It would be hard to have missed the story, but Sergio Garcia is likely to be fined by the Tour for an incident on Saturday at Doral in which he spit into the cup on the par 3 thirteenth. He apparently was upset after three putting.

I’d be upset by the three-putt, too, but the idea of spitting would never have occurred to me.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem—as usual—had no comment on the prospects of a fine, but did say that Sergio’s record has been “blemish-free” up to this time.

Maybe that’s true on the PGA Tour, but Sergio was fined in 2003 for throwing clubs during a tournament in South Africa. He also was fined in 2005 for kicking a sign at the European Masters.

I’ve got to wonder what got into him. He had to know that the cameras were going to catch it—that at the very least, the spectators would see it. And there’s no way that can be viewed as acceptable behavior. If I were one of Sergio’s sponsors, I’d send him a very stern note of disappointment.

I just heard a curious comment from Tiger in an interview after his narrow victory at Doral. Roger Maltby asked Tiger “When was the last time you played the last hole for bogey, just to get it done?”

Tiger: “Uh. Firestone. I was playing—I don’t know who it was for the playoff. But on the last hole, I just laid up with a two iron down there and wedge down there. The same thing. I figured if he makes three that would have been a helluva three, but five wins for me.”

So he can remember the course, the hole, the clubs used and the relative score ... but not the player.

I’m pretty sure he was talking about last year’s contest against Stewart Cink in which Tiger won on the fourth playoff hole. Or maybe the previous year in which he had a narrow victory against Chris DiMarco.

I guess neither made much of an impression on the striped one. I wonder if ANYONE he plays with makes an impression on him.

Hey Tig. That woman you got pregnant… Her name is Elin.

If ever there was an unfortunate name, "The Floppy" is it. But it is most likely an apt description.

The Floppy is a soft golf ball with a woven cover designed for indoor practice. The inventor says that it has the same feel and flight patter of a normal ball—just shorter and with less damage to the furniture.

It looks like just the thing for those long Michigan winters when I am trapped indoors by piles of snow.

Phil Simms versus the Geico Caveman in a round of golf.

The first big tournament of the LPGA season is the LPGA’s Safeway International presented by Coca Cola . (Interestingly, Safeway also has a tournament in August called the Safeway Classic presented by Pepsi Cola).

At any rate, it’s going to have what is probably the best field thus far this year, with the top 40 players from the 2006 money list.  The only real big name missing is Michelle Wie, who’s out on an injury. Interestingly, she also missed last year’s Safeway.

It’s also is the first 72 hole tournament of the year for the LPGA.

The Safeway is held at the Prospector Course, a Nicklaus design in Arizona’s Superstition Mountains. It’ll play as a 6,629 yard par 72.

The Safeway International started in 1980 as a one-day Pro-Am at the Hillcrest Golf Course. Jan Stephenson (of the golf balls in the bathtub fame) was the first champion taking home—get this—$15,000 of the $100,000 purse. It became a full tournament in 1983 when Banner Health became the sponsor. In 1986, Standard Register became the title sponsor and raised the purse to $250,000. Safeway became the sole title sponsor in 2004, after sharing the title in 2003 with Ping.

The tournament has its greatest claim to fame as the place where Annika Sorenstam shot a magical 59—becoming the first woman to do so in a competitive round.

This year’s purse is $1.5 million, and the winner will take home more than twice the total purse in 1980. Juli Inkster is the defending champion.

ESPN has an interesting analysis of how many times the top players have “beaten” Tiger Woods—that is, finished higher than him in a tournament (not necessarily won—just finished in a higher position).

For example, Tiger and Phil Mickelson have played in the same tournament 139 times. Tiger has finished higher than Phil 93 times; they tied on four other occasions. So Tiger has finished equal to, or better than Phil 69% of the time.

It’s the same story for all of the top players. Tiger finishes better than or equal to Vijay 70% of the Time; better than or equal to Jim Furyk 75% of the time; with Els, 68%; and so on.

Even more telling: nine of the top 25 have never finished first when Tiger is in the field.

Vijay has the most outright wins with Tiger in the field, with 11. Phil has nine; Ernie, eight; Double D has six (a number that is not likely to increase). None fo the hot young players has enough to mention.

In fact, it seems to me that a dark horse is more likely to win than one of the names.

Now that’s dominance.

Golf Perfume

Ridiculous Golf Item of The Week