Quick 18: Remembering a TV legend and a static OWGR

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Graeme McDowell closed with a 64 and a top-10 finish at PGA National but remained at No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

1. He was tough, demanding and in control. No matter where he was. In the production truck. At lunch. Doing an interview. The late Frank Chirkinian was one of a kind. And, of course, omnipotent. He barked, you obeyed. Willingly. And you laughed about it later. The Ayatollah turned 72 holes worth of shots into a story and gave us everything from overhead blimp shots to to-par scoring. He demanded the best from everyone, especially himself, He even made Q-18 jump a few times over the last few decades. His legacy? Every golf telecast you watch today.

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2. The place to be today? Seminole's Pro-member. Everyone from Lee Westwood to Ernie Els to Rickie Fowler, Graeme McDowell and Jhonny Vegas are teeing it up with legends like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. And, of course, an impressive business cast of Seminole members. Can you say power pairings?

3. Westwood missed a chance to regain his No. 1 ranking, so . . . nothing changed in the top 10. Really? First time this year. Just wait until next Sunday . . .

4. Like everyone else, Q-18 will have one eye on Tiger Woods and the other on Phil Mickelson this week at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. They'll either take steps forward or . . . well, at the very least we'll know how much work the boldest faced names have to do on the road to Augusta.

5. Leave it to the AP's Doug Ferguson to come up with the stat -- thus far -- of the season. And it's a brain tangler. Seven of the 10 winners on the PGA TOUR this year were out of the top 100 in the world ranking, while six of the eight winners on the European Tour were inside the top 50.

6. You liked Ben Crane's self-deprecation? Here's a less zany, more cerebral attempt from Henrik Stenson, who interviews himself. Who'd play him in a movie, he asks? Leo DiCaprio, of course.

7. It was a South African run, of sorts, Sunday. Not only did Rory Sabbatini win the Honda Classic, but countrymen Brendan Pappas won the rain-shortened Pacific Rubiales Bogotį Open on the Nationwide Tour and Chris Williams won the Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters on the European Seniors Tour.

8. Looking for someone not named Tiger or Phil to check in on to this week at Doral? Try G-Mac, who closed with a course-record tying 64 Sunday at PGA National. Or Vegas, who'll be smiling his way around the Blue Monster.

9. Before you go lamenting Mike Davis' move upstairs to the big chair at the USGA, know that he's a hands-on guy, so he'll have a say -- or two -- on how courses are setup. You gotta know the players are breathing easier knowing that.

10. Creative shot of last week? Has to go to Jerry Kelly, who used a camera to identify his ball in a tree. Quick thinking, huh? Nick Faldo had to climb a tree and shake it at Pebble Beach one year. Um, climbing wouldn't have been an option for Kelly with this palm tree.

11. Best suggestion ever? Lee Trevino meant it for Tiger, but it goes for, well, just about every good player who has left a trail of instructors in his wake: "My suggestion to Tiger Woods, which I don't know will ever happen, is he's got to look at the film from when he started winning all those tournaments and go right back to what he was doing and get rid of all these people."

Yang

12. Why haven't we heard much from 2009 PGA Champ Y.E. Yang? He changed caddies, changed swing coaches and had that first-time, out-of-the-blue-major-winner adjustment season. But . . . .he's already got three top-10s this season.

13. This just in from Ian Poulter . . .via Twitter, of course. He's allergic to all but one strain of grass. Among those on his allergy list? Bahia, Bermuda, Johnson, Orchard, June, Meadow fescue and Perennial Rye. Q-18 has a St. Augustine lawn, so if he ever has an itch to mow a lawn . . . .

14. Count Westy among those who realize the difference between what you say at 20 and what you say in your 30s and 40s. Q-18 figures he visited with Rory McIlroy after the latter weighed in on Tiger in Sports Illustrated. As for Westy's take on Tiger's struggles on the course? "Class is permanent and form is fickle,'' he said. "He's the classiest player I've ever played with.''

15. Strange to think that Mike Weir will be writing tournament sponsors for exemptions. The 2003 Masters champ/eight-time PGA TOUR winner and Presidents Cup must-have shot 77-85 to miss the cut at The Honda Classic and end his chances to retain his fully-exempt status through a major medical exemption. One of the truly nice guys out there, Weir was once No. 3 in the world (2003), but has fallen to 235th. Can he fight back? Absolutely. Just look at Westy, who had fallen to 260th in the world before climbing back up.

16. Hank Haney can only fix so much. In a Q&A with Golf.com, he says Ray Romano helped his partner at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by 15 shots and that Rush Limbaugh is hanging in there. But Charles Barkley? "The change was that before he couldn't do it on the range,'' Haney said. "Now he can do it on the range, but still can't do it on the course. So he's playing left-handed now. He's actually pretty good."

17. The Presidential count? Golfer-in-Chief played his second round of the year, giving him 60 total so far during his stint at the White House. CBS' Mark Knoller is the official keeper of such facts. To break it down: President Obama played 30 times in 2010; 28 times in 2009 and twice this year.

18. And, finally, Q-18 leaves you with this Hall of Fame quote from Chirkinian, which came prior to the 1986 Masters; "If you can't make your comment in four words or less, then shut up.'' Good rule of thumb. And so much tighter than 140 characters.

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.