"In less than 18 months trophies and memorabilia valued at nearly $1 million were stolen from three museums and a country club...by what the authorities say is probably the same male suspect."

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The NY Times' Joe Drape does a nice job piecing together the sad story of the worthless fleabag who has been stealing golf trophies of significance in the northeast United States over the last year. (Thanks to reader Tim for the link.)

We all know it started with the Somerset Hills and USGA heist of the U.S. Amateur trophy, but it seems this loser has branched out to include several other priceless artifacts, including "the 1903 Belmont Stakes trophy, a silver Fabergé soup tureen and ladle given by Czar Nicholas II of Russia to an American harness horse impresari."

“Whoever it is is experienced at what they do,” said John Catone, an assistant chief with the Saratoga Springs Police Department. “The question is, is it about having something of historic value or is it about melting down the gold?”

At the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, as in the previous thefts, Catone said, video surveillance shows that the thief worked quickly and confidently. He smashed two cases with about a half-dozen trophies in each. But he took only five in total. Three of them had significant amounts of gold: the 1903 Brighton Cup Trophy won by Hermis (35 ounces, 18-karat gold); the 1905 Saratoga Special Trophy won by Mohawk II (76 ounces, 18-karat gold); and the 1914 Brook Cup Handicap Steeplechase Trophy won by Compliment.

The Belmont Stakes Trophy captured by Africander and the 1923 Grand National Steeplechase Trophy won by Sergeant Murphy were silver.

“He obviously knew the place and knew what he was coming to get,” Catone said. “He was out in less than three minutes.”

With gold prices in the last year reaching as high as $1,700 an ounce and silver at $30, it does not take a horseplayer to calculate that the odds are pretty good that the trophies have been melted for their metals and a big score.

“I’ve never seen a significant secondary market for trophies,” Robert Wittman, a former senior investigator and founder of the F.B.I. Art Crime Team, who now has his own protection and recovery firm. “At the same time, they are not the best thing to steal for the melt. There’s a lot of garbage metal in there to get to what’s valuable.”

Uihlein Donates £10,000 To Help Scottish Golf Union Player

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Martin Dempster reports that the European Tour's Peter Uihlein, one of the hottest golfers on the planet right now heading into the Race To Dubai, has donated £10,000 to the Scottish Golf Union, "to specifically help with Bradley Neil’s playing expenses after being impressed by the Blairgowrie teenager during their four days together in last month’s Dunhill Links Championship."

Now I know your heart strings have been tugged at upon learning of this noble charitable act, but the question has been asked by the five people who still think there is such thing as amateur golf: how is that one can donate money to be used for a specific player and said player remains an amateur?

Dempster says the R&A is monitoring the situation but there is no evidence whatsoever of tampering.

“Bradley was a pleasure to partner and I was very impressed with his performance,” Uihlein, the Madeira Islands Open champion, told the Associated Press. “He has a great chance of achieving success in the game if he continues to work hard. I will be following his career and hope the donation can play some small part in helping him progress in the right direction.”

Privately, Neil is understood to be delighted – understandably so. Due to the Rules of Amateur Status preventing players in the non-paid ranks from promoting themselves or being linked with either individuals or companies assisting them in such a way as Uihlein, though, he is prohibited from commenting publically on the matter.

Doing so would be deemed as publicising a sponsor and, in this instance, the R&A is likely to be watching the situation closely due to Uihlein’s links with equipment manufacturer Titleist. His father, Wally, is the CEO of Acushnet, its parent company.

Hey, just like IMG thought Earl Woods was just that good at scouting young talent, I'm sure there's nothing here. Move along!

Lindsey (Kind Of) Regrets Putting Sammy On Tiger's Shoulder

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An Access Hollywood report quotes Lindsey Vonn about the Presidents Cup moment when she put Sammy the squirrel on Tiger's shoulder and how it didn't even scare her man. (Eat your heart out, Herb Wind, that you never typed a sentence like that!).

“It was bad timing on my part,” she said. “He was very concentrated, of course, on his shot and he was more annoyed than anything. But he thought it was really funny. I mean my whole goal was to try to scare him, clearly it did not work.”

She was also asked about Tiger's attendance in Sochi, home to the Winter Olympics in just 100 days.

“We’ll see. He doesn’t like the cold very much so,” she revealed.

Fits somewhat perfectly in his schedule. The first two weeks of the Sochi games are the AT&T National Pro-Am in Pebble Beach and the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, two almost guaranteed non-starts for Woods.

Then again, it's Sochi. Maybe we have just the thing to get Tiger to finally return to Riviera!

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: