship Management's stepped-up marketing efforts are paying off.

First there was the Groupon ticket buy that sold 252 "Weekender" passes, and then (below), the super-cool plastic wrap around Sunday's LA Times featuring a free ticket offer and a Northern Trust Open-logoed green Sharpee.