The Clubhouse

TELEVISION MAGIC: The new Tiger Woods-Rory McIlroy Nike commercial is drawing parallels to the Larry Bird-Michael Jordan spot the two basketball stars did almost two decades ago for McDonald’s. It’s clear in the Bird-Jordan commercial that the pair were definitely in the same room when the spot was shot. The same cannot be said of McIlroy and Woods when they came “together” for the Nike ad.

ESPN.com reports that due to scheduling issues, both players could not be present on the same day of the commercial shoot which took place last October in Southern California. That was around the same time McIlroy began addressing reports that he was planning to leave Titleist-FootJoy for a big money deal with Nike.

According to ESPN’s Bob Harig, McIlroy's part was filmed first, with Woods following a few days later.

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TALE OF THE HOUSE: In a somewhat humourous “anything you can do I can do better” take, Florida real estate agent Jeff Lichtenstein compared the houses of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Among the highlights.. Tiger paid $46-million for his new bachelor pad while Rory had to shell out just $9.5-million... Tiger lives on 14 acres while Rory has to make due with just one.. Tiger has 16,000 square feet to spread himself out while Rory has to just 10,000 square feet to roll around in and get lost

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UNLIKE ANY OTHER: Those of you who wondering what it must have been like to play the very first Masters tournament at Augusta National are in for a treat. Electronic Arts, the makers of the Tiger Woods video golf series, says that for the first time ever, users will get to play the course as it was set up in 1934 when Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 14: The Masters Historic Edition is released this March.

EA says meticulous research went into the effort to recreate the original 1931 design of the world-renowned golf course created by architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie and legendary golfer Bobby Jones. Everything from the clothing of that era to the equipment that was used when the first tournament which came to be known as the Masters has been put into the latest edition of the game - even the golf course's nines being reversed to its original green contours and speeds.

All 20 courses available in the standard edition are also in this latest game along with four additional championship courses: Royal County Down, Royal Melbourne, Sheshan and TPC Blue Monster at Doral.

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MISSING OUT: Nicole Vandermade of Brantford, Ont., missed out on making it to the third and final stage of LPGA q-school last fall by three strokes. She tells Brian Smiley of the Brantford Expositor that it was the best thing that ever happened to her.

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SAY WHAT?: “I'm going to have to stick a knife in my heart at the end of this. This is the most depressing interview I've ever given for this amount of time. ...I mean that wholeheartedly.”

What was it that made Jim Furyk utter those words? Check out Cameron Morfit’s interview for the February edition of Golf Magazine.

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OH CANADA: From the “let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves” file... The Examiner.com website poses the question, could Dustin Johnson represent Canada in golf at the 2016 Olympics? The gist of the argument is that the South Carolina-born Johnson could find a Canadian passport in his travel bag should he continue to pursue his current love interest, one Paulina Gretzky. Yes, that Paulina Gretzky who, aside from making a name for herself on Twitter, is also the daughter of Canada’s favourite hockey icon, Wayne Gretzky. Paulina, it is noted, carries dual Canadian - American citizenship because, as the Examiner says quoting Canadian Nationality Law, "Every person born outside Canada after 15 February 1977, who has a Canadian parent at the time of birth, is automatically a Canadian citizen by descent." If - and this is a very big IF - Johnson were to marry Gretzky, he would have to apply for Canadian citizenship as that dual Canadian-American thing wouldn’t automatically transfer over (at least by our understanding).

Under the current qualifications for the Olympic golf tournament in 2016, the top 15 golfers in the world rankings will automatically qualify while the next 45 spots will open to golfers from countries who do not already have two players that have qualified.

Johnson is ranked 13th at the present time and would be in the tournament flying the American flag. But should he fall out of the top 15, then he would not be eligible for Olympic participation as there would likely be more than two U.S.-born players inside the top 15. If Johnson has a real burning desire to play at the Olympics and he happens to walk down the aisle with Ms. Gretzky, then applying for Canadian citizenship would be his best chance.

As it stands now, Graham DeLaet of Weyburn Sask. (178th) and David Hearn of Brampton, Ont. (215th) would be the current Canadian representatives at the Games.

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FINAL WORD

"The disadvantage comes in not knowing 100 per cent exactly what's going to happen under pressure. You can test them all day long on the driving range, but they always feel that little bit different on the course. I would say you're going to know one way or the other within three tournaments - good or bad." - Justin Rose on the disadvantage of switching to new equipment