"I bet I'm the only guy that has to work (Wednesday)."

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Jill Painter with a super story on Tom Gardner, an assistant pro at Bel-Air Country Club who got in the Northern Trust Open at the local SCPGA qualifier.

After the 11 a.m. shotgun start at the exclusive country club, he'll race down Sunset Boulevard, about four miles from Riviera Country Club, and get some work in on the driving range and putting greens.

Gardner has his own crucial tournament this week. He qualified as a club pro to play in the Northern Trust Open, which starts Thursday.

"I bet I'm the only guy that has to work (Wednesday)," Gardner said with a laugh.

Gardner, 33, got the rest of the week off to play on the PGA Tour, so he's been the star at Bel-Air, a place filled with stars like Luke Wilson, Jerry West and Pete Sampras.

"Since I've qualified, it's been a fairly big thing at Bel-Air," Gardner said. "They've sent out emails, and the membership has been unbelievable. They're so supportive. They've really made this fun.

"It's been a dream of mine to work at a golf course like this, and there's 300 people congratulating me and telling me how proud of me they are."

He goes off at 1:15 Thursday on #1.

Questions Surround Gulbis Decision To Pose With Painted Swimsuit In Swimsuit Issue

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You can feel the tension as golf.com's Jeff Ritter doesn't back down in questioning the decision to use a body painted swimsuit for Natalie Gulbis's SI Swimsuit issue shoot. Uh, so yes, that's paint. How do they do the part where...oh this can't end well. Just check it out. On newstands this week.
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State Of The Game, Episode 3: "The game's never been easier and people have never complained more about how hard it is."

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That stellar quote came from Mike Clayton during this week's belly putter-focused show.

You'll hear some sound clips from Tiger Woods and a few I picked up at the USGA Annual Meeting. Panelists Clayton and Huggan are joined by special guest and long putter exponent Craig Spence chat about what figures to be a huge issue over the coming year. Rod Morri hosts, and music is supplied by Lloyd Cole. Give it a listen.

Here's the direct link to the third episode.

Here's a directory with the first three episodes.

And here's the itunes page for the show where you can get all three or subscribe, it's free.

Or finally, you can listen below: