Quick 18: Tiger's injury, Phil's favorite burger, Obama's golfing

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After Tiger Woods' WD from THE PLAYERS Championship, it is unclear when we will see the No. 1 golfer again.

1. Maybe Tiger Woods' neck injury answers a few questions. Like the reason behind some of those crazy pop-ups and wild shots. But it also raises a few. When will we see him again? Depending on what the MRI says, it might not be until the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Then again, maybe not.

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2. How hard were the greens Sunday at Sawgrass? Ask Bo Van Pelt, who said the course had a major feel to it. "Whenever you feel your putter sliding when you put it down on the practice green and lean on it, you know you're in for a bad day,'' he said. Then again, he said he couldn't complain with a closing 70 and a T4 finish. It was his third consecutive top-five finish.

3. Phil Mickelson has always been an In-N-Out guy. Until now. "I grew up on In-N-Out," he said. "I thought that was the best burger until I had Five Guys. That is hands down the best burger I've ever had.'' How good are they? He ate them six nights in a row at THE PLAYERS. No word on whether he drove through Sunday night and grabbed one for the flight.

4. Interesting list of hopeful twin-ball wizards headed to today's local U.S. Open qualifier -- former Braves pitcher John Smoltz, Dallas QB Tony Romo, Jacksonville kicker Josh Scobee, Minnesota kicker Ryan Longwell, former NFL QB Billy Joe Tolliver and former major league pitchers Shane Rawley and Mark Mulder.

Smoltz, who may or not be retired, plays to a 2 handicap and is pretty realistic about his chances. "The other day somebody asked what I thought my chances of qualifying were and I said, 'They're impossible," said Smoltz, who is teeing it up at Marietta (Ga.) Country Club. "But I still feel like I can do something neat. . . I want to see what it's like," he said. "Maybe I'll throw a strange number out there and then see what happens. It's really just an experience. This year, I really haven't been able to wake up and gear up to compete like this. It's going to be fun. "

5. Romo, by the way, is also signed up for the HP Byron Nelson pre-qualifier Tuesday at Stonebridge Ranch. The top 23 and ties advance to the open qualifying next Monday. He shot 79 last year and didn't advance.

6. Talk about a perfect fit. Tom Watson has been named the winner of this year's Byron Nelson Prize. It was Nelson who took Watson under his wing after the latter blew a lead at the 1974 U.S. Open. The two were close until Nelson's death and, in fact, Watson won seven times from 1975-77, three of them majors.

7. Could mashing be the next big thing on TOUR? Not mashups. Mashing. Fred Funk has two flexibility experts -- a man and a woman -- who massage him at night by walking on his back and working the muscles to squeeze out toxins and let good blood flow in. Why the feet? They can get deeper in to the tissue. They also stretch him for an hour or more every morning. Perhaps Funk could become the Dara Torres of golf. She won three swimming bronze medals -- at 41 -- at the Olympics. Funk turns 54 in June.

8. Standing in the office or Times Square or in your backyard and get the itch to play golf? Not surprisingly, there's an app for that. Gigaputt turns anywhere into a golf course. You use your iPhone or iPod touch as a club, select the club, hit your shot and off you go. To the café down the street, to the steps of a building, across the street or somewhere, no doubt, people will wonder what in the devil you're doing. (Check out the game here)

9. The latest television twist? NBC's periscope cam. The camera, which is anchored on a pipe in the water at the 17th, gave viewers a 360-degree view of the hole, shots splashing in the water and up-close-and-personal looks at those gators.

10. Wondering about quarterback Sam Bradford's shoulder and that ginormous guaranteed contract? Rickie Fowler says don't. He played golf with the No. 1 draft pick at Oak Tree National during Masters week and said Bradford was looking good. Fowler nipped the No. 1 draft choice -- by a shot. The two became friends when OSU golf coach Mike McGraw and Oklahoma Christian coach Kelsey Cline worked up a McGraw-Fowler vs. Cline-Bradford match Fowler's sophomore year.

11. Every so often a player catches a flier or a bad bounce and a spectator gets hit. That happened to Paul Casey last week -- on his first hole Friday -- when his 9-iron approach hit a woman in the head. It shook him up. "That really upset me,'' he said. "When I got up there, there was lots of blood. It's a horrible feeling. I don't like it a bit. It ruined her day.'' It didn't do much for Casey, either. He bogeyed 10, 12 and 14 before he could shake the feeling. He missed the cut by a shot.

12. You know a Pete Dye or a Rees Jones course on sight. But Swiss architect Peter Harradine's signature? It might be building courses in dangerous locations, like Sudan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Algeria and Georgia. He's just opening the first course in Sudan -- Soba Welcome to Sudan's first professional golf course -- and is designing the country of Georgia's first course. He also built Abu Dhabi Golf Club, which hosts a European Tour event. But it's the dangerous ones that intrigue Q18.

"I've been in all sorts of war zones," Harradine told CNN. "I was in Lebanon just after the war. The Kuwaitis asked me to come over and sign a deal for a new course. I left Kuwait the day before it was invaded. I was in Togo two years ago and my colleagues were kidnapped. I was the only one out of five who wasn't kidnapped.'' Yikes.

13. No monster but 21 square miles of water hazard driving range -- and golf ball grave. Last year, a sonar scan and a video camera trolling Loch Ness found more than 100,000 golf balls on the bottom. So, how long does it take a golf ball to break down in the water? Educated guess by researchers range between 50 and 500 years, which led one local official to say, "Golf balls are humanity's litter in the most inaccessible locations."

14. NBC's Mark Rolfing, who is sober after a life-changing stint at the Betty Ford Clinic last March, is a bit more sympathetic toward Tiger's road back than most.

"I've got a much different view on what Tiger's going through," he told the Washington Post. "I know what you have to do and I've got great respect for what you have to do. It's not easy."

15. Caddie perk. What does the defending champion's caddie get at THE PLAYERS? The second-best parking spot on the grounds -- just next to the defending champion's just-next-to-the-clubhouse parking spot. This year, it belonged to Henrik Stenson's caddie Fanny Sunesson.

16. One more golf excursion for the golfer-in-chief. He's at 34 and counting while in office after a trip around Fort Belvoir last weekend. George W. Bush -- 43 -- played 25 times while in office according to CBS Radio. Ronald Reagan putted in the aisle on Air Force One and Bush 41 -- and VP Dan Quayle -- played in the over-50-set's Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic while they were in office. Q18 can think of worse presidential vices and at the same time, wonders if Obama is on some tournament director's short list for a celebrity pro-am.

17. Irishman-turned-U.S. citizen David Feherty on Rory McIlroy's closing 62 at Quail Hollow and first PGA TOUR win: "I tried to be as impartial as I could, but I was jumping up and down like a leprechaun.''

18. From the Wayback Machine: Remember those bi-colored black and reddish-orange Ping golf balls? Q-18 wishes there were still a few in the drawer. Ebay has one listed for $325. An all-gold Ping ball is listed for $245. Check those old shag bags and shelves in the garage.

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