By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

Rory McIlroy’s decision to switch equipment -- McIlroy and Titleist and FootJoy parent company Acushnet announced Tuesday they will part ways at the end of this year when McIlroy’s contract expires -- is certainly nothing new.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia are just a handful of big names to have left one company for another in recent years. Nick Faldo did, too.

“I call it dangerous,” Faldo said Tuesday on Golf Channel. “I’ve changed clubs and changed equipment, and every manufacturer will say, ‘We can copy your clubs; we can tweak the golf ball so it fits you.’

“But there’s feel and sound as well, and there’s confidence. You can’t put a real value on that. It’s priceless.”

Just ask Jim Furyk.

Two years ago, Furyk won three times and captured the FedExCup trophy. A little more than a year later, he flirted with falling out of the top 50 in the world. Part of Furyk’s struggles? Tinkering too much with his equipment.

There was also the late Payne Stewart, who left Wilson for Spalding and then endured a season-long slump in 1994, falling sixth on the money list in '93 to 123rd a year later.

“You have to be very, very careful,” Furyk said. “You easily could go off and do this and it messes you up because it just doesn’t quite feel the same. When you’re striping it, it’s fine. But as soon as doubt comes in…

“It was a product of maybe trying to get a little bit longer, maybe trying to find new ways to improve and maybe then hurting my strengths. Trying to make my weaknesses better but in doing so, hurting your strengths, which is rule No. 1. You don’t do that.”

Faldo, a six-time major winner, offered similar advice to McIlroy.

“I’d be very cautious,” Faldo said. “I’d love someone like him, in his position, to sell the bag. That bag is worth a fortune; it’d be on TV all the time. Stick with the clubs that you know best, that you believe the best.

“It’s really important. It’s the feel and confidence of knowing that your equipment will perform how you want it to perform on Sunday afternoon. You can’t mess with that at such a young age.”

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Brandel Chamblee thinks the solution is simple for Tiger Woods.

“He needs to fire Sean [Foley], call Butch [Harmon],” Chamblee said in a teleconference Tuesday. “I think that would get it done right there.”

Woods, who is coming off only the eighth missed cut of his career and his worst-ever performance in the Masters, scoffed at the suggestion.

“Everyone has an opinion, and he's entitled to his,” Woods quipped. “But he's no longer playing anymore, so, so be it.”

Foley, meanwhile, declined to comment, preferring to reference Woods’ statistics. To an extent, he had a point.

Woods ranks 42nd on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy at 64 percent -- only once in the last five years, in 2009, has he hit more than 60 percent of his fairways -- and is 19th in greens in regulation.

He’s also fourth in total driving and sixth in the all-around category.

Not that Woods hasn’t had his share of struggles.

At Quail Hollow, Woods took 33 putts in the second round. In the Masters, Woods failed to break par in any of his four rounds as he hit just 57 percent of the fairways and 56 percent of the greens.

Just two weeks prior to the Masters, however, Woods won for a seventh time at Bay Hill -- where he led the field in greens in regulation.

“I know he'll never [fire Foley], because he's letting his ego get in the way of common sense,” said Chamblee, who added that Harmon could help Woods find his rhythm again and swing on a flatter plane. “He wants to prove to people he's right. He would rather prove to people he's right than be right.

“He's literally lost the art of the game, and I think Butch could help him.”

For Nick Faldo, he sees Woods’ struggles as more mental than anything else.

“It's self-belief,” Faldo said. “I think when he fears left and the trouble is on the right, we saw this last week, especially the seventh hole at Quail Hollow, the water runs down the right, you need a power fade to feed it in there, and if he fears losing it right, then he pulls it hard left.

“But the real bottom line is for me, he just doesn't have the self-belief, the self-confidence that he obviously had, the Tiger of old, simple as that.”

Woods doesn’t deny that he’s struggled with taking his practice sessions to the course at times while undergoing his latest swing change.

“I've been Ranger Rick before; go out there and stripe it every shot you want, and then you do nothing out there,” he said. “Eventually you stripe it on the range and then you do it at home at your home course, and then you bring it eventually to tournament sites, and eventually to major championships on the back nine on Sunday. There's a process to it, at least in my career there has been. It's worked out OK so far.”

Nick Faldo hasn't aged a bit -- but one can't say the same about Rory McIlroy. Here's McIlroy, then just 15, during the 2004 Faldo Series Final, held at Burhill Golf Club in England in 2004. McIlroy won the under-15 title at Faldo's junior tournament. He won it again in 2006.

Nice green jacket, by the way.

Faldo remembers the the young McIlroy well, too. On Sunday, he tweeted: @McIlroyRory congratulations on win and World #1, only 10yrs ago @FaldoSeries you stated you wanted it all!...vision n determination!

The longer Tiger Woods goes without winning a PGA TOUR event -- something he hasn’t done since 2009 -- the more self-doubt might creep into his game, at least according to Nick Faldo.

“His incredible record in the past, leading after 54 holes and converting was ridiculous,” Faldo said via conference call Tuesday. “But now we have seen about four times when he's been right there, good enough to get into contention but not good enough to finish it off. I think that's when you discover all of those little things that you can't really put your finger on, what it takes to finish it off.

“The bottom line is trust, or self‑belief, self‑confidence in your ability. We have seen a few swings and a few putts that ‑‑ we watch Tiger scratch his head.”

Johnny Miller doesn’t think Woods needs to learn how to win again, but the longer he goes without winning, Miller says, the tougher it will get.

“Even starting with the Masters last year, that great charge on Sunday, it looked like he was going to do it and just sort of fizzed out,” Miller said. “The more of those that he has, the more scar tissue you get, and the tougher it is to make those putts.

”He did win at Sherwood, but I don't know if that totally convinced him that that was a real win. He needs to do it on TOUR with a PGA TOUR win.”

Woods will have his chance this week at a tournament he’s won three times before.

Brandel Chamblee, however, sees a different Woods at age 36.

“People are not intimidated by Tiger Woods anymore,” Chamblee said. “He doesn't hit it as far, he doesn't hit it as high and he doesn't hit it as straight and he's missing a lot of little putts, and late in a golf tournament, which makes him beatable and makes him human and makes him less intimidating.

“When you put all of that together, that is an intangible that Tiger Woods carried like the best shield and the fastest arrow. He beat everybody, because of all of those reasons. But one of them was that he intimidated the devil out of people, and so they are giving him their best shot.”

Woods will have a chance to turn that around beginning Wednesday when he faces Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano in the opening round.

Johnny Miller and Sir Nick Faldo, who share eight major championship titles and are the two pre-eminent names in golf television today, will work an entire tournament together as co-analysts for the first time at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Jan. 6-9, the PGA TOUR’s 2012 season kick off exclusively on Golf Channel.

The Hyundai Tournament of Champions -- which will finish on a Monday night in primetime for the first time -- will be the first of three consecutive tournaments covered exclusively by Golf Channel to begin the year (Sony Open in Hawaii, Jan. 12-15; Humana Challenge in Partnership with the Clinton Foundation, Jan. 19-22). The Sony Open also will air in primetime from Hawaii.

Miller: “It’s great repartee when Nick and I are together. It’s kind of an older brother-younger brother dynamic. We’re not afraid to challenge each other.”

Faldo: "I was really looking forward to a stress-free start to the new season. Now this news. Oh well, never mind. At least I've got two weeks in Hawaii watching the PGA TOUR, and let's just say some lively debate. Should be fun."

Will this collaboration be a sign of things to come? Golf Channel president Mike McCarley told USA Today that “we'll see how it works, what kind of hijinks ensue . . We'll have to check if it's safe to release these two into the wild."

McCarley added that Miller, “like any great analyst, lacks a filter between his brain and mouth so you never know what will come out  -- but you know it will be interesting."

Miller, a veteran of NBC Sports’ golf coverage since 1990, and Faldo, lead analyst for PGA TOUR coverage on Golf Channel and CBS since 2007, will join Golf Channel on NBC play-by-play commentator Dan Hicks in the booth for all four days of 2012’s inaugural tournament.

Golf Channel’s exclusive coverage will begin Thursday, Jan. 5, with a special two-hour edition of Golf Central from Maui, Hawaii, which will preview the Hyundai Tournament of Champions with player interviews, and participation from Golf Channel and Golf Channel on NBC personalities, including Miller and Faldo.

Golf Channel’s coverage of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions will include 17-1/2 live hours from Hawaii -- with the majority in prime time ( see schedule below).

Joining Hicks, Miller and Faldo for the telecast will be Terry Gannon, Frank Nobilo, Mark Rolfing, Jerry Foltz, Curt Byrum and Kelly Tilghman.

Are you looking forward to hearing Miller and Faldo together? Let us know.

Click here for more on the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

For more on Miller and Faldo, click here

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GOLF CHANNEL’S LIVE COVERAGE OF HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Rd. 1 – Friday, Jan. 6	Rd. 2 – Saturday, Jan. 7	Rd. 3 – Sunday, Jan. 8	Rd. 4 – Monday, Jan. 9
5:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. ET	5:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. ET	5:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. ET	4 p.m.-8 p.m. ET

Will Tiger Woods break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 career major championships. Time will certainly tell, but Nick Faldo believes that opportunity has passed.

“I do, personally (believe that),” Faldo told the Montreal Gazette. “I was one of the few guys that said it right after this all happened and he was trying to get back to the Masters last year.

“Mentally, he's actually a pretty sensitive guy. He's very sensitive to any comments or criticisms that we have. It's just about global communication. Something like that, trying to deal with that, I thought it was going to really affect him. Plus, there's probably a lot going on in his life that we don't know about. It's just having that peace of mind. There's nothing nicer for a golfer to go to the golf course all day long and you do what you want to do, practice-play or play-practice, and then you look at your watch and say, 'I'm going home -- it's 6 p.m.'”

Woods of course hasn’t won anywhere since 2009 and his last major victory came at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where he famously won on a broken leg. Since then, Woods has posted a half-dozen finishes in the top 6 in majors, but he also missed the cut in his last one, the PGA Championship, after missing this year’s U.S. and British Opens because of injury.

Faldo, who won six career major championships and dealt with his own share of scrutiny in his heyday, said he can sympathize with what Woods is going through now.

“Now, I know what it's like,” Faldo said. “The phone's always going; people are texting, emailing. I can't concentrate like that.

“That's the first thing I thought: 'His concentration will be shattered.' He had this amazing ability to go away from a tournament and then go on and practice as close to tournament-mode as anybody could do or better than anybody else could do. Now, I think that's been shattered. I can't imagine what it's like. The phone is ringing off the hook and there are all sorts of things to talk about.

“That's one of the simplest things that can affect you, whether it happens for business reasons or personal reasons. Once you break that concentration, it really does affect you.”

Faldo also sees a connection between Woods’ recent string of injuries and what he’s gone through in his personal life, saying, “The stress injuries to your body are also related to that. When you're under stress, physically you will break down somewhere, whether it's a physical thing or emotional thing. All of this (is) linked.

"It's now two seasons. It's not like it's been two months. Two seasons of golf have gone by. He hasn't been in a comfortable mode for two years. Even when he comes back for The President's Cup, he won't be comfortable because he'll be under the questions and spotlight -- should he be there or shouldn't he be there?"

Woods, 29th in the current U.S. Presidents Cup standings, has already been guaranteed a spot on the team by captain Fred Couples. He won’t play again, however, until the Frys.com Open after missing the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

As for Faldo, he added that once he lost his focus from all the on and off-course distractions, he was never able to regain it.

“Once my quality of mindset for practice was broken, it's been broken ever since,” Faldo said.

Time will tell if Woods’ is, too.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.com Correspondent PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- It's a grass roots effort that's getting a lot of buzz. Twitter's all a-tweet with the idea of changing the image on the European Tour logo to that of the late Seve Ballesteros fist-pumping at the 1984 British Open. The current logo image is Harry Vardon, which is nice, but . . . Seve . . . . "It's iconic,'' three-time major champ Padraig Harrington said. "Seve IS the European Tour. It's not belittling the guys who put a lot of work into the tour behind the scenes. But Seve is iconic. He's the emotional heart of the European Tour. "He drove the European Tour. He inspired the players who came up in the '80s. He inspired the players playing now." Paul Lawrie, Sir Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie are among those players not here who have been campaigning to have Seve's image and a number of players  have been tweeting about using the image of him pumping his first after holing the winning putt at St. Andrews in 1984. Absolutely, said Australian Adam Scott, who played the European Tour for several years before joining the PGA TOUR. "It's a fantastic tribute. I'm not out of place saying that he built the European Tour into what it is today.'' Added Englishman Luke Donald, who, like Harrington, plays both tours,  "I think it's very fitting. He did a lot to put the European Tour on the map.'' Ballesteros, who was memorialized at a service in his hometown of Pedrena Wednesday,  was one of only two European players in the field at the 1980 Masters, which he won. Sandy Lyle was the other. Ballesteros opened the door for European players to compete, not just in the Masters, but in PGA TOUR events in the early 1980s. "He put Europe on the map going traveling around the world," Woosnam, a fellow Masters champ, told Associated Press. "The Ryder Cup is one of the biggest events in the world and that's thanks to Seve." Lawrie, the 1999 British Open champ, has been one of the most vocal advocates of the change. "There is quite a few players who believe that it should have been a logo featuring Seve in the first place," he told Setanta Sports. "Of course, it's not for me to tell the Tour what to do. The current logo is a nice logo and it's been very well done. But everyone knows and agrees that it was Seve was the player that really started it all for the European Tour. He was the difference. "We shouldn't be changing the logo just because he's gone but that's always been the case so maybe it could have been a Seve logo from the word 'go'." European Tour chief executive George O'Grady told Associated Press, "We will look at it nice and calmly, and if we do consider any single player's image at the moment it would be Seve's.''

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- What's a Masters rookie to do? How can he jump in and be ready in, oh, three days?

"The most important thing is to understand the greens,'' said three-time Masters champ Nick Faldo. "You need to know where to put it. Especially when you're standing over a shot in wind like this went it's a high 5-iron to a pin three paces on. Good luck with that.''

Yes, Faldo, now a member of the British Empire and hence Sir Nick, was kidding. A bit.

But not about the magic major number -- 62. No one's ever been there, though a group, including Faldo at Royal St. Georges and  Greg Norman and Nick Price here, have come close. In fact, Price had a putt for 62 here in the third round in 1986 that banged out of the cup. He said, at the time, that Bobby Jones held his hand up and said enough. Everyone who saw it agreed.

Of course, Johnny Miller set the record in 1973 at the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Norman shot his in the first round in 1996, the year he lost to Faldo. Faldo's came in the second round in 1993 where he finished second to -- yes -- Norman.

"I holed my putt at Royal St. George's after a driver-2-iron for a 63.'' he chuckled. "Those were the days.''

And, no, he doesn't think a 62 is coming any time soon.

"You look at the hole locations and the speed and firmness of the greens. For someone to shoot a 62, that would be tough,” Faldo continued. “There's still a scare factor to it. Trying to hole a putt for a 62 at a major is like holing one for 59 on the regular tour. ''

He grinned and said, “I'm one of those who shot 63. I don't want anyone to shoot 62.''

HUMBLE, Texas -- No bragging rights. Really. None.

That’s what European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal said about his Thursday-Friday pairing with U.S. captain Davis Love III. Just fun and golf. Nothing else.

What will he be paying attention to at this week’s SHO? Just about everything.

Slowly but surely, Olazabal is returning to form after being sidelined much of last year with a recurrance of his rheumatoid arthritis and a back problem.

“Well (I’’m) not a hundred percent,’’ he said. “Still the right arm hurts a little bit, but the rest of the body is feeling better.

“At this point it's more down to, you know, practice a little bit and play a few events, you know, to, again get the feel of competition, playing in tournament conditions which are completely different to what we practice on, obviously tougher conditions being in a tournament. Just get back to the playing rhythm of competition. I think that will help as well, first of all, to know where my game is and to improve from there.’’

Nothing specific, he said. Rather everything in general.

“I would say pretty much everything needs a little bit tuning up,’’ he said. “Kind of really, you know, one day could be the driver, next day could be the putting. That's how it's been last three, four weeks. It's not one particular area that is really weak. I think overall it's everything is a little bit off.’’

As for the current world rankings? With Europeans in the top four spots and five of the top seven? He grinned, but said it’s all cyclical. It wasn’t long ago, he pointed out, that he, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo were all in the top.

Plus, he said, the Ryder Cup is a year and a half away. He still grinned. -- Melanie Hauser

MARANA, Ariz. – For the first time since 1992,  the top four players in the Official World Golf Ranking are all from Europe.

Martin Kaymer officially took over No. 1 when the rankings were released on Sunday night. Luke Donald, who beat Kaymer to win the  World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, rose from ninth to third, the highest ranking of his career.

Lee Westwood, who was eliminated in the second round at Dove Mountain, fell to second. He had held the top spot for 17 weeks, after ending Tiger Woods’ reign at 281 straight weeks.

Graeme McDowell, who lost in the Accenture quarterfinals, remained at No. 4 but he is now ahead of Woods, who has dropped two spots to fifth. The last time Woods was ranked lower than third in the world was April 6, 1997 prior to his first Masters victory.  A week later, Woods had climbed 10 spots to No. 3 behind Greg Norman and Tom Lehman.

The last time four Europeans led the way was on March 15, 1992 when Ian Woosnam of Wales was No. 1, England’s Nick Faldo was No. 2 and Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal was No. 3 and Seve Ballesteros was No. 4.

Here is the new top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking:

Rank	Player	Country
1.	Martin Kaymer	Germany
2.	Lee Westwood	England
3.	Luke Donald	England
4.	Graeme McDowell	Northern Ireland
5.	Tiger Woods	United States
6.	Phil Mickelson	United States
7.	Paul Casey	England
8.	Rory McIlroy	Northern Ireland
9.	Steve Stricker	United States
10.	Matt Kuchar	United States