Golf Digest’s recent exposé about the poor treatment women golfers still, after all these years, receive on the course garnered a ton of comments -- mostly "positive and supportive," according to the publication’s editors. The indignant gripes of one letter-writer, however, had the Twitterati up in arms Tuesday over what many tweeps considered his sexist rants about why "women are a pain in the ass."

"you know what I'm thinking," tweeted golf instructor Debby Doniger. "Not happening for this guy u know where. Really dude?"

"Wow. Sounds like one ignorant and bitter ‘man’. Someone's not having a good Valentines Day...," typed Golf Channel’s Lauren Thompson.

"Wayne Mills, you're an @$$. Golf is for everyone!" @AugustaGolfGIrl exclaimed to her nearly 4,800 followers. She even assigned the author of the bitter missive his own "#WayneTHEAss" hashtag.

Imagine, then, my surprise to discover that the New England golfer tweeps called "idiot," "angry man," and "woman-hating" (among other descriptive characterizations) was someone with whom I’ve actually enjoyed a few rounds of golf.

New Hampshire golfer and veteran golf writer Wayne Mills raises the ire of Golf Digest readers with an angry letter to the editor (Photo: Nashua Telegraph)

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She may not be Golf Digest’s hottest golfer (Sandra Gal took that title) but the LPGA Tour’s photogenic Natalie Gulbis is generating lots of heat with her body-painted debut in the upcoming Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

The 10-year tour golfer is no stranger to the camera lens but her inaugural appearance in what to the naked eye seems to be an itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie green and white polka dot bikini goes beyond her previous pin-up turns in FHM and other magazines. The swimsuit that hugs Gulbis' curves is actually body paint -- an idea SI senior editor M.J. Day cooked up, Gulbis told Golf.com's Jeff Ritter.

The 29-year-old winner of the 2007 Evian Masters revealed to Ritter that it had been her dream to show her stuff in the swimsuit edition and that she was more anxious about posing nearly nude than trying to sink a short putt for a tour victory.

Natalie Gulbis struts her stuff in Sports Illustrated's upcoming swimsuit issue (Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

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A Quick Dispatch From the Office Watercooler:

One has to wonder if Tiger Woods is missing his former caddie, Stevie Williams, more than he'll ever admit publicly.

Twice so far in 2012 and twice in a row now, Tiger has scratched and clawed his way into contention after three rounds of a 72-hole affair, only to sink back into the field and never seriously challenge the eventual winner as the final round heads to its conclusion. His swing seems to desert him, and his putting stroke is at best pedestrian -- hardly the skills that the former World's #1 player used to show back in the days when his reputation was as bullet-proof as his Sunday play.

Some say it's his new golf swing, and that he's not quite used to it, especially when the chips are down. Perhaps they have a point. Tiger often seems like he's not quite added the new routine to his muscle-memory, which was evidenced by his repeated practice swings before quite a number of shots on Sunday. Those swings didn't seem to be the sort meant to loosen the right muscles, instead, they seemed like urgent reminders of lessons recently taken. In short, Tiger looked like he was playing his swing, not the golf course.

Through the week, there were also times where his distance control and putting aim seemed a little off. That brings to mind something Woods' former caddie Stevie Williams said as an offhand remark back during the pair's heyday of winning nearly everything they entered. Paraphrasing, Williams quipped that sometimes he lied to his then top-player about distances, because he knew that when Tiger was excited or nervous, that he tended to hit the ball further than normal. The result of Williams fib was often magic, as we saw time and again. Williams also gave Woods a lot of help on the green reading putts, and given the results with Williams and without him, once can fairly conclude that Stevie's help was vital to the success Tiger saw during his best years.

That makes me wonder: does Joe LaCava -- Tiger's current caddy -- have his player's trust to the level that Stevie Williams once did, or is he simply a bag man who lets his golfers make all the calls. There's no telling, and truthfully, it's too early in 2012 to draw a firm conclusion, but it is something to keep an eye on as the year progresses.

I'll be talking golf once again with sports talk show host Anthony Pierno for WSIA - Staten Island (88.9 FM) tonight at 9:00pm Eastern Standard Time. As usual we will be covering a few different golf topics including Phil Mickelson, Pebble Beach, Kyle Stanley, and probably some guy named Tiger.


You can listen over the interwebz via the following link: http://tunein.com/radio/WSIA-889-s22807/

Phil Mickelson had a familiar opportunity presented to him on Sunday at Pebble Beach, but it was going to take a mixture of great play on his part and a faltering by 54-hold leader Charlie Wi. Oh yeah, he also had to play better than his final round pairing opponent, Tiger Woods.

Piece of cake.

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A birdie on the 72nd hole put an exclamation point to Phil Mickelson’s 40th PGA Tour win -- a two-shot triumph over 54-hole leader and eventual runner-up Charlie Wi, and a complete drubbing of playing partner Tiger Woods.

Mickelson’s final-round 8-under 64 came on a day when he drilled long putt after long putt while Woods did his best impression of one of the amateurs whose swings CBS dissected ad nauseam on Saturday. Here are some stats that caused Lefty’s wife Amy to exclaim, "What a round! Are you kidding me?"

• 13 of 14 fairways hit in regulation
• 14 greens in regulation
• 10 one-putts

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U.S. teenager Jessica Korda followed in her father’s championship footsteps with her first LPGA Tour win Sunday at the Women’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Draining a 25-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a six-golfer playoff clinched the victory for the 18-year-old, whose tennis-playing father, Petr Korda, captured the 1998 Australian Open in the same city.

"It is a really special place for my family," Korda told reporters after her victory. "For my first win, I honestly could not have thought of a better place."

Jessica Korda lifts her first LPGA Tour trophy after winning the Women's Australian Open (Photo: Lucas Dawson/Getty Images)

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If Charlie Wi can hold on to the three-stroke lead he has heading into Sunday’s finale of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, he’ll break the two-tourney streak of final-round meltdowns by front-runners and do something he’s never done on the PGA Tour: win.

The 40-year-old from South Korea by way of California owns seven professional victories but has yet to notch one on U.S. soil. To sock away that maiden PGA title, Wi will have to block out the bad-luck collapses by Kyle Stanley and Spencer Levin at the Farmers Insurance Open and Phoenix Open, respectively; keep a trio of superstars at bay; and overcome his own self-doubts.

"I’m sure I’ll be fighting my demons all day and it’s how I handle myself tomorrow," Wi told reporters after Saturday’s flawless 3-under 69 at Spyglass Hill put him at 15-under for the week -- just four shots ahead of Tiger Woods and six better than Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. "It's not what other players are doing. It's how I handle myself tomorrow that is going to determine the outcome of the tournament."

Tiger Woods (r.) and his celebrity playing partner, Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, ponder a shot during this week's Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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