16-Year-Old Lydia Ko Now An LPGA Member

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Hardly a shocker that LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan green lit Lydia Ko's petition to join the LPGA. Kind of hard to turn down the world number five player.

Beth Ann Baldry praises a move that paves the way for Ko to debut as a member in late November at the CME Group Titleholders. She also spoke to veteran Karen Stuples.

LPGA veteran Karen Stupples believes “you only get a certain shelf-life in this game” and was happy to see Ko turn pro.

“Make hay while the sun is shining,” said Stupples, echoing a sentiment Laura Davies made last February while playing New Zealand.

WSJ: Most Of China's Golfers Have Never Set Foot On A Course

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With Monday's "Match at Mission Hills" featuring Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, John Paul Newport looks at golf in China and shares some staggering numbers.

Of course, the numbers are estimates...

These days there are roughly 600 courses in China and possibly one million golfers: estimates vary. Townend puts the figure at 700,000 and guesses that half have only hit balls at practice ranges—of which there are several thousand—never on a course.

"The average annual salary in China is something like $2,100 and the average cost to play golf is around $150 a round," said Dan Washburn, an American journalist who lived for several years in China and wrote "The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream" due next spring. "Golf isn't even on the mind of the average Chinese person. It's perceived as a rich man's game, and that's true, more so in China probably than anywhere else in the world."

Speaking of rich guys, the Back Nine Network is streaming the match except in the U.S., citing PGA Tour rules forbidding anything hosted by Ahmad Rashad to be censored.

That's a shame since last year's match featured arguably the best TV moment of the year when Tiger openly admitted his struggles with Sean Foley's swing ideas and dropped some colorful language in describing how he was hitting his short irons.

It was as if they didn't know they were being recorded!

Golf.com has posted a slideshow of the Blackstone Course at Mission Hills where the event will be played.

Video: Simon Dyson DQ Incident At BMW Masters

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GolfCentralDaily has posted the video and they express sympathy for Simon Dyson after he tapped a mark of some kind in his line.

It's an obvious violation, one that tour players get around daily by pretending to fix a ball mark. So in that sense, yes, the rule is silly. But he still should not have done it. He was not available for comment after the round.

The video:

This Week In Golf Channel Ratings: Big Break NFL Beats FedExCup Action...Again

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Just like last week, the Big Break NFL beat out the start of the PGA Tour season where crucial FedExCup points are on the line until they fall victim of next summer's reset.

For the week of October 14-20, the Not Justin Timberlake in Las Vegas was beaten in the battle of the .1's, but at least the Vegas stop crossed the 200,000 mark in viewers, a barrier the PGA Tour season-opening Frys.com Open was unable to break.

Also note the healthy ratings for the Long Drive Championship, which beat Thursday's PGA Tour coverage and Sunday's conclusion of the European Tour event.

Son of the Bronx posts the numbers.

Jaime Diaz's State Of Tiger Woods, 2013

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The Golf World editor and Golf Digest contributor's annual Golf Digest look at Tiger Woods has not included quotes from Tiger his ownself in some time, but an all-star cast weighs in on all things Woods and his pursuit of history.

A few of the items that stood out for me, starting with this on dings:

The specter of injury also diminishes Woods' chances. The frequency of his "dings" went up in 2013 compared to 2012, the most consequential being the left-elbow pain he said began at the Players Championship and bothered him at the Memorial and the U.S. Open. At the Barclays, he announced early in the week that he woke with a stiff back from a soft mattress; by Sunday, spasms literally brought him to his knees. His surgically repaired left knee held up, but it will always be a worry.

Tiger's always been prone to dings, but you do wonder if he's giving new thought to his strength regimin as he nears the big 4-0 so that he can recover better?

In my viewing of his rounds this year, distance was an issue more than accuracy. For him it's as much of a mental boost as a strategic aid in overpowering a course. Once able to call on a huge drive when he needed to, Tiger is average off the tee in today's game.

Woods' weakest club continues to be the driver. He has gotten statistically straighter off the tee (though he hits proportionally more 3-woods and 5-woods than ever), but he has dropped from the first rank of the game's power players, almost certainly for good. As of early September, his measured clubhead speed of 118.68 miles per hour ranked 26th on the PGA Tour, his ball speed 24th. He was 32nd in going for reachable holes, and 56th in driving distance (292.7 yards).

As for his attitude, I don't get Paul Azinger's comment below since Tiger's always exuded something other than intense calmness, often to the chagrin of observers.

"I no longer see in Tiger that intense calmness you sense in a confident man," says Paul Azinger. "When you act edgy and irritable, you're exposing your lack of confidence. For a long time he seemed to be the most disciplined golfer in the world, and that was a big part of his intimidation."

Hasn't he always had days where he's edgy and irritable on the course? Isn't that just his way?