PGA Clippings, Thursday Edition

SI.com's John Garrity gives us some sites and sounds with his first post on his blog. If this link to the individual post doesn't work (it did not work when I tried), go to the main blog page and scroll down to the bottom post.

Doug Ferguson offers a general preview and says not much has changed from 1999 where the talk centers around the length of the course, a Ryder Cup flap and a resurgent Tiger Woods.

Peter Kessler talks to Brad Klein about Medinah on GolfweekTV.com. Klein gives Rees Jones a B- for his rees-toration.

Golfonline/golf.com featured what seemed like a good idea--a video tour of Medinah in the Snoopy I blimp--but I got tired of hitting the play button after it would pause on its own.  The visuals aren't too stunning. Lots of trees and tents. There is no direct link, just go to their homepage and hit the video link.

Oh, and if you do check out the video, is it me, or do the tents err, chalets, look like they could be in play on 18 for a bomber who loses it right?

Rich Lerner shares a bit of this and that, and picks on Golf Channel cohort Dave Pelz, who, in defending his claims of Phil Mickelson being better than Tiger when his game is on, said he is "data man."

Dave Pelz says he looks at data in making the determination that when he’s on, Phil’s the best in the world. Has he seen the data that reads, Tiger 11 majors, Phil three?

Ed Sherman blogs about his Chicago Tribune Pelz story and about having Kelly Tilghman question his credentials in an apparent attempt to help Pelz squirm out of his remarks. Brian Hewitt admirably came to Sherman's defense and reminded Tilghman that Sherman is a veteran reporter. And he has the interview on tape. 

Lawrence Donegan reports that a possible greenkeeper strike has been averted at the Ryder Cup.

Donegan also writes about Sergio Garcia's return to the infamous 16th hole tree, a much more dignified treatment than the Golf Channel's lame "interview" with the tree. 

This unbylined AP story has the Tour's Bob Combs not exactly disputing Joe Steranka's complaint about the 2008 Ryder Cup date immediately following the FedEx Cup "playoffs." Combs says it's NBC's fault.

PGA Tour spokesman Bob Combs attributed the timing to NBC Sports, which televises the final three tournaments of the FedEx Cup and the Ryder Cup. He said the tour was able to negotiate a one-week gap between the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup in five out of the six years, the exception being 2008.

"We agree there needs to be at least a week break," Combs said. "It really was an NBC television issue that could not be resolved. I believe everything is locked up from a television perspective."

Steranka was clearly annoyed, however, choosing his words carefully when he spoke of the goodwill between both organizations.

"That's not the spirit of the relationship," he said. "We don't agree on everything. But this is one thing they felt couldn't change, and we felt it needed to change."

PGA president Roger Warren said the '08 Ryder Cup was locked into Sept. 19-21 dates.

"We're concerned about the impact it might have on the players," he said.

Not to mention the psychological scars of having to play East Lake and Valhalla back to back. And isn't Bellerive in 08 too? Yikes.

Still, no one is sure how the FedEx Cup will unfold. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has said players likely will have to play the final four weeks to have any chance of winning the $10 million prize, although it's mathematically possible that Woods, Mickelson or another hot player could skip a week and still win the cup.

As much money as the players already make, some might even skip events to have their game ready for the Ryder Cup, which is on the same scale of a major championship.

Asked what he thought about the situation, U.S. captain Tom Lehman said "I want no part of this conversation."