Hot and not

1. Byron Nelson. Eleven in a row will live forever, even if Lord Byron couldn't. 2. Young studs. Huge off the tee, great putting strokes, unflappable demeanors

Alan Shipnuck | Feb 26, 2007

Hot and not /

1. Byron Nelson. Eleven in a row will live forever, even if Lord Byron couldn't.

2. Young studs. Huge off the tee, great putting strokes, unflappable demeanors ... hmmm, you think there's a flowery course in Georgia that suits Henrik Stenson and Geoff Ogilvy?

3. Fred Funk. Sure it was versus the B-team, but for a 50-year-old with a balky back to win any PGA Tour event -- as Funk did at the inaugural Mayakoba Classic in Mexico -- is still impressive. Just ask Mark O'Meara how hard it is to play good golf at 50.

4. Stacey P. The gritty Ms. Prammanasudh conquered the elements and a decent leaderboard to prevail at the Fields Open in Hawaii, her second career victory. Forget pick-a-pro, I want her in Scrabble!

5. Bobby Wadkins. Lanny's little brother continued to emerge as a top senior, winning his fourth Champions event with a stirring back nine charge at the ACE Classic. Lanny was always the best Wadkins, but now that he's been freed from the broadcast booth he's got some catching up to do.

1. American golf. After the big three at the top of the World Rankings, it's pretty slim pickings, which was obvious at the Match Play. And the less said about the big three the better.

2. Would-be South African superstars. Ernie Els and Retief Goosen continued their PGA Tour malaise with quick exits at the Match Play. Is it time to declare Trevor Immelman his country's top player?

3. Rick Smith. Phil Mickelson created a stir at the Match Play by asking Butch Harmon to take a look at his swing. Both Mickelson and Smith, his longtime swing guru, insist there is no friction in their relationship, but you can bet they'll have a little more to talk about this week during their joint family ski trip to Aspen.

4. The LPGA's pace of play. New rules were put in place at the Fields Open to get the women to dawdle less, but the guidelines were promptly abandoned due to foul weather. Naturally, rounds took almost six hours. At that pace they're gonna have to cut the greens again after nine holes.

5. Tiger Woods. Any week in which he doesn't win is a bad week, at least by his (and ours) ridiculous standards.

Published Feb 26, 2007

ALAN SHIPNUCK

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Alan Shipnuck wrote his first cover story for Sports Illustrated as a 21-year-old intern in 1994. Like his cover subject, Ken Griffey Jr., Shipnuck matured into one of the best of his profession. When he was hired in 1996, he became the youngest staff writer staff writer in SI's history. Now a senior writer at the magazine, he writes regularly on golf and has been honored multiple times by the Golf Writers Association of America. In 2008 he became the first writer to finish first in the same year in both the feature and news writing categories in the Golf Writers Association of America annual writing contest. Though he specializes in golf for SI and Golf.com, Shipnuck has written on a variety of topics, including the 2007 (Brett Favre) and 2008 Sportsman of the Year (Michael Phelps). He currently writes a popular weekly column, Heroes and Zeroes, for Golf.com. His first book, Bud, Sweat & Tees, was published in 2001 and followed misadventures of unknown PGA Tour rookie Rich Beem and his caddie, Steve Duplantis. The book became a best seller after Beem's stunning victory at the 2002 PGA Championship. He is also the author ofThe Battle for Augusta National: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe, which was published to excellent reviews in 2004; Publishers Weekly said Shipnuck "superbly recounts all of the debacle's hilarious, sad, serious and absurd details." His most recent book is The Swinger, a raucous novel written with fellow senior writer Michael Bamberger and released in July 2011. Shipnuck has also been a contributor to Artworks Magazine, Travel & Leisure Golf, Golf & Travel and Golf for Women and has appeared on CNN, NBC'sTODAYand ESPN's SportsCentury series, in addition to numerous other television and radio shows. A 1996 graduate of UCLA, Shipnuck lives in Carmel, Calif., with his family.