Actually, that would be me. I’ll be on our new joint venture with RNN, “NewsCenter Now” tonight to talk about Meaghan Francella and Johnson Wagner, both of whom are faring well in their respective tourneys. Also, I’ll plug my blog, which basically means that my entire existence is just one endless cycle of shameless self-promotion.

Anyway, the latest on the two local players in their second rounds: Francella is 1-under par through four holes to move to three shots off the lead at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, while Wagner is at even par through four holes and two shots off the lead at the Shell Houston Open.

My goal by the end of this year is to stage a match between the two players, mostly because that would mean I wouldn’t have to be monitoring two different tournaments at once…

My timing is all off. I covered the Kraft Nabisco Championship in luxurious Palm Springs two straight years, but never when we had a player from our own backyard in the field.

Now Port Chester’s Meaghan Francella is set to off in her first career major in a few short hours and I’ll be….in Port Chester. Go figure.

Either way, these are heady times for Francella seeing how she’s only two weeks removed from knocking off Annika Sorenstam for her first career LPGA title. But maybe the most remarkable part is she’s still found time to blog for us on a regular basis.

It was an idea spawned in the weeks before embarking on her rookie season, and at the time, Francella had little reason to think she’d become a celebrity on tour so quickly. But she’s always been mindful of her roots, and this is just another example.

Golf Digest recently released its list of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, with the top spot again occupied by Pine Valley in New Jersey, followed by Shinnecock Hills on Long Island and then Augusta National.

Since we’re unabashedly geocentric here on the golf blog, here’s the rundown on the local courses: Winged Foot’s West Course again is the highest ranked course in the area, checking in at No. 8, followed by neighbor Quaker Ridge (No. 33), Winged Foot’s East Course (No. 43), and finally, Hudson National in Croton-on-Hudson (No. 90).

Pathetic stat of the day: of the 100 courses on the list, I’ve played a whopping total of seven (although as a golf writer, I’ve set foot on 26 of them).

It’s officially been way too long since I posted on this blog, which you can all blame completely on that juggernaut on ice better known as the New York Rangers.

Quick, catch me up to speed on golf. Is this Tiger guy still pretty good? What about the goofy guy, I forget his name—left-handed, a little soft around the middle, smiles like he’s heavily medicated?

Anything else I should know before I head down to cover the Masters? I know, it’s a tough gig. It was either that or a week watching the grass NOT grow in my backyard.

I hope I made the right choice….