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Two years ago, Augusta National announced plans to show one hour of Masters coverage on its web site prior to the telecast. It was a novel, technologically savvy move for the august bunch best known for green jackets, pimento sandwiches and and blue water in Rae's Creek every April.

The club decided to go online a year after masters.org received 3.7 million unique users and 3 million video streams of live action. And now, in this Tweet-tastic, news-on demand age, the Masters has an iPhone app. Seriously.

"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold." -Yeats.

You know things have to change with the Knicks. New GM. New coach. New regime. There are going to be changes and they're going to come sooner, rather than later. If reports coming out of New York prove true today, though, it may be players other than those you suspect that are finding new zipcodes.

Instead of Stephon Marbury or the highly prized David Lee, Newsday reports that Renaldo Balkman is on the table, with an offer being discussed with Denver for Bobby Jones and Taurean Green.

The deal makes sense on both sides. The Nuggets need an upgrade for a backup 3 and some size in the frontcourt, Balkman makes little to no sense in Mike D'Antoni's system, and New York wants small contracts for movable assets. It's going to be these kinds of moves that allow the Knicks to set up the deals they really want to make, if you know what I'm saying. If you don't know what I'm saying, go to Google and type in "Zach Randolph."

Update: The trade's gone through! Get your Taurean Green jerseys while they last, Knicks fans! Somewhere, Marcel Mutoni is crying tears of joy.

A back nine that will be remembered as one of the most solid finishes ever in windy conditions was what Padraig Harrington needed to win his second consecutive Open Championship.

Out in three-over 37, Harrington fought off a charging Ian Poulter and a struggling Greg Norman to claim his second major championship and put his name alongside the likes of Old Tom Morris, Bobby Jones, Peter Thompson and Tiger Woods as back-to-back champions of the Open.

"I was real good today," Harrington said after his round.

Padraig found his game at the turn, making birdies on 13, 15 and one of the best shots you'll ever see on the 17th hole to set up a short eagle putt that gave him a four shot lead heading to the 18th tee. A two-putt par on the last had the Irishman flashing a huge smile and that historic trophy for another 52 weeks.

Unlike last year, Harrington got to embrace and enjoy the walk up the 18th green, besting the field by four shots in a tournament that was up for grabs most of the day.

Questionable at the beginning of the week because of a wrist injury, Harrington was steady all week, posting rounds of 74-68-72-69 to join just Ernie Els on the list of golfers to break par in two of the four days.

A lot of critics were worried people would view this tournament with an asterisk because Woods wasn't a part of the field but that back nine by Harrington will shut the critics up. Impressive ball-striking, a putter that never cooled off and the experience you need to pull off the perfect shot at the perfect time has Padraig with his second Claret Jug.

Harry Varden, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus all have something in common at the U.S. Open -- they've all lost a U.S. Open playoff.

18 holes of grueling, stroke-match play on a golf course that's been beaten to pieces by the USGA, the field and the weather all week long and you're having to grind your way around it for one more day.

Tiger Woods wants to be in the same breath as those players in just about every category but this one, and he's playing a competitor in Rocco Mediate that is just about his worst possible foe, a guy with zero to lose.

Tiger's disappointments have never come from Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia or Vijay Singh in major championship stages, they've been Rich Beem, Zach Johnson and Michael Campbell, men that are just having that week.

Today's U.S. Open playoff is probably the most popular one since Lee Trevino threw a rubber snake at Nicklaus on the first tee at Merion Country Club in 1971, a U.S. Open that belonged to Trevino 18-holes later.

No, it isn't Buster Douglas versus Mike Tyson and it definitely isn't salmon eats bear, but Tiger has been pushed to the brink by a guy named Rocco, who keep smiling and joking and hitting fairways. Mediate probably won't win, because he's facing You Know Who, but it sure will be fun to see the two battle.

Just to stir the fire, only one has ever lost a playoff on the PGA Tour, and it isn't the man with a Peace sign belt buckle.

I wonder what Bobby Jones or Walter Hagen would think about all of this fancy-pants technology in the 21st century. Back in the day, all you needed was a bag of wooden-shafted clubs, a couple of gutta perchas and you were ready to go. Now, what with swing coaches, head doctors, and workout regimens, the PGA Tour is just as much about being in shape -- both mentally and physically -- as it is about actually playing golf.

During the third round of Mercedes-Benz Championship, The Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman commented that Daniel Chopra, who was near the top of the leaderboard at the time, used PlayStation to get familiar with the Kapalua Resort course. PlayStation. And more amazing than a grown man using a video game to familiarize himself with the course layout, is that Chopra reported that the PlayStation rendering was actually pretty accurate.

It's kind of like flight simulators for golfers. I have no idea if the breaks of the green, or the uneven lies in the fairway are accuratly represented, but you'd have to imagine that in the not-too-distant future (if it isn't already), such things will be part of the being-a-tour-pro experience. Weird.

It's all Tiger Woods' fault. Ever since the 1997 Masters, when he won by a record nine strokes -- and was hitting wedge into virtually every hole (including the dogleg-left par 5, 13th) -- incoming chairman Hootie Johnson decided to toughen up Augusta National.

The results: roughly 600 additional yards, spread out over 12 holes. Woods' 18-under total won it in '97, but last April, Zach Johnson earned a green jacket with a four-day total of 1-over. The changes, along with some weather certainly, toughened things up. I'm sure Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts had a good chuckle about the whole thing.

Well, guess what? The Masters committee will do a little more tinkering this winter. It won't be the complete overhaul the players saw in 2002, but there will be subtle changes to four holes -- the first, seventh, ninth, and 11th.

The first, one of the toughest holes in golf, will be lengthened 10 yards, the greens on the seventh and ninth will be enlarged and softened, respectively, and some trees will be moved from the right side of the 11th fairway.

Nothing to worry about, though. Chairman Billy Payne wants you to know the course is "refined" virtually every year, and last year's above-par winning score was "an anomaly due to the frigid, windy weather." I can buy that -- the last time the winner didn't finish under par for the tournament was 1966 (Nicklaus, E). And I'm actually fine with the course changing to keep up with technology. It's a much better alternative than a great course becoming obsolete.

You might be of the opinion that all NBA players are living the high life. This, for the most part, is true: Even your run-of-mill bench warmer is making good money (the average annual salary is over $4 million). Life isn't glamorous for all, however, especially not if the player in question is an unheralded rookie.

Take Bobby Jones for example, a rookie last season, who served as what the Rocky Mountain News terms "Allen Iverson's personal valet" in Philly last year. Jones was tasked with a number of chores, including acting as AI's bodyguard (he kept autograph seekers away while Iverson played cards), carrying his superstar teammate's bags, and my personal favorite, Jones was Iverson's personal alarm clock on practice days.

"Just normal stuff," Jones said. "Take his orders and bring him his food on game days. Carry his shoes after practice. Just little things. Nothing too extreme."

"I was assigned to wake him up for training camp and make sure he got to the bus," Jones said.

Now, I know that practice and Allen Iverson are no longer mortal enemies, but this story makes me feel extremely sorry for the poor rook who had to wake AI up on that fateful day.

Desperate for NBA news -- any NBA news -- in this basketball-starved month that is September? Here's a big one for you: the Nuggets and 76ers got together for a trade that sends Reggie Evans to Philly in exchange for Steven Hunter. Okay, it's not quite the Allen Iverson blockbuster that went down the last time Denver and Philly traded with each other, but it could still end up being pretty interesting, at least from Philly's perspective.

The Sixers are getting a rebounding machine: Evans averaged 7.5 rebounds in just 17.1 minutes per game last year, which translates to a league-high 19.7 per 48 minutes. He was more or less buried on Denver's depth chart, though, especially with Kenyon Martin returning, but in Philadelphia he could end up starting.

At 6-8, Evans is a bit small for power forward, but he's a strong defender and obviously knows how to clean the glass, so he could be a decent stopgap until rookie Jason Smith is ready to assume a starting gig. The Sixers also received the rights to 6-foot-11 Ricky Sanchez, who spent last year in the D-League. I don't know much about him, but hey, he's 6-foot-11, why not?