It does play a role. It's worth noting that Tiger changed an "anti-workout" culture that had been the rule in golf previously - similar to the ethic that once was prevalent in baseball (I hear). I've played golf competitively (decades ago, not terribly successfully) but not baseball so I can't speak to the latter.

Fatigue can affect the execution of the shot, be it the drive that hooks into the woods or the 3-foot putt that lips out. More importantly, it can affect the selection of the shot - a tired mind might try to blast that drive over the hazard when a less tired mind squelches the pride and lays up short. In both cases, fatigue gets first and foremost at concentration. You run up and down the basketball court for two hours - when the red light lets you :(. You're on the golf course for five hours - more when you play extra holes - and you're always on duty. No times out. And by the time you notice your fatigue, the damage has likely been done.

Hey, a thought! It would be easy to transfer your skills as an athlete to the game of golf. You'd love it man.

The tournament was good! Phil is on the move, and Tiger is realizing he's going to have to take his game to another level now.

I guarantee you---that when you take up golf, it will be with you for the rest of your life.

What about all these fine women these dudes are married to?:) They're all fine..Hahaha

I cannot imagine a golfer putting in the work that we put in.

Nor would a golfer wish to. Training for those sports (with the obvious exception of long-distance running) is for short bursts of intense activity. Golf is about maintaining a sustained level of physical and mental effort over a long period of time. The training that is now taking place in the sport is related to the realization that physical and mental stamina are linked. To Joe Bloggs and his beer gut in the golf cart, it really doesn't matter if his knees are a bit wobbly on the 18th tee, even if he's just pressed his buddies on that $100 Nassau. But when you're leading on the 17th hole of the last day of the tournament, with Tiger a stroke behind and a million clams at stake, you'd best believe those workout sessions can come into play to keep those knees, and that noggin, steady.

Are golfers athletes? You're talking precise mind-body coordination, so I'd say "yes", even if I wouldn't expect even Tiger to last five minutes in the NBA or English Premier League football. Cricket, yes. Are cricketers athletes? (What's cricket?? :) ).

Of course, golfers cheat big time, the way equipment is today. Imagine playing hoops with a Super Ball. I'd like to see how Tiger & Co. would fare with gutta-percha golf balls and hickory-shafted clubs a la Bobby Jones (founder of the Masters). It might mean that the next generation of golf courses can actually be smaller in area than Los Angeles County.

I've seen Bobby Jones on some old film footage hit balls right past the camera...over and over again. Stuff like that makes you think! He was way ahead of his time. Eons ahead.

A golfer definitely is an athlete. I play the game, and if it was easy: you'd have a whole lot of people pulling down some serious cash from it. It's difficult because everything you do (the address, the pullback, the swing, your awareness of the arc etc.) has to be done exactly the same each time. That's the difficult part. It's easier to hit a ball traveling at 100 MPH than it is to hit a motionless golf ball.

But it's the beauty of the game James. There is nothing like walking a well-kept green or laying up a shot with a 7-iron right next to the pin. Golf is a thinking man's game. And there is no aspect of the game that you can blame on anyone else. It's just you and the ball.

When you play the game, you realize how good these guys are that play it for a living. The sport has more money involved than people can imagine--from the designing of the clubs, the clothing, upkeep and design of the greens, and lessons etc.

Tell you what! But a video of Tiger that shows his swing. That one movement of power, grace, speed, and timing will unlock something inside of you. Tiger brought a whole new level of play and awareness to the game. These other cats make more money losing now than they did winning before:)

One last note. When you really get serious, you'll go out and get fitted for a set of clubs. That's when everything is made to fit your body movement. These pro's have the best skills, the best equipment, and the best greens to play on....and it shows:)

As a kid I caddied, and worked the grounds. On a good course but one that was still far removed from the pro circuit. A couple of close rellies have had cups of coffee on Tour (one PGA, one LPGA). To know what it takes to keep Joe Bloggs Country Club going, and then to walk Muirfield ... ! Growing grass is a major art form. And it ain't "just grass" either. Crede expertum. There's bluegrasses and fescues and Bermuda and Zoysia and 4,851 kinds of bentgrass, each one suited for different conditions, and if there's so much as a blade of Poa annua (a weed) in the 14th green, which won't support anything else because the eucalyptus trees that the members won't let you cut down fatally shade the putting surface, the course superintendent gets fired. I almost did this for a living. But I chose seaweeds instead. Easier. Less pressure. :) Also less money. :( But there are other things in this life than money. I think.

Had an experience in just how the courses are set up to best show up the pro's skills when a famous tour pro (I won't name him) wanted a famous golfing university (I won't name it) to tear up its greens and replace them with flatter ones. So that the budding pros learning to play on it would "have the chance to score." I would have thought a major university golf course existed so the budding pros would "have the chance to learn to putt". But I'm a marine biologist. With salary to match. Do you want fries with that? What do I know?

A little Amoeba?

Close but not quite. It's a "diatom", a one-celled alga. This particular one is a member of the genus Trigonium ("three corners" - no prizes for guessing why), lives in the ocean just about everywhere, but I got and photographed it off the San Juan Islands, Washington state. It's been stained in methylene blue to show the nucleus (blue structure in the center. Diatoms literally live in glass houses. And there's a link to CSI. Believe it or not. You reminded me that that's a blog I haven't written yet. A blog that is the reason that avatar is up there.

The next one I put up will be an amoeba. And there'll be a story behind that one too.

Oh yeah. The previous one was a little (microscopic) green seaweed that goes by the name of Ulvella. No, not a dandelion. :) I would label these things, but the bloody thing is already so small ... And my picture, unlike yours, would drive everybody away. :(

Your one-celled algae could unlock the secrets of the universe!

I would be satisfied if they would merely yield the Key to Income. :)

Kind of a crazy way to send him off to his new job, but hey, it's a crazy world. Good luck with it, dude.

Diatoms actually don't resemble amoebae much. Amoebae are, well, squishy, while diatoms have hard cases and aren't "squishy" at all. In fact, they're abrasive; deposits called "diatomaceous earth" are used in some of the higher-quality polishing agents and used to be the polisher in toothpaste (replaced in recent years by stuff that's easier on the teeth). Diatomaceous earth is also used in things like water supplies and aquaria as a really good filter.

One of the reasons I haven't written that "CSI and Diatoms" blog is that I would like it to have pictures - and I'm still a little jittery about the images function on this website.