As of right this moment, Ben Curtis is playing better golf than any of the eight automatic qualifiers for the U.S. Ryder Cup team and it’s not even debatable. Five weeks ago, he posted a 7th place finish in the howling winds at Royal Birkdale in the Open Championship. Three weeks ago, he finished one stroke out of a playoff for the PGA Championship on the incredibly difficult set up at Oakland Hills. Then last week he once again ended his tournament one shot out of a playoff in the first round of the FedEx Cup. All three of these ... full post »

And the rich get richer. Not only are Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia playing as well or better than anyone in the world besides the idle Tiger Woods, now the inspiring comeback of Darren Clarke has apparently come full circle. Last weekend in the Netherlands, Clarke cemented his spot as one of Captain Faldo’s wild card picks by winning the KLM Open in convincing fashion. Starting with a two shot lead, he ultimately dominated one of the world’s best players and future Ryder Cup teammate in Henrik Stenson. Not that it was easy. Clarke had to survive a nervous par-bogey-par start, ... full post »

Maybe. If there is one thing U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Paul Azinger has repeated time and time again, it’s that he wants desperately to select hot golfers with his unprecedented four Captain’s picks. He has even suggested aloud that he would consider other Tours. Virtually all of us assumed that he was referring to the Nationwide Tour and some of those young upcoming stars IF they were dominating. But what of the older set? Certainly we witnessed in the Open Championship at Birkdale that a hot senior golfer in his 50s can still give the flatbellies a go. So I’m telling ... full post »

In addition to jockeying for FedEx Cup position, this week on the PGA Tour was supposed to be a week where the some of the American Ryder Cup hopefuls started to establish themselves as rounding into form to be one of Captain Azinger’s wild card selections. Perhaps a couple did that, most notably Scott McCarron and Jerry Kelly. Instead it turned into an American nightmare as Carl Pettersson dominated the field and firmly established himself as a likely European Ryder Cup participant. Captain Faldo was surely watching as he performed extremely well under the enormous pressure of winning his hometown ... full post »

The PGA of America has always seemed more progressive than the USGA. Most recently, it was wonderful when they finally acknowledged that their Ryder Cup selection process was not as good as that of the Europeans. Granted, it took five losses in the last six matches (and the last two were drubbings) to get their attention. But in comparison to the speed in which the USGA moves on anything, that looks like a jab from Muhammad Ali. Here is to hoping that they take some time to sit back and re-evaluate the way they set up Oakland Hills Country Club for ... full post »

Because of the new and much-improved selection process for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, eight golfers will automatically qualify for the event to be played in 6 weeks time, September 19-21. Six players have already locked down their spots. Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim and Justin Leonard will be playing at Valhalla. Two more will do so this week. So, we have a tournament within a tournament. As this week is a Major Championship, points – equaling $1,000 of earnings – are doubled. If a long shot were to win, a la Shaun Micheel in 2003, ... full post »