Shag Bag

Mallory Code died Monday evening after a life-long battle with cystic fibrosis, Tampabay.com reported. She was 25.

The site said that, according to Mallory’s dad, Brian, she was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hopsital over the weekend with a blood infection and pneumonia. After severe swelling of the brain ensued, she passed away at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET, the site said.

"When she was born, her life expectancy for a cystic fibrosis child was 16-18," Brian Code told Tampbay.com. "So when you look at what she accomplished by age 17 or 18, it's pretty mind boggling."

Despite her condition, which included diabetes and asthma, Code won four American Junior Golf Association titles, played for the 2002 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team and graduated from the University of Florida in August with an English degree.

Golf Channel got a chance to meet this incredible young woman in 2005.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Charles Warren is 144th on the PGA Tour's money list, hardly high ground for a guy whose cash flow depends on a Tour card. But if Warren was feeling the pressure of a quickly approaching offseason he wasn’t showing it on Monday.

“If you want fishin’ tips, I’m your man,” Warren smiled as he wrapped up his practice session at Walt Disney World Resort.

Seems about right. At this time last week Warren was on the outside of a numbers game made all the more interesting by the likes of Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark. When the Viking Classic was washed out the two phenoms appeared to snap up the final two spots at the finale.

When all the RSVPs were sorted out, however, Warren was in at Disney by two spots and planned to make the most of the final, coveted start, as well as Disney’s famous fishing holes. Armed with a fishing pole, Warren went straight from the practice tee to a pond late Monday.

“Affable vs. Cold-blooded.”

That was the headline in Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post Sunday before Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods squared off in the final group of the final round of the WGC-HSBC Champions event.

The story focused on Mickelson's fan-friendly approach vs. the more serious demeanor of Woods.

Dan Washburn, a Shanghai-based writer working for ESPN.com, relayed the local accounts in his story.

“Mickelson without a doubt has charmed China – or at least the part of China that cares about golf,” Washburn wrote.

This is how Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post characterized the impression Mickelson made on the country as compared to Woods:

“Without a doubt Mickelson is the most approachable star at Sheshan. When he hits a good shot he rewards fans' applause by smiling or tipping his cap. When he goes through the crowd, if you put out your hand he'll even give a 'high-five.' Some people say he learned his sweet smile from his wife, who used to be a cheerleader …

"Woods can be 'cold-blooded.' Don't expect to get his autograph after following him for 18 holes. Don't even expect him to look at you, no matter if you're only 1 inch away. Head down, face serious, he might communicate with his caddie a little bit, otherwise he'll hastily eat a snack. His focus is only on the little white ball and the hole in the distance. He is too obsessed with golf."

It should be noted that media reported that Woods dealt with considerable distraction all week with cameras whirring before and after shots.

The Nanfang Daily, one of the largest newspapers in Southern China's Guangdong Province, headlined a story this way: "Mickelson: Rank second, approachability first."

Washburn wrote that the newspaper described Woods' demeanor at his Wednesday press conference as "grave," and said his face was "overclouded." Mickelson, however, was described as "smiling," "honest" and "sincere."

Washburn's analysis included this: "In some of these instances Mickelson can come off as plastic or overly scripted – at early week press conferences it often feels as though he is reciting a memorized book report – but he hits all the right notes, and it translates well. Sometimes at press conferences he'll say 'xie xie,' [which is] 'thank you' in Mandarin, a small gesture that goes a long way with the Chinese reporters."

There isn’t much positive news one could take from the Viking Classic washout. A tournament faced with the potential search for a new title sponsor after 2010 is wash, rinse, repeated into a watery miss while players from 126 to 150 on the money list missed an opportunity to keep their day jobs for next year.

Count Chris Stroud, however, among those who benefited from the Viking Classic washout. Stroud, who jumped to 111th on the money list after his tie for eighth at the Frys.com Open, planned to take the Viking Classic off for the birth of his first child and then return for this week’s finale at Disney to protect his job for 2010.

When the Viking was canceled, Stroud’s status was assured for next year and the birth of Halle Grace last Friday prompted him to withdraw from the Children’s Miracle Network Classic.

Took awhile, but “Shag Bag” was able to track down a silver lining to that month-long storm cloud that washed out the Viking.

Rickie Fowler’s and Jamie Lovemark’s gain with the Viking Classic washout was Matt Jones’ loss.

When the Viking Classic was canceled last week, Fowler and Lovemark were able to get into the season-ending Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney World next week using the top-10 exemptions off their finishes at the Frys.com Open.

The two Disney spots they took using those exemptions helped bump Jones out of the field.

Jones, 129th on the PGA Tour money list, was bumped to second on the alternate list into Disney after Friday’s commitments came in. Jason Gore was bumped to the first alternate.

Every player from 116th to 148th on the PGA Tour money list is in the Children's Miracle Network Classic except for Jones and Stuart Appleby, who chose to play in the Australian Masters. Jones is the only player in that money mix who couldn’t get into the Disney with his status, though he’s hopeful he will get in via the alternate list next week.

After finishing 135th in money last year, Jones has struggled to get into Fall Series events with his conditional status. He was maddeningly on the bubble at 125th on the money list entering the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open three weeks ago but unable to protect his position. His status wasn’t good enough to get him into that event and he fell out of the top 125 that week. He had to Monday qualify to get into the first Fall Series event (Turning Stone Resort Championship) but failed in a bid to get through a Monday qualifier into the Timberlake event.

It’s been a tough year that way for Jones, who has battled through a bad back. He finished 126th in FedEx Cup points, missing out on the playoffs by a measly 10 points.

Stuart Appleby isn’t using his last chance to work his way into the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list next week and will lose his exempt status when the season ends at the conclusion of the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney World.

Appleby, who is No. 134 on the PGA Tour money list and lives in Windermere, did not commit to play at Disney when the deadline passed on Friday.

Instead, he’s chosen to give the thrill of a lifetime to a giant group of juniors in his Australian homeland.

As part of Appleby’s participation in the Australian Masters next week, he is leading a special clinic on Wednesday for the Stuart Appleby Junior Golf Foundation. It’s special because Tiger Woods has agreed to speak to the estimated 1,000 children who will take part, according to Bobby Kreusler, Appleby’s manager at Blue Giraffe Sports. Woods is scheduled to address the youth after his pro-am round at Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne.

Though Appleby wasn’t about to cancel his part in the big day for his juniors, skipping Disney causes him some hardship.

In his 13 seasons on the PGA Tour, Appleby has failed just once to retain his PGA Tour card, his rookie season. He’s an eight-time PGA Tour winner.

Though he’s 15th on the PGA Tour in career money and is eligible to take exemptions next year for top-25 or top-50 career money winners, Kreusler said Appleby is leaning against using those exemptions. Instead, he is considering playing next year off the standing he’ll get as a top 150 money winner. He would also seek sponsor exemptions.

“But no final decisions been made,” Kreusler said.

Appleby, however, has ruled out going back to Q-School.

Fate remains undefeated this fall. First the old girl gave us Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson at the Tour Championship and we walked away with the impossible – co-winners. Now good fortune has delivered a Tiger-Phil Part Deux at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China.

It’s the first time Nos. 1 and 2 have gone head-to-head in the final group on Sunday since that electric finale at Doral in 2005, which, for the record, was won by Woods.

It’s not that we don’t appreciate the late-season pyrotechnics, but fate may want to save some of that magic for 2010. It is something of a contract year for the Tour, sponsorship wise, and it never hurts to deliver at the deadline. Just ask Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui.

The Snedeker brothers won’t be hard to find at the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney World next week.

Just look for the large group of spectators wearing the “Sned Heads” t-shirts, a play off the Grateful Dead's following.

PGA Tour pro Brandt Snedeker, 29, and his older brother, Haymes, 33, are eager to tee it up for the first time together in a PGA Tour event. Haymes, an attorney in Fairhope, Ala., who also works as a part-time municipal judge there, is playing on a sponsor’s exemption that he claimed as winner of Golf Channel’s "Big Break X: Michigan." A lifelong amateur, he turned pro after the Big Break.

Haymes’ wife, Amy, made up dozens of “Sned Heads” t-shirts with as many as 100 family and friends making the trips from Fairhope and Nashville, Tenn., where the Snedeker boys grew up. Haymes and his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, Ella Gray, have already arrived at Disney to enjoy the parks.

Haymes dreamed of a PGA Tour career as a first-team All Southeastern Conference player at Ole Miss, but he returned home after graduating to help his parents through serious health woes. His mother, Candy, was suffering through congestive heart failure that required surgery. His father, Larry, was laid up with back surgery shortly after. Haymes went to work running his mother’s pawn shop in Nashville to keep the household running with Brandt at Vanderbilt at the time.

All these years later, Haymes still dreams of a PGA Tour career. He made his first attempt at Q-School this year, making it through prequalifying before failing to advance from the first stage.

“Magic and miracles happen at Disney World,” Haymes said. “Maybe there’s one left over for me. If not, if my professional golf career ends at Disney with Brandt at my side, I will be totally satisfied.”