Quick 18: Ernie's big win, Tiger's return and more

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

The WGC-CA Championship was Ernie Els' first win since The Honda Classic in 2008.

Editor's note: PGATOUR.COM's Melanie Hauser will be shaking out the mental lint and pulling together the "Quick 18" on Mondays this year.

1. Impressive win for Ernie Els. More impressive? The plans for The Els Center for Excellence, a first-of-its-kind self-contained campus for autism. Els and wife Liezl both have fundraisers this week for the $30 million capital campaign for the center, which will include education, research, post-graduate help and a global outreach which will allow instructors at the main campus to teach autistic children and programs around the world.

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2. Els jumped 12 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking to eighth. The Big Easy has now spent more weeks in the top 10 -- 759 -- than any other player since the rankings started in 1986.

3.The win also vaults Els to the short list of favorites at the Masters, where you'll recall he was standing on the putting green thinking playoff in 2004 when Phil Mickelson birdied the 72nd hole to grab jacket No. 1.

4. South Park debuts its 14th season Wednesday when Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan take a jab or two at Tiger Woods. The animated show isn't shy about taking on any subject, which made Tiger a fan. If Tiger can laugh at whatever the kids throw at him, he'll know the therapy is working.

5. Sounds like we'll know soon enough if Tiger's first event back will be the Arnold Palmer Invitational or the Masters. It will be a huge event -- the biggest maybe in sports history. And just in case you haven't heard enough hyperbole yet, one CNN analyst said the return "will be the focus of intergalactic attention." No word if the Force will be with him.

6. "What happens to the guy that loves hoops but is 2 short, 2 slow, and not athletic enough?? He becomes a pro golfer." No, it's not a joke. It's a Bo Van Pelt tweet. By the way, BVP is jumping on the NBA bandwagon, going courtside at the Thunder games where he mused: "Whoever said all men are created equal - never saw Kevin Durant hoops. 6'9" and plays like a guard. Ridiculous.''

7. Going green to the extreme.. This just in from The Maldives. The island nation in the Indian Ocean is looking into a floating golf course and convention center. President Mohamed Nasheed has held an underwater cabinet meeting in scuba gear. The nation has signed an agreement with Dutch Docklands, which has built man-made islands in Dubai, to research the possibility of a resort and even floating homes.

8. It was strange to see Steve Elkington in Puerto Rico, not Miami. Elk won the 1999 Doral Ryder Open and was a contender there for years. Now, at 47, he's working his way back up the ladder. Elk tied for 15th at the Bob Hope Classic and was T16 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Ironically, his Houston Cougars are following suit, returning to the NCAA Championship dance for the first time in 18 years. Coincidence? Maybe not.

9. Ken Green is committed to getting back to the Champions Tour, so last week's 80-WD at a Sunbelt Senior Tour event was a big step. Green, playing on a prosthetic right leg, shot his 80 in bad conditions in the first round. The WD . . . Green says he just needs to find consistency.

11. Yes, everyone's talking about Phil Mickelson's orange -- Florida, Oklahoma State or Tennessee shade? -- pants. The color is in for spring and pops big time. Just seemed a bit out of the box for Lefty.

12. Does Golf Channel swing guru Michael Breed have a slow speed? Just wondering.

13. The Wayback Machine meets Flash Forward. When Arnold Palmer won the 1971 Westchester Classic, he picked up the biggest check of his Hall of Fame career -- $50,000. His grandson Sam Saunders tied for 17th at the Honda Classic and earned $68,444.

14. Charl Schwartzel grew up idolizing countryman Els. He dressed in all-black for the final round like South African icon Gary Player. But when you get down to it, he's closest in body-type to another countryman, former Masters champ Trevor Immelman, who's an inch shorter and a bit heavier. But not much.

15. No place like home. With a break in the Nationwide Tour schedule, Bubba Dickerson teed it up in the Hooters Tour F&S Asset Management Group Classic which was played a mere two miles from his house. He tied for 8th.

16. Four weeks into rehab and counting down to... mid-April? Peter Lonard, less than a month after undergoing knee and hip surgery, is back hitting golf shots. The surgeon has the final word, but Lonard hopes to be back on TOUR around Verizon Heritage time.

17. The latest from Stewart Cink? He was waved through security at Miami airport after giving his name, The guard's response? "You look like Bruce Willis to me. Go ahead."

17. Soren Hansen was exhausted last week. He flew from Malaysia to Miami for the World Golf Chamionships-CA Championship and battled serious jetlag. "I wake up every night at 2 o'clock, and TV is not that fun at 2 o'clock at night,'' he said. This week, he's headed back home to get his day in court. The Dane, who lives in Monaco, has been charged with misreporting earnings from 2000-2006.

18. Once again, the Shell Houston Open is going with a pre-Masters setup to draw a great field as the Masters-lead-in and it's working. Last year the event got eight of the top 10 and 15 of the top 25. The tournament already has four top-10 commitments (Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy) and Phil Mickelson has indicated he'll play. Look for a few other big names in the next week or two. "It's a great prep for Augusta, because the speed of the greens -- I was talking to the tournament director from there yesterday and he said the greens are going to be 13, 14, and there's a lot of roll, and you get similar to the kind of shots you get to Augusta,'' Westwood said.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.