Donald started No. 2 in the rankings

With the win, Johnson got his eighth career title and some valuable Ryder Cup and FedEx Cup points. But his embarrassing brain flub was a reminder of the careful attention to detail it takes in all facets of the game. Replacing your ball is one of the most routine acts on a Titleist 712 AP1 Irons course. It's a good measure of courtesy to remind your playing partners to not forget to put the ball back in its original position on the green.

That's probably not the first time Johnson has failed to replace his ball. But it's likely to be his last time committing the rules infraction. It won't just be a force of habit. It will become a habitual concern of his and his caddie's. And we'll probably be looking closer than ever to catch that player in the act as someone who forgot to remember something he's done his whole life.

Some of Gainey's poor play can be attributed to a nagging elbow injury, but playing with injuries is a part of the game. Now that he's healthy, maybe he can show in the remainder of the year some of the dazzling play we saw from him in 2011.

Coming into the Colonial, Gainey had eight missed cuts and two withdrawals in 17 events. At the Valero Texas Open, he shot 80-84 to miss the cut with a 20-over-par total. The former line worker at the A.O. Smith water heater company, who once boasted of making $12 per hour Titleist 712 AP2 Irons at the plant, had earned less than $100,000 in the season. He was well on his way to a return to Q-school in the fall.

Johnson's caddie, Damon Green, or Dufner could have told him to replace the ball, but they, too, probably were caught up in the moment. It's the kind of thing that probably happens more often than we know on the PGA Tour. Lots of weird stuff happens on the golf course. We just don't see most of it because there isn't a gallery or a TV announcer to catch it. Unless it's a major or your name is Tiger, Phil, Daly or Rickie Fowler, the typical tour player competes in relative peace and anonymity with only his family and friends following him on the course.

"I just think I've lacked competitive rounds," McIlroy said on Friday. "I'm looking forward to getting to the states and playing four rounds. I'm still confident in my ability."

But miraculously, his game came together this week at Colonial, where he had rounds of 66-67-73-67 to finish in solo third, which was good enough for a $435,200 payday. Now he's in a position on the money list in which he needs to make probably another $150,000 to keep his card next year. He'll play another 15 to 17 events this year, so if he performs decently, his homespun nature should grace the tour for another year.

Since starting his year with five top-5s, including a win at the Honda Classic, McIlroy has had a disappointing tie for 40th at the Masters, a T-2 at the Wells Fargo Championship and the two missed cuts.

Tiger Woods, the benchmark for success on the contemporary PGA Tour, has never missed two cuts in a row in his pro career. If McIlroy wants to reach that level of greatness, he had better figure discount golf clubs out how in the world a player of his otherworldly abilities could ever shoot a 79.

He has no reason to lack confidence in his game, but he should be concerned about missing cuts so near the U.S. Open. Last year, he came into Congressional off of a tie for fifth at the Memorial. Though his runaway win in the U.S. Open was a signal to the world that he was going to be a contender for a long time, getting to No. 1 this year has been his real coming-out party.

Learn to play early swings

For the teachers and golf professionals who offered swing lessons, they hope it will become a gateway to a lifelong avocation.

McCormick trained with The First Tee junior golf program and received support from the PGA's Northeastern New York Section, New York State United Teachers and the school's PTA. He purchased callaway razr x irons designed to minimize the risk of injury.

"It's a lot of fun. We're learning to respect the game," said Noah Parker, a fourth grader who had only played miniature golf before.

They're trying to grow the game to counteract golf's decline, hastened by the 2008 recession. The number of frequent golfers has dropped 3 to 4 percent annually since 2006. More golf courses have been closing than opening for the past five years. The number of rounds played at municipal courses and memberships at country clubs have plummeted during the stubborn economic downturn. There are now an estimated 26 million golfers in America. The PGA has an ambitious goal of increasing that to 40 million by 2020.

"It's a good idea to get kids started when they're young," said Ziamandanis, who began playing at 7. "Golf taught me to be independent and to overcome obstacles."

Pepper grew up competing against boys on the golf team in Saratoga. She played boys' varsity beginning in eighth grade, a first at the time. She said her teammates were welcoming and she has remained close with several of them.

"I might end up liking it more than football," said Wyatt Dill, a fifth-grader who never picked up a golf club growing up in Brandon, Miss. He transferred to the school in December.

Pepper's dad was a pro baseball player and she learned to swing a bat at a tender age, but switched to a golf club in elementary school after she saw her grandparents play. She chipped in a corner of the basement and putted on the dining room rug. "It was really fast callaway diablo edge irons and I learned every break all the way into the kitchen," she said.

McCormick's course will culminate with a scramble tournament for his students on May 26 at Hiawatha Trails, a kid-friendly, par-3 golf course in Guilderland. A focus of his teaching is to underscore The First Tee's nine core values, which include honesty, integrity, sportsmanship and perseverance.

McCormick is an avid golfer earning a doctorate in sports psychology at the University of the Rockies. He teaches golfers how to improve the mental aspect of their game. But he never had the equipment to teach golf to his students during 13 years at the school. He tried Frisbee golf and golf with lacrosse sticks, with mixed results.

"This was a really good start on the future of the game," said Scott Warren, golf pro at Pinehaven Country Club in Guilderland and a friend of McCormick's since high school.

"We're excited about what Dennis is doing and we hope to make this a pilot program for other physical education teachers to follow," said Tracie Warner, executive director of the PGA Northeastern New York Section. Voorheesville is one of six elementary schools discount golf clubs in the Capital Region teaming up with the PGA and The First Tee, which has set a goal of doubling involvement to 8,000 elementary schools nationwide by 2015.

Phil Mickelson grasped the magnitude of what was to happen Monday

"It kind of hit [wife] Amy and I that we've really had a pretty great life experience these last 20 years," Mickelson said, hours before induction ceremonies to make him one of the Hall's five newest members.

Mickelson, who swashbuckled his way to three Masters titles and a PGA Championship among 40 PGA Tour wins, was preceded in enshrinement by Sandy Lyle, Hollis Stacy, veteran writer Dan Jenkins and BBC "voice of golf" Peter Alliss.

Jenkins and Alliss both were honored for journalistic excellence that has spanned parts of six decades. Jenkins began discount golf clubs covering Hogan and Byron Nelson in the 1950s in his native Fort Worth, Texas; Alliss first joined the BBC's British Open telecast in 1961.

"I'm just pleased to be taken in as a vertical human," quipped Jenkins, the first living writer to receive Hall of Fame enshrinement.

"It was kind of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing," said Stacy, a Savannah native whose three U.S. Women's Open titles were recognized by the veterans' committee.

That Mickelson one day would enter the Hall of Fame was hardly in doubt since the San Diego native notched his first PGA Tour win while still a collegian. Lyle and Stacy, on the other hand, weren't sure if they'd ever get the chance.

"I had not thought of being in the TaylorMade RocketBallZ fairway wood Hall of Fame, so there were no hollow feelings or anything. I was just shocked when I got the phone call."

"I thought I was going to be overlooked. But it's happened, so I'm very happy."

"We don't really slow down and reminisce and think about it, because we're just right in the thick of it. And this was the first time we've kind of looked back together and thought about all that we've done together. It's been fun."

"That 'close' went on for quite a few years and I sort of thought, 'It ain't going to happen,' " said the Scotsman, who won Masters and British Open titles in the 1980s before his game took a sudden downward turn.

Lyle, on the other hand, went through something of an annual ritual of friends offering their condolences at falling short on the international ballot and reporters asking him for reaction.

It was Alliss, though, who brought down the house with a wordless finish. Wrapping up his acceptance speech, the 81-year-old broadcaster recalled a school headmistress from years ago whose TaylorMade RocketBallZ Driver final report said: "It's clear Peter has a brain; he's just loathe to use it."

Both found themselves short-sided by Hall criteria. Lyle waited while European counterparts Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Nick Faldo went in; Stacy had all but given up as her accomplishments fell short under an LPGA points system.

He then mentioned his parents, hoping they were looking down on him with pride. And as for the long-ago headmistress – he offered a closing one-finger salute.