The Players Championship had a $9.5 million purse

A month later, the Walker Cup goes to Los Angeles Country Club (North Course). All three courses are within about 10 miles of each other.

Excel Sports Management says the niece of Tiger Woods has joined Mark Steinberg's stable of clients. Steinberg has Titleist 712 AP1 Irons represented Woods since 1999, first at IMG before joining Excel last summer.

The Players Championship had a $9.5 million purse. Wentworth has a prize fund of about $5.7 million. And those PGA Tour players who want to play this week can always go to Colonial for a $6.4 million purse.

Campbell had to qualify for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, and Waite had nowhere to stay. Foster was caddying in 2005 for Darren Clarke, who had to withdraw because of an injury. Waite wound up taking Foster's place in a house he had booked with four other caddies. It turned out to be a pretty good week.

Two of three Americans in the field do not have full PGA Tour status this year — former PGA champions Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel. The other is former British Open champion Ben Curtis, who did not have a full card until he won the Texas Open last month. Curtis had planned to play in England, and even though his hometown event at the Memorial is next week, he did not back out.

But when Robert Allenby fired him in 2010, Waite decided to quit and spend time with his three young children. He bought a Subway franchise on the Golf Coast, and business is going so well that he has a full staff to run the place. That made Waite think about caddying again, as long as the right opportunity presented itself.

Waite called Foster and asked him to put in a good word. A few weeks later, he called Westwood's manager and was told he was among five finalists. A few hours later, Chubby Chandler rang him and asked, "Have you got visas for UK, Sweden and the US?"

Sponge made his last sandwich on discount golf clubs Thursday and headed for Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship. Then, it's off to Sweden and San Francisco for the U.S. Open.

"You don't have to travel far to play in a $6 million event at a great course at Colonial," Donald said at Sawgrass. "But I've always been a proponent of to get the most out of your game, it's important to travel and to experience new places. I think at least go try it once, and if you don't like it, fair enough. But it's a big event on our tour. It's considered our Players Championship of the European Tour. And I would have thought that would incite some interest in some of the big Americans that would be exempt for it."

Marino had surgery last October to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, and then played three straight weeks to start the 2012 season without mixed results and too much pain. He missed the cut in Honolulu, tied for 19th at the Humana Challenge and tied for 66th at Torrey Pines.

Marino is the second player who had surgery in the offseason, played early in the year and wound up taking a big chunk of time off. Dustin Johnson, who last played at Doral, also is scheduled to return at the Memorial.

There's a little more to the Titleist 712 AP2 Irons story in the Sydney Morning Herald about Mike Waite, who will be filling in for the injured Billy Foster during a critical run of majors for Westwood. Waite is a longtime caddie known as "Sponge" among his peers. He was on the bag for Michael Campbell's U.S. Open win at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2005.