After Tiger Woods reportedly just cost the tournament a near half of million dollars by sitting out the rest of the season, a lot of fans are of course disappointed. When announcers first released wind of his surgery, golf commentators made it clear that the PGA would be taking a major hit and that “golf just got boring.” That is a lot of pressure for one golfer – something that Tiger obviously handles well. With him not there, we will always be throwing in the what if Tiger had played factor and who knows what could have been this season with him out. But perhaps we should start paying closer attention to the “Tiger” of the LPGA – Lorena Ochoa. In fact, her numbers top Tiger for 2008. She has taken home six tournament wins and one major opposed to Tiger’s four wins and U.S. Open title. You might be surprised to see the comparisons of both top golfers. Click here for some more things to consider.

Hi everyone and happy Monday!

Just in case you didn’t see the comment on Friday’s show, we’ve already corrected all of the answers in our computer from last week so that everyone who chose Donald Ross on Thursday’s show was credited with a correct answer and we’re sorry for the error.

Friday was our Big Prize drawing for last week and our big prize was a three-wheel push cart and cart golf bag by Sun Mountain and our winner was William Smith of Greensboro, North Carolina. So, William, if you want to receive this great prize, then just send an e-mail to me at keri@golfnow.com within the next 30 days and we’ll get them out to you!

Have a great Monday! - Keri

Hi everyone and happy Friday!

Well, it seems as if we have a new problem with our answer from yesterday’s question on the first architect to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame! We’ll be looking into that today and let everyone know on Monday and we’ll definitely fix your stats in the computer once we know what happened. Sorry!!

Our prize in yesterday’s daily drawing was a Callaway golf grab bag and our winner was Everett King of Phoenix. Congratulations, Everett, and now, to claim your prize, just send an e-mail to me at keri@golfnow.com within the next 30 days and we’ll get your Callaway grab bag out to you.

Have a great weekend - Keri

Hi everyone!

Wow, big news about Tiger, eh? As much as the PGA says they just want him to get healthy, they must be pretty disappointed that he won’t be playing for the rest of this year. But, obviously he can’t just keep playing on that knee so it should be pretty interesting to see how - and when - he makes his return. I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Okay, on to the usual business. Our question yesterday had you pick the player out of the choices we gave you who did not play in the very first official Skins game and 78% of you got the answer right. So, be sure to watch today to see if you were one of the lucky group that get to add another entry into our daily drawings.

And, speaking of drawings, our prize yesterday was a personalized wedge from our friends at Upswing Golf, along with a dozen personalized Titleist Pro-V1 golf balls. The winner of those two great prizes was Victoria Booker of Fairfax, Virginia and I think that makes two female winners this week. Way to go, ladies! So, all we need to do now is to hear from Virginia within the next 30 days and we can get those prizes personalized and out to her.

Our trivia question today had to do with golf course architects in the World Golf Hall of Fame so have fun and I’ll see you tomorrow! - Keri

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday!

Yesterday I promised to keep my blog short and sweet and didn’t quite live up to my word so, today, I’m not going to make any kind of prediction since I know it might be just a little long so I can cover a few things.

First of all, we’re really sorry that some of you had problems with the video yesterday. This is a situation that’s frustrating for you and us because if we know that we’re not having any technical problems, then we just don’t have any way of knowing what might be causing the problem on the other side. According to the technical team at GolfNow, it could be any number of issues, including a firewall or security block where you work (since we know that many of you watch the show there). Our viewers definitely let us know when there is a problem with the show and we investigate every claim. So, when less than 1% of you write in regarding problems, as was the case yesterday, and we can load up the show fine (we watch it off the internet just like everyone else) then it is just one of those technical glitches somewhere out in cyberspace. Many times, either waiting a little while or restarting your computer can “unclog” a problem but we know that’s not always the case. So, please always let us know if there is a problem and we’ll investigate but, sometimes, unfortunately, there’s just nothing we can do because it’s out of our hands.

Now, yesterday’s question was interesting, not only because it tied in golf with a subject we’ve never talked about before - not that I remember, at least - but also because it was based on an event that took place just this past weekend. This question actually was delivered right to my e-mail inbox directly from the L.A. Wine & Spirits Competition and we though it would be a fun one to ask about. Since we made an assumption that no one was there and most likely didn’t know about it (although I guess some of our Los Angeles area golfers could have some seen some press related to it) we also thought that we might have an interesting split on the entries we received - and we were right. 24% of you chose A - John Daly, 29% picked B - Ernie Els, Greg Norman had the least number of entries with 11% and Arnold Palmer had the highest with 36%. So, be sure to watch today’s show to find out if your answer was correct.

Our prize in yesterday’s drawing was based on the answer to Monday’s question about Old Tom Morris and included the DVD - Tom Morris, Keeper of the Greens, which is based on a one-man show by Scottish actor, David Joy - an expert on Tom Morris, Sr. - that was filmed on location in Scotland and, to go along with the DVD, a copy of The Scrapbook of Old Tom Morris - also by David Joy, which contains minutes from R&A annual meetings, the original rules of golf, vintage photographs and scorecards from the early British Open’s and famous challenge matches. The winner of this great set of prizes was William Smith of Greensboro, North Carolina and, if we hear from William within 30 days, we can send him these great prizes that really give a sense of golf in its early history.

Oh, and speaking of Old Tom Morris, several people wrote in over the last two days about the answer to our Tom Morris, Sr. question. Based on our sources, our correct answer was off by one since we did actually forget to subtract for the fact that The British Open wasn’t played in 1871. But, as far as we can tell, everyone who got it right knew it was close enough to the correct number to pick it so, unless there is strong objection, we’re going to leave the stats as it.

Finally, our trivia question on today’s show has to do with the very first professional Skins game, which we know doesn’t take place until golf’s “silly season” at the end of the year, but we thought it might be a fun question to ask now anyway.

Okay - that is now officially the longest blog I’ve ever written. Thanks for hanging in there with me and have a great day! - Keri

Tiger and Rocco hugged when Woods took home the title to the 108th US Open after an intense 19-hole playoff. The overtime was more than just a final round or a sudden death playoff. It was one of those rare times when the best golfer goes up against a true underdog. An underdog with so much heart and determination that it leaves even the most loyal Tiger fans not sure whom to cheer for. People sat off in the stands for nearly six hours just waiting for the chance to see a couple approach shots and a few putts on the 18th.

But even though the title went to Woods in the end, Rocco held his own. And he maintained a humble and hopeful sportsmanship the entire time while facing off against the greatest golfer in the world.

The truth is that Tiger could probably sit out every PGA tournament for the next couple years and still hold his No. 1 spot but to Rocco, the chance to take home a U.S. Open title meant everything.

Mediate is really not a loser in this fight. He started the Major ranked as 158th in the world. By the end, he worked himself to 47th.

Maybe this is the new Rocco? Only time will tell. He certainly earned his spot back to the U.S. Open next year. But perhaps we will see some more great fights from him in the near future. If not, at least he has an amazing story to tell his friends.