Dustin Johnson

Dustin Johnson can't lie. When he was declared winner of the 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, after waiting for 40 hours of sideways rain and dangerous winds to wipe out the final round, Johnson wasn't disappointed. "I was prepared to play," he said. "Can I say I was real disappointed when we didn't? No." Johnson spoke Tuesday with water still dripping from his baseball cap. It's raining again at Pebble Beach and Johnson comes to defend his title well-prepared. He tied for third at last week's rainy Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club.

Reporting from Pebble Beach — Charlie Wi was born in Seoul but spent much of his childhood in Los Angeles. And it was in Long Beach where Wi remembers first playing against Tiger Woods. Wi was 13, Woods was 9, and Wi remembers Woods being angry when he didn't birdie a particularly long par-three. "He got so mad. That always stuck with me, 9 years old at El Dorado" golf course, Wi said. "He probably doesn't remember, but I was going, man, come on. " It was a memory lane trip for Wi because here he is at Pebble Beach, 40 years old now, without a PGA Tour win but with the second-round lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Friday was a day of men playing golf in winter stocking caps in Los Angeles. "It was pretty miserable out there," said Steve Stricker, who made it even more miserable for the other players in the Northern Trust Open, as did Dustin Johnson. Both shot incredible scores in horrible conditions. It started raining at the famed Riviera course about 7 a.m., or 10 minutes after the first tee time. It never stopped and neither did the players. Stricker and Johnson were the stars, with Phil Mickelson close behind.

Reporting from Pebble Beach — Tiger Woods is tied for 15th place. That's not bad, but it can be made to sound better. Woods shot a first-round 68 Thursday at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. That was four under par on the Spyglass Hill course that Woods played, but numbers crunchers and Woods fans can take note that Spyglass played the hardest of the three-course rotation and Woods' 68 was tied for the fourth-best score on Spyglass. "I drove it great today," Woods said, "I drove it on a string for most of the day. But I left a few shots out there.

Phil Mickelson rubbed his eyes and shrugged. He waved his arms right and left, trying to encourage his golf shots to follow his direction to the proper spots on the fairways and greens. Not enough of them did. Mickelson, the second-ranked golfer in the world who on Wednesday had proclaimed himself pleased with the state of his game, shot a humble 72, one over par, in the first round of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club on Thursday. He is the two-time defending champion, trying to become the first to win the event three times in a row. But Mickelson bogeyed four of his last seven holes and is tied for 83rd, eight shots behind leader Dustin Johnson.

An onrushing 24-year-old South Carolinian will have to wait to sate that golfer's inner curiosity about how he might function playing a final round with a four-shot lead. What's not uncertain, though, is Dustin Johnson's fresh place in any conversation about wildly promising 20-something PGA Tour golfers.

Dustin Johnson delicately swept in a three-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. In the background were crashing white waves, and standing on the fringe was a gray-haired man in a blue mood. Johnson won his second consecutive AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am title Sunday and a check for $1,080,000. His final-round score was an unspectacular two-over-par 74, but his four-day total of 270 was 16 under par. In June, the U.S. Open will be played on this course. The circumstances will be different, different weather, different conditions, so the 25-year-old Johnson isn't overconfident.

As Dustin Johnson waited for a television interview to begin by the 18th green Sunday afternoon, a woman from the gallery hollered: "Class act, Dustin!" Johnson grinned and waved. It was a nice capper to a perfect day at the BMW Championship. All those complaints about Cog Hill's greens melted away under sun-kissed blue skies. "We opened up parking lots today we haven't used in years," said a beaming John Kaczkowski, president of the Western Golf Assn. "This was a great crowd, a great ending and a great champion.

Jim Gray was pulled from Golf Channel's coverage of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday after he and Bobby Brown, caddie for Dustin Johnson, exchanged heated words Thursday. Johnson, who last year led this tournament for the first two rounds, almost missed his tee time Thursday. Johnson said his caddie had mistaken his Wednesday pro-am 8:12 a.m. start and Thursday's scheduled 7:32 a.m. start. Johnson missed being disqualified by seconds and incurred a two-shot penalty.

In a restaurant in the Myrtle Beach area merely six years ago, an 18-year-old golfer once renowned around South Carolina but rather aimless one year after high school met up with a young golf coach at Coastal Carolina University. Just envisioning the memory, Allen Terrell chuckled Wednesday while walking Riviera Country Club, and he said, "He came in with a T-shirt and his hat on backward, which is probably not the best way to meet your potential coach for the first time."

Europe won the Solheim Cup for the first time since 2003 on Sunday, finishing powerfully to beat the United States, 15-13, at Killeen Castle in Dunsany, Ireland. Norway's Suzann Pettersen turned the momentum Europe's way when she recovered from 1 down with birdies on the last three holes to beat Michelle Wie by one hole. Her win left Europe needing only one point from the last two singles to win the trophy, but the side captained by Alison Nicholas did even better.

Reporting from Atlanta -- After three bogeys in his first six holes Friday, Adam Scott faced a personal moment of truth. Either the Aussie was going to reverse the slide, or he was going to let a second consecutive week slip away and reach the FedEx Cup season's finish line with a sense of underachieving. Scott willed himself to the first option. By the end of the day, he walked away with the Tour Championship lead. A birdie-birdie finish completed a five-under-par 65 that vaulted Scott past K.J. Choi to the front of the pack, taking a one-stroke lead at the midway point of the FedEx Cup finale.

The Weather Channel is missing an opportunity. It needs to start bidding every year for the broadcast rights to the British Open. Think of what fun it could have had Saturday, with maps and charts and tornado chasers, zipping up and down the fairways of Royal St. George's fabled golf course and reporting back. "Here comes another huge gust, Julie. Oh, oh. It's over the 13th green. Oh, no. There goes Phil Mickelson. Looks like he's heading toward Dover. " Saturday, they held a golf tournament and a weather story broke out. When it was over for the day, Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke was leading Myrtle Beach's Dustin Johnson by a shot and, along with the other 71 players who began the third round, attempting to find a warm fireplace.

Jim Gray was pulled from Golf Channel's coverage of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday after he and Bobby Brown, caddie for Dustin Johnson, exchanged heated words Thursday. Johnson, who last year led this tournament for the first two rounds, almost missed his tee time Thursday. Johnson said his caddie had mistaken his Wednesday pro-am 8:12 a.m. start and Thursday's scheduled 7:32 a.m. start. Johnson missed being disqualified by seconds and incurred a two-shot penalty.

Tiger Woods' charity golf tournament starts Thursday with Woods playing in the Thousand Oaks event for the first time in three years against a field he says is "the deepest, the strongest it's ever been. " The four-day Chevron World Challenge features 18 golfers playing the Jack Nicklaus-designed Sherwood Country Club course, a 7,027-yard, par-72 course layout nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains. Proceeds from the tournament benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation while providing a $5-million purse for the players, ranging from $1.2 million for the winner to $140,000 for last place.

And to think that the myriad FedEx Cup permutations were jumbled at the Tour Championship's outset. Check it out now. But grab a calculator. Humdrum starts by the top four names on the FedEx points list only nudged the door open a little wider for someone from off the pace to capture the $10-million bonanza that goes to the PGA Tour's points champion. That is, if Paul Casey doesn't create his own little transatlantic whirlwind by winning the thing. "I'm not getting wrapped up in any sort of extra motivation," said Casey, whose omission from Europe's Ryder Cup roster looks more controversial each day. The English pro is the only man in the top third of Thursday's leaderboard who can take home the FedEx Cup without any outside help.

As Dustin Johnson waited for a television interview to begin by the 18th green Sunday afternoon, a woman from the gallery hollered: "Class act, Dustin!" Johnson grinned and waved. It was a nice capper to a perfect day at the BMW Championship. All those complaints about Cog Hill's greens melted away under sun-kissed blue skies. "We opened up parking lots today we haven't used in years," said a beaming John Kaczkowski, president of the Western Golf Assn. "This was a great crowd, a great ending and a great champion.

Reporting from Lemont, Ill. Ryan Moore traversed Cog Hill on Saturday in a loosely knotted tie and buttoned V-neck sweater because he said he favors the "classic" look. So it seemed fitting when the BMW Championship's third-round leader recalled a simpler, less commercial time with an apparent slip of the tongue. "I came here," Moore said, "to win the Western Open. " He's in prime position to do that after firing a five-under-par 66 that included only one bogey.