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Peter Falk, best known as the star of the old TV show "Columbo," has passed away from unspecified causes. He suffered from Alzheimer's and was 83 at the time of his death.

But let's remember him in better times, like the one above where he looks like the absolute best guy to have in your foursome ... as long as you don't think you can beat him, that is.

Of course, once he started his golf swing, things got a little ugly. "Peter Falk might have been pretty loose as a detective on the TV series 'Columbo,' but he was as tight as a board when he was swinging a golf club," wrote famed golf instructor Kathy Whitworth. "I tried to get him to relax a little. I told him that he looked like a cement wall. He was so mechanical. He was trying so hard, bless his heart."

As opposed to his general badassery, which came without any effort whatsoever. Rest in peace, Columbo.

[Visor tip to Kaduk for the photo.]

Nationalism is a funny thing. We give so much more weight to people, places and events just because they happen to occur in our home country. (U-S-A! U-S-A!) In the golf world, commentators and observers are tying themselves in knots because a Euro came and worked over our national Open; not only that, our countrymen didn't even put up much of a fight. Between this and the Ryder Cup defeat, what's wrong with American golf?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Oh, sure, the fact that the two top Americans in the Open were Kevin Chappell and Robert Garrigus, guys whom you can be forgiven for hardly knowing, could be troublesome if you're getting too jingoistic.

But the growing conventional wisdom, that American golf is getting lapped by the Europeans because a. we don't spend enough money on golf instruction for our kids, b. our kids are fat and lazy from video games, or c. it's all Tiger's fault are just silly.

Look, let's be honest here: right at this very moment, the Europeans are kicking the

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If you're like me, you've probably been to a couple of charity golf tournaments before. After playing in a few, you start to notice that they all look the same: long-drive contest, closest to the pin, hole-in-one to win a car. It's nice and all, don't get me wrong, but let's be honest ... don't you sometimes wish they made the tournament a little more interesting?

Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen apparently read my mind, because his recent charity golf tournament looks like one of the most ridiculous events I've ever seen in my life. As the Arizona Republic reported, Allen hosted his annual Night Ops II tournament, with proceeds going to support the Home for Wounded Warriors organization.

Knowing Allen's crazy personality on the field, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he decided to forego the longest drive for a Slip n' Slide contest down a 280-foot tarp. No, you didn't read that wrong. The round also included the members of the Arizona National Guard taunting players

117035148 yessirWelcome to Teeing Off, where Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee and head writer Shane Bacon take a day's topic and smack it all over the course. Suggest a future topic by writing jay.busbee@yahoo.com, or hit us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @shanebacon. Today, we discuss the lack of ratings at the U.S. Open, and if that means that as much as we love Rory McIlroy, if golf stills must have Tiger Woods to make people interested.

Busbee: It was a thrilling Open, it was a historic Open, it was an Open that much of the country simply didn't watch, if you believe the ratings. So let's get all Freakonomics and start parsing some numbers. What does the 28 percent decline from 2010's numbers mean? No Tiger, no ratings? Or was 2010 an aberration, since this year's ratings were roughly comparable to 2009?

Bacon: Well, first things' first -- are you trying to get all our UK brethren to hate us? This was the U.S. Open, not the Open. For some reason, they're real picky about that!

But yes, I think Tiger not

kingfightSo 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. After Roryfest, we're now busting out the umbrellas for the Travelers Championship.

Bacon: Ahh, Phil, you seemed like such an easy pick. You're Mr. Second! You always play well at the U.S. Open! What are you doing to me?! Anyway, on to the next, and this week, i'm going with someone completely different than Mickelson; it's a Webb Simpson kinda thing. Simpson was in a playoff in New Orleans, finished tied for seventh at the Memorial and then 14th at his first ever major championship last

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Those who were hoping to see Tiger Woods again soon will be utterly disappointed, but it wasn't like we didn't see this coming. Woods announced via Twitter that he'd be out at the AT&T National next week, his own tournament, and it brings up the ongoing question of "When will we see Mr. Woods on the course again?"

I think it'll be the British Open, but at this point, that could be just hopeful thinking. I figured if he was going to skip the U.S. Open, he was doing it to be primed and ready for the next major, but with this announcement, even if it isn't shocking at all, just means more time Tiger is away, and more rust that is settling on those golf clubs of his.

Our good pal Ryan Ballengee set the over/under on tournaments Tiger will play for the rest of the year at three, and I think that's a pretty good number. If he skips the British, and then decides to play the PGA Championship, I'm sure he will try to toss in a few more end-of-season events, but at this point, we have no idea

It'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.

We've asked voters to tell us who they believe are the top 10 players right now. Over time, we expect to add more voters to the list. We hope you enjoy it, and please

110915653Contrary to what NBC talking head Johnny Miller may say, he doesn't know everything when it comes to the game of golf. Sure, he shot 63 at the '73 U.S. Open, the lowest round in major championship history, but while Miller has had success on the course, he clearly isn't well versed when it comes to the science behind certain aspects of the golf swing.

During Saturday's U.S. Open telecast, Miller spouted an absurd comment, after Rory McIlroy hooked a tee shot into the rough. "We're talking about thousands of inches on the bottom there," Miller said of the McIlroy's shut clubface that produced the shot. "One-thousandth of an inch on a driver is 20 yards of hook."

As far as we know, Miller doesn't spend his time around launch monitors, robot testers and club engineers in his spare time, so that number seems a little too precise to just be pulled out of thin air, right? Knowing Miller, sometimes it's easier to make things up as opposed to keeping your mouth shut and giving a factual