Well, It Is Still The Tour Championship This Week

As golf gets ready to snuggle in that cave for hibernation, we do have to keep in mind that one of the elite golf tournaments is hosting the PGA Tour's finest, even if it doesn't mean a whole helluva lot.

The Tour Championship kicks off Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta with 30 of the finest golfers around participating. The tournament will be short, sweet and split $7 million between all the participants.

I know the hangover of the Ryder Cup is looming, but here are a couple of groups you should watch on Thursday.

1:00 PM EST, Hunter Mahan and Stewart Cink -- Any chance these two come out rocking the American red shirts from Sunday? I'd pay a little extra if they'd just play alternate shot for old times sake.

1:50, Anthony Kim and Mike Weir -- The saddest part is Sergio Garcia goes off one time after Kim. How great would that have been? Think every time Garcia hit it close in that round Kim just reminded him, "Nice shot Serg, 5 and 4?"

Camilo Villegas and Vijay Singh -- We are starting the Volkswagen watch in this match. If a car can take Vijay out, Camilo still have a good chance of winning the FedEx Cup. Also, that is the only way he can win the FedEx Cup.

Calling Anna Rawson

The extremely attractive girl above is Anna Rawson, an LPGA golfer who is actually tied for the lead currently at the Bell Micro LPGA Classic (fancy that).

Anyway, she's a huge hit on this internet invention because she's an athlete and takes photos with very little clothes on and doesn't look like she'd be better served cleaning dishes at the local Luby's.

Rawson did an interview with the Press-Register and disclosed her "phone number," which isn't really her phone number at all, it is similar to being "friends" with athletes on Facebook (when really you're just fans of them...uber awesome man!).

Anyway, RealClearSports, being the good little journalists they are, decided to ring the number and see what Anna was doing. Like most things that are too good to be true, what happened was a disappointment.

I called the number (it's my job, right?) and was given options of what I could do:
-To listen to messages from this person, press 1
-To record a message, press 2
-To listen to the most recent fan messages, press 3

So first time I pressed 1. It's Anna basically doing a phone blog explaining where she is and what she's been doing. But there's something really bizarre about her voice coming out of my cell phone.

That part wasn't so entertaining, but then there was option 3. If you have some time to kill, these can be entertaining. Overall though, they're pretty bland, and it's people either just telling her she's hot, or that they hope she continues to improve her golf game.

To me, Rawson did what ever girl in the world has done at least once in her life. She fake-numbered the whole group of us. Damn you Rawson. I thought we had a chance.

Paddy Won't Win The Vardon Trophy Because He Struggles With Counting

The PGA Tour gives out a ton of postseason awards and one, the Vardon Trophy usually reserved for Tiger Woods, goes to the gentleman with the lowest scoring average.

Tiger, surprisingly, has won the award seven of the last nine season, but like Padraig Harrington, won't qualify this season because neither will meet the required 60 round minimum, even though Paddy thought he had met the required number. That's what two missed cuts will do to a guy.

Harrington figured he was safe playing the minimum 15 events on the PGA TOUR. But he missed the cut three times, and finished the year with only 52 rounds. Players must complete 60 rounds to be eligible for the Vardon Trophy for lowest adjusted scoring average.

"I didn't know that," Harrington said with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. "I was trying to win that award. I would consider that a big deal to have the lowest scoring average."

Now, for the first time in their career, we might have Phil Mickelson (currently at 69.52) or Sergio Garcia (69.53) claim the award. If the average ends up in the 69s like it is now, it will be the first time since 1998 (David Duval) that a player won the Vardon with a 69 scoring average.

Ok, that is enough number talk. Let's get back to chicks!

Like, Seriously Mike Weir?

If you didn't catch any of the golf this weekend, you missed out on the hilarious fact that Mike Weir is really sporting a beard. For the FedEx Cup, Wayne Gretzky and Weir filmed a commercial where the Great One told the Pretty Good One to sport a full beard in anticipation of the playoffs.

Now, the Lefty is growing one in.

Hey, whatever blows your skirt up. Weir finished in a t-7, his fourth top-10 of the season.

Getty Images

Is This Augusta? Play Suspended at the PGA

Mostly it's the Masters that we're dealing with weather all week, but today at the PGA bad weather rolled in and forced the tournament to suspend play.

Robert Karlsson and Jeev Milkha Singh are still tied as the clubhouse leaders at two-under while Retief Goosen and Jonathan Byrd were still playing when the weather hit.

Only six players have finished their first round under par but if the moistened conditions surrounding Oakland Hills stay until tomorrow, those left to finish their rounds will have an easier time finding the fairways and greens.

Tiger Woods hasn't played in the last two majors and the weather has been terrible. Coincidence?

The Mornings Guys are Getting the Goods

With a lot of the morning crew finishing up at Oakland Hills, and the wind starting to pick up, it's looking like the AM group got the best on the first day of the PGA.

Robert Karlsson and Jeev Milkha Singh are tied with the clubhouse lead at two-under while (Areyoureadyforthis) Sergio Garcia is one back after firing a one-under 69.

Anthony Kim, who played with Garcia, made an eagle and two birdies to land in a share for the lead at two-under before making bogeys on his final two holes to post at even par. Phil Mickelson is one-under while Sean O'Hair is two-under with three holes to go.

Are those enough scores or are you in desperate need for some more? I got 'em. Don't you doubt me.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

And Lefty Is Doing Exactly What Lefty Does

I mentioned it earlier this week in my picks, but Phil Mickelson always seems to win events when he has absolutely zero pressure from the media. It's the Bridgestone Invitational, but it isn't even the most talked about event this week because of a certain Michelle Wie.

Well, he's going by the book accordingly, shooting two-under on the front nine today at Firestone to move into a tie with Retief Goosen at the top of the leaderboard. Schmickey has yet to make a bogey this week and also has yet to eat anything Animal Style either.

You can keep up with live scoring here or just assume Tiger wins and go about your day.

Photo props to Stuart Franklin, Getty

Some Early Scores From the Women's British, Like You Care

It's a slow golf day, with only two PGA Tour tournaments beginning, so I thought it would be alright to just visit the Women's British for a moment.

Annika Sorenstam, who has no problem calling Michelle Wie out, fired a mediocre even-par 72 to land in a tie for 65th while dominant dog Lorena Ochoa is in the clubhouse at three-under 69.

48-year-old Julie Inkster turned that dang Rolex back a few years, leading in the clubhouse with a seven-under 65 that included five birdies and an eagle on the par-4 9th.

The Women's Open, like the regular Open Championship, is rich in history, dating back to almost 2001. Now that is prestige.

Ok, enough of this, back to regular stuff.

Michelle Wie Responds to LPGA Golfers Comments, Kinda

After Paula Creamer and Annika Sorenstam commented that they weren't so happy with Michelle Wie's decision to skip an LPGA major to play in a PGA Tour event, you'd expect Wie to comment.

You know, something like "those stupid chicks are just jealous of my bank roll." Or, "Yeah, tell Paula if she wants to borrow my Rolex, I'll let her, but just for a day."

But no, Wie stayed fairly civil and handled the remarks, well, remarkably well (see what I did there).

"There are going to be criticisms entering this tournament, but at the same time I'm just doing what I feel like I want to do and it's going to be a lot of fun," Wie said.

"All I'm thinking about is trying to play some good golf. How can I limit the number of bogeys I make? How can I maximize the number of birdies I can make out of this golf course and that's all I can focus on. I can't focus on the rest of the field," she said.

"People are going to write hateful stuff about me and that's fine with me. ... Good rounds and low scores can solve everything," she said.

I'd say that's about right. I think one of the best golf quotes I've heard in a long time is, sadly, from those Phil Mickelson commercials for whatever hotel he promotes. Bones, his caddy, says "whenever you want to break something, how about breaking par."

One of my favorite golf pictures ever taken was courtesy of Warren Little, Getty Images

Chris Berman Gets A Golf Test, Seems Annoying

Even though I'm not really in the "hate everybody that works for ESPN" camp, I do despise Chris Berman like I would a girl with a Venus Flytrap as a vagina.

My main reason is for his invasion into my peaceful world of golf, throwing around nicknames with the voice that sounds like someone trying to stick a fork down a garbage disposal. So, when I came across this amazing question and answer piece by Golf Digest, I was pretty annoyed. Please keep Berman out of anything I actually enjoy reading please. Thank you kindly.

Anyway, here are some of the eye-gougingly annoying best (sic) parts from the Q and A, with my commentary after each answer.

GD / Who’s The King? (A: Arnold Palmer.)

CB / Arnie, of course. I wasn’t around when he was The King, and The Golden Bear was long before me. But 15 years ago, we had Curtis “People Are” Strange, Bob “Curds and” Tway and Mark “Unplayable” Lye. The best golf nickname, which I couldn’t use when I heard his name pronounced correctly, was Jose Maria “Two Strokes” for Oh-lozz-a-ball.

DTCC / Really? That is your question, who is the King? If you work in sports and you don't know that the seven time major championship winner and 62 time winner on tour was named The King, you obviously blew a lot of bosses on your way up. People I think would not know he was named The King in major media -- Stuart Scott (he'd call him Da King), Joe Morgan and probably Skip Bayless (he'd know, he'd just refuse to refer to him as "King").

GD / What did Tiger and Elin Woods name their baby? (A: Sam Alexis Woods.)

CB / I missed it, but I’m thrilled for them. [Told Sam Alexis.] Sam Alexis, huh? S.A.W.? So, we have to nickname the baby already: “Buzz Saw.”

DTCC / This is pretty sad, but I guess I'll let it slide because he does so many sports. "Buzz Saw" could be the worst possibly nickname for an individual and pretty much cements the fact that Berman has never read Deadspin. God, I'd had to be this guys kid.

GD / Who’s the heaviest player to win a tour event in 2007? (A: Mark Calcavecchia, 225 pounds.)

CB / Are you talking Calc? Golfers come in all shapes and sizes. Everybody who sees me on TV thinks I’m a short fat guy, but I’m 6-4½. I’m a tall fat guy.

DTCC / A tall fat guy that is an asshole and yells at people for no real reason. I can honestly say I never thought Berman was this tall. Could you imagine sitting next to this guy on an airplane? With his enormously loud voice, his inability to call people regular names and his linebacker size would be nearly unbearable. I think I'd rather walk in golf spikes to my destination.

In News That Surprises Nobody, LPGA Might Lose Sponsors

As much as we all push for equal rights amongst all demographics, everyone has that logical portion of the brain that knows things like the LPGA and WNBA just don't make that much money (you could make the same argument about the CFL or minor league baseball).

Golfweek reported today that the LPGA might lose sponsors next season even as it seems the tour has boomed of late with all the young stars making waves.


The future of the Ginn Tribute, the SemGroup Championship and Fields Open appear in doubt. Such uncertainty follows on the heels of Safeway’s announcement earlier this year that it would drop its sponsorship of the Phoenix tour stop.

The most significant setback would be the loss of the Ginn event in Charleston, one of the most lucrative purses on tour; Ginn sponsors two LPGA events and each offers a $2.6 million purse. When the event was announced in 2006, LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens touted it as an example of the LPGA’s bigger, better approach to business.

As I can report way too personally, SemGroup isn't going to be sponsoring anything in the near future.

I always root hard for the LPGA, and not just because I think Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis are hot. I think the tour offers a very rare situation (matched only with tennis) for both men and women to view sports that they can't do and that they are impressed with. Unlike the WNBA, it's golfers playing a course condition that you the average golfer would struggle with. You leave impressed, not questionable.

I'm sure more sponsors will step up, but a problem that has always plagued the LGPA seems to be resurfacing. Hey, at least the economy is doing really well!

That Skinny Kid From the British Open Is Turning Pro

During all the hullabaloo that was Greg Norman at the British Open, an amateur named Chris Wood was doing his best Justin Rose impersonation, finishing in a tie for fifth place at the Open.

Just 20-years-old, Wood, like that guy with a similar last name, decided to forgo his amateur status and turn professional even though he said he wasn't going to do that.

British Open silver medal winner Chris Wood has decided to turn professional, less than a week after saying he had no plans to leave the amateur game.

The 20-year-old Englishman finished tied for fifth in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, and then announced he was taking a week off to rest up for the English Amateur Championship at Woodhall Spa.

However, after several meetings with management companies in the aftermath of his Birkdale success, Wood has withdrawn from his national championship to prepare for life as a tour pro.

Checking out more info on Wood, it appears the guy is a great player. According to his Wikipedia page, he was a single digit handicapper at the age of 12.

Believe what you want, but my Wikipedia page says I'm 6'5", won the Masters at the age of 15 and am currently dating both Jessica Alba and Megan Fox. I love that about Wikipedia, you can really say anything you want.