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How about some success for David Duval in 2010. “Double D” threatened at The US Open and moved up over 600 places in The World Golf Rankings in 2009.

It would be great to see Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood win a major. Westwood has been playing so well world-wide it may be his time. It would be great if Sergio won just so he could stop whining.

Here’s wishing that the LPGA can catch a break and they can utilize the connections and enthusiasm that new commissioner, Michael Whan brings to the table.

If the LPGA is to thrive, Michelle Wie will be a vital part. Let’s hope she continues to mature as a person and a golfer. If so, she’ll bring plenty of excitement to the tour.

I’d love to see more of Erik Compton on the tours, be it PGA or Nationwide. This guy deserves a sponsor’s invite to every tournament. He’d bring much good will and publicity to any tourney smart enough to invite him.

While we are rooting for the underdog…we have to throw John Daly in there also. Let’s hope (not so) Big John Daly will continue his comeback with some good play on tour. He’ll also be able to give Tiger some advice on coming back from rock bottom.

I’m hoping Stacy Lewis wins on the LPGA in 2010. Here’s another great personal comeback story. She never missed a LPGA outing to a hospital or food bank or any chance to try and give back.

I am assuming that sometime there will be an end to the Tiger Woods mess. At some point he’ll be playing again, he may be single, or playing with a chastity belt on, but he’ll be back. Let’s hope he comes back, answers the questions, and gets on with the golf.

We can look forward to Rory McIlroy playing full time on the PGA Tour. He’ll bring a talent, imagination and excitement that will shake up the young American players.

Here’s wishing that Phil Mickelson’s wife and mom are healthy and Phil continues his wonderful play that won him two tournaments at the end of 2009. Phil can win a pair of majors, take home a half dozen PGA Tour titles and smile his way to number one in the world. That would be just what the PGA Tour needs.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

If you have read anything about Tiger’s mom you know that she was the disciplinarian in the family and was always describes as the “tough one.” It was his mom that passed on that killer instinct to Tiger. Now the NY Post has a story saying that Kutilda Woods is furious at Tiger and his behavior. You know you screwd up when you pissed your mom off.

Stephanie Wei of Wei Under Par has unearthed a video of Paddy Harrington on a talk show, talking Tiger and getting a few laughs.  You can see the whole interview here. Paddy starts at about the 32 minute mark.

Here’s a break from Tiger-Gate and a chance to hear from the Greatest Golfer in History. Tiger may eventually pass Jack’s major record but off the course there’s no competition.

The Golf Writers of Association of America has announced their Players of the Year. Loren Roberts won for The Champions Tour, Jiyai Shin for the LPGA Tour and Tiger Woods ran away with the PGA Tour award. Tiger garnered 84% of the votes and it is the tenth time he has won. There is no truth to the rumor that they will change the name of the award to the “Playa of the Year” for Tiger.

The Wall Street Journal details the secret deal between the National Enquirer and Tiger which landed him on the front of Men’s Fitness Magazine in 2007. According to the WSJ, the photos the Enquirer had of Tiger and Mindy Lawton getting friendly in a parking lot in Orlando “were so poorly lit that it was nearly impossible to tell what the couple was doing in the parking lot, says one person who saw the pictures.” The Enquirer and its parent company appears to have bluffed Woods and his people into the cover and interview. It was the largest selling Men’s Fitness ever and the pictures that would have busted Tiger then, never saw the light of day.

Tim Finchem showed he does have a sense of humor during his state of the tour conference call on Thursday. He was flattered by the Saturday Night Live skit but swears he doesn’t use a flask. He said the tour had a strong year and will be strong in 2010 even without Tiger Woods. The Tour will even try a little 3-D Telecast during the Sony Open. I guess you have to try something to get those Tiger fans to tune in.

Tiger Woods was voted AP Athlete of the Decade yesterday but that was the only good news for Tiger. Reports have Elin making preparations for a divorce and moving out of the house. Another woman came out of the woodwork to add her name to Tiger’s hit list. It looks like Tiger might have been spending plenty of cash to keep his women quiet. MSNBC/NYDaily News reports that Woods was paying off his women to the tune of $5,000-$20,000 a month to keep them quiet. Whose record was Tiger Chasing? Jack Nicklaus or Wilt Chamberlain?

by Jeff Skinner

We thought the Tiger Woods fiasco was bottoming out after the list of porn stars and hostesses grew to about a dozen or so but we were wrong. The New York Times reports that a doctor who treated Tiger during his rehab last year is under investigation for distributing illegal performance enhancing drugs. If we heard about this three weeks ago we could pass it off but with the revelation that Tiger has been leading a double life it’s hard not to think the worst. Since Thanksgiving wherever there was smoke, fire wasn’t far away and this could be another bonfire for Tiger.

One of the questions many are asking is “How did he keep all of this a secret?” With all the agents, handlers, and hangers-on in the Woods camp someone had to know of Tiger’s behavior. In the LA Times, Robin Abcarian asks that same question of John Feinstein who is convinced someone in Tiger’s camp knew. “I wish I had some brilliant theory, because that’s been the big question to me,” Woods is so reluctant to reveal personal information, said Feinstein, that the writer considered it a triumph when he coaxed out of Woods the relatively trivial fact that he was a registered independent. Still, Feinstein believes that Woods’ inner circle must have known he was straying.
“I can’t see how his agent or caddie could not have known,” said Feinstein. “It’s his agent’s job to know what the heck the guy was doing. If he didn’t know, he should be fired.”

On Colin Cowherd’s ESPN Radio program, (click here, then on the show with Reilly) Rick Reilly takes the agents at IMG to task for letting Woods get out of control. In respect to the report on the performance enhancing drugs Reilly says you have “to question everything now.” He also says he doesn’t believe Steve Williams for one second when he says he knew nothing of Tiger’s affairs. Reilly says Williams and Woods are together all the time on planes, staying in the same hotels or houses and he is just protecting his man.

You can’t say that Steve Williams isn’t a good bag man. He protects his man no matter what. Williams says a few things in this video that I have to laugh at. First he says, “I have no idea what Tiger does off the course” and he goes on to say that “Tiger was so gracious with the media” all these years. Are you kidding me Steve? Tiger is anything but gracious with the media and nobody believes you weren’t in the know.

by Jeff Skinner

Bobby Jones once said, “Competitive golf is mainly played on a five and a half inch course…the space between your ears.” Anyone who has played golf and tried to improve their game can attest to the accuracy of Jones’s statement. This game is more mental than physical. During a round of golf it is estimated that only five per cent of the time we spend on the course is the physical act of swinging. That leaves too much time for our minds to take over and screw up any chance we had at maintaining a good swing and a positive state of mind.

The mental game of golf is often overlooked by many golfers. We are too willing to spend money on the latest high-tech equipment in an effort to try and improve when we have the capacity to get a better game without parting with a bunch of cash for that new driver. It is the mental game, our state of mind as we play and practice that can help us much more than any new equipment.

I recently listened to an audio program designed to help us with our mental game. “Golf State of Mind” is an audio CD that offers mental strategies and routines to help improve our games. “The Golf State of Mind is a teaching program designed to show golfers the most effective way to discover their true potential. Through learning powerful techniques to visualize, feel and trust your ability, good golf will become an automated sub-conscious process. You will discover the power of your golf mind.”

David MacKenzie is a mental coach and in his “Golf State of Mind” CD, he offers plenty of advice on how to improve your mental state to enable you to play better golf and improve your scores. MacKenzie knows his stuff and he references a few of my favorites during the program, Harvey Penick, Dr. Bob Rotella and Jack Nicklaus.

One of MacKenzie’s practice drills involves hitting balls with a “clear vision” of the ball flight and to be more concerned with the feel of the shot, even to the point of closing your eyes. He also suggests hitting the same club different distances and being aware of the feel of each stroke. I consider myself a feel player and I loved his drills.

I am a big believer in the mental game ruling the physical game on the golf course. MacKenzie’s Golf State of Mind will certainly help you learn the finer points of controlling your mental state and should help your scores. It’s another tool we can use to master those five and a half inches between our ears.

by Jeff Skinner

Today starts day one of a new era for Tiger Woods. When Accenture announced that it was dropping Tiger as its main endorser it signaled a new phase for Woods and his team to deal with. This is the first time a sponsor actually left Woods because of his image. GM ended their association with Woods for financial reasons as bankruptcy loomed but Accenture’s departure was different. Accenture said Sunday the golfer is “no longer the right representative” after the “circumstances of the last two weeks.” Amen to that. Right now Woods isn’t the “right representative” for anything but lying and cheating.

How a man can fall so far so fast is amazing. Before the Thanksgiving crash, Woods was untouchable. He had risen to a place few men had ever been. He was a popular, powerful and influential as any politician, celebrity or athlete had ever been. He had cultivated an image that portrayed him as more than just the most dominant athlete ever. He was the hardest working man in sport. His ability to focus under pressure was legendary. He could intimidate players, fans and the press just by showing up. Off the course he was a one man conglomerate. Companies lined up to hand him millions for his image and the right to tie their business to his perfectly honed image. At home he had a devoted wife, two young children and lived a life most people could only dream about. We all bought it; we all thought he was as advertised. We all were wrong.

As Alistair Tait says in Golfweek,” We were sold a myth. Instead all we got was a well-worn cliché: Another brilliant sportsperson whose real life doesn’t even come close to resembling the myth.”

I was guilty of buying the myth. Like millions of golf fans I marveled at Tiger on the golf course. His skills, focus and his record combined to give him a special aura. As Woods chased down Jack’s major count, I wanted to see him at every major. I wanted to see this man who Earl Woods molded and claimed that he “would change the world.” I got my chance this year when I walked inside the ropes with Tiger at the Deutsche Bank Championship. During that time I was able to see the myth up close and in person, not just what the cameras show us on television. What I saw was the most determined and focused golfer on the course. I came away with an even greater respect for Woods after seeing him up close. He could execute the best shots no matter the circumstances and he wasn’t the robot that people thought he was. He smiled, laughed and interacted with the crowd: he was human after all.

Most of us had no reason not to accept the image that Woods had shown us. Unless you were with Woods when he was committing his “transgressions” we saw a man with few major flaws. The two biggest complaints about Tiger were his temper on the course (big deal) and that he was apolitical. I respected his refusal to get political because I can’t stand it when celebrities preach to me and well, I’ve been known to swear a little on the course myself. I bought Tiger’s image hook, line and sinker.

That’s what makes this betrayal so difficult to believe. Was it naïve to believe what we were told about Woods? Were we too anxious to want a hero, a superhero? Were we duped by Woods and his team? I guess the answer has to be yes. I was naïve. I wanted a golfing hero. I was duped. I actually believe people are honest and I tend to believe that what they are telling me is the truth. I have been burned by it before and I am sure I’ll be fooled again. But that’s my choice. I choose to live honestly and look for the good in most people.

Tiger’s decision to take a hiatus from golf and the spotlight appears to be a good move. If he actually is trying to rebuild his marriage and his family I wish him the best. However, who’s to know what the real reason for this break is. This could be part of the “Team Tiger Plan” to rebuild his image and take the heat off the biggest “cheater” in golf. After being burned by Woods in the past, how can we ever trust what he says again? Tiger will be back and he’ll probably be as dominant on the course as before. But from now on he’s just a golfer. He’s not a hero and he’s not a role model. He’s what we golfers dislike the most: a cheater.

Congrats to Michelle Wie for continuing her great play at The Dubai Ladies Masters. Wie shot a seven under 65 to vault up the leader board and finish second to In Kyung Kim. Kim finished at -18 with Wie three back at -15. Wie’s play bodes well for the upcoming LPGA season.

Tiger continues to be the number one story in sports and the tabloids. Here’s a clip from NBC’s Dateline that aired on Friday night. Josh Mankiewicz interviews a club hostess who is familiar with Rachel Uchitel and tells her story of why the story leaked out. She says it was a little bit of revenge.

One of the most vocal and visible of Tiger’s women is Jamie Jungers. She lets Tiger have it during a Today Show interview with Meredith Vieira. She says she got nothing out of this “relationship” except a broken heart. I think she also got a little bit more than her fifteen minutes of fame.

Tiger Woods has finally made a good decision. Over the past years it appears that Woods has made hundreds of horrible decisions which he is paying for now. His decision to take a hiatus from golf and focus on trying to rebuild his family is the first smart move he made since he cracked up his Cadillac. Woods actually mentions “infidelity” for the first time in the statement on his website. It may be a step in the right direction for Woods and his wife to rebuild their family. Tiger’s statement:

I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try.

I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What’s most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing.

After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.

Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period.

NBC’s Dateline profiled Tiger’s trouble and some of his girlfriends on Friday night. With the depth and frequency of Tiger’s affairs, it’s almost impossible to believe that those around him and his so-called friends weren’t aware of his habits. Elin Woods must be a very forgiving woman to want to try and fix an obviously broken and flawed Tiger.

Check out my advice to Tiger and Elin back in February when they were adding to their family and when Tiger’s image was that of a caring father.