O.b.

Vijay Singh (below) may be one of the best drivers in golf, but the same can't be said of his parking ability. Upon arriving at Spyglass Hill for a practice round before the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Singh was miffed to find the players' lot full, so he cavalierly double-parked his courtesy car, blocking in three other cars. Singh then ambled to the driving range, where a flummoxed Woody Austin confronted him some time later, loudly demanding that Singh move his car. "You need to ask me politely," Singh said, before dispatching his caddie to play valet.

During his first round at Pebble Beach, Steve Flesch sliced his drive on the 18th hole into Carmel Bay and then heaved the offending club into die water too.

If Pebble's famed finishing hole looked a bit different, that's because the towering pine that protected die right side of the green was removed in August, a casualty of the pitch canker fungus that has wiped out thousands of Monterey pines in Del Monte Forest. A replacement tree has already been selected—a disease-resistant cypress near the 2nd tee—and is slated to be transplanted in the coming weeks.

The day before the Pro-Am's first round Phil Mickelson played Cypress Point, but he snubbed die club's caddies in favor of his full-time bagman, Jim MacKay, who was forced to lug around Lefty's oversized Tour bag.

New swing? Check. New wife? Check. Must be time for a new home course. After 23 years at Royal Oaks Country Club, Justin Leonard has decamped to a Dallas rival, Brook Hollow Golf Club. Leonard, who married the former Amanda Beach last Saturday in West Palm Beach, Fla., will retain an honorary membership at Royal Oaks but is plunking down full freight—$60,000—to join Brook Hollow. Leonard's shifting loyalties can be traced to his split with Royal Oaks head pro Randy Smith as well as large-scale drainage work that will keep die club closed for most of 2002.

Last week Jack Nicklaus was in Melbourne to open his latest signature course, the Heritage Golf and Country Club, which is being billed as Australia's first fully private golf club. The folks at the Heritage had trumpeted plans to make a shrine out of the ball and club Nicklaus was to use for the ceremonial opening drive, but the Golden Bear failed to comply: He hooked his tee shot into a water hazard.