PGA Clippings, Saturday Edition

Just a brief weather update from here in the Home of the Homeless, which won't host another PGA in our lifetimes after the '95 debacle: 74 today after morning low clouds, 10-15 mph afternoon sea breezes. Forecasters expect it to heat up Saturday and Sunday, with the highs pushing 75 both days. Oh, and no rain since May. 

Here are your Saturday tee times, assuming they start on time with overnight rains and thunderstorms in the forecast.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but PGA.com has Saturday's hole locations already posted. 13 of the hole locations are 5 or fewer paces from the edge, 12 of those are 4 or less from the edge. It'll be interesting to see if they stick with that after the overnight rain.

You can view the course stats here, though there isn't much to study. 13 and 16 are playing the toughest. The "cost of rough" stat is not posted.
 
Lawrence Donegan covers the European perspective, with Stenson and Donald providing hope for the beleagured continent. John Huggan has a nice profile on Stenson in the September Golf Digest, but it's not posted online.

Tim Dahlberg pretty much trashes Davis Love in an AP column.

Davis Love III has always felt like he has more at stake in golf than most of his fellow competitors. They merely play the game. He protects it. When a fan yells instead of politely clapping, Love is there to make sure he's removed. If a photographer clicks a shutter at the wrong moment, he's on top of it.

And don't let a writer ask a question that might impugn the integrity of the game, as one tried to do Friday when he dared ask Love what he thought about Greg Norman calling for players to be tested for drugs.

"I don't want to answer anything Greg says," Love said, walking off in a huff.

No wonder Love is having so much trouble making the Ryder Cup team.

He's too busy making sure everyone behaves--and believes--the way he wants them to.

"I think I stand up for the things that Tom Kite or Ben Crenshaw or Byron Nelson stand up for, and sometimes that gets you in trouble," Love said. "I stand up for the things that my mom taught me and what I learned since I was a little kid in Sunday school, and sometimes people don't like that these days."

Either way, Love was so free of outside worries that he managed to do something he's rarely done recently _ get himself in contention for a weekend that matters as much to him as making sure everyone takes off their hat to shake hands after a round.

And it doesn't get any nicer from there.

Finally, Larry Stewart of the L.A. Times had nothing to write about this week, so he covered the CBS conference call where Jim Nantz made these interesting remarks:

What Woods has wrought, Nance said, is "the golden age of golf. There's never been a better time. I know Jack [Nicklaus] and Arnie [Palmer] probably would cringe if they heard me say this, or Byron [Nelson] and Ben [Hogan] and Sam Snead would say, 'Wait a minute, what about our time?' But I believe right now, today, is the best time the game has ever been in….

"Golf has a place in pop culture today like it never has in the past."

Yes, and so does Big Brother 5. Which, by the way airs Tuesday at...