Quick 18: Monty on Garcia, speaking with Faldo

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With his win at the Madrid Masters, Luke Donald moved to No. 9 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

1. Three weeks ago, Zach Johnson said he was close. The game was good. The problem was his head. "I want to do it now instead of letting it happen,'' he said at THE PLAYERS. "Hitting it well, putting it ok. The impatience has come from the putter more than anything else.'' So what does he do at Colonial? Make everything he looks at on the weekend. Next time a former major champ says he's close, don't consider it yada-yada.

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2. He's at it again. Fred Couples didn't win Sunday, but did that matter? He goes eagle-eagle to tie for the lead and Q-18s favorite run-on-sentence pumped up the Champions Tour's volume another notch. He leads the Tour in scoring average (66.83) over Corey Pavin (68.0). He's won three times, finished second twice, fourth once and tied for 12th. And there was the T6 at the Masters. He's the essence of cool, even if he did blow it on the playoff hole.

3. It was only a matter of time. Luke Donald's winless streak -- a much discussed one -- is finally over. So much angst about the Ryder Cup, too. Lost in it all? Donald was having a good enough season to be in the top 13 in the world going into last week and the Madrid Masters win over Rhys Davies shot him to No. 9. Look for a rematch this week at The Celtic Manor Wales Open where they'll get a look at the Twenty Ten course, which is hosting Ryder Cup this fall.

4 . If you don't have Lee Westwood on your short list for Pebble Beach, you might want to consider him.

5. American Meaghan Francella became the first American to win an LPGA event this season Sunday when she won the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup 2010.In fact, she's the first to win since Michelle Wie's win at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in November. Before that? Cristie Kerr last May at Kingsmill. Can you say global tour?

6. Missing the cut at the Madrid Masters didn't sit well with Sergio Garcia, but there was a little something to smile about when Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie said, "Any team without Sergio Garcia is a weaker one and by definition any team with him in is stronger."

7. Greg Norman's doctor has cleared him to start practicing, so Norman, who had shoulder surgery last fall, is back swinging on the range, getting ready for another run at St. Andrews.

8. From the mouth of Bo Van Pelt's daughter... After dad played his way through the British Open qualifier, she brought him back down to earth. And, yes, he tweeted it. "-10 at British open qualifier. Pumped to get back to st Andrews. Daughter quickly asked me how much money I won? ZERO- she said that's dumb."

9. Just so you know: Will Smith got some golf tips from Tony Romo over the weekend when the two played TPC Four Seasons Resort Las Colinas. Smith was in the Metroplex for screenings of The Karate Kid, which he produced. It stars his son Jaden... The New York Post reported plans have been filed for Tiger Woods' under-contruction compound in Jupiter, Fla., will include an oxygen-therapy room for rapid injury recovery, a children's pool, a lap pool and a reflection pool... There have been 915 Champions Tour events and only 18 have been won by sixtysomethings ... Canadian Ian Leggatt, the 2002 Tucson Open champ, has retired.

10. Country star Clay Walker found a way to merge golf with his battle against MS. Walker, who has been in remission with relapsing-remitting MS for 13 years, takes on the disease head on with his Band Against MS charity and the Clay Walker Charity Classic at the end of June at Pebble Beach. Walker is passionate about the cause and a reminder to those living with the disease. "I made up my mind it was going to be a bump in the road," he said, "and not a detour."

11. Holes named after LPs? That's one suggestion K.K. Downing -- yes, the lead guitarist for Judas Priest -- has gotten from friends playing his golf course in Shropshire, England. Downing owns the nine-hole -- soon to be 27-hole -- Astbury Hall course which has a recording studio in the clubhouse. According to The Financial Times, the course is influenced by Cog Hill and some Hawaiian courses he used to play. When did heavy metal meet golf? Downing, who grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix and Cream, didn't get interested in golf until 1984 when Judas Priest and tour-mates Def Leppard played a friendly match. The idea for a course started rumbling around in 1989 when he bought a 460-acre farm adjacent to his Astbury Hall property. As for naming the holes? Try "Living After Midnight", "Breaking The Law", and "Angel of Retribution." Catchy, but not the Road Hole or Postage Stamp or Amen Corner.

12. When GOLF.com posed the question, Paul Tesori answered. Yes, working for workaholic Vijay Singh was hard. "In '01 and '02, I only got a total of 24 days off out of 730 days," Tesori said. "I could complain about that, but Vijay took only three days off during that stretch. I got divorced over it. It was just too much. It's not Vijay's fault. It's mine for not calling a time-out." Tesori worked for Singh twice and now works for Sean O'Hair. The difference? He gets 24 weeks off each year.

13. Not sure what made Monty think the USGA should give BMW PGA champ Simon Kahn an exemption to Pebble, but Q-18 chalks it up to Monty being Monty. As for that seismic shudder you felt last week... Monty's decided to pick Nick Faldo's brain about the Ryder Cup, current captain to former captain. "I'm not doing it because I have to, but because I want to," Monty said. "Sam (Torrance), Bernhard (Langer) and Ian (Woosnam). were all winning captains, but sometimes you can learn more... from a defeat than you can from a win. If Nick can sit down with me, and we can talk openly and honestly about what he would have done differently in hindsight, we can learn from that for the sake of the European Tour." Oh, Q-18 wants to be a fly on that wall.

14. The Donald wants Monty and Sir Sean Connery on hand to open his latest project in Aberdeenshire -- The Great Dunes of Scotland. If it happens, that is. The locals have been battling him and have formed a group -- Tripping Up Trump. One resident in the planned development won't sell and the group has snapped up an acre in the middle of the site. The £750 million ($1.1 billion U.S.) project has been a source of nasty words, legal battling and headlines since Donald Trump announced plans.

15. Surprised to see Bill Glasson finish T6 at the Senior PGA Championship? Don't be. Glasson has made a career of surprising us. The man has had 25 surgeries during his career -- the most recent fusing three vertebrae in his neck in November -- but keeps coming back. He could barely pick up a club, has played just two Champions events and his knees creak -- "Held together by screws," he laughed. "Maybe some rivets" -- but there he was in the top 10. Q-18 can't count the times he came back during his PGA TOUR career, but this one might have been bigger. "When you're laying flat on the couch staring at the ceiling for two years, you don't think you're going to do anything," he said. "I'm much better than I was. The golf thing, we'll see what happens with it. But my quality of life is a heck of a lot better."

16. Best day of his life. Club pro Doug Perry had just finished a group lesson last Thursday around 11 a.m. when he got a call asking if he was interested in playing in the Senior PGA Championship -- at 2:15 p.m. Hal Sutton had withdrawn and they were looking for someone close. Perry, with is in Fort Collins, Colo., called another pro to caddy, stopped by a store to buy a few wedges and made the 90 minute drive to Denver and got there with 25 minutes to spare. He hit seven shots on the range, then teed it up with eventual champ Tom Lehman and Nick Price. He shot 83, but what the heck. "I would have been flipping burgers this afternoon for the men's league had I not got that call," Perry said.

17. Oops. Brenda Calcavecchia planned a surprise party for husband Mark this week in Columbus, Ohio -- site of his last PGA TOUR event -- but a golf writer didn't know it was a surprise and reported it. Oh well. Calc turns 50 on June 12 and swears he's been thinking about the milestone -- and the Champions Tour -- since he was 47. And, yes, he's ready -- give or take a few aches and pains. "I'm feeling horrible," he said. "But I've got to find a way to make money or the house is going up for sale." So Calc.

18. The report of his death was greatly exaggerated. Not Mark Twain. John Paul Cain. The former Champions player was surprised when he started getting calls asking if he was OK. Turns out a Houston-area golf course sent out a press release stating his was dead. It was actually a golfer named Walter Cain.