A recent article on the Sports Illustrated website tagged the U.S. Open as the best tournament of 2006 and the Open Championship second, while the Kraft Nabisco Championship came in third. What I want to know is this: What kind of drugs are they smokin’ over at S.I.?

It’s beyond belief that any golf reporter would select a tournament as best of the year when the top 4 finishers played the 72nd hole in a collective 5 over par. And it’s not like the 18th hole at Winged Foot features a dramatic shot involving water. No, it was just plain old poor play with a large dose of choking, to be sure. After playing Houdini all day, Phil Mickelson finally succumbs to the pressure with horrible decisions and makes double bogey. Colin Montgomerie makes double from the fairway with a 7-iron in his hand for the second shot. Then Jim Furyk forgoes his usual double-take and does a quadruple-take to line up his par putt. Needless to say, he missed, and all three missed a play-off by a single shot with winner-by-default Geoff Ogilvy. Not exactly what I’d call the best, unless we’re talking about car wrecks.

The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool was a metronomic exhibition of unerring iron play from Tiger Woods. After dusting off playing partner Sergio Garcia - the King of Sunday Chokers – early, Tiger had a working margin for the entire back nine. The outcome was never in doubt. This tournament was apparently picked as second best because of Woods’ emotional outburst (over his father’s passing in May) as soon as the final putt dropped. I personally felt more for the 2nd place finisher, Chris DiMarco. Would’ve been an even better story if he could’ve won a big one in memory of his mother who had just passed away a couple of weeks prior to this event.

The Kraft Nabisco had everything a Major Championship could want. Hall of Famer Karrie Webb rises out of a multi-year funk like a phoenix from the ashes and caps off a final round 65 with a slam dunk eagle from 115 yards on the 72nd hole to take the lead. Lorena Ochoa, who would go on to win Player of the Year, struggles with the final round lead as the field chases her down. The very popular Natalie Gulbis charges on the back nine but missed a birdie putt on the final hole that would’ve gotten her into a playoff. Playing with Ochoa, teenage phenom Michelle Wie was in or near the lead most of the day. After a bad decision to chip from the fringe for eagle instead of putting, Wie just missed a birdie putt to get into a playoff. Ochoa then knocks in an eagle putt to tie Webb and force a playoff. Webb makes birdie on the first playoff hole to win her first tournament in years. This tournament was nothing short of phenomenal and was the best tournament of the year - by far.

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