SCRATCH GOLFER: You would think that lowering your handicap would be a good thing. Unfortunately, Thomas Talbot didn’t see it that way. The 75 year old Irish pensioner is suing his former golf club claiming they damaged his reputation by lowering his handicap.

Talbot claims the Hermitage Golf Club in Dublin and its former handicap secretary reduced his handicap by 7.7 shots between 1999 and 2004. He tells the Irish Independent that the reduction essentially branded him a cheat.

He is seeking $13-million (US) in damages. The court is expected to rule on his lawsuit early next month.

Talbot, who claims his handicap is now 21, says the past six years have been stressful and taken a toll on him personally, but he only ended his association with Hermitage last month to join another golf club.

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HE SAID, SHE SAID: What we have here is failure to communicate. Or so it would seem.

As the rumbling over the use of the belly putter and anchoring heated up over the last few weeks, the USGA suggested the matter was already being discussed by the Royal & Ancient. That was news to Peter Dawson, the man in charge at the R&A.

"I wasn't quite sure where that came from, to be honest," he told Nick Rodger at Scotland’s The Herald.

Despite the miscommunication, Dawson did say that personally, he’s in favour of a ban. He did concede that the horse may have already left the barn on this one. He compared it to the controversial croquet style of putting in 1968.

"That decision to ban croquet putting was taken very quickly," said Dawson. "Had croquet putting been allowed for donkey's years, to then ban it would have been far more difficult."

Dawson was also pretty defiant when it came to suggestions of having one set of rules for the professionals and another set of rules the rest of us.

"Golf is golf and that's a major strength of the game. If you want to go and invent another game, that's fine. But golf is golf. You could imagine down the road if there's one rule for the amateurs and one for the pros, then TV companies may say 'well this 18 holes business is taking up too much time let's just have 15 hole rounds'. You could get all sorts of things. It's good for golf to have one set of rules. Let's all be playing golf."

Champions Tour player Tom Lehman waded into the fray last week, calling it a nonissue and something the governing bodies should leave well enough alone at this point.

“My thought is they've picked the wrong thing to fight against and they've done it about 15 years too late. To make an issue about this when they should have made an issue about the balls or clubs 15, 20 years ago is ridiculous,” he said ahead of last week’s event in Florida.

“If there were this method of putting where it was foolproof and you couldn't miss and it just turned this whole game into a joke because it was so simple and so foolproof, I would say, you know what, that's probably worth looking at. The long putter, the belly putter have helped guys who have struggled to keep their careers intact or bring them back from the depths, but it's not a foolproof way.”

“To me it's a nonissue. But there are people who feel strongly the other way. I respect that. It's not traditional. Whether or not anchoring a club to your body in some way is breaking a rule, I don't think it is or else it would have been outlawed a long time ago. It's a matter of opinion.

"What I do know is that the USGA and their testing with the ball and that stuff a long time just completely fell asleep at the wheel and let it get out of control. There you have it.”

“I went back to the short putter about four years ago so it doesn't affect me whatsoever. The reason why I went to it was because I couldn't make a three-foot putt. I changed my stroke, was working to get better and kind of lost it and I couldn't make a short one. So I went to the long putter and realized very quickly that there was things I could do better with the long putter but there was things I wasn't as good at. I decided to be the best I could possibly be, the best opportunity is with the short putter, so I went back to it. There's things with that short putter that I'm just way better at, better at long putting,better at short putting.”

“I think most guys, if they were to go back to a short putter after using this for a while, they probably would find they would be able to transition back and they would be just fine. Putting's in your head, it's mostly between your ears, and then that's reflected in what the blade does at the bottom there when you hit that putt. So once you kind of get the bad stuff out of your head, which you do by going to something different, you start making some putts and then you start thinking more positively. Then you go back to the short one and you're kind of starting fresh.”

“If you were to tell everybody no more, I think within six months you would see a bunch of guys with a short putter putting just as well.”

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HARMON RESPONDS: Lee Trevino suggested recently that Tiger Woods should seek out Butch Harmon and reunite with his former coach.

Harmon put that story - if it even was a story - to rest last week on the Jim Rome radio show.

"I think he probably knows I wouldn't do it,” said Harmon. “We have been removed since 2002 ... that's 10 years now. A lot of things have transpired since then. We have both moved on in our lives."

There’s also the delicate matter of Harmon coaching Phil Mickelson, one of Tiger’s main rivals. Harmon said it wouldn’t be fair to Mickelson, whom he said has been “gracious and generous” to his family.

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YING AND YANG: Overlooked somewhat at last week’s Northern Trust Open was J.B. Holmes who was making his first tournament start since his 2011 season was cut short due to brain surgery. Holmes finished tied for eighth...

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Anthony Kim. Pegged my most to have a comeback year, his 2012 start has been downright dreadful. He was disqualified at Riviera for signing an incorrect scorecard after shooting 77 and missed the cut for the fourth straight tournament. Going back to last year, he has missed the last 11 of 15 PGA Tour cuts. In his first four starts this year, he has broken 70 only once.

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UP FOR GRABS: Martin Kaymer went to No. 1 in the world last year by reaching the final of the Match Play Championship. This year, two players have a chance to take over No. 1.

Luke Donald has to reach the quarterfinals to assure staying at the top for the ninth month.

Rory McIlroy is at No. 2. The only way for him to get to No. 1 for the first time in his career is to win the Match Play, provided that Donald does not make it beyond the second round.

Lee Westwood is at No. 3, and his odds are slightly better than McIlroy because he has played fewer tournaments. For Westwood to return to No. 1 — his position a year ago — he would have to win and make sure Donald doesn't reach the quarterfinals.

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FINAL WORD

“I think the best part of being No.1 is knowing that my best golf is good enough to get me to that No.1 spot, just from a confidence and mental standpoint. The worst part? I suppose the slight added burden of expectation.” -- Luke Donald on what the best and worst part of being ranked No. 1 in the world.

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Files from the Associated Press were used in this report