'16 Euro Ryder Cup Captaincy Decision Almost Here, Mercifully

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A Reuters report says the 18th of February will be the day either Darren Clarke or Miguel Angel Jimenez get the buggy keys and while most think it's Clarke's job, the late run of Jimenez should give the gathering committee pause. Or they just like seeing his name out there to bring Clarke back to earth.

Jimenez is too busy leading another European Tour event, this time in Malaysia through 36.

And the 51-year-old can still dance:
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Tiger’s Skull Mask Doesn’t Make The Trip To Beaver Creek

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As telegraphed in his mysterious statement, Tiger Woods spent more time with loved ones instead of working on his game Thursday. That entailed flying to Beaver Creek, Colorado to support girlfriend Lindsey Vonn on the slopes.

The good news? No videographers bumped into his teeth, keeping their record of contact spotless for 2015. But this meant no need for the dreaded skull mask he wore in Italy to hide the felled fang.

A Daily Mail story reports on Tiger's appearance, various rumors and images.

On a more serious note, thanks to readers who sent in Dave Merrill and Douglas Lavanture's four graphs posted for Bloomberg suggesting Tiger's chances of future success are looking more and more bleak (at least statistically).

And while most publications are taking Woods at his word that he's taking a break until this game is ready, golf.com's Eamon Lynch sees this as a leave of absence. Quite possibly a permanent one.

A decade ago, Jack Nicklaus birdied the last hole of his career at the British Open in St. Andrews, a sentimental moment that obscured the fact that Nicklaus had notched only two top 10s in majors in the previous 18 years. But at least Jack signed off with a birdie on golf’s greatest stage. Ben Hogan hobbled off the course after a front nine 44 in the 1971 Houston Open. “Don’t ever get old, boys,” he told his playing partners as he faded away.

If the leave of absence that Tiger Woods announced on Wednesday represents the end -- we are past being able to shade it as merely the beginning of a distant end -- then the indignities that golf has foisted upon him of late have been especially harsh.

Steiny: Tiger Wants "To Play Right Now" & "Chomping At The Bit"

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You almost have to feel sorry for agent Mark Steinberg and Tiger's team as they watch the drama unfold and undoubtedly wake up wondering what is next. Almost.

Talking to GolfChannel.com's Rex Hoggard, see if you can read this part without at letting out a chuckle.

As to when Woods, who has played just nine events in the last year and a half, may return, Steinberg wouldn’t speculate, saying only that Woods plans to start working on his game on Monday in south Florida.

“He wants to play right now, to be honest with you,” Steinberg said. “He’s chomping at the bit. Honestly, he competes to compete at the absolute highest level. Clearly these last two events weren’t up to that. When that swing gets grooved he’ll be ready to go.”

Let's ignore the obvious: that playing golf is sheer misery for Tiger right now, and just stick to the practical.

If Woods wants to play "right now," the Northern Trust Open is still available as an option.

And when he gets that swing grooved? He still has that wedge game. The putter isn't thrilling either, but he did make some nice 8-footers at Torrey Pines at least.

Steinberg also told ESPN.com's Bob Harig about the relief the Woods camp felt when the physios inspected the patient "over the weekend" and found the glute deactivation was not related to the sacrum popping issues of last year. Oh yeah, you'd forgotten his sacrum popped and had to be put back into place.

Steinberg said there was "relief'' in the Woods camp when it was revealed that the latest back trouble was not related to surgery he had in March of last year. "He got treatment immediately and over the weekend when he got home, and it alleviated the discomfort quite a bit,'' said Steinberg, who also added Woods has been able to do some light chipping and putting.

Woods left open the possibility that he would play the Honda Classic in two weeks, but that would appear a bit premature. Steinberg suggested Woods would get back to work in earnest next week, which means he'd have five days to find his game before entering? Seems unlikely.

Golf Channel Prez On Ratings, More College Golf & Protracer

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Golfweek's Martin Kaufman sits Golf Channel President Mike McCarley down for a three-part interview as part of the channel's 20th anniversary celebration. Part one is here, part two and part three.

Most interesting were his comments on ratings and Tiger in 2014.

GWK:Tiger Woods has been the big ratings driver. How do you feel about golf as we’re beginning to approach the post-Tiger era.

McCarley: This year was a great example. Tiger was out for basically his entire season, and for Golf Channel, the rating for the year was exactly the same as it was last year, which was the best year in the history of the network. That’s a testament to a lot of things. There’s a lot of programming and production changes and improvements that have been made that are reflected in those numbers. And two, there are a lot of things in the game that are working well. The LPGA had a terrific year. There are things like the Drive, Chip & Putt, which was new. The NCAA Championships were back on TV. The “Arnie” documentary (aired).

We had the highest-rated April in the history of the network, and there was no Tiger in April at all.

McCarley explains the channel's interest in college golf after years of not showing much:

One area where we’ll focus more because it’s an important piece of the fabric of the game is youth. So what we did this year with the NCAA (Championships) got a lot of people’s attentions, we saw a really nice lift in ratings, but more importantly we introduced the stars of the professional tours to the audience at a younger age. And hopefully that will start to make those kids more recognizable, so they . . . arrive on the professional scene with more cachet. I think college golf has been an overlooked and under-covered part of the game, and a lot of that is on us. We’re diving in and the response we’ve gotten from both the college golf community, the professional tours and the industry as a whole has been really positive.

The other topic of interest for those who (like me) want more Protracer will get it in 2015.

I think Protracer has been terrific, and we’re going to have Protracer at nearly 40 events this year – not only using it in tournament coverage but in our news coverage. One of the most interesting news shows we had (in 2014) was one of the pregame shows from Doral when Tiger was on the range and we had Protracer, and you were seeing the ball go left and right, and really didn’t know what was going on with this guy. Later that day, he had to get out of the event because of his back. There’s something weirdly mesmerizing about watching the path of the ball flight, especially when the players are on the range and are working on things. And there will be more things like that.

Robert Allenby’s Credit Card Thief Nabbed; His Kidnappers To Remain At Large In Perpetuity

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Honolulu strip club regulars and tourists walking of the Amuse Wine Bar can breathe a big sigh as police have caught the man who took Robert Allenby's credit cards while the Australian PGA Tour golfer lay passed out after hitting his head on a rock.

Though Allenby concocted for multiple television interviews a story of kidnapping and ditch dumps and what sounded like offspring of the Manson family beating him up for national television, the Honolulu Police Department spokesman tells the Herald Sun's Aleks Devic that the media exposing the contradictions made their job more difficult.

A Honolulu PD spokesman said Allenby’s version of events as “very consistent” throughout and criticised media coverage of the incident, which he said had made the police’s investigation more difficult.

When asked if police believed the suspect had obtained the cards from a passed out Allenby, the police spokesman said: “We’re not speculating as to how he got it. We know he had it and he used it.”

New R&A Chief Makes Growing The Game His Focus; Could Start By Helping Out The Pete Cowen's Of The World

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Alistair Tait reports that incoming R&A Chief Martin Slumbers, who takes over this fall for Peter Dawson, is already beating the grow the game drum.

Don't worry, he'll learn soon enough. In the meantime...

“I think we have to get back to grassroots. We have to find something that appeals to different generations. I think the answer for under 15- to 20-year-olds is going to be different than the answer for 30- to 40-year-olds is going to be different than the answer for 50- to 60-year-olds.

“Absolutely I think the R&A can help. What we want to make sure is we help the unions, help the PGA, do everything we can, use the benefits of the commercial success of the Open and really work to go, over a number of years, find a series of solutions that get people wanting to play this game."

Mr. Slumbers need not look far: The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson opens his weekly column with a look at the struggles of noted instructor and all-around nice guy Pete Cowen, who has developed many top golfing talents.

Cowen's Rotherham-based academy hosts all kinds of aspiring players, from disabled children to elite amateurs, but has been broken into recently and faces funding issues.

Picture a British tennis coach so good he pulled off the equivalent of tutoring the top three the last time The Open was staged at St Andrews. This is a man whose teaching skills are so respected 11 of the 12 players who contributed to Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Gleneagles last year were coached or asked for his help at some point. The untold largesse the Lawn Tennis Association would lavish in his direction.

In golf? ‘I’ve been in touch with the various bodies but when you ask for help it falls on deaf ears, unfortunately,’ says Cowen. ‘I’m not looking for any massive handouts. I don’t think you produce great sportsmen and women that way. But we do need a helping hand.

‘My fear is golf is dying at grassroots level. If places like mine are forced to close, what hope is there?’

Sounds like a perfect place for the R&A to spend its new Sky money!

Oh and on that topic, it seems Slumbers' predecessor and mentor for the next six months, Chief Inspector Peter Dawson, has been hearing from his constituents about leaving the BBC for Sky.

In a roundtable with reporters, Dawson suggested the BBC did not even make a final offer (or cynics might suggest the Beeb saw where things were headed and didn't want to help drive up the price).

James Corrigan reports on this and the hate-mail received by Dawson.

“We have had plenty of hate mail, mostly from people who clearly haven’t read our rules regarding etiquette judging by the intemperate language they contained,” Dawson said here at the R&A clubhouse.

“It is a natural reaction for people to be upset, but when you analyse the two bids we received, they shouldn’t be. If they could see what those bids involved, everyone would have made the same decision that we reached.”

Everyone! He will be missed.

Ewan Murray of The Guardian noted Dawson's stance that moving from BBC to Sky would not in any way matter with regards to the state of the game, and sadly, Dawson probably is right. Though I can picture some serious jaw-clenching as he says this...

“I think it is actually borderline absurd at this stage to suggest that, given where we are at in golf and broadcasting, four days of the Open is going to make a dramatic difference in participation in itself,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the case, frankly."

But as The Scotsman's Martin Dempster writes, Dawson also contradicted himself in defending the BBC's decision.

He was asked if the BBC had lost interest in golf due to the game losing some of its appeal, a fact backed up by a drop in both participation and membership numbers. “I think it’s certainly something that crosses one’s mind from time to time. I think BBC, as anyone does, has to make choices as to their priorities,” replied Dawson. “I think it’s down to the economics of it all and the commercial pressures that free-to-air TV is under.”

Lawrenson, in his column also took on the R&A's stance after surveying golfers.

Rarely in 30 years writing about golf can I recall an announcement provoking the depth of anger that has followed the Royal and Ancient Golf Club’s decision to take live coverage of The Open away from the BBC.

Indeed, you’d probably have more luck finding business CEOs who support Ed Miliband than golfers who think our leaders have got this one right. I’ve had emails from readers asking me to organise petitions, even a boycott of this year’s Open at St Andrews.

At my local club on Saturday, the verdict was unanimous. ‘Even my friends who are R&A members think it’s a dreadful decision,’ said one influential member, who really would know plenty of R&A types.

Meanwhile, as Brian Keogh notes based on a radio interview Peter Alliss gave today, this year's Open may be the last for the announcing great.