"Finding an emotional balance will be more difficult than finding the first fairway."

Craig Dolch files a very nice column about the emotional mixed-bag that Phil Mickelson faces this week and compares. Uh, editors, did we really need this tagline at the end of the column?

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.

Look, we all understand that Craig's a subversive rebel looking to undermine the integrity of the PGA Tour and most weeks you need a disclaimer to distance yourselves from his radical views. But on this column? On this topic? Really? Let's give it a week off, eh?

Autograph Seeker Disguised As Golf Writer Goes Unnoticed

Alex Miceli reports the first of two blows for the golf writing cause (not to mention a less humorous security breakdown). The first involves an autograph seeker slipping into Tiger's press conference and after hearing one too many banal questions, finally blurted out his request.

“Jack’s going to hate me for this. (Interloper stands up) Tiger, congratulations for winning the Memorial. I’m a normal person that snuck in here with a patron badge. I was just wondering if I could get an autograph.”

Nicklaus apparently intervened and got the man Tiger's autograph before they carted him off.

The Rally Killer of all Rally Killers? Or does this make him a Point Misser?

While the above exchange is not in the transcript, this low blow was:

Q. Tiger, not to be fishing, but wonder if I could maybe get personal on the issue of do you actually read anything that we write or watch anything that guys say on TV, or is it secondhand information?

TIGER WOODS: It's more TV.

Sergio Roasted, Toasted By Internet Sports Writer Of The Year

"In the face of some tough questioning" Sergio Garcia endures a withering cross examine from the Internet Sports Writer of the Year, who also close-talked and ordered the former World No. 2 to read putts pose for a lame photo during a round at Turnberry. Refreshing to see Britain's top tabloid pursuing the questions we've all been wanting answered: What's wrong with your puttin...oh, wait, sorry.

So on Monday he was prepared for bad weather. What he was not prepared for were questions about his relationship with Morgan-Leigh Norman, the daughter of Greg, a relationship that had ended in March. Yet when confronted with the unexpected, Garcia did not flinch. He spoke truthfully and honestly. He did not ask for the conversation to go off the record or say that he did not want to talk about it ask for the tape recorder to be turned off. In fact, at one point he was given the opportunity to end the interview and play the last hole but declined, saying instead, "I don't want to play. I'm talking."

I'm weeping. The courage! The focus!

The interview, which took place between the 14th and 18th holes of the Ailsa course on Monday afternoon and was tape recorded, began with his memories of the 1996 Amateur. It soon moved to his current poor form and he explained that the break-up of his relationship with Morgan-Leigh was the reason for that and he went on to speak about it. An article about this appeared in The Times on Wednesday, May 27, headlined "It was being dumped by my girl that drove me into the rough, Sergio Garcia reveals." In the story Garcia said: "It was probably the first time I have been really in love. It took me a while to get over it.

Well at least the original story was given proper attribution. You don't often see that in a tabloid like The Times!

"Wie: I can still win men’s event"

I noticed that headline at Golfweek.com on a Tom Canavan story, but I can't find where Michelle Wie actually talked about winning a men's event.

From her Sybase Classic transcript where she answers questions about playing in men's events.

Q. I believe you've talked in the past about someday competing in the Masters. Is that still part of your vision for the future, and if so, do you see a realistic scenario of attaining that goal?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure that's definitely one of my goals that I started out with, and I still have it.

Q. Is playing in men's tournaments also a part of your goals at this point, and how realistic do you think that is?

MICHELLE WIE: You know, I think that's definitely a part of my goals. You know, like I always say, dream high and stuff, set your goals up high, and I think it's definitely -- I'm not saying it's an easy goal to achieve. I'm not going to be like, oh, I'm going to go out and win a men's event, it's not like that, but it's one of those long-term goals where I see myself getting to. I see myself getting there, and it's one of those goals that really motivates me and pushes me to be a stronger player, a better player.

R.I.P. Bud Shrake

Bill Fields remembers the writing legend, best known in golf as co-author of Harvey Penick's Little Red Book.

Q&A With Dan Jenkins, Vol. 2

Today marks the release of Jenkins At The Majors, a collection of Dan's best write-ups from those four events not called The Players. You may recall that Jenkins answered questions last year upon the release of The Franchise Babe, and he kindly talks to us about his second golf anthology. The book includes an Introduction to the essays and a commentary on golf journalism, along with an Epilogue where Dan lists his "all-time golf team, driver through the putter and the interview room."

GS: So you've got a new book out of your major championship essays. Is this all of them or a selection of favorites as picked out by you or some really bright book editor?

DJ: My original title of the new book was "Deadline at the Majors." I still like this better than "Jenkins at the Majors." Nevertheless...I chose 94 pieces from newspapers and magazines as being representative of the 198 majors I've covered since 1951. From Hogan to Tiger, as it happens, or from the Fort Worth Press to Golf Digest, with the Dallas Times Herald and Sports Illustrated in between.

All of the pieces had to be shortened, of course, and some of them I've tweaked, and there is a bit of fresh material included, but basically it's stuff I wrote on deadline. I hope it presents a pretty good picture of pro golf as it unfolded before my very eyes over nearly 60 years.


GS: Some writers would rather go see a Celine Dion concert than revisit their past rants. How do you handle reading your old stuff?

DJ: I don't enjoy looking back at my old stuff, other than to enjoy the historical value of it. Sometimes I'm amazed at how less than regurgitating it was, and quite often I'm left to wonder who that stranger was that sneaked into my office and wrote that embarrassing tirade.


GS: The Players Championship is this week. You lived down there for a while. Do you miss Ponte Vedra much?

DJ: I enjoyed my time in Ponte Vedra---it got me back on the golf course after all those years in Manhattan when the major sports were smoking, drinking, typing and hanging out. But it was finally time to go home to Texas. You CAN go home again and be happy. I'm living proof. I haven't been back to Ponte Vedra in 10 years. I'm sure it's changed a lot in some respects but stayed the same in others.


GS: The U.S. Open returns to Bethpage and close to another place you used to live. Are you hanging out in the city for old time's sake or staying out on boring old Long Island?

DJ: The Bethpage Open will be my 200th major and I'll be at the press hotel again in a part of Long Island I never knew existed, an hour from the course or anywhere to eat.


GS: Any deep thoughts heading into Bethpage?

DJ: I'm not a big fan of the course. There's no hole you want to take away with you, which is true of most places other than Pine Valley, Cypress Point, or Augusta National. There's a terrible sameness to Bethpage, but it plays tough, and the old-fashioned round greens look like unidentified flying objects have landed there.


GS: Seen any good movies or read any good books lately?

DJ: Good movies are harder and harder to find. But plenty of good books are out there if you like some of my favorite authors---Daniel Silva, Michael Connelly, James W. Hall, Alan Furst, and John Sandford, to name a few.


GS: Interspersed throughout your literature has been the line about "nothing that a good old depression wouldn't fix." Well we could be there. Is it at least righting some of the wrongs?

DJ: Yeah, I used to say a good old Depression could fix a lot of things---meaning greed. But it hasn't fixed the PGA Tour yet. I do love the game, but what has prompted that statement is purely my own frustration with the fact that I can work two years on a book, and some guy I've never heard of, who didn't graduate from college, and never went to class when he was IN college, and doesn't know how to do anything but hit a golf ball, can make more money in one week than my book will by finishing 5th in a regular tournament I don't give a shit about , and it's not even achieving anything. It's not WINNING or even accomplishing anything.

There's something wrong with that picture. It's why in my declining years I have arrived at the point where I don't give a damn about anything but the four majors and the Ryder Cup. They are important. The regular tour sucks.

I should mention that the regular tour didn't used to suck. It used to be quite glamorous, when the LA Open was always first, when the Crosby was the Crosby, when the players wore snappy clothes and movie stars hung around them, when the Florida swing had its own charm, same for Texas, and so on. But mainly when every winner was SOMEBODY.

I live in the past. It was a better world.

"Because Luis was unknown to the green jackets and mostly speaking Spanish he was able to blend in."

Alan Shipnuck's outstanding reporting of Angel Cabrera's heartburn-inducing post-Masters celebration prompted a reader to wonder if it was actually original reporting upon reading a column last week where the same anecdotal evidence was regurgitated nearly verbatim (without any mention or credit given to Shipnuck's SI story).

So I emailed Shipnuck to see if his piece was the original source. It turns out there's a great story behind the reporting process that speaks to the value of big-budget media operations:

When I went to Cordoba two years ago I was accompanied by SI writer-reporter Luis Fernando Llosa. Luis bonded with Cabrera-as much as anyone can with a prickly, standoffish character who has no use for the media--and he has maintained the relationship, doing a Q/A with Cabrera last year for Golf Magazine and hanging out with him a bit more while reporting a subsequent Andres Romero feature.

Following the third round of this year's Masters I had a strong feeling that Cabrera was going to win so I called Luis in New York to see if he would jet into Augusta to help me out. (Luis was let go by SI last year as part of the grim staff downsizing and has been freelancing ever since.) Luis eagerly agreed, catching a flight the next morning. He had never been to the Masters - he arrived around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, and I walked him through the post-round choreography should Cabrera win, showing Luis the back door to Butler Cabin, where the champion's dinner is held, etc.

Luis walked all 18 holes with Cabrera, hanging out with his Spanish-speaking entourage, many of whom we had met in Argentina. After Cabrera's victory Luis just floated along with Angel's crew, partying in the Butler Cabin after the jacket ceremonies, sitting at Cabrera's table for the champion's dinner with the Augusta National membership and then retiring to Angel's where he partied til 3 a.m.. (With Luis on the Cabrera beat I was freed up to trail Tiger and Phil and their people and then spend some time with K. Perry and his family after the crushing finale.) Throughout all of the post-round festivities Luis was texting me updates of what was happening, and I was responding with requests for specific details and offering potential questions for the champ. Without a doubt Luis was the only reporter in the Butler Cabin and at Angel's after-party. I am 99.8% sure no other scribe managed to crash the champion's dinner. As a rule, reporters are not allowed in there - two years ago I walked in with Zach Johnson and lasted through the toast until I was recognized by a Masters official and tossed out. Because Luis was unknown to the green jackets and mostly speaking Spanish he was able to blend in.