Worst concept: To protect the playing rights of mediocre PGA Tour veterans, Champions Tour officials decide to ditch Q School as we knew it and expand Monday qualifying. Chalk it up as a double-bogey.

Worst finish to a round other than the fourth: Aaron Oberholser walked to the 17^th tee with a one-shot lead in the third round of The Players Championship, then immediately hit tee shots into the water on each of the final two holes. He went triple-bogey, double-bogey to settle into a share of 17^th, six behind.

Best rookie: Camilo Villegas. Several threats to win, $1.7 million, 38^th on the money list? Indeed, he let it be known that he’s got game.

Best patience: Brad Faxon flies to Royal Hoylake and waits three full days, but doesn’t get into the British Open as an alternate.

Most memorable exit: Michelle Wie is ushered from the course at the John Deere Classic on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance, having suffered from dehydration.

Best way to make amends after an errant shot: Phil Mickelson usually does it with the best wedge game on tour, but when his misfire at the Ford Championship at Doral hit a spectator and smashed a wristwatch, the lefthander rebounded in his own inimitable style — he took out $200 and offered his apologies.

Best year for a Hawaiian teenager (gold): No, not that teenager. Instead, how about Kimberly Kim, the petite 14-year-old who not only made the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open, but went on to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Best year for a Hawaiian teenager (silver): No, not that teenager. Instead, meet Tadd Fukijawa, all 5-foot-1, 135 pounds of him. He made it through local and sectional qualifying to compete in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. “A small man,” he said, “can always beat the big man.”

Best year for a Hawaiian teenager (bronze): Yes, that teenager, Michelle Wie. OK, she missed the cut badly in a few tournaments against the men, and her final LPGA Tour tournament of the year, the Samsung, was miserable. But she was top 10 in three LPGA Tour majors and even in just a handful of appearances, she again proved she is clearly one of the five best players in the women’s game. Not bad for a high school senior.

Slide show Coming up aces A look at golf’s hot stars, on and off the course more photos

Favorite teenage quote: From Kim, after meeting up with Wie during a U.S. Women’s Open practice round: “She remembered me. She said, ‘Oh, you’ve grown.’ ” Wie is 6 feet tall, Kim not even 5 feet.

Favorite grown-up quote: Unheralded Aussie Nathan Green, when reporters discovered he used to work at a crematorium that his parents managed: “I was out there mowing lawns and gardening; I wasn’t lighting matches.”

Worst weather (gold): For 40 days and 40 nights it rained in the Boston area — or so it seemed. The historic rainfall made Nashawtuc CC unplayable and forced the cancellation of the Champions Tour’s Bank of America Championship.

Worst weather (silver): It rained and rained and rained, but they played and played and played — all the way into Tuesday at the Booz Allen Classic. This same storm forced postponement of the British Open qualifier at nearby Congressional CC.

Worst weather (bronze): The first round of the U.S. Women’s Open is cancelled because a dense fog envelopes Newport CC in Rhode Island.

Best golf that no one saw: Annika Sorenstam’s 18-hole playoff win over Pat Hurst after they had finished tied in regulation. Hopefully the U.S. Golf Association is getting to closer to making extinct this needless exercise; there are ways to end it fairly on Sunday, you know.

Most noticeable absence: Grace Park got off to a slow start, hurt her back, and wasn’t seen for the summer months.

Best shot in an unheralded tournament: Woods’ 3-wood from the fairway at the par-5 seventh hole at TPC Boston came from 270 yards away, and nestled in to about 2 feet. The tap-in eagle was his second in seven holes and having started three shots behind Vijay Singh, he was now one ahead en route to victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Most distinct proof that beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Jim Furyk was the best golfer not named Woods, an enormous talent who has the greatest heart, if not the most classic swing.

Best lasting image of 2006: Woods’ emotional exhale after he won the British Open.

Worst lasting image: PGA of America officials parading around the K Club in their team uniforms, going along for the practice rounds, as if they were prepared to take out a 7-iron at any minute and help the cause. Yes, there is a problem with things on the American front of the Ryder Cup. But it begins within the PGA of America, the officials having long ago forgotten that it should be about golf.