Tiger Skipping Quail Hollow & Its Troubled Greens

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Doug Ferguson surmises that Tiger's decision not to play the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow is a product of its week-closer-to-Augusta date.

However, photos making the rounds show troubled putting surfaces on a few holes recently rebuilt (again) by the Fazio family re-doing their previous work. And knowing Tiger's history of avoiding potentially suspect greens out of fear of messing up his stroke, it's not a surprise he is passing.

Alex Miceli has the lowdown on the Quail Hollow greens situation, which includes Tour player and member Johnson Wagner blaming the PGA Tour's agronomy staff of making things worse.

Wagner played at Quail Hollow two weeks ago during the Masters and putted on temporary greens at Nos. 8 and 10. Upon seeing the greens Monday, he said it was clear that the putting surfaces would be bumpier then usual, but the eighth and 10th greens were in trouble.

Wagner blamed the problems at No. 10 on extensive top-dressing by the Tour's agronomy staff, which oversees conditions at host courses in advance of tournaments. “It went from a perfectly sodded green three weeks ago, which I thought was unbelievable, to being dead,” Wagner said.

Pazder vehemently disagreed as to why the 10th green needed to be re-sodded. “There were a number of factors involved which contributed to the decline in the conditions of the 10th green,” said Pazder, without elaborating, "but over-top-dressing was not one of them.”

Vijay Survives Last Friday's Idea News Dump; More Fridays Loom

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A cynical friend pointed out--because I know nothing about cynicism--that last Friday was the ideal opportunity for a PGA Tour news dump on expected (or is it anticipated?) disciplinary action in the Vijay Singh deer antler case. What with the post Masters buzz, bombing coverage and other distractions, what better time to bury news of a Hall of Famer's situation?

Well there's always this Friday, as Jason Sobel asked PGA Tour SVP Ty Votaw for the latest news on Singh's case.

When asked Monday about whether a decision has been reached regarding Singh’s situation, Tour executive vice president of communications Ty Votaw simply said, “No.” When asked if there was a timeframe for such a decision, he similarly responded in the negative.

Guan Lands Zurich Classic Exemption; Monday Finish Contingency Plans In Place?

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Golfweek Staff has the details on 14-year-old Masters low amateur and sluggish golfer Tianlang Guan receiving a sponsor's invite into the 2013 Zurich Classic in New Orleans.

Guan, who was penalized for slow play on Friday of the Masters, received two bad times over the weekend as well. Thankfully for his sake, the PGA Tour has a moratorium on slow play penalties.

Martin Laird His Wins Way Into The Masters

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Dex McLuskey on the clutch performance of Martin Laird winning the Valero Texas Open to get into the Masters.

“I’ve been asked probably 30 times in the last couple of weeks, ‘Are you in Augusta?’” Laird said in a televised interview. “Every time I said ‘no’ it kind of hurt me a little bit. So that was my major motivation trying to get back into tournaments like that.”

Laird, a 30-year-old Scot, is the first non-American to win on the PGA Tour in 15 events this season. He began today five shots behind third-round leader Billy Horschel, who tied Jim Furyk and Charley Hoffman for third place at 11-under.

The PGA Tour highlight video:

Bay Hill Viral Video Update: Sergio Tops 3 Million

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Some of you know golf has been a tad slow to embrace The YouTube. The most glaring example is in Augusta, where clips of Bubba Watson and Louis Oosthuizen's epic shots from last year's Masters remain unfindable except in really bad bootleg form (here and here). Not surprisingly, the number of views are shockingly small.

So here's a follow up for the stakeholders, proud enforcers of rightsholders television contracts, who might still have doubts about YouTube and its ability to generate interest in the game, attention for players, and impressions for sponsors.

At Bay Hill last week we saw some amazing moments and a few of them went viral or semi viral. These aren't Gangham numbers, but you have to start somewhere. And I'm guessing Mastercard enjoyed having their brand noticed by over 3 million or so pairs of eyes. Just a guess.

Sergio climbs tree at Bay Hill to hit shot video; 3,003,132 views

Nicholas Thompson's barefoot water shot: 578,782 views

Even Matt Every's water hazard eagle is up to: 106,741 views