More bad reporting - more confusion - more rampant ignorance to follow.

This is Beth Ann Baldry's latest load - and it is more confusing than the mess she started on Monday.

This piece is a mish-mash of uniformed and uninvited opinions from liberals around the country, with the opinion of some woman playing golf over in Korea.

The few times that actual players words get into the piece - the don't complain about the policy. They think that it might have been handled better - but the policy is good.

Even the headline writer gets in on the act with his/her "English Only" text. WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Let's see - we have some liberal congresswoman in California (I know - big shock there) chiming in. A director from some know it all liberal "institute" called the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. I don't even have to read past the title and I know that this is a dangerous crew to be quoting.

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association chimes in, screaming discrimination -- but never bothers to ask the players. Typical advocacy group.

This is pure, unadultered garbage with a politically correct message. "America is bad" In fact, the end of the article proves that this whole thing is a political correctness issue - which tells me right there that these people are not concerned with the facts or the truth.

End of rant.

I don't know if this is a gutsy, or even a smart move or not - but Carolyn Bivens singled out the Korean contingent at The Safeway last week and told them that they have 2 years to learn to speak English well enough to pass a proficiency test, or face a suspension of their playing priviledges.

The story doesn't say that she has contacted other nationalities, just that she gathered all the Koreans at the tournament for the announcement. The rule does apply to everyone on tour, so you would think that the Korean meeting was just for convenience since they are the largest nationality other than American on tour.

Ok - Carolyn Bivens for President...for about a week. Let her pass legislation to make English the official langauge of the United States, not just the LPGA, since none of our other elected officials have the courage to do it.

No word if television media or Michelle Wie will be required to take the test, either. :)

I have a new, added appreciation for Tiger Woods. Less than a week after Tiger announced that it could be nine MONTHS before he's ready to play after his surgery, the media asked him if he would be defending in Dubai....in January. Tiger must have been thinking, "they can't really be this dumb - I just told them 9 months and that I wouldn't be hitting balls until next year...now they ask me this ?" In this article, he gives his usual non-commital response about his schedule, but he had to be shaking his head.

We've been wondering with bated breath what will replace the exempt/non-exempt/conditional status system on the LPGA Tour ever since we first heard rumors of a change in the works. Well, some of us. In any case, the change was actually made just before July 4th. But I just caught wind of it the other day, thanks to an eagle-eyed commenter at Mostly Harmless. Here's my initial take. What do you all make of this new priority list system?

Ok - we all know that slow play is a problem. And we ALL hate to be in a fast group stuck behind slower groups.

SO - what is the PGA Tour thinking by putting two twosomes at the end of the line ? And they didn't bother to pull names out of line like Ben Crane or Padraig Harrington. No - they stuck Justin Bolli, Jeff Overton, Glen Day, and Lee Janzen in twosomes at the end.

AND they tried to pull a US Open and stacked point leaders together as groups (2/3/4 - 5/6/7 - 8/9/10...) starting on the same side of the course, teeing off back to back to back...

It didn't work for the US Open - apparently they didn't learn their lesson.

Anybody know what RSN is ? I've never heard of it, so I'm guessing I don't have it on cable.

Ok - I know that Scotty Cameron makes some of the most popular, best playing, and well respected putters in the world - most are out of my price range - but that's neither here nor there.

I just read this article on PGATour.com about a new ball mark that SC developed and expects to put out on the market this September --- for FORTY-FOUR DOLLARS !!! No offense intended, and I know before I say it that a lot of people will swarm to the stores to lay down $44 for a ball mark made by Scotty Cameron - but that's just insane.

The idea seems pretty sound - a square marker with a concave end to slide under the ball. The marker also has a straight line that to help line up the aiming line on the ball. Makes sense. But in the story and photo, he marks and replaces the ball with his back to the hole. Now he's lost me. If your back is to the hole, your feet are in your line - not only a bad idea, but a breach of rules. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what he is talking about, but that is what the article says and the photo shows.

Forty Four Dollars for a little piece of metal. I don't know about you - but I lose a lot of ball marks during a season. I can't afford that kind of cash for a ball marker. He had more metal and work involved in the divot repair tool than this.

If I'm wrong on this - someone please ejamakate me.

ok - here's my question - how much of the poor ratings for a VERY exciting PGA were caused by the media pounding away on the absense of Tiger Woods ? (I wish I had the resources to get an answer, but it doesn't seem possible)

There is a significant percentage of the golf viewing public that is strictly Tiger-centric. Golf begins and ends with him. There are media members who are the same way - and even more who live up Tiger's rectum. XXX Golf Channel runs a constant stream of Tiger highlight shows when he's not around. When he's not around, tournaments, even majors, don't stand a chance against he negative media coverage.

With this PGA, there is a second reason for the ratings drop off - but the Tiger-factor is the easiest one to blame. Saturday's coverage lasted less than half of the scheduled time because of the weather. Nobody is going to tune in to see talking heads tell us that it's raining, or watch re-runs of past PGA's (featuring, naturally, Tiger Woods).

I realize that television relies on ratings, but depending on people who don't understand the game and only watch if one guy is in the field seems to be building a house on the sand.

I knew Feherty was badly injured in a bicycle accident earlier this year - but I didn't know that he had been knocked off his bike again recently.

Anyway - very entertaining and insightful interview - worth a listen.

Well - it was a hard fought first round match, but Tiffany Joh lost to Jane Chin 1-up. After getting off to a quick start at the first, the match stayed pretty steady with just one lead change. T-Joh lost her lead at the par 3 5th, but couldn't get a lead the rest of the day. She dropped to 2-down at the 11th, but fought back to square at 16. Sadly, a bogie at 18 cost her the match.

She's still our hero ! :-)

Co-medalists, Amanda Blumenherst and Stephanie Na cleared the first round hurdel. Na won the first and never looked back, winning 3&1, but Blumenherst lost the first hole and didn't get back to square until the 11th. She finally got her nose in front at the 15th and closed out 2&1.

The name to watch in years to come is still Alexis Thompson. Now all of 13, she made it to the match play for the second consecutive year. Unfortunately, she joined the list of trunk slammers after the first round.