Notes from here and there:

One of the famous golf pairings of the season will take place in the second round of the Fedex Cup Barclay Championship again Friday at Bethpage on Long Island.

Zach Johnson steps into the world spotlight with his two playing partners in Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods after a Thursday first round that saw Zach match Tiger's 3-under par 68. While the golf world looks at McIlroy and Woods, Johnson could be in a position to steal the tournament.

A TIP OF THE FEDORA to Jamie Pollard on his new contract with Iowa State. His athletic directorship and hires of Rhoads and Hoiberg, plus $100 million in improvements to the ISU athletic facilities, are reason enough to give the promotion-minded Cyclone A.D. more time to continue to improve the program.

As Bob Bowlsby, the new commissioner of the Big 12, said in Ames this week, the bar in the conference is set at a high standard with Texas and it gives the other teams in the league a model to shoot at.

ALSO THIS WEEK the National Football League held some more clinics to try and improve the stand-in officials, whose performance has been given lousy reviews. There is every indication the stand-ins will be on the field when the NFL regular season opens.

A VISIT TO the Coe football camp this week provided some interesting news. And I want to say right here that I am a big fan of Division III football and of the way Coe gets after it.

Again, Coach Staker has assembled 137 football players, 50 of them freshmen, to try and win the Iowa Conference championship after a couple of second-place finishes. And with a bona fide All-American in defensive end Frank Weymiller of New Albin, there is every indication the Kohawks have a good shot at the league title.

We wish them well.

(Bob Brooks is sports director at KMRY and has been one of the leading voices of college and prep sports in Eastern Iowa for more than 65 years. He is a 10-time winner of the Iowa Sportscaster of the Year Award, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana in 2004. His sports reports can be heard weekday afternoons at 4:30 and 5:30, and Saturdays at 6:40 for the Hawkeye football wrap-up.)