Random thoughts from a double-bogey addled mind.

-- Welcome to the new world order on the PGA Tour, the one with nothing but minions, minus the king. It won’t last forever. Only until Tiger Wood’s reconstructed knee and micro-fractures in his leg heal, but the damage is done for the remainder of the 2008 season. Now the places Woods carefully selected to play annually in the second half will see how so many other Tiger-less events live. That’s to say they’ll be reduced to tournaments that garner the attention of golf fans, not Tiger fans, something that has been fairly well documented as two different breeds of cats.  

-- Oh by the way, Woods is sure to cut back on his already miniscule schedule in the coming years. That isn’t good news for New Orleans , whose annual pit stop has never appeared on Tiger’s things-to-do list. Feel free to now substitute “never will’’ for “never has.’’ And if you ever hear someone in these parts with ties to the event so much as suggest there’s a chance to land Numero Uno, feel free to ask them to share whatever hallucinogen they’re using.

-- It is extremely amusing to read some of the chronicles in big dailies around the nation that spout opinions from so many orthopedic surgeons, with the possible exception of Dr. Seuss, about the possibility that the reconstructed knee will be Woods’ Waterloo. Inevitably the story is accompanied by the disclaimer that the particular orthopedist is not intimately familiar with all the details. So what goes into print is mere speculation. Here’s something that’s not speculative. Wvery time Woods has set his mind on something, he’s pretty much accomplished it. He was patient with a swing change that rendered him to mere mortal status in 1998 and anyone who says otherwise would be foolhardy to think he won't do as the doctor tells him over the next six months or so, and that as sure as his must-have birdie putts at the 72^nd and 90^th holes of the U.S. Open, Woods will figure out a productive way to swing if he needs to relieve the left knee of some punishment.

-- Anyone besides me find it intriguing that when you throw out Woods’ otherworldly performance in the United States Open, the two most endearing figures in professional golf in ’08 have been a pair of everyman runner-ups? Who says no one ever remembers who finishes second; that close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and slow dancing? I’ll never forget the way Paul Goydos battled Sergio Garcia to the bitter end in The Players Championship or how Rocco Mediate pulled every ounce of effort out of Woods in the Open in what very well may be the greatest 18-hole playoff ever. Each man won without winning by thoroughly enjoying the moment, by comporting himself like a true champion. So we love our winners, but we’re infatuated by drama defined by uncommon performances as well. That’s why decades later, people still fondly recall the Packers and Cowboys freezing their butts off in the Ice Bowl and Ali and Frazier trading haymakers in the Thrilla in Manila . Tell the truth, the outcome is almost an afterthought. Ditto The Players and the Open.

-- Televised golf in this day and age is certainly building a case to get TiVo, where you simply sail through the commercial breaks without being bombarded. I understand that sponsors need to recoup the enormous amount of dollars spent, but when you get about three shots between mindless advertising it starts to push the edge of my patience envelope.

-- It was simply shocking to read that the less-than-grand re-opening of City Park ’s goat ranch, a.k.a. the North Course, has been delayed until Labor Day. As long as Bob Becker is calling the shots out there, golf will always be half ass, never whole. Know why? True story. A few years before Katrina, when Kemper Sports was responsible for the daily operation of golf, one of Kemper’s higher ups told me Becker asked the following questions at one of their meetings: “Why do we have to cut the grass on the golf courses so often?’’ Says it all, doesn’t it?