WSJ On Tour Wives: "They are, as a rule, uncommonly pretty, but mostly under the radar."

John Paul Newport hangs out with tour wives and provides a nice picture of the behind-the-scenes life.

He also tells us about a few wives who are multi-talented and play a role in their husbands' job.

Like many of the wives I talked to, Diane Donald can't believe she's married to a sports star, much less that she doesn't have a career of her own. She grew up in Chicago, the daughter of a working mother. "I was in day care from 3 months old, that's how much of a career woman my mom was," she said. She got a journalism degree at Northwestern (where she met Luke). After graduating she started in a job that paid $25,000. "That was for an entire year," she said. "That's less than Luke was making in a bad week." Especially once the kids came, it made no sense for her to continue.

Unlike athletes in team sports, pro golfers are independent contractors, so wives are key parts of the family business. A handful are involved directly with the golf side of things. Patrick Reed's wife, Nicki, was on the bag last month when he won his first Tour event, at the Wyndham.

Billy Horschel's wife, Brittany, serves as a kind a traveling coach. She played golf at the University of Florida (as did Billy) but had to abandon her own pro dreams after a series of wrist surgeries. She sits in on Billy's lessons with instructor Todd Anderson and helps during tournaments to keep Billy on plan. She has a sports-management degree from Florida.

"All the wives help manage their husbands in one way or another," she told me.

Tiger Runs "Out Of Gas" & Schedules Only Get Worse From Here!

It was a pretty shocking admission for physical specimen Tiger Woods to say his Tour Championship second round fell apart because he "just ran out of gas" and calling the ResetCup series of events (even with a week off) "a long grind." (Mark Lamport-Stokes reports.)

And guess what? The 2013-14 season starts in three weeks and next year's playoffs do not include a week off. But there is a week after the playoffs so you can rest for the Ryder Cup in Scotland.

In 2015 the Presidents Cup, presumably soon after the FedExCup, will be in Korea on the moundiest looking course you'll ever see.

And do we even want to talk about the mess that is 2016? Ewan Murray did in assessing (and agreeing) with Woods' complaint about fatigue.

Woods was right to point to a condensed schedule from the Open Championship to this, the climax of the FedEx play-off events. He also predicted that matters will become even more hectic in 2016, when golf returns to the Olympic Games in Rio.

It's going to be fascinating to watch the stars getting older while Commissioner Blankfein's vision for non-stop golf plays out.

A Caller Tries To Save Stenson From Penalty

Jim McCabe with the story of Tour Championship 36-hole leader Henrik Stenson possibly spared a penalty for playing a broken 4-wood.

While it he (and his "physio") knew something was amiss and dealt with it before the round, Stenson was greeted by tour officials who were on the case after--you guessed it--a viewer called in.

This time, however, PGA Tour rules officials – in this case, Mark Russell and John Mutch – were there to speak with Stenson. It seems that Golf Channel showed the practice-range scene with Stenson looking at his club and a viewer called in to raise the possibility that the tournament leader had a broken club in his bag.

Doing the prudent thing, Russell approached Stenson before the Swede, who was in the final pairing with Scott, could sign his card.

“We just wanted to see (that Stenson didn’t have the club in his bag),” Russell said. When they discovered that he did not, in fact, carry the 4-wood and had but 13 clubs in his bag, it was case closed.

Stenson posted a 66 with the 13 clubs to open up a four stroke lead over Adam Scott.

The highlights:

The 9-Hole Question: NGF Finds Cost, Time Still Huge Issues

Lots of interesting stuff in a National Golf Foundation survey probing deeper on the question of nine is fine, a big push by Golf Digest with some support from the litany of for-profit non-profits who gather regularly and sign off on pretty ad campaigns.

Besides the number of people who seem to think there is a stigma attached to 9-holes, the haunting number for golf has to be the majority that cites time and cost as the ultimate issue.

We found that just over half of golfers (54%) report that time constraints negatively impact their frequency of play.  Coincidentally, 54% of golfers also reported that money constraints negatively impact frequency of play.  When measured together, 72% of golfers play less frequently due to time constraints, money constraints, or both.Only 28% of golfers tell us their frequency of play is not affected very much by either.

We asked the 27% of golfers who don’t play 9-hole rounds why they do not.  Most mentioned that they just prefer playing 18-hole rounds. Many simply see golf as an 18-hole game, and that 9holes just isn’t enough.

East Lake Lockers Sleep Easy On News Of Stenson's 64

Henrik Stenson, scourge of cherry-wood paneled lockers across the land after going ballistic at Conway Farms on the innocent storage space rented by some member probably hoping the Swede merely left behind a sleeve of balls, turned his anger to East Lake with an opening 64.

Stenson is playing with a sore wrist--what could have caused that? Jeff Rude reports on Stenson explaining last week's tantrums.

“I’ve always been a bit of a hothead,” said the Swede, who apologized and awaits a bill for damage. “It kind of builds up and eventually goes over the limit. For me, it comes down to being tired. I played so much golf (and) haven’t been able to get rest.”

On top of that mental state, Stenson came to East Lake with a bad left wrist that he figures he inflamed by hitting balls and sleeping on it wrong last week. It was so bad that on Wednesday he hit just a “couple of shots on the range” and didn’t play a practice round – even though he had never played East Lake before, save for the front nine Tuesday.

“Wednesday morning, just holding a toothbrush was painful,” said the winner of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second of the four FedEx Cup playoff events.

The first round video highlights courtesy of Tiger's good friends at PGA Tour Entertainment:

"Now there is potential to doubt that Woods will keep protecting the field above his own self-interest."

Two very tough (and similar) commentaries from respected writers on Tiger's rules situations, starting with AP's Doug Ferguson reviewing Woods' 2013 rules run-ins and suggesting that he risks "losing the locker room":

A few players privately mocked him during the final round at Conway Farms. ''Oscillation'' became a punch line.

Was it worth it?

Whether he likes it or not, Woods is held to a different standard, just as Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were before him in the television era. He gets more attention. He draws the largest crowds. He's on TV more. His every move is scrutinized.

There's no point complaining any longer that it's unfair to use television footage to determine penalties. Everyone is expected to play by the rules – whether there's a TV camera there or not – and accept the penalty, even when players unknowingly break them. It's already in the rule book under Decision 34-3/9: ''Testimony of those who are not a part of the competition, including spectators, must be accepted and evaluated. It is also appropriate to use television footage and the like to assist in resolving doubt.''

What's worse? Someone calling in a possible violation from the couch, or an official ignoring evidence of a violation?

Jaime Diaz in this week's Golf World says Tiger digging in even after the evidence was presented does not bode well:

That Woods disputed the visual evidence in the scoring trailer, to the point of admittedly getting "pretty hot," evoked the image of Michelle Wie's petulant and feeble self-defense at the 2010 Kia Classic, when she said she had grounded her club in the water to balance herself. It was a claim that video replay clearly refuted.

At the BMW, Woods had a chance on Saturday to wipe the slate clean by saying that he had been in error and accepted his penalty as proper. Instead, his unbending denial in the face of such strong evidence hurt his good name. Now there is potential to doubt that Woods will keep protecting the field above his own self-interest. It means all the respect he has earned is unofficially under reassessment.

Oh Do Tell: Woods, Finchem Meet For An Hour

GolfChannel.com Digital, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Digital, were visionairies in naming their first born, reports that Tiger Woods and Commissioner Tim Finchem met for over an hour Wednesday. An hour, for Tiger preparing to tee off the next day in a big event and listening to the Commish bellow on, is the equivalent of a 24 hour meeting for the rest of us.

Here's guessing they were not comparing notes on the G650 or working a Steve Sands-branded whiteboard over how to revamp the FedExCup points (again) or discussing how to televise all of Tiger's shots in SD to avoid future rules mishaps.

Digital speculates that it had to do with "call-in" violations based on Tiger's press conference remarks.

“There are certainly a lot more viewer call-ins,” Woods said. “I get it from the first time I step on the range on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all the way through, and virtually every shot is on something, and some of the top players are getting it. Most players don't get it until they're in the leader groups on Saturday or Sunday.”

Bob Harig zones in on Tiger's assertion that there needs to be a time-limit on call-ins, though what that has to do with any of the situations he was involved in is beyond me!

"There needs to be a time limit, and I think there needs to be a discussion obviously where is that time limit? Where is that line of demarcation? You've got to start with disqualification and then work our way back from there.