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It was a tough final round on Sunday for Steve Stricker at the 50th Bob Hope Classic. How long will it take him to recover?

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STRICKER'S LOSS WILL STING: Seeing Steve Stricker sit dejectedly on his golf bag, waiting for the 18th green to clear on Sunday, brought back images of Phil Mickelson at the 2006 U.S. Open and Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 British Open. The difference, of course, being that Mickelson's and Van de Velde's respective collapses came because of their own poor decision making. Stricker didn't make any bad decisions; he just played some bad golf in the final round.

You have to wonder what the lasting effect will be on Stricker, one of the game's notoriously steady players. It's not so much that he squandered a three-shot lead; it's the way he did it with a triple bogey on No. 7 and a quadruple bogey on No. 10.

It took Mickelson a long time to get over his loss at Winged Foot, and Van de Velde will always be remembered more for what happened at Carnoustie than anything else. Stricker, who turns 42 next month, got as high as No. 3 in the world last year, but I'm not so sure he'll be able to get back there anytime soon. This one's going to hurt for a while. -- Brian Wacker

PEREZ HARNESSES HIMSELF: Pat Perez wasn't kidding on Sunday when he said he figured his win at the Bob Hope Classic -- the first of his career on TOUR -- was long overdue.

"It's been seven years," Perez said. "It's about time."

I've always thought of Perez as a no-doubter when it comes to winning on the TOUR. Clearly he had the talent to be out there, but he also had the tenacity which -- for better or worse -- worked against him many times in the past. But he has learned to harness those emotions and Sunday's win was a culmination of his hard work to get it under control.

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After watching Perez put an exclamation point on the win with an eagle on the 72 nd hole, I couldn't help but think of Bubba Watson. He, too, is fighting to get that feistiness under control.

If Bubba can get the mental part of his game under control -- and he's certainly trying -- he's another sure-thing we'll see in a winner's circle soon. -- T.J. Auclair

SCORING RECORDS SAFE, FOR NOW: In the end, the scoring record did not fall. The 36-under-par fired by Joe Durant back in 2001 will remain the high-water mark at the Bob Hope Classic for at least another year. Certainly with Steve Stricker starting the day within a breath of that mark, it seemed like that would be the final record to fall this week. But it wasn't to be.

And it doesn't matter one bit to Pat Perez. It took 198 starts for Pat to finally break through, but when he did he did it in style. It would have been forgivable if he had taken the safe route on 18. After all, he had a one-shot lead and needed only par at the par-5 last to seal the deal.

But he dazzled us one last time with his brilliant iron play, stuffing his second shot to within three feet to set up an eagle and a three-shot win.

Congratulations to Pat Perez, one of the good guys and now a PGA TOUR winner. -- John Maginnes

AT LEAST SOMEONE'S HIRING: I've read several stories in the past few months on the death of the golf writer, a by-product of the shrinking of newspaper staffs across the country (Golfweek's Jan. 24 edition has the latest one). As a former newspaper sportswriter -- and the son of a newspaper copy editor -- I'm saddened to see the direction in which the industry is headed.

What most of these stories neglect to mention, however is that three of those former long-time newspaper golf writers (Craig Dolch of the Palm Beach Post, Stan Awtrey of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Vartan Kupelian of the Detroit News) are now weekly columnists for PGATOUR.COM. And several other writers have contributed to our site in various ways. And to be fair, we're not the only one adding writers. GolfDigest.com recently hired former L.A. Times golf writer Thomas Bonk as a Writer at Large.

The press tent may be less crowded these days, but as Managing Editor of PGATOUR.COM, I like to think we're doing our part to keep golf writing alive (and yes, consider this is a gratuitous plug for our site). -- Mike McAllister

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John Merrick: The former UCLA standout is in just his third year on TOUR but is already showing signs he's got serious game. His runner-up finish Sunday comes on the heels of a 2008 season in which he was T3 in Mexico, T6 at the U.S. Open and T7 in New Orleans. Stephen Ames: There was no pressure on Ames, who started Sunday in a tie for 45th. But to shoot 9-under 63 in the final round was impressive, even if he missed a lot of the wind because of an earlier tee time. Ames had seven top 10s last season, including a fifth at THE PLAYERS Championship. Webb Simpson: The Wake Forest grad is proving to be the class of the rookie class this year. Two weeks, two top 10s and only one round higher than 68. That's not something you expect from someone seeing these courses for the first time.

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Bubba Watson: It didn't get nearly the same level of attention as Steve Stricker's final round, but a 75 on Sunday sent Watson tumbling down the leaderboard after he began the day tied for third. After nuking his tee shot out of bounds left on No. 7, a frustrated Watson stumbled home with three bogeys on the back nine. Chris Couch: Since winning the Zurich Classic in New Orleans in 2006, Couch has not posted a top 10 on TOUR since, and last year he sat out due to a shoulder injury. He was in contending position Sunday, tied for 12th at 23 under. But a 78 left him tied for 60th. Nathan Green: Last week, a final-round 72 dropped Green from second to T12. This week, a third-round 75 undid the Aussie's 10-under effort the first two days and he missed the cut. This starting-strong-then-backing-up pattern must be frustrating for Green.

A Quick 18

Front Nine Back Nine Say a prayer for Paul Goydos this week. One of the nicest guys you'd meet anywhere, Goydos is dealing with the loss of his former wife Wendy, who died unexpectedly last weekend of an undisclosed cause. Goydos, who planned to play at Pebble Beach next month, will take a temporary leave of absence from the TOUR. According to a report out of Hawaii, Tadd Fujikawa's agent has received "25 to 45 Google alerts on articles, blogs and TV interviews" daily since the Hawaiian teenager's terrific run at the Sony Open in Hawaii. His agent says he's been in contact with some beverage, equipment and apparel companies about potential endorsement deals. In other words, expect to see more of Fujikawa, possibly soon. Life seems to be giving Erik Compton a few mulligans and if there's somebody that deserves them, it's him. A two-time heart transplant recipient, Compton, returning to golf just eight months after his second heart transplant, last week received sponsor's exemptions into this week's European Tour event in Dubai and another for the Honda Classic in March. Since we're on the subject of teen sensations, 17-year-old Japanese phenom Ryo Ishikawa will become the youngest player ever to compete in the Masters after receiving an invitation last week. Ishikawa also accepted a sponsor's exemptions to play the TOUR's Northern Trust Open, the Transitions Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. One person we won't be seeing in Dubai this week is John Daly. He originally planned to play the entire three-week Middle East stretch but told organizers of the Abu Dhabi Championship last week that his game was not yet up to shape. The PGA TOUR last week announced that TPC Scottsdale has been selected as the host site for 2009 Champions Tour q-school. It'll be interesting to see tournament golf there, especially on N0. 16, without all the usual raucousness that goes with that hole and this week's FBR Open. Pat Perez's win did more than erase the painful memory of the 2002 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where he triple-bogeyed the final hole to lose by three. Sunday's win landed him a host of exemptions, including the Masters, the Mercedes-Benz Championship, PGA Championship and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Speaking of the FBR Open, the famed 16th hole will be fully enclosed thanks to the additional seating that's been added for this year's tournament. They're apparently calling it the "Coliseum" and they'll be a total of about 20,000 seats there. With the Arizona Cardinals playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday, expect it to be possibly louder than it has ever been before. Perez became just the fifth player in the 50-year history of the Bob Hope Classic to earn his first TOUR win at the Hope. Perez is also one of seven players that have come from two shots or more back in the final round to win the event since 2000. While we're on the topic of the Super Bowl, Arnold Palmer will admittedly be a little torn next Sunday. That's because he's good friends with former Pittsburgh Steelers coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who is now of course the head coach of the Cardinals. The King's heart belongs to Pittsburgh, however, and he's predicting a 28-14 Steelers victory. Just how good was the scoring at the Bob Hope Classic? Through the first four rounds, there were 10 scores of 62 or lower. That hasn't occured in a TOUR event since -- you guessed it -- the 1992 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Speaking of guys whose hearts belong to the Steelers, Jim Furyk will be making the roughly three-hour drive from his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., to Tampa for the game. Furyk is a Steelers season-ticket holder and was at last week's AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh. The cut at the Bob Hope Classic was 15 under. That would have won 23 events in 2008. Think about that for a minute. Insanity. And for Jesper Parnevik, it was even worse. He finished at 14 under through four rounds and was sent packing, despite a 61 on his final day. Here's yet another reason why Arnold Palmer's so beloved. Last week he surprised 15-year-old Brock Marvin, a New Jersey teen who's suffering from familial dilated cardiomyopathy, a genetic disorder that has enlarged his heart to about four times its normal size. Marvin asked if he could attend the Bob Hope Classic and then got an even better gift when Palmer surprised him with a visit. At the other end of the spectrum, Steve Stricker's 5-over-par 77 Sunday tied for the second-highest final-round score by a 72-hole leader/co-leader in tournament history (Lucas Glover shot an 8-over 80 at the Classic Club in 2007). Co-leader Billy Casper also posted a 77 in 1962. Europe is expected to announce its 2010 Ryder Cup Captain this week. Colin Montgomerie is the favorite, although shouldn't more people be pushing for a second helping of Ian Woosnam, especially in his native Wales? It was a good week to be European Tour player Alvaro Quiros. After a tee shot landed in a tree at the Qatar Masters, the Spaniard was given a free drop since the tree was staked to the ground. He made par, eventually won by three strokes and has pretty much locked up a spot in the Masters and the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. GOLF CHANNEL is heavily promoting "Uneven Fairways," a 60-minute documentary that will pay tribute to African-American golf pioneers. It's set to air Feb. 11 at 9 p.m. ET and will be hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, which if for no other reason, makes it worth watching.

The Forward Spin

This week's FBR Open ought to be awfully interesting ... and ridiculously loud. Not only have officials built up the infamous 16th even more with some 20,000 fans expected to be fully enclosed around the hole, but the Arizona Cardinals will be playing in the Super Bowl almost immediately following the conclusion of the final round. What does all that mean? Think rock concert collides with PGA TOUR event.

Stock up/Stock down, Quick 18 and Forward Spin were written by PGATOUR.COM Site Producer Brian Wacker