AP Els Story

There's an AP story appearing all over the place announcing that Ernie Els "will skip the first two PGA Tour events in the United States next year to rest his knee and stay fresher for the majors."

He had to have won a tournament to be eligible for the first of the two that he's chosen to skip. I know, quibbling again. Anyway...

"The South African will not play in the United States until the Nissan Open in California in mid-February, and he will only be there for 10 weeks until after the Masters in April."

Hey, at least someone knows the 2006 PGA Tour schedule! So we can pencil the Nissan in for mid-February?

Anyway, the main point here is that this is all from John Huggan's reporting in The Guardian (Sept. 17), which was posted here a few days ago. The AP story does not mention Huggan or The Guardian.

Now I know he wasn't reporting the content of the Pentagon Papers or the names Hugh Sloan mentioned to the grand jury investigating Watergate, but Huggan did have an exclusive that should have been acknowledged by AP. Maybe this looser standard is part of AP's attempts to pander to a new audience, though I thought such shenanigans would be left to its forthcoming asap service (which you can bet the 18-34 year old obsessed PGA Tour will be pandering to in no time).