- No surprises here: Davis Love III was named captain of the US Ryder Cup team a week after the announcement was leaked to the press. Love will have four vice-captains, and the first, Tom Lehman, was named this week. The task force will be selecting the vice-captains with the idea of grooming former captains.
- Looks like there has been a change in schedule for Rory McIlroy. Rory has typically played in the events in Texas to fine tune his game, but this week he announced he would be playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first time in his career. Rory said he owed it to tournament host Arnold Palmer to finally play in his event. Rory's addition to the tournament turns an already deep field into one of the best events on Tour.
- Speaking of commitments, the Valero Texas Open announced this week that Phil Mickelson has committed to their tournament. This is the second year in a row that Phil will be playing in San Antonio, but he withdrew in the middle of the third round last year with pulled muscles. The Valero Texas Open was often a forgotten tournament, but with the likes of Lefty, Jordan Speith, and Martin Kaymer all playing, the field has quickly improved.
- Chalk this up to "never going to happen" - swing coach Butch Harmon reached out this week and said he was willing to offer advice to his former pupil Tiger Woods, if Woods were to ask. I highly doubt Tiger is going to be picking up the phone.
- So, did you know that you have to register prior to playing in a golf tournament. Of course, everyone knew this, but apparently it slipped the mind of Mark Hubbard, who has been disqualified from The Honda Classic for failing to register for the tournament. Hubbard got into the tournament as an alternate after Louis Oosthuizen withdrew on Monday, so Hubbard was likely scrambling to get ready to play and just forgot about the paperwork that was required. Many times, a player can face disciplinary actions, like fines, if they do not register for a tournament, but no further sanctions are expected to be levied against Hubbard.
- An advice to Tour professionals - if you start to struggle and you feel the grind of the professional life, just take some time off. That is what Amy Yang did in the off season. Yang, who has two top 5 finishes this year and is currently in solo second as of this writing in Thailand, said that she credits her renewed performance to an extended break that she took at the end of 2014. She shut down her season with a few tournaments left in the season and didn't touch a golf club for most of the off season, and Yang said that it helped get her back to wanting to play the game instead of seeing it as a job. It has certainly worked for her, as she's inside the top 10 in the Race For The CME Globe standings early in 2015.
- This week, the LPGA is playing in Thailand, and Thai superstar Ariya Jutanugarn took that opportunity to host a junior golf clinic in her home country. Ariya said that she got her love of the game from attending a golf clinic with Cristie Kerr, so she wanted to give back to the kids in Thailand. Ariya is quickly rising on the LPGA Tour, and will some day become a huge name on the international stage, so many of these young juniors are going look up to her.
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