Welcome to 2008. Same as 2007, in some circles.

For Sergio Garcia, "another year older" doesn't seem to have made much difference. Exactly 21 minutes into the Golf Channel's U.S. broadcast of the Dubai Desert Classic, the incredibly talented Spaniard showed little has changed from last year's tempestuous season.

Garcia hit a poor shot on a par-3 in the first round of the Dubai event, then turned and was heard whining on camera about a spectator who had moved during his swing -- despite the fact that the tee boxes are completely surrounded by chin-high billboards. The complaint, not so curiously, came a matter of seconds after he three-putted a green for par, badly missing a three-footer for birdie.

Same putting woes, same attitude. Bad combination, compadre.

Speaking of the carryover effect, the broadcast was less than an hour old when Tiger Woods moved into a share of the first-round lead with Sweden's relatively unknown Pelle Edberg, who regularly plays with an odd, spandex-type bandana on his head. Thursday, the bandana was red, making it look like he had suffered some sort of head wound. Edberg has his own Swedish-language website, which on Thursday had an item posted with the headline "Edberg vs. Tiger (in) Dubai." The first line of the story reads: Den här veckan avgörs den tredje raka Europatourtävlingen i Förenade Arabemiraten och i Dubai Desert Classic ställs Hook-spelaren Pelle Edberg mot självaste Tiger Woods.

Translated, it is believed to mean, "Annika would have a better chance of beating this dude than I would right now."

Up to his usual tricks, Woods drilled a drive so far down his 15th fairway of the day, it prompted playing partner Colin Montgomerie to crack, "That's reasonable."

Sort of like his opening, 7-under 65, which put him atop the end-of-the-day leaderboard for the fourth time in his five worldwide rounds in 2008.

• While others might disagree, there's a certain hypnotic rhythm to the Golf Channel's broadcasts from the European circuit compared to those in the U.S., where the latter seems intent to fill every second of on-air time with some sort of pithy comment or technological wrinkle.

The Euro Tour broadcasts are deliciously minimalist, and the crew lets the golf speak volumes. While that might not be enough to hold the attention of many fans during the weeks when guys like Woods and Ernie Els aren't playing, it's a beautiful change of pace.

The humor is far drier, too, a welcome change. Consider this exchange between the anchors in the first round, who were discussing the formal title change of the tour's money list into the "Race to Dubai" beginning in 2009, just as cameras showed the rapidly growing Dubai skyline in the distance.

Said Steve Beddow: "Is it the Race to Dubai or the Road to Dubai? You expect to see Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, leading a camel."

Quipped Warren Humphreys: "They can do a lot of things here, but I suspect they won't be able to quite manage that."

For the second time in the PGA Tour's three full-field events in 2008, guys who technically made the cut were sent packing on Friday at the Buick Invitational.

Under a new and controversial provision designed to keep the pace of play moving on weekends, a new rule was passed last fall a few days after the tournament at Disney World saw a stultifying 88 players make the weekend cut. Previously, the low 70 players and ties advanced, which often produced massive logjams on weekends. Now, the low 70 and ties advance unless there are more than 78 players in the total. In such instances, the cut number drops to the closest number to 70.

That trimmed 16 players from the field at the Sony Open in the second week of the season. Friday at the Buick Invitational, 19 players were pared after finishing in a tie for 67th at 1 over. The list included tour winners Chris DiMarco, Kenny Perry, San Diego native Charley Hoffman, Lucas Glover, Vaughn Taylor and Ben Crane.

All will receive an official-money check and FedEx Cup points as though they actually made the cut, but they won't get a shot at improving their station on the weekend. Most pundits have pointed out that players making the cut on the number have, in the past, pieced together hot weekends and eventually won.

In fact, in 2002, 85 players made the cut at the Buick Invitational and eventual winner Jose Maria Olazabal, who advanced on the number, caught fire with rounds of 67-65 on the weekend. However, it should be noted that in 2002, Olazabal was eight shots back in a more tightly packed field, versus the 13-stroke margin the guys who were bumped on Friday would have faced.

Tiger Woods, who is leading the tournament by four shots at 12 under, hardly provided a sympathetic shoulder.

"It's very simple, play better," Woods said. "If you hit the shots that you want to hit and hit them properly, then you won't have to worry about that."

Of course, Woods almost never misses cuts.

Added Woods: "I think what I've tried to talk to some of the guys and with the commissioner is that maybe the fields might be too big when you have daylight savings, because, obviously, we're trying to get the round finished.

"And we weren't finishing the top players weren't finishing on time, guys were finishing Saturday mornings or Friday mornings, their rounds, just because it was too slow. If you had any kind of fog delay, rain delay, guys aren't finishing, a frost delay in Phoenix, things like that happen."

SAN DIEGO -- As far as apologies go, the one issued Thursday by the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman appeared to be sincere and heartfelt. At least, what viewers could hear of it.

Tilghman, back as the lead anchor of the network broadcasts after serving a two-week suspension for uttering a distasteful remark with racial overtones, pre-recorded an apology that led off the coverage of the Buick Invitational at 3 p.m. ET.

That's when the mistakes began anew.

In a tight close-up that opened the broadcast, the first few seconds of Tilghman's apology, at least at the tour site in San Diego, came across as what TV types call dead air. Her lips were moving, but it was as though somebody had hit the mute button.

In other words, with two weeks to straighten out a mess that has often overwhelmed the coverage of the first three weeks of PGA Tour action, there was another gaffe.

A network publicist had to issue the text of Tilghman's complete statement: "I'm Kelly Tilghman. It's an honor to be with you again. In a recent live broadcast I used an inappropriate word that was offensive to many. Over the last two weeks, I have taken the time to reflect and truly understand the impact of what I said. While I did not intend to offend anyone, I understand why those words were hurtful. I am terribly sorry for any hurt that I have caused. I would like to express my deepest apologies."

For those who somehow missed the start of the long-running storyline, during the second round of the season opener, Tilghman took a stab at being funny and flippantly suggested that one way to stop Tiger Woods would be to "lynch him in a back alley." The remark prompted outrage in some quarters and multiple demands for her termination.

The network said it was not immediately clear whether Tilghman's statement was beamed all over the country without sound for the first few seconds, or whether the issue in San Diego was an isolated problem.

SAN DIEGO -- Tiger Woods did his best to put the Kelly Tilghman situation behind him, but since the Golf Channel still intends to put her in front of the camera, please stay tuned, as they say in network lingo.

The Golf Channel surely hopes you will.

The tour's 3-week-old racial issue continued to linger like a bad melodrama Wednesday, even as Woods reaffirmed that he bears no ill will toward Tilghman, who uttered a racially tinged remark about him three weeks ago at the 2008 season opener. But that hardly means the topic's shelf life has expired.

As Tilghman returns from a two-week, in-house suspension, the Golf Channel discussed making her available to media this week to address her misstep. But network officials instead declared her off-limits, a spokesman said, leaving Woods to deal with the fallout alone.

Last week, when it seemed the issue had begun to cool, the editor of Golfweek magazine was fired after the weekly placed a hangman's noose on the front cover as an attempt to illustrate the controversy.

"I thought the incident was pretty much handled and was over," Woods said Wednesday. "I talked to Kelly, we discussed it for a little bit. She felt extremely bad about what had happened. As I said earlier, she's been a great friend over the years, and everyone makes mistakes, and she certainly regrets what she said and what happened. "The Golfweek article, obviously the cover itself, just perpetuated it. It was over and handled between us, and we had moved on from it. But unfortunately Golfweek did what they did, and from there it created more of a firestorm."

So will the simultaneous resurfacing of Woods and Tilghman this week, actually. Tilghman will handle the anchor duties over the first two rounds of what will likely stand as the network's highest-rated broadcasts to date in 2008.

Either way, the distasteful subplot detracts from what otherwise stands as the true curtain-raiser for the 2008 season, with both Woods and world No. 2 Phil Mickelson making their first starts. No knock on Tilghman, who made an awful slip of the tongue with no apparent malice aforethought, but wouldn't it have been far more prudent for the Golf Channel to bench her for one more week, so that she wasn't coming out of the penalty box the same week that Woods is making his debut from a four-month layoff from official events?

Darned straight it would. Then again, maybe they have embraced the controversy to fuel the ratings. A spokesman said Tilghman is expected to clean up the mess when the first-round broadcast opens Thursday, shortly after 3 p.m. (ET).

Uh, that sounds like coming clean and getting dirty at the same time.

With Woods seeking his fourth consecutive Buick title on a course that will host the U.S. Open for the first time in June, it's a big week for the city and the sport. Commissioner Tim Finchem was on the grounds Wednesday, his first appearance at an event this year. The unwanted Golf Channel sideshow also shortchanged Buick, which paid $7 million to puts its name on the tournament. At the Golf Channel, poor judgment has been compounded by poor leadership.

Woods, meanwhile, is getting hammered for not being Martin Luther King in spiked shoes. Last week, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts wrote, "One has to wonder what it would take to get a rise out of this guy: burning crosses on his front lawn?"

Rob Parker of the Detroit News, appearing on ESPN, insisted that Woods "has a responsibility to respond to this."

Parker added: "Tiger Woods would rather be a pitchman than a man."

Woods, who has never been particularly political about anything, said he does plenty on the cultural front with his foundation, to which he has donated millions. Monday, which coincidentally marked the MLK holiday, he announced a new program to inspire kids to reach for their dreams.

"I am socially active every day of my life, and that's with my foundation, what I try to do with kids," Woods said evenly. "We bust our tails to try and give as many kids the opportunity to better their lives and go to college and teach them how to lead and give back. That's my directive, that's my focus. "I know there are people who want me to be a champion of all causes, and I just can't do that. This is not the first time this has happened. But I just know that what we're doing with the foundation right now has been pretty good, and we're looking forward to growing it globally and moving on from there."

Tour communications chief Ty Votaw said no pressure was brought to bear on the network to keep Tilghman on the bench for another week or so, until the tidal surge has passed. Maybe there should have been.

SAN DIEGO -- There's some compelling information this morning in the Los Angeles Times with regard to Tiger Woods' drawing power in your living rooms, and corporate boardrooms as well.

Everybody knows that Woods moves the public needle. But this much?

We don't delve much into the ratings issue here, primarily because CBS Sports broadcasts the majority of the PGA Tour events on free TV and it would feel self-indulgent, if not present a possible conflict of interest. But the ratings numbers from 2007 were more eye-popping than ever.

The Times report said: "Tournaments in which he finished in the top five had a 171 percent increase in CBS' ratings over those in which he did not play or wasn't in contention. The ratings were 4.6 compared with 1.7. In similar tournaments on NBC, the ratings increase was 59 percent, or 3.5 compared with 2.2. The two-network average showed an increase of 111 percent, or 4.0 compared with 1.9."

It leads to an interesting question -- is the tour too reliant on Woods, the No. 1 sports figure in the world? With title sponsors doling out $7 million for naming rights and assorted fees, do they have a right to expect that Woods will play more than 16 times per season, and occasionally enter their event? Well, yeah. But that doesn't mean they are going to get him.

"I think the PGA Tour is going to have some bumps in the road," Jack Vickers, who pulled the International event off the tour schedule last year because Woods wasn't playing, told the Times. "With sponsors, and getting the right field at tournaments. If Tiger isn't there, they get lousy ratings.

"And the result of that? At some point, I just don't think corporate America is going to continue to sponsor these tournaments unless they get better ratings, and better players, like the best one."

Vickers, a Denver-area millionaire, somewhat angrily and publicly yanked his event off the 2007 docket when Woods continually declined to show up. He dubbed the tour a veritable one-man show.

Then again, Woods is a relative pup of 32 years and is showing no signs of slowing down, so any crisis could be a decade or more down the road. Besides, what the heck can the tour or the major networks do? It's not like everybody wouldn't like to see a true rival emerge for Woods, somebody capable of throwing a scare into him on a consistent basis.

So far, and he has been out here a dozen years, none of the younger set has come close to dethroning him. Only older guys like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh -- all in their late 30s or older -- have occasionally bloodied his nose.

SAN DIEGO -- Phil Mickelson still can't breathe easy.

And it has nothing to do with Tiger Woods being in the field this week, either.

Still ailing from what are believed to be the after-effects of smoke inhalation from the October fires that ravaged his hometown of San Diego, Mickelson has spent the past three days in bed, receiving antibiotics to battle a throat condition that just won't go away.

Mickelson, a three-time champion at this week's Buick Invitational, first noted the throat issue while winning the HSBC tournament last fall in China. However, he said Tuesday that he plans to play in the tournament's pro-am and conduct a practice session with coach Butch Harmon on Wednesday.

"I'm feeling much, much better," Mickelson said through his publicist. "I'm happy about that and looking forward to working with Butch to make sure everything's in order for this week.

Many homes in Mickelson's neighborhood burned to the ground in the wind-blown fires, but the area around Torrey Pines Golf Course wasn't affected. Torrey will also play host to its first U.S. Open in June.

Mickelson and Woods are making their 2008 debuts this week. In all, the Buick field includes 11 of the top 30 players in the world, a bit of a disappointment given that it's hosting the Open in five months.

Mickelson has played in the Torrey Pines event for 17 straight years, including twice as an amateur. He won in 1993, 2000 and 2001. Woods is seeking his fourth straight Torrey title this week.

Mickelson's victory in 2000 ended a six-tournament winning streak by Woods dating to the previous season.

He better find his wind in a hurry, since this marks the busiest stretch of the year for Lefty, who plans to play five weeks in succession in Phoenix, Pebble Beach, Los Angeles and the World Match Play events.

Longtime tour player Chris Couch, who won by chipping in on the final hole in New Orleans in 2006, is on the shelf after undergoing shoulder surgery, but could return as early as the Florida Swing events, his former University of Florida teammate Paul Tesori said.

Tesori, a longtime caddie who has worked for Vijay Singh and Sean O'Hair, said Couch suffered from wear and tear often associated with the game and finally elected to have the injury, to his left shoulder, cleaned up. Couch had numerous injections over the years, but it merely masked the issue.

"He's recovering about as fast as I've ever seen anybody recover," Tesori said.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Pardon the choice of words, but the imagery is of their own making.

For Golfweek magazine, the noose tightened on Thursday.

One day after the controversial cover artwork on Golfweek became the hottest topic in golf, a top PGA Tour official said that some of its advertising scheduled to run in the publication might be pulled.

This week's cover image on the magazine is a hangman's noose, a provocative reference to the live comments uttered on the air Jan. 4 by Golf Channel broadcaster Kelly Tilghman, which caused a firestorm in golf circles. Already this week, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka have expressed either disappointment or outrage at the decision to feature such a controversial and racially sensitive image on one of the game's largest publications.

Jack Peter, an official with the PGA Tour whose duties include running the World Golf Village in nearby St. Augustine, said tour officials on Thursday told Golfweek representatives that advertising might be withdrawn because of the tour's discomfort over the noose issue.

Peter said approximately $50,000 in ads for the World Golf Village might be canceled, creating the possibility that other advertisers could follow suit. He described the Thursday meeting with Golfweek representatives, which had been scheduled long before the cover-image controversy erupted this week, as "awkward."

"We have an (advertising ) agreement in place, but the contract has not been signed," Peter said. "I don't know that I am comfortable going forward with it."

Let's see a show of e-mail hands.

Is this worse than the original offense?

Traditionally conservative Golfweek magazine, one of the game's two national weekly magazines, is courting considerable controversy by putting an image of a hangman's noose on its next edition.

As civil rights activists grumble over Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman's comment Jan. 4 about Tiger Woods, the magazine is unveiling a series of follow-up stories on the issue, which includes feedback from former network broadcaster Ben Wright, who was canned by CBS several years ago for making sexist comments and lying about it to his superiors.

But is emphasizing the noose, given its racist connotations and galling symbolism, a form of intentional journalistic pandering?

"There was a great deal of debate over it," Golfweek editor Dave Seanor said Wednesday of the magazine's in-house deliberations. "But it was the news of the week, no question about it. That's what everybody in the game is talking about."

Tilghman, in a freewheeling and unscripted exchange regarding Tiger Woods' dominance with color analyst Nick Faldo, suggested flippantly that players could "lynch him (Woods) in a back alley." She has been suspended for two weeks, though it remains unclear when and in what capacity she will make her return.

Since the matter didn't come to light for several days, the magazine included only a few paragraphs on the Tilghman gaffe in its Jan. 12 edition. The Golfweek cover image is accompanied by the headline, Caught in a Noose.

That's surely one way to garner attention on an issue that's nearly two weeks old. Seanor said the magazine is prepared for the backlash. Staff members have reported receiving several phone calls from readers already.

"Clearly, what Kelly said was inappropriate and unfortunate and she obviously regrets her choice of words,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement Wednesday. "But we consider Golfweek's imagery of a swinging noose on its cover to be outrageous and irresponsible. It smacks of tabloid journalism. It was a naked attempt to inflame and keep alive an incident that was heading to an appropriate conclusion."

The thing is, no matter where the tour, fans, readers and viewers stand on the matter of whether Tilghman should be fired, the provocative image of the noose is viewed almost universally as repulsive. True enough, Seanor said.

"That's the word, that's the image," Seanor said. "We're trying to add some perspective to it."

They've added some kerosene, too.

How about that playoff upheaval, huh?

No, not football. A massive overhaul is in the works for the PGA Tour's version of postseason play, the FedEx Cup series, at the first-round site of the Barclays event.

Westchester Country Club, tucked away in a tony New York suburb, is apparently on its way out after four decades as a tour site, and it could turn into an ugly scenario. The club has a six-year deal with the tour, which has offered a $1 million buyout with an eye on relocating this fall's event to New Jersey's classically styled Ridgewood Country Club.

Westchester officials feel betrayed, since the tour reportedly was talking with Ridgewood behind the scenes even as negotiations about making some tweaks at Westchester for 2008 were moving forward in good faith. Adding another bit of intrigue, the New York Times has reported that CBS Sports put pressure on the tour to move the event. Then again, the tour could be using CBS as a scapegoat with Westchester, just to deflect the blame elsewhere.

But on the chance that CBS is involved in the scenario, it's not particularly hard to understand why, at least in the abstract. Hey, I'm just a lowly footsoldier in the CBS army, but consider these salient and mostly objective points:

1. The Barclays is CBS Sports' lone "playoff" event. While CBS is the biggest carrier of golf on the mainstream (free) networks with 21 events, NBC has the rights to three of the four FedEx events among its 11 tournaments.

2. Tiger Woods skipped the Barclays event and has played the tournament three times in his career. Though he has not explicitly criticized the tight and twisty Westchester course, he skipped the event there even when it was sponsored by Buick, with whom he has a massive endorsement deal. A move to another course can't hurt the chances that he'll play this year, and his involvement is crucial to the FedEx Cup's credibility, not to mention that of CBS. 3. Be it a so-called playoff opener or not, there were few fans last fall on the Westchester course, which is remote and largely inaccessible to fans from outside the area. The final group on Sunday was followed by perhaps 300 on the front nine, ridiculously low numbers that do not engender excitement in a TV broadcast.

4. Presumably, because Woods wasn't playing, the New York-area papers barely covered the event, and national coverage was even thinner. 5. Despite a solid Sunday finish featuring several top players and emotional winner Steve Stricker, the Little League World Series drew a better weekend ratings number than did the Barclays. For a fallback plan, Ridgewood sounds pretty good. Located in Paramus and built by legendary A.W. Tillinghast (Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Bethpage Black), Ridgewood has been the site of a Ryder Cup, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship over the years.

The way I see it, if CBS officials are not trying to convince the tour that a site change is needed, perhaps they ought to be. Barclays should be leading the charge, too, because given what they paid in rights fees -- somewhere around $8 million -- what was promised by the tour was not delivered in either impact or import.

Tour events at Westchester date to Jack Nicklaus' win in the inaugural event in 1967, and ever since it has become part of the tour's annual fabric. But if fans don't buy tickets for a splashy FedEx event featuring most of the best players in the world, then what's the point of prolonging the suffering?

If relocating produces a better field, more foot traffic, happier title sponsors and better TV ratings, then pack up the moving van.

Starting this week in Honolulu, there's a new kind of rules official making the rounds on the PGA Tour, and they are outlining penalties that could be far steeper than a one-shot assessment levied during live action.

Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday that the tour has hired a group of experts from Drug Free Sport to council players on the details of the tour's new drug-doping policy, set to be implemented July 1.

"Our major focus is to get all the players to the point where they don't make a mistake that could lead to a positive test after July 1," Finchem said.

Handbooks on testing have already been distributed to players, a 24-hour hotline has been established and a mandatory education session will be held in two weeks at the Buick Invitational. But Finchem said the counselors will be at tour events on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to answer questions relating to banned substances, penalties and whatever else might be on the minds of players.

It marks the first drug policy in tour history, so Finchem anticipates plenty of confusion from players and is attempting to reduce the chances that anybody tests positive accidentally, or out of sheer ignorance. The tour is going beyond thorough on the matter. No players will have any excuses.

"There have never been any rules in the past," he said.

Technically, illegal street drugs have been banned under the old tour policy, but there's never been any testing. Given all of the additives in vitamins and health drinks, Finchem said players need to understand the risks and pitfalls if any appear on the banned-substance list.

"If a player wants to come in and sit down and talk through his own special regimen, what he eats, what he takes, what vitamins, or whatever questions he wants to ask, those personnel will be available," Finchem said.

For months, there existed a widely held notion that the field for the Buick Invitational later this month would feature more horsepower than ever before, because host course Torrey Pines is serving as the site of the 108th U.S. Open in June and top players surely needed to get an early looksee. Sound logical, right?

Turns out we were we way O.B. on that one.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the field for the Buick on Jan 24-27 is about the same as it ever was.

To date, six players in the world top 25 have committed -- hardly the blinding array of star wattage many anticipated.

With Southern California natives Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson making their 2008 debuts at the event, Buick organizers again have secured commitments from the two biggest drawing cards in the game -- they have claimed six Buick titles between them. But otherwise, many other top players have stayed away, presumably for a trio of reasons:

Time, travel and money.

Maybe that last point should be listed first. Because of the emergence of the European Tour's Desert Swing through Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai, where top players can command appearance fees, the international presence at the Buick has waned. British Open champion Padraig Harrington, who had committed to the Buick, withdrew this week. Sergio Garcia, who played alongside Woods in the final group on Sunday at Torrey Pines in 2006, also isn't playing in San Diego for the second straight year.

Criss-crossing an ocean and a dozen time zones to play on bumpy winter greens in California has lost its luster for many top pros like Ernie Els, who is skipping the PGA Tour’s entire West Coast Swing. Most of the top contenders for the Open have played Torrey Pines in the past, too.

Oddly, only one of the last five players to win a U.S. Open title has committed to the Buick, world No. 4 Jim Furyk. Woods, the 2002 U.S. Open champion, stands as the only winner of one of last year's major titles to enter the Buick.

Open mikes, open mouths and unscripted hours of filling mostly mundane airtime can be a rough combination during a live golf broadcast, as the Golf Channel has learned in its 53 weeks as the PGA Tour's primary broadcast network.

During second-round coverage of the tour's season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship last week, analyst Kelly Tilghman offered a racially tinged remark in jest, stating that younger players on tour should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley."

Tilghman apologized over the weekend and has also communicated her unfortunate choice of words, first reported by Newsday, to Woods' representatives, the network said. Woods is part African-American.

Said the company in a statement attributed to nobody in particular: "We regret if any viewers were offended by Kelly's choice of words on Friday's telecast. She has communicated her apology to Tiger, as well as publicly to viewers on the air."

Tilghman for years has enjoyed a solid -- not to mention personally lucrative -- relationship with Woods. She has been hired in the past to emcee his clinics and personal corporate appearances staged by Nike or other entities.

A rarity in her field, Tilghman stands as the nation's lone lead female play-by-play analyst in a major men's sport. She started as the network's lead analyst, seated in the main booth alongside six-time major-championship winner Nick Faldo, last year.

Even before the Woods gaffe, the largely male golf television audience has often been tough on Tilghman, based on comments made on various blog sites and community posting boards. She played on the golf team at Duke and enjoyed an undistinguished career as a tour professional before moving into broadcasting. She began her career at the Golf Channel as a low-level employee working in the videotape archives room.

Reviews of the Golf Channel's maiden voyage in 2007 as the tour's lead network were mostly mixed, but the outlet's female commentators have surely been keeping it lively. Last year, Golf Channel analyst Dottie Pepper thought she was in a commercial break during a Golf Channel telecast of the Solheim Cup when she called the American players "choking dogs," a reference that was, in fact, broadcast live.

Whether Woods was made aware of the comment wasn't clear. An e-mail to Woods' agent wasn't immediately returned, but the world No. 1 has been known to remember personal slights for years and to carry them around like his caddie hoists his golf bag.

Woods has had skirmishes with broadcasters in the past, including CBS Sports analyst Peter Kostis, who was critical of Woods' swing changes a few years back. Woods declined to conduct interviews with Kostis for several weeks.

Faldo, who also works for CBS Sports, also drew Woods' ire three years ago for comments made on the air in San Diego regarding his swing tweaks.