Arnold Palmer, Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, and former Pittsburgh Steelers RB (and Detroit native) Jerome Bettis put on a clinic for the kids today at Oakmont before the US Women's Open.  Paula Creamer Tweeted a pic of the four of them this afternoon.

And Arnie was not looking at the birdie behind the camera.  He was looking at the breasts just beneath him.

Of course, it could just be a case of unfortunate timing.  Or it could be an 80 year old man who just doesn't care anymore.

Either way, this adds another photo to the album entitled "Unfortunate Pictures with Cristie Kerr in Them."

We left Pebble Beach this evening right before Tiger Woods holed his final putt in the 2010 US Open.  Then we had to make our way back to the Inn at Spanish Bay, catch a taxi, and get to Monterey County Airport.  There, we checked in and have been hanging out.  About a half hour after us settling in for our flight, Steve Williams came into the terminal to be on our flight back to LAX.

At the time when I did the initial part of this post - the picture of Stevie - I had no clue what was unfolding with Tiger and his comments following his final round performance.  Tiger really threw Williams under the bus for some decision-making done in the final round.

"I was telling Stevie we made three mental mistakes today," he told NBC's Mark Rolfing after the round, "and the only thing it cost us is a chance to win the U.S. Open."

As far as I see it, Woods made a huge mistake on three - his own.  He made another poor play on four, with his swing.  He went for a nasty pin on ten.  And he putted poorly.  Those are all on him, not Stevie. 

Surely, Williams had heard at least some of the remarks by the time he arrived at the airport.  But the interaction between the two has been noticeably ice cold since the return at the Masters. A key, telling moment on Sunday happened just after Woods hit his tee shot on four.  Williams dropped the bag off to go to the bathroom.  While he did that, Woods kicked the bag like he was wallowing in himself.  He took of his full-sleeve sweater to change into a vest.  When Williams returned, Woods handed the sweater to Williams.  Steve was so distant as he took the sweater, but then marched forward practically without his man to the fairway.

The combination of that moment on four and these comments from Woods - who typically owns up to poor play - may signal the end of the relationship with the Kiwi caddy at season's end.

Rory McIlroy's first PGA Tour win at the Quail Hollow Championship was a very popular one among fans, media, and the players themselves.  Even Phil Mickelson's caddy, Jim Mackay, stopped by to congratulate him.  When asked by CBS Sports' David Feherty who he would call first, McIlroy said his parents.  He said girlfriend Holly would be second.

By popular (Google) demand, here are some photos of Holly Sweeney that were sent to Waggle Room.

In the last few days, there has been a surge of interest to this Website and around the Web looking to find out more information about rumors concerning Phil Mickelson, his wife Amy, their marriage, and his gambling habits. 

Deadspin did a piece to try to uncover the roots of a rumor that Phil's wife Amy had a mid 2000s affair with Michael Jordan.  Sports by Brooks looked into the idea that Mickelson signed a 2004 deal with Callaway Golf in order to pay off his supposed massive gambling debts.  Stephanie Wei's post from several months back about the notion that Sports Illustrated or another publication with two words in its title (one of which is golf) would do an expose on the story has been unearthed in recent days by rumor sites.

By doing some digging and some asking of sources in the know on this now nearly seven year old set of rumors, let's set the record as straight as possible.

The rumors all began in 2001 when Phil Mickelson talked in a USA Today profile piece about how he landed huge on a preseason bet that the Baltimore Ravens would win the Superbowl that year.  (The Ravens crushed the Giants.)

Of the bet and the rationale for it, Mickelson said, "The year before they'd finished the season at 6-2, barely missing the playoffs.  I liked their offseason player acquisitions, and (coach) Brian Billick is brilliant — he ran an offense that accentuated the defense, went for field position and kept the clock moving."

Mickelson said that he wasn't the only man in on the bet.  He was in with a group of 28 people - a "syndicate."

The piece also detailed his relationship with Titleist, with whom he signed a reported $50 million deal in 2000.  That relationship granted Mickelson rarely given access to Titleist personnel.

Titleist's Larry Bobka said of the relationship, "We've made a handmade set of irons for Davis Love ... and also for Tiger Woods, but we don't do it that often, and we've never done it for a left-hander. It's extremely costly and time-consuming."

A 2002 profile of Mickelson in Sports Illustrated discussed his penchant for gambling...on almost anything.  An anecdote is shared of Mickelson's now infamous '01 bet at the Akron, OH event (oh, he has a kid there!) with Mike Weir that Jim Furyk would hole his bunker shot on the last hole.  He did, and Mickelson collected from Weir, as the story goes.  The Tour admonished Mickelson for making that public.  Perhaps aware of the backlash from the Tour about the comments, Mickelson has since shied away from remarks about gambling.

After Mickelson broke through at the '04 Masters, he and his people with Gaylord Sports sought to renegotiate their deal with Titleist.  Sixteen months remained on the deal, but Mickelson sought to capitalize upon his new status as Masters champion.  Seeing as thought Titleist wouldn't acquiesce to Tiger Woods' demands for more money and brand positioning, Mickelson was unlikely to get the treatment Woods was denied. 

Golfweek quoted Mickelson's teacher Rick Smith in saying, "It’s not Phil shopping as much as it is Titleist not wanting to pay him."

Mickelson signed with Callaway just weeks before the Ryder Cup in '04.  That move was natural considering that Mickelson's brother had been helped by the company with some equipment.  Phil even left a voicemail with  Callaway rep Mike Galeski to thank the company and praise their equipment.  That did not sit well with Titleist boss Wally Uihlein.  The recording was used, unauthorized by Mickelson, in sales calls for Callaway.  Titleist threatened to sue.  Golfweek reported at the time of the lawsuit threat that Callaway would make a strong push for Mickelson when his deal was to expire in '05.  They got him sooner than that. 

It was an easy negotiation for Mickelson with Callaway.  He got paid to the tune of $80 million.  The problem was that the switch was made just two weeks before the Ryder Cup.  Mickelson played terribly that week causing questions about the timing and his performance.  Then Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton (arguably the worst in the history of the event) was asked about the change and quoted in a Washington Post piece.

"You know what? Phil is capable of playing good golf with anything," Sutton said.  Sutton repped Callaway at the time.

Mickelson had not played well coming into the Ryder Cup, doing poorly at the Canadian Open.  The club switch likely came at that time because Mickelson, according to a source, had difficulty in securing his release from his Titleist contract.  The squeeze left him with little time to prepare for the Ryder Cup and Mickelson would not appear at the matches without an equipment deal.

The '05 Masters, though, saw the mainstream birth of the rumor that Mickelson had made the switch because of sizable gambling debts.  The rumor was actually born out of the Pebble Beach event in February that year.  Supposedly, Mickelson owed some $5-7 million to Vegas bookies.  Callaway was quick to squash that rumor saying they have run a considerable background check on Mickelson before completing the deal to sign him, and he came back clean. 

(For what it's worth, Nike has repeated said they did background checks on Tiger Woods before inking and re-inking deals with him.  That didn't quite work out, though it is a customary practice to run a full background on any player seeking a golf endorsement deal.)

The public questioning of Mickelson about the rumor and his gambling grew at the Masters in his pre-tournament press conference.  Mickelson was asked about a quote from a Golf Magazine piece in which Mickelson claimed to have stopped gambling two years prior - in March - after the birth of his son Evan.  Complications from that pregnancy nearly killed his wife Amy.  Mickelson's response? "I never said that."  He referred the reporter to his book for more.

The interview in Golf Magazine quoted Mickelson as saying his son was why he stopped gambling.   "Evan (his son). I don't really want to get into that, but it's in my new book, One Magical Sunday. But I did it for Evan."  Mickelson had repeated the claim to USA Today in May 2003 in the midst of Mickelson's worst season on the PGA Tour.

The major-golf-publication-with-two-words-that-has-golf-in-the-title had apparently been looking into the claims, according to a source.  They had a single source in Vegas that was well-connected and willing to make claims about Mickelson's gambling on the record.  Ultimately, that article was squashed by editorial leadership because of the magazine's long-standing relationship with Mickelson and the lack of sources willing to verify on top of the Vegas-based source.  Also, there was something about a round at Pine Valley on the line.

The big problem here is that the rumored magazine to print the rumor was that Sports Illustrated was going to be the magazine to print the story about Mickelon's gambling.  According to the source, that was not true.  Had the magazine gotten the story cold, the source said, they would have published it at the time.  They didn't have it.  The source says no advertiser threatened to pull ads over the story that didn't exist. 

In 2008, a poster at the golf forum Golf WRX posted a topic citing a "Golfweek insider" that Mickelson had lost several hundred thousand dollars to an Augusta member on pre-tournament golf bets.  Golf Digest - which is affiliated with the site - removed the post and Golfweek editor Jeff Babineau said that the rumors were false.  The posting got several basic facts about Augusta, members, and the PGA Tour's relationship with the Masters wrong.

When Mickelson appeared this past winter on CBS' Super Bowl Today program in a segment sponsored by Callaway Golf, the rumors about his gambling resumed.  Mickelson made his "pick" for the Colts-Saints game on the basis of which ball he hit the furthest.

The rumor of a blowout surfaced again in 2006, on the message board post discussed in the Deadspin piece.  This time, it added that Rick Reilly was doing the piece (he wasn't).  The content of the piece was different now, though.  This piece would be an expose on Mickelson's sex life and claim Mickelson had an illegitimate child in Ohio and that wife Amy had been caught by Phil in an affair with Michael Jordan.

Phil Mickelson met his wife Amy in 1992 when they were both at Arizona State.  He didn't ask her on a date until a year later at a charity golf event after Mickelson had graduated and turned pro.  Amy Mickelson was a cheerleader for the Phoenix Suns in the early 90s, during college.  She also ran a dance class that taught future Suns dancers.

That's about as far as the bio file goes on Amy.  Not much is said of her in press.  Deadspin may have investigated into the originations of the claims, but they received a tip in their mailbox about the rumor in January 2009.  Amy, the joker that she is, acknowledged the rumor just this past spring to Steve Elling in a kidding aside for CBS Sports.

"Oh, wait, have you heard the one about me and Michael Jordan?" she said, howling.

The rumor about Mickelson's Ohio love child, though, seems to have never been substantiated by any writer.  Among golf writers and insiders, the rumor had crept in that Mickelson had gotten together with a woman that worked at the First Tee of Columbus, OH, near the site of Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament.  The NY Post's rumor column, though, claimed that Mickelson had the love child in Akron - home to the course where Mickelson bet Weir and won.

It's curious that the rumors pertain to Ohio for multiple reasons.  For one, Mickelson has played the Akron event every year since 1999 and this rumor has never turned into news in that market.  Mickelson had played in the Memorial event in Columbus from 2006 through '08, but missed last year.  Tournament host Jack Nicklaus was once rumored to have been given an ultimatum from wife Barbara about an affair he had maintained in Australia during the 70s while cleaning up at the Australian Open.

This story was told to me just a few days ago from a very credible source.

The Steelers have their training camp in Latrobe, PA - a town absolutely owned by Arnold Palmer.  Near the training  camp is Laurel Valley golf club.  It has hosted several major championships and is a big deal club in the area.  Ben Roethlisberger came by during training camp one summer and said he wanted to get on the course to play.  The pro shop said that they would accomodate him but that members that had tee times would go ahead of him and they would work him on.
 
So, Ben looks around the pro shop and starts buying up stuff.  Makes his purchases, then disappears to the first tee.  He's teeing off out of turn.  The pro shop wrangles him down in the first fairway and demands that he return to the clubhouse to wait his turn to play.  Eventually, he gets to go off.  He runs into a bunch of people who naturally want his autograph.  He says no to all of them.  Doesn't want to be nice to the people letting him play their exclusive track.
 
When he's done with the round, Ben goes into the locker room in the clubhouse.  He takes a shower and comes out, when a man comes up to him and tells him, "What you are going to do right now is go into the pro shop and sign autographs for every single person who wants them, and then you will never come back here again."
 
The man who told him that?  Arnold Palmer.

I spoke with Rachel Uchitel, the New York City woman identified by the National Enquirer in this week's issue as having carried on an affair with golfer Tiger Woods.  Internet rumors have swirled since the initial release of the Enquirer to newsstands on Wednesday.  A car accident involving only Woods outside of his Isleworth home on early Friday morning fueled further speculation that the accident and the Enquirer report were somehow connected.

Uchitel and I spoke on the phone on Friday evening to get her side of the story concerning the Enquirer article despite "not [being] supposed to talk much about this yet."

Uchitel vehemently and patently denied the allegations made in the Enquirer piece.  Uchitel told Waggle Room that although she spoke to the Enquirer for the piece that her quotes were not published.

"My quotes were not even run [by the Enquirer]," Uchitel said.  "Their story was not even close to the conversation that we had."

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ESPN: The Magazine's Body Issue features pictorials of athletes from all walks of sport in nude or almost nude poses - with creative sporting-coveralls.  Three LPGA ladies agreed to pose for the issue: Anna Grzebien, Sandra Gal, and Christina Kim.  Devil Ball Golf has a post up with the pic.

So, I would say this worked out pretty well, right? 

I mean, these ladies are in the same magazine as people who really stand to gain nothing by doing this, like Serena Williams and Dwight Howard.  No one can really say this is some kind of publicity stunt just for the LPGA Tour, and it can't hurt that the ladies look good.

And, this isn't really controversial in any way.  I mean, if you want to talk publicity stunt, let's talk about Sophie Sandolo's nude calendars.  Here are some sample (and NSFW) pictures from her calendar where she actually shows the Full Monty.  (Maybe we should get rid of that term.  Colin Montgomerie naked sounds horrifying.)

Samsung must be kicking themselves now that we can't watch a tournament they sponsor on one of their fine LCD HDTVs (one of which I own).

ESPN the Magazine knows it needs a signature issue, kind of like how Sports Illustrated has its swimsuit issue that basically makes the year for the magazine on newsstands.  So, they came up with the idea of a "Bodies" issue.  Basically, male and female athletes will be featured in the pseudo-buff.  Here's what I mean by pseudo-buff.

That said, three LPGA players - Christina Kim, Anna Grzebien, and Sandra Gal - will participate in the issue.  Ron Sirak reported that yesterday.  ESPN approached each player individually and contracted with them without the LPGA's involvement.  The LPGA's communications director, David Higdon (an ESPN the Mag alum), seemed on board with the idea barring any surprise photos.  After the Erin Andrews situation, I would expect that photo shoot to be locked down like Fort Knox.

Gal and Grzebien are both part of the Wilhelmina 7, the group of LPGA girls that are young, hot, and play pro golf.  Kim isn't part of the group, but she's not particularly shy about much of anything.

I don't want to get into a tired old argument of using sex to sell the LPGA Tour.  I think I've written - and we've debated - about it enough.  But, really, outside of golf circles, I think Christina's name is the only that rings a bell with the public. 

So, at least there will be some awareness for these ladies now.  And the thought is that if men come to an LPGA event, then they're hooked.  I just don't want to see a bunch of pants tents at future LPGA events.  It's bad enough to see dick pill commericals while watching golf on TV.

Just in case you're debating a purchase of the issue & have no clue what these girls look like, we have some pics of the ladies after the jump.

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