If Martin Kaymer's demolition of the Abu Dhabi field was the top story of the week, then Padraig Harrington's DQ was definitely 1A.

When Golf Channel came on the air on Friday, they still had Harrington's name affixed atop the leaderboard. It wasn't until 40 minutes into the broadcast that Renton Laidlaw announced that Harrington had been DQ'd.

"No Harrington after that overnight incident," Laidlaw said, noting that Harrington's name was suddenly missing from the leaderboard. It was a bizarre moment as Laidlaw, still in stunned disbelief, told viewers Harrington was gone, yet never mentioned why he was DQ'd.

The details are important, you know. Warren Humphreys eventually came to his rescue and described the situation.

While most of the crew was visibly frustrated, it was on-course commentator Jay Townsend who was the first to demand a change to the rule in the future.

"Well, he was picking up his coin and his finger just nudges the ball a little. Probably so little that he...well, I

The Bob Hope Classic is sinking, and the only thing that can save the tour staple is a life vest. A big life vest. With the tournament currently boasting a Fall Finish-esque field and fighting the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship -- one of the richest tournaments on the European Tour -- for players, it's become increasingly clear that something drastic needs to be done before the Hope sinks for good.

The life vest the tournament desperately needs could come in the form of former President Bill Clinton. While no deal has been officially announced, there are some strong indications that the former President could be the next host of the Bob Hope Classic.

PGA Tour brass even went as far as to release a statement earlier today surrounding the Clinton-Hope rumors: "The Commissioner and the PGA Tour have been in discussions over the past several months with the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative regarding a broad partnership," the statement said. "... This includes the

One of the PGA Tour's best kept secret could be on the verge of breaking out. You probably wouldn't know him if he came up and shook your hand, but after this week there's a good chance we'll all remember the name Gary Woodland.

At 24-under, Woodland is currently tied with Jhonattan Vegas for the Bob Hope Classic lead - and one good round away from becoming a first-time winner on the PGA Tour.

Like most up-and-coming golfers not named McIlroy or Fowler, Woodland has found it nearly impossible to stand out amongst the growing crop of hot, young golfers.

It's not like Woodland is your average pro. He turned down a golf scholarship at Kansas to play basketball at Division II Washburn, but eventually left basketball one year later to play golf at, you guessed it, Kansas, where he won four straight collegiate tournaments during one season.

He also has one of the fastest swings on tour that's been clocked at over 200 mph. And, no, that's not a typo. But like most rookies on the PGA Tour,

Martin Kaymer may want to send Padriag Harrington a thank you note if he goes on to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

While the rest of the golfing world was talking about Harrington's DQ on Friday, world number three Martin Kaymer was flying under the radar, laying siege to an Abu Dhabi

course that's become his personal playground in recent years.

His bogey-free 7-under 65 on Friday moved him to 12-under on the week, three-shots clear of Charl Schwartzel. The round had a quiet brilliance to it that's become Kaymer's MO in recent years.

While players like Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood continue to make headlines on and off the course, Kaymer continues to fly under the deck and let his game do the talking. If you need a prime example, look no further than last year's PGA Championship, a tournament that was known more for Dustin Johnson's blunder than Kaymer's victory.

It's a role he seems to embrace. But that could all change if he wins this week. Assuming he captures his third

So what did we learn from the Golf Channel's first mic'd round of the year? Golfers are really boring and not worth the live mic, or they really took Justin Rose's article in Sports Illustrated to heart and decided to keep all of their swing thoughts under lock and key.

Just a few days after Rose wrote a piece questioning the tour's decision to allow players to be mic'd-up for rounds, defending Sony Open Champion Ryan Palmer gave fans a glimpse of what we can look forward to hearing this year from the best golfers in the world.

Here's a rundown of what Palmer had to say during Friday's first round: He said the round was just a "walk in the park"; he talked about the NFL playoffs with Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar; the mic also caught him chatting with both players about what it takes to be on the PGA Tour policy board.

We're talking about groundbreaking stuff here, people! There wasn't a single comment from Palmer that involved his swing. And some of the comments the Golf Channel

Every golf season brings with it new trends, topics, and discussions. While the start to this season mirrored the end of 2010 - rules violations and playoffs - there were a couple of new things being discussed at Kapaula.

As Golf Channel's Nick Faldo noted, fitness and ‘planes' are the hot topics for 2011. And we're not talking about the kind that fly in the sky.

"The big theme this season is fitness. There are so many guys out there in the gym spending more time in the gym; they were fit before, and now they're super-fit," Faldo said. "There are also an awful lot of gadgets out on the range. They continue to get more hi-tech and bigger, and you now have coaches using them to help their players build their games a little bit more.

"... The other buzzword I've been hearing is ‘plane.' Everybody here has been talking about getting their swing on plane, whether they were underneath and trying to get steeper, or just trying to get back to basics. It's a real shocker to me."

Technical

Peering from behind her goalie mask, Acton-Boxborough (Mass.) Regional High goaltender Cali Loblundo probably looks like your average varsity hockey goalie. She’s called “mature” by her high school coach and “excellent” by the opposition.

She plays without fear.

Loblundo is the exact player you’d want in net with a hockey game on the line. “I don’t get nervous,” she told the Boston Globe in a recent article. “I just try my best.”

There’s just one thing that separates Cali Loblundo from the rest of her varsity peers: she’s only 12-year-old. No, you didn’t read that wrong; she’s only in seventh-grade and is already the starting goalie for her high school team.

With pads wider than her body frame, Loblundo has taken hold of the starting position this season, after her Acton-Boxborough girls hockey team fielded only 12 players from the high school level.

As the Boston Globe reported, that’s when the school went looking for players to fill out the rest of the roster.

After being granted an

The City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., isn't your average high school basketball tournament. Far from it -- the once-local holiday showcase has gone national in recent years, playing host to some of the best teams and players in the country.

While this year's holiday tournament had the usual suspects -- Santa Ana Mater Dei (Calif.), Las Vegas Bishop Gorman (Nev.), Elizabeth St. Patrick (N.J.), Milton (Ga.) -- it also included a European high school team for the first time in the tournament's 38-year history.

Urspringschule, from Ulm, Germany, joined a group of high-profile high school teams from around the country to play in the tournament's Signature Series.

Due to some difficulties with the Florida High School Athletic Association -- the association wouldn't sanction its schools playing against a team from Europe -- tournament directors were forced to build a tournament within a tournament for Urspringschule that didn't include a team from the Sunshine State.

As the Fort