MOORESVILLE, N.C. — The BC39 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is quickly becoming the summer version of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals that’s run inside the Tulsa Expo Center each January.

With more than 90 cars entered, a stout lineup of drivers and some of the best racing we have seen all year, the BC39 has become a must-attend event not only for racers and race fans but for industry insiders.

Tim Clausen, father of Brian Clausen for whom the event honors, says the BC 39 is his favorite among all of the things that have been done to honor his son.

Tim Clauson said he and Clauson-Marshall Racing co-owner Richard Marshall are working on a program  for the 2020 Indianapolis 500. One of their biggest decisions is whether  they want to own more of the assets or if they want to partner with another team as they did ithis year with Pippa Mann driving.

Chevrolet was the team’s engine supplier for this year’s running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Chevy officials have told the team they were very happy with how things went this past May, so it appears the Clauson-Marshall team would have access to Bowtie powerplants if it enters the 104th running of the 500.

No driver has been signed. The team was very pleased with Mann’s performance. However, they also would be interested in giving an open-wheel racer a shot at Indy.

– Christopher Bell tells us he owns one of his Chili Bowl-winning midgets.

The race car along with a Golden Driller from each of his three Lucas Oil Chili Bowl National victories reside in what is supposed to be the dining room of his house. Bell, who is currently chasing the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, hopes to be in Tulsa during January to challenge for a fourth consecutive Chili Bowl victory.

– A ride in a Keith Kunz-prepared midget is one of the most desired seats in racing these days. Kunz says he can easily get three to four years out of one of his highly successful midget chassis.

Kunz also believes there are no bad cars.

“The year Christopher Bell won 13 or so races with us he used seven different chassis,” Kunz said.

For those still hustling to get sponsorship dollars together for the 34th running of the Chili Bowl, don’t sweat it yet. Kunz said: “I can put you in a car for the Chili Bowl day of, if I have to.”

– Prior to the BC39, NHRA stars J.R. Todd and Doug Kalitta, along with NASCAR’s Erik Jones, got to make some laps in a midget at the fifth-mile Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Todd was still grinning about it when we saw him at the BC39. He said he accidentally got a little too close to the wall for the nerves of Christopher Bell, whose car Todd was driving.

“Christopher said to go slower down the straights, then hammer it in the corners,” Todd said. Once he figured it out, Todd enjoyed his time behind the wheel.

– A conversation about the demise of mile dirt tracks was one of the many bench-racing sessions we were a part of during two days at Indy.

That led to a discussion regarding the late Earl Baltes’ desire to build a one-mile track on the Eldora Speedway property.

Baltes started but never completed the project. Google Earth images show the basic shape of a mile oval still there on the land next to the half-mile Eldora Speedway, which is now owned by Tony Stewart.

What do you think “Smoke,” any interest in finishing that mile oval?

– During a recent conversation with NHRA Funny Car star Jack Beckman, he discussed his strategy for staging his Don Schumacher Racing machine.

“When you first trip the beam, you have 14 inches before you have rolled out of the lights,” Beckman explained. “Every driver has a different approach. Some like to deep stage and use up a lot of those inches, which allows them to shorten up the track and get a good reaction time. Others like to shallow stage and get a running start.

“I like rolling in shallow. Going in deep is an ego deal,” he continued. “Your reaction times look great, but I like the extra 13 inches or so that you get for a rolling start. The only time I change how I stage is against Force. He always wants to go in last and sometimes you have to give him the business back or he will get in your head, which is what he wants.”

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- Professional hockey is coming to the Southern California desert.

The minor league American Hockey League has awarded an expansion franchise to NHL Seattle that will play at a new arena on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation in downtown Palm Springs.

The $250 million project announced Monday will break ground in early 2020 and will open in fall 2021.

I heard many moons ago that Seattle, despite having a spectrum of better color options, was going red and black for a color scheme and this does nothing to dispel that. https://t.co/wc0ffsKXYg

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) September 30, 2019

The AHL's 32nd team will be the primary development affiliate of NHL Seattle. Both the Seattle NHL team and its AHL franchise will begin play in October 2021.

Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group, which owns the Seattle NHL franchise, says the new arena will host sports and music events. It will seat 10,000.

AHL Palm Springs launched season ticket sales Monday.

Palm Springs will be the sixth California team in the AHL, joining Bakersfield, Ontario, San Diego, San Jose and Stockton.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo Sabres assistant coach Don Granato is hospitalized with pneumonia and will miss the start of the season.

The Sabres announced Tuesday that Granato was taking a medical leave of absence. Top minor league coach Chris Taylor will fill in on an interim basis.

The 52-year-old Granato joined the Sabres in June as part of newly hired coach Ralph Krueger's staff. Granato spent the past two years as an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks.

His brother is former NHL player and current Wisconsin coach Tony Granato. Sister Cammi Granato is a former U.S. national hockey team captain and was hired as a pro scout by the NHL's expansion franchise in Seattle last month.

The Sabres open the season at Pittsburgh on Thursday.

San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane was suspended three games by the NHL on Tuesday for physical abuse of officials, stemming from an incident in a preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.

The suspension was automatic per NHL rules, but can be appealed to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Kane will forfeit $112,903.23 in salary if he serves the ban.

Evander Kane of the @SanJoseSharks has been suspended three games under Rule 40.4. https://t.co/QjwA8pvnff pic.twitter.com/WhfnPVJmKd

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 1, 2019

At 12 minutes, 51 seconds of the third period in a preseason loss at the Vegas Golden Knights, Kane and defenseman Deryk Engelland got into an altercation after the Knights' defenseman held Kane's stick following a hit.

Engelland cross-checked Kane, and Kane responded with a slash that appeared to also make contact with linesman Kiel Murchison. As Kane skated back up the ice, Murchison grabbed the front of Kane's jersey, apparently trying to prevent an escalation with Engelland, and they tumbled down to the ice.

The officials gave both players misconduct penalties, but Kane was ejected from the game for abuse of officials. He yelled at the refs from the Sharks' bench before heading to the dressing room.

After the game, Kane ripped the call.

"I get kicked out of the game for getting jumped from behind by a referee. I've never seen a ref take five strides," he said after the 5-1 defeat. "If you look at his face, he's getting all this power and he's trying to drive me into the ice, which is what he did. That's unbelievable. Talk about abuse of an official? How about abuse of a player? It's an absolute joke."

Kane, who was tied for the NHL lead last season with three game misconducts, also indicated that the NHL officials had a double-standard for him. "It's funny ... if you look at the way I get treated out there when it comes to the scrums, or when the other team is trying to do [something] to me, there's a massive difference compared to everybody else on the ice," he said.

The three-game suspension was automatic as Kane's penalty was classified as a Category III offense. A Category II classification would have carried a 10-game suspension. The NHL determined that the physical force used by Kane was "solely for the purpose of getting free of such an official during or immediately following an altercation," which carries a lesser punishment.

Kane can appeal to Bettman, who only needs to conduct a phone hearing for this level of offense. According to the NHL, "a hearing will be conducted by the Commissioner on an expedited basis, and best efforts will be used to provide a hearing before the second game missed by the player due to the automatic suspension imposed under this rule."

The Sharks begin their season on Wednesday at the Vegas Golden Knights, and their second game is on Friday back in San Jose against those same Golden Knights.

It seems like yesterday that the St. Louis Blues were wobblingly piloting scooters through a Stanley Cup championship parade. The NHL offseason comes and goes so quickly, you can be excused for not being cognizant of every signing, trade, hiring, firing and headline that emerged from the hockey summer.

Fear not! As the 2019-20 season arrives, here's a chance to catch up on everything that happened since the Stanley Cup was raised, on and off the ice:

1. Video review expanded

Following several controversial blown calls in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, the NHL announced a dramatic expansion of its use of video review. Referees who call major or match penalties, other than ones for fighting, will be required to either confirm the call or reduce it to a two-minute minor if an error in severity was made. They'll also review, at their own discretion, double-minor high-sticking penalties to see if an injury occurred from a player's own stick or a teammate's stick rather than an opponent's stick. If so, no penalty.

A third category of the coach's challenge was added to goalie interference and offside reviews: Coaches can now challenge plays in the offensive zone that should have resulted in play being stopped before a goal was scored, such as on missed hand passes or pucks that go out of play, both of which happened in last season's playoffs. Finally, teams can challenge calls as often as they like, but if they're wrong once it's a delay-of-game minor penalty, and every time they're wrong after that it's a double minor.

2. P.K. Subban was traded

The Nashville Predators stunned the hockey world when they traded their superstar defenseman to the New Jersey Devils at the NHL draft for a rather underwhelming return of defensemen Steven Santini and Jeremy Davies, as well as two second-round picks.

The Predators felt their deep defensive corps enabled them to trade Subban, 30, for added financial flexibility, as he had three years left on his contract at $9 million annually against the salary cap. The Devils, meanwhile, were one of the few teams with the cap space to take on the deal.

3. Matt Duchene signed with Nashville

The Predators used that financial flexibility to sign prized free-agent center Matt Duchene, 28, to a seven-year deal with an $8 million annual cap hit. He gives the Predators the center behind Ryan Johansen they've sorely missed, and should help what was the worst power play in the NHL last season. Also, he's a country music fanatic, to further the perfection of the fit.

4. Devils, Rangers got a revamp

It was a busy, franchise-redefining summer for the Hudson River rivals.

The Devils added Subban, wingers Wayne Simmonds and Nikita Gusev, and drafted U.S.-born phenom center Jack Hughes with the first overall pick in the NHL draft after winning the lottery.

The Rangers also moved up thanks to the lottery and selected Finnish scoring winger Kaapo Kakko second overall. But he wasn't the only big addition: The Rangers landed coveted free-agent winger Artemi Panarin, a point-per-game player with Columbus in the past two seasons, with a seven-year, $81.5 million contract; traded for Winnipeg defenseman Jacob Trouba, signing him to a seven-year, $56 million deal; and acquired highly touted 21-year-old defenseman Adam Fox from Carolina.

This rivalry just got a lot more interesting.

5. An exodus from Columbus

The Blue Jackets went all-in last season and pushed further in the playoffs than ever before, sweeping the Lightning in Round 1 before getting sent home by Boston. Then they watched Duchene (Predators), Panarin (Rangers), two time Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (Panthers) and Ryan Dzingel (Hurricanes) sign elsewhere. Expect a John Tortorella-fueled "chip on their shoulders" season from Columbus, as many have written the Blue Jackets off as a playoff team.

6. Coach Q took his talents to (the greater) South Beach (area)

The Panthers addressed their goaltending by signing Bobrovsky to a seven-year deal with a $10 million annual cap hit. They hope they addressed every other deficiency on the team by hiring Joel Quenneville, the three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Florida general manager Dale Tallon hired when both were with the Chicago Blackhawks. Now, how will the humidity treat that mustache?

7. Other coaches found new places

• Alain Vigneault, fired by the Rangers in April 2018, was hired by the Philadelphia Flyers, his fourth team since 1997.

• Todd McLellan, fired by the Edmonton Oilers in November 2018, was hired by the Los Angeles Kings, his archrival during his seven seasons with the San Jose Sharks.

• Ralph Krueger, fired by the Oilers in 2013, was hired by the Buffalo Sabres. One of the most interesting men in hockey, Krueger most recently coached Team Europe in the World Cup of Hockey and was chairman of the English Premier League's Southampton Football Club from 2014 to 2019.

• Dallas Eakins, fired by the Oilers in December 2014, was hired by the Anaheim Ducks. He had coached the Ducks' American Hockey League affiliate in San Diego for four seasons.

• Dave Tippett, who parted ways with the Arizona Coyotes in June 2017, was hired by the Oilers to replace Ken Hitchcock. He had been working as a consultant with the NHL expansion team in Seattle.

• D.J. Smith, who was an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, was hired to take over the Ottawa Senators. It's his first head coaching gig in the NHL.

8. Joe Pavelski left San Jose

The Sharks faced a salary-cap crunch after signing Erik Karlsson to an eight-year, $92 million contract. Lost in that crunch was a captain: Joe Pavelski, a heart-and-soul player for San Jose since 2006, left for a three-year deal with the Dallas Stars. As camp opened for the Sharks, his locker remained uninhabited, a symbol of the hole left on this team.

9. Phil Kessel was traded to the Coyotes

As usual, there was plenty of news off the ice for the Coyotes, who welcomed billionaire entrepreneur Alex Meruelo as their latest majority owner and the first one of Hispanic descent in the NHL. The Coyotes made player news, too: agreeing to a trade with the Penguins that sent Alex Galchenyuk to Pittsburgh and brought star right wing Kessel to Arizona, reuniting him with head coach Rick Tocchet.

The risk for the Coyotes is that Kessel is 31 and has three years left on his contract. The hope for the Coyotes is that this elite goal scorer improves an offense that was 29th in the NHL in shooting percentage last season.

10. There was an actual offer sheet!

For the first time since 2013, a restricted free agent signed an offer sheet. Center Sebastian Aho of the Hurricanes put pen to paper on a five-year, $42-million deal with the Montreal Canadiens ... that Carolina announced it would match almost immediately afterward.

Carolina owner Tom Dundon called the episode "a waste of time," but it did give Aho a front-loaded contract that walks him up to unrestricted free agency, and gave Montreal GM Marc Bergevin the illusion of effort to sell fans.

11. The Maple Leafs provided quite a bit of drama

The biggest soap opera of the offseason played out in the "Centre of the Hockey Universe":

• Restricted free agent Mitch Marner had a contentious negotiation with Toronto GM Kyle Dubas, who finally relented and handed him a six-year deal with a $10.893 million annual cap hit and over $29 million in the first two seasons.

• Star center Auston Matthews is facing a disorderly conduct charge after allegedly harassing a female security guard at his Scottsdale, Arizona, condo complex in May -- and then failing to inform his team of the charge until the court date was published on Twitter in September.

• Meanwhile, the Leafs made three high-profile trades, sending center Nazem Kadri to Colorado in a package for defenseman Tyson Barrie; getting Senators defenseman Codi Ceci for the bloated contract of defenseman Nikita Zaitsev; and sending a first-rounder to Carolina so the Hurricanes would buy out Patrick Marleau.

Just another quiet offseason in the 416.

12. Restricted free agents took their time

Along with Marner and Aho, there was a remarkable collection of restricted free agents who kept their teams on varying intensities of pins and needles.

That included forwards Brayden Point (Lightning, three years, $20.25 million), Matthew Tkachuk (Flames, three years, $21 million), Patrik Laine (Jets, two years, $13.5 million), Kyle Connor (Jets, seven years, $50 million), Mikko Rantanen (Avalanche, six years, $55.5 million), Timo Meier (Sharks, four years, $24 million), Brock Boeser (Canucks, three years, $17.625 million) and Travis Konecny (Flyers, six years, $33 million).

Also signing new deals were RFA defensemen Jacob Trouba (Rangers, seven years, $56 million), Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets, three years, $15 million), Ivan Provorov (Flyers, six years, $40.5 million) and Charlie McAvoy (Bruins, three years, $14.7 million). The process was so uncomfortable that some teams jumped on the chance to ink next year's free agents early, with eight-year deals for Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot, Coyotes center Clayton Keller and Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

13. There were questionable unrestricted free agent signings

For every widely praised signing in the UFA market -- Panarin, Duchene and the depth added by the Avalanche and Hurricanes -- there were other signings that were a bit more controversial, such as defenseman Tyler Myers (five years, $30 million) to the Canucks, center Kevin Hayes (seven years, $50 million) with the Flyers, winger Mats Zuccarello (five years, $30 million) with the Wild and winger Brandon Tanev (six years, $21 million) with the Penguins.

14. Big names were bought out

The salary cap claimed the contracts of several high-profile veteran players, who took their buyout money and left for small-dollar deals with other teams.

Witness former MVP winger Corey Perry, getting his final two years with the Ducks bought out before signing a one-year deal with Dallas; it was the same for defenseman Andrej Sekera, who signed with Dallas after the Oilers bought out the final two years of his deal; defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk saw his final two years bought out by the Rangers before signing with the Lightning; defenseman Dion Phaneuf had his final two years bought out by the Kings, and is currently a free agent; also available is Patrick Marleau, who was traded from Toronto to Carolina so the Hurricanes could buy out the final year of his deal.

These "lottery ticket" post-buyout veterans have provided varying degrees of success through the years, so we'll see how it goes for this year's batch.

15. The Islanders moved on from Robin Lehner

Lehner was the comeback story of last season, returning from substance abuse and mental health issues to win the Masterton Trophy, earn a share of the Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed and finish third for the Vezina. But the Islanders didn't tender him a long-term deal, nor did they prioritize him among their free agents.

Then they signed Semyon Varlamov, who is three years older than Lehner, to a four-year deal. Lehner ended up in Chicago on a one-year contract to work in tandem with Corey Crawford. "It just is how it is," Lehner said. "There's no hard feelings."

16. Minnesota fired its GM after one year

General managers usually get a run of three to five years before owners issue a verdict on them. Paul Fenton, a highly respected assistant GM with Nashville who took over the Wild in 2018, was fired after just one season. "It wasn't a good fit. That was really it. The culture wasn't the same," owner Craig Leipold said after relieving Fenton in July.

Replacing him: Pittsburgh Penguins assistant GM Bill Guerin, who like Fenton had no previous NHL GM experience.

17. The Jets' defense is now a mess

Few groups in the NHL took a hit as massive as the Jets' blue line. Tyler Myers signed with the Canucks and Ben Chiarot with the Canadiens. Jacob Trouba was traded to the Rangers, where he signed a long-term contract.

Then came the biggest blow: Dustin Byfuglien was granted a leave of absence from the Jets to figure out his future in the NHL. Among average ice time for defensemen, that's four of the team's top five. And that could be a significant enough blow to the Jets that their status as a playoff team is in question.

18. Justin Williams decided to take a break

Last season, Williams was like a player/coach for the Hurricanes, and his hearty endorsement of the team's "Storm Surge" celebrations created renewed enthusiasm and fueled a run to the Eastern Conference final. But after 18 seasons and 1,244 regular-season games, the 37-year-old winger decided to step away from the NHL because the free agent didn't have "the type of mental and physical commitment that I'm accustomed to having."

Will he follow the path previously taken by players like Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne, jumping back into the fray for the Hurricanes months into the season? Stay tuned.

19. Calgary and Edmonton swapped their problems

The Flames and Oilers showed that even the most storied rivals in the NHL can put their differences aside when it comes to making problems go away.

Edmonton traded disappointing winger Milan Lucic, with four years left on his contract at $5.25 million annually, for disappointing winger James Neal, with whom the Flames cut ties after just one season. Neal has four seasons left on his deal with a $5.75 million cap hit.

Meanwhile, the teams indirectly swapped goalies: Mike Smith went from the Flames to the Oilers as a free agent, while longtime former Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, who most recently played with the Flyers, signed with Calgary.

20. Farewell Luongo, Ward, Orpik and Girardi

Roberto Luongo was the biggest name who called it career after last season, as the Panthers goalie retired with the second-most games played (1,044) and third-most wins (489) in NHL history.

Among those also hanging up the skates were Blackhawks goalie Cam Ward (who spent the majority of his career with the Canes), Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik and former Lightning and Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi.

21. Colorado became everyone's glamour pick

The Avalanche finished with 90 points last season and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. But with one of the best lines in hockey -- Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen -- a great young defense corps and some smart offseason additions such as Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi, Andre Burakovsky and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Colorado is getting championship hype.

According to Caesars Sportsbook's preseason odds, only the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights have better odds for winning the Stanley Cup than the Avalanche.

22. Evgeny Kuznetsov was suspended for cocaine

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suspended the Capitals forward for three regular-season games after he tested positive for cocaine at the 2019 IIHF World Championship on May 26. That test followed a now-deleted video on social media that showed Kuznetsov in a hotel room with a white powdery substance on a table, and Kuznetsov's denial that he had taken drugs.

Meanwhile, the IIHF suspended Kuznetsov from international play for four years.

"I promise to do everything in my power to win you back with my actions both on and off the ice," Kuznetsov said.

23. The Blues prepared their Cup defense

The Blues went from last place in January to the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history in June. GM Doug Armstrong mostly kept this team together, other than Patrick Maroon signing with Tampa Bay and a significant preseason trade that saw the Blues acquire defenseman Justin Faulk from Carolina for a package that included defenseman Joel Edmundson.

They elevated coach Craig Berube from interim bench boss to full-fledged head coach. They also signed rookie sensation goalie Jordan Binnington to an intriguing two-year contract extension that walks him up to unrestricted free agency.

The Blues might be different in some ways -- no more "Gloria" in the locker room -- but they look very much like the team that rolled to the Cup last season.

24. Ron Francis was named Seattle's first GM

Seattle isn't going to play an NHL game until the 2021-22 season, but it's constructing an impressive management team in preparation for it. Ron Francis, former general manager of the Hurricanes, was hired in that capacity to build Seattle. He's joined by assistant GM Ricky Olczyk and by Alexandra Mandrycky, a well-regarded voice in the analytics community who was hired as director of hockey administration.

25. Finally, there might be labor peace?

Is it possible that, for only the second time in Gary Bettman's 26-year tenure as commissioner, the NHL and the NHLPA will negotiate a collective bargaining agreement without a work stoppage?

Yes, actually: Both sides opted not to reopen the CBA before its September 2022 expiration date, as the players were encouraged by cordial talks with the owners. There are still major issues to be sorted out, such as the players' escrow withholdings and international play, but this is the most optimism surrounding labor talks that the NHL has seen in decades.

Bio Kim won on the Korean Tour Sunday, but it proved to be a costly victory.

The Korean Professional Golfers Association announced Tuesday that Kim, 29, has been suspended for three years for making an obscene gesture during the final round.

On the 16th hole Sunday at the DGB Financial Group Volvik Daegu Gyeongbuk Open, Kim reportedly lost his temper when a cellphone camera shutter went off during his downswing. According to the AFP, Kim turned and flipped off the crowd, before slamming his club into the ground.

Here is video of the incident:

Kim, who played on the PGA Tour in 2011, went on to claim his second title of the season and apologized afterward.

Apparently that mea culpa wasn’t enough to avoid a suspension, as the Korean Tour cracked down by unanimously voting to ban Kim for three years and fine him the U.S. equivalent of $8,350. After the emergency tour meeting Tuesday, news-wire photos showed Kim kneeling in front of a row of television cameras.

In a statement, the tour said: “Kim Bi-o damaged the dignity of a golfer with etiquette violation and inappropriate behavior.”

Prior to the suspension, Kim was leading the Korean Tour’s money list.

Victor Perez had a veteran – and seemingly forgotten – caddie on his bag as he won for the first time Sunday on the European Tour.

It was Rory McIlroy’s former looper, J.P. Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald took two years off after splitting with McIlroy following the 2017 Open Championship. Though he’s often shied away from media attention, Fitzgerald, in his first public comments on the split, told the Daily Mail that he hasn’t spoken to McIlroy since but that he harbors no ill feelings.

“At the end of the day, I went away to collect my thoughts and recharge my batteries,” Fitzgerald said, according to the report. “It was obvious I needed the break.”

When announcing the split in 2017, McIlroy said that his longtime caddie was "one of my best friends, closest friends, but sometimes to preserve a personal relationship you have to sacrifice a professional one." McIlroy has since hired one of his best friends, Harry Diamond.

Fitzgerald, meanwhile, briefly resurfaced this summer, hooking up with rising star Matthew Wolff at the beginning of his pro career. They lasted only two tournaments together.

“I suggested to him that he might want to try a different driver and 3-wood, and he disagreed,” Fitzgerald said, according to the report. “We just didn’t gel. It happens and I have no problems with Matt. He’s clearly going to be a great player.”

Wolff won in his next start with Steve Lohmeyer on the bag.

Fitzgerald and Perez were working just their fourth tournament together when Perez won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday.

Last week, Jack Nicklaus stopped at Muirfield Village, on his way to a hunting trip in Canada, to discuss with his design team some major changes to the course he built and has continued to tweak almost every year since its opening in 1974.

Discussed on the practice green that day and in a 4-hour ride around the course with his team was the dramatic lengthening of two par 5s (Nos. 11 and 15) and changing the par-5 fifth hole into a long par 4. They also discussed re-grassing the greens and installing a new underground drainage system that was dramatically needed in June when 3 inches of rain fell on the course as Patrick Cantlay won the Memorial Tournament by shooting 19 under.

The more Nicklaus thought about it at the time, the more committed he became. In his battle to roll back distance in the game, Nicklaus, at age 79, wanted one more crack to roll out a defense system to hold back the likes of Cameron Champ and his generation of players who carry the ball 300-plus yards.

Other than the pond put in front of the par-3 16^th green for the Presidents Cup, these will the most dramatic defensive changes of Jack’s trademark design career. He'll be doing just about everything other than a rerouting.

“I’m redoing the whole golf course,” Nicklaus told Golf Channel. “One hundred percent starting in July, I’m going to have one more bite at the apple.”

Nicklaus remembers the golden days at the U.S. Open when Joe Dey set up golf courses for the USGA and those days have inspired Nicklaus' design philosophies. He’ll turn 80 in January, so the time to act is now.

He met immediately after the Memorial with his team, and as Nicklaus said, “We were close to pulling the trigger and shutting it down then.”

All the changes will be done in two phases over the next two years. Phase I will begin this fall and be completed by May, in time for the 2020 Memorial, June 4-7. The course yardage will be increased to 7,462 yards.

Those changes will include new teeing grounds for the par-3 eighth, par-5 11^th and par-5 15^th. In relation to the additional yardage Nicklaus is introducing to the par 5s, he quickly mentions that most of the big hitters use 3-wood off those respective tees, and still have a chance to reach the green in two shots. 

The way Dey set up a golf course was the way Nicklaus learned. Jack will be hands on in this project, right down to the shaping of greens. Fairway widths will be examined. Instead of 9-irons and wedges, players will likely be using 6- and 7-irons again at the par-3 eighth.

Once the fifth hole is converted, par will be 71. That will be part of Phase II, which will begin upon the conclusion of next year’s Memorial and be completed before the 2021 edition.

Phase II will include the rebuilding of all 18 greens and new sub-surface heating and cooling equipment. Bunkers will be re-built and new fairway widths will be created. But, as Nicklaus says, they will still be “fairly generous off the tee.”

Instead of “doing little tricks over the years” to Muirfield Village, Jack is going all-in, one final time.

With one year to go until the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, U.S. captain Steve Stricker is eager for his 12-man roster to start taking shape. But he's not yet ready to count out a pair of players who have starred in matches for more than two decades.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have 20 Ryder Cup appearances between them, and they've been stalwarts in the American team room since the mid-1990s. Speaking at a press conference with Euro skipper Padraig Harrington to commemorate the 2020 matches being a year away, Stricker broke down the potential candidates for his team. Although Woods and Mickelson will be 44 and 50, respectively, at Whistling Straits, he still believes both men have a chance to tee it up in Wisconsin.

"I think they are both very capable of making the team," Stricker said. "They are both unbelievable in the team room. They've obviously played on a number of teams and have had so much experience. But to leave any of those guys out would be hard to do, just because of what they mean and what they have meant to these teams over the years."

Both received captain's picks last year from Jim Furyk but struggled in Paris, combining to go 0-6 with Woods 0-4 and Mickelson playing in the fewest matches of any American but losing both.

Woods' appearance as a player last year was his first Ryder Cup since 2012, and he currently sits fourth in the U.S. points race thanks in large part to his Masters win this spring. Mickelson hasn't missed a U.S. team since the 1993 Ryder Cup, but after a difficult summer and coming off a missed cut at the Safeway Open he's likely a longshot to earn one of Woods' four captain's picks for the upcoming Presidents Cup in December.

"Tiger will probably make his own team this year with the Presidents Cup. He's played well again," Stricker said. "It looks like Phil is building up his calves and getting thinner and hitting more bombs, so anything's possible with Phil. And Tiger, we know what kind of a player and competitor he is."

Part of the lore of the Ryder Cup is the notion of home course advantage, one that plays out in various other team sports. But Padraig Harrington hopes it's an aspect that gets eliminated down the line in the biennial matches.

The European skipper was a vice captain at Hazeltine in 2016 when the Americans feasted on a wide-open setup with easy pins, and he was in the team room again in 2018 when the Europeans returned the favor by growing the rough and tightening the targets at Le Golf National. The home team is allowed input on course setup decisions, meaning that Whistling Straits will be under the watchful eye of U.S. captain Steve Stricker for the 2020 matches, but Tuesday, Harrington floated the notion of using a more neutral approach in future years.

"I think there's a substantial difference, I would advocate even too much of a difference between home and away," Harrington said. "Clearly in Europe we get to set the golf course up, and we set it up in every way we can to suit our players. And in the States, we've seen that as well where the golf courses are set up to be most advantageous for the home team. I think, it's probably not going to happen in my lifetime, but 40-50 years down the road when the Ryder Cup is still going along it'd probably be best to have a neutral setup."

Whistling Straits has played host to three prior PGA Championships, all won by international players, and Harrington believes the links style of the Wisconsin layout could neutralize some of the potential home advantage for the Americans. While Stricker wasn't ready to tip his hand on setup at the press conference with both captains to commemorate the matches being a year away, he did take a couple subtle jabs at the (successful) tactics employed last year by European captain Thomas Bjorn.

"They know how we like to set up the golf courses, and we know how they like to set up the golf courses," Stricker said. "It's not going to be 8 on the Stimpmeter like it was in Paris. It's not going to be as high of rough as it was in Paris. But there's no real tricks, but it is a little bit more of a challenge here."