Word just in from Golf Channel that the network is launching a morning show, beginning in January.

Here’s the full announcement:

ORLANDO, Fla. (Sept. 15, 2010) – Golf Channel announced today that it has greenlit the network’s first-ever morning show. Tentatively titled Dawn Patrol and currently in development, the show is slated to debut in January 2011. 

Scheduled to air live, weekdays from 7-9 a.m. ET from Golf Channel’s Orlando, Fla., studios, the show will feature news and commentary on the biggest sports and news stories of the day.

Following a news/talk show format, the sports-driven morning show will place an emphasis on golf while also offering a fresh perspective on topical news, sports and pop culture.

The program will feature field reporting and an array of in-studio guest appearances from a variety of industries. Golf Channel currently is searching nationwide to cast the program’s two co-hosts.

"We’ve wanted to introduce a morning show to Golf Channel for a number of years and felt that now was the right time," said Tom Stathakes, Golf Channel senior vice president of programming, production and operations. "Tackling everything from Tiger Woods to Brett Favre, the show’s format will be unlike anything we’ve done before and we are very excited to be launching it in 2011."

The latest edition of the National Enquirer is out with more juicy tales about Tiger.

In the Feb. 8,  Nat Enq (The main cover story is Oprah & Stedman’s BIG GAY LIE EXPOSED!), the tabloid reports:

-- "I hate myself," or so Tiger is said to have cried out during a "total breakdown" the day before wife Elin was scheduled to arrive in Hattiesburg, Miss., for a five-day visit, at Gentle Path sex addiction center.

-- The magazine said that as "Disclosure Week" drew closer, during which Tiger must come clean to Elin about his affairs, he became increasingly "freaked out" and "emotional" and wanted to leave the sex addiction facility.  ÔI can’t do this," cried Tiger, according to one source

The tabloid quoted a "close source" as saying, "It scared the hell out of Tiger that he had to confess to his wife that there are more women in his past than the list of bimbos she knows about."

If you’ve lost count, the current tally is 19 and counting.

Other revelations:

-- For the first two weeks at Gentle Path, Tiger had a room to himself but he now has a roommate, and the "lack of privacy has started to get to him."

-- For a time, he was working out in the mornings at a local YMCA, until the photographers began hanging out near the center.

-- Gentle Path experts are concerned that Tiger is "not accepting full blame for his fall – and the golfer points to Elin as part of the problem," a source told the tabloid.  Tiger reportedly said he became "weak" out of sexual frustration.

-- Tiger is filled with shame, the source told the Enquirer, and he is "afraid to go out in public and play golf again, because he believes everyone who thought he was a hero now views him as a low-life."

-- Tiger is "itching to get home" but he fears that the Gentle Path staff will insist that he stay longer than most other patients.  Desperate to save his marriage, he will do whatever they request.

ORLANDO – I walked the floor of PGA Merchandise Show for hours this morning and never found a thing that is turning heads this year.

Yes, there are new offerings by club manufacturers, as there are every year, but nothing is taking the 2010 show by storm.  Most years, there is a buzz about something; not this year.  No giant technological leaps forward this year, no new breakthrough products.

This is my first time at the show in four years.  I came for five or six straight years, until several of the top manufacturers began to pull out one by one, costing the show a lot of its luster and appeal.   But after hitting bottom a couple of years ago, when attendance was way down and new product buzz was zilch, the annual confab seems to be on a slightly upward trajectory again.  It’s still not what it once was, and probably won’t be again anytime soon, maybe ever, but the buzzards are no longer circling overhead.

During the boom years, the anchors of the show were mammoth million-dollar "booths" erected by Titleist, Nike, Callaway, TaylorMade, Ping and several others.  TaylorMade and Nike aren’t even here this year – at least not their club divisions. 

If you’re in the golf business, however, the PGA Show is still a place to see and be seen, to catch up with friends and colleagues from around the industry.

Coming to you live for the next few days from the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.  Landed last night; I’ll check in this afternoon.  Show starts tomorrow.

Details as they develop.

Reading Alan Shipnuck’s weekly Mailbag column for Golf.com,  l couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the following letter/response.  He pretty much summarizes everything you need to know about the relationship, or lack thereof,  Tiger has had with me and everybody I know in the media:

TMZ and the like never cared about whether Tiger put them on the DNR (do not resuscitate) list so they went after him. Now it seems that golf writers are emboldened to take shots too. How long will you guys stay so bold when the Mighty One returns? Won't you all fear being put on his naughty list? TMZ doesn't need Tiger. They move on. You live and die by the guy. Also, do you fear him remembering how bold you were during his absence and that you might be black listed? —Lenny Johnson

Even before Tiger's crackup, I would get variations of this question all the time. There seems to be a widespread belief that reporters live in mortal fear of somehow being blacklisted by Woods. The truth is that no one was getting much access before and he's going to be even more locked-down in the future, so who cares if doesn't like what we're writing? A couple of years ago John Garrity wrote a long, engaging cover story about Tiger. He was granted an audience with Woods that lasted exactly ten minutes. Those were the good old days? I think Tiger's dealings with the media will be downright Nixonian upon his return.

News and notes from the new golf season:

From the Philadelphia Section PGA comes word of three clubs have new head pros:

At Llanerch CC in Havertown, Chris Wilkinson, formerly at The Ridgewood CC in New Jersey, takes over.

At McCall Golf & Country Club in Upper Darby, Eric Figueroa, former assistant at Stonewall, becomes head pro.

At Applebrook GC in Malvern, Dave McNabb, longtime pro at Cavaliers CC in Newark, Del., is the new head pro.

With only a week left before show time, the PGA Tour announced Monday that they’ve finally landed a title sponsor for the Tour stop at Torrey Pines in San Diego: The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies.

Never mind what kind of discount rate The Farmers Exchange likely got; you can almost hear the Tour breathing a big sigh of relief for the tournament formerly known as the Buick Invitational.  Even with the economy as lousy as it is, for a proud and well-established tournament played on an ocean-side paradise, it looked extremely bad to go sponsor-less, even for a year.  As late as last week, the San Diego Union was reporting that it was "all but certain"  that for this year anyway, the tournament would simply be called the "San Diego Open."

As welcome has the last-minute news is for the Tour and the tournament, let’s face it: what we have here is the equivalent of 2 a.m. closing time at the singles bar.  Everyone suddenly starts to look better, even as the lights go up.

"We couldn’t be more pleased that Farmers Insurance has stepped forward..." began a statement from Commissioner Tim Finchem.  No word on whether he had his face buried in his hands when he said that.

Tom Worsnam, general chairman of the tournament, called Farmers "truly a knight in shining armor."

For now, the tournament will be called The Farmers Insurance Open and – hot diggity dog --there’s an option to extend the sponsorship.

Of course, after next week, in the morning light, let’s see if the Tour and the Farmers Exchange ask for each other’s phone numbers.