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Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

Where are you likely to find a lot of people with heart disease? A PGA Tour event is likely a good place. Or maybe you peoples out there, just sitting there like a blob, reading about sports and licking your Cheese Doodled-stained fingers.

So Merck partnered up with PGA great Tom Lehman and asked him to be their spokesman for a heart disease educational program. He wants people to learn more about their cholesterol numbers, what they mean, and things they can do to prevent heart disease. On Thursday, he was signing autographs at the Shell Houston Open and giving away educational information. I asked him to say a few words in a video to you about why he cares about heart disease education.

You can find more detailed information at triplethreatchallenge.com. (autoplay audio in link). Some people may not like drug companies using sports figures to educate people about diseases, but if folks are more likely to listen to their favorite athlete over their doctor, I'm okay with whatever works.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

On day 1 of the Shell Houston Open, Adam Scott, the defending champion and later Johnson Wagner shot a 63, tyingfor the course record. Scott obviously has an eye for the course, and Wagner had a share of the previous course record of 64. For more info, check out the SHO website, leaderboard, and Ed Fowler's recap of Day 1.

After the date of the SHO was changed to the week before the Masters, the SHO decided to try to create course conditions that force players to make shots similar to what they will make next week. The elevation changes and green undulations can't be the same, but there are other ways that you can prepare the course to make it similar. Roger Groettsch, Director of Agronomy at Redstone explains how they set the course up in the above video.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:


"You wouldn't happen to have a jet pack, by any chance?"

That's the question Phil Mickelson asked when he saw the impossibly long line of people gathered to get autographs from him after Tuesday's pro-am round. (at :07 in the video)

The crowds on Tuesdays are usually fairly light relative to the weekends and most golfers were able to easily leave the 18th hole. When you watch on TV, and even with this video, you don't have a sense of the crushing group of people trying to get Phil's attention to sign autographs.

Notes from on site at the Shell Houston Open:

At the Shell Houson Open, John Daly is working hard. Hard enough that he needed a trainer to massage his back and uh er chest at :08 in the video link above.

I heard he spent six hours practicing on Sunday, before official practice rounds started. He showed up early before playing in the pro-am on Monday, and then practiced three hours after the round. Yesterday, he was practicing before I got to the range, and was there for at least four hours in the on and off rain showers.

Those who have seen him through the years at the SHO said it is the most they have ever seen him work, and the earliest they have seen him at the course

The practicing and pro-am habits of a PGA golfer shouldn't be news, but it is with Daly. Recently, in a 48 hour period, he got dumped publicly by his instructor Butch Harmon and was disqualified from the Arnold Palmer Invitational for missing his pro-am tee time. I guess Daly is trying to make amends one day at a time, and I figure it was worth mentioning the mundane details of the work he is doing.