Off the Wires: Tiger's Return, Mickelson Joining the Euro Tour?

Catching up on a few things after a day and a half out of pocket ...

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• Tiger Woods says his rehab following knee surgery is going well and he hopes to return at The Memorial:
  
  
  "I've been training hard," Woods said. "I'm getting sick and tired of riding the bike, though. That gets old fast.

  "I'm chipping and putting. I'm not doing anything beyond that. Hopefully I'll start hitting balls, start progressing soon and work my way up the bag."

  Woods' target is due to return to the tour by May 29, the opening round of the Memorial event hosted by Jack Nicklaus at Dublin, Ohio, and be ready for the second major tournament of the year, the US Open on June 12-15 at Torrey Pines.

• Phil Mickelson is considering joining the European Tour. Not that he'd have to leave the USPGA to do it - joining the European Tour isn't that difficult for USPGA players as long as the minimum tournament requirment remains at 11 (the Euro Tour is considering raising that to 13). The reason is that the four majors and three WGC tournaments count as Euro Tour events, so Phil (and Tiger and everyone else who plays all of those big events) is already playing seven Euro Tour tournaments a year.

  He played the Scottish Open and HSBC Champions last year, and plans to do so again this year, so that gets Phil to nine Euro events. He played the Singapore Open last year, when it was an Asian Tour event, and plans to do so again this year. Next year, it might be cosponsored by the Euro Tour. That gets him to 10. So Mickelson would only need to play one additional tournament in 2009 to join the Euro Tour.

  Again, assuming the tour doesn't raise its minimum requirement to 11. And surely, given that someone of Mickelson's stature is considering joining - and thereby becoming eligible for the megamillions season-ending Dubai shindig - the Euro Tour wouldn't raise the minimums now?

• Darren Rovell, who writes the SportsBiz blog for CNBC, wonders when Michelle Wie's sponsors may start dropping her (assuming she doesn't have a quick turnaround, of course - an assumption I don't believe is safe to make). Rovell says Wie's contract with Nike was a 3-year deal with a 2-year option held by the company. At best, he speculates, Nike will seek to significantly reduce its investment.
• Here's a short interview with Calvin Peete, perhaps the most accurate driver in the history of  the PGA Tour, but who has been pretty much invisible since he quit the Tour about 15 years ago. One nugget I was not aware of: Peete quit because he has Tourette's syndrome. But he's now eying a comeback on the Champions Tour.
• The growing use of GPS systems on golf courses isn't exactly news. But if you're not familiar with the options - or if you've never used something like SkyCaddie - this article in the Salt Lake City paper runs down what's on the market.
• Do you remember the first time you broke 100? Most people who play golf never break 100, and only a small percentage do so regularly. I do not remember the first time I broke 100. Or 90 or even 80, for that matter (I do remember the first time I had a really good shot at breaking 80, which ended in disaster with a triple-bogey on No. 18 for an 81 ... sigh). The Montreal Gazette runs down the numbers on breaking 100, and charts a plan for golfers to do just that.