• What to make of Adam Scott's woes? Scott missed 10 cuts in 18 starts in 2009 and rumor has it that his right knee, which he hurt while surfing at the end of 2008, was interfering with his swing more than he let on. Retief Goosen has another explanation: "Scotty's still young and he has a lot of hot chicks on his mind," says Goosen. "I'm sure once he gets over that his game will be back."
• Players are perplexed by the new V-groove rules that go into effect in 2010. The party line is that the change will hurt bombers because it's going to take away spin from the rough inside 100 yards. But Paul Goydos disagrees: "Technology lets the less-skilled players get closer to the more-skilled ones." So it'll be even harder to catch Tiger? "Yes," Goydos says. "It won't be any harder for Phil to catch him, or Ernie. But you'll have to be more precise with your golf swing. It won't help me."
• Crazy 9s. Gary Christian won the Nationwide Tour's Northeast Pennsylvania Classic in late August in a nine-hole, not-so-sudden-death playoff over Mathias Gronberg. They played the 435-yard 18th hole for more than two hours before Christian birdied from five feet while Gronberg bogeyed in near darkness. The nine-hole playoff (best headline: "81 is the new 72") tied the Tour record, and came just over a month after Mark Calcavecchia broke the PGA Tour record for most consecutive birdies with nine at the RBC Canadian Open. Which was more amazing? "Playing the 18th hole nine times, for sure," says PGA Tour pro Jonathan Byrd. "Calc's got a lot of records on Tour."
• He's won two of the last four, but Geoff Ogilvy might not make the weekend rounds of the 2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play. He and his wife are expecting their third child in mid-February. "There's a chance I'll be on the course and Juli will call and I'll have to walk off," Ogilvy says. He doesn't know if the next will be a boy or a girl, only that the couple will soon have a full sleeve of kids, with Phoebe Elizabeth and Jasper Michael. "This will be it," Geoff says.
