By John Schwarb, PGATOUR.COM producer

The allure of the belly putter was on full display at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, as Martin Laird and Spencer Levin played in the final group all weekend with the longer flatsticks.

Are the unconventional putters a full-fledged trend on TOUR? Maybe not yet, but it’s worth noting that two of the top 30 in the world ranking now play with them – No. 28 Adam Scott (the full split-grip long putter) and Laird, who cracked the top 30 at No. 21 after winning at Bay Hill with a belly putter.

For Levin, the new putter has a complete game-changer. He switched after he secured his 2011 card late last year, and now he has three top-10s in his last six starts.

“When you're playing, you don't really think about it but looking back, I think I've obviously made more putts with it than I was before,” said Levin, who finished T2 in putts per round at Bay Hill.

“Since I got that belly putter, I've definitely noticed I've been making some more mid-range putts. Before with a normal putter, I was always good -- I was always a good short putter but I wasn't a very good 12- to 20-foot putter. (Now) I feel like I'm making a couple more a round, which is I think probably why I'm scoring better for sure.”

Reigning British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen is getting into the act too; check out the Ping belly putter he bought at Augusta National here .

● Speaking of the Masters, world No. 2 Lee Westwood talked Wednesday at the Shell Houston Open about possible changes in his bag for the season’s first major.

“I generally keep the same stuff in, decide last minute whether it's 2-iron or 5 (wood). Augusta is generally 5 because you need to fly the ball in high,” Westwood said. “I've been doing a little bit of work with different bounces on sand irons. It's nice to take a bit of the bounce off the lob wedge at Augusta with the lies you get there and the firmness of the sand in the traps. It's nice to get under the ball a little bit.”

● Tiger Woods went back to his standard Nike VR blades at the Arnold Palmer, taking out the newer-version Nike VR Pro blades he put in the bag at the Chevron World Challenge last year. The VR blades will go to the Masters, too.

As for his continuing putter saga, Woods made an adjustment to the heel-shafted Nike Method that lately has replaced the Scotty Cameron that had been his constant through the years.

“We softened the grooves up to make sure it's not as quick, as I said, and I wanted something more suited for faster greens,” Woods said. “So we softened up the grooves, and it's coming off very similar to my Cameron and releasing obviously how I like it.”

Something more suited for faster greens … hmm. Sounds like a Masters putter.

● Laird won last week with a TaylorMade white driver, but not the more-ballyhooed R11. He used the Burner SuperFast 2.0 while ranking fifth in distance for the week.

“I put that new driver in at Doral three weeks ago, and I’m not someone that changes equipment much,” Laird

said. “I had had my driver before for three years and Taylor Made had been pushing me to try this new one, and I’m glad they did because this thing is unbelievable.”

● K.J. Choi turned heads with the three hybrids he used to finish tied for sixth at Bay Hill (read more here ), but another money club was the Odyssey putter he returned to. Choi’s trademark with putters is the SuperStroke extra-wide grip, said to keep the wrists from breaking down. He used one to win the AT&T National in 2007 and has had it ever since.

● Retief Goosen is going back to the Yes! model putter he used to win two U.S. Opens, our Melanie Hauser writes here .

● PLAYERS champion Tim Clark and others have played with Srixon’s yellow ball, which the company says offers improved visibility , not to mention a distinctive look.

On Twitter, a fan asked Titleist if they would make an orange ProV1 to match Rickie Fowler’s standard Sunday Oklahoma State-inspired outfits. The response: “Highly unlikely!”

● Jack Wulkotte, inducted over the weekend into the Palm Beach County (Fla.) Sports Hall of Fame, owns a pretty significant place in golf history. He was Jack Nicklaus’ personal clubmaker while with MacGregor. That ZT Response putter that Nicklaus won with at the 1986 Masters (and that you’ll hear plenty about over the next week)? Wulkotte put the grip on it. Read his story .

HUMBLE, Texas -- New old putter. New grip. New course.

Two-time U.S. Open champ Retief Goosen hopes that’ll do the trick this week at the Shell Houston Open. And, maybe at next week’s Masters, too.

Goosen added Houston -- and the Valero Texas Open the week after the Masters -- to his schedule this year to play his way to Augusta.

“I think that's the main thing,’’ he said. “You know, I've always done well at Augusta playing the week before when we had the event at Atlanta, and since that was moved, I don't really do that well at Augusta. So I feel playing here hopefully this week will give me the feeling you need to have going into Augusta.’’

What drew him in was the course setup -- fast greens, shaved runoff areas – that emulates conditions players will see next week.

“A lot of the players said it's as close as you can get it to Augusta settings or grass, I should say,’’ he said. “So that's definitely -- that definitely made me decide to play this year.’’

Goosen finished third at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship earlier this year and shared 12th at the Northern Trust Open, but his game still needs work. So, he’s changing his grip and going back to the YES! putter he used to win both of his U.S. Opens.

“Hopefully,’’ he said, “get some good feelings on the greens this week.”

His other concern? Driving.

“The game is not great, not really done much this year,’’ Goosen said. “Couple of good events but not really playing that well. I got my coach here this week, so we're working on a few things, a little bit of a grip change. I think this week, which is always a bit hard, you know, to get comfortable on, but changing my grip slightly this week and hopefully, you know, come tomorrow, start hitting a few good shots and give you some confidence going into next week.’’ -- Melanie Hauser

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Tavistock Cup, which since 2004 has been an interclub match between Isleworth’s and Lake Nona’s golf professional members, will have a different look this week.

For the first time, four clubs will compete for the Tavistock Cup, with 24 players involved in the competition. The first round of the two-day tournament at Isleworth Golf & Country Club begins in less than an hour (10:50 a.m. ET).

Monday’s format will consist of six matches of four-ball ( see schedule below). Tuesday’s competition will be singles matches.

Isleworth and Lake Nona will be two of the clubs in the competition, along with Albany and Queenwood. Albany is a new luxury resort community in The Bahamas and Queenwood is an exclusive private members’ club in the Surrey countryside near London.

Tiger Woods, fresh off his final-round 66 that bumped him up to 10th place at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship on Sunday, will compete for Team Albany. Reigning U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell leads Team Lake Nona ( team rosters below).

Tavistock Cup contestants play for prize money, team hole-in-one prizes and the title of World Golf And Country Club Champion.

The two-tournament will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel starting at Noon ET.

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TAVISTOCK TEAMS

 

TEAM ALBANY	TEAM ISLEWORTH	TEAM LAKE NONA	TEAM QUEENWOOD
Arjun Atwal	Robert Allenby	Ross Fisher	Thomas Bjorn
Ernie Els	Stuart Appleby	Retief Goosen	Darren Clarke
Trevor Immelman	Brian Davis	Peter Hanson	David Howell
Ian Poulter	J.B. Holmes	Graeme McDowell	Soren Kjeldsen
Justin Rose	Sean O’Hair	Henrik Stenson	Paul McGinley
Tiger Woods	Lee Janzen	Oliver Wilson	Adam Scott

 

MONDAY’S FOUR-BALL MATCHES

 

1	Arjun Atwal-Tiger Woods (Albany)		Thomas Bjorn-Adam Scott (Queenwood)
2	Robert Allenby-Stuart Appleby (Isleworth)		Peter Hanson-Henrik Stenson (Lake Nona)
3	Ian Poulter-Justin Rose (Albany)		Retief Goosen-Graeme McDowell (Lake Nona)
4	Brian Davis-J.B. Holmes (Isleworth)		Soren Kjeldsen-Paul McGinley (Queenwood)
5	Lee Janzen-Sean O’Hair (Isleworth)		Ross Fisher-Oliver Wilson (Lake Nona)
6	Ernie Els-Trevor Immelman (Albany)		Darren Clarke-David Howell (Queenwood)

MARANA, Ariz. -- No one will have played in all 13 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championships when the opening matches get under way on Wednesday.

Three players have only missed one, though, and are playing in their 12th this week. The answer to that trivia question? Well, you’re right if you said Retief Goosen, Stewart Cink and Padraig Harrington.

Another nine players have played in 11 Accenture Match Play Championships. But only six of those players are competing this week – Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Robert Allenby, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and Lee Westwood.

Among the players missing are some pretty interesting names in Vijay Singh, Stuart Appleby, Justin Leonard and David Toms, who won the 2005 Accenture Match Play Championship. The first three have played 11 times previously while Toms has made 10 starts.

MORE FEDEXCUP: Complete Standings | Weekly Leaders A FIELD DIVIDED: This week, the PGA TOUR will be players will be split between the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun. TOUR pros rated inside the top 66 in the Official World Golf Ranking are in the 64-man Match Play field. Being ranked that high comes with its benefits, as every player in the field at the Accenture Match Play Championship is guaranteed 22.5 FedExCup points – even if they are eliminated in the first round. One match victory will guarantee a player 46.56 FedExCup points, and two wins – a berth in the round of 16 – will net a player a minimum 68.25 points.

Accenture Match Play points breakdown

550 points – Win	101 points – T5 (loss in the round of eight)
315 points – Runner-up	68.25 points – T9 (loss in the round of 16)
200 points – Third place	46.56 points – T17 (second round loss)
140 points – Fourth place	22.50 points – T33 (loss in the first round)

Conversely, those playing in the Mayakoba will have to battle through four rounds to earn any points, with the winner adding 250 to his season total. To get the same 22.5 points guaranteed to all Match Play competitors, a golfer will need to finish solo 26th or better. To exceed the 46.56-point mark, they will need a solo sixth place finish and to beat a 68.25 point showing, they will need a solo fourth place finish. More on FedExCup point distribution can be found by clicking here. BEST NEW ARRIVALS: A pair of major winners (Ben Curtis and Retief Goosen) and one of the world’s best without a major (Paul Casey) made their debuts in the FedExCup standings this week in a tie for 115th with 56 points. The trio finished tied for 12th last week at Riviera Country Club in the Northern Trust Open. Goosen and Casey were making their season debuts while Curtis was playing in his third event after missing cuts at the Farmers Insurance Open and Waste Management Phoenix Open. Louis Oosthuizen and Robert Karlsson made their debuts as PGA TOUR members last week and finished tied for 62nd at Riviera Country Club. With eight FedExCup points each, they enter the standings tied for 184th. Casey, Goosen, Oosthuizen and Karlsson will tee it up at the Accenture Match Play Championship this week. BIGGEST MOVERS: Ryan Moore, who withdrew from his first start in 2011 and tied for 73rd in his second, vaulted 131 spots in the standings from 190th to 59th when he tied for fourth at the Northern Trust Open. In that fourth-place tie and also making a triple-digit leap was Robert Allenby, who moved from 173rd to a tie for 57th (116 spots). Also making large strides were Fred Couples (143rd to 61st), Cameron Tringale (119th to 175th) and Kevin Stadler (149th to 97th). NOTABLE DROPS: Nick O’Hearn and Kevin Kisner, who were both idle last week, each fell 17 spots in the standings dropping from 139th to 156th. Though still early in the season, it’s interesting to note that 10 golfers dropped below the 125-man cutline for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Falling the furthest were idle veterans Stephen Ames and Jesper Parnevik, who dropped from a tie for 124th into a tie for 139th in the FedExCup standings. MORE ON LAST WEEK’S WINNER: With his victory at the Northern Trust Open, Aaron Baddeley moved from 37th to 4th in the FedExCup standings. His best regular season finish in the four-year history of the FedExCup is 18th place. As he continues to get comfortable in his transition from the Stack and Tilt back to his more natural swing, Baddeley has made four cuts in five starts with his last two outings being a tie for sixth at Pebble Beach and a victory at Riviera. Badds is seventh on the TOUR in scoring average and 11th in greens in regulation in spite of the fact that he’s only hitting 53 percent of fairways. Baddeley will look to continue his strong play this week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

MORE FEDEXCUP: Complete standings | Weekly Leaders Just six events into the PGA TOUR season and there has already been much action in the race for the FedExCup. Three players have had the season points lead and five have occupied the No. 2 position already on the young season. Look for more shuffling near the top with a strong field assembled this week. Scheduled to tee it up at Riviera Country Club are 25 of the 30 players who competed in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in 2010. BIG SEASON DEBUTS: Three of last year’s top 10 in the final FedExCup standings (Luke Donald, Retief Goosen and Paul Casey) will be making their 2011 PGA TOUR season debuts this week at the Northern Trust Open. That trio occupied spots 2-4 behind champion Jim Furyk at East Lake and each of them finished inside the top 10 of the 2010 FedExCup standings after starting the playoffs ranked between 22nd and 27th. Donald has the best track record of the group at Riviera Country Club, posting finishes of P2, T6 and T3 the last three years. BEST NEW ARRIVAL: James Driscoll, who finished 133rd in the FedExCup standings last year and earned his TOUR exemption through q-school, made his first move in the 2011 campaign this week. After missing the cut at Torrey Pines, Driscoll tied for 13th at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am to earn 59 FedExCup points and make his debut in the standings at No. 99. BIGGEST MOVERS: Tom Gillis was the week’s biggest mover, jumping from 93rd to 20th in the FedExCup standings on the strength of his best career finish – a solo third at Pebble Beach. Gillis had three top-10 finishes last season, including a tie for fifth at the Deutsche Bank Championship that propelled him to a 43rd-place finish in the final FedExCup standings. Bryce Molder (111th to 47th) and Steven Bowditch (122nd to 58th) each moved up 64 spots after top-10 finishes at Pebble Beach. NOTABLE DROPS: Robert Garrigus, who lost a playoff to Jonathan Byrd at the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions fell out of the top 10 for the first time this season, going to 12th. Since that event, Garrigus has missed three cuts and was 7-under through three rounds at Pebble Beach before withdrawing. The biggest falls this week were Chad Campbell and Jim Furyk, who entered the week in 71st and tied for 72nd respectively before each fell 17 spots. Furyk missed the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am while Campbell was inactive. Furyk, Campbell and Garrigus are all in the field this week. MORE ON LAST WEEK’S WINNER: D.A. Points jumped from No. 26 to No. 2 in the standings with his victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Points is off to one of the TOUR’s better starts this year, making the cut in all four starts and notching three top-20 finishes. He’s currently No. 3 in scoring average, totaling 55-under-par in his 17 rounds this year.

For all intents and purposes, the FedExCup has come down to this: Whoever wins THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola of Jim Furyk, Luke Donald and Retief Goosen will win the FedExCup. Paul Casey is still mathematically alive, but realistically he has almost no chance since he couldn’t finish worse than a two-way tie for second and he’s locked in at 5 under with Nick Watney. Furyk, of course, is in the best shape since he leads by two with two holes left.

Jim Furyk has extended his lead to three shots with a birdie at the par-5 15th. With three holes left in THE TOUR Championship, he’s now firmly in control of the tournament.

But his status as future FedExCup champion has yet to be secured.

Even if Furyk wins the tournament, he could still be overtaken in FedExCup points by Paul Casey.

Casey, currently playing the 17th hole, is tied for third with Luke Donald. If Casey can finish solo second, he would acquire the necessary points to overtake Furyk and win the FedExCup.

Casey and Donald are at 6 over. Retief Goosen is currently solo second at 7 under.

Jim Furyk, who currently has a two-shot lead at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, remains the projected FedExCup winner. Furyk is 9 under with six holes to play.

Nick Watney, Luke Donald and Retief Goosen are tied for second. Watney is projected to finish 11th in FedExCup points, Donald is projected to finish fifth and Goosen is projected to finish at ninth.

Paul Casey, currently at 5 under, is projected to finish sixth.

For the lastest FedExCup points projections, click here

Retief Goosen had the only bogey-free round of the day – until the 18th hole, where he missed the green left then failed to get up-and-down on the par-3 finishing hole.

On the upside for Goosen, of course, is that he still shot 66 and is within two of the current lead (Jim Furyk is still on the course).

Saturday marked the second straight day that Goosen, who entered the week 17th in the FedExCup standings, shot 66 with just one bogey on his scorecard.

In order for Goosen to win the FedExCup, he’d not only have to win the tournament, he would need Matt Kuchar to finish solo 11th or worse; Dustin Johnson finish in a three-way tie for fourth or worse; Charley Hoffman finish in a three-way tie for third or worse; Steve Stricker finish solo third or worse; Paul Casey finish tied for second or worse; and Jason Day to finish tied for second or worse. -- Brian Wacker