As I reported today, Tiger Woods looks like he’s definitely coming to Westchester for the Barclays based on his response yesterday that he plans to play all four FedEx Cup playoff events.

But as Chris Lewis notes on his blog, Phil Mickelson does not list the Barclays on the schedule on his web site, feeding the increasing speculation that His Leftiness will not be in the field for the tour’s first playoff event.

This would hardly be a surprise based on Mickelson’s nagging wrist, but also the rumblings that he’s not completely enamored with Westchester. A number of people have told me over the years that Mickelson, while not overly critical of the golf course, has complained about the pace of play challenges that always seem to dog Westchester—most notably when players wait to drive the greens on the seventh and 10th holes. Of course, I’ve never had this confirmed to me directly since the one time I asked Phil about it, last year, he said it wasn’t an issue.

Still, I’m now skeptical that he’s on board for the first playoff event, and as a number of people have already noted, I wouldn’t be surprised if he skips the whole thing.

Tamarack Country Club spent $26 million on its new clubhouse that opened last month, which is only slightly more than the 99 cents we spent on renovations here at Blog Headquarters (but that box of paper clips goes a long way).

Anyway, it’s an impressive sight, and after two years of enduring construction, the membership now has it to enjoy, and of course, to brag about to friends and associates.

You can see for yourself here on the Tamarack site.

A quick update before I get inundated with ticket requests for this afternoon.

OK, so that’s complete sarcasm. Look, there are two ways to view this afternoon’s final, and one is to lament the fact that it features two players 98 percent of the American population has never heard of.

I’ll admit it’s probably easier to write about the likes of Annika Sorenstam or even Meaghan Francella since people are inherently interested in them, and of course, they’re fluent in English. But what you also forget is these players have significant followings in their native countries, and if not for the obvious language barrier, they could be just as engaging—if not more.

Yes, to answer your question, I’m basically trying to psyche myself up for this afternoon, and my guess is outside of my wife, my mother and my sports editor, I’m not going to have many people poring over my story tomorrow morning. But that’s not to say this final won’t be compelling, and that it won’t be important to a number of people—beginning with the two players who are set to tee off in a little more than an hour (one of whom, Miyazato, has never won an LPGA event before).

Is it ideal? Hardly. But it’s a chance to watch good golf on an absolutely gorgeous day.

With that in mind, I doubt the people who really work for a living are going to have much sympathy for me.

Show of hands: Who had Mi Hyun Kim, Seo Hwa Lee, Ai Miyazato, and Maria Hjorth in their HSBC brackets? Anyone? Hello?

So I was the only one. Amazing. Of course, it helps that I filled out my bracket about an hour ago…

No, Sunday won’t exactly be a red carpet affair, but this is what you get in match play. You’d like to think about Sorenstam and Ochoa in the final. But given the format’s quirky nature, Hjorth and Lee is probably closer to reality.

As for Meaghan Francella, the quarterfinal loss to Hjorth was a disappointment, but it was still a week when she turned some heads. The Port Chester native is 16th on the U.S. Solheim Cup standings, but she can expect to make up some ground because of her showing this week. And as her third-round opponent Pat Hurst, she might merit some consideration as a captain’s pick.

“We need her on the team for Solheim, that’s for sure,� said Hurst, a veteran of four Solheim teams. “She’d be a great asset for our team because she’s mentally tough. Everybody out her can play, but I think you’ve got to be mentally tough, and she is.�

I wouldn’t compare it to manual labor, but one of the challenges of covering a match play tournament is interviewing players after they lose since they’re not always in such an expansive mood.

And that’s especially the case when the losing player is someone like Cristie Kerr, whose reputation isn’t exactly of the warm-and-fuzzy variety to begin today. But that was the job today after the reigning U.S. Women’s Open champion was knocked out by Amy Hung in the first round.

When I originally approached Kerr as she was sitting in an idle golf cart waiting to go back to the clubhouse, she said she wasn’t interested in talking because, as she put, “I’m not in a good mood.”

I persisted, saying I just needed a few comments, and that’s when she told me to get in the cart. Here’s where I give Kerr credit, because she then went on to answer my series of questions, to the point that I eventually had run out of things to ask her. And when I realized I didn’t really want to be in the cart anymore, and that it was pulling me further away from where I needed to be, I decided to take the logical next step. I thanked Kerr and jumped out—while the cart was still moving.

I suppose it may have looked sort of awkward. But certainly no more awkward than riding the rest of the way with a player who only wanted to get out of town.

…from the HSBC, including insights into the matches, the weather, even the portable bahtrooms, check out my colleague Alex Myers’ Match Madness blog here.

The good news is Alex has been blogging incessantly all week. The bad news is that means he has to spend an inordinate amount of time in the frozen tundra that is the press room, where Wykagyl workers might want to consider storing any excess raw meat.

Yes, some of you have noted that my attention this week has been on the LPGA while the most storied championship in golf is going on across the ocean in Scotland

That is because….drumroll please….I’m not at the Open Championship.

What can I tell you? I went to three Opens between 2003 and 2005, including one at the famed Old Course which probably ranks as the highlight of my sports writing career. There is no experience like it, and if I told you I didn’t miss being over there this morning, most of you would see through it.

But the reality of travel budgets, and the conflict of a high-level LPGA event in our backyard the exact same week, makes the Open a luxury we had reason to bypass. And while I don’t necessarily relish other people’s misfortune, it’s worth noting that plenty of big papers have been skipping the Open as well. And with that in mind, my bosses at The Journal News deserve credit for sending me when they did—and of course, for one day (hopefully) sending me again.

Just watching the images on TV this morning tugs at me to want to get back. But I’ve also reached a point where being on the road for nine days no longer has the appeal that it once did, what with a wife and a son and a constant clog in our shower. So I’ll settle for TNT and ABC, and I’ll spend my days chronicling some dramatic golf right down the road.

All things considered, that’s not a terrible trade-off.

A few years ago I wrote a fairly long magazine piece on the business of golf pro-ams, and how essential they are to most tournaments’ financial well-being. The thinking is that pro-ams are not only where businesses and individuals plunk down thousands to play 18 holes with their favorite PGA or LPGA star, but it’s also how tournaments lure businesses into buying larger sponsorship packages (i.e. buy this corporate tent and sign and we’ll give you 8 pro-am spots).

With that in mind, ask most tournament directors which day they absolutely CAN NOT afford for it to rain, and the answer is not Saturday or Sunday, but the Wednesday of pro-ams.

The reason I mention this, of course, is that it’s pouring rain outside the media tent at the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship, and the morning portion of the pro-am has been canceled.

Again, for many fans, this doesn’t make too much of a difference, although it does deprive them the chance to see their favorite players in a more informal setting. But it is costly to the tournament, and of course, to the pro-am participants who have spent two weeks honing their games in hopes of showing Natalie Gulbis and Annika Sorenstam a thing or two, only to have to spend the morning picking at the buffet line in the clubhouse.

And the answer to your question is no, they don’t get their money back….

The brackets are out for the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship, and I already spot some compelling first round match-ups, including:

One of golf’s great showmen is calling it quits. Seve Ballesteros announced his retirement from competitive golf at Carnoustie today, a long overdue concession to reality given his recent spate of on-course struggles

Over time, though, no one will remember the Ballesteros who lost his game and couldn’t break 80 at Augusta his spring, but the swachbuckling star who won three British Opens and two Masters, and who was able to recover from the most improbable spots.

I always modeled my own game after Ballesteros since I, too, have been known to spray the driver on occasion. In that sense, we were kindred spirits. But whereas Ballesteros could knock his second shot out of the rough, under a tree, and run it onto the green to within 15 feet of the cup, I’d hit a tree dead square and end up further back than where I started from.

So in other words, the similarities only go so far….