Quick 18: Romo's U.S. Open chances, Mickelson week

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All eyes will be on Phil Mickelson at Colonial as he tries to take over the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings.

1. Kids. Can't predict what they'll do, can you? One minute they're taking AP exams and thinking prom, the next . . . well, Jordan Spieth had Las Colinas rocking. The 16-year-old high school junior -- he's already signed with Texas -- was the big story of the weekend, finishing in a tie for 16th in his first PGA TOUR event. The kid's got game, heart and poise. And, oh, he's teeing it up in the St. Jude Classic in a few weeks.

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2. Best line on Spieth came from Kenny Perry: "I've got underwear older than him."

3. And, oh, he's friends with -- drum roll, please -- Cowboys QB Tony Romo, the other Metroplex newsmaker. Romo, who had to WD from the Nelson qualifier because it conflicted with the Cowboys' Organized Team Activities, still showed up in Spieth's gallery. Romo made it through the local U.S. Open qualifier and now heads to The Woodlands Sectional in hope of a chance to play at Pebble Beach. Let's just say he has an infinitely better chance to win a Super Bowl.

3. It's Mickelson week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial... Part 2. Last year, the tournament staged an impressive third-round Pink Out to support Amy's battle with breast cancer. This week, the tournament will have Pink Out II, but this year all eyes will be on Phil because it's his next chance to take the No. 1 ranking or at least edge a little closer to Tiger Woods. He's just taking as it comes. We should too.

4. It was a hardscrabble finish for a couple of hard-luck, blue-collar players Sunday afternoon as eventual winner Jason Day and Blake Adams survived the 72nd hole with a bogey and a double, respectively. To which CBS' David Feherty said, "They've made this unnecessarily interesting.'' Q18 agrees.

5. Adams, a 34-year-old rookie, has endured -- to name a few things -- rotator cuff injuries, broken fingers and a broken ankle in recent years, but in one week, he earned just $757 less -- $485,333 -- than he had in the three previous seasons combined. If not for that closing double, he would have far surpassed it.

6. Next time, he'll wait and see. First it was Darren Clarke, now Robert Karlsson. In case you missed it, the Swede convinced himself he'd missed the cut in last week's BMW PGA and he headed home to Monaco. Only to find out he made it. What transpired -- shades of Darren Clarke in Spain -- was crazy. Almost as crazy as his trip to the event -- a 900-mile car trip to avoid volcanic ash problems. So, to recount... Karlsson arrived home, found out he'd made the cut, missed the last flight back out, had another one cancelled, found one to Orly and arrived at 1 a.m. He took a pre-dawn taxi ride -- the cabbie got lost -- to Heathrow for a £7,000,-plus private plane ride and made it to Wentworth at 7 a.m. Then shot 62. Is it really that hard to wait until they make the cut?

7. Lost in the Spieth headlines? Grayson Murray, the other 16-year-old making the cut this week. Murray finished well down the list (T55) at the rain-shortened Rex Hospital Open, but his second-round 66 opened some eyes.

8. Turning the corner: Scott Verplank, who saw progress at THE PLAYERS (T13), closed with a 67 to share fifth with Cameron Beckman, whose second-round-share-of-the-course-record 61 should make you take note. Beckman won the Mayakoba Classic earlier this year... Back-to-back top 17s for Texan Harrison Frazar... Chris Smith, who lost his wife in an automobile accident last year, made his first cut of the season and tied for 43rd... and finally, one step forward for Steve Elkington, who shared 16th. His game has been an EKG strip.

9. Yes, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin is passing on this week's Senior PGA Championship to play at Colonial -- a place where he's won twice. It's his favorite tournament, but that's not the reason. Chatting with his players -- and potential players -- is. "I've got some chats with some guys there lined up," he said. "Phil is going to be there, and there will be a few guys that I'll talk to there."

10. Anyone else think there's more than a little truth in Paul Casey's analogy between historic buildings and great courses? "If you are an owner of a Grade II listed building, it is much like you are the caretaker for the next generation. If you are the owner of a golf course, it does give you the right to make the changes you want, (but) is that in the best interests of that particular course or golf in general?"

11. Casey was miffed -- as was much of the field at the BMW PGA Championship -- with Ernie Els' tweaks at Wentworth. No one held back on criticism. But it shouldn't have been directed at Els' design. The culprit was course owner Richard Caring's ideas. Like 18 where he wanted excitement and "a bit of theater." He admitted he went too far and overruled Els. "I must say Ernie was right and I was wrong," Caring said. Perhaps he could stay out of the next round of tweaks.

12. Unless Vijay Singh plays his way into the U.S. Open, he'll turn over the longest-streak-of-consecutive-majors to Mike Weir, who is at 44 and counting.

13. How serious is Samuel L. Jackson about golf? The actor has a clause in every movie contract that gives him two days off with pay so he can tee it up. "Generally the way they make that happen is they just move me onto a golf course when they send me to town,'' he said.

14. After missing the cut at the Masters, former U.S. Open champ Michael Campbell took a couple of months off. "I just needed to get away from golf and reassess matters,'' he said. Campbell is teeing it up in this week's Madrid Masters, saying, "I feel I am now in a position to get back into the deep end... " Seriously deep. He's failed to break 80 in half of the 12 rounds he's played this year.

15. Count Charles Barkley among those who think golf makes Romo a better quarterback. Sir Charles told Randy Galloway's ESPN radio show the pressure he goes through in qualifiers can help him as a QB. "The level of concentration, the stuff he has to go through on a golf course and attention to detail, I think it really does help in football and he'll probably tell you that."

16. Wondering what they're doing on Capitol Hill when they're not taking on budgets, wars, Wall Street and various a sundry other developments? The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that last Thursday the House took up three resolutions to honor individuals or programs. They were -- H.Res. 1256 (Phil Mickelson on winning the 2010 Masters Golf Tournament); H.Res. 1336 (Texas men's swimming/diving team winning it's 10th NCAA Division I Championship) and, H.Res. 1361 (the 100th anniversary of North Carolina Central University).

17. From the you're-never-too-old folder: Snaps to 90-year-old Canadian Charlie Bell, who got his first ace at River Ridge Golf Club. According to the Edmonton Journal, Bell hit a 5-wood, 155 yards.

18. From the Wayback Machine: With the NCAA Division I Championships upon us, it's hard for Q-18 not to think back to the days when Texas, Houston and Oklahoma State seemed to be battling it out most every year. UH won 15 NCAA titles from 1956-1985, while Oklahoma State has 10 titles (through 2006). Texas and Wake Forest each won two back in those Ben Crenshaw-Tom Kite and Curtis Strange-Jay Haas days.

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