This week's PGA tournament at Torrey Pines in San Diego, the Buick Invitational, is typically where Tiger Woods begins his play for any given year. Of course, that was mostly due to his sponsorship with Buick, which is no more. Maybe we'll actually see him at the Mercedes championship someday. Anyway, ratings will be down, and not much buzz was seen at Torrey with no Tiger, but is that a good thing?

I love watching Tiger play golf, but what I love more is a competitive golf tournament. Watching Tiger win by 5 shots on a course that obviously suits him very well... kind of boring. I enjoyed this week's contest a bit more, since, as usual, the leader slipped and let almost 5 guys back into contention. 2 guys playing a reachable par 5, tied for the lead, to win? That's good stuff. Congrats to Nick Watney for holding up in the end, and for validating the win he had in New Orleans a few years ago.

A few notes on the tournament: Is it just me, or does it hurt to watch Camilo Villegas swing? I love his game, but yikes! He's like the anti-Ernie Els. That violent move he makes at the ball through impact... I'm not sure he can keep that up as he gets older. I forsee some swing changes for Camilo down the road, or his #1 sponsor will be Advil.

Of course, he always hits the ball solid... did you see Luke Donald shank his tee shot on the par 3 8th hole? Wow. Donald has one of the prettiest swings in the game, just a classic move, but here just cold shanked it. Is it wrong of me to love seeing that now and again? I know it's sadistic, but seeing a tour pro hit such a rotten golf shot gives the rest of us hope, I think. Plus, Luke made $160,000 this week, so I think he'll be fine.

Another shocking thing to see this week was Retief Goosen... putting with a belly putter? Really? One of the smoothest putting strokes in the game has wavered that much? To quote David Fehrety, if you do not have a belly, you should not be allowed to use a belly putter. So either smooth that stroke out, Retief, or hit the IHOP all-you-can-eat flapjacks deal for a few weeks in a row.

Finally, you have to feel for John Rollins. Again, he'll have the $575,000 he made to salve his wounds, but losing is always hard, especially when you give it away like he seemed to. If I heard correctly during the telecast, he has never won going into the final round with the lead. He's always won (twice) coming from behind. You would think having the lead would be easier, but a lot of times it is not. After making eagle on #13, he all of a sudden went from aggressive to protecting the lead... which can turn into trying not to lose instead of trying to win. In the end, though, I can't root for a John Rollins. Why? He plumb-bobs every putt! Hey, grampa, knock that off. If you need a better read, have Camilo teach you his laying on the green thing he does. Man, that looks like it hurts too! Everything that guy does is painful. Even the painter's cap he wears to play golf in.

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