The Clubhouse

PLAYING THROUGH: Three golfers found out the hard way that sometimes its best to keep your position rather than play on through.

According to the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, 48-year-old Clay Carpenter suffered a punctured femoral artery and massive blood loss following a brawl with another group of golfers during a round at the Golf Club at the Resort on Eagle Mountain Lake late last month.

A foursome was playing the back nine ahead of a threesome, [police spokesman Terry] Grisham said, and the three golfers believed the foursome was playing too slow and wanted to play through.

Carpenter said a course marshal instructed the foursome to allow the smaller group of golfers to play through, and that’s when the "gentleman’s game" turned ugly.

As the golfers were fighting, Carpenter said he was on top of another man when he was stabbed with the golf shaft. Grisham said Carpenter lost a lot of blood and was "very close to death."

"People get in arguments every day on every golf course in America," Carpenter said. "But 99.9 percent of the time no one takes it this far."

Carpenter says he might have to undergo more surgeries and he could ultimately lose the use of his leg. The muscles in the lower half of his leg atrophied during his recovery and portions of it have died from the lack of blood flow, he said.

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DOUBLE, DOUBLE: Daniel Chopra had quite the round at Pebble Beach on Tuesday - too bad it was a practice round! The Swede clubbed not one, but two holes-in-one at the prestigious course which has some of the most amazing oceanside views.

The first ace came at the par-3 seventh where Chopra used a 50-degree wedge on the hole which measured 103 yards. Then Chopra used a 7-iron to ace the 176 yard historic par-3 17th.

"I was like Tiger Woods on steroids; I was so pumped," Chopra said. "I think that's the most excited I've ever been on the golf course in my life. It was more exciting than Kapalua [where he won his second career PGA tournament]."

According to the National Hole-In-One Registry, the odds of a touring pro making a hole-in-one are 3,000 to 1. The odds of making two aces in the same round are 67 million to 1.

Up until that point, Chopra counted 13 holes-in-one in his career - including tournaments, practice rounds and casual golf. His caddy, a former pro player himself, had often needled him about having made more aces - 15 - than the two time Tour winner. Not any more.

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MUMS THE WORD: Lee Westwood was forced to apologize after he was caught swearing on live television at last week’s Qatar Masters. But it wasn’t just a regular viewer who pinched the world number three for his language - it was his mother.

“My mum was the first person on the phone and she said you might want to apologize,” he told reporters ahead of this week’s Dubai Desert Classic. “I didn’t think that down at four-under-par I would be on TV. It’s amazing how sensitive these microphones are.”

The incident occurred during the 38-year-old Briton’s closing 69 on Sunday, a round that left him in a tie for 12th place behind tournament winner Paul Lawrie who finished on 15-under-par.

After the conversation with his mum, Westwood issued an immediate apology on his Twitter account.

“Sorry about swearing on the 16th tee. Came off like a rocket and thought it was going further! Wash my mouth out! Perils of live tv!”, he wrote.

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NO 2 WITH A BULLET: Adam Hadwin has been named the No. 2 player to watch this year on the Nationwide Tour.

In his preview of the upcoming season on the developmental tour, writer John Dell points out the two-time Canadian Tour champion “averaged 297.5 yards driving and had a very good scoring average of 69.48.” If Hadwin had played enough rounds to qualify, that would have put him 38th and 3rd respectively on the PGA stats list. Hadwin also would have ranked 5th in Greens in Regulation with a 71.11 percentage.

“honoured to be @NationwideTour’s #2 player to watch this year,” tweeted Hadwin. “Lots of hard work ahead!! Excited for the challenge!”

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AND YOU WOULD BE?: Mike Weir is making his first PGA start this week since the RBC Canadian Open in Vancouver last year when he walked off the course at Shaughnessy five holes into his second round with pain in his elbow.

Weir was hoping to play back-to-back tournaments, asking organizers of next week’s Northern Trust Open for a sponsors exemption into the event. However, the two-time winner of what was then known as the Nissan Open had his request denied. Instead, organizers elected to give out invitations to Fred Couples (another two time champion who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2003 but is always a fan favourite), collegiate stars Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth (who will be making their first ever starts at the event), South Korea's K.T. Kim, Japanese stars Ryo Ishikawa and Yuta Ikeda; Nationwide Tour graduates and PGA Tour rookies Billy Hurley III and Erik Compton (he of the double heart transplant); Jason Gore (who got in largely through a Twitter campaign) and Andy Walker (who gets in via a program aimed at the advancement of diversity in golf).

With Riviera out of the equation, Weir is hoping to play next at the Mayakoba event in Mexico later this month which is the same week at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

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FINAL WORD

“I’m playing in the future, I just don’t know when yet.” -- Tiger Woods in a cryptic response to a question about where he plans to play next after Pebble Beach