Golf Capsules: Woods battles Cowboys' Romo, wants to be "greedy host" at Congressional

BETHESDA, Md. - It's not often that a player is bold enough to challenge Tiger Woods on the golf course. Rarer still is when it happens during a pro-am round from one of his amateur partners.

"That still puts me 1 up," Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said to him Wednesday morning.

"Does it, now?" Woods replied, not sounding the least bit concerned.

The world's No. 1 player then smoked a fairway metal down the 17th at Congressional Country Club. Romo, a scratch player who asked to play from the championship tees, followed with a 3-wood that traveled about a yard farther.

On the par-3 second, Romo appeared to have the edge when Woods bladed a bunker shot over the green and into the gallery. He didn't finish out the hole, and when Romo three-putted from the fringe, the quarterback said, "You wouldn't have made 4 from there."

They didn't mention the stakes or how many shots Woods gave Romo - if any - although it had a familiar conclusion.

"He contributed to my spending fund, which is nice," Woods said later on his Web site.

The bold move by Woods was playing with the Cowboys' quarterback in Washington Redskins country, and while it attracted a large gallery for the 6:30 a.m. tee time, the cheers and jeers were relatively tame.

"How about an autograph?" one fan said to Romo. "I've got a Tony Romo jersey on and I've already been in three fights."

Romo kept walking.

"Jason Campbell signed it," the fan called to him.

Campbell, the Redskins quarterback, played in another pro-am group, while Woods and Romo were joined by House Minority Leader John Boehner, who spent most of his day picking up his ball before he reached the green.

There was plenty of star power at Congressional, even during the opening ceremony when Jessica Simpson sang the national anthem.

When the AT&T National gets under way Thursday, the biggest star will be the tournament host.

Woods missed his own tournament last year, which was played a week after he had season-ending knee surgery. He had to watch from his couch as Anthony Kim closed with a bogey-free 65 for a two-shot victory.

"I thought he was here last year," Kim said. "His name was all over the place."

It is everywhere but the trophy.

One obscure piece of trivia that could come out of this tournament is a chance for Woods to match Jack Nicklaus by winning his tournament on the second try. Nicklaus won the Memorial in 1977, the second year of the tournament.

The only Nicklaus record that matters to Woods is 18 professional majors, and that's on his mind, too.

Woods is playing for the first time since he failed to defend his title in the U.S. Open at Bethpage, largely due to his putting. Next up is the British Open in two weeks at Turnberry, a links course he has only seen on television.

For now, he is intent on being a "greedy host."

He wants the 120-man field at Congressional to have a great week, as long as he goes home with the trophy.

"I always put in as much as I possibly can to win an event," he said. "It is fun winning your own event."

He has won the Chevron World Challenge, his charity tournament in California, four times. Woods also is going for a hat trick of sorts by trying to win three tournaments in one year hosted by PGA Tour players, having previously won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the Memorial, which Nicklaus runs.

Strangely enough, both those tournaments were his final events before a major.

And the majors haven't worked out for him so far this year.

In both majors he tied for sixth, four shots out of the lead. He hit the ball poorly at the Masters, but knew Augusta National well enough and made enough putts to at least give himself an outside chance Sunday. He hit the ball beautifully at Bethpage Black, only to fail miserably on the greens.

"Just like all major championships, you have to have all the pieces going," Woods said. "You have to hit the ball well, chip well, putt well, think well. And that's the whole idea of majors. Every single facet of your game is tested. And it just didn't work out.

"Looking forward to the next two."

Preparations for Turnberry really won't start until he arrives, although he can start by making sure his game is sound on a Congressional course that will host the U.S. Open in 2011.

The field features U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh from the top 10 in the world ranking.

"It's a place that I would always put on my schedule because I think the world of the golf course," Furyk said. "I've played very well here the last couple years, so I've got some good memories."

Finchem: PGA Tour clean on 1-year anniversary

BETHESDA, Md. - PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was the first to be tested for drugs under its anti-doping policy that began last year at the AT&T National. Tim Clark was the first player to be tested.

One year and more than a thousand random samples later, Finchem says the tour remains clean.

"There have been no suspensions because of doping," Finchem said Wednesday. "It's not going to surprise me if we have some issue, but I think what's clear is we do not have a doping problem. Having an issue or two as we go forward does not mean we're having a problem. It could mean a lot of things. But - knock on wood - we're very pleased at this point in time."

Under the anti-doping policy, the tour is required to notify the media if a player tests positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

Finchem declined to say, however, if anyone has tested positive for a recreational drug, such as marijuana.

While such drugs are covered under the policy, the tour treats that as "conduct unbecoming a professional" and would not make any positive tests public.

"I said we have had not positive tests with respect to performance enhancing," he said. "We may have had some test results that trouble us in other areas that we treat in a different bucket. But we don't publicize those.

"We may in those instances - I'm not saying this has happened or not, I'm just saying what the process is - consider it conduct unbecoming, and what are our choices? We can suspend a player, we can fine a player, we can do both of those and put a player into treatment. We could also add to that regular treatment."

He asked to confirm if anyone has tested positive for recreational drugs.

"I wouldn't say 'yes' or 'no' to that," he said. "I'll say this - we don't have a problem in that area."

Finchem said the International Olympic Committee observed the tour's drug-testing procedures earlier this year and was impressed. And while he says golf remains clean on the one-year anniversary of testing, he would not be surprised if that changed.

"I think when you're dealing with hundreds of athletes, and things can get into your body, we may very well have problems," Finchem said. "But at this point, not only do the players accept the rule, they put it on the same level as any other rule of golf. They work hard to understand what they need to be doing. They stay updated, and we've avoided problems."

CONGRESSIONAL HIATUS

Most players have found Congressional to be in the best shape in the three years of the AT&T National, especially the greens. Just in time for the greens to be rebuilt for the U.S. Open in 2011.

Tournament host Tiger Woods will take the tournament to Aronomink outside Philadelphia for the next two years, as new greens are being installed and the U.S. Open is held. It will return through 2014, with an option for three more years.

"It's unfortunate, with the U.S. Open coming here. We have no choice," Woods said. "We have to go, and it's part of what the USGA makes you do. I think the golf course can be in even better shape with the new greens."

Jim Furyk tied for fifth at Congressional in the 1997 U.S. Open, six shots behind Ernie Els. The course has been renovated since then and no longer closes with a par 3 over the water on the 18th.

Furyk already has noticed more changes, such as extended tee boxes. He's mostly concerned about the greens, however.

"The one thing you have here from a U.S. Open standpoint is that it's very difficult to make the greens here too quick," he said. "If you get them up there at 12, 13 (on the Stimpmeter), you really lose a lot of your pin placements, and you lose your ability to make the golf course playable."

GROOVES AND ROUGH

The PGA Tour is moving ahead with a USGA rule on smaller grooves next year, and commissioner Tim Finchem says there might be changes to how a golf course is set up - but not right away.

Finchem says the rough has not been as high this year at several golf courses, main to compare the effect with previous years.

"The reason we did that was to set the stage for now measuring what happens on those same golf courses when we shift grooves," he said. "You're not going to see us revolutionize our setup the first month of next year, but over time we're going to be experiments with a lot of different ways to set things up.

"Our hope is that this change is going to make the game more interesting to watch from a variety of perspectives."

He also said the tour is leaning toward applying the new grooves to Monday qualifying at PGA Tour events, but not the pre-qualifiers that are typically held five days earlier. Those pre-qualifiers rarely have PGA Tour members, while Monday qualifying that offers four spots in the tournament have more PGA Tour players.

GLOVER THE GOLFER

U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover played just about every sport until sticking with golf in the eighth grade.

It was an easy decision.

"I was a short, dumpy kid, so I played line in football and I didn't like to be on the bottom of the pile," he said.

It ultimately came down between golf and baseball.

"I was a catcher, and I got hit a few times where it didn't feel great," Glover said. "So I pulled the plug on that pretty quick."

Someone found it hard to believe that Glover was short and dumpy. When did that change?

"About the time I quit all those other sports," he said. "My shoe size and my age were the same from when I was 7 to 14, if that tells you anything about how much I was growing."

-- Doug Ferguson

LPGA's Farr tourney in jeopardy for 26th year

SYLVANIA, Ohio - The Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic may be the next U.S. LPGA tournament to miss the cut.

The Farr, named for the actor who played a reluctant corporal on the classic TV series "M.A.S.H.", is being played for the 25th time - and possibly last - this week at Highland Meadows Golf Club in suburban Toledo.

"I don't know what the intricate details are, they'll have to figure those out," Jamie Farr said on Wednesday before hurrying out to play the pro-am. "We have a 50-50 chance of being here next year."

The Farr's $1.4 million purse is among the smallest on the U.S. LPGA Tour. In tough economic times, tournament officials have pared $450,000 to $500,000 this year from an already bare-bones budget. The contract with the title sponsor expires after this tournament.

The U.S. LPGA had 34 events last year and that number is falling.

Organizers of the two-year-old Kapalua Classic in Hawaii announced on Tuesday that financial problems would cause them to pull out of the last four years of their contract with the tour. Tour officials threatened to pursue "legal remedies."

The Corning Classic in Corning, New York, ended in May after 31 years when its title sponsor called it quits. Along with the Farr, the Michelob Ultra Open's future in Williamsburg, Virginia, is also uncertain.

Farr tournament director Judd Silverman remains upbeat.

"I'm very optimistic. We've been in this position several times before through our 25 years where we've had to negotiate new contracts," he said on the eve of the opening round. "We're going to roll up our sleeves with the LPGA and both parties are going to have to work hard to find a livable business model during some very tough economic times."

He said the Farr tried to spread the sacrifices around. The pro-am gift packages aren't as big, fewer bleachers were set up and past champions were not provided with courtesy vehicles.

Despite that belt-tightening, no one knows if there will be a 26th Farr. The U.S. LPGA and Silverman will sit down after the tournament to discuss the event's future.

If the Farr tournament leaves, it'll be another blow to the city that supports it. With its close ties to the auto industry, Toledo's economy is in rough shape with an unemployment rate just under 13 percent.

Over its history, the tournament has donated $6.2 million to about 100 charities.

The primary charity, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northwest Ohio, gets about eight percent of its annual budget from the tournament.

"They've been very kind to us over the years," said Chad Bringman, executive director.

Losing that money could force the organization, which provides family members of hospitalized children a free place to stay and eat, to cut services, he said.

"We would have to make a stronger pitch to families that use it that we're hurting and could really use a donation," Bringman said. "We're already looking at what we would scale back."

Silverman said if the tournament cannot meet its obligations to local charities, it's not likely to stay afloat.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner can't fathom the loss of the tournament.

"It would be hurtful to the community's pride, but I don't think that's going to happen," Finkbeiner said. "The LPGA has come to appreciate how much this city pours into the event and its love for Jamie Farr. When it comes to volunteers and love for an event, I think we rank right up there."

-- Rusty Miller

Small wins PGA Professional National Championship

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. - Mike Small won the PGA Professional National Championship for the second time in five years, closing with a 3-under 68 on Wednesday for a one-stroke victory over Mark Sheftic and Steve Schneiter.

Small, the golf coach at the University of Illinois, had a 7-under 277 total to top the 20 qualifiers for the PGA Championship at Hazeltine.

Schneiter finished with a 71, and Sheftic shot a 72. Craig Thomas (68), Ryan Benzel (69), Eric Lippert (70) and Lee Rinker (71) tied for fourth at 5 under.

LPGA: Organizers drop out of Hawaii tournament

HONOLULU - Organizers of the Kapalua LPGA Classic in Hawaii have pulled out of their contract to host the annual LPGA event through 2012.

LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway said Tuesday in a news release that the association is "extremely disappointed" with the decision not to conduct the event in October. She says the LPGA will vigorously enforce its legal rights under the contract.

Kapalua Land Co., the contract holder, said it's unable to present the tournament without a title sponsor.

"It's disappointing but a reality in today's current economic climate that title sponsorships are difficult to secure," Gary Planos, senior vice president of Resort Operations, said in a statement.

Planos said Kapalua had hoped to get a deferment for this year's tournament, but then hold the event in future years once it's able to get a title sponsor. But Planos said he's not sure this would be possible given the LPGA's position.

Kapalua itself was the title sponsor for the event's first year in 2008.

The company is a subsidiary of Maui Land & Pineapple Inc. It lost $70.6 million in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared with a $4 million loss in the prior year's same quarter.

Morgan Pressel won the inaugural Kapalua LPGA Classic in October.