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Which is weirder? The fact that Phil thought this shirt “looks good” or that Tiger and Phil were playing “let’s be buddies” and playing a pre-Masters practice round together?

Let’s have normal service resume…we know there’s no love lost.

Steady on. The PGA of America have now announced the Ryder Cup venues in the United States through to 2032. How old will I be then? It’s a scary thought.

Flushed with the US success ar the 2016 matches they have announced a quick return to Hazeltine in 2028, the first time one of their venues has been used twice. Good for Hazeltine that it is now so revered. When Tony Jacklin won his US Open there in 1970 the Chaska Minesota course was called a “cow pasture” in the press.

So the rota announced so far is

2018 Le Golf National Paris

2020 Whistling Straits, Wisconsin

2022 Marco Simone, Rome

2024Bethpage Black, New York

2026 tba, Europe

2028 Hazeltine National, Minnesota

2030 tba Europe

2032 Olympic Club, San Fransisco

The one in all this which catches my eye is the match in Italy in 4 years time. I went out to Rome recently to have a look at the course which is impressive. But it is not that which concerns. The city of Rome has a serious law and order problem with asylum seekers and immigrants, which the authorities so far seem to be doing little to resolve. An Australian couple I talked to at the airport summed it up. “never again” – as in never will they return to the city. As well as the perrenial thefts and maniacal drivers and the lacksidasical approach to efficiency and solving any kind of issue the immigrants were something else. Alongside the hotel in Central Rome large groups of them congregated and threw bottles at cars, set fire to property, spat at and verbally and physically abused as well as thieved from tourists. And the airport at Fumicino had passengers getting into fights because the environment was so challenging. Such infrastructure problems must be resolved before the matches in four years time. The world will be watching one of the highest profile sporting events after the Olympic Games. Those of us who travel to Italy regularly go with the flow of the country even thought it’s sometimes not to our liking. It may be a cruel culture shock for our American guests if they are not prepared to brace themselves a little.

Four time major champion Ernie Els says he wants to be rememnered for something other than golf and that all his life he will be “fighting this thing”. Ernie’s son Ben, 14, who is on the autism spectrum is pictured in this film wearing blue. The state of the art facility in Jupiter Florida which opened in 2015 now has a upper school for young people 14-21 as well as a junior school. It has its own golf course too.

At the beginning of this year he had written off his chances and was seriously considering retirement. He was outside the tip 100 in the world.  Now 2 time Masters Champion Bubba Watson has won for the second time this season, and in dominant fashion. After defeating Justin Thomas in the semi finals at Austin Country Club in Texas he made short work of the final beating Kevin Kisner 7 and 6 after winning the first five hokes. Justin Thomas lost the third place playoff to Sweden’s Alex Noren who is having a stellar season in the States.His win is just round the corner.

ne of the most remarkable performances of any golfer took place at the LPGA’s Bank of Good Hope Championship. Surrey’s Dame Laura Davies pulled out all the stops for a third round 63 followed by a final round 69 to nearly win the tour ament. Had she dome so, the 54 year old would have been the LPGA’s oldest winner by eight years. The winner in Phoenix was Korean major champion Inbee Park.

Take that. What a turnaround. A winless 2017, a nagging rib injury and then 2 missed cuts in 4 starts, over par rounds were all left behind when Rory McIlroy dominated the Arnold Palmer Invitational birdieing five of the last six holes and eight of the last thirteen to shoot 64 in the final round. He saw off fighting performances from Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose.

Once again Tiger Woods was in contention, five under on the final day he got within one shot of the leader until he hit his tee shot out of bounds on the 16th and had a bogey, bogey finish.

Welcome back Rory.

It was long overdue, Paul Casey’s second win on the PGA Tour and his first anywhere  since 2014. But he is a transformed player and person. I remember marshalling at a qualifying tournament at Sunningdale one year and oops, it just popped out as he completed his followthrough. He was on his way walking  down the fairway and watching the tremendous blow he made at the ball with his drive I might have just said “Wow. That was an angry one”. He heard this and stopped in his tracks. I ducked a bit, preparing for a verbal tongue lashing. But it didn’t come. Instead he seemed to stop and think. It was just an observation about that particular shot but since then he seems to have let a lot go mentally and seems very happy with his life as it is now. His superior golf is following in the slipstream of his peace of mind.

We can only hope that Tiger Woods will follow suit and re-find his mental calm after years of turmoil and his golf will consistently go along with it. Because this week it was all about Woods, Casey was like the side show. What is happening is very exciting and there is an anticipation now around Tiger. Television veiwing figures were up a huge 180%.

This week Woods got within a whisker of getting into a play off. On 79 PGA Tour wins, dare we hope he can overtake Sam Snead’s 82 titles? This week after holing a long birdie putt on the 71st hole to get within a stroke of the lead he just left his putt on the 72nd too short to get into a playoff.

Second. Who would have thought it a few months ago? Tiger swung his driver at nearly 130 mph, the fastest on Tour. In six starts since the return at the Hero Challenge his results are  T23, T9. 12th, MC, T5 and T2nd. Jack Nicklaus says “I’m amazed at how well Tiger is swinging and playing. It’s just fantastic”.

And Tiger responded “I’m excited. I do remember how to do this”.

A few weeks previously Mickelson said he knew the win was on the way, and true enough at the WGC Mexico Championship he delivered.

Most of you reading this blog will know I enjoy nothing better than Phil’s Pearls and there was a delicious one on the Saturday of this tournament. The third round leader was called “an upstart” by the American media because, presumably he was not a compatriot and he happened to be 21 years old and came to Mexico having just won two tournaments on the European Tour. Somebody should have warned the formidably talented Indian Shubhanka Sharma not to introduce bimself to Phil, which he tried to do on the practice putting green.

“Not right now” Mickelson rebuffed Sharma.

When somebody told Mickelson off, he, according to Sharma, went over to him and explained he thought he was media. Yeah right. But he suitably unsettled Sharma for him to fall out of contention, a lesson learned, but he did tell the story to the media, good for him.

Mickelson played very well to score 65-66 on the weekend to catch an on fire Justin Thomas who had moved up the field with 62-64 including a spectacular eagle from the fairway on the 72nd hole.

Both players were nervous during the play off, we havent seen Mickelson like this for a long time, he has looked tired and out of sorts for the past few years so it was interesting to see him look so nervous. Justin was disappointing in the playoff, there was a lack of commitment and Mickelson putted exceptionally well to win. He called the playoff exciting and fun and confirmed once again the enormous power of his own self belief.