The NBA lockout has claimed another victim: Michael Jordan’s vice-captaincy at the Presidents Cup.

Jordan, a decent-enough golfer who’s had a touch more success in other fields, announced Wednesday that he won’t be accompanying the U.S. team to Australia to play in the biennial competition. Jordan had served as one of Fred Couples‘ assistants during the team’s victorious 2009 effort, motivating the troops and providing some complementary star power to Tiger Woods, who was still weeks away from the hydrant and everything after.

About a year ago, Couples, flush with victory and anticipating this competition, announced that Jordan would be returning to the ropes for the 2011 showdown. At the time, we questioned the move, wondering whether Jordan, still a viable force in the NBA from a management perspective, had his priorities in order.

And now it appears he does, and those priorities place the NBA first. “After careful consideration, it is with regret that I have decided to cancel my trip to Australia later this month for the Presidents Cup,” Jordan said. “With the NBA labor situation unsettled … I feel it is necessary that I remain in the country.”

Couples named John Cook as Jordan’s replacement, which is a solid choice. Cook has strong relationships with many of the players, including Woods, although Cook lags slightly behind Jordan in the NBA championships department. Jay Haas remains as the other co-captain, though Scottie Pippen is still available if needed.

The Presidents Cup runs from Nov. 17-20 at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Welcome to a special Wednesday edition of The Live Report. Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus played together—for the first time in nine years—in the eight-man Double Skins Game at the Memorial Tournament. PGATOUR.COM’s Helen Ross was on the scene and filed live reports from Muirfield Village (all times are ET).

CINK ON TIGER & JACK (4:40 p.m.): Stewart Cink called Wednesday a “cool day”—and he wasn’t referring to the temperatures, which hovered in the mid-50s as a steady rain fell on Muirfield Village.

Cink was in the marquee group of the Memorial Skins Game—playing with two greatest players in the game, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, along with the Memorial tournament’s defending champion, Kenny Perry.

It’s Jack Nicklaus week here at Devil Ball, what with it being his tournament this weekend and all. So why not take a moment to look back at his greatest wins? These are the ones that defined golf not just for Nicklaus, but for — wait for it — America. Enjoy.

1. The 1986 Masters: Of course. The finest tournament of Nicklaus’ career, and one of the finest tournaments in golf history as well. Six years removed from his last major, Nicklaus shot an astonishing back-nine 30 to claim his 18th major.

2. The 1962 U.S. Open: Not a bad debut, huh? For his first professional win, Nicklaus bested Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff even though Arnie’s Army spent much of the tournament calling the young upstart “fatso.” He wasn’t hurt too badly.

3. The 1975 Masters: Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf were trading punches all week, and the outcome was in doubt all the way to the last few holes. Nicklaus’s birdie on 16 propelled him to the title, his fifth Masters win.

4. The 1965 Masters: Nicklaus thumped both Palmer and Gary Player at this classic, winning by nine strokes. Afterward, Bobby Jones uttered one of the most famous quotes in golf history: “He plays a game with which I am not familiar.”

5. The 1980 U.S. Open: Two years removed from his last victory, and with hints of “washed up” starting to make their way around the galleries of golf, Nicklaus absolutely dominated the field, setting a record 272 that still stands.

6. The 1967 U.S. Open: As with 1980, Nicklaus pushed around the field, winning by four shots over Palmer, Billy Casper and Lee Trevino.

7. The 1966 British Open: This marked the final piece of Nicklaus’s career Grand Slam, and at 26 he was the youngest player to complete the feat. (Tiger Woods would best him by two years.) Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player are the only other players to have completed the Career Slam.

8. The 1971 PGA Championship: With this win, Nicklaus became the first golfer to win all four majors twice.

9. The 1960 U.S. Open: He didn’t win this one — Arnold Palmer did, of course, in one of the landmark tournament victories of Arnie’s career — but Nicklaus posted a total score of 282 to finish second. Oh, did I mention he was an amateur at the time? The record still stands for amateurs.

10. The 1956 Ohio Open: At age 16, competing against professional golfers, a young kid named Nicklaus won the tournament, serving notice that everybody else needed to get their winning wrapped up; he was on his way.

There are so many more; digging into Nicklaus’s career just staggers you with its breadth and achievement. Feel free to add your suggestions below. You’re up!

Sometimes, the golf gods give you love in ways you can’t possibly anticipate. When Phil Mickelson announced he’d be returning to the game next weekend at the St. Jude in Memphis, the first thing I thought was, “Great!” The second was, “Memphis … St. Jude … why does that sound familiar?” Then I completely forgot about it and went on to surf for bootlegs of Terminator: Salvation more golf news. After awhile, though, it hit me:

Memphis! That’s where John Daly’s coming back! Oh happy day!

Right on the heels of the Tiger Woods/Jack Nicklaus matchup, we get this Christmas present in June. Both Daly and Mickelson will be returning to the course next week at the St. Jude at Memphis, which is not just great news for the tournament — it lost its title sponsor, Stanford Financial, earlier this year — but for the game as well.

Love ‘em, hate ‘em, Daly and Mickelson combined provide the PGA with about 80 percent of the color (and the honestly interesting off-course stories) it generates in a given season. (Boo Weekley covers another 10 percent, Tiger 5 percent, and everybody else combines for the final sliver.)

Now, I could go and make all the easy jokes about Phil and Daly — you know, lock up your barbecue joints and all that — but I’ll leave that to you, dear reader.

We’ll be holding a live chat here next Thursday to yak about the two returns. And if the golf gods are feeling really frisky, perhaps they’ll give us the matchup we’re all craving. Sure, Tiger-Jack is wonderful, but a Daly-Phil pairing would be absolute can’t-miss. Make it happen, golf gods!

The PGA Tour season can seem like an endless highway on a long road trip – sometimes you just drive for dozens and dozens of miles with your brain on cruise control, not even noticing that the only radio station you can get is playing a medley of Stephen Bishop’s soft rock hits from the 1970s.

And then your trip gets broken up by figurative beacons of light, like the blue highway sign that says “FOOD-NEXT EXIT” and features the inviting yellow arrow of In-N-Out Burger amid its block of fast-food logos.

That’s sort of how I feel about the Memorial coming up this week. After three weeks of the Texas Swing, after three weeks of Zach Johnson and Rory Sabbatini and Steve Stricker – which in this analogy is the long stretch of highway with your brain on cruise control and Bishop on the radio – I’m ready for Jack to host a shindig, and Tiger to show up.

Tiger coming to Jack’s bash would be the inviting yellow arrow on the In-N-Out logo in this analogy.

Just making sure you all were following the analogy. It’s important, you know, for us artistes.

In the meantime, poor Tim Clark. For the seventh time since the ’05 season, the little South African with the ball striker’s game finished in second place, or tied for second place in a PGA Tour event, this time blowing a 72nd hole lead with an ill-timed bogey. He has enough game to insert himself into the mix quite frequently – including a runner-up at Colonial just last year – but also enough Miss Congenialities to make you realize some guys on tour will always be Tim Clark: Richer than Croesus, but still 82 PGA Tour wins behind Sam Snead.

Like “Britain’s Got Talent” legend Susan Boyle, he’ll have to settle for silver.

Clark’s failings should in no way diminish the win for all time good guy Stricker, whose chip-in on 17 in regulation saved his bacon, big-time. (And really, other than whinin’ Brett Favre, have you ever met anything but good people from the state of Wisconsin? It has to be the state with the most grounded citizens in the lower 48. Once, covering a Niner-Packer playoff game in 33-degree rain at Lambeau, I was nearly forced against my will to partake in multiple pregame tailgates with people I’d never met.) Plus, Stricker’s winning red plaid Colonial jacket will go well at some Elks Clubs meetings in the Cheese State.

Stricker not only leads the Tour in scoring average this year (69.46), his six top-10s tie him for the lead with Sean O’Hair and Kenny Perry. Not only that, he’s one of those guys who is so humble and real, he breaks down into tears after winning a playoff; whereas most everyone else watching is saying to each other: “Man, can you believe Clark choked that bad?”, not even realizing Stricker won with a birdie on the second playoff hole.

Clark making bogey on 18 with a one-shot lead; Clark missing a five-footer for the win on the first playoff hole … it all made us crave the cut-throat stylings of T. Woods that much more, just so we can see how the real pros close it out.

Oops, wait. I forgot. Tiger doesn’t do that so much anymore, either.

See? With silly comments like that, it’s time for your loyal correspondent to get grounded in reality again. Let’s set sail for Jack’s place, and see that guy in Sunday red stir our souls once more. In the meantime, I’d advise you to call your bookie and bet on Tim Clark to place, but he’s not playing this week.

Scorecard of the week

• 65-69-65-67 – 266, Kevin Johnson, winner in a playoff, Rex Hospital Open, Nationwide Tour in Raleigh, N.C.

I know, I know. Most of you pay attention to the Nationwide Tour like most of you pay attention to the WNBA.

And I’ll admit it: Usually the extent of my Nationwide Tour involvement is to check the 25 names of Nationwide grads at the end of the year, to see if the next year’s PGA Tour will have any comeback stories, or arrivals of great college prodigies.

Kevin Johnson is neither. He’s a Nationwide Tour lifer. Began playing it back in 1990, when it was the Hogan Tour. Before it was the Nike Tour. Or the buy.com Tour. Or the Nationwide Tour.

He’s not the former Phoenix Sun-turned-Mayor of Sacramento. He’s a 42-year-old former Walker Cupper and All-American at Clemson, a New England native who loves his Red Sox and a guy who, last year, made three of 22 Nationwide Tour cuts and finished 208th on the money list of golf’s developmental circuit.

One year, one golden year, in 2001, he had his PGA Tour card after making it through Q-School, but he lost it by Halloween of ’01, and it was back to the minors.

So Sunday in Raleigh, Johnson had a three-shot lead after 54 holes, then found himself one shot behind Jeff Gallagher as Johnson arrived at the 72nd hole. He birdied the par-5 hole, forced a playoff, and birdied it again for the win. He’s now 4th on the money list, and has a real chance to win a PGA Tour card again. That’s what you call chasing the dream, still crazy – in a good way – after all these years.

And here comes the full disclosure part: Two months ago, the Nationwide Tour came to the Bay Area for the Stonebrae Classic at TPC San Francisco Bay. My radio station, KNBR in San Francisco, had a foursome in the pro-am. Kevin Johnson was our pro. Over 18 holes, he showed himself to be encouraging, enthusiastic, engaging and any other “en” word you can think of. My boss’s son, in our foursome, is a young golf pro, and Johnson was only supportive and positive throughout to the lad.

As we toured the Hayward hills with spectacular views of San Francisco Bay, I thought about the fact that Johnson was dedicating his life to this wacky game, and a long shot dream, and wondered about the sanity of it all. He’d already spent his year flying from Panama to Australia to New Zealand to Louisiana to California – and it was only early April.

And then you see results like the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C., and you realize why. You can’t catch a dream, after all, unless you’re still chasing it.

Broadcast moment of the week

• Nick Faldo: “You don’t need friends in this game, Jim.” Jim Nantz: “And that’s worked out quite well for you.”

Boo yah! Look at our guy, Nantz, feeling his oats!

Working with Faldo has pushed Jim Nantz, the most sincere, G-rated, straightforwardly nice man you’d ever want to meet, into a place where he’s breaking out the zingers. Can you blame him? If you had to spend six hours a weekend in the same booth with Nick Faldo’s biggest fan, you’d want to sharpen the knives a bit, too.

The context of the remark was an anecdote related to playoff runner-up Steve Marino, who had some friends in the gallery at Colonial Country Club. Nantz then asked if Faldo relied on support from friends in the gallery when Faldo was scowling his way through his playing career.

The above exchange then followed, and I nearly shot out of my La-Z-Boy in my haste to award Nantz B.M.O.W. status.

Of course, Nantz tried to soften the blow with a few laughs, slaps on the back and “You know I don’t mean it” platitudes, but you knew it burned Faldo when the Englishman made another reference to his lack o’ pals later in the broadcast. I almost began feeling sorry for Faldo, picturing him as a boy like Charlie Brown in the pumpkin patch, waiting for a friend like Charles waited for “The Great Pumpkin.”

I got over it quickly, though. Don’t worry.

Mulligan of the week

• Most of Tim Clark’s defining moments at the Colonial were candidates for Mully of the Week. His drive on 14, while blocked right, found a lie so unfair, you wouldn’t wish it on Faldo in his prime. David Feherty noted that if you dropped a hamster in the same spot, it couldn’t burrow as deep as Clark’s ball. The bit of misfortune led to a bogey.

Then there was his tee shot on 18 in regulation. Sitting on a one-shot lead, all he had to do was make par, and win his first PGA Tour event. Instead, he got a case of the 72d Hole Yanks, and his tug led to another bogey. You’d like to think he deserved a mully there, too.

But the cake-taker was the five-footer on the first playoff hole. Finally, after all the breaks both good and bad, Clark could seal the deal. He pulled the 60-incher left of the cup.

That’s where I want to intervene, go to that 18th hole, plant that ball five feet from the hole and, for the love of Mike … give that man a mulligan!

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins’ dressing room at Mellon Arena is a tidy little space, about the size of a big bedroom. No one will ever refer to it as a locker room, because it doesn’t have lockers, and the normal accouterments of professional-athlete luxury don’t exist there because they can’t fit, and they’d probably be a fire hazard anyway.

It’s the perfect sanctuary to sit and reflect, and that’s exactly what the Penguins did following the second period of the Stanley Cup Finals’ Game 3 on Tuesday night. They had finished 20 minutes of brutal hockey: They had finished 20 minutes of brutal hockey: lots of giveaway, few shot opportunities and brownout-level energy. And to have escaped from it still tied with Detroit represented something of a reprieve, not just from the Red Wings’ series-long dominance but from their own malaise.

Dan Bylsma hustled his players into the room. He had 18 minutes to save their season. Already he had done it twice, the first time Feb. 16 when he took over as Pittsburgh’s coach with 25 games left, the next in the second round of the playoffs when the Penguins stormed back to beat Washington after facing the same two-games-to-none deficit they did Tuesday against the Red Wings.

Bylsma kept it short. Relax, he said. Bear down, he said. And that was it. Anything more … it just wouldn’t be his style. Bylsma let it stew that a poor third period would be the end of Pittsburgh’s season and allowed urgency to create the magic it does with the Penguins.

By the final horn, when the scoreboard read Pittsburgh 4, Detroit 2, it was evident that the Penguins perform their best when facing the worst. What looked like a second consecutive futile coup on the Red Wings’ dynasty turned into – for one night, at least – a reminder that the Penguins are hyper-talented, too, and that dreams of a sweep were ill-conceived.

“As much as we weren’t happy with the way we played in the second, we knew we still had our chance in the third and wanted to make the most of it,” Penguins star Sidney Crosby(notes) said. “It wasn’t a matter of them changing anything. They stuck with their game in the second, and we got away from ours. So we just needed to get our game back.”

It wasn’t just the second period. The Penguins’ game went AWOL in the series’ first eight periods. Detroit imposes itself in an artistic manner: whereas brute force can be the preferred method in hockey, the Red Wings do so with the silent grace of a hit man. You’re dead and you don’t even know it.

The Penguins’ own mortality snapped them to. This was their home ice. And their crowd. And their time. They’ve got a saying in the Penguins’ dressing room: It’s always about the next shift. Not Tuesday. It was about the current shift, because there might not be a next shift worth anything with a 3-0 deficit.

“Nothing needed to be said,” Penguins center Max Talbot(notes) said. “We knew how we needed to play to be successful.”

Immediately, the energy level surged. The Penguins raced around the ice. They won loose pucks. They got mean. Two minutes into the period, Matt Cooke(notes), the nuisance of a winger, gave Detroit goalie Chris Osgood(notes) a friendly tap on the upper chest – with his skate.

With the score still 2-2 midway through the period, Cooke drew an interference penalty on rookie defenseman Jonathan Ericsson(notes). Already the Penguins had scored on Detroit’s maligned penalty kill, and they were finally doing everything right, hitting and playing smothering defense and sacrificing their bodies to block shots. All of that built up to this opportunity against a Detroit penalty-killing unit that ranks 14th this postseason.

After 90 seconds of cycling the puck with little to show, the Penguins worked it to the left point, where Sergei Gonchar(notes) waited. The 35-year-old defenseman dislocated his shoulder in the preseason and didn’t return until Bylsma’s first game. The Penguins moved up six places in the Eastern Conference standings upon his arrival, and before Game 3 Crosby and Talbot marveled at each other about Gonchar’s tranquility and composure.

He wound up and unleashed a slap shot. Crosby and Bill Guerin(notes) screened Osgood. When the net rippled, the arena let forth a thunderclap. The Red Wings could keep surrounding Crosby in triplicate, and they could send so many red jerseys near goalie Marc-Andre Fleury’s(notes) crease that it looked like a blood clot come to life. They’d do so down 3-2.

It stayed that way until they pulled Osgood and almost immediately got hit with an empty netter from Talbot, his second goal of the game. The Penguins would live to see the Joe Louis Arena again, and before that, they would get one more game at the Igloo on Thursday.

“It’s a great feeling to be back in the series,” said Fleury, and it took just one period to get them there. As much as the Penguins wanted to believe those final 20 minutes weren’t the season’s make-or-break moment – “To a certain point, no,” center Jordan Staal(notes) said – they were, and perhaps Pittsburgh accomplished more than just salvaging its year. Identity is forged in such moments, and the Penguins did something few others could: imposed themselves on Detroit.

“To a certain point, yes, it was the season,” Staal admitted. “It was a big period for us. It’s not easy coming back from 3-0, and we understood that.”

So the Penguins sat in their room of meditation during that long intermission and thought. About their teammates and their season and themselves. And with nary a word exchanged, they came to a consensus.

Not here. Not now. It just wouldn’t be their style.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—Kevin Johnson birdied the first playoff hole Sunday to defeat Jeff Gallagher and win the Nationwide Tour’s Rex Hospital Open.

Gallagher shot a final-rouned 7-under 64 and wound up in a playoff when Johnson, playing in the final group, made a 4-footer for birdie at the par-5 18th.

“I just knew I had to make birdie on 18, and then I was like, ‘All right, I got a chance here,”’ Johnson said. “Honestly, that whole back nine, I didn’t think I was going to catch him.”

The players headed back to the 18th tee, and each reached the green in regulation. Gallagher rolled his 6-footer for birdie by the hole, and Johnson knocked his in from 5 feet for his first Nationwide Tour win since 2006.

Gallagher had eight birdies and one bogey to finish at 18-under 266. Johnson, the third-round leader, made six birdies and two bogeys for a 67 in the final round at the TPC Wakefield Plantation course.

“I saw him running up the leaderboard,” Johnson said. “Just to get on 17 and see that I had a chance gave me a little bit of jump in my step.”

There are times when all the stupid stuff just goes away in an instant, all the petty and juvenile sports fan preferences and rivalries and likes and dislikes, and last week in the golf world was one of those times.

The sobering and sad news of Amy Mickelson’s breast cancer rendered any critic of Phil Mickelson’s inconsistent history under golf pressure mute, and instead turned the entire golf world into huge Lefty fans. Such was the tenor of the news that the vivacious and charismatic Amy would undergo the fight of her life that even Rory Sabbatini, himself a magnet of criticism and controversy, stood tall.

First off, Sabbatini played lights-out golf at the Byron Nelson Championship. A 64 on a Sunday pretty much works anytime, anywhere, but when it comes in the final pairing, and it holds off hard-charging Englishman Brian Davis – the hottest player on the planet nobody’s ever heard of – the Sunday 64 becomes one of the better rounds of the springtime on tour.

And there Sabbatini was, doing it in a pink polo shirt that he said was dedicated to Amy Mickelson’s fight with breast cancer. Never thought I’d type these words, but: Class move, Rory Sabbatini.

Considering Sabbatini is the kind of guy who normally looks like he got dressed in the dark – witness his assorted looks through the years, including belt buckles with skulls and wings, which may work for “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert but not so much for a slightly pudgy 5-foot-something pro golfer – you had to applaud the South African-born Texas resident.

And considering Sabbatini has never been a guy for whom you want to go the extra mile as a fan, his win and tribute to Amy was that much more telling of the week’s tenor. Sure, Sabbatini, like all of us, is complex. You can’t just slap “tour jerk” on his reputation and move on, considering the work he does for injured soldiers, raising funds and awareness, an important cause always but especially as the country comes off of a Memorial Day weekend.

But let’s just say Sabbatini is, ahem, sometimes a difficult player to root for. Dating back to 2005, when he stormed away from Ben (Molasses) Crane for his slow-play, and to 2006, when his wife wore a shirt reading “Keep Up!” to heckle Rory’s playing partner, Nick Faldo, at Sawgrass, and to 2007, when Sabbatini took a stick and poked the legend by proclaiming Tiger as “more beatable than ever,” this Texan has done a pretty good job of being a divider, not a uniter.

Then we see him on Sunday, playing brilliant golf and paying tribute to Amy Mickelson, and so, yes, we do stand and cheer him, at least on this day.

The approaching summer of golf took a serious turn with the news of Amy’s cancer, and it means we likely won’t see Phil for some time. That’s sad news for us golf fans, as nobody gives theatre like Lefty. His 67 to Tiger’s 68 at Augusta National set the stage for what seemed sure to be more fireworks at Bethpage Black next month, in front of those irrepressible New York galleries, but all of that is on hold now, as it should be.

Amy is such a vital part of Lefty’s whole scene on the golf course. We’ve come to know her on TV screens, waiting by the 18th green with her adoring smile and children, and some have come to know her in person, always upbeat, always there with a greeting or a chat, as irreplaceable a part of the Mickelson Show as Lefty’s aw-shucks grin or famous vertical leap at Augusta ’04.

Amy Mickelson is not the first woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer, nor is she the only relative of a player on tour to be fighting the fight of her life. These things happen to all of us, to all of our families, but the reason why Rory Sabbatini and so many others – including John Daly in Europe, who wore pink trousers to pay tribute to Amy – are highlighting Amy Mickelson’s plight is because of the chance for all of us to pay attention to all who are sick. It’s about all of them. Amy Mickelson, certainly, wants as much attention and funds and research to cancer study as possible, but not just for her – but for all of us, for all of our families, for all of us who are hurting along with a loved one. It’s called awareness, and any time we, as sports fans, are made more aware, the world is a better place.

That’s why Amy Mickelson’s cause is important, and that’s why it was important for Rory Sabbatini to shoot 64 and win the Nelson in his pink shirt.

We’re rooting for you, Amy. Fight the good fight. And well played, Rory.

Scorecard of the week

• 68-70-62-67 – 21-under 267, first place, Yani Tseng, LPGA Corning Classic.

Today’s trivia question: Name the female golfer of Asian descent, born in 1989, who won the 2008 LPGA Rookie of the Year, bagged a major at 19 years old and won her second title with a 62-67 weekend that spoke to her greatness?

Yeah. Trick question. See, the answer was supposed to be Michelle Wie who, like the correct answer, Yani Tseng, was born in 1989, and set out to do all those great things Tseng, who is from Taiwan, already has. Wie finished tied-26 at the Corning, and quite frankly even I – a huge Wie fan – am tired of tracking her story. Wake me when you win a major, Wiesy.

In the meantime, rock on, Yani. And since the New Age pianist Yanni has never been known to “rock on,” we’re definitely talking female Taiwanese golfers here, not Doug Henning lookalikes tickling the ivories.

Mulligan of the week

• So apparently there was a “streaker” at the Nelson on Sunday. True story. According to reporters on the scene, a fan clad only in boxer shorts tore across the 18th fairway, tumbled over a fence and disappeared.

This brings up several issues. One, what happened to the art of streaking? Two, how sad was it when that web site – which will not get a free plug here – started sponsoring streakers, leading to British Opens and Wimbledons being tainted by sponsored streakers? And three, if you’re in your boxer shorts, can you truly be considered a “streaker?”

For my money, a guy in his boxer shorts running across the 18th fairway at the Nelson is just a drunk who took a dare, but didn’t have the Titleists to go all the way.

So, let’s go back to the 18th fairway, re-do the dare and … give that streaker a mulligan!

Where do we go from here?

• The Texas Three-Step – that’s a Texas Two-Step, with one more step – finishes at Colonial, the great shot maker’s track that Ben Hogan once called home. The field isn’t bad, either, with Paul Casey fresh off a win in Europe, and Zach Johnson fresh off a win in San Antonio and Rory Sabbatini, fresh off a win at the Nelson and already with a win at Colonial on his résumé. Geoff Ogilvy is playing, too, and his quiet artistry is always worth our attention.

A void will be felt with Phil Mickelson’s absence. Last year, Lefty hit arguably the Shot of the Year when he carved a pitching wedge from a side hill, downhill lie on the 72nd hole, under one tree branch, over another, landing nine insanely-close feet to the hole, leading to a birdie and a win.

Phil won’t be around to defend his crown. He’s tending to other matters now, and we’ll be thinking of him.

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP)—Pat Perez, who has yet to win a title in his seven years on the PGA Tour, thinks maybe he’s taken a big step toward fixing that. He got married.

“Everyone that gets married seems to win. Paul Casey got married the day after he won last week. (Jason) Gore got married, won. (Rory) Sabbatini, he won,” Perez said Thursday after he shot a 9-under 63 in the Bob Hope Classic to move to 20-under through two rounds—unprecedented in PGA Tour history.

And if marriage doesn’t work?

“I figured I’d try it. If not, I can always get divorced,” Perez said.

After the laughter in the interview room died down, he grinned and added, “No, I’m just kidding.”

The 32-year-old Perez, who married in December, was amazing on the golf course again during the second round—and amusing afterward.

Asked about his spouse, he smiled and said, “My wife’s name is Athena, and she is the Greek goddess of war. And that holds 100 percent true.”

Perez had reason to be in good humor. He had just become the first player in PGA Tour history to play a 36-hole stretch in a tournament at 20-under, keeping him two strokes in front heading into the third round of the five-day tournament.

After opening with a 61, Perez had nine birdies during a bogey-free second round and was at 124 through the first two days. Along with setting a tour low against par for consecutive rounds, his 36-hole total was the lowest ever to begin a tournament.

Mark Calcavecchia was at 124 through two rounds of the 2001 Phoenix Open, but that was on a par-71 course. Perez had his opening 61 at the Palmer Course at PGA West, and followed it with the 63 on the Nicklaus Course at PGA West.

On another mild, still day in the desert, Perez’s sizzling scoring still wasn’t enough to give him a pad—six players were within four shots. Briny Baird aced the par-3, 140-yard seventh at the Nicklaus Course with a 9-iron on the way to his second 63 and an 18-under 126.

David Berganio Jr. had a 64 and was another shot behind. Tom Pernice Jr. (63), Chris Stroud (63), Richard Johnson (65) and Jason Dufner (65) were 16-under.

Perez followed his sparkling first round with another day of well-placed drives, pinpoint iron play and deadly accurate putting. He rolled in a 15-footer on No. 7, a 40-footer from the fringe on No. 11, a 20-footer on No. 14, and other birdie putts from 10 feet and in.

For the second straight day, he putted only 25 times.

“I’ve played two unbelievable rounds and I’m very happy where I’m at,” said Perez, enjoying the moment but fully realizing that two rounds won’t get the job done in the 90-hole Hope.

Asked about setting a tour standard, Perez said, “It means you can get hot for two days. I would like to have all kinds of records at the end of the week— three-day, four-day, five-day, trophy, Vegas, booze, all that stuff. That’s what I want.”

The tour records for three, four and five rounds certainly don’t seem out of reach if the wind doesn’t kick up during the final three rounds. The record for 54 holes is 189, a mark shared by a group including Calcavecchia. Tommy Armour III set the 72-hole mark of 254 in the 2003 Texas Open, and the 90-hole record is Joe Durant’s 36-under 324 at the 2001 Hope.

Even if Perez falters, some of the players trailing him may have a shot at records.

“The course is set up for it, the pin placements aren’t the hardest, and the weather’s been perfect,” Perez said. “Everything has to factor in when everybody’s shooting low scores. It’s not a mystery.”

Said Baird: “Yeah, it’s the conditions. There’s the wind; when the wind howled today, it howled two miles an hour. The greens aren’t very firm, yet they are. If you’re hitting a wedge, you’re sucking them back. It’s as easy as you could ask for.”

He still was a bit awed by the numbers, especially Perez’s.

“I don’t care how easy the conditions are or how easy they can set up a golf course, that’s a heck of a lot of birdies and you’re doing a heck of a lot of things right,” Baird said.