Tiger Woods conspiracy theoriest went into overdrive last week.  Supposedly his Caddie, Steve  Williams, purposely used a Buick Strap on his Ryder Cup bag for capitalistic purposes!  The root of the rumor seems to come from the Sky Sports telecast where the odd logo was noticed in a supposedly neutral Sponsorship event.  If Buick did bend Team Tiger's ear, I doubt it did them any good as Ryder Cup viewership averaged a 3.0-4.0 share according Larry Stewart, of the LA Times.  That translates to about 3 to 4 million viewers in the US.  About the same as late night network ratings.

Where's Pat and Phil? 

Pat Perez annouced on his website that he retained his Tour Card by tying for 11 at the Reno-Tahoe Open.  Unfortunately, he will be taking the next 4 months off because of tendenitis in "Both" elbows. 

As of now, PP is taking the rest of 2006 off to rest and heal his elbow. His bout with Tendonitis started back in April and has been nagging him ever since. In the past five months he's attempted to rest it, work it out and has seen specialists from San Diego to Scottsdale to Birmingham, AL.

Best of luck to P.P. next season and here's hoping he can rehab those elbows. 

Finally to wrap things up for today.  Mike Weir has replaced Phil Mickelson, in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, because he wanted to be with his family.  In the mean time Phil fans, here's a lesson from Phil on how to hit a backwards wedge shot.

 -GX