Struggling to meet the IRS filing deadline today? Just be glad you aren’t a tour pro, who often have to file up to a dozen state tax returns, as well as some local returns, too, for states and cities looking to fill some budget gaps. “Everybody’s got their hand out,” says accountant Tim Carneval, who’s married to LPGA pro Janice Moody and has 30 tour pros as clients, including K.J. Choi and world No. 1 Stacy Lewis. In addition to paying tax on the prize-money earnings, Carneval also has to do what he calls a “duty-day” calculation to figure out how much money they owe on their endorsements. The formula is the days in the state or city divided by their total workdays of the year times their endorsement salary. It’s so time consuming that in most cases Carneval just files extensions. “It’s hard to get it all done,” he says. “Getting it done right is the most important thing.”

It’s okay, you can exhale now. The playoff is over, Australia finally has a green jacket, Tiger didn’t win (can you image what the Rules purists would have said about that?), and there’s lots of new footage to replace the endless loop of Bubba’s shot from the trees. But if you still need a Masters fix, maybe one last dispatch from Augusta, check out this article from the Aljazeera news service. Yes, Aljazeera. Who knew the Arabic news network even covered golf? Well, they did, and took a few shots at Billy Payne, the members of Augusta National, the club’s membership policies, even some back-handed swipes at golf fans. Bet you can’t wait for their reports from Merion.

If you think all corporate big shots are snooty-nosed fat cats in green jackets who want to take the game of golf back to the way it was in the 1950s, watch this video of former Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy—a golf fanatic who has supported some interesting change-the-game ideas—offering his thoughts for improving our weekend rounds. It is particularly interesting that it turned up on Masters weekend and was created by Bloomberg TV, which bears the name of another very rich golf-nut, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

 

 

We’re likely to see a few more players than usual teeing it up tomorrow thanks to new changes in the Masters' cut rule. In the past, the top 44 players and ties made it to the weekend; as of this year, it’s the top 50 and ties. However, the 10-shot rule remains, so anyone within 10 shots of the lead gets to hang around for the weekend. And beginning next year, there will be a change in how players make it into the Masters, with Augusta National inviting winners from the PGA Tour’s “Fall Series,” part of the ever-complicated FedEx Cup race. Plus, a few other tweaks have been announced: The top 12 from the previous year’s Masters will be invited (if not otherwise eligible), down from the top 16; the top 4 from the previous year’s U.S. Open, down from the top 8; and there won’t be an invitation to the top 30 on the Tour’s end-of-year money list because they’re all already eligible in other ways. Got that? Has it improved your chances of getting in? Hope so.