Sunday Stuff

Just a quick scan through the golf firmament, with the Drive, Chip and Putt on in the background...

Resurrection - There's golf to be played, and buddy Colin King and I played seventeen holes yesterday.  Our seventh holes is closed, but it was just great to be back out there...

The wind was howling, but in some case we were able to play actual golf shots....the most notable being my second into No. 13, where I was blocked by a pine tree on the right side of the fairway at the 150-yard mark.  With a 30-mph wind blowing left-to-right, I was able to hoist a hybrid that started 30-40 yards left of the green, and watched the wind bend it back ti the green, finishing under a front pin.  Let the games begin...

Houston Happenings - Jordan Spieth grabbed a one-shot lead heading into Sunday's final round, but it's hard to work up much enthusiasm for this event in view of what comes next.  After two strong rounds that had the Phil Phans in a tizzy, Bad Phil returned with a messy, ugly no-good day, posting a messy, ugly no-good 75.

But the story of the week is Monday-qualifier Austin Cook,

A mini-tour player with no status on the PGA Tour, Cook survived a Monday qualifier to

earn a spot in the field, then played his way into the last group Saturday, where he drew Phil Mickelson. 

Not exactly a typical tee time assignment. 

Cook steeled those nerves, though, carding a 2-under 70 at the Golf Club of Houston. At 13 under, he trails Jordan Spieth by one shot.

Not much coverage of Monday qualifying, but you typically have a billion [layers for two spots, so a 67 will do you no good.  This is the best bit:

Cook has his younger brother, Kyle, on the bag this week, although their partnership almost didn't materialize. Kyle is a junior at the University of Arkansas, where Austin graduated in 2013, and his class schedule meant he had to hop a flight Wednesday night from Fayetteville to Houston. 

That left his older brother to fend for himself in Monday’s qualifier, where he fired a 64 without the benefit of a caddie and while toting his own bag on a push cart. 

“It’s a lot of fun. You've got your umbrella holder there if you need it,” he said of the cart. “You can put all sorts of stuff in there.”

Good stuff....and if he wins, guess where he'll have a tee time on Thursday.

Dinah Doings -  I know this will seem like a story you've heard four times already this season, but a South Korean player you've never heard of is leading the ladies' first major:

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) -- Sei Young Kim used to dream about winning at Mission Hills when she watched the LPGA Tour's first major championship of the season on television in South Korea. 

"When Grace Park and Stacy Lewis won it, I remember them jumping into the pond," Kim recalled Saturday after opening a three-stroke lead in the ANA Inspiration.

Kim will play alongside Lewis on Sunday.

And it was Lewis, not the rookie, that struggled to get it to the clubhouse yesterday...I'd may never have heard of her, but she played beautifully yesterday and she's got three shots to play with...

Dogs and Cats Living Harmoniously - I love this story, because it will make Commissioner Ratched's head spontaneously combust.  From Michael Bamberger:

So 18 gents, most of them in club-issued Mercedes-Benz courtesy cars, will be making their first drive down Magnolia Lane. Upon arrival a club steward will show each of them to that downstairs locker room, with its excellent selection of treats and plush carpeting and a view of the 1st tee. They will move into wood-door lockers normally reserved for Warren Buffett, Lynn Swann, Billy Payne and other Augusta National members. They will look around, most likely in some awe. But eventually that awe will wear off, and right about then they might ask themselves a logical question: Where the heck is everybody? 

Since 2010, and more so every year, the locker room has become a ghost town. It's the province of rookies almost the way the upstairs room is the province of former champs. That's because five years ago Augusta National opened its spiffy new 400-yard-long, 18-acre driving range and at the far end of it built the caddie shack to end all caddie shacks. Each caddie gets a locker. There's club storage, all manner of hot and cold food, showers and multiple TVs. Rory McIlroy was in the place for hours last year, watching soccer and golf.

Wow, who knew you could have caddies and players in the same physical environs....

That's all for now....Giving myself an easy weekend as you'll want to check back early and often all next week.