Woods could lose No. 1 rank to Mickelson while rehabbing

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EDINA, Minn. (AP) -- Even without playing for the rest of the year, Tiger Woods has clinched the Mark H. McCormack Award for being No. 1 in the world ranking for the most weeks during a season.

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Phil Mickelson would probably need to win several big events in order to pass Tiger Woods in Official World Golf Ranking.

No surprise there -- Woods has won the award every year since it began in 1998.

The question is whether he can stay No. 1 for the rest of the season. Woods is at 21.14 points, more than double that of Phil Mickelson at No. 2. Points are gradually reduced, and without earning any more points, Woods will finish 2008 with an average of 11.97.

That leaves him in range of Mickelson, who likely will need to win a major, a World Golf Championship event and perhaps two other events to replace Woods at No. 1.

Since the world ranking became official in 1986, Mickelson and the late Payne Stewart are the only players to win three majors without ever reaching No. 1.

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INTERLACHEN 5s
For those pleasantly surprised to see the USGA keep the 18th hole at Torrey Pines as a par 5, it went a few steps further for the U.S. Women's Open. Interlachen will have five par 5s and play as a par 73.

Not that Mike Davis, senior director of rules and competition who sets up the course, didn't think about it.

"None of those holes made sense as a par 4," Davis said.

It will be the second LPGA major in the last four events that par was 73. The Road Hole on the Old Course at St. Andrews was changed from a par 4 to a par 5 for the Women's British Open.

Davis said the nines at Interlachen also have been flipped, making it the same routing as when Bobby Jones won the 1930 U.S. Open on his way to the Grand Slam.

"I checked the records, and they played it as a 72 for that Open," Davis said. "The 10th hole was a par 4. I looked at that for the women, but it just didn't make sense."

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MONEY MATTERS
With a tie for sixth last week, Lorena Ochoa set a U.S. LPGA Tour record by reaching $2 million (?1.3 million) in earnings in just her 11th tournament this year. The previous record was Annika Sorenstam, who took 15 events to reach $2 million in 2004.

Ochoa also holds the record for fastest to reach $1 million (five events), and she is the only LPGA player to surpass $3 million and $4 million in a single season (2007).

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DIVOTS
Three players shot 62 in the third round of the Travelers Championship. None of them broke par the next day. ... Two days before Tiger Woods teed off in the U.S. Open, Shaun Micheel had season-ending surgery on his left shoulder to repair a torn labrum and remove a bone spur. ... The Walker Cup will be played in 2013 at National Golf Links, site of the first Walker Cup in 1922.

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STAT
The U.S. Women's Open includes 27 amateurs. The U.S. Open had 11 amateurs in the field.