HOT
1. Y.E. Yang. Coming off a strong showing at the Masters, he beat a good field at the China Open, his first win since his breakthrough at the PGA Championship. Take that, K.J.
2. Jim Furyk. Great player, classy guy. And his preshot routine is so, uh, deliberate that we get extra time to ruminate on his virtues.
3. The gentleman's game. No one yelled "You suck, goddammit" on TV, and some dude in a playoff called a penalty on himself. (Never mind that Brian Davis was going to lose anyway.) All is suddenly right in Jim Nantz's world.
4. The Mojo 6. The telecast is on major tape-delay (til freakin' May!), but this inaugural unofficial LPGA event was great fun to follow thanks to a wonderfully quirky format. Hey, maybe it's not too late for the Olympics to rethink its dreadful decision to go with 72 holes of stroke play.
5. Bernie Langer. What a sweet gig this Champions exhibition circuit is: $255,000 for two rounds. Plus Sundays off.
NOT
1. Newspaper hacks. The third round of the U.S. Open will not end until 11 p.m. Eastern, leaving about 15 minutes until deadline. Luckily, there are only a few fishwrap scribes left to be inconvenienced.
2. Sergio. Experimenting with a new grip, he hit a new low with a 67-77 to miss the cut at Hilton Head. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for this guy.
3. New Orleans. Great town, but stuck between Hilton Head and the Quail Hollow-Players double-dip, it's left with one of the worst fields of the year. How desperate is the tournament? They actually gave John Daly a sponsor's exemption.
4. Rickie Fowler. Overall, a t8 in his first spin around Harbour Town is a nice result for the rookie. But after a front nine 30 on Sunday he was near the top of the leaderboard ... and then young Rickie promptly bogeyed the next three holes. The good news? No meek layups.
5. Golf's jet-setters. Iceland's ash cloud is wreaking havoc with the schedule, forcing a cancellation of the Euro tour event in Morocco and complicating numerous players' trip to the Ballantines in Korea. I just hope there's not a flare-up during the British Open — it would be awful to be stuck in Scotland with nothing to do but play golf.
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