118878992This week before the British Open (or Open Championship for you across the pond), we will be previewing the top players in the world and their chances at Sandwich. We continue with another American hopeful.

Nick Watney

Current world ranking: 10

So far this year: Watney has been the model of consistency on the PGA Tour, winning twice this year and posting five top-10 finishes to go along with only two missed cuts. With the exception of Luke Donald and Steve Stricker, nobody has matched Watney's level of consistency this season.

Record at the British Open: There's something about the British Open that seems to agree with Watney. He finished T-7 last year at St. Andrews, and posted T-27 and T-35 finishes in his other two appearances. Making the cut in all three starts definitely bodes well for his chances at Royal St. George's.

Why he could win: Because Watney seems to thrive on difficult golf courses. His wins this year came at Doral and Aronimink, two courses that are definitely among

118895569 open

There is nothing quite like the Masters, and no test like a U.S. Open, and while I'd give multiple phalanges to play Augusta National and couldn't think of anything sweeter than winning a major on Father's Day, it's the Open Championship that really has my heart.

Why?

Because it's the true game of golf in the truest form possible on a golf course where the sport was invented. Golf is a sport that battles the elements, but you really only see such a thing at the Open, when weather can doom an entire group playing later than earlier, or earlier than later.

On top of all that, it's beautiful in it's own special way. If you held up a picture of Amen Corner to a completely clueless sports fan, and then the fairway of, say, the second hole at Royal Troon, 100 percent of strangers would pick Augusta as the more aesthetically pleasing golf course, but the beauty is found only by golfers. The subtle bumps on the fairways and the brilliant molds of the greens; how bunkers seem dug out by the

4thholebunker

Every British Open course seems to have a bunker you want to avoid at all costs. "Hell" bunker and the "Road Hole" bunker at St. Andrews are two of the most notable in the history of the game. Another would have to be the treacherous fourth-hole bunker at Royal St. George's that, surprisingly, doesn't have a nickname for how scary it is.

However, even without a menacing nickname, players will want to avoid this bunker at all costs when the Open Championship tees off on Thursday.

At first glance you have to do a double-take when you see it from the tee box. At more than 40-feet deep, it's the deepest trap in championship golf, with a bunker face that appears to be reaching towards the heavens, ready to swallow up any ball headed its direction.

While it sits just 235 yards from the tee, which would certainly be an easy carry for every player in the field, the wind is expected to be a factor in the opening round, and that could put it in play.

If the golf gods have a sense of humor,

UihleinPeter1

Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood are names that roll off the tongue of every golf fan watching the British Open.

Lucas Bjerregaard, Craig Hinton and Bryden Macpherson? Not so much. So who exactly are these guys? They're three of the five amateurs playing in the 2011 British Open.

While you might not know these names now, you'll probably be hearing from a few of them in the next couple of years. And who knows, there's always a chance we could see one of them pull a Justin Rose (circa 1998) and finish inside the top 5.

Peter Uihlein (United States): Unlike the other four amateurs in the field, the Oklahoma State All-American already has the experience of playing in two major championships this year. He missed the cut in both appearances, but having come over early to get in some links golf practice and adjust to the time difference, he should be more than ready to tee it up at Royal St. George's.

Bryden Macpherson (Australia): The Aussie played a big role in helping the

bulldogs_1 englishSo in an attempt to inject a bit more life and interest into tournaments, and because we're both inveterate gamblers who are one bad card from being out on the streets, Jay Busbee and I are playing a golf version of a football suicide pool: We each pick one golfer per tournament and see how they do against each other, straight up. Victory over the other guy gets one point, victory in the tournament gets three points. (Double for the majors.) And when we burn a golfer, he's done for the year. It's Claret Jug time at the British Open, and we've both pulled out the hottest guns.

Busbee: Well, well, well ... look who's not in my "already picked" list: Mr. Rory McIlroy. I wish I could say that I saved him for this point, but the truth is this is nothing more than blind luck. Still, I think McIlroy has it in him to play well enough to outrun almost anybody you throw up. Almost anybody. Help a brother out, Shane ... don't pick the one guy who scares me ...

Bacon: Would that one guy be ...

b0713rio

We're one step closer to Olympic golf, as the R&A has announced that the Rio de Janeiro's Riserva Uno location will be used for the development of a new course for the 2016 Olympics.

"Within the last three weeks or so the Rio organizing committee and the city of Rio confirmed that Riserva Uno … will be the site," R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said. A course architect has not yet been determined, though notables such as Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorenstam, Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa are all involved to one degree or another.

The architect needs to break ground by next year in order to have the course ready for a test run in 2015, Dawson said.

Olympic golf's format will be the highly unsurprising 72-hole stroke play, with fields of 60 men and 60 women competing. There's a possibility that a team event could be added, in which case I'd recommend the United States add Charles Barkley. He's awful -- some might say turrible -- on the golf course, but he sure scares the hell out of the rest

118760374 strickerTwo down, two to go.

That's the deal with the Devil Ball major championship contest, where anyone that has been around since the Masters has a shot at a shiny new TaylorMade r11, thanks to the great people in Carslbad, Calif.

That's right, if you submitted a pick for the Masters, and followed that up with one from the U.S. Open, you are still eligible to play.

Just e-mail devilballgolfmajorpicks@yahoo.com your British Open pick for the week, and make sure that person isn't the same as the player you submitted for the Masters and the U.S. Open, and you'll still be fine.

Thanks for Rory McIlroy winning at Congressional, we have a logjam at the top for the driver, so hopefully this week will change that.

Good luck!

b0713lukeIt's time for our own golf ranking system for the top players on the planet. Why? That's easy. The one used now isn't good enough. For one thing, it evaluates golfers over a two-year period. Two years! A lot can happen in two years. (Ask Tiger Woods.) For another, the current system gives too much credit to players who prevail against less competitive fields halfway across the globe.

Therefore, every week between May 31 and September 27, two days after The Tour Championship, Yahoo! Sports will unveil the new rankings of players Nos. 1 to 10, using lists submitted by many of the game's most knowledgeable observers. We will use a simple statistical formula for the lists we receive — the top player getting 10 points, the second, nine points, and so forth. We will then add up all the points to produce our list of the top 10.

1. Luke Donald (17), 266 points [2]
2. Rory McIlroy (11), 253 points [1]
3. Lee Westwood, 212 points [3]
4. Steve Stricker, 189 points [5]
5. Martin Kaymer,