Uh, apparently David Feherty passed gas.

Trying to sneak one out as he stood 10 feet away from the Woods braintrust, Feherty miscalculated worse than trying to hit a two iron off a downhill buried lie and trying to land it softly on the green. Instead of escaping unnoticed, the escaping flatulence fluttered Feherty’s buttocks with enough force to arouse Woods and Williams from their usually intense pre-shot routine. Even CBS microphones on the fairway picked up the sound and broadcast it for all the world to hear. Within seconds, Woods and caddy were laughing hysterically.

Feherty is an ex-golfer turned fairway golf reporter for CBS who’s best known for turning a witty phrase along with his inside-the-ropes golf commentary. Apparently his wit isn’t the only thing that get’s laughs, however.

The funny thing is, the clip of the incident made it on to YouTube by the next day, but details were so sketchy early on that most sources attributed the fart to Tiger. That’s what stardom gets you these days.

The 2009 Buick Open was supposed to be Buick’s last hurrah as a golf sponsor, at least for the foreseeable future. That’s why Tiger decided to play the event, even though it would take away from his preparation for the final major of 2009 (the PGA Championship at Hazeltine). Even though Tiger and Buick parted ways already last year, everyone still thinks of Tiger as Buick’s golf spokesman. To Tiger’s credit, he acknowledged  the importance of Buick’s committment to golf for the last 50 year and to Tiger’s own career for the last 10 not just by showing up for the tournament, but showing up with game and winning (everyone knows ratings are double when Tiger’s in the field and triple when he’s in contention on Sunday).

It was supposed to be a tournament that I looked by in my golden years and recalled as the last tournament Buick hosted in Michigan – the 69th PGA tour victory by Tiger Woods.

Instead, I’m afraid I’ll probably remember it as the tournament with the Feherty fart heard ’round the world.

The victory came at Arnold Palmer’s Bayhill Invitational, an event that Woods had won 5 other times in his career.

Woods began the day 5 shots behind 54 hole leader Sean O’Hair. Sean ended up shoot three over whil Tiger shot 3 under for the final round, giving him a one shot victory.

If you watched only saw the highlights, you probably felt the 16 foot putt on 18 for birdie to win was the shot of the day for Woods. I will admit that Tiger has an uncanny ability to pull off big-time putts in clutch situations. two of his other victories at Bayhill were won on the 72nd hole with long putts for birdie. But since I watched the entire last round, I can tell you that there was plenty stellar play beforehand that gave him the opportunity to make that final putt. And to me, the greatest shot of the day occurred a hole before, and probably won’t even get any air time at all.

The 17th at Bayhill is a long, difficult par 3. The pin was tucked in the back right with a gaping bunker protecting it. As the final group stood on the tee, Woods had a one stroke lead.  The smart play was to aim left and cut it back toward the pin. Tiger pushed the shot just a tad the high fadeit got hung up in the cooling dusk air. The ball landed about 2 inches below the lip of the facing bunker and plugged right in place. Now a fried egg lie like that is tough enough, but the steep slope made the stance almost impossible and the ball was actually underneath the overhanging, rough-lned lip of the bunker. Tiger had to kneel on his left leg in the thick rough just to be able to address the ball.

Tiger took a full shoulder turn and whacked the ball straight up in the air where it landed hard on the green and race about 20 feet by the cup. He missed the putt and fell back into a tie with O’Hair heading into the 18th.

So why do I think that bunker shot was the most amazing shot of the tournament when he didn’t even get it up and down? First of all, The average tour player would probably get that shot on the green one in 10 times. The average good amatuer would leave that ball in the bunker 9 out of ten times. The shot was that difficult. Even though he made a bogey, most other players would have double bogeyed that one. That bunker shot enabled him to only drop one stroke and still feel like he was in command going into the 18th.

Second of all, it showed that his knee is completely back – and probably better than it’s ever been. WIth the state his knee has been in the last three years, he wouldn’t even have been able to TRY that shot, much less pull it off.

Tiger’s back. In only 3 starts since coming back this year after a 9 month layoff, he won. He had looked good in his other two starts. I saw him in person at the Match Play in Tucson and he was hitting the ball well. His big problem was that his short game wasn’t quite at Tour speed yet. This week at Bayhill, Tiger’s short game was phenomenal, and that’s what won him the tournament.

That’s a good lesson for all you weekend Warriors out there. Spend at least half your practice time on the short game and your scores will improve. Here is a link to a free short game tips that will help immediately improve your short game.

Nevertheless, with Tiger out of action for the rest of 2008 and possibly into 2009, it is a great opportunity for another golfer on tour to emrge as the go-to guy. Prevailing wisdom would have Phil be that guy. But recent play has not given any indication that Phil is the guy. Maybe he never will be.

Case in point was last week at the WGC at Firestone. Phil was in control on the back nine, at one point sitting at -12 with a 2 shot lead. But poor play down the stretch really hurt Phil.

After coming back to the pack, he came to the 17th tee needing a par-par finish to most likely tie for the lead and go into a playoff. So what does he do? He pulls out a driver and promptly pushes his tee shot into the fairway bunkers on the left side of the narrow fairway. I emphasize “narrow.” In fact it is so narrow that Tiger (who usually “owns” Firestone) never hits more than a stinger 3 wood, and usually just goes with a 2 or 3 iron off the tee. Even shorter hitters like Jim Furyk never hit a driver there. It’s just too risky for the small reward you get if you atually do find the fairway.

In case you didn’t see the debacle, Phil bogied that hole and had to try to birdie the tough 18th to get back into a plyoff. Didn’t happen.

In my mind, I knew that Phil was going to lose the tournament as soon as I saw the driver in his hand on the tee at 17. It just didn’t make sense. I understand his desire to be aggressive and his need to play his own game. But what he has to make into his own game is the smart types of plays that win tournamets.

It’s hard to criticize a guy who’s won over 30 times on tour. No other active player has won more expcept for Tiger. And that’s the problem. Tiger is an aggressive player too, but he has learned how to temper his aggressiveness at the right time and play smarter. It’s why he has doubled Phil’s win total in half the time.

Phil has an awesome opportunity to really dominate on the tour with Tiger out. But unfortunately, it is the inconsistent course management strategies that will keep Phil from doing it this year. Unless he learns to be like Tiger in that regard, he will always play second fiddle, even when Tiger’s not in the field.

In his apology, Miller said the comments had “absolutely nothing to do with his ethnicity.”

Mediate, a 45-year-old Pennsylvanian, is of Italian heritage.

At the time Miller made the comments, Mediate held a one-stroke lead over Tiger Woods with only a few holes left to play on the difficult Torrey Pines setup.

In a statement through NBC (which they most certainly forced him to make), Miller said:

“I apologize to anyone who was offended by my remarks. My intention was to convey my affection and admiration for Rocco’s everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his ethnicity. I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful.”

I believe Miller. Johnny is a former player, and a golf phenom. But he still identifies with the players. He knows them and knows what’s going on in their heads. He’s out there before the broadcast talking to the players. It would be absolutely ridiculous to think that Miller had any kind of malicious intentions with his comments. They were “poorly chosen” words considering the politically correct environment we live in. They were “poorly chosen” words considering that Tiger Woods draws a huge non-golf savvy audience who doesn’t know that Miller is a former player and is on friendly terms with most of the current players.

Miller says some harsh things about players at times. He can be caustic about a bad swing or a missed shot. He can also be playful with player quirks and amazed at some of the great shots he witnesses.

Johnny Miller isn’t my favorite golf announcer, but I think he’s in tune with the players. At times he is brutally honest. But to suggest that he was disrespecting Rocco Mediate is totally ridiculous. Those who took it wrong are the real losers in this story.