ESPN 2007 Players Championship

Not sure about you, but here's our idea of a pretty cool week:

Hang out with Michael Jordan. Have some laughs, tell a few jokes. Then spend the next four days playing golf on a world-class level at a world-class course. After you shoot a third straight sub-70 round Sunday, someone hands you a trophy and oversized check worth $1.134 million.

Yep, Tiger Woods is living the good life.

Then again, so are you, dear golf fan. The Weekly 18 begins with the notion that it's a good time to be watching the game.

Say what you will about The Players Championship (it's still not the "fifth major," as the PGA Tour would like us to believe) and its opening act, the Wachovia Championship (you can hold those "sixth major" comments, too), but we're quite possibly in the midst of the best two-week major-less stretch of the golf season.

What makes this such a delicious double is that the world's top players are all competing for two weeks in a row, which is hardly the norm. In fact, this week will mark just the second time Woods has made back-to-back starts this season, after doing so five times a year ago.

And therein lies the ire of those who follow the tour. If our e-mail inbox is any indication, most fans' biggest displeasure with professional golf is the lack of star-studded fields on a week-in, week-out basis. Unlike any team sport, in which the top players compete anytime they're not injured, and NASCAR, which has mandatory weekly attendance, pro golfers can pick and choose their spots, which leaves plenty of events on the have-not list.

But let's remember, this is nothing new to the PGA Tour. In the 29 seasons he played at least 10 events, Jack Nicklaus made 20 or more starts only seven times. Arnold Palmer averaged a few more each year, but he, too, cut down on his appearances as he got older. And much like Ernie Els and Retief Goosen today, Gary Player split his time between tours, often starting fewer than 15 tournaments, which is currently the minimum for PGA Tour members.

So, it's important to note that, when questioning why we don't see the most recognizable faces every week, it's not a recent phenomenon. And when we do catch them for a few weeks in a row, well, we might as well just sit back and enjoy it.

Woods' victory in his third career start at the Wachovia leaves only four tournaments in which he's made multiple appearances and still doesn't have a win. He has played the Nissan Open 11 times, the Barclays four times and the FBR Open three times, but doesn't own a title at any of those. Then there's The International, where Tiger didn't win in two starts and never will. It folded earlier this year.

What's the difference between final-round playing partners Woods and Rory Sabbatini? Well, other than 53 PGA Tour titles and a few dollars in the savings account, each exudes confidence in his own special way. When asked before Sunday's round what being paired with Sabbatini would be like, Woods responded, "I've played with him quite a bit out here, actually. I know Rory is playing well right now, and I'm going to have to obviously make some birdies." Meanwhile, his counterpart hardly quivered when posed a question about playing with the world's top-ranked player, telling Golf Channel, "I think it's great for Tiger to be paired with me. I think it's going to be a fun day for him." Of course, Woods had the last laugh, beating Sabbatini (who finished T-3) by 3 strokes.

Since 2003, Tiger and Vijay have been paired in a weekend round (including Labor Day) six times, the most recent coming Saturday at Quail Hollow. Woods got the best of Singh this time, shooting 68 to Singh's 69, but in those half-dozen instances, the two players are separated by a total of only 2 strokes, with Vijay holding the advantage.

The stars were out in full for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Oscar De La Hoya title fight, but one recognizable face wasn't at ringside Saturday night. "I made the cut, so I'm not going," Woods said Friday. "If I would have MC Hammered it this week, I would have been there." For the uninitiated, "MC Hammer" is a PGA Tour insider term -- and a Woods favorite -- that means missing the cut. (Get it? MC? Missed cut?)

Tiger's initial foray into FedEx Cup advertising likely will be met with indifference. Glaring up at a hanging picture of Bobby Jones, Woods says, "Well, Mr. Jones, we have the playoffs coming up for the first time. I really would like to win this thing. What do you think? Think I've got a shot? It would be nice if you could give me some kind of sign. Any sign. Any sign at all." Right then, a man dressed in a full tiger costume walks by, talking on a cell phone, saying, "I don't know what happened. I guess I wrote down the wrong address. Sorry about that." Woods quickly deadpans, "OK, that works." Cute? Sure. Effective? Maybe. Memorable? Hardly. With the world's most-famous athlete as the centerpiece, here's saying the tour's marketing folks could have come up with something a bit more inspired.

When you're the world's second-most-recognizable player, not much you do occurs under the radar. Then again, with Scott Verplank's emotional victory at the Byron Nelson and the dramatic close to the Wachovia, it was easy to overlook Phil Mickelson's second consecutive top-three finish. Since moving full-time to swing instructor Butch Harmon before the Nelson, Lefty has two identical T-3 results in his past two starts after four straight outside the top 15.

First, Sabbatini spun one back on the first hole. Then, Arron Oberholser bounced one in on No. 3. And lastly, Singh hit a long-range swish on the 12th. Three players, all within sniffing distance of the lead, made eagles Saturday -- but these weren't the two-shot-and-a-putt variety that occur on par-5s or the long-drive-and-a-putt kind that happen on drivable par-4s. Instead, each of these eagles came on legit par-4 holes (No. 1 is 411 yards, No. 3 452 yards, No. 12 456 yards), giving the atmosphere at Quail Hollow an electric vibe only a bunch of eagle hole-outs can.

Saturday's run of par-4 eagles got us thinking: Obviously, the highest rate of eagles comes on par-5 holes, but is it harder to score 2-under on a par-3 or a par-4? Think about it. It might actually be easier to make a hole-in-one than it is to make a 2 on a lengthy (say, 400 yards or more) par-4 hole. Although a certain amount of luck must be involved anytime a full iron approach finds the bottom of the cup, an ace requires only one well-struck shot and a par-4 eagle needs a successful drive to set up that second shot. Then again, a 300-plus-yard tee shot often leaves players hitting wedge into some par-4s but most par-3 holes require the use of a longer iron. Either way, it's an interesting debate.

Nice week for 2004 Wachovia champion Joey Sindelar, who finished T-22, his best result of the season. Sindelar, 49, was paired with relative youngsters Bubba Watson (28) and Ryan Moore (24) in the opening two rounds, giving him the chance to tell a few priceless stories about life as a veteran player. "Over the past 12 months, I've been walking into tournament registrations and [see] the wonderful ladies at the desk -- and regimes change, so I don't always know the people that have been there for 25 years," he said. "And if it's a new group, I get the, 'Sir, can we help you?' 'Yes, I'm here to register.' 'Well, pro-am registration is over there.' 'Well, I'm one of the players.' 'Right, can I see some ID?' I'm thinking they don't know some of the older guys." He also told the story of playing at Bay Hill with son Jamie on the bag. "We made the cut; the restaurant manager of the restaurant came over and looked at my son, who's 6-foot-1, 235 [pounds], 17 years old, 'Congratulations on making the cut,' [the manager said]. … Ten minutes later, he came back and he looked at me, and he goes, 'I'm so sorry, I thought your son was Joey Sindelar.'"

Chad Campbell shot 75-75 and missed the cut at Quail Hollow, the sixth time he has failed to reach the weekend in 12 stroke-play starts this season. What's wrong? Well, everything, it seems. Campbell's stats are downright gruesome. He's 127th in driving distance (278.2 yards), 87th in driving accuracy (61.98 percent), 148th in greens in regulation (60.49 percent) and 164th in putting average (1.837 putts per GIR), all of which has led to a scoring average rank of 168th (72.36 strokes per round, almost a full shot-and-a-half worse than his 70.90 average last season). Of the 182 players who qualified for the tour's All-Around statistic entering the Wachovia, Campbell ranked a lowly 178th. His best stroke-play finish was a T-13 at the Nelson, although he did finish fourth at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

Our friends at the USGA checked in this week with a report that three professional athletes -- New York Islanders goalie Mike Dunham, former NFL quarterback Tommy Maddox and former Cincinnati Reds third baseman Chris Sabo -- have applied to qualify for this year's U.S. Open at Oakmont. Anyone with a USGA handicap of 1.4 or better can apply, which means 34 people on Golf Digest's recent ranking of golfer-athletes, including superstars Mark McGwire, Brett Favre, Brett Hull, John Elway, Pete Sampras, Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan and Mike Schmidt, could have tried to make it into the field.

It was reported by SportsTicker this week that Michelle Wie will abandon her quest to play in men's events -- for the short-term future, at least. "She hasn't got any PGA Tour events planned at the moment," Wie's coach, David Leadbetter, said recently. "She's going to commit herself to the LPGA and play a number of events, and next year she'll probably take up membership." How Wie will fare remains to be seen, but Leadbetter said he thinks she could win "eight or nine times" with a full LPGA schedule. For a player who has yet to earn her initial title, that's saying a lot.

Four players entered the final round of the LPGA's SemGroup Championship tied atop the leaderboard in search of a first career victory on tour. Instead, Reilly Rankin (74), Stephanie Louden (74), Nicole Castrale (75) and Karin Sjodin (77) combined to shoot 16 over par. That's 20 bogeys (five from each player) and a triple against only seven birdies from the leading quartet Sunday. Ouch.

The foibles of those four left the door open for others on the leaderboard, as Mi Hyun Kim defeated Juli Inkster in a playoff to win the title and further solidify her position as the best player to receive the least ink over the past decade. Since joining the LPGA in 1999, Kim has finished inside the top 10 on the money list six times and never has been lower than 23rd. Need more proof of her consistency? In that time, she owns 92 top-10 results, has finished in the top three 24 times and has eight career titles.

We've touted him in this space before, but remember the name Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who could be the next in a long line of successful golfers from Spain that includes Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia (with young Pablo Martin lurking on the horizon, as well). On Sunday, Fernandez-Castano defeated Markus Brier on the second playoff hole to win the Italian Open -- his third European Tour title in as many years. How good is he? Don't be surprised to see the 26-year-old make a run for Nick Faldo's Ryder Cup roster next year.

More bad news for Ted Potter Jr. this week. He shot 72-73 at the Nationwide Tour's Fort Smith Classic to miss the cut by 8 strokes. Since finishing 12th at the season-opening Movistar Panama Championship, Potter has failed to reach the weekend in six consecutive starts. This comes on the heels of a 2005 Nationwide season that saw Potter miss the cut in all 24 events he played. Remember the story, though. Just 23 years old, Potter has plenty of time to see his game mature. That 0-for-24 season could become the stuff of legend if he ever makes it in the big leagues.

"Even I signed autographs [Wednesday]. That's how big the crowd was."
-- Cooper Manning, brother of NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, who played with Sergio Garcia in the Wednesday pro-am at the Wachovia.

Jason Sobel is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com