Quick 18: Garcia's swoon, the 16th, Armour III's roaring start

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

After running through the field all week at Dove Mountain, Sergio Garcia's luck stopped when he met Camilo Villegas in the consolation match Sunday.

Editor's note: PGATOUR.COM's Melanie Hauser will be shaking out the mental lint and pulling together the "Quick 18" on Mondays this year. Here are her thoughts after the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic:

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1. Another day, another early morning wakeup call for Paul Casey. He was up at 4:45 a.m. to catch a flight to Houston where he did a defending-champion media day for the Shell Houston Open. He also announced that he and wife Jocelyn were donating $100,000 to the tournament for distribution to Houston area charities.

2. Ian Poulter's tweets from the bathub and massage table made the telecast. So what was his last tweet before falling asleep Sunday night/Monday morning? "World number 5 how does that sound, wicked. What a great day, Paul Casey is a great guy, good to see him playing well after rib injury.''

3. What happened to Sergio Garcia? One minute he's ripping through the field at a major pace, the next he's blown out back-to-back. Long week. Don't expect the same at the first major of the year.

4. Poulter's heroes are -- in no certain order -- Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Payne Stewart. Payne's influence was obvious Sunday with Poulter's orchid pink ensemble. Reminded me for the day Payne Stewart broke out pink knickers and bow tie for the Par-3 Contest at Augusta.

5. Among the toys in Poulter's garage? In addition to the Bentley -- not his Labradoodle but the car -- a Ferrari California and a BMW AMG. The price tag on the Ferrari? About $190,000. We figure Poults got a deal.

6. Wondering how long it takes to get all the infrastructure in place for a PGA TOUR event? The skybox platforms are already in place for the Shell Houston Open, which is six weeks away.

7. Announcers said pound-for-pound Casey is the longest hitter on TOUR. He said maybe so -- and blushed at the compliment -- but said Alvaro Quiros isn't far behind. Casey, by the way, moved up to No. 6 in the world.

8. Twin-ball wizards at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week? Seems as though the Seattle Mariners who are training in Peoria, AZ, have reached out to the tournament and invited players to stop and catch a little batting practice. And Ken Griffey, Jr. said, if they do, he'd be happy if they'd offer him a lesson or two. He shoots around 80.

9. Good to see Cameron Beckman break through. It was an emotional week in another way too. Beckman, Joe Durant and Jerry Kelly played a practice round at the Mayakoba with friend Chris Smith, who was playing his first event since losing his wife in a horrific car accident on Father's Day in 2009.

10. The loudest hole in sports? Gotta be the 16th at TPC Scottsdale. This week it'll be rocking louder than ever with tournament favorite -- and former champ -- Phil Mickelson back after a week's break.

11. Interesting start for the Champions Tour. The first three winners of the year are all former Masters champs. Tom Watson, Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer. Talk about some star power.

12. Tommy Armour III be the first to admit he loves to have a good time. Maybe too good a time earlier in his career. He's slowed down, but dinners with him, after all, usually involve a table of 10. At least. His cell phone beeps with calls from Hollywood and athletes like Kelly Slater. And one more thing -- he's taking this Champions Tour thing seriously. As in two top 10s -- a second at the ACE Group Classic and a tie for ninth at the Allianz Championship.

13. A nearly-perfect 9.5 to Nike commercial with Lucas Glover stuffing donuts into the U.S. Open trophy and Stewart Cink pouring coffee from the Claret Jug. Could see Cink doing that at home. Oh, wait. He has been there, done that. With other beverages.

14. Wall Street trading dipped for 14 minutes Friday. No, we're not kidding. The world pretty much pressed pause to listen to Tiger.

15. Count Roger Federer among those who stopped to watch his friend deliver his statement. "I am sure he's headed in a better direction now. The worst has passed."

16. The Dalai Lama didn't know who Tiger was? That one definitely surprises me. Doesn't he have "people"? It didn't stop him from talking to Associated Press about Buddhism though. "Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important," he said. "Self-discipline with awareness of consequences."

17. The Telegraph reports that super-Euro agent Chubby Chandler thinks the No. 1 ranking is vulnerable. He doesn't see Tiger as No. 1 in five years. "I think it will be one of the young kids. It could be Rory (McIlroy), it could be (Martin) Kaymer, this Michael Sim is very good, for an 18 year-old Ryo Ishikawa is ridiculous. He's ahead of Rory. If you ask Rory who his hero is, it's Ishikawa. How's that? He says he's the coolest golfer in the world.''

18. Now that Tiger's statement has been dissected from every -- and we mean every -- angle, the next puzzle to solve is when he'll return. Everyone seems to be searching the tea leaves from far and wide to come up with an answer. We already have one. When he's ready.

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