A scheduling nightmare of Olympic proportions

“I can’t win answering that,” Player said. “Tommy Bolt said, `If you say the wrong thing, you get on the front page. If you say the right thing, you get on back page.’”

Player opted for somewhere in the middle.

“Obviously, you must have that ambition,” Player said. “I really don’t think that he knows how tough it is. Colin is a wonderful golfer. … I expect him to win majors.”

He just didn’t say anything about Monty, who turns 50 next June, winning them all.

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DIVOTS: The board of the Official World Golf Ranking decided to leave the system alone for now. There had been discussion to give winners of the major championships more than 100 points. The next two highest-rated events this year were The Players Championship (80 points) and the World Golf Championship at Doral, which awarded 78 points to the winner. Doral, along with the other WGCs, has a limited field of about 80 players, compared with 156 players at all the majors except the Masters.

With his 68-68 weekend, Ernie Els set the British Open record with most career rounds in the 60s at 39. Nick Faldo had 37 sub-70 rounds. … Dave Kindred, whose sports journalism career includes work for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has been selected as the 2013 Memorial Golf Journalism honoree. Kindred, who now contributes to Golf Digest, will be recognized at the Memorial next year at Muirfield Village.

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STAT OF THE WEEK: The 54-hole leader has failed to win 11 of the last 14 majors.

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FINAL WORD: “Good players travel well anywhere they play.” _ Jason Dufner.

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