How's this for a decent little Sunday matchup? Tiger Woods, host of the AT&T National and the unquestioned master of the game now, if not for all time, will pair up with heir apparent and defending AT&T champ Anthony Kim for Sunday's final round.

For all his accolades, Kim has never played a final round with Woods, and now he'll get the chance to see up close how he'll fare in a spot that has crumbled dozens of other golfer. Kim has literally been waiting for this moment for all his golfing life -- as the AP notes, he used to envision playing with Woods and facing a 10-foot putt for the win ... back when he was 10 years old.

Sunday, he'll get his chance. Both Kim and Woods have carded amazing saves and head-shaking misfires. Woods, for instance, gave away three strokes in two holes on Saturday, allowing Kim back into the game. And Kim, after firing a course-record 62 on Thursday, settled down and steadied himself into a -10 performance through three days.  (That's him in the white shirt above, getting himself prepared for Tiger's red shirt by playing with the red-shirted Jim Furyk on Saturday.)

Everything Kim has done has led up to this moment -- but nothing he's done could have prepared him for the challenge he now faces. Woods is 45-3 when holding at least a share of the lead heading into Sunday. It's now up to Kim to see if he'll beat the odds ... or just become No. 46.

Woods and Kim tied for lead at Congressional [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

 

Over 18 days, Devil Ball is running down our top 18 golf holes in the game. We'll jump all over the planet, digging out both the famous and the not-so-famous. We continue with an Augusta hole with a flair for drama.

The hole: Augusta National's No. 16

The stats: Par 3, 170 yards

The story: Augusta National has more than its share of signature holes -- yes, it's a safe bet that there will be at least one more on this list -- but for tournament-changing drama, it's impossible to beat this pleasant little 16 that goes by the name of "Redbud." And while it's just a short to medium iron away from the tee, you'd better stay below the hole, or your second shot could roll right back off the green. 

Take a look at just some of what's happened here. Jack Nicklaus famously birdied this one en route to winning the 1986 Masters. Tiger Woods' chip in 2005 is one of the most famous single shots in recent memory. And Kenny Perry birdied the 16th in 2009 to put a stranglehold on the lead and ... well, let's not go any farther with that one. Anyway, situated as it is -- the final par 3 on the course -- it's naturally won its share of acclaim, and even today golfers will try to undercut (or perhaps enhance) its mystique by trying skip-shots on practice days. Earlier this year, Vijay Singh dropped a routine ace with his skip-shot; just another day's work for the Big Fijian.

Tomorrow: Out to sea ... possibly.

Ah, Independence Day, where we all stuff ourselves and then prance around with flags! Show us the way, Anthony Kim, show us the way!

Happy Fourth of July to you and yours from all of us at Devil Ball and Yahoo! Sports. Hope it's full of fun, food, family and fireworks!

 

Over 18 days, Devil Ball is running down our top 18 golf holes in the game. We'll jump all over the planet, digging out both the famous and the not-so-famous. We continue with a deceptive Southern beauty.

The hole: Pinehurst #2's fifth hole

The stats: 483 yards, par 4

The story: Here's another beauty of a hole that, much like a Southern woman, will beguile you with its charm and then rip your heart out with the ruthlessness of an assassin. (Come on, surely I'm not the only one.) Anyway, the 5th at #2 is a long beast, one of the longest par-4s on the PGA Tour. You blast your tee shot blind to the gentle left dogleg, and you suddenly find that you're standing with your ball well above your feet for your second shot, thanks to the sloping fairway.

Oh, but the fun's not done yet. You need to chip from that awkward position up onto a tabletop of a green -- a tabletop with a wrinkled tablecloth for a surface. Miss by even a fraction, and you're looking at a wicked up-and-down to save par, or worse. Much worse. And she won't even call when you slink away in defeat.

Tomorrow: An American legend.

There's no figure in golf more polarizing than Michelle Wie. Phenomenally skilled, wasted talent, future of the game, hype without substance -- you could apply all those labels to her at one time or another. Now, author Eric Adelson has dug into Wie's past and present and speculates on her future in his new book "The Sure Thing: The Making and Unmaking of Golf Phenom Michelle Wie." It's not just a biography, it's a breakdown of all the many forces that put Wie on top of the world, and brought her back down again. In the podcast, we discuss the role of Wie's parents in her rise and fall, the dreams she had for herself and her career, and the one decision that her family made that undid all the years of hard work they'd put into her career. What was that decision? Aw, come on, I'm not going to tell you that. You'll have to read the book and listen to the podcast to find out.

As always, we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Play below, download or subscribe to us through our new iTunes site; we'll love you no matter what you do.

Click here to download.

Over 18 days, Devil Ball is running down our top 18 golf holes in the game. We'll jump all over the planet, digging out both the famous and the not-so-famous. We continue with a knee-knocker.

The hole: The 17th at the Straits Course of Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin

The stats: Par 3, 223 yards

The story: This hole is called "Pinched Nerve," and one look at Tom Watson teeing off there should tell you why. It's a par 3, but there's absolutely nothing routine about this one. Miss the green by inches on the left, and you may as well sling your ball into Lake Michigan there at the left. Hit the ball right, and it's bunkerville and a looming chip onto a tiny green. And this sport is supposed to be fun?

Pinched Nerve is a Pete Dye design, part of the Straits Course (its companion is known as the Irish Course) which hosted the 2004 PGA Championship. Every single hole on the Straits course has a view of Lake Michigan, and if that isn't enough to keep you tightened up, there are more than 1,000 bunkers on the links course. Get ready to hear plenty about the 17th; the PGA Championship returns to Whistling Straits in 2010 and 2015, and the Ryder Cup is scheduled to play here in 2020.

Tomorrow: The brilliant green evil of a Southern classic.

Each week, Five To Watch breaks down the most significant players and storylines for the upcoming weekend's tournament. We're not saying these guys will win, or that you should pick them for your fantasy team; we're just saying you ought to keep an eye on them. You never know what might happen.

Tiger Woods: It's his party and he'll invite Cowboys to Washington if he wants to. And he'll also try to eliminate every single memory of New York from his mind. Can he play both host and champion? Sure, why not?

Anthony Kim: Okay, this is cheating a bit, since he did shoot a 62 this morning. But as the defending champ, he'd be here anyway. Here's hoping this turns his game around and gets him pointed the way he ought to be -- up the leaderboard.

Sean O'Hair: While Kim and Camilo Villegas were looking down, O'Hair came and stole their crown as Next Big Thing. I like every aspect of O'Hair's game, even his name, and it won't be long before he's one of the odds-on favorites week in and week out.

Charley Hoffman: Can you believe El Grande Mullet hasn't missed a cut yet this year? It's true, as Pianowski notes. This guy's moving right up the prestige rankings, and I expect to see him start showing up at the top of the majors very soon.

Fred Couples: Yes, you read that right. We need a couple more good runs out of Freddie before he shuffles off to the Champions Tour, and while the long-driving game of Congressional isn't his strong suit, Couples can put himself back in the game with the flat stick.

All right, your turn. Who's your pick to win this Independence Day weekend? Go!

Upstaging Tiger Woods isn't an easy trick. But if you're going to do it -- and there are very few who can -- what better to do than stick it right to him at his host course? Anthony Kim did just that today, firing a course-record 62 at Congressional and giving him a two-shot lead midway through the first round.

Kim hasn't won a match since this tournament last year, and all the hope and promise that accompanied him throughout the second half of 2008 has evaporated in a run of frustrating golf this season. Still, the guy has the talent and the drive to stay at the top of the golf game, and days like today prove it. In a performance reminiscent of his 11-birdie Masters day earlier this season, he dropped six birdies in eight holes and narrowly missed a 10-footer to close out the round. All in all, an exceptional performance, that shot from the rough above notwithstanding, and this is as good a way as any for Kim to pick up the pieces of his game and get rolling again.

Then again, Tiger still hasn't teed off yet. Buckle up.

Kim sets course record at Congressional with 62 [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

Anyway, I had a choice here -- go smart or sentimental. And I picked sentimental, though smart is good too, as you'll see after the jump. Here, though, is your winner, Andrew Richardson. I'll reprint his entire email:

This is tough. I read your Yahoo blog posting and immediately went on to think of celebrities, politicians, golfers, etc. that I would include in my "dream foursome." I even googled "dream foresome" to see what other people might have said hoping to garner some inspiration. I read jokes about golfing with Moses, Jesus and God... I was trying to make this a "canned" foursome that I thought you'd like to hear so I would get picked. Then something dawned on me: Be honest. Think about it for a bit. Don't be something you're not.

So here is my ultimate dream foursome.

1. Me: What fun would it be to have a dream foursome without actually playing in it? Although I would gladly just caddy if that was needed instead.

2. Tiger Woods: The greatest golfer of my generation (possibly ever) and someone that I think I could share some good laughs with. I have a 4 year old daughter and while he could definitely give me tips on the course, I'm sure I could give him some tips off the course on what is coming down the road as a father. It's amazing how your entire perspective on life changes in an instant when you're responsible for another person's life. Not to mention he has the EXACT same voice as one of my best friends from high school. It is scary. Seriously.

3. My dad: The best man at my wedding, a man I can call at any point no matter what and he's there for me. Tim Russert once said "The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get." I couldn't agree more. My father has shaped who I am as a man, a husband, a father and a friend. He has had a more profound impact on me than I can ever tell him in words or show him with my love. He supports me, questions me, challenges me and consoles me. My dad and I used to have such a great time playing together early in the morning, late in the afternoon... Whenever we could. He never missed a match that I played in when I was in high school and supported me all along the way. I can only think of one man I would want in my foursome more than my dad.

4. My grandpa: My grandfather is an amazing, amazing man. He has been through so much (both good and bad) and now in the twilight of his life as he is unable to play any longer, I would pray for one more round with him. The Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, an iron lung, five bouts of pneumonia, a MAJOR car accident with some golfing buddies on their way to Augusta (resulting in the deaths of these friends), quintuple bypass surgery, multiple joint replacements, losing his middle child less than five years ago... My grandpa introduced me to the game when I was about 7. He had a few of his old clubs and a putter cut down for me and I would walk or ride around the course with him while he played. The man was hitting 260+ yard drives in the 1980s and from what I hear could work the ball with the best of him back in his "prime". Even after his accident where his mobility was severely limited, he re-worked his swing since he could no longer turn on the ball and continued hitting the ball right down the middle. Some family friends dubbed him "Waterline" because that's where you could find his ball nearly every time he hit it. I never really cared about the game until just before my junior year of high school, but he was always there helping me with my swing with the patience of a saint. I hated it at the time, but while we were playing he would quiz me on my times tables just to make sure I kept some things in perspective and was focused on the "right" things. J I now regret not realizing how much he cared and how valuable those many hours on the course really meant.

This August I am going back home for my sister's wedding. I hope at that time I can have my dad, my grandpa, my 4 year old daughter and myself go out and play nine. I know that my daughter and my grandpa won't really "play" but to experience this will be more than amazing.

Congratulations to Andrew! Now he's got to figure out which of his foursome to take with him. Fortunately, Tiger will already be there.

After the jump, some honorable mentions.

First runner-up, from Sean Foster:
Tiger Woods—he’s a ‘must have’ according to the rules.
Jack Bauer—American TV protagonist of the series 24.  Both went to college in the CA bay area (Stanford-Woods and Berkeley for graduate school--Bauer). Bauer was an officer in the Army so the two could chat about the military as Woods father was a retired lieutenant colonel. Bauer’s daughter looks similar to Tiger’s wife—additionally, she’s noticeably absent from the show during the Majors. Focusing on Bauer’s proficient use of time and assets, they should be able to complete an entire tournament (72 holes) in about 19 minutes—including commercial breaks.
Big Brother—dictator of the totalitarian state Oceania from 1984. This pairing should intrigue Tiger as he is an only child. Perhaps he could ask for advice on domination for later in life. Also, he currently lives under such scrutiny as could be described as life in Oceania. Like Big Brother, people of Generation Y and D can’t really recall the exact moment of Tiger’s ascension to golf power—only that he is all-powerful. And most telling from 1984, is the chant B-B! B-B! Which is, of course, is synonymous to the Tiger-Woods! Tiger-Woods! chants that echo through the galleries in sort of a hymn to the majesty that is Tiger Woods. And lastly, the name “Big Brother” is used to draw correlations to your work place, the government, or any camera that is exposed---while the name “Tiger Woods” is golf…period.
Atticus Finch—Southern lawyer of Harper Lee’s immortal To Kill a Mockingbird and, like Tiger, the father to a son and daughter. Both are sons of immigrants.  Also, both have received death threats and pushed on to ‘do the right thing’ in spite of them.  While Atticus fights for Tom Robinson, Tiger initially fought the ‘black’ stigma in golf.  Now Tiger’s presence when mentioned among golf’s all-time greats is not only accepted, but mandatory. As much influence as Tiger has had on golf, Atticus comes close to matching it with his timeless literary charisma and impact on everyday law through racial justice. Both are men of integrity and both are tops in their profession. A very interesting dichotomy and eventual friendship would emerge between Tiger and Atticus.

Two similar ideas:

From Allen Mauldin:
1) 1997 Masters Tiger (12-shot victory and first major)
2) 2000 U.S. Open Tiger (largest margin of victory)
3) 2000 British Open Tiger (lowest score relative to par)
4) 2008 U.S. Open Tiger
If 2008 Tiger wins, it's no contest that it was his best performance ever.

From Benjamin:
1) 1994 US Amateur version of Tiger. skinny, little overswing, fist pumping
2) 2001 version of Tiger. Holder of 4 majors at the time time.
3) 2008 US Open version of Tiger. Playing with One Leg
4) 2009 Current Tiger.

From Jason Sipes:
Jones in '30, Hogan in '53, early '70's Nicklaus and of course, Tiger.
 
It would be the Impregnable Quadrilateral vs the Hogan Slam and GBSE* vs the GOAT**
 
To be played at Augusta or Oakmont where they all have experience at appropriate lengths and conditions for each individual's time period.
It would answer the age old questions and make for some awesome golf.
Best of the best.
 
*Greatest Ball Striker Ever, arguably.
 **Greatest of All Time, arguably

From Rebecca Johnston:
1) Tiger Woods - he has to be in the foursome
2) Bobby Jones - the greatest amateur golfer of all time.
3) Vuong Dang Phong - Vietnamese soldier friend of his Earl Woods. After all, without him Tiger would be known as Eldrick
 and finally....
 4) Osama bin Laden - so that Tiger and Bobby can wax him on the golf course and then Vuong Dang Phong and all the attending members of the military could take care of him after the 18th hole

From Mitch O:
1. Tiger Woods
2. Boo Weekely
3. Bobby Jones
4. Charles Barkley

I think this group would be one of the most entertaining groups to watch ever. First you have the one and only Tiger himself (enough said). Then you have Boo. Boo is the most animated player out there today. He is just a down home country boy who is playing the game he loves to provide for his family. He even said so himself that he just wants to play enough golf to have a good future financially and then he wants to hunt, fish, and spend time with his family. Bobby Jones, a pro who never became a pro. He played the game, not for the money but for the actual love of the sport. He wanted to prove that you could play the game for yourself not for the paycheck. He was probably the most talented player of the game other than Tiger and thats all he wanted to play for, TALENT. Last but not least, Charles Barkley. Old Chuck, a man of many words and many hitches in his swing. We all know that Hank Haney improved his swing on the range but just couldnt take that to the course. Even though Charles couldnt vastly improve his game with Hank he still kept on going and working at it because of his love for golf. He longs to get back to where he was back in the early 90's when he could make it down the fairway without losing a ball or injuring someone. I think all of these guys would be very fun to play with because each of them strive for the game and will never quit because golf is a game you can never perfect but you can always work to get better at it and thats what got them where they are today, all except Bobby who's game was in the past but still lives in the future. I would love to watch tiger play, that has always been my dream and i know my foursome isnt as far fetched as everyone elses but i think everyone would agree that it would be a blast.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to Yellowpages.com for providing the tickets! Hope to do this again soon!

Over 18 days, Devil Ball is running down our top 18 golf holes in the game. We'll jump all over the planet, digging out both the famous and the not-so-famous. We continue with a classic favorite.

No. 16: Southern Hills' 12th hole

The stats: 458 yards, par 4

The deal: Sure, the signature hole of Southern Hills in Tulsa looks pleasant enough there, doesn't it? Why, Ernie Els is having no trouble whatsoever punching it out of the sand, right? Not so fast.

The hole is a legend, winning accolades from eminences like Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer, and with good reason -- it's a deceptively tough beauty. Hogan once called it "the greatest par 4 in the United States." Palmer got eaten alive by the hole in 1970, taking a two-shot lead onto the hole in the second round of the PGA and giving it right back with a double-bogey. 

Golfers can carry the water in front of the tee box easily enough, but a fairway bunker requires a carry of 260-plus yards. And trying to approach the green demands a steady hand and ice water in the soul; bunkers surround the hole on three sides, and a creek -- visible on the left side of the photo above -- runs across the front. Miss by even a little, and you're in for some serious hurt. Get away with par, and you can admire the 12th at Southern Hills the best way possible -- in your rear-view mirror.

Tomorrow: We dance along the cliffsides.

Oh, Phil. If only there was a shot that could send you back in time a couple weeks, to take another shot at that putt at 15 at Bethpage in the U.S. Open.

Phil Mickelson shows you how to hit a golf ball backwards and on purpose [Waggle Room]
How to hit Phil Mickelson's backwards bunker shot [Golf.com]

For more daily golf stories, click here to bookmark Devil Ball Golf and click here to follow us on Twitter.

Recent Phil Mickelson stories on Devil Ball:
Phil Mickelson's 'pink armada' shows him a little love
U.S. Opens past: The joy and tragedy of the 1999 U.S. Open
Phil Mickelson kicks off his return to golf with a two-under day

Every week, Yahoo! Sports golf editor Michael Arkush and Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee take one topic and blast it all over the course. But since Ark is out for the week playing golf with celebrities like Jerry West, it's just JB here. My original topic, "Jay Busbee: Great Golf Blogger or Greatest Golf Blogger?" seemed a little obvious and unnecessary, so we go with this chestnut: is golf a sport or what?

BUSBEE: It happens every time we get people wandering over here who aren't golf fans to view one of the Tiger or crazy-golf-hole posts: some sharp fellow will offer up some witty variation on the old "fat guys hitting a white ball with a stick ain't a sport" theme. Their argument, poorly spelled as it is, is this: how hard can it be to swing a club at a ball? The idea being, a sport involves rigorous physical competition that demands the utmost from its participants. The fact that you can continue to golf while tipping 300 pounds indicates that golf is closer to the World Series of Poker than football.

BUSBEE: You're exactly right! And in the World Series Of Poker, they walk six miles over the course of the game, right? And tossing those chips into the pot demands complete precision and a total mastery of oneself and one's muscles, right? Please. Golf can be played in a slack, careless manner, but as anybody who's ever watched the L.A. Clippers or the Kansas City Royals can tell you, so can "traditional" athletes.

BUSBEE: Yeah, but as columnist Dan LeBatard once said, any activity where you can eat a hot dog while competing isn't a sport. Plus, there's nobody actually trying to stop you from putting the ball in the hole. If you did have the threat of offensive linemen flattening you, it'd definitely speed up the game and take it into the realm of sport, but without that possibility, it's an activity, nothing more.

BUSBEE: And those designated hitters, those relief pitchers, those football kickers, those hockey and basketball defensive stoppers who come into the game for thirty seconds, those guys are more athletically legitimate than golfers? You're an idiot and I can't believe you and I share a mind. Golf is absolutely a sport, and I can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Look up at the top of this page. Does it say "Yahoo! Activities"? "Yahoo! Games"? "Yahoo! Recreational Pursuits"? No. Done and done.

Okay, you're up. Is golf a sport or not? Settle the issue while I go off to therapy.

If you win, you get two free tickets good for entrance on either Saturday, July 4th or Sunday, July 5th, plus free parking, a pairings guide, and the joy of getting something for nothing. While you're there, Yellowpages.com mobile concierges will be something called the "AT&T Digital Clubhouse" to help you get around the Congressional course. (Tiger's been consulting them for how to stay on the fairway, I hear.) And hey, when you're done with your day, why not use Yellowpages.com to find a good watering hole to raise a glass to your friends here at Devil Ball?

So here's the deal: Tiger Woods is playing this weekend, as you may have heard. With that in mind, I want you to construct the ultimate foursome around Tiger. You've got all of history and human creative expression to work with, so if you want to have Tiger play with George Washington, Joan of Arc and Wolverine, so be it. List your foursome, and then make your case for why you chose Tiger's three mates. Simple, right?

Post your entry in the comments below, and/or email it to me at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. This contest is open to everybody, but please make sure you can actually go to the tournament. Those of you on other continents or in other time zones from D.C., feel free to post your foursomes, but please also note that they're not for contest consideration.

Now, since the tournament starts, well, tomorrow, we're not going to be running this contest for very long. Exactly 24 hours, matter of fact. Contest ends at 12 noon Eastern on Thursday, July 2, and we'll post the winner's name here shortly thereafter. It'll be up to you to keep an eye on the site and claim your prize. The contest organizers will then overnight your tickets to you, and you'll be able to go say hi to Tiger for us!

Thanks again to Yellowpages.com for supplying the tickets. Now, have at it!

UPDATE: Sit tight, we're sifting through all the entries and should have a winner for you by 1:15 Eastern!

Bad news: nobody wants to play with people like us. Good news: we can get our clubs at a huge discount, because according to a new GolfChannel.com poll, nobody's buying golf equipment anymore. The poll found that 54 percent of golfers would spend less than $500 on golf equipment in 2009, while 11 percent would spend nothing at all. (These are the types that steal range balls, then ask, "how did that get in my bag?" when they're called out for having an X-out on the green.)

On the other hand, golfers are still golfing. It's what we do. Just over half will take at least one golf-related trip, but 30 percent won't leave their own confines. Just over a third expect to play 26 to 50 rounds in 2009, and 44 percent will play "as many rounds as their other half will allow," which is a dubious gray area.

Now, I have no idea how those numbers compare to non-economic-apocalypse years, so here's where you come in -- how much do you spend on golf equipment each year? How much do you travel?

Economic woes have strong grip on golfers' wallets [GolfChannel.com]

For the next 18 days, Devil Ball will be running down our top 18 golf holes in the game. We'll jump all over the planet, digging out both the famous and the not-so-famous. We continue with a secluded gem.

No. 17: Fishers Island 7th hole, par 4

The story: Fishers Island is an enclave off the coast of New York that's absolutely gorgeous and charming in its New England way, and the course was designed by Seth Raynor. The course has a list of awards as long as a driver, and consistently ranks among the Top 100 in the country on various lists.

While you can't tell much about the 7th from that 3D map at right, this is a lovely, sweeping hole that looks out on Long Island Sound and a lighthouse. And it's a good thing you've got something gorgeous to look at, because the hole itself is a monster. (For a more scenic view, click here for a slideshow from Forbes Traveler.) What it lacks in grandeur and scale, it more than makes up for in sheer gut-churning terror, as the winds and rough can take your ball, never to be seen again. But hey, at least it's a pretty view.

Tomorrow: A Midwestern classic

Guess what's the hottest ticket in D.C. Nope, it's not Nationals games with President Obama or a Redskins game in Daniel Snyder's private box. It's the mysterious fourth slot in Tiger Woods' foursome at the Wednesday pro-am kicking off the AT&T National this year. Woods has already invited Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, which sounds like the opening to a bad joke: "Tiger, Tony Romo and a congressman go to a golf course ... " But who will take the fourth slot?

The Washington Times assumes that the fourth will be someone "with military ties," which is appropriate and fitting and also a touch boring. Why not Gilbert Arenas? Alexander Ovechkin? John Riggins? President Obama himself?

Whoever it is, they'll be teeing off with Tiger at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. (The sun will be up, which probably rules out former Vice President Cheney.) Tiger, you know -- he's won a few golf tourneys in his day. Romo is a decent golfer, who's halfheartedly tried to qualify for the U.S. Open. Boehner -- be sure to say his name correctly; it's pronounced "bayner" -- claims a 7.5 handicap, and loves to do big-money fundraising on the links, according to the Washington Post. Two years ago, Woods played with members of the military and George H.W. Bush; last year, he was sidelined with that pesky knee injury.

Bottom line, if you're a golf fan and you're in D.C., get yourself over to Congressional on Wednesday morning. You don't want all the policy wonks cheering louder for Boehner than Tiger, do you?

Power Trio [Washington Times]

Every day, we bring you the best in golf news and opinion. Get up to date on your way to the first tee.

• John Hawkins says we're in the midst of one of the most boring PGA seasons in years. Do you agree? You must agree! (Lucas Glover's family is ineligible to answer this question.) Quit yawning, Oliver Wilson! [GolfWorld]

• Playing 18 holes with Jerry West, reflecting on life, love and the NBA. [Yahoo! Sports]

• Paul Goydos may not win much, but he's golf's undisputed king of the one-liners. [Links Life]

• A video interview with golfer Ryan Moore in the streets of NYC! [Wei Under Par]

• For those of you interested in the PGA's "groove rule" -- which, alas, has nothing to do with shaking your groove thang -- the rule will be implemented on schedule in 2010. [Local Knowledge]

• Bright blue sand bunkers? Yep, it was the '60s, when people didn't know any better. Man, the '60s were stupid. [Armchair Golfer]

Got a link/tip for us? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter.

OK, sure, there are the media reports that have easy takes on presidential golf. We did it ourselves, breaking down Barack Obama's golf game and John McCain's experience with the game here. Political pundits use golf as a metaphor; George W. Bush took all kinds of grief, first for playing golf ("watch this drive!") and then for not playing golf. President Obama has played golf at least 11 times since taking office and has received both praise and criticism for his on-course habits.

Not to get all sociological here, but golf is a prism, a Rorschach blot for how we view our presidents. If we happen to like the president who's in office, golf is a necessary outlet for a man who's got a harder job than we could ever imagine. If we dislike the guy, he's a dilettante who's spending too much time working on his game and not enough on fixing the country. We also like to humanize our presidents; the fact that Gerald Ford used to brain spectators like a World War II sniper hurling Titleists somehow brought him down off the pedestal. (Well, Ford would've fallen off, but you know what I'm getting at.)

Here's the thing, though -- unless presidents beat themselves in that way, you can't get a good idea of what kind of golfers they really are. Ever played "client golf"? You know, sandbagging to letting the client win? Now imagine what it's like playing "presidential golf." Former presidents often laugh about how often they lose now that they're no longer in office. And current presidents get pretty much every single break you can imagine, and a few you wouldn't even offer your father.

So enough with the coddling. Hell with watching celebrities try to take on U.S. Open courses; I want to see how my president handles Winged Foot or Torrey Pines in championship conditions. I want to see how he drops a shot onto the 17th at Sawgrass, how he sticks the ball on the 12th at Augusta. You want to test your leader in crisis situations, see how he handles a knee-knocker of a putt with the night's entertainment on the line. A president who knocks 220-yard arrow-straight drives on the range doesn't impress me, but a president who can reach a long par 5 in two? Hail to the Chief, baby.

President Eisenhower named to World Golf Hall of Fame [PGA.com]

Every day, we bring you the best in golf news and opinion. Get up to date on your way to the first tee.

• Greg Norman is Australia's richest celebrity, having banked $123 mil  last year to get to $377 million. Farther back in second place is Nicole Kidman. No longer listed: Crocodile Dundee. [Local Knowledge]

• Dogs That Chase Cars is going to Scotland for a golf vacation. They can take our loft wedges, but they can never take our freedom! [Dogs That Chase Cars]

• LPGA players vented about the weather at this past weekend's tournament on Twitter. Stacy Lewis lost about $100,000 by falling apart in the wet weather. Yeah, I'd be doing more than Twittering about that. [Waggle Room]

• If you're looking for an epic takedown of both Michelle Wie and the army of apologists who overlook her faults, look no further. A Walk In The Park will make you sing with delight! [A Walk In The Park]

• A very helpful guide for media and fans alike to learn the intricacies of the womens' golf tours. I'm bookmarking this one. [Mostly Harmless]

• An ode to President Obama's golf habits, written in verse. [American Spectator]

Got a link/tip? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter.

For the next 18 days, Devil Ball will be running down our top 18 golf holes in the game. We'll jump all over the planet, digging out both the famous and the not-so-famous. We begin with an instant, recent classic.

No. 18: Hole 15, Bethpage Black

The details: 459 yards, par 4

The story: The 15th at Bethpage was where U.S. Open hopes went to die. A long, uphill par 4, this one gives you false hope. You tee off and think you're fine, and then comes your second shot -- as you can see above, you've got to shoot uphill and get the ball up and over the bunkers that wall the green. (See a flyover video here.) And the green is a sloping, swirling monster; only the fact that the green was soaked for a week solid kept the green from playing double-bogey all weekend long.

Both Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods saw their Open hopes crash against the 15th hole. Phil's bogey on 15 dropped him out of a tie for the 2009 Open lead, and he'd never see it again. Still, the 15th holds allure for golfers, in much the same way you have a fond recollection of the guy who kicked your butt in high school:

"When you cross over the road to get to the 15th tee, that's a pretty impressive moment of the day," Geoff Ogilvy said. "There's not many golf courses where you walk into a place you can see all the last four holes in front of you. It does feel like you go on an adventure and you come back for the crescendo to the finish."

"Adventure" -- that's one word for it. Phil would probably have another.

Next up: A New England hole so beautiful, you won't even realize how horribly you're butchering it.

Ryo Ishikawa, all of 17 years old, has qualified to play in next month's British Open at Turnberry courtesy of a three-shot victory in the Yomiuri Classic this past weekend. (That's the Open pin he's showing off there at right.) He had already been one of the youngest players ever to play The Masters this past year, where he missed the cut after shooting +6 the first two days.

Even so, the kid's got a bright future ahead of him. He's already the youngest winner on the Japanese tour, a feat he accomplished at age 15. (He beat the existing recordholder, Seve Ballesteros, by almost five years.) He's also the youngest player to win 100 million yen in one season (it's about $1.05 million) on the Japanese tour.

Other sports fret about the inclusion of young players on their rosters, but golf in effect welcomes them. Basically, if you can hack the course, it doesn't matter how young (or old) you are, you can get out there and play. In baseball and football, kids get absolutely annihilated by players far more physically mature. Basketball allows the freakishly gifted an opportunity to shine, but the emotional immaturity tends to overwhelm most child prodigies. But in golf, there's room for the young kids to at least take a shot at the leaderboard, with enough firebreaks in place (a steady caddy to keep you calm, the fact that you usually don't take blindside hits in golf) to keep you in the game.

Certainly, there are those who would suggest that driving kids into any professional sport at such a young age does a disservice to the kids' future prospects. And that may very well be true; sports pages are littered with tales of young multimillionaires fleeced by greedy elders. But for now, we won't proceed on that assumption with Ishikawa. For now, we'll just raise a glass of nonalcoholic fruit juice to his British Open invitation ... and cue up "November Rain" while we do.

Teenager Ishikawa thrilled to secure British Open place [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

Perry now has 14 wins and is establishing himself as one of the game's best. And even if he doesn't hit his desired mark of 20 PGA wins, we can say this: the guy's going to carve through the Champions Tour in a few years like he was Conan with a three-wood. Congrats, Kenny!

... wait, what? The leader's name is Sandra Gal? Oh. Uh, never mind.

Anyway, that'll do it for now; hope you've enjoyed this fine week of golf nonsense here at Devil Ball. Check back during the weekend, as we'll be throwing up new stuff periodically. You can also get a sense of what was going on in the week in sports weirdness at my Weekender column out on the main Y! Sports Blogs page. Till then, stay out of the rough and keep your eyes out for them club-swingin' gals.

However, Singh won't be allowed to pony up his own cash, since he is not a United States citizen. Singh has a reported $8 million endorsement deal with Stanford Financial, and continues to wear their gear even though he's apparently not being paid any longer.

At a time when most executives are turning tail and running from both golf and accused swindlers, it's kind of impressive that Vijay is sticking with Allen Stanford. (And yes, it's perhaps a bit of enlightened self-interest in making sure he makes it known that he's sticking by Stanford -- or would if he could, anyway.) All I'm thinking is, where are all my friends with $500,000? Come on, dudes! Pony up!

Singh offers to pay $500,000 bail [AP via Golf Channel]

Oh, don't be fooled by the scoreboard. Yes, it looks like she shot a +3 to tie for 119th place after the first round. But we know the truth. We know that Natalie and Morgan and all the rest of the ladies are just going to go in the tank for Cheyenne, because that's what everybody does when the Woods family comes calling, right?

In all -- or slight -- seriousness, Woods currently sits two below the projected cut line, and twelve behind the leaders. So she's not going to light the world on fire from Day One, but that's okay; there's still time. No pressure, Cheyenne, no pressure at all. After all, as Shane notes over at FanHouse, Tiger missed the cut in his first PGA event, too.

Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson's niece rearended a Tour bus and got locked in a clubhouse bathroom before her round.*

*-No, not really. I don't even know if Phil has a niece. Sergio Garcia's niece, however, was spotted curled up in a fetal position and weeping.**

**-Um, yeah -- again, I have no idea if Sergio has a niece. But I can say that Rocco Mediate's niece -- aw, I'll stop here.

Sandra Gal leads by one at LPGA in Rochester [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

Make no mistake; this wasn't any kind of illegal-ball situation where Zinger was playing some juiced ball. No, as Golf Digest notes, the problem was this: Callaway Golf had asked the USGA in May to take its "Tour i" golf ball with one dot off the list because some of its run exceeded the USGA's weight standards. Callaway then rolled out a "Tour i" ball with TWO dots to replace it. Understandable, if really kind of hairsplitting.

Unfortunately, Callaway couldn't round up all the little single-dotters, and Azinger had some still in his bag from the Transitions Championship in Tampa. At that time, the ball was still legal. Azinger played one of the single-dotters and shot a -2 68 at the Travelers, but realized after the round that he might have a problem. He contacted PGA officials, and sure enough, he got DQ'ed.

Yes, it seems minor -- absurd, really -- but where you stand on this issue really determines where you stand on golf as not just a sport, but a philosophy. Azinger could've certainly tucked the ball right back in his bag -- or buried it in a Connecticut landfill -- and nobody would have known. But like J.P. Hayes, the golfer who disqualified himself from Q School after playing an incorrect ball, Azinger knew that he would know, and that would be enough.

At least now he's got a little more time to work on his fastball.

Azinger DQ'ed for playing Callaway ball not on conforming list [Golf Digest]

Anyway, your U.S. Open winners were Not This Time Vosh, TMK, and Drive For Show Putt For Dough. Top three in the league continue to be shagongolf, golfindonesia and Ho' Fo' Sho'. Congratulations to them and their ongoing supremacy.

It's never too late to get in the mix; we'll be awarding all kinds of sweet prizes to the seasonal and overall winners. (Note: if you're in the original "Devil Ball Golf League" group, drop that one and come on over to the new one below.)

To join, click on that banner there at right (or go here), create your team, go to the "Private League" section, and then enter the following info:

Team: Fans of Devil Ball
League ID: 34
Password: devilball

Jump in now and join us! Go!

But one guy led the pack, one guy who's got the deadeyed cool of a middle-level manager and the haunting physique of an insurance adjuster. If you were picking athletes out of a lineup, Kenny Perry would be picked after, I dunno, a Quik-Stop clerk and a couple of skate rats, but damn, does the guy know how to golf.

Perry is golf's Steve Carrell, a phenomenally talented guy who somehow found his footing only after he turned 40. Perry's 2008 was an interesting little story -- decent golfer goes on a run to get himself into the Ryder Cup in his home state -- but lo and behold, Perry hasn't gone away. He won the FBR Open on Super Bowl Sunday, then took the Masters to 74 holes. He's ranked #7 on the World Golf Rankings and #8 on the FedEx Cup list, and he's currently leading the Travelers by two shots after shooting a course-record-tying 61 on Thursday.

Perry won his first PGA tournament back in 1991, at a time when Rory McIlroy was two years old. He's won 12 more since then. A few months back, he said he wanted to win 20 tournaments in his career. He was met with chuckles from the golf media, but the way he's playing now, nobody ought to be laughing too hard. It'll be tough for Perry to get seven more wins, but the way he's been playing the last 15 months, I wouldn't bet against him.

KP20, baby. KP20.

All of a sudden, Times Square is turning into a sports arena. Just weeks after NASCAR's Brian Vickers pulled off a full pit stop in the middle of rush hour, Tiger Woods and Jimmy Fallon decided to play a little round of golf.

The promotion, for EA Sports' new Tiger Woods 10 video game, was a three-hole showdown where Woods and Fallon duked it out on the Wii. And apparently, Woods fared no better against Fallon than he did against Lucas Glover et. al. According to Golfweek, Woods double-bogeyed the first hole, Fallon birdied the second, and that was that.

"He needs to change his attitude," Fallon gloated afterward. "He walks around like he's the best player in the world."

Woods, for his part, was deadpan about his second straight New York loss. "It's about how I played in the (U.S. Open)," he said. "I got schooled at my own game."

Tiger gets schooled [Golfweek]

More photos follow ...

Hit the Yahoo! logo, win a prize!

Hollywood comes to Devil Ball this week as Anthony Anderson, star of "Law & Order," joins us. He's here to talk about "Golf in America," the new Golf Channel series about so many stories within the world of golf.

So we begin by talking about that, but we delve into plenty of topics beyond. What's his game like? Who's in his usual golf foursome? How good a golfer is Barry Bonds? What's it like playing with Tiger Woods? And who would triumph in a battle of two of Anderson's landmark characters, Det. Kevin Bernard from "L&O" or Antwon Mitchell, the ruthless criminal drug lord from "The Shield"? It's a fun interview, and I think you'll dig both the podcast and the show. Enjoy!

As always, we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Play below, download or subscribe to us through our new iTunes site; we'll love you no matter what you do.

Click here to download.

Every day, we bring you the best in golf news and opinion. Get up to date on your way to the first tee.

• In honor of Ed McMahon, the top five sidekick/caddies of all time. I don't think the llama there made the cut. [Golf Guy]

• The Wegmans LPGA, which starts today, is the last chance for a lot of players to get themselves Priority status and make their next couple months much easier. [Hound Dog LPGA]

• The World Golf Tour finished up its Virtual U.S. Open, and even though 187,000 entered, only 234 made the cut at even par 70. Congrats to player "NASAGolfer," who won the championship. [WGT.com]

• What went wrong for Ricky Barnes on the final day of the U.S. Open? Hear it from the man himself. [Sports Radio Interviews]

• Re-ranking America's greatest public golf courses, this time by price. Greens fees start at $50 and go up -- way, way, way up -- from there. [Golf Digest]

• This is awesome: an old guy pulled a handgun on three golfers at an Austin, Texas muni. Their crime? Playing too slowly. Punishment fits the crime, I'd say. [Geoff Shackelford]

Got a link/tip for The Clown's Mouth? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter.

Everybody who's even remotely a golf fan tunes in to see the majors. But unlike the NFL, not every golf weekend is must-see for the casual fan. No, if Tiger's not there, if Phil's not there, if there's no compelling reason to watch, most fans won't.

Now, some fans have the knee-jerk reaction of "so what? If they're not watching, they're not golf fans. Who needs them?" We do. All you need to do is look to the LPGA's unfortunate example -- tournaments on the far reaches of cable, if at all -- to see where the non-Tiger, non-Phil PGA could be headed.

So what's golf to do to keep everyone tuning in? Well, that's what we're here to discuss. For starters, it's my opinion that golf needs to go much farther in developing the personalities of its players. Golf needs to follow the example of basketball, football and NASCAR, sports that get their players out in the public eye in ways outside the normal sports realm. Getting Lucas Glover on Letterman once is a start; getting him (or someone else) invited back time after time is much better. Get people to identify with more than just the two big names, and you'll get people tuning in to see them play.

Yes, it's a bit crass; yes, it's celebrating celebrity over skill. But we're in a different era now than the days of Jack and Arnie; golf for golf's sake isn't enough. If we want to get people interested in more tournaments than the majors, we need to give them more reasons than just Tiger and Phil.  

Golf is already under assault as an elitist, exclusionary sport out of step with these recessionary times. The last thing we need is tournaments that are sparsely viewed and further marginalized. So what do we do? You're up now.

Each week, Five To Watch breaks down the most significant players and storylines for the upcoming weekend's tournament. We're not saying these guys will win, or that you should pick them for your fantasy team; we're just saying you ought to keep an eye on them. You never know what might happen. This week: We leave the muddy muddiness of Bethpage behind for the hopefully greener greens of Hartford and the Travelers Championship. And here's who we like:

Kenny Perry: We've been riding the Perry train for quite a few stops now, and dammit, one of these days it's going to make it all the way to the station on time. Why not this weekend?

Stewart Cink: The Twitterin' man is the defending champ here, and he's got too good of a game to stay winless this year. He's comfortable in Hartford, even though he's from Down South, and I expect to see him in contention all weekend. I also expect to read about what he has for dinner every night afterward.

Lucas Glover: Glover is a solid ball striker with a reliable if low-key all-around game, and one of these days it might win him one of these little off-week tournaments. What? Am I missing anything?

Anthony Kim: His quietly strong performance at the Open is a potential harbinger that he's getting his game back on track after a wobbly start. He's never played in Hartford before, but he'll find it's no Bethpage.

Hunter Mahan: He's still seeing balls hit flagsticks and carom into the rough, and no, that's not a symbolic metaphor for anything. He's also got a habit of owning Hartford, which makes him a fine pick this weekend.

All right, your turn. Who's your pick for this week? Fire away!

Is it possible to dislike this dude? Really? Unless you're one of the three runners-up, of course.

The Top 10 list was pretty lame, all things considered; a much better what-Lucas-should've-done was rendered by -- oh my God, I can't believe I'm about to do this -- Rick Reilly over at ESPN. Reilly is still fun to read when he's just being flat-out goofy, not punning his way to the bank or trying to yank all your heartstrings at once, and his take on Lucas's missed opportunities is appropriately goofy -- if he won the Open, he'd "get a stepladder out and cut down the flag, like they do in basketball. I'd get up there with a pair of scissors, cut one little piece off, climb back down, pretend I was handing the scissors to the guy behind me in line -- which was just me again -- and climb back up, until the thing was off. Then I'd dig the entire cup out with all the turf around it and stick it in my bag, as a keepsake."

Either way, Glover is doin' fine, just fine.

(Visor tip to The Press Tent for this one.)

Which is why I'm frankly surprised we don't hear stories like this more often. A 47-year-old Milwaukee golfer threw back 10 beers over 18 holes, then decided he was perfectly capable of driving -- driving the golf cart, that is, which he did in the direction of his house. (The photo there at right is merely for illustrative purposes, not the actual golf cart itself.)

Problem was, he lived forty miles away from the golf course. And for battery-powered carts that start losing their juice on Hole 16, that's a tall order. Oh, and there's the small matter of the fact that he was completely ripped. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's report of the incident:

After [the police officer] turned on the squad car's emergency lights and air horn, the suspect turned to wave and then pulled the cart onto the shoulder of the highway, according to the report. But the man continued driving the cart.

The deputy then used a siren, and the driver eventually stopped the cart about three-tenths of a mile south of the intersection, the report says, or about a mile from the golf course....

The man admitted that he had consumed around 10 beers while at the golf course, but that he did not believe he was intoxicated.

The suspect later told [the officer] that he did not know where he was at the time of the traffic stop and that "he did not even realize he was driving the golf cart on the road until he saw the squad with lights behind him," the report says.

Awesome. He's building up endurance. Or, as Dash put it at Deadspin, "Putting up two bogeys in the final four holes when you're leading the U.S. Open will really do a number on a guy."

See what happens when John Daly gets his act together? You get a bunch of amateurs trying to bite his routine!

Driver takes to the street -- on golf cart [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via Deadspin]

The Masters, as we saw this year, has a thrilling sudden-death playoff right off the bat. The PGA has a three-hole playoff and the British goes four, with sudden death following thereafter. So why, then, does the U.S. Open continue to force this unwieldy extra-day playoff on us?

Make no mistake, last year's showdown between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate was one of the best days of golf in history. And if we'd ended up with a four-way tie for the lead at Bethpage, which with three holes remaining was a distinct possibility, we might still be shaking our heads at how amazing it was. (Or still watching it, depending on the weather.)

But we were millimeters last year from a Rocco Mediate-Lee Westwood playoff. (Everybody forgets that Westwood was in the hunt right until the 18th green last year.) And this year, we were inches from a Lucas Glover-Ricky Barnes playoff -- compelling, yes, but not exactly earthshattering.

So what's the best solution? I think that if at all possible, you complete the tournament on its final day. Of course, light and other factors can come into play, but you establish a system that gives you the time to get in a few extra holes.

By the same token, take luck out of the equation. As Angel Cabrera and Kenny Perry can tell you, the difference between winning and losing the Masters is a matter of inches, and fate can be capricious.

So I say, add a few more holes to the end of the day, then go for sudden death. And if they're still tied after five sudden-death holes, it's pool cues and trash can lids, gladiator-style.

One more post later today focusing on the future Open sites, and then we're done. Promise. After all, we've got the British Open to force down your throat before long.

It's impossible to imagine the weight of this tragedy on Smith, who joined the PGA Tour in 1995 and won the 2002 Buick Classic. "Words cannot begin to express how difficult of a time this is for our family and we appreciate the generous outpouring of support that we have received," Smith said in a statement. "We would appreciate it if you would continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers, and kindly ask that you please respect our privacy during this extremely difficult time."

After the disclosure of Amy Mickelson's illness and the fatal wreck involving the friends and family of Ken Green, this has been an extraordinarily difficult few weeks for golf. The sport pulled together for Amy Mickelson, and there has been significant support for Green, whose leg was injured badly enough to require amputation. Hopefully the Tour will continue in caring for yet another devastated member of its extended family.

Golf, like any sport, provides both a refuge from and a mirror of our lives outside the course. Hopefully Smith will be able to find some sort of comfort from golf, either from the game itself or the people around him.

Smith in shock following wife's death [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

Ms. O'Neal was a four-year starter on the Arizona State golf team, and is a former NCAA Long Drive champion. She was slated to be the quarterback on the Lingerie Football League's Phoenix Scorch, as you can see there at right, but bowed out to play golf. The LGL's loss is golf's gain.

Now, should you wish to learn more about Ms. O'Neal -- I mean, a lot more, like borderline-stalker more -- feel free to visit InGameNow to check out more photos. And root for Blair in next Monday's finale.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Tiger-vs.-Phil debate.

Big Break: Blair O'Neal [Golf Channel]
Blair O'Neal will win Big Break [InGameNow via Deadspin]

• What does the winner of the U.S. Open do for an encore? Why, go to Hartford, of course! Wouldn't you? [Golf Digest]

• Would Bethpage make a good location for an upcoming Ryder Cup? Phil Mickelson certainly things so. [Links Life]

• Sweet mother of mercy, Rocco Mediate sweated a hell of a lot at the Open. [Sports Hernia]

• Golfweek dishes out the "Lookies," judging how well everybody dressed on the course. [Golfweek]

• The Golf Girl dishes on the kickoff party for the new long-drive series "Titans at the Tee." [Golf Girl's Diary]

• Considering Mike Davis's first term as setup man for the USGA. [Waggle Room]

Got a link/tip for us? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter.

The U.S. Open is always the toughest stop of the year, and the USGA wouldn't have it any other way. Indeed, the USGA seems to take some kind of perverse pleasure in running golfers through a green-and-sand horror show. "What if we make the par 3s 800 yards long?" "What if we shrink the greens to the size of a card table?" "What if we put the hole on the side of a cliff?"

And golfers, bless their plaid-panted hearts,are prima donnas, accustomed to first-class travel, accommodations and golf courses. So they complain about course setup and pin placement and rough depth and probably the post-round buffet, too.

Part of the allure of the Open is watching how the greatest golfers on the planet step up to the greatest challenges. But let's be honest, part of it is also the schadenfreude factor -- taking pleasure in others' pain -- as we watch these guys hack their way around the course like they were weekend duffers trying to sneak in 18 before mowing the lawn.

So is it fair? Should the USGA encourage the growth of rough deep enough to hide a toddler, encourage pin placement on greased greens that undulate like an EKG? Hell yes, it's fair. We spend every week watching tricked-down courses where golfers throw up minus-20 rounds. Why not see one week where they're not the heavy favorites to tame the course? Survive the U.S. Open, and you've beaten not only the field, but Mother Nature her own self.

Next year, the Open will be at Pebble Beach. I'm thinking the USGA still has time to build an island green half a mile out in the Pacific.

Exhibit A: Ricky Barnes. If, last Thursday, you were going to predict a guy to break the U.S. Open 36-hole scoring record, Barnes would have ranked just ahead of the guy hawking black Bethpage golf balls in the gift tent. And yet, Barnes went out and did just that. (Broke the course record, that is. Maybe he sold souvenir balls too, but I can't vouch for that.)

Golf works in swings, though, and as high as Barnes swung in the first two rounds, you knew a course correction was coming. For Barnes' sake, you just had to hope his game would regress to the mean sometime later this month.

No such luck. Shortly after breaking into double digits under par and extending a six-shot lead over the field -- both astonishing achievements in a U.S. Open -- Barnes began giving away his riches faster than that Philanthropist guy whose ads we saw all weekend long. This wasn't some epic, quadruple-bogey collapse; this was the death of a thousand cuts -- or a dozen bogeys, whichever.

From the moment that he sank a birdie on 17 in the third round, Barnes began a steep dive. He bogeyed eight of the next 13 holes, including a stretch of four in a row from 5 to 8 on Monday. He righted the ship with a birdie on 13 and then held steady for the rest of the way, which was still almost enough to win. Had Lucas Glover not played astoundingly grounded golf on the back 9, Barnes could have hung around long enough to vulture a win.

There are already people throwing out the "choking" label, comparing his collapse to Greg Norman's 1996 Masters debacle. And yeah, throwing up a +6 when all the other leaders are shooting +3 or below isn't exactly the model of stable, within-yourself golf. But Barnes just flew too high too soon. We didn't expect him to be where he was.

I'm proposing a one-tournament Choke Mulligan, where we forgive all but the most egregious, Van de Velde-esque collapses. Give everybody a chance to get their feet under them on the big stage before we wallop 'em. But by any account, Barnes just cashed his in. Bring it home next time, Ricky.

-For more of Yahoo! Sports and Devil Ball's U.S. Open and golf coverage, click here to bookmark us and follow us on Twitter.

Seriously, nobody thought this could happen. Nobody. For the last five years, Duval's name has showed up on Thursdays and Fridays, usually so that somebody can cluck, "Duval ... boy, what ever happened to that guy?" A variety of problems absolutely buried his game beyond all hope of recovery, or so we thought.

And here he was, taking punch after punch -- some self-inflicted, some course-inflicted -- on one of the toughest U.S. Open challenges in recent memory. Even making the cut was an accomplishment here, but he kept coming. He got onto the front page of the leaderboard. He got to within a couple shots of the lead. He rebounded from a triple-bogey at No. 6 on Monday. And with just two holes remaining in the U.S. Open, he held a share of the lead.

Astounding. Amazing. Heart-warming. Pick your adjective, they all fit.

And now, everybody from Johnny Miller to your local newspaper golf guy (if there even is one anymore, alas) is proclaiming that "Duval is back!" It's as if the last eight years didn't happen, that people expect him to start challenging for wins like it was the Clinton administration all over again.

Here's the thing, though. As a sportswriter, I know I'm supposed to engage in overhyping my subjects beyond belief, then proceed to tear them down when they don't meet my absurdly high expectations. ("Tiger didn't win by 15 shots? FAIL!") I don't want to do that with Duval. He was one of the first golfers I followed closely, first as a fan and later as a journalist.  Shoot, check my wraparound shades I'm rocking there at right. All Duval, baby.

I want Duval to succeed. Badly. I think it'd be one of the great sports stories of 2009 if he truly does find his game again and makes runs at the British, the PGA and the Tour Championship. But for heaven's sake, let's go easy on expecting him to do that. That's exactly the kind of publicity crush that can completely crush the baby-deer-on-wobbly-legs that is David Duval 2.0.

Duval may or may not be "back." But after Bethpage, he sure knows the way to get there.

-For more of Yahoo! Sports and Devil Ball's U.S. Open and golf coverage, click here to bookmark us and follow us on Twitter.

1. "Tiger's going to make a run! They're telling me over and over, so it must be true!"

2. "Phil's making his charge! And the fact that they're running all those clips of him choking in previous Opens couldn't possibly be bad karma!"

3. "David Duval is challenging for the lead? Must be a rainout. They're rerunning tournaments from 2000."

4. "Where are mah soaps at? What's all this golf nonsense! I want mah 'Days of Our Lives'!"

5. "What the heck is a Lucas Glover?"

Well, we can't help you with most of those questions. Especially the soaps part. (And Victor was about to reveal what he'd done with Natasha's twins! Oh no!) What we can tell you is that Tiger was, in fact, about a foot away from challenging (the combined distance of all the missed birdie putts today), that Phil was doing just fine until they ran the montage of misfires, and that David Duval looks like a completely different golfer today than he did last week.

And then there's Lucas Glover. Ah, Lucas. A South Carolina golfer who played on Clemson's golf team, he was a former First Team All-American and a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team (the Ryder Cup for amateur players). He has exactly two PGA wins: the FUNAI Claissc at Disney in 2005 ... and the U.S. Open.

He's got a habit of dramatic wins. He won the FUNAI by holing out from a greenside bunker on the final hole of the tournament, beating out Geoff Ogilvy and Tom Pernice Jr. And he won the Open simply by staying steady down the stretch. After playing the front nine at +3, he calmed down and played the back nine at even par, erasing a bogey on 15 with a birdie on 16. And even though he had every chance to pull a Jean Van De Velde and yip away the tourney, he stayed solid and efficiently parred the final hole.

In fact, about the only thing lacking in his round was his celebration after winning. A little fist-pump, a wave to the crowd, and that was pretty much it. After Tiger's theatrics last year, we expect more out of our winners. Live it up, Lucas!

At that point, Mickelson had just tied for the lead with a thrilling eagle at the par-5 13th. But, as is becoming his annual routine at the biggest tournament in golf, he couldn't close the deal over the final few holes and ended up finishing in a tie for second place. In doing so, Mickelson set the record for most runner-up finishes at the tournament. 

All the standard ingredients of the Mickelson choke seem to be there: Phil near the top of the leaderboard, a few ill-timed bogeys, another player hoisting the U.S. Open trophy. It's like Winged Foot all over again, right? 

Wrong. This one wasn't like the others. Mickelson didn't give away this U.S. Open. He didn't win it, of course, but not being clutch doesn't make you a choker.

In 2006, Mickelson had a two-stroke lead with three holes to play, but failed to even make a playoff after double-bogeying 18. This year, the worst shot he made was pushing a knee-knocking three-foot putt past the hole on No. 15 (the same 15th hole that has been called one of the toughest in Open history.) His other late bogey, on the par-3 17th, came after a slightly-wayward tee shot found the deep rough at Bethpage. Mickelson missed a six-footer for par.

To win, those two putts have to go in. But Tiger Woods missed similar putts all week and nobody is saying he choked.

It's guilt by association with Phil. Because he has choked in the past, it's assumed that every poor shot is because of the ghosts of Winged Foot. They're not. Sometimes a missed putt is just a missed putt.

-For more of Yahoo! Sports and Devil Ball's U.S. Open and golf coverage, click here to bookmark us and follow Chris Chase and Jay Busbee on Twitter.

So when actual problems do happen in Daly's life, they're that much worse. Like this past week, when John Daly hit an Alabama tunnel with his bus. Okay, hang on, I know that sounds like the first line of a great country song, but let's play this one out.

Daly was driving in the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile, Alabama when pieces of his bus got sheared off and hit a car traveling in the other direction. The signs documenting the tunnel's height were apparently a bit confusing, and once Daly was in the tunnel, he sped up to keep from getting stuck. The driver of the other car is claiming damage to his car and neck and shoulder injuries. Boom, crash, drama!

So what's your first reaction? Whoo! Daly's back to his old ways! Awriiiight! Not so fast. If you go check out Daly's Twitter feed, you get a very different point of view, one that will give you a bit of a different perspective on the man and the incident:

"signs were too LATE and chains were NOT down to prevent--statistics show this happens multiple times week--No Clearance on the Tunnel AT ALL"

"chains hang from the top kinda dagle to sound the alarms but they weren't --thank god bc they would of smashed thru my windshield"

"thank GOD me and my girls were not hurt and I wish they would make signs VISIBLE after 17 years of driving a coach never seen this before!"

"i had a fender bender with my coach and i guess super Cop called the media?? weird--because i wasn't sited!" [sic]

"funny just read now the guy has Neck and Shoulder injuries?? From what??? something hitting his trunk?!"

"it's ok, thats why they are called accidents--it was simply driving home unfortunately someone tryn to chase my insurance"

So there you go. From Daly's perspective, it certainly looks like this one got blown way out of proportion, and it sure appears there was some glory-seeking along the way. Not rendering a verdict here on guilt or innocence, but I will say this: it's gotta be hard being John Daly. Can't a brother just ram his bus into the side of a tunnel in peace?

Daly's bus too big for an Alabama tunnel [AP via Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

-For more of Yahoo! Sports and Devil Ball's U.S. Open and golf coverage, click here to bookmark us and follow us on Twitter.

At long last, the end of the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Wet is in sight. But we're not done yet, friends, not by a long shot. Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes sit at -7, and a host of guys sit five shots back, but if you think this isn't going to tighten up, you haven't been paying attention. Here, we present your top 10 storylines heading into what should be the final day at Bethpage:

10. The weather: After all the days of horrific rain, it's fair to ask -- how's it going to be tomorrow? Answer: pretty darn good, relatively speaking. There's only about a 40 percent chance of rain, meaning we should get in plenty of good golf.

9. Stop, thief! There's every opportunity for somebody like Hunter Mahan to slip in and steal this one away from the two leaders. Give away a stroke here and a stroke there, and suddenly that five-stroke lead turns to a one- or two-stroke one. And then all it takes is somebody getting hot with the flat stick.

8. What if there's a playoff? If we end in a tie, which is quite possible, the USGA will attempt to play the next 18 immediately after the conclusion of the fourth round, with the intention of finishing this championship off once and for all tomorrow.

7. But I want to unleash my inner New Yorker! Tired of letting New York have all the fun? Come on by Devil Ball starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning and we'll be chatting up a storm. You're invited. Shoot, it's not like you're going to be working anyway.

6. The Canadian connection: Mike Weir appeared to have this tournament locked down, and then the second round started and he gave it all back, and more. Can he settle down enough to get back in the hunt?

5. Ricky Barnes fumbles away immortality? For a moment, Barnes was six strokes up on the field. Yeah, he's not anymore. He bogeyed his first hole of the final round to drop into a tie for first with Lucas Glover, and it's going to be a toss-and-turn few hours until he can get back out on the course and reverse this slide.

4. Zero to hero: Still, it's possible that Barnes or Glover, both of whom got in through qualifying, could get it together and win. Such a victory would be a testament to the strength of the Open field top to bottom, and a demonstration of the Open's truest ideals -- the possibility that you too could be a major winner.

3. David Duval's renaissance: If Duval wins at Bethpage, it has to be a contender for sports story of the year. And even if he doesn't, he's playing better than he has in nearly a decade.

2. Phil Mickelson's best shot: Here it is, Phil. The chance to craft a fairytale ending to one of golf's epic storylines. You're five shots back, and you know that the leaders are going to give some of those to you. Question is, are you ready to take the rest?

1. Hearing Tiger's footsteps: And here it is ... the question that's still on everyone's minds. Tiger seemed completely out of this event right up until the final minutes of Sunday night. Then he sank a birdie to put him at even after seven, and hope began to dawn for Tiger and his fans. Can he do it? He's only got 11 holes to work with, but if he's able to chop off four strokes, who knows what could happen?

We'll find out more Monday. Join us at 10 a.m. Eastern to close this Open out once and for all!

This Open has had its share of fine storylines -- Phil Mickelson playing for his wife, Tiger playing for major No. 15, rain playing with our heads, James Kamte playing for the first time -- but you've got to put the reemergence of Duval right up there at the top. For so long after winning the British Open in 2001, Duval was the classic "what ever happened to ... ?" story. Back problems, combined with apparent off-course issues, combined to send him from the heights of golf to -- as the U.S. Open began -- nearly 900th in the World Golf Rankings. Yes, you read that correctly. It was an ignominious fate for a major winner, you can damn near break the top 1000 if you hole out the 18th at beach putt-putt.

But the great allure of golf is that redemption is always lurking within the very next swing. For the first round, Duval blew out of the gate with a three-under 67. Nice and all, but nobody expected it to last. Dan Jenkins summed it up on his Twitter feed: "After David Duval's 67 today, what's the over/under on his second round--74? 75?" Take the under -- Duval shot 70 in the second round and then fought his way to another 70, knocking down birdies on two of the last three holes to keep himself at -3.

Think about that for a second. Going into the final round of a major, David Duval sits in third place. There was a time -- it was last Thursday -- when the only place you'd think Duval would be in third place at a major would be the line for the exits. And here he is, four strokes out of the lead and with only two relatively inexperienced guys ahead of him. As Rocco Mediate can tell you, strange things happen at the U.S. Open.

Duval still has a long way to go and a host of pursuers at his heels, and an 80 can jump right out of the Bethpage rough at any time. But if he manages to win this tournament, I'm prepared to call it one of the most impressive resurrections in golf history. Join us right here on Monday as we find out if Duval can close the deal.

Picking out a shirt for Sunday has to be about as difficult for Tiger Woods as it is for Jack Nicholson to decide whether to bring the sunglasses inside. But this morning, Tiger had an interesting decision: Is it OK to wear the traditional Sunday red even when it's not the final round?

Apparently it is. Tiger is decked out in his usual red Nike shirt this afternoon at the U.S. Open, despite the fact that it's only the third round and he'll be teeing it up two more times this tournament (early this evening in the fourth round and tomorrow morning when he'll conclude that round).  

Tiger's outfits are scripted by Nike months in advance, so the reason for the red is probably more contractual than anything, but it's still strange to see Tiger decked out in his victory colors despite having to play over 25 more holes. (Not as strange as it is seeing Tiger 14 shots off the lead, though.)

Assuming Tiger wears the red tomorrow (and it'd be surprising if he didn't), it will be the second straight year he wore his Sunday red on a U.S. Open Monday. Last year, you may remember, Tiger broke out the same style shirt for his 18-hole playoff with Rocco Mediate (who also wore red, a move I thought was intentional by Mediate -- he denied it). Tomorrow, he'll be wearing it with a lot less on the line.

As the rains fell yesterday, fans heckled Tiger Woods while he stood under an umbrella  to tee off. New York Newsday reported that one gallery tough guy shouted, "We're on Long Island, baby, where men are men! Put that umbrella down!"

Woods apparently tried to quiet down the crowd as other golfers teed off nearby, but certain fans weren't having any of it. "Suck it up, you've got your own video game!" somebody else hollered. Other examples: using Fred Funk's name as an obscenity (which could actually be pretty funny, but these mooks probably screwed it up), hollering "This Bud's for you!" (huh?) and just bellowing out "you suck!"

Weak, weak, weak sauce there, Long Island. If you're going to yell -- and after three days of rain, I can't blame you -- jeez, bring more game than "you suck!"

Our colleagues over at Yahoo UK noticed the same thing, posting the following during yesterday's round: "The crowd have clearly had nothing to do over the last 90 minutes or so than to sit in the beer tents knocking back endless bottles of grog. From the amoung of yelling and cheering going on -- at even the smallest provocation -- you'd think this was the back nine on Sunday. Rory McIlroy just earned a massive cheer merely for performing the feat of spinning a ball back!"

Hey, it's the law of nature. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, New York sports fans gotta act like total clowns. Enjoy the rain, goofballs.

Tiger Woods taunted at 10th hole [Newsday]

Good thing today is the longest day of the year, because the golfers at the U.S. Open will need all the daylight they can get.

With this morning's rain delay pushing the resumption of the third round back to noon ET, the 109th U.S. Open is guaranteed a Monday finish for the first time since 1983 (not including playoffs). With rain still in the forecast for tomorrow, there's a chance that the winner's trophy might not be presented until Tuesday.

While we're waiting for golf to resume, here are seven key things you should know about today's weather delay.

1) Play will resume at noon, with the leaders going off at 12:30 p.m. ET. Much like yesterday, the plan is for each to group to finish and then re-pair for the final round, which is scheduled to tee off on the 1st and 10th holes at 5:30. The golfers would then play until it becomes too dark (around 8 p.m. ET).

2) That's the best case scenario, by the way. (It's about the fifth one the USGA has had in the past three days, so take it for what it's worth.) Rain stays in the forecast the rest of the afternoon and there's also a 40 percent chance on Monday.

3) The New York Daily News reports that the USGA has had discussions about moving up the tees on the 411-yard par-4 18th hole past the waterlogged fairway. The 18th would then play between 275 and 350 yards instead. As Jason Sobel wrote on his ESPN.com blog, all 18 holes need to be playable in order for golf to resume, and the 18th fairway is currently providing the most trouble (it's the lowest point on the course.)

4) There was an hour delay in between the second and third rounds yesterday, as the USGA worked on pairings and on re-locating hole and tee locations for the 18 holes at Bethpage Black. That seemed too long. In theory, the first few holes on the front and back nine should be empty after the final groups have come through, so by the time the last groups get off on No. 9 and No. 18, respectively, the grounds crew could have already been worked on the other 16 holes. We'll see if there's such a lengthy delay today.

5) You may have noticed some oddities to the tee times from yesterday. For instance, Tiger Woods (+3) teed off at the same time as Phil Mickelson (-1). This is because, for the split start, the USGA cuts the field in half to send twosomes out on No. 1 and No. 10. The draws are divided into the top half and lower half, with the top half going off in ascending order on No. 1 (until the leaders tee off). On No. 10, the middle half starts and pairs are released in descending order, so that the final group that tees off will be the golfers with the highest second round scores. This is done so that those closer to the lead will be playing in the same conditions as the golfers with similar scores.

6) Play for tomorrow is scheduled to begin between 7:30 and 9 a.m. ET. That all depends on how much golf is played today, of course, but you'd think that later, rather than sooner, would be best so the leaders could finish sometime in the early afternoon.

7) If an 18-hole playoff is necessary, it would be played on Monday, provided that the final round ended before 4 p.m. ET. 

Whatever James Kamte may be, he certainly doesn't fit that mold. Kamte, who has the nickname of the year so far -- "Cobra" -- is a 26-year-old golfer from South Africa making his U.S. Open debut this week. How he got here, though, is one hell of a story.

Kamte grew up in South Africa during apartheid, meaning golf wasn't even an option. And not like "couldn't afford it"; more like "could die while playing."

"It was scary," Kamte told the New York Daily News. "I was a kid at that stage and it was scary what I was seeing, what I was hearing and what was happening around me. It was too risky for me to go out there and take a chance. You watched people getting shot coming out of their homes."

Kamte began caddying shortly after apartheid ended, and with the aid of Ernie Els' foundation -- which provided equipment and travel assistance -- Kamte blossomed. He won his first tournament by 18 strokes, and he now carries the hopes of a unified South Africa on his shoulders.

"We need a Tiger Woods of South Africa," Gary Player told the Daily News. "Everybody is dying to see a black champion from South Africa. All of our champions in the past have all been white. I told him, if you did become a champion, you will have all the white and black businessmen pouring money into your pockets."

Kamte met Jack Nicklaus in 2006 and wrote him to seek an exemption into the 2009 Memorial a couple weeks back. Nicklaus invited Kamte to the tournament, where he met Tiger Woods, who offered Kamte a chance to play with him if he reached the U.S. Open. The next week, in sectional qualifying, Kamte did just that, and got to play with Woods on Monday.

Kamte's story is one of those perfect metaphorical sports ones, and here's hoping it continues onward and upward. After two rounds, Kamte sits at +6, so his time at Bethpage is likely through. But with the dedication he's shown so far, he'll be back.

South African James Kamte qualifies for U.S. Open, plays 9 with Tiger [New York Daily News]

Things turned out a little better for the second Day 1 of the U.S. Open than the first Day 1, didn't they? Here's a lovely shot of the crowds and the bunkers. We'll be back throughout the weekend to discuss the ups and downs of the tournament. Feel free to put your observations below or write me at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. (Oh, and if you're looking for reading material while you're waiting for Sergio Garcia to stop waggling, check out my Weekender column on the main blogs page.) Enjoy the Open, and stay dry, everybody!

But Nicklaus had been working on his swing -- heck, he'd been working on pretty much everything in his game -- and it paid off when he arrived at Baltusrol to play the Open. Nicklaus shot an eight-under 272 to establish a new tournament record.

Significantly, though, Nicklaus didn't make the charge alone. He and Isao Aoki dueled their way through the final two days, with Nicklaus ultimately closing the deal with a putt on 18 to win by two strokes. But even as the crowd celebrated, Nicklaus frantically waved his hands to quiet them down. Aoki, you see, was still in line to receive a $50,000 bonus from for breaking the tournament record, and he hadn't yet putted. Aoki hit the putt to win the bonus, further cementing Nicklaus's position as both premier competitor and premier sportsman.

Memorable Moments at the U.S. Open: 1980 [NBC Sports]

(Thanks to You Been Blinded for the find.) Sure, Rocco didn't quite measure up there, but after Round 1, somebody's -2 and somebody's +4. Ain't sayin', just sayin'.

Ouch. And I thought you guys got raw in the Devil Ball comment section. See, you give everybody a cool social networking toy, and there's always somebody that ruins it for everyone ...

USGA Could Really Use Some Comment Ninjas [Deadspin]

Chris Berman announcing a golf tournament is like letting a bull into a china shop, provided that the bull is obnoxious, has a grating voice and makes awful puns.

Ten minutes after ESPN's coverage of the U.S. Open began yesterday, I had four text messages in my inbox complaining about how Berman was anchoring the coverage. After twenty minutes, I had to lower the volume. After 45 minutes, I thought that maybe a rain delay wouldn't be so bad after all.

If I had to single out one thing that's bad about Berman calling a golf tournament, I think I'd go with everything. He's too loud. He's not funny. He talks too much. He's too loud. He frequently gets things wrong. He isn't adept at describing which player and shot is being shown on the screen. And, oh, he's too loud.

That schtick is perfect for the Home Run Derby and on NFL Primetime (sort of), but not on the golf course. Why do you think ESPN doesn't bring him to The Masters? (And, no, I don't buy for one second that it's because of the NFL draft.)

Devil Ball Golf managed to make it through four hours with Berman yesterday and today and compiled a list of his five worst quotes from ESPN's coverage:

5) "A guy I really think has a chance to win here, if Tiger does not, is Ian Poulter." Nice qualifier there, Chris. So you're saying that Ian Poulter doesn't have a chance if somebody else wins? (By the way, Berman made the same prediction about five other golfers, at least. Strength in numbers, I guess.)

4) "Unfortunately, the leader right now at the U.S. Open is Dustin Hoffman, The Rain Man." Timely reference. I was waiting for him to say that, like Donnie Wahlberg, Anthony Kim was a "new kid on the block".

3) "Game on. The plot is beginning to thicken." He said that after Phil Mickelson birdied his second hole of the tournament. The plot hadn't even thought about forming yet, let alone had a chance to thicken. 

2) On Tiger's first hole of the day: "He wanted to make a four, not yell fore!" Sadly, the homonym humor was as sophisticated as Berman got yesterday.

1) After Peter Hanson hit a shot from the long rough: "Look, you have to say it: It's a Hansen with a shot like that, it was a Slap Shot. You have to say it!" No, you really don't have to say it. Better yet, you don't have to say anything. Anything at all.

Thankfully, Mike Tirico replaced Berman in the booth at 1 p.m. ET. It is but a brief respite, as he'll back on ESPN at 5 p.m. to finish off the network's coverage. Berman repeatedly referred to that as "the Happy Hour telecast". After listening to Berman all morning, Happy Hour doesn't sound so bad.

Well, after a barrage of criticism, the USGA did the unthinkable and reversed its policies ... kind of. If there's a Monday round -- still a distinct possibility -- then Thursday ticket holders will get in on that day. If there's not, well ... what are you gonna do about it, tough guy? (Apparently someone on ESPN Radio aired the idea of offering ticketholders a free round at Bethpage, which actually doesn't seem like that bad of an idea. Not that they'd be able to get on anytime soon.)

The problem, as cooler heads can understand, is that the event is sold out, and if you let everybody from Thursday in on one of the other days, you're looking at straining the capacity of the course from the moment the first extra person walks in. And at a course where logistics are paramount -- parking is always an adventure at Bethpage -- the idea of letting in thousands of extra people is absolute madness.

So there you go -- no guarantee that the Thursday folks will get any more golf, but at least the USGA didn't tell 'em to go pound (wet) sand.

Bad News for Spectators [FanHouse]
USGA Will Give Rained-Out Fans Monday Access [USA Today]

An amateur, Weaver finished his Day 1-and-a-half U.S. Open round at -1, good enough for a tie for second and, at this writing, one stroke off the lead. It's an impressive performance on a course that's been chewing up major winners left and right. Weaver's got game and -- just as important for storyline-hungry types -- he's got a momentous backstory.

Weaver, a Virginia Tech graduate, was only a few hundred yards away from the tragic shootings at the school in 2007. He recalls leaving class and hearing the shots at Norris Hall. And while it would be a shame for this story to define him the rest of his career, he certainly seems at ease both talking about it and acknowledging the life-changing effect it had on him.

And for now -- in a golf tournament that pales in significance to what he and his fellow students endured -- he's made it to Saturday at the U.S. Open. Okay, it's not the way he would have preferred to make it -- not yet, anyway -- but the way this course is playing, he's halfway to making the cut.