Golf Central

Funny how Tiger Woods never really says much during the golf season proper. He's too busy with that Zen-like focus, working out how to take all his would-be rivals down. But in the off-season (that is, if you get a chance to see him), Tiger can drop his guard and be refreshingly engaging and open with his, erm, chat. And in typical Tiger fashion, he never really sticks his foot in it, but he comes close. ... but hey, he's Tiger Woods, so he's allowed.

Tiger didn't mean to, of course, but he may have cut a bit close to home this week with two of the major forces in his life: his bread-and-butter (sponsor Nike) and his offspring (daughter Sam Alexis).

First, at a news shindig in Port St Lucie, Florida, at the PGA Learning Centre where Woods was promoting Nike's equipment, he actually ended up pimping out a rival's gear. He said he wasn't thinking of changing any of clubs in his bag (all of which are Nike-made except one), and then sung the praises of the one non-Nike club: his trusty Scotty Cameron putter, made by Titleist.

"Yeah, 12 majors with one putter isn't too bad," Tiger said, smiling. No word on whether Nike bosses were frowning ...

Then, Tiger was chatting away happily about his daughter, who was born in June, saying that little Sam had been watching him hit golf balls on the range.

"It's interesting," Tiger said. "She kind of shakes every time I hit a shot, like she gets excited. ... She's never going to beat me, though."

Again, all said with a smile. Somehow, we're not positive Tiger will live that one down once Sam is old enough to read press clippings.

Ever felt like taking a golf club up on the rooftop and just driving balls and seeing how many things you can break? Of course you have. And since it's Friday, why work? The boss is on the phone all day, why not have a crack at HBO's Entourage Rooftop Golf Game, in which you get to aim at hippies, helicopters and topless babes sunning outside their pools. Great sound effects! Go on!

Or, on a similar note, you can just check out the cool pictures in our Extreme Golf Gallery, which is just as cool and not nearly as noisy. Cheers! ...

Todd Demsey is such a special Qualifying School story he deserves an entry of his own after joining the select few that earned full playing privileges on the PGA Tour at Q-School last week in Florida.

He is the only one who has had two surgeries to remove a golf-ball sized tumour from his brain.

Demsey has done the PGA Tour thing before, you see. Ten years ago, a former amateur rival of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, it looked like Demsey had it made. Coming out of Arizona State University, where he won the national collegiate title in 1993, it looked like his future was all set up.

He first qualified for the PGA Tour in 1997 and only made nine cuts. But five years later, he had a real wake-up call when, after persistent headaches and sinus pressure, it was discovered he had a tumour going into his brain.

Two surgeries removed it. Now 35, Demsey's career is right back on track, albeit delayed. But he's where he always thought he would be: on the PGA Tour. Needless to say, after what he has been through, Demsey didn't feel quite as much pressure as his competitors.

"It feels good to be calm under the most stressful situations," he said. "I came to get my card, but it's not life or death. I have things in perspective."

Perhaps that first PGA Tour victory, so much on the cards 10 years ago, will actually emerge at last this year then.

Donald Trump's big plans for a £1 billion golf resort on the coast of Aberdeenshire may not be dead after all, after Scottish ministers, backed by First Minister Alex Salmond, took the rare step of calling in Trump's proposal for review, without an appeal.

The Scottish Executive will now have a look at Trump's plans, which were rejected last week by local councillors in Aberdeenshire for environmental reasons.

However, with the threat of losing Trump's money to a rival project in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, which has offered the Trump Organisation land to build his course, hotels and homes, Scotland does not want to lose out on the potential economic benefits of the project. Particularly not to Northern Ireland.

But time's-a-wastin' ... There was no word from Trump headquarters going into Friday about the latest turn of events, but for what it's worth, one American we know who lives in the north of Scotland says he thinks Trump is right to give the time-wasting councillors the bird. And calling Trump right hurts.

Here's more on the whole Trump affair, courtesy of our friends over at the Scotsman:

On this day in 1969, the PGA Tour was really going nowhere fast. Its stars were in slumber. Jack Nicklaus hadn't won in ages. Nor had Billy Casper or Gary Player.

But Arnold Palmer yawned, stretched out his lion-like muscles in the December air and, after having gone winless for a 14-month span, Arnie won for the second straight week, taking the last event on the PGA Tour calendar, the Danny Thomas Diplomat Classic in Miami, Florida.

Palmer capped off a so-so year in golf by being named the Associated Press' Athlete of the Decade for the 1960s. But how dreary a year in golf was 1969? ...