Tough autumn in the world of golf.

LPGA founder Patty Berg dies at 88. Legendary Byron Nelson, his swing and his soul of unquestionable quality, passes away at 94. Beloved Arnold Palmer officially grounds his windmill finish and retires from competitive golf at age 77. Arnie’s Army is decommissioned.

Next, you’ll tell the TOUR Insider that Jack Nicklaus is hanging up the spikes.

Oh, never mind …

Guess we could use a little magic, so perhaps it’s good for the PGA TOUR to head to suburban Orlando and the Magic Kingdom. The FUNAI Classic at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort is the third to last event on the schedule, but it comes at seemingly the perfect time, when we all could benefit from taking a deep breath and then taking stock.

Sure, the end of the season nears, and there is much to play for and plenty of pressure to go with it. Maybe it’s best to think about Berg’s determination, Nelson’s grace, Palmer’s deft human touch, which, thankfully, we’ll still get to witness in other capacities, even if he doesn’t grace the field.

Plenty of inspiration for the 144 players to mull as they step onto Disney’s Palm and Magnolia Courses. Plenty of money to play for, too, $4.6 million. You can thank the aforementioned trio and the many other great players of previous generations.

A small world after all? Seems a little smaller now.

Last year: Lucas Glover birdied the final two holes – a 40-foot putt from the fringe and a 35-foot bunker shot – to capture his first PGA TOUR title. Glover, who closed with a 7-under 65, was among 10 players who had a chance to win over the final four holes. "I was trying to get it close and hope for the best, and the stinker went in,” said Glover, who finished at 23-under-par 265, to beat Tom Pernice Jr. by a stroke. Pernice had a chance to tie but missed a 15-foot birdie putt. Needing birdie on the last for a tie, Geoff Ogilvy bogeyed to tie for third with four others.

How he did it: By going low, then lower and lower. Glover improved his score three out of four rounds and equaled his second-round 66 with another in round 3. The key was hitting lots of greens (76.4 percent) and putting, which yielded 26 birdies, second most in the field, and also helped him stave off bogeys. He made just three in ranking sixth in total putting.

Strange but true: Tiger Woods, owner of six straight PGA TOUR wins, is skipping the FUNAI Classic at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort, which he won in 1999 in the midst of his first winning streak of six that straddled the ’99 and 2000 seasons.

Strange and also true: Gotta be coincidence, but according to the Associated Press, Woods has a streak of three tournaments in which he has not returned the year after missing the cut. The streak dates back to the 1997 Canadian Open and includes this week’s Disney stop.

True and only somewhat strange: Arnold Palmer has played tournament golf for 56 years – or the combined ages of the last two winners of the FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World (Glover, 26, and Ryan Palmer, 30).

Worth knowing:

• Vijay Singh, winner at Disney in 2003, shot four rounds over par at his last start, the World Golf Championships-American Express Championship at The Grove in Hertfordshire, England. He tied for 56th in what was his first tournament since the 1998 U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco that he had gone 72 holes without shooting par or better in at least one round.

• John Daly withdrew from the Frys.com Open in Las Vegas with one hole to play in his second round due to an injured forefinger on his right hand. He was 4-over par at the time after opening with a 69. No word on if it will be his last start of 2006.

• Late season events seem to suit the uninitiated well. The last three winners in Vegas were breakthrough champions. Three of the last four Disney tilts have resulted in a first-time winner.

• The FUNAI Classic champion hasn’t led outright after 54 holes since Jose Coceres in 2001. Three of the last four winners – Lucas Glover, Ryan Palmer and Bob Burns – trailed by two or more strokes entering the final round.

• Davis Love III put a new generation of Titleist Pro V1x ball in play in winning the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. Now he goes to Disney, where he twice has been runner-up, in 1998 and 2001, and has five top-5 finishes, including his last appearance in 2003.

• Veterans John Cook and Paul Azinger, seeking to regain their cards, are in the Disney field, ranking 126th and 122nd, respectively, on the money list. Cook is in on a sponsor’s exemption for his 23rd entry. He has three top 5s since his first appearance in 1980. Azinger has five top 5s, including four in a row from 1988-91.

TI’s power ranking for the FUNAI Classic at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort: 1. Lucas Glover, 2. Davis Love III, 3. Tom Pernice, Jr., 4. Trevor Immelman, 5. Bubba Watson.

Parting shot: “After he putted out I grabbed his ball and took the Sharpie out of my back pocket. While he still had the Sharpie I asked him to sign the glove, too. (But) we didn’t take his shoes.” – Lee Trevino, who played with Arnold Palmer during what turned out to be Palmer’s final competitive round at the Administaff Small Business Classic last week in Spring, Texas.