1 – Breaking up is hard to do

Holy hole in the doughnut, Batman, this “breakup” between Joel Dahmen and his caddie, Geno Bonnalie, is tough on all of us. It’s the Beatles all over again.

2 – They belong

Years ago cross-bunkers and I came to a mutual understanding. They get my approval and my respect; I get my butt handed to me.

3 – Giving away a golf ball is getting stale

There was another video of Rickie Fowler handing a golf ball to a young fan as he walked to the next tee. I believe it’s No. 1,573 in a series of cheesey social media postings showing players giving a golf ball to a kid. But come on, it’s a golf ball, for goodness sakes. Players get dozens of free ones every month. Now if they handed out head phones or two tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, that would be cool and worthy of a video.

4 – Playoffs have a different meaning here

Only on the PGA Tour can a competitor say, “Hey, I’ll skip the playoff opener” and get a free pass into Game 7.

5 – But it’s true

Told her that you should read putting greens with your feet. Telling you, the look I got. You would have thought I had told her that she couldn’t shop on line anymore.

GOLF COURSE PHOTO -- Reader Larry Corson forwarded this picture he saw at Spanish Bay on the Monterey Peninsula in California. Understandably he wonders about the double-meaning here -- does it refer to the turf conditions, or perhaps a reminder to the golfer to not get creative with his or her scorekeeping? Feel free to send your golf course photos to jim@powerfades.com

6 – Worth the road trip

If I were a bumper sticker I’d be saying, “Follow me to Highland Links.”

7 – And the winner for wildest fabrication . . .

According to PGA Tour folks, there have been 1,000 “unique” winners of a PGA Tour tournament and the first was Willie Park, Sr., way back in 1860, a year before the Civil War actually began. He beat seven other golfers in something that wasn’t even billed as the Open Championship – 108 years before the PGA Tour was officially born, by the way. So, yeah, this might be the funniest and most ludicrously contrived thing ever. Reached in the Great Beyond for a quote, Willie Park Sr. barked, “Haud yet weesht, what’s the PGA Tour?”

8 – The proper way

They are numbers frozen in my golf brain. 80/20. As in 80 percent of the rake in the bunker, 20 percent out. (Handle side out, of course.) It’s not the law, but it will be when I’m in charge.

9 – Legendary personality

OK, so if this “unique winner” bizarreness is going to be bandied about by those covering the PGA Tour, let’s pay tribute to the winner who took uniqueness to another level. Ky Laffoon! Wildly talented, yes, but that was always overshadowed by the quirks and oddities – like how he grinded the soles of his irons and how he professed a hatred for honeysuckle. Google him. You’ll laugh but you better respect his talent.