Notebook: Phil Mickelson to skip Accenture Match Play Championship for third tim

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Phil Mickelson will vacation with his family during Accenture Match Play week.

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Series: PGA Tour

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Phil Mickelson will miss this month's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, skipping the event for the third time in the past four years.

Mickelson said Thursday his three children are off school that week, so he will be going on a family holiday. He also missed in 2010 and 2012.

The tournament is Feb. 20-24 just north of Tucson, Ariz.

Mickelson has made it to the Match Play quarterfinals only once in 11 appearances, in 2004 at La Costa. He says he loves the tournament and Tucson, where he won his first PGA Tour event.

That means the 65th player in the world ranking after this week will be eligible to play.

HEADING TO HOUSTON: Rory McIlroy has formally committed to play in the Shell Houston Open, which takes place two weeks before The Masters.

The two-time major champion and current No. 1 player will make his third start in the event and his first since 2010. This year, as part of his ''6 Bags'' charity drive, McIlroy will use a bag emblazoned with the logo of Chinquapin Prep, a Houston-area school for disadvantaged youth. The bag will be auctioned off through McIlroy's foundation and all proceeds will go to the school.

Louis Oosthuizen and Lee Westwood are among the other top international players committed to play in Houston.

CHOI HONORED FOR CHARITY: K.J. Choi has been named the recipient of the Golf Writers Association of America’s 2013 Charlie Bartlett Award, given annually to a golfer who makes unselfish contributions for the betterment of society. Choi will be honored at the GWAA Annual Awards Dinner on April 10 in Augusta, Ga.

Choi, 42, founded the K.J. Choi Foundation in 2007 to help children and communities achieve their dreams. He also has raised funds for scholarships and global aid for hurricane and tsunami victims.

“Although I feel that I haven’t done that much, I am honored to be recognized for my actions,” Choi said. “This is the first award of any sort that I have received during my 13-year career on the PGA Tour, and I feel that much more honored to be receiving an award for my charitable actions rather than my play.”

Choi became the first Korean player to play full-time on the PGA Tour and was the 2000 Rookie of the Year. When he won his third event, the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, he donated $90,000 to a Korean Presbyterian church in Greensboro.

In 2009, he donated another $90,000 to hurricane victims in the United States, and he gave $200,000 to victims dealing with the fallout from a rash of deadly tornadoes after his 2011 win at The Players Championship. Later that year, he donated $100,000 to help the victims of the tsunami that hit Japan.

John Harbaugh Won't Be Calling Plays

Posted Jan 15, 2014

Ryan MinkBaltimoreRavens.com Staff Writer@Ravens All Ryan Mink Articles



Despite an offensive coordinator vacancy, John Harbaugh will not take over more play-calling duties.

The Ravens have a vacancy at offensive coordinator with Jim Caldwell leaving for Detroit.

But don’t expect Head Coach John Harbaugh to pick up the offensive clipboard. He was asked two weeks ago at his season-ending press conference if he would consider doing so.

Harbaugh said he will continue to oversee the entire team, just as he has successfully done for the past six seasons.

“I don’t think my style is ever going to be to take one side of the ball, or one particular phase, and take it over, and then ignore the other two phases,” Harbaugh said.

“There are coaches that makes sense for, guys that were offensive coordinators their whole career and that’s what they know, or they were quarterback coaches their whole career, and they’re going to take the quarterback. It makes sense for those guys, and that’s what they’re going to do, and that’s how they’re going to do it. But that’s just not my background.”

Harbaugh has a well-rounded background that has given him a deep understanding of the game as a whole.

A former college safety, Harbaugh was a running backs and outside linebackers coach at Western Michigan. He then moved to tight ends at Pittsburgh. He was a special teams and secondary coach at Morehead State, special teams coordinator at Cincinnati, and special teams and defensive backs coach at Indiana. He continued to coach special teams and defensive backs when he made the leap to the NFL in Philadelphia.

“My background has been that I’ve coached in all three phases, for over 30 years of coaching, mostly in the NFL on special teams, or a little bit on defense, and even on offense in college,” Harbaugh said. “So, I feel like that was the path that God gave me, and that’s the one I’m going to use.”

Harbaugh makes suggestions on game plans and guides the Ravens’ overall offensive, defensive and special teams philosophies. Occasionally, he’ll make a specific play-call suggestion during a game. But that’s not his focus.

“For me, I’m involved in every part of our football [team],” Harbaugh said.