Tiger Showing Signs Of PR Savvy...

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Tim Rogers reports on the stunning news that Tiger Woods has committed to the WGC Bridgestone in August, maybe his earliest non-major commitment ever and the simplest but best public relations move he can make.

"This is the earliest Tiger has entered since I've been here," executive director Don Padgett III told the newspaper. "Last year he waited until the Thursday or Friday before, which is his right. But having him commit early is a plus."

Steiny Lands Another Ride To The Course; Expected To Sign Cantlay

Rex Hoggard with the news of UCLA's Patrick Cantlay turning pro and signing with agent Mark Steinberg who can now bum a ride off the young lad until January 25th, 2013.

Cantlay wasn't confirming after the round.

Despite Cantlay’s denial, sources say he plans to sign with Tiger Woods’ manager Mark Steinberg with Excel Sports Management. GolfChannel.com ask Steinberg about his relationship with Cantlay Sunday at Olympic and he declined to comment.

With dramatic changes to the PGA Tour’s Q-School and Nationwide Tour system looming it’s likely that many underclassman will bolt school early, but Cantlay’s longtime swing coach Jamie Mulligan warned that no decision has been made.

DJ Puts His Name In The U.S. Open Contender Hat; But Will His Length Work At O Club?

With a win Sunday at the Fed-Ex St. Jude Classic, recent major contender Dustin Johnson arrives at Olympic Club with a super shot to win. He adds himself to a nice, long list of contenders playing well (as John Strege writes).

Ryan Lavner notes in Golfweek's 5 Things on the day that Johnson sounds confident heading to the U.S. Open.

“I was confident coming into this week,” Johnson said. “I was hitting some good shots and chipping and putting pretty well. I just needed to get the ball in the fairway, because I was swinging my irons well and knew I’d have a lot of looks at birdie.”

Johnson fascinates me at Olympic because a case could be made that the course will take away the advantage he has with his driver, yet he's so long with his other clubs that even without pulling out the big stick, he may be okay. This is the interesting dilemma I wrote about for Golf World the U.S. Open preview, and Hale Irwin even mentions Johnson when talking about Olympic's 4th hole and his ability to shape a 3-wood or hybrid there compared to the challenge of trying to hit the same shot with driver.

Yet another fun storyline heading into an Open with more than its share. The highlights from Memphis:

Finchem: Cell Phone Policy Here To Stay

Michael Buteau tracked down Commissioner Finchem after he played in a Champions Tour pro-am.

Finchem still said the tour has no plans to abandon its policy of allowing fans to bring phones into tournaments. Guidelines limit the use of phones to designated areas and prohibit photos or videos being taken during play. At the Memorial, fans weren’t following the rules and marshals weren’t actively policing the crowd, the commissioner said today.

“We’re committed to making it work,” Finchem said in an interview while playing in a pro-am round at the Champions Tour’s Tradition event in Birmingham, Alabama. “If we get to a point where we don’t have an acceptable competitive environment, we’ll do whatever we need to do, but I don’t see that happening.”

Bad News, Memorial Contestants: You're Stuck With No. 16!

There isn't much to quibble with at Muirfield Village and the Memorial, one of the premier tournaments in the world and a model for sporting event operations. The magnificently conditioned course only adds to its allure, but if there was one quibble for this first time visitor to the Memorial, it's that, uh, well, peculiarly-designed 16th green as redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 2010 and debuted in 2011.

It just doesn't fit with the rest, nor does No. 16 come close to working from the angle in question, no matter what wind is blowing.

As I noted in a video earlier this week, the hole looks like a fun, enticing but still-scary from a distance approximately 40 yards shorter and 40 yards right of the current tees, though a total green redo would not be the worst thing to happen either.

But after this shot for the ages by Tiger Woods, I'm having a hard time seeing Mr. Nicklaus bulldozing his redo.

So sorry boys! You're stuck with it!

Check out this ShotLink scatter chart screen grab of the 16th green tee shots from round 4. The hole finished as the toughest for the week. It was virtually impossible to hit a shot close.

Mr. Nicklaus was asked about No. 16 after the round and a funny exchange broke out involving Tiger and Jon Brendle of the tour staff:

Q.  Jack, you redesigned 16 to put a little more excitement into the tournament.  How do you think that's worked out?

JACK NICKLAUS:  Well, today‑‑ we had wind all week.  The first day wasn't bad.  The pin was tucked in the first pin placement the first day.  But today, I don't think the field staff‑‑ I think the field staff got caught a little bit.  They were forecasting for a southwest wind, we had a northwest wind, and with the northwest wind that back pin placement from the back tee was really tough.  That wasn't what I had in mind to be very honest with you.  That green with a southwest wind funnels right down the green, meaning that if you're standing back there on the tee and you hit it, you're going to be buffeted slightly from the right and it should turn the ball.  The old green went this way, this green goes this way, so it should feed it to the green.

But when you've got a strong left to right, don't put the pin in the back left, please.  It just made it so the guys couldn't play it.  Not many guys did, they really just needed to put the ball in the middle of the green there if they could and then try to make a two‑putt.  But guys kept trying to force it back there and they kept going to the back of the green or going in the back bunker and it was tough.

TIGER WOODS:  Oh, really?

JACK NICKLAUS:  It was tough.  It was tough.  I'm glad I didn't have to play my own hole.
That's probably right, isn't it, Jon?

JON BRENDLE:  You guys were forecasting southwest.  I don't know.  We wanted to play it tough for you.

JACK NICKLAUS:  No, I don't want you to play it right for me.  I want you to play it right.

JON BRENDLE:  We knew it was going to be tough all day.

JACK NICKLAUS:  That's your call, not my call.  Jon and I talked during the week, we had five pin placements, you didn't use the back right.  You could've used back right today probably with the way the wind was.

JON BRENDLE:  I thought it was more fair back right.

JACK NICKLAUS:  Boy, you're mean.

TIGER WOODS:  I made 2.  (Laughter.)

JACK NICKLAUS:  Yeah, he made 2.  The little pin placement on the right he made 2, also.  You played that hole a couple under?

TIGER WOODS:  I did play it a couple under.

JACK NICKLAUS:  So what's so tough about it?  Isn't the hole supposed to separate you?

TIGER WOODS:  Here we go.

Video: Tiger's Incredible 16th Hole Chip-In, 2012 Memorial

Until the PGA Tour puts up a clean copy, a fan capture **8:33 ET Tiger's shot from the CBS telecast of the 2012 Memorial goes live on YouTube:

Update on 2012-06-03 23:21 by Geoff

**So where does this one rank with these shots?

Update on 2012-06-04 00:24 by Geoff

**Great stuff from Tiger and Jack after the round, talking about the shot on 16:

Q.  Mr.Nicklaus mentioned out on the green during closing ceremonies he's never seen a better shot than your chip‑in on 16.  Take us through that.

TIGER WOODS:  The shot was really difficult, but it wouldn't have been so bad if I had a good lie.  If the lie was decent, it would not have brought water into play.  That was the thing.  The lie was just a little bit marginal where it brought water into play.  That's one of the reasons why I took such a big cut at it is to try to under cut it enough so if I missed it I missed it short and if it had enough speed it wouldn't snag it and tug it long left, so obviously the hosel wouldn't have been snagged by the grass.

I went for it.  I pulled it off, and for it to land as soft as it did was kind of a surprise because it was baked out and it was also downhill running away from me.  It just fell in.  I didn't think it was going to get there at one point.  Kind of like 16 at Augusta, I thought I was going to leave it short somehow, and then it fell in.

Q.  Where does that rank amongst some of your best shots, whether it be the 16th at Augusta or maybe when you holed out at Hoylake, or I don't know where you would put that one.

TIGER WOODS:  It was one of the hardest ones I've pulled off.  I think probably the hardest pitch not too many people saw was the one in Japan in the World Cup to get into the playoff.  But obviously you guys never saw it.  (Laughter.)

That was a pretty sweet shot.

But this one was a good one.  As I said, it wouldn't have been so bad if the lie was better.  But as I said, the lie was sketchy enough where it brought water into play.

CHRIS REIMER:  Mr.Nicklaus, I know you congratulated Tiger out at closing ceremonies and you mentioned 16.  Some opening comments from you?

JACK NICKLAUS:  I think that‑‑ I just said out here a couple times, that under the circumstances, the circumstances being Tiger has been struggling, he found himself in a position in a tournament, and it was either fish or cut bait, he had one place to land the ball, he's playing a shot that if he leaves it short, he's going to leave himself again a very difficult shot, if he hits it long, he's going to probably lose the tournament.  He lands the ball exactly where it has to land.  It doesn't make a difference whether it went in the hole or not.  Going in the hole was a bonus.  But what a shot.  I don't think under the circumstances I've ever seen a better shot.