On a rainy weekend in Los Angeles, play kept on a-going, and the Northern Trust Open gave us our first big name winner of 2010. Who leads Riviera's rips and shanks?

Rips

Steve Stricker: At one point in the third round, it looked like Stricker was going to run away with this thing, but the second highest ranked player in the field made it interesting for a while on Sunday. That didn't stop him from claiming his first win of 2010, and his fourth win in nine months. Can we say hottest golfer alive? Stricker just leapfrogged Mr. Mickelson as the second-ranked golfer in the world.

Luke Donald: Sure, Donald didn't go home with a trophy on Sunday, but the Englishman was in need of contending. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2006, and has gone through a wrist injury, but for European fans, Donald was once the "Next Big Thing." An early-season finish like this might help vault him back to the form we were used to.

Paul Goydos: Talk about a good week. First he was named assistant captain for this year's Ryder Cup, even though he's never played in one before, and then he went out Sunday and shot a 6-under 65 to gain a tie for fifth.

The Riviera Grounds Crew: This tournament shouldn't have finished when it did, but the superintendent and grounds crew in Los Angeles should get a few days off after what they were able to accomplish. Torrential rains on Friday didn't stop play, and the course, which should have been underwater, was playable almost the entire weekend. Great job, guys.

Shanks

Phil Mickelson: He was trying to become the first three-time winner of the Northern Trust, but after an eagle on the first hole of his third round, never got it going. Lefty played the final 35 holes 4-over par, and has the new putting stroke (30 putts per round) in desperate need of a makeover. Again. 

Anthony Kim's Sunday: No word on whether Kim was out until 4 AM on Saturday, but his game sure looked like it.

Stephen Ames: Being a PGA Tour golfer is a lot of things, but a whiner isn't one of them. Ames, playing in his fourth tournament of 2010, withdrew because of the rain, admitting, "I don’t play golf for money. I play golf for fun, and this is not fun.” Listen, you have the best job in the world, you opened with a 68, and you're in Hollywood. Just because it's raining doesn't give you the option to just pull out because you're wet. There are a ton of alternates that would have gladly played in a hurricane for a chance to make a weekend cut. Withdrawing because it isn't fun is weak and insulting to other golfers wishing for a chance to be out there.

If there is one trend going for Anthony Kim that he hopes doesn't continue, it is this one -- playing well in your opening event of the season, and then disappearing for the remainder of the season.

Last year he did it at the Mercedes Championship, finishing in a tie for second only to card two more top-10s the rest of the season and see enough problems in his approach that he decided to cut down his entourage and focus more on the game and less on the game.  

Friday, at a raining, miserable Riviera, Kim put together a sweet little 66 that included four two's on his scorecard and has him in the top-10 once again. Blame it on his maturity, blame it on Jay Leno, but anyone will agree that if the United States is going to have a young American claim a major anytime soon, it will probably be this fellow.

It's obvious that AK loves fame, and there isn't anything wrong with that, but we've seen it deter him twice already in his short career and that is a problem for fans of the flashy belt-buckles.

One request to Kim from us all -- focus on birdies for two more days, claim a trophy in the town you grew up in, and then go out to Hollywood and buy as many bottles as you'd like. Just make sure to win this thing before you do that.

It seems like ever year some sportswriter comments about the large breed of talent coming up in the golf world. We've heard it with Justin Rose and Charles Howell III. Hunter Mahan and Anthony Kim have been saddled the "next big thing." All the while, a guy named Tiger Woods was winning majors and pulling himself further from the field, and everyone was scratching their heads, wondering if golf was a young man's sport anymore.

That was until a year ago, when two names popped up on our radar. One was a 19-year-old Northern Irish kid off winning a European event. The other? A 17-year-old Japanese phenom who was taking tournament titles like they were auction items on eBay.

It didn't take long for Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa to become household names among golf fans. McIlroy had a decent year, finishing in the top 10 twice in majors and making all four cuts. Ishikawa didn't do much either, except beat Tiger in the first round of the British Open while playing in the same group. (Did I mention he was 17?)

This week, Ishikawa embarks on his second year as a PGA Tour hopeful, and opened Thursday at the Northern Trust with five birdies over his first 14 holes, briefly holding second place until two late bogeys dropped him to 3-under. It was still a 68, tying his best opening round on the PGA Tour, and gave people notice that he might be 18, but he's ready to win.

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Anthony Kim was, for a brief, shining moment, the great shining hope of the PGA Tour, and then, well, things kinda went south for the lad. He fell in love with the idea of being a celebrity rather than being a golfer, and had a bit of trouble winning on the course. On the plus side, it means he's gotten to hang with stars like Jessica Alba, though:

"The first thing I do is try to line my putter up with the hole." ... nah, too easy. Sometimes, you let the softball jokes pass, friends. (Note to AK: Lighten up, brother. It's Hollywood.) Anyway, Kim is playing this weekend. We'll see if he can get back on the golfing horse. Heaven knows it'd be nice to talk anything besides grooves and You-Know-Who.

(Visor tip: Dogs)

Golf is a sport where dividing lines are easy to define and easy to measure. You put the ball in the fairway or you don't. You putt the ball in the cup or you don't. And those dividing lines work on a macro level as well -- some tournaments draw the stars, and some don't.

Example A-number-one: this past weekend, which saw the latest installment of one of golf's most storied tournaments, one where Palmer and Nicklaus once strode as giants. This weekend, dozens of golf's leading lights gathered in one place, ready to do battle at a tournament that would showcase golf at its highest level.

Trouble is, we're talking about two different tournaments. While the Bob Hope limped along with, basically, almost nobody you've ever heard of, the Abu Dhabi Championship strutted like this year's hot supermodel, flashing its goods -- Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas -- and making everybody really jealous.

Especially the PGA Tour, which remembers a day when those goods were its goods. This inequity in fields has many both inside and outside the Tour thinking it's time to institute rules to keep our golfers from going overseas. As Tim Rosaforte writes in Golf Digest:

The end could be coming because if the PGA Tour Policy Board ever had leverage to invoke the 1 in 4 rule, where tour players would have to play each event on tour every four years, then this is the time. While Tim Finchem and the tour did a miraculous job of patching up the San Diego Open with an 11th hour signing of Farmers Insurance, an event like the Hope exists without a corporate title sponsor. Without the pro-am, which generates $5 million in revenue, there would not be a Hope. 

Tellin' golfers where they can work, Mr. Finchem? That sounds a whole lot like socialism to me!

In all seriousness, 1-in-4 is good for the game. Golfers are, fundamentally, out for themselves -- and their management companies, of course -- and without the PGA Tour's guiding hand, they'd go wherever the money is best (and already do, freely and without second thoughts). Absent any form of inducement/punishment, they're not going to come to the Hope when they've got the chance to bank more at Abu Dhabi.

So, is this a form of work restriction? Absolutely. But before we go too far down the union labor/boss-man's-keepin'-me-down path, let's remember that we're talking about golf here, not coal mining. The least that golfers could do every four years is take a few days out of their schedule, pop into East Poochburg for the Interchangeably-Named Insurance Company Classic, and pop back out again before the sun goes down Sunday evening. They'd support struggling tournaments, perhaps pick up a few new fans, keep the game of golf going.

We all love the majors, and those aren't going anywhere, but if pro golf wants to continue to thrive once the current big names are gone, it's going to have to think grassroots -- and fostering interest at the local level is the best way to do that. (Besides, East Poochburg is lovely to visit in the springtime.)

One of the more infuriating personalities on Tour is Sergio Garcia, he of the griping, cup-spitting and putt-yipping, but not major-winning. Sergio just turned 30, and although I'm sure I'm jinxing him to Abu Dhabi and back again, he's playing some extraordinarily solid early-season golf.

Through the first two rounds of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, Sergio sits just one stroke off the lead at -11, and that only because somebody named Rick Kulacz got hot and dropped a second-round 63 on the field. Speaking of the field, this is the big-time roster that dodged the Bob Hope, and Sergio is running ahead of Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy, Anthony Kim and other big names. Quite a nice way to start the 2010 season, yes?

Golf fans and writers tend to smother even the faintest flicker of promise with hope and desperation. So let's not do that here. It's entirely possible that Sergio will throw a 76 on the board Saturday and that'll be that.

But just for a moment, imagine if Sergio got it together and played every week like he was hanging with his hometown mates. Imagine if the result of You-Know-Who's absence was that Sergio and other golfers reached their full potential. Yeah, that'd work.

Bringing you the best in golf news and opinion. Get up to date on your way to the first tee.

• Love this T-shirt. I'll take three. [Wei Under Par]

• This is pretty cool -- Ryan Palmer flew commercial back from Hawaii, and Alex Miceli of Golfweek was right there next to him. Palmer apparently was loud enough to get someone to complain to the flight attendant, but hell with those cranky fliers -- dude just won a PGA tournament! [Golfweek]

• Guess who's in action this week: Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy. Problem is, they're all playing in Abu Dhabi, not at the Bob Hope. Sadly, the Hope -- without a title sponsor -- doesn't have a single player among the top 35 in the world. [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

• Which LPGA player without a major is most likely to break through in 2010? Is it Paula Creamer? Michelle Wie? Angela Stanford? Nope, not even close. [Mostly Harmless]

• The San Diego Open will be sponsored by ... Farmers Insurance? Wha ... ? Well, as long as the check cashes, I guess that's cool. Would be awesome if they required the guys to play one round in overalls. [PGA.com]

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The first full-field event of the 2010 season is now a memory, and -- with all those lush Hawaiian views -- a lovely memory at that. Here, we break down the winners and losers from the week at Waialae Country Club. Who ripped it, who shanked it? Our humble assessment:

Rips
Ryan Palmer: The Sony Open champ was dead-bang solid with the putter, dropping 48 of 48 from inside five feet. But it was the putt he didn't need to make that was the tournament-changer -- on his approach on 18, he hit a hot chip that would have left a long, knee-knocking comeback putt had it not hit the flagstick and rolled back just inches from the cup.

Davis Love III's eagle on 16: Here's why you can never count out a guy like Love, who's the very embodiment of the crusty golf vet (minus the crustiness, of course). Five shots off the lead and his day all but done, he goes and backspins an approach on 16 right into the cup. He wouldn't end up even challenging, but still -- shots like that are why all of us keep coming back. (Six-figure checks help, of course.)

Retief Goosen: So near, and yet so far a guy who was once one of golf's most dominant. Still, finishing at -12 is nothing to be ashamed of. Goosen may not be rediscovering his world-beating ways, but at least he's not yet fading into the Hawaiian sunset, either.

Charles Howell III: Everybody wants to love Chuck, and Chuck hasn't given everyone much to love in recent years. Still, a T5 at -11 is a fine performance to start the season, one that might -- just might -- be a breakthrough for the guy.

Everybody in the gallery: It was obviously a lovely and breezy day in Hawaii, a beautiful weekend for watching golf. But for most of the weekend, the galleries weren't exactly six-deep. The PGA Tour can't be thrilled at the size of galleries where you can hear individual people clapping, but those in attendance could do more than just follow their favorite golfers; they could carry on running conversations with them.

Shanks
The Golf Channel: Right now, they're the only game in town, which means that golf fans have to sit through an endless stream of male "enhancement" ads, financial services pleas, and Golf Channel show promos. I don't have as much of a problem with the announcers as some, but sweet heaven, are those repetitive ads numbing. I may be the only person in the country saying this right now, but ... I'm kinda looking forward to NBC.

Robert Allenby: He's best known of late for his little spat with Anthony Kim at the Presidents' Cup, but he's also becoming known for having a wee bit of a problem closing out a PGA tournament. He was on pace to win his third consecutive tournament on three tours, and kept in the hunt until a flown green on 18 on Sunday.

John Daly: Look, lumping Daly with the losers at the Sony is either a stretch or redundant, depending on where you stand on the guy. Still, the fact remains that he missed the cut on a course that was playing fairly easy, and his bid to return to prominence/dominance on the PGA Tour will have to wait another week.

Zach Johnson: The defending champ came into Sunday with a chance to repeat, but despite wearing a red shirt, couldn't close the deal, and carded an even 70 to finish well off the lead.

Rickie Fowler: With a 75-72 and a missed cut in his first-ever tournament as a card-carrying PGA pro, Fowler didn't exactly blaze a trail. Who was it that picked this guy as one of golf's next great saviors, anyway? Epic fail! We demand instant success!

Next up is the celebrity cheese-fest that is the opening day of the Bob Hope Classic Pro-Am. We'll be there with cameras clicking.