Rickie Fowler and David Duval are going in opposite directions in their golf careers; the young Fowler on the upswing, the former world No. 1 Duval on the downswing. And that's how it played out at the PGA Tour's Q-School finals for the two most interesting names in the field.

Fowler, just a few months removed from turning pro, earned full playing rights for the 2010 PGA Tour by finishing tied for 15th after a closing 70 on Monday. Duval failed to regain his fully exempt status, tumbling down the leaderboard with a fourth-round 79 before finishing tied for 90th.

But as we've pointed out a couple times, we'll still see plenty of Duval next season. He holds several lower levels of PGA Tour status, and those non-exempt levels plus sponsor exemptions should get Duval into close to 20 tournaments in 2010. It just won't be up to him where and when he plays.

The Q-School medalist was Troy Merritt, who finished at 22-under 410. Merritt has never played in a PGA Tour event. In 2009, he played 17 times on the Nationwide Tour, finishing 39th on the money list.

The Top 25 finishers on Monday earned fully exempt status for 2010. Among them were some very familiar veteran names: Jeff Maggert was second; J.P. Hayes eighth; Joe Ogilvie 15th and Chris Riley 19th.

Some other veterans fell short of regaining their PGA Tour status: Tom Pernice double-bogied the final hole to finish one stroke shy, but at least he has Champions Tour status for 2010. Other veterans coming up short included Ken Duke, Jason Gore, Shaun Micheel, Brandt Jobe, Mark Hensby, Mathias Gronberg and Arjun Atwal.

View the full scores and check the PGA Tour's Q-School headquarters for more coverage.

See also:

• PGA Tour Q-School winners

Amanda Blumenherst led the way at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament on Monday, winning medalist honors by two strokes and earning her place on the LPGA Tour in 2010. Blumenherst, a 3-time NCAA Player of the Year at Duke University and the 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur champion, closed with a 4-under 68, finishing at 9-under 351 over the 90-hole tournament.

The Top 20 finishers earned Priority List Category 11 status for the LPGA Tour in 2010, which essentially means they can get into any full-field tournament they wish to play.

Katie Kempter, a collegiate star at the University of Denver, and Marianne Skarpnord, a 2-time winner on the Ladies European Tour in 2009, tied for second. Julieta Granada, the $1 million winner of the first ADT Championship in 2006, was fourth.

College and amateur stars were well-represented among the Top 20 finishers. In addition to Blumenherst and Kempter, there is Purdue's Maria Hernandez (2009 NCAA champ); Azahara Munoz of Arizona State, the 2008 NCAA champ and 2009 British Ladies Amateur winner who won a couple months ago on the LET; Mariajo Uribe of UCLA, the 2007 U.S. Women's Amateur champion who had several strong showings in LPGA majors while still an amateur; and All-American Pernilla Lindberg of Oklahoma State University.

Also on display at LPGA Q-School finals were signs of growing strength in European women's golf. Skarpnord (Norway), Hernandez (Spain), Munoz (Spain) and Lindberg (Sweden) were joined in the Top 20 by Bea Recari (Spain), an LET winner; and European Solheim Cup member Tania Elosegui (Spain). Veteran Iben Tinning (Denmark) regained her LPGA card; and perennial LET money-list champ/contender Gwladys Nocera (France) finally made it onto the LPGA.

Visit the LPGA's Q-School headquarters for full, final scores and more coverage.

See also:

• LPGA Q-School winners

Major accomplishments for Adam Scott and Ryo Ishikawa on Sunday:

• Adam Scott won the Australian Open, notable on two counts: It's Scott's first professional victory in his home country; and it shows there's still life in Scott's golf game after all.

  Back in January, Scott finished runner-up at the PGA Tour Sony Open. Here in December, he won the Australian Open. In between, 2009 was a truly miserable season for the former world No. 3.

  Following the Sony Open, Scott's best PGA Tour finish was 33rd. In 17 ensuing PGA Tour tournaments, Scott missed the cut in 10 of them. He went 16 straight rounds at one point without shooting lower than 71.

  Now, he's a winner again, and maybe has some momentum to carry forward into 2010. See the tournament Web site for scores and stories.

• In Japan, Ryo Ishikawa finished 19th in the season-ending JT Cup, and that was good enough to win the money list title for Ishikawa.

  Ishikawa is still just 18 years old, and is the youngest winner of a Japan Tour money title. He's also the youngest-ever money-list leader on any of the world's major tours. Seve Ballesteros won his first European Tour money title at age 19 in 1976, which was the previous record. Read more.

Did you hear that Phil Mickelson called Elin Nordegren? He asked her for some tips on beating Tiger.

That's just one of many, many jokes making rounds in the aftermath of Tiger Woods' car crash and affair rumors. Some of the jokes are pretty good, others aren't pretty at all. Have you ever noticed how many golf jokes involve violence toward a spouse? There are plenty of those regarding Tiger and Elin, too:

• The police asked Tiger's wife how many times she hit him. "I can't remember," Elin said, "just put me down for a 5."
• Ping has a new set of irons called Elins. They're clubs you can beat Tiger with.
• What does Tiger Woods have in common with a baby seal? They've both been clubbed by a Norwegian. (Of course, Elin is actually Swedish. But poetic license is allowed in jokes.)

There are jokes about the affair rumors:

• Did you hear Tiger changed his name to Cheetah?
• Tiger's other women aren't misstresses. They're provisionals.
• Did you hear Nike's new motto? Just do me.

And jokes about Tiger's car crash started surfacing within minutes of the initial reports of the accident, including these:

• Tiger crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree. He couldn't decide between a wood and an iron.
• What's the difference between a car and a golf ball? Tiger can drive a golf ball 400 yards.
• Tiger Woods is so rich that he owns lots of expensive cars. Now he has a hole-in-one.
• Tiger has a new movie coming out. It's called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hydrant.

Most of the above come from amateur quipsters - folks like you and me. But the professionals are having a field day with Tiger's troubles, too. For example:

• Stephen Colbert: "Tiger always gives 110 percent. That is why he gave 100 percent to his wife and still had 10 percent left over for his alleged mistress."
• Conan O'Brien: "One of the women who claims she slept with Tiger Woods says they never talked about golf while having sex. However, contractually Tiger was obligated to talk about Nike, Gatorade and American Express."

Then there are the YouTube videos. Check out the slow-jam remix of Tiger's voicemail, or the Christmas song parody.

Heard others Tiger woods jokes recently? Post them in comments (but please only the clean ones).

See also:

• Golf jokes