Is it the wind or Bob Hope Chrysler Classic parties that restore scoring order?

Tim Hurja - a local teaching pro/golf packager who’s been my guide to Palm Springs golf - kept telling me to just wait until the wind kicks up to see how everything changes on the area’s golf courses. I kept waiting and waiting, through weeks of endless 70 degrees and sunny Palm Springs winter days.

Yeah, the wind, right, it’s sure a killer. Now about that bridge in Brooklyn you’re selling …

While the wind finally kicked up in the second round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and a semblance of score order was restored. The immortal Pat Perez went from that 12-under 60 to a 73 and suddenly you got the idea the newspapers will stop writing about him conquering his temper swings. Phil Mickelson only managed a 69 on the easiest course in PGA Tour history. And Chad Campbell could only put six birdies on the board (it’s the Bob Hope, that’s toughening up.)

Only, I’m not sure the great Palm Spring winds deserve all the credit. Even if they do actually exist. For the Hope had one of its big celebrity parties on Wednesday night at the nightclub Red 74. Cameras were banned, but reports had actor Matthew McConaughey walking around with a boa constrictor wrapped around his neck.

Which considering Dennis Rodman partied at the hot spot last month was probably met with yawns from the staff.

Point is, the Bob Hope is not exactly a nose to the grindstone week on tour. That’s part of its charm. There might be a good reason Vijay Singh isn’t in the desert. A number of the pros love the good times vibe just as much as the celebrity golfers.

That wind surely got a nice assist.