Bag
Rory McIlroy's golf bag will have special meaning this week.
The Northern Ireland star has placed the Tucson Boys and Girls Club's logo on his bag throughout the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. At the end of the tournament, he'll auction off the bag and donate the money to the club.
"I think it's just a really cool concept," he said.
It's the second of six such events for McIlroy's "6 Bags Project," which he started last month.
"The better I play, the more I'll probably get for the bag, so it's a bit of incentive," he said. "It's great, and it's great to be able to raise awareness, but also raise money for these great causes."
McIlroy met with kids from the club around 10 a.m., signing T-shirts and chatting.
Alternate
Bernd Wiesberger spent close to an hour on the putting green Tuesday morning, even though he likely won't have a single putt today.
Wiesberger is the first alternate and can only get in the field if someone withdraws.
"It can still happen, but it's very unlikely," Wiesberger said. "Even if someone has to withdraw, they would still go to the first tee and take the money."
The 27-year-old Austrian wasn't required to be in Southern Arizona as the first alternate, but he wanted to come. He flew to Tucson, an 18-hour trip with stops, on Friday and has been at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain ever since.
It's not an ideal situation, to say the least.
"It's horrible not being in the field," Wiesberger said. "Knowing I can't play (today) is tough, but I didn't play well enough to get myself in the field straight ahead, so there's nothing I can do about it now."
Wiesberger was ranked No. 64, but finished tied for 59th in his most recent tournament, the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, and fell to No. 67 when Match Play rankings locked last week. Nos. 65 and 66 got in when Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker skipped the event.
"It's something I've worked for and tried to achieve," he said, "and I wasn't able to get in because of recent results."
Dad
Shane Lowry is no stranger to celebrity.
The Irish golfer's father, Brendan, was a soccer star, having led County Offaly to the 1992 All-Ireland Team Championship.
"My dad, yeah, I'm from quite a competitive family," said Shane, who turns 26 in two months. "So I'm a very competitive person myself. I'll definitely be going out there fighting for the match."
New logo
This year's tournament comes with a new name for the course: The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, is now simply The Golf Club at Dove Mountain.
The change came after luxury golf properties conglomerate Escalante purchased the course, aligning it with 12 boutique facilities across the country.
The course's new dove logo - with a beak facing right and four elongated feathers pointed left - now adorns every shirt and jacket in the clubhouse.
It replaced the course's former logo, the Ritz's iconic lion head atop a crown.
Quotable
"That's always a gripe of American players, I think, over the years, that the European Tour is weighted heavily. But they've also played great. They've shown they can compete at a high level, win major championships, beat us in the Ryder Cup, all that kind of stuff."
- Steve Stricker, on the event having more Europeans than Americans
Another quotable
"I don't have to worry about 155 other guys - it's just one guy in front of me. It's a lot of fun because we don't get a chance to do this very often."
- Tiger Woods, on match play
The big number
7
Past Match Play champions playing in this year's event: Hunter Mahan, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, David Toms and Steve Stricker
Tweet of the day
"Match play baby!! Got your brackets filled out!? #FebruaryFrenzy"
- Dustin Johnson, @DJohnsonPGA
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