Golf: Phil's staying in the groove

WORLD No.2 Mickelson says his golf bag this season will include an old Ping-Eye 2 wedge that remains legal to use despite the USGA's regulation requiring more of a V-shaped groove.

John Daly and Dean Wilson are other players who found Ping wedges that were legal under a settlement with the USGA in 1990 about square grooves.

Mickelson said he consulted both the USGA and the PGA TOUR and that "the only thing that matters is are they approved for play. So I don't feel that there's any problem if I were to play those clubs or if anybody else were. All that matters is that it is OK under the rules of golf".

Mickelson, who heads the field for this week's Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, is to miss next month's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona to take a family holiday which had to be postponed because of his wife Amy's cancer treatment. That will be a major blow to the event with world No.1 Tiger Woods unlikely to be back from his indefinite break by then.

"I love the Match Play and I love Tucson but it was the best week for us to have a family vacation that we had to reschedule because of our procedures," said Mickelson.

ZACK SALTMAN outscored his two brothers, Elliot and Lloyd, in the opening round of the Villaitana Open, the Hi5 Pro Tour event of 2010. He shot a two-over-par 74 – one less than Elliot and Lloyd – to lie four shots off the lead.