"If you can't enjoy this job, you're in it for the wrong reasons."

There aren't usually too many great playoff stories when you compare them to, say, the U.S. Open sectionals, but Doug Ferguson does a nice job telling the Cinderella story of 32-year-old William McGirt, who has improbably made it to round 2 in Boston with a refreshing attitude.

"If you can't enjoy this job, you're in it for the wrong reasons," McGirt said.

This is from a 32-year-old PGA Tour rookie who played more mini-tours than he cares to remember; who still thinks it's a privilege - not a right - to get a courtesy car; and who thought more than once about quitting, promising himself "one more year" until he finally reached the last stage of Q-school two years ago.
He has traveled so much in the minor leagues that he once saw his wife for only eight days during a four-month stretch.

"If something happens and we never get back out here, I wouldn't kick myself for stuff I could have done," McGirt said. "I would know we gave it our best, and we had a blast while we were doing it."

There have been plenty of thrills the last two weeks.

McGirt had missed the cut in 13 of the 25 tournaments he had played, but he had done just well enough in the others that he was on the cusp of getting the 125th and final spot in the playoffs. His car already was packed in Greensboro, N.C. McGirt either was going west toward Knoxville, Tenn., for a Nationwide Tour event, or north toward New Jersey for the $8 million playoff opener at The Barclays.

Long after McGirt had finished his final round, it came down to this: On the 18th hole, Justin Leonard just missed the fairway and wound up missing a 12-foot par putt, a sequence that moved McGirt to No. 125 and sent him to the richest event he had ever played.

In Case This Is My Last Blog Post Ever...

...let it be known that I am taking a Wednesday tour of the sexily named "Ball Plant 3" near Fairhaven, Massachusetts, followed by a press conference with Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein and new Chairman Gene Yoon.

To my fellow scribblers attending the presser: if I don't appear at the Bay Club by noon sharp, it means my rants about technology got me sleeping with the future NXT's in a molten pot of Polybutadiene.

However, if I live to tell about it, expect some Tweets and video.

Rocco: "A lot of guys are happy Tiger isn't playing well. I'm not."

Ron Kroichick talks to Frys.com Open defending champ Rocco Mediate about Tiger's entry into the Fall Finish event. Rocco is "disgusted" with the direction of Tiger's game.

"I love the way he plays, but I'm disgusted with what's going on with him because it's sad for our game," Mediate said Tuesday from Pittsburgh, where he will play in this week's Nationwide Tour event. "A lot of guys are happy Tiger isn't playing well. I'm not. ...

"We need to have Tiger back at the top, because he's the draw. It's fantastic all these other kids are winning, but they're not Tiger Woods."

And he's not wild about the swing:

"The physical motion is wrong," Mediate said. "To get that stress off his body is a piece of cake - the guys working with him just don't know. Sean knows some stuff, but what's going on with Tiger is not correct. That's why he keeps breaking and that's why the ball keeps going sideways."

Mediate also took a none-too-subtle swipe at Hank Haney, Woods' previous coach.

"Starting with Haney until now, it was a complete and absolute destruction," he said. "If it was me (as Woods' instructor), I would say to Tiger, 'Look, dude, I'm not helping you. You're getting worse. You've broken down three times and you've had 57 knee surgeries. It's not happening.' "

I think I smell a V-Harness in Tiger's Frys.com Open locker!

"As a Yank, I am not sure I have ever felt more embarrassed to be a member of the USGA."

That's USGA dues paying members Steve Elling in this week's Pond Scrum chatting with John Huggan about the wild array of current events, including the Walker Cup committee sending captain Jim Holtgrieve's team to Royal Aberdeen without the NCAA Champion and world No. 7 ranked (now former) amateur, John Peterson.

Huggan: Ah yes, amateur bodies picking teams. I have some personal experience of this -- both good and bad -- and sadly these things are not always just about golf. Personalities and nationalities both play parts in this often distasteful business. Both teams will go into this year's matches with something less than their best 10 players. It has nearly always been that way and it always will be.

Elling: You have to wonder if Peterson's post-round comments after that Nationwide event, where he said that there were a bunch of guys in college capable of regularly beating PGA Tour pros, rubbed some folks the wrong way. Still, even if he had said Gadhafi should be governor of New Jersey, he should have been a lock for the team.

Huggan: On the GB&I side, the omission of Scottish amateur champion David Law -- a member of the host club, no less -- is almost impossible to justify. And it sounds like your man Peterson has been equally hosed. But let me repeat, these things are not unique. As soon as you get blazers involved, there is going to be a fire to put out.

Martin Dempster reports on David Law's equally mind-blowing omission, and at least you have to credit captain Nigel Edwards for acknowledging the "unfortunate" move and talking about the R&A committee's rationale behind their selection.

"David Law is unfortunate and his situation is accentuated by the fact he comes from Aberdeen," admitted Edwards. "If he'd had a better summer from the Lytham Trophy through to the Scottish Amateur, it might have been different, but that's stating the obvious.

"Sometimes you have to go with a hunch. I'm not saying that David wouldn't have won points for us, but myself and the selectors took an accumulation of factors into account. It was a tough call for a number of reasons and not just the obvious ones. If the teams had been picked straight off the world rankings (Law was 121 places above Irishman Alan Dunbar when the side was selected), both sides would be very different to what they are."

Back to Peterson, who announced on Twitter late Sunday night after learning of his Walker Cup fate that he was turning pro, after holding off in hopes of making the team:


Unfortunately the writers we've grown to trust to watch over the governing bodies on amateur golf matters had to file print stories for their respective publications, so there was no follow up. However the comments on Ron Balicki's original story suggest that the outrage is not going to help the USGA's cause at the grass roots level.

Patrick Kane, editor/publisher at Virginia Golf Report:

Shame on the USGA again. They did it two years ago and now again, a well deserving player is denied a spot on the team because 2 or 3 control freaks that think they know it all decide a young man does not quited fit what they think he should. Isn't that how young people grow up? I'm sure Peterson regrets remarks he made, if he learns from them then great. But 2 or 3 men should not have so much power that they can crush a deserving young man of a dream that should have come true based on his RECORD.

And Jeannette Kandes Reed of Augusta, Georgia:

The Walker Cup team should be picked by rankings only.....each and every young man plays their hearts out throughout the school year and throughout the summer and to have it come down to some one or two persons either on the team or on the committee that has issues with an individual is a disgrace....golf is an individual sport, there are always issues, there is always jealousy, but when you pick a team, these guys have one thing on their minds and that is winning.....yes, it is a team, but you go head to head in match play, they are individually playing as a team. Whoever, had issues with John, grow up! The Peterson family is one of the nicest families you will be ever have the pleasure to meet. Too bad every year USGA or someone on the team feels the need to leave a deserving person out. John you have a bright future ahead of you, you went out on top as an amateur and a college player, I know you and your family are very proud, great job!