Quick 18: Johnson's search for new caddie under way

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A number of caddies have already expressed an interest in being the next man on Dustin Johnson's bag.

1. Thanks to his birthday win at the Indonesian Masters, Lee Westwood is back at No. 1, but for how long? Westy is on a roll in Asia where he'll tee it up this week at the Ballantine's Championship near Seoul against a field with many more bold-faced names than last week's, but ... since he has chosen to skip THE PLAYERS in a couple of weeks, Q-18 is pretty sure there will be another shift at the top. The surprise will be if there isn't.

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2. Let's get this straight. If Luke Donald had won The Heritage, he would have been No. 1. Since he lost a playoff, he's still No. 3. Yet another reason that Calculus class in college comes in handy. But hang on ... Donald is playing in this week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Think fairways. One more Sunday at Harbour Town and ...

3. The off-course theme in the Big Easy? Food. Best-eating week of the year. Or so Joe Ogilvie tweets. Char-broiled oysters. Etouffee. Mudbugs (crawfish to the uninitiated). Emeril's. Cooking lessons. All Q-18 can say is the Quarter will be packed with players and caddies this week partaking of that great Cajun cuisine.

4. In case you missed this stat: Brandt Snedeker goes low in final round and ... he wins The Heritage with a closing 64 and the 2007 Wyndham Championship with a closing 63.

5. That tremor in the force last week? It wasn't Dustin Johnson and Bobby Brown -- as much BFFs as player-caddie -- parting ways. It was the queue for the job opening. TaylorMade VP of tour operations Keith Sbarbro has DJ's bag this week in Korea and Dan Quinn will take it at the Wells Fargo Championship. According to Golf Channel/Golf World's Tim Rosaforte, about 20 regular caddies have, er, expressed interest to Butch Harmon, who'll assist in the selection process like he did when Steve Williams got Tiger Woods' bag.

6. Sunday's yes-they-do-it-too oops moment? Kenny Perry and Scott Hoch both missed seriously short par putts in a playoff to hand the Legends of Golf title to David Eger and Mark McNulty. Combined length of putts? Maybe six feet. Probably five. Not a 12-over 16 or a pinball off-the-tree-between-the-cabin moment, but decidedly human

7. Most colorful summation -- 140 characters or less category -- of a round last week? That goes to @Graeme_McDowell: " #oops #finishedinanambulance, " And the follow-up explanation: "Sorry guys. Finishing in an ambulance means i played the last 6 holes like an idiot. Nothing physically wrong just some mistakes!!!!" He played his last seven holes 5-over to shoot 74.

8. Hmm.. With all the mental lint being tossed around in London this week -- and every network is recycling said lint every hour or so -- we've heard of no golf connections for Wills and Kate. Surely they at least walked the Old Course when they were right down the street at St. Andrews University. Right?

9. Scary moments for Matt Bettencourt last week when a camper shell fell off a pick-up truck in front of him and, with an 18-wheeler in the lane next to him, he had no choice but to plow into the shell. Fifteen minutes into his trip from Greenville to Hilton Head, his car was totaled. Neither Matt nor his wife were hurt and, since he has a deal with BMW, he had a new car soon enough.

10. Long putters were in bags all over Harbour Town last week -- some just on the putting green, others in the bag all week. Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas, Tim Heron and even Westwood -- for one round in Indonesia -- were among those testing them in some way. But now for the asterisk/grim note/major motivation: No player has ever won a major using a long putter.

11. In the midst of cleaning out a closet, Q-18 happened across a Golf Digest from 1995 that morphed through the faces of the long line of " The next Nicklaus." Chuckled as we glanced at the Tom Weiskopf-to-Johnny Miller-to-Ben Crenshaw-to-Jerry Pate-to-Hal Sutton-to-Greg Norman-to-Phil Mickelson-to-Ernie Els-to-Tiger frame gallery and recalled the constant searches for the next whoever. Thought of something else. They left out John Cook, but did say Lee Janzen might be the logical next frame.

12. A 80-foot tall, 950-pound TaylorMade R11? Yep. Marketing 101 led to the giant driver being attached to the right field foul pole at Petco Park. Natalie Gulbis was on hand for the debut and hit one out of the park -- with her driver.

13. Another tall story is Poulter-geist. In case you hadn't heard, Ian Poulter tweeted away about his rental house in Hilton Head being, perhaps, haunted. Strange happenings he posted on @ianjamespoulter including "We have a dead bolted door in the house & every morning that door is unlocked & slightly open. It's happened 7 times already." For real he said. So for real, he suggested borrowing a camera from Golf Channel or CBS to see what he could find. He never tweeted what his homeowner may or may not have told him, but Monday, he did post "I hope our Ghost didn't like me too much & decide he wants a trip to Korea. I could do with my bedroom door staying shut this week."

14. An assortment of short mental lint items: When Chris DiMarco makes a cut in 2011, he's good for a top-30 finish. Last week it was T15 ... Surprise of the week? Rickie Fowler missed the cut at The Heritage ... Tommy Gainey has played well enough to ensure his 2012 TOUR card. Could a win be close? Could we change his headline nickname? Two Gloves sounds just too Sopranos.

15. Another week, another all-in-the-fam moment. Sunday, it was Texas sophomore Madison Pressel who one-upped big-sis Morgan in the win column. Madison won the Big 12 individual title and led the Longhorns to the conference title. Morgan's closing in, though. Three top-7s, including a T-3 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Last week it was Wake Forest's Cheyenne Woods going one-up on uncle Tiger by winning the ACC title. Interesting connection? UT coach Martha Richards was a twin-sport star at Stanford where she and Tiger crossed paths on the course when Richards was a volunteer assistant coach.

16. One more note on Morgan. She's donating half of her earnings from the upcoming World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup to the American Red Cross for disaster relief in Japan.

17. Will John Smoltz be the exception to what has seemingly become the rule? Stay tuned. A Tiger buddy and scratch golfer, he's serious -- baseball's Tony Romo. As we know, no former pro athlete from another sport has ever made the cut on the Nationwide Tour. Last week's victim was Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice (81-82). Smoltz, who has game, has a shot at this week's South Georgia Classic. Others in that long line of those who didn't make the cut? Al Del Greco, Dan Quinn, Billy Joe Tolliver, Brett Hull, Mark Rypien, Ivan Lendl, Ralph Terry and Grant Fuhr.

18. Wider first fairway at quirky Royal St. George's? Yes, it's, in part, in response to Tiger losing his drive in the knee-plus deep rough on the first hole back in 2003. But it's also because only 27 or 28 percent of the players hit it. Too many humps and bumps that can knock drives sideways there.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be reached at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. Follow her on Twitter @melaniehauser.