Given that there’s more daylight for our golf pleasure (you did turn your clock ahead, didn’t you?) and the winter hibernation appears to be waning, the thought occurs: Why not go a full 18 with our weekly musings?

Surely there’s enough silliness to pique our attention and stir our golf soul, thus we won’t stop it at the usual nine. No, sir. We’ll turn and take on a second nine, as well.

Play away, please:

1 – Lefty is not all right

Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson, onetime compadres now on opposite sides of the LIV debate, have gotten under each other’s skin in recent weeks. It’s led to a social media buzz of sorts, but methinks it’s not a fair fight. Fred wins in the court of public opinion, 6 and 5. I mean, these days every time Phil speaks he sounds like a mix of Captain Queeg and Professor Irwin Corey. Telling us a team would in LIV would rank as a masterful achievement is blue chip BS.

2 – What’s he think of us?

Ouch. Scottie Scheffler was talking about the positives of the handicap system. He said it allows the two-time Masters champion to have good competition at his club – even with a friend “who is not a very good golfer because he was a 10-handicapper.” Imagine what he’d say about 92 percent of us who dream of being a 10-handicap?

3 – Time has surely flown by

Tiger Woods’ 2019 Masters win was six years ago but it feels like 26.

4 – Giving points away

This PGA Tour accelerated program is a head-scratcher. Piling up points for “getting picked” for trophies and “being named” to teams gets you a PGA Tour card? When did a proud and honorable card-earning challenge turn into a popularity contest in some corners?

5 – This has been bugging me for a while

Someone has to start this conversation, so here goes: What’s with this obsession with so many pillows? Your hotel bed likely has six or seven, about three or four more than needed. And what about that couch in your living room where guests toss your pillows onto the floor because they need room to sit. Man, decorative pillows should be outlawed.

6 – The feel-good ride continues

Jason Caron. His story gets better and better. The Cape Cod native parlayed a few exemptions into a PGA Tour Champions run in 2024 that saw him earn full status in just 10 tournaments. His start to ’25 is showing that Caron is no fluke; he’s finished T-9, T-23, and this past weekend lost in a playoff to Steven Alker in the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Ariz.

7 – We know, there’s something missing

It’s almost Masters time and a tired story will be given life again – that is, Rory McIlroy’s bid to win the Green Jacket and thus secure the career Grand Slam. You can find plenty of optimism if you’re a McIlroy loyalist; after all, Sergio Garcia was playing his 19th Masters when he finally won, and this will be McIlroy’s 17th.

8 – Three-out-of-four is quite OK

But let’s not get sappy here. It’s a part of the game’s folklore that iconic names have also gone 3-for-4 in the majors and been denied the career Grand Slam. Remember, the game owes you zip. Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson both failed to win the PGA, Sam Snead never won the U.S. Open, Raymond Floyd never triumphed at the Open Championship, and Lee Trevino, like McIlroy, was shutout at Augusta.

9 – Deep breaths; there was greatness back then

By the way, you’d have a hard time convincing me that McIlroy was better than any of the above.

10 – It’s small, it’s quirky, it’s a gem

North Berwick in Scotland is one of the world’s greatest courses, and golfers from all over the planet put down hundreds of pounds with no qualm about the quirks that await – a Biarritz green, a 13th hole where you have to hit your approach over a stone wall, and the 14th where you face a blind shot that is beguiling. All of which is to introduce a nine-hole gem that will cost you way less money and offer massive enjoyment. Oh, and Marion Golf Club in Marion, Mass., tucks a few greens behind stone walls, too. You must check it out.

11 – Just checking

You’re ready for pimiento sandwiches, correct?

12 – Toto, we were in Kansas

When on those occasions my mind wanders back to a major championship of note, what still makes me smile is Juli Inkster’s U.S. Women’s Open 2002 victory at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kan. One, because Juli came from two off the lead through 54 holes to overtake Annika Sorenstam, and two, because it was Prairie Dunes. So damn cool, that course.

13 – Tiger’s early run was superb . . .

When Tiger Woods walked out of Augusta National in 2005 with his fourth Green Jacket in nine years, absolutely no one suggested it would be 14 years till he won a fifth.

14 – . . . but lately it’s been rough

Then again, after Woods did win in 2019, no one was predicting his next four years at the Masters would produce just three sub-par scores in 14 rounds and that in six weekend rounds he’d be 31-over with an 82, a pair of 78s, a 77, and a 76.

15 – Let this be a lesson to you

Which is to confirm that it can come to a crashing halt in this game, eh?

16 – Stifle the criticism, be generous with praise

We all know that there were long stretches of snow and ice cover this winter. Not good for our turf, so we’re going to be patient and supportive of our supers, correct?

17 – It was lost on them

Who knew that player-caddie conversations were a thing? Not Ben Hogan. Not sure Jack Nicklaus did, either.

18 – Better flow

Count me as a big fan of golf courses where the turn occurs far from the clubhouse and only the first tee and 18th green are in proximity to the clubhouse. Think a host of great links (Old Course, North Berwick) or Pebble Beach and Cypress.