You might recall a previous mention of the trials and tribulations of one Steven Bowditch in his first season on the PGA Tour. Well, life hasn't exactly improved for the 23-year-old Australian. Before last week's tournament in Memphis, Bowditch's record from his 10 events consisted of three disquali"cations, two withdrawals and five missed cuts.

Earnings? Zero dollars.

So, the appropriately-named St Jude Classic, with its relatively lowtariff field, offered him the opportunity of at least making his first cut of the year, however, Bowditch was disqualified once again. Not that it mattered too much in the overall scheme of things as he had shot 90 in the first round.

IF A LITTLE SQUEAMISH, LOOK AWAY NOW

For those a bit a squeamish about knee injuries, Paul McGinley's explanation that before his recent operation he would push a piece of protruding bone back into place between shots, was hard to digest. But not to be outdone, Jean Van de Velde had a more grating take on his damaged joint.

Following major surgery in 2002, Van de Velde has already suffered three dislocations of his knee this season. "Most of the time I can walk normally, but the dislocation happens when the leg is tired. When I extend it, it goes back in, " said the Frenchman.

"You can hear it, it's horrific. Very noisy and very painful."

MICKELSON'S MINOR MAJOR MILESTONE

There was a minor milestone for Phil Mickelson at the start of this week's Memorial Tournament which just happened to represent the first time in his career that there was no player in the field in a high-profile event who had more majors to his name. With Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus opting out of the Memorial for different reasons, the former Best Player Never to Have Won a Major found himself on an equal footing with Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Nick Price who also have three majors.