Golf Experts Blog

I'm in this golf betting pool with my brothers and dad where we pick a slate of players to back each year. And each year, one name bedevils me: Sergio Garcia. Sergio's the perpetual tease, playing under the "Next Big Thing" tag for nearly a decade now. Every time I pick him, he flames out; every time I don't, he flirts with greatness.

But, lo and behold, he's in great position at the Players Championship after shooting a six-under 66 in the opening round. We all know that Thursday results are about as valuable as Thursday's newspaper come Sunday, but if Garcia's playing from ahead rather than trying to come from behind, he's got a much better shot at taking this thing home.

And he's got to be praying this doesn't come down to a putting contest. He was inches away from winning the British Open last year, needing only a simple up-and-down to win. A bogey put him into a playoff that he lost to Padraig Harrington.

With that major in his back pocket, the murmurs would have ceased. But until he finally brings home that elusive major, whenever it is, he'll have to put up with the questions, the criticisms, the whispers that he can't close the deal.

So could he do it this year? Could this be the tournament where he finally breaks through? He's nearing age 30, and with Tiger always looming and a charging horde of talented twentysomethings coming up from behind, he's in for a fight every weekend.

But this year, Tiger's not around, and the kids are looking up at Sergio on the leaderboard. The road doesn't get any easier than it is right now.

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With all due respect to the PGA Championship, the field at the Players, even without Tiger Woods, is clearly the strongest of the year.

The golf course is more unforgiving than anything this side of Augusta National. And while the 17th will garner the majority of attention, as it always does, TPC Sawgrass is home to one of the best finishing stretches in golf. Starting at the 181-yard par-three 13th, a course that is short by normal tour standards (7,093 yards) turns into an iron maiden. One missed shot and a bogey or even double immediately enters the equation.

The winner is someone who can shape balls low in the wind and land irons on tiny landing areas. This is not a course that will be overpowered.

The five to watch include:

Stewart Cink: He tied for third a year ago and posted the lowest final-round score in the field. Plus, he's compiled three top-10s in his last three starts, including a T-3 at the Masters. He's due for a win.

Adam Scott: This is where Scott broke through in 2004, holing a clutch putt on the final green after hitting a ball in the water. He seems more confident with every passing week.

Anthony Kim: A dark horse pick. In his only other appearance in this event he shot 78-83, but have you watched this kid? His will be the most filmed golf swing during practice rounds this week, especially by teaching pros looking for the perfect model.

Andres Romero: Dark Horse No. 2, Romero has plenty of guts – and plenty of game. He dusted the rust off after a two-week break with a solid even-par performance at the Wachovia Championship.

Phil Mickelson: How can you not pick Lefty? In a Tiger-free field, Mickelson is always the player to watch.

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Erin Andrews never has problems like this.

Seems that the PGA pros are not exactly pleased with the job performance of the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman. At last week's PGA Tour player's meeting, several players-apparently under the impression that Commissioner Tim Finchem is the Hitman-told Finchem that he needed to get Tilghman hushed up, pronto.

The players' complaint wasn't with anything specific Tilghman said-including a certain comment from earlier this year vis-à-vis Tiger Woods and Southern justice-but with her perceived inability to manufacture drama out of thin air, as any good golf announcer should be able to do on a moment's notice.

Finchem pointed out that the PGA Tour doesn't actually control the Golf Channel, but simply the fact that this story leaked out of the players' meetings means there'll likely be action. Expect Kelly to start talking in a much lower register and using words like "majestic" to describe routine chip shots.

Really, it seems there's a solid group of players out to get Ms. Tilghman, a group that would cause dramatic and irreversible harm to her career if they got hold of her. What's the word for that kind of mob?… Oh, right. Never mind.

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There may be more difficult holes on the PGA Tour than the 17th at Sawgrass, but none are more famous, more photographed, and more threatening. Oh, sure, the 17th  looks all serene, especially when it's framed in one of those corporate message frames with a caption like "DEDICATION" or "TRANQUILITY." (Never "WET AGAIN? DAMMIT!" OR "HOW MANY BALLS DO I HAVE LEFT?", which would be a lot more appropriate.)

The Island Green is the centerpiece not just of this weekend's Players Championship, but of golf itself. We could bog down in some turgid Jim Nantz metaphor about supreme risk for ultimate reward, but you don't want to read that nonsense. Instead, let's take a look at some of the ways the legend of the 17th reaches far beyond Ponte Vedra:

• Tiger caused a bit of a stir this time last year when he called the hole "gimmicky," implying that all it was lacking was a windmill and a coupon for a free game. Since there was no championship on the line, Phil Mickelson had no problem standing up to Tiger and saying it was part of "the most exciting finish in golf."Read More >>

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The victory by Anthony Kim, 22, in the Wachovia Championship was the eighth this season by a player in his 20s, prompting the question: Who is the best professional golfer under the age of 30? Yahoo! Sports golf editor Michael Arkush and contributor Steve Eubanks disagree.

Eubanks: Adam Scott has shown signs of the brilliance everyone expected of him, but the best player in his twenties has to be Sergio Garcia. He's been around so long it's easy to forget that he and Scott are roughly the same age, and that Sergio has six PGA Tour wins and 10 international victories. It's also easy to overlook his 12 top-10s in major championships and the fact that he finished second last year in The Players Championship and the British Open. Since he hasn't been able to close the deal in a major, we tend to focus on his failures, but there's no doubt that Garcia still holds the title of Best Player Under 30.

Arkush: Of course, it's easy to focus on Garcia's failures. There have been so many of them, and on the game's biggest stages. Who would have ever imagined that, nearly nine years since Medinah (1999 PGA Championship), Garcia has failed to win a single major? Even with the dominance of Tiger Woods, this is completely unacceptable. The Best Player Under 30 is clearly Adam Scott. Yes, Scott, too, has come up woefully short in the marquee events. However, with his final-round 61 to win the Qatar Masters and his impressive performance in the Byron Nelson, it seems clear that the stardom we have long envisioned is about to emerge.

Eubanks: Scott shot 61 with Tiger on another continent, and he won the Byron Nelson while Tiger was courtside at an Orlando Magic game with his knee in a brace. Since neither player has a major on his resume, you have to look at wins and and finishes in events with strong fields. Garcia is better on both counts. Sure, the future might be different, but potential is like an unmined gem – priceless if properly unearthed and a worthless rock if mishandled. All we can judge these two by is the present. And, at present, Garcia has the better record.

Arkush: No doubt Garcia has the better record but that's not the issue. The issue is talent and potential, and that belongs to Scott. Besides, if you're so intent on recent performance, since the summer of 2005, Scott has won three PGA Tour events (Tour Championship, Houston Open, Byron Nelson) while Garcia has won – you guessed it – ZERO. Things might be much different if he had managed to par the 72nd hole at Carnoustie but he didn't, and that sums up Garcia's unfulfilled potential.

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Yahoo! Sports fantasy editor and NHL contributor Matt Romig is dedicating 2008 to improving his golf game. At the Turn will chronicle his successes and failures and give readers the opportunity to share and exchange tips of their own.

If you don't mind, I need a moment alone with my golf clubs.

We've been through quite a bit together, them and I. When I removed the bubble wrap some 10-12 years ago, I was a wannabe bogey golfer taking a mulligan per side and still flirting with 100. Today, as I get ready to mothball the oversized Titleist DCIs, I'm carrying an 11.1 index and a far greater understanding of exactly what it means to compete in the game of golf.

We've seen a few things over the years. The 7th, 17th and 18th tees at Pebble Beach. No. 18 at Kapalua's Plantation Course. The opener at Spyglass. Golf locales as varied as Bermuda's Port Royal, Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and Ireland's incredible Royal County Down.

We were together for my first 79 at Mare Island and all those rounds at the closest thing I ever had to a home course.

This could get sappy. Read More >>

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The news came out this week that players won't be tested for drugs during the British Open at Royal Birkdale this year. There will, however, be drug testing of spectators at the event as England tries to ensure that its people remain free of such substances as steroids and, of course, fluoride.

(I apologize for that insensitive joke about English dental practices. Frankly, I shouldn't talk. I'm on a low co-pay dental insurance plan that basically involves "Castaway" star Tom Hanks knocking out your bad tooth with an ice skate and a rock.)

PGA drug testing is set to go into effect in July and was to include the British Open, to be held July 17-20. But British golf officials said players who have already made it into the field by playing in qualifying tournaments in foreign lands – examples would include Asia, South Africa and rural areas of Florida and Maine – have not had the same drug education programs as their colleagues in America and Europe.

So on Monday, the officials announced there'd be no testing prior to the Open.

And I think you know what happened next. That's right, Roger Clemens began working on his golf game in hopes of getting into the British Open. Note: Clemens raised a few eyebrows Tuesday when he stepped onto the course with his caddy, country singer and "family friend" Mindy McCready, who admitted to the New York Daily News that she has  been carrying Clemens' clubs since she was 15, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, the PGA's new drug policy was approved last fall. Players received the complex 41-page document a month later and spent the winter having other people read it to them. Banned substances include anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and even beta blockers - drugs that calm the nerves and make it possible to stand over a 12-foot downhill putt with $100,000 at stake and somehow not bite off your own tongue.
(Footnote: The final page of the drug manual states that if Ian Poulter keeps wearing pink golf pants with matching pink golf shoes he will be tested for estrogen.)

In summary, the players won't have to submit to drug testing across the pond this year. Which might be a good thing.

Because if you think Tiger Woods swears a lot now, just imagine that moment in the Royal Birkdale clubhouse when he mistakes Rory Sabbatini's  specimen cup for a warm glass of English beer.

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In addition to a perk package that is among the best, Quail Hollow, a classic George Cobb design that opened in 1961, is precisely the kind of course the players adore.

Cobb has never gotten the credit he deserves as an architect. He was renowned for designing great risk-reward holes and a variety of par-threes.

Quail Hollow is no exception. Holes Nos. 7, 10, and 15 are perfect risk-reward holes where low numbers are possible, and mistakes are severely punished. The 16th is a tough par-four, followed by a superb par-three 17th that is 200 yards over water. The sixth, another par-three, can be stretched out to almost 250 yards. At the same time, the 14th is a drivable par-four.

The five to watch in this week include:

•Carl Pettersson: He's only an hour or so from home. Plus his T-4 showing last week should give him a boost to play well in front of the home-state crowd. 

•Adam Scott: Golf is a game of streaks, and Scott is on a good one. His clutch putting on 18 could suggest good things for the rest of the year. 

•Brandt Snedeker: He didn't have a good Sunday at Hilton Head, but with four top 10s before the first of May, and a week off to reflect on his coming-out party at Augusta, expect the wonderful play to continue.

•Ryan Moore: He's either missing the cut or finishing in the top 10. But this course is perfect for the way he shapes the ball. If the putter stays hot, he could contend again. 

•Stuart Appleby: Five top 10s already, and one of the few guys to break par on Sunday at Augusta: He's had two weeks off to get his legs back. This could be the week he vaults to the top. 

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If Cosmopolitan or Playgirl magazine wanted to do a risqué "Men of the PGA Tour" photo spread, they'd probably go after Tiger Woods or Sergio Garcia or some of the other hard-bellied young golfers. Now, thanks to a stunning actual videotape, we know where John Daly might appear as the centerfold: A Time-Life illustrated version of Moby Dick.

The videotape shows Daly playing golf shoeless and shirtless.  I haven't seen anything with that many folds since my daughter made me a Japanese origami swan. If you've ever wondered if reality TV can go too far, this video is Exhibit A. And B and C. It was made by a Fox news affiliate on Monday at Daly's golf course near the unusual country entertainment mecca of Branson, Mo. – where you can still hear Glen Campbell sing all of his hits, including his classic, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix (I'll Have To Get My Oxygen Bottle Refilled").

The Daly tape hit the air Tuesday. It is startling, stunning and nearly beyond belief. I've watched the images of a shirtless Daly over and over and I will now, in all seriousness, say this: I don't know if John needs professional help. I don't know if he needs guidance or some type of intervention by friends. But I do know that he needs a bra.

The segment was taped at a place called the Murder Rock Golf and Country Club in the Ozarks. The golf course website says players must have appropriate golf attire – "appropriate" in this case apparently meaning tight, tattered old pants accented by a plumber's crack.

"We are on location at John Daly's Murder Rock," the TV guy says, "and guess who I'm joined by?"

A second later the guest appears and we get the answer: It's the Michelin Man. Except it turns out to be Daly, who hints that this is some type of recuperation from recent rib surgery.

"It's beautiful," Daly says, glancing skyward. "Just letting the rib heal with some nice sun. Lettin' the rib heal."Read More >>

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