COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- It was a loss for which, on some airlines, John Cook would have had to pay a surcharge, given that it was extra baggage that traveled with him from Scotland on Sunday night.

"Monday was very difficult," Cook said Thursday, though the pain was assuaged some with the 66 he shot in the first round of the U.S. Senior Open Thursday at the Broadmoor Resort.

The Sunday before, Cook needed only a par on the 72nd hole to win the Senior British Open, but bogeyed it instead, then lost to Bruce Vaughn on the first extra hole.

He was not without mechanisms to help him regroup, however. There was the solitary walk he made of a few holes at the Broadmoor on Monday, giving him an opportunity to ruminate in the fresh (albeit thin) Colorado air. There was the Tuesday practice with Greg Norman, who recently lost the British Open on the back nine on Sunday (misery loves company?).

And then there was the phone conversation with friend Tiger Woods.

"We had a good chat the other day," Cook said. "He was very supportive.

"I didn't like the way I finished last week at all. Second is not good. So I had a great practice round with Greg and Mark O'Meara and they were nothing but supportive. And Greg and I . . . when you have it in your grasp like that, you have something a little bit in common. Like we both said, you've got to move on. You try to figure out what the heck happened, so the next time you're better prepared for it. It was a great experience, a great week. I would have loved to have capped it off, but we can cap it off this week."

--John Strege

SUNNINGDALE, England -- Unless nature conspires to create some cruel conditions lacking Thursday morning, the par-72 Old Course at Sunningdale Golf Club will play more like a par-68 course this week for the Ricoh Women's British Open. Anyone who wants to win the last LPGA major championship of the year better start making birdies early and not let up. Sort of like Juli Inkster did in the first round.

Inkster, who was so dismayed after missing the cut at the U.S. Women's Open she took three weeks off and seriously considered skipping both last week's Evian Masters, where she finished T-9, and the Women's British, took advantage of calm, cool conditions and soft greens to shoot a 65, tying the opening-round record for this tournament.

"I was playing so poorly I almost didn't go to France," Inkster said after her bogey-free round. "But my daughters would have killed me. They love that trip." Not only did she pick up a top-10 check at Evian, she asked her close friend Karrie Webb if her coach, Ian Triggs, would take a look at her swing.

"I told him to eat well and sleep well because I knew [we would practice a lot on Monday]," Inkster said. "It wasn't a major overhaul. We worked on my posture -- I was getting a little saggy -- and we worked on getting the club to come back down on the same path." The swing repeated impressively on Thursday.

Among the highlights of Inkster's round, she drove the 273-yard ninth hole and rolled in an 18-footer for eagle. "I was pleasantly surprised when I teed the ball up on No. 1 and it went straight," she said with a smile. "I hit the ball great today. I'm not saying I'm going to play like this every day, but I hit the ball great today."

If Inkster, 48, should keep it up for four rounds she would become the oldest woman to win a major championship, the oldest to win an LPGA event and would join Webb as the only players to complete the Super Slam -- five major championships.

Webb won the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the McDonald's LPGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open and the DuMaurier Classic, which was replaced as a major by the Women's British Open in 2001, which she won in 2002. Inkster has the first four.

Asked if the victory last week at the Evian Masters by 43-year-old Helen Alfredsson inspired her, Inkster said: "Helen never inspires me. You can put that in bold print. It's great to see someone in her 40s win, but I had my own issues to work out."

If Alfredsson, who opened with a 69 at Sunningdale, was a popular winner last week at Evian, a victory this week by Inkster would be off the charts. As Hall of Fame players go in any sport, there are few who are as down to earth. After her round she was more interested in what moves were being made as the baseball trading deadline loomed than she was in who was where on the leader board at Sunningdale.

"I really love the game," Inkster said when asked if retirement was anywhere on her radar screen. "I go out and play for fun." She did say competing next year was a question mark and talked about wanting to coach high school golf. But does anyone really think Inkster would step away in a Solheim Cup year?

Can Inkster get it done this week at Sunningdale? Absolutely. Throw in her three consecutive U.S. Women's Amateur titles and she has won 10 major championships. She knows how to win. She also has her own unique perspective on what tough is, and on what's important.

"I was in Portland some years back and Corey [her now 14-year-old daughter] had an ear infection and a temperature of 102," Inkster recalled. "We went to the emergency room and were there until 7:30 the next morning, and I had like a 9:20 tee time. I don't remember what I shot, but I probably played well because I was in a fog and I wasn't thinking. I do remember the ER doctor walked all 18 holes with me."

Inkster's older daughter, Hayley, 18, starts college at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles this fall, and Corey starts high school a week later. "Now I have to worry about them coming home at night -- especially in France," she says, with a laugh.

Inkster had one great career before putting it in idle for six years to get her two daughters off on the right foot. Then she came back to have another great career. She's still playing very well, and don't believe her when she says the end is in sight -- at least not this week.

--Ron Sirak

SUNNINGDALE, England -- If there is any golf course where following the proper path is essential, it is the Sunningdale Golf Club. Find the route and stick to it, and you can go low. This inland links course is hash-marked by cross-bunkers and heather-covered hills slashing willy-nilly across the fairways. Stay out of that stuff and birdies can be abundant at this week's Ricoh Women's British  Open, as they have been in the past.

The fickle nature of a links layout was demonstrated by the conflicting results Thursday by Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam on the 485-yard par-5 first hole. Ochoa drove into the right rough about one yard from being unplayable. Then her pitch back to the fairway appeared headed for the tangled rough on the hill crossing the fairway when it bounced fortuitously to the left. Taking advantage of that break, she played her approach to 25 feet and made the birdie putt.

Sorenstam, playing in the following group, also drove into the right rough and her punch-out attempt didn't make it back to the short grass. She punched out again but could only play it across the fairway short of the green. She then pitched on to 25 feet and missed the par putt. After a bogey on No. 3, Sorenstam was two over on an easy opening stretch -- two par 5s and a short par 4 -- after which a player should be one under, at worst.

Ochoa made it home in three-under 69, while Sorenstam, playing what could very well be her last major, rallied with two birdies on the back nine for a 72. With all four par 5s reachable in two -- a couple with mid-irons -- and the 273-yard par-4 ninth drivable, it's going to take four rounds well below 69 to win. Karen Stupples won here at 19 under par in 2004 as did Karrie Webb in 1997, before it was a major. The highest winning score at Sunningdale was 11-under-par 277 by Se Ri Pak in 2001, the first year the Women's British was a major and when the weather was nasty.

--Ron Sirak

SUNNINGDALE, England -- One of the big stories bouncing around jolly old England this week is that more than 1,400 pubs closed in Britain last year, six times the nmber that closed for business the previous year. Of course, the pub owners will get a boost this week from the contingent of LPGA caddies in town for the Ricoh Women's British Open. The other story rattling around Sunningdale Golf Club involved a player not in the field: Michelle Wie.

Wie, who had not qualified to play the Women's British, had signed up to play a qualifier for the tournament, but then withdrew, in part because her handlers found out the money won here does not count toward her effort to earn a 2009 LPGA card off the tour's money list. Another reason for Wie's withdrawal from the qualifier popped up last week when Team Wie announced she would be playing in the PGA Tour event in Reno this week.

The reaction of LPGA players to the news Wie was playing against the men the week of a women's major -- and thus potentially stealing some of the coverage from the Ricoh event -- was, at its most gentle, incredulous and, at it's extreme, furious. It's another example, said player after player, of the Wie camp's lack of respect for the LPGA and the women's game in general.

"I feel kind of sad for her," Helen Alfredsson, winner of the Evian Masters last week, said Tuesday at Sunningdale. "I feel sad for the guidance she is getting in the wrong direction. The exhibition time for her is over. If she wants to be a golfer, I think she should concentrate on the women's tour and learn how to win."

"We have a major this week," said Annika Sorenstam, who is playing in her last major before retirement. "If you can't qualify for it, you shouldn't be playing with the men."

Interestingly, Wie's coach won't be with her in Reno this week. David Leadbetter was at Royal Birkdale for the men's Open Championship and then vacationed in southeast England for a week with his family. He'll stay around until the Women's British gets underway, working with one of his newest pupils, Suzann Pettersen.

For at least two years now Leadbetter has been outspoken about his feeling that playing against the men is not the right thing for Wie to do until she gets stronger and more confident. While he did not say so, his decision to be with Pettersen this week and not in Reno is an indication by Leadbetter of how he feels about her jumping back into the fray against the men just as she was getting her swing -- and more importantly her confidence -- back.

There is also considerable emotion among the players here about the reaction to Wie's disqualification at the State Farm Classic two weeks ago for not signing her scorecard. "People are blaming the rule, people are blaming the LPGA, people are blaming the volunteer, people are blaming everyone except the person at fault  -- the player," said one veteran tour player, venting off to the side of the practice green at Sunningdale as a rain squall Tuesday afternoon sent folks scurrying for cover.

Let's get back to those pubs, because one of the wonderful things about British life is how the local waterhole serves as a community gathering spot that draws a neighborhood together. Two factors are being blamed: Banning smoking in pubs, and more people buying beer in supermarkets and drinking it at home in front of the "telly" rather than with friends in a pub. Sad, really.

Here's another number that grabbed my attention: Britons send more than 1.4 billion text messages every week, according to a report by the Mobile Data Associations. That's 23 for every man, woman and child in the country. That number will also go up this week, since text messaging is the communication method of choice between players and caddies -- and sometimes between players and reporters.

Got to go. Just received a text from a player and her caddie wanting to know if I want to join them in keeping the pubs of Britain in business. More later.

-- Ron Sirak

The doors keep opening for Greg Norman, who gave a polite "no thanks" Monday to the PGA of America's special invitation into next week's PGA Championship, but told Golf World he's considering an invitation to compete in next year's Masters.

Norman, 53, qualified for a return trip to Augusta with his T-3 in the British Open at Royal Birkdale. He followed that by finishing strong in the Senior British Open, shooting 67-68 on the weekend at Royal Troon to finish T-5. He is now in Colorado preparing for the U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

With Tiger Woods out of the game, Norman's star-power is resurgent. The PGA was hoping to seize on that--and justified the invitation by noting the Shark's record jump of 480 points to 166th in the World Ranking. But a trip to suburban Detroit would have been Norman's fourth-straight week of major-championship golf, which was a determining factor in the decision.

"It was a great honor," Norman said. "I couldn't believe it when [business manager] Bart Collins told me about it at Troon. But it's the right decision with all the other things I have already in place on my schedule."

Norman, who is still honeymooning with new wife Chris Evert, has a conference call scheduled Wednesday with Collins and Jason McCoy of his golf course design team to discuss some of the offers that have come his way since the British Open. (One project already in the books was a renovation of the golf courses at Turnberry in Scotland, site of next year's Open and Norman's first Open victory in 1986.)

Norman also said he has a design trip already in the books for next April, but left the impression it was moveable. "There are several changes we're considering at the moment because of the way I played," Norman said. "A few more invitations have cropped up. I want to take stock of them and go from there."

--Tim Rosaforte

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France -- The Ginn Tribute which, along with the Ginn Open, has a $2.6 million purse, the richest of any U.S.-based LPGA event except the U.S. Women's Open, will not return in 2009, multiple sources told Golf World. While neither the LPGA nor Ginn would confirm the demise of the Tribute, which is played at RiverTowne CC near Charleston, S.C., neither expressed optimism about its future.

"The [Ginn sur Mer] Classic [on the PGA Tour], the [Ginn] Championship [on the Champions Tour] and the Ginn Open are happening this year and next," said Ginn spokesman Ryan Julison. "After we get past the Ginn Open we don't know what the future holds."

The Ginn Open is played in April and the Ginn Tribute comes after it, in May. Sources involved in broadcasting, tournament ownership and the LPGA said Ginn has pulled the plug on the Charleston event. The uncertainty expressed about the future after the Ginn Open also raises questions about the existence of all the Ginn tournaments after 2009.

"We have all those tournaments and no sponsors and in this economy it's like a perfect storm," Julison said. Ginn, which does its business in real estate, the hardest-hit sector in the downturn of the American economy, is said by insiders familiar with the cost of running tournaments to be on the hook for $25 million annually for the four events, one of the most ambitious investments by any company in tournament sponsorship. Late last summer, Robert Gidel, an expert operations man, was brought by investors to run the day-to-day business of the Ginn Company with Bobby Ginn remaining chairman and CEO.

"If I had to handicap the situation right now I would say that it is less than 50-50 that the Ginn Tribute will happen in 2009," LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens told Golf World at the Evian Masters. "That said, we will have a tournament to replace it."

Ginn has contractual obligations both to the LPGA and to NBC, which broadcasts the Ginn Tribute, for two more years. "We're having ongoing conversations with the Ginn organization and we hope to work things out amicably," Bivens said. "We also hope our broadcast partners, in this case NBC, are respected."

Annika Sorenstam, who runs her Annika Golf Academy out of the Ginn Reunion Resort near Orlando, where the Ginn Open is played, hosts the Ginn Tribute. One possibility is the Ginn Open would become the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika. Sorenstam said she was unaware of the future of the Ginn Tribute.

The loss of the Ginn Tribute comes within a difficult economic climate. Earlier this year, Safeway pulled out of its LPGA event near Phoenix and a replacement has yet to be found, though a chance remains the LPGA may run the event itself, at least for the short term.  That stop has been on the tour since 1980.

And earlier this month talks between the LPGA and the Fields Open in Hawaii, which has been on the schedule since 2006, ended. The contract with the SemGroup Championship in Oklahoma expired this year and the chances of a renewal were clouded by an SEC investigation of SemGroup, an energy company, following a declaration of bankruptcy by its parent company. The Tulsa event began in 2001.

One insider involved in the Tournament Owners Association said that of the four endangered tournaments, Phoenix was the most likely to survive and the Fields Open the least likely. Next year is an important one for the LPGA as about one-third of its tournament contracts expire, higher sanctioning fees go into effect and television contracts with ESPN and Golf Channel expire.

"The single most-important thing the LPGA needs is better TV exposure," said one tournament owner, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It's a highly entertaining product and a great value to for sponsors. The more people see it, the more they will realize that."

-- Ron Sirak

OAKVILLE, Ont. -- The RBC Canadian Open once was regarded as nearly the equal of the four major championships, glory ruefully lost in perpetuity. But even as its storied past fades into the haze of history there is hope.

Last year, a tournament that was first played in 1904, and has featured a who's-who list of winners from Walter Hagen to Tiger Woods, was played without a title sponsor, forcing the Royal Canadian GA to dig deep into its reserves. But this year the Royal Bank of Canada has stepped up, helping return the event's equilibrium.

Then the game's youngest star came to its defense. Anthony Kim, 23, is one of only two of the top 20 players on the World Golf Ranking to play the event this week (defending champion Jim Furyk is the other) and he touched all the right notes in explaining why he was here, after enduring a difficult week at the British Open.

"There's a lot of history here," said Kim, who shares the lead with Chez Reavie going into Sunday's final round. "Chris Armstrong, my new agent [with IMG], is from this area. He told me what a wonderful golf tournament it was. And I saw that RBC was making a conscious effort to get people over here and to make the tournament as good as it can be. So I felt like this was somewhere I wanted to be."

A jet was chartered to bring British Open participants to Toronto, as an inducement to get them to play in Canada. Kim was among those on the plane.

"What they did to get us over here was amazing," he said. "We were treated first class. Obviously, the private charter was great, but those are just bells and whistles. They're running a first-class tournament out here."

He noted as well that it is a national championship, one in which he is privileged to compete, a refreshing attitude on behalf of a tournament whose honor is worthy of defending.

-- John Strege

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France -- Tournament golf would be a lot more interesting if Helen Alfredsson contended every week. While the mercurial Swede is not exactly everyone's cup of tea, she is funny, clever and speaks her mind. She can also, at age 43, strike the golf ball with the best of them, as she proved last month at the U.S. Women's Open, and again Friday at the Evian Masters where she shot a course-record 63.

"I've loved this place since the the first time I was here in 1994," Alfredsson said after making nine birdies, six of which came on putts inside five feet and none of which were longer than 12 feet. Alfie won that '94 Evian Masters and took home the trophy here again in 1998. Injury and age have conspired to keep her out of the winner's circle since the 2003 Longs Drugs Challenge.

But with a variety of ailments apparently behind her, Alfie has found her game again. She was atop the leader board in the Women's Open at Interlachen last month until her putting stroke abandoned her in the final round. What has never abandoned Alfie is her sense of humor, which can be both gentle and brutal. You don't want to be on the receiving end of an Alfredsson barb.

When a journalist waited for a microphone before he asked a question she bellowed, "Do you think I'm deaf or something?" And when asked about going for the par-5 18th hole in two she made chicken noises and said, "I didn't want to hear that from my playing partners."

Asked about how her nerves will hold up on the weekend, she said: "My husband [Kent Nilsson, who played on a Stanley Cup-winning Edmonton Oilers team] says the nerves get worse the older you get, and I'm going the other direction," waving her hand behind her.

The 63 was the second for Alfredsson in an LPGA event. The first was in the 1994 U.S. Women's Open at Indianwood CC in Michigan. It was a 63 she described Friday as "bittersweet." What she didn't say is that is preceded one of the most heartbreaking meltdowns in major championship play.

Alfie was leading the Open by seven strokes through 44 holes. On the 45th hole she three-putted from 3 feet and proceeded to play the next 18 holes in 85 strokes. But that was 14 years ago. And as Alfie said when asked if she let her mind skip ahead when she was making birdies Friday: "I'm 43. Don't you think I've learned anything in these years?"

One thing she hasn't lost is her sense of humor, and that's a good thing.

-- Ron Sirak

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France -- If you want to understand why Annika Sorenstam is walking away from competitive golf at the end of the year when she will be only 38 years old and still one of the best players in the game, consider this:

Over the next seven weeks, she will play tournaments in this order: Evian Masters (France), Ricoh Women's British Open (England), Scandinavian TPC Hosted by Annika (Sweden), CN Canadian Women's Open (Canada,) Safeway International (Portland, Ore.), off week and then the  Nykredit Masters (Denmark). That's six tournaments in seven weeks in six different countries.

And that "off week" includes a couple days of outings for her business partners and several meetings concerning her various businesses.

"People look at golf and say 'How can that be exhausting?' and they don't consider all that goes into it," Sorenstam said at the Evian Masters. "Even when you have an off week you still practice every day and work out every day. It never ends."

After 15 years, it will end for Sorenstam at the Dubai Ladies Masters, Dec. 11-14. "I am definitely not playing any tournament golf next year," she said, addressing those who just can't believe she can walk away from the game cold turkey.

-- Ron Sirak

OAKVILLE, Ont. -- The RBC Canadian Open is not the only game in town this week. David Beckham and the MLS All-Star Game were in Toronto Thursday night, while the Rogers Cup tennis tournament is being played simultaneously (alas, now without Roger Federer, who bowed out in the second round Wednesday night).

So how does golf cut through the sporting clutter? Mike Weir. An Ontario native, Weir is a favorite son in these parts, so when he opened the tournament Thursday with a six-under par 65 at Glen Abbey GC that gave him a share of the lead, local newscasts and newspapers had their top story.

Sports fans here are eager to see a Canadian win their national championship. None have since Pat Fletcher won it in 1954, nearly 16 years before Weir was born. Weir, though currently ranked below fellow Canadian Stephen Ames (Ames is 25th in the world, Weir 35th), perennially is seen as the country's best hope and accordingly is given a hero's (or at least a Tiger's) welcome in the event.

"When I get on a roll like today you can sense the energy," Weir said of the hometown support. "That's what Tiger gets a lot. Someone was asking me, 'How does he make these putts on the last hole?' He believes he can make it. The crowd believes he can make it. It's all the right stuff going in the right direction. It's nice to have that one time, one week.

"I use the example of the 17th hole at the Presidents Cup [in Montreal last year]. I heard Johnny Miller's comment, 'Mike, you don't even have to hit this putt. It's just going to be willed in.' And there is something to that when you have that much pull from the crowd. Sometimes you just feel like you can't miss them."

Of course, were it that easy, Weir by now would have won a Canadian Open, which from his standpoint is akin to a fifth major.

"It's hard," he said. "It's difficult to get your game together to win an event. Things all have to come together. Unless you're Tiger winning all the time, it's hard to do. It's a little bit like [catching] lightning in a bottle."

-- John Strege