I apologize for the light day on the blog as Craig and I are traveling to review a new course. I promise to be back with a vengeance tomorrow with copious notes on the Nelson.

With a good field and excellent conditions and weather, there will no doubt be a lot to cover…

Its been 20 long years since Dillard Pruitt was assessed a stroke penalty for his slow play at the Nelson. Amazingly, there’s only been the very occasional fine since but no penalty strokes.

However, some players are fighting back and maybe its time for the Tour to finally grab a clue. I for one, cannot watch a tournament in person. The pace of play is numbingly slow and not worth the effort. Better to watch on the tube where producers can edit out the snails’ glacier-like pre shot routines.

“We know when they drive up and tell us to hurry up, it means nothing,” Geoff Ogilvy said. 

“When I first came out and someone told me to hurry up, I got all flustered and was rushing. 

Now, it’s a laugh. Yeah, we’ll try. But some guys don’t even try because they don’t do anything.

“I bet if you polled the tour, half the fast players would say, ‘Give me penalties,’ just to scare everyone.”

Or maybe the tour could try a perk instead of a punishment.

“You want to help slow play?” said Roger Maltbie, the NBC Sports analyst and former PGA Tour winner. “Hand them their cards on the first tee and say, ‘If you bring this back to us in less than four hours, you can take a stroke off your score.’ Let’s see how that works.”
It couldn’t hurt.

Matt Kuchar suggested, “How ’bout a shot clock?”

ESPN’s Bob Harig offers up his suggestions…

Impose stroke-play penalties. “People don’t realize how valuable one shot out here is,” Woods said, explaining that the difference in prize money would result in a far harsher fine — and the potential loss of a tournament — and would be a far greater deterrent.

Announce fines. The PGA Tour does not disclose discipline, except in the case of a failed drug test for performance enhancers. It won’t acknowledge if a player was suspended for using recreational drugs, and it won’t say if a player has racked up fines for one bad time or 20.

Perhaps this would help. If it announces who the chronic slow-play offenders are, there is bound to be some backlash. These players would be there for all to see. Media would ask them questions about it. There would be true incentive to improve, at least on a public relations front. Nobody wants to be labeled a slow player — even though almost all of the players, officials and caddies know who they are.

Something tells me the stroke penalties and public outing will do a whole lot of good. Certainly couldn’t hurt.

As AG Publisher Robert Rodriguez and I were conducing interviews on the Nelson range, we ran across a curious sight. A golfer with without a Tour bag, no alluring golf attire and no logos but a pretty good swing. So, we just had to see who it was that resembled a Pro-Am interloper.

Todd Demsey was once a NCAA golf champion who’s teammate was Phil Mickelson at ASU. He also was a member of the 1993 Walker Cup team that beat Great Britain and Ireland, 19-5, and set a record for the biggest margin of victory, but back problems began after college.

Worse, he began suffering painful headaches that led to a diagnosis of a golf ball sized brain tumor which was removed after two surgeries. 11-years later, he fought his way back to competitive golf.

He described his tumor as a “rare, fluky thing” but never once asked why it happened to him.

“I feel pretty lucky, actually,” he said. “Just that I’ve been able to play golf for a living. I’ve never really felt anything except just lucky. A lot of people, their tumors aren’t benign. Some people have it a lot worse than I do.

Although he’s partial to vintage golf gear, Todd would much rather have a paying bag deal.

Lets just say Demsey is obviously one pro at the Nelson who is very easy to root for this week.  I mean, how could you not? He tees off at 2:00 tomorrow.

If you’re heading out to the Nelson the next two days, here are some featured groups to follow–if you are up to battling the probable large galleries.

1oth Tee

7:30 Mickelson, Scott, Els

7:40 Dufner, Oosthuizen, Vegas

Ist Tee

12:30 Kuchar, Singh, Harrington

12:40 Bradley, Sabbatini, Day

Lots of story lines over the weekend at the Players Championship. Matt Kuchar won the 4th Tour event of his career, Kevin Na battled some incredible swing yips and Tiger Woods turned in yet another ordinary performance. SI’s golf gurus provide the banter from a wild weekend. BTW, Kuchar now owns the current mark for consecutive cuts made (17) after Steve Stricker (49) and Rory McIlroy (22) missed the cut this weekend. In addition, he has 46 top-25 finishes in his last 59 starts. Pre-tay, pre-tay good.

Herre: I never thought he (Kuchar) was too darn nice. He may have a goofy grin, but the guy’s a killer. Kuchar has had a long, tough journey since 1997. Great to see him succeed on a big stage.

Dusek: Matt’s greatest asset is his consistency, and that’s just not sexy, especially when you compare his game to guys who nuke their drivers or are especially good with their putters.

Reiterman: Kevin Na … good grief, where do we start? The intentional whiffs. The waggles. Man, was it annoying. But it was also fascinating television.

Shipnuck:  I think he’s the most interesting person in golf right now. It’s utterly riveting to watch him.

Wei: It is intriguing, especially to hear him explain what’s going through his mind. Here’s a bit of what he said Saturday: “I’m trying to get comfortable with my waggles. It’s usually a little waggle, half waggle, little waggle, half waggle, and boom, supposed to pull the trigger. But if it doesn’t work, I’ve got to go in pairs. So it’ll go four; and if it doesn’t work, it’ll go six; and after that, just . . . there’s a lot going on in my head.”

Van Sickle: Isn’t it amazing how Na could become an overnight sensation because of this? While he annoyed a lot of folks, he also won a lot of fans and used honesty and self-deprecating humor to make himself into a sympathetic figure. Every golfer, in some way, shares his frustration with the game. His galleries are going to be bigger on a weekly basis now.

Shipnuck: Let’s give Tiger the rest of this season. In his mind, it’s only one-quarter over. If he stinks it up at the next three majors, then maybe it’s time for some new motor patterns, but we’re not there yet.

Godich: The first shot we saw on the NBC Sunday telecast was of Tiger at the 12th, four over for the day and grinding over a wedge shot.

Dusek: No one would be shocked if Tiger won another tournament this season, with the possibility that it could be a major. Personally, I’m long past worrying about his character, his off-course activities and so on. From a golf perspective, he’s a few months short of two years working with Sean Foley and has sustained some injuries during that time. I don’t expect him to return to 2000 vintage, but I think he deserves a chance to work into whatever he might become.

I’ve previously commented that I found it curious GolfChannel “Morning Drive” co-host Eric Kuselias took more time off than any other regular host on any TV show in recent memory. Now it appears via Stephanie Wei’s website that he’ll be off the show for good. GC host John Hawkins apparently leaked the story…

“Dick Nixon” is, of course, Kuselias, who isn’t exactly the most “likeable” person in the world, according to, well, everyone, including an NBC Sports higher-up. Credit the Hawk for cleverly implying that Kuselias has been “impeached.” (High-five!)

To be clear, Kuselias, a former ESPN personality whose contract wasn’t renewed in 2009, was not fired, according to Golf Channel spokesperson Dan Higgins.

“Erik has been working with the NBC Sports Network and been on assignment with ‘NBC Sports Talk,’ where he’s done a great job, so his focus is being shifted to that, instead of Morning Drive,” said Higgins via phone.

Part of the intrigue is that Kuselias has hooked up with GC hottie Holly Sonders, moved in together last December and recently got engaged.

According to Higgins, Golf Channel has not found a permanent replacement for Kuselias on MD and said they have yet to discuss potential candidates. Meanwhile, at TPC Sawgrass, there have been mumblings that Jimmy Roberts and Jerry Foltz are among the frontrunners or names in the mix.