FanHouse Brad Faxon

There is one thing in golf that is miles bigger than a major championship or the rare double-eagle. It has only been done three times in the history of golf, with the last time coming in 1999. It's the sub-60 round.

On Thursday, at the Travelers Championship, 48-year-old Kenny Perry had the rare opportunity to match that feat, and shoot a sub-60 round for only the fourth time on the PGA Tour, and the first time on a par-70 golf course. Standing over a 24-foot eagle putt on the par-4 15th hole, Perry was 8-under and looking to move to 10-under, just a shot off the mark with three holes to play.

Golf season starts tomorrow, which means it is time to actually start thinking of the best game with dimples. While the giants take a nap, others will play at the Mercedes Championship, and golf will be around the rest of the year. FanHouse spent a couple of minutes thinking what is to come in 2009. Here is what transpired.

It all starts tomorrow, people. The 2009 PGA season gets underway at the Mercedes Championship. Except that four of last year's champs -- who also happen to be the four best players in the world -- won't be there. Tiger, Sergio, Phil and Paddy are skipping out on the free trip to Hawaii, although I suspect the other 33 players in the field aren't complaining.

Last season, Anthony Kim and, to a lesser extent (because we've known about him for a while ... and because Brinson has some worries), Camilo Villegas emerged as "the latest young golfer who will supposedly challenge Tiger Woods." And to be fair, both had a lot success. While they continue the seemingly impossible task of supplanting Woods atop the rankings, there are other young players hoping to do the same. The difference: we haven't heard much about them. Until now, anyway. Here's a look at five guys to watch as '09 unfolds.

I'm pretty sure Golf.com's Kevin Cook is kidding when he writes that the USGA, the R&A and whoever else makes decisions about such things, should seriously consider making the hole bigger. That said, it's not a completely insane idea, is it?

Um, yeah, of course it is. But it doesn't mean we can discuss it like adults, right? Cook, presumably with tongue in cheek, argues:

The hole is too small. Other than that, golf's a helluva good time, but its microscopic target has perverted the game since the R&A set the hole's diameter at 4 1/4 inches in 1891. Why 4 1/4 inches? Because that happened to be the width of a hole-cutter used in Musselburgh, Scotland, back when lawn-mowers sounded like this: Baaaaah.

That rusty hole-cutter, still on display at Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, was said to owe its size to the width of drainpipes, which were used as hole-liners in those days. Thus did the Victorian-era drain industry set the course of golf history.

He then gets to the crux of the matter when he writes, "The 4 1/4-inch hole puts a huge premium on putting, the most boring stroke, at the expense of shotmaking, the essence of the game. So while a 95-percent-perfect 5-iron is a great shot, a 95-percent-perfect putt is just another miss. How fair is that?"

Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg is covering the AT & T National this week and the Washington Post "nominated" (his word, not mine) him to interview Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who was at the tournament Saturday.

After easing into the Q & A (Do you have a policy about mulligans at all?), Steinberg asked some tough questions. Namely, Rice's take on the PGA Tour's news drug-testing program ("... I don't have time to follow such things, but I do think it's important that these sports find a way to be clean..."), her thoughts on Augusta National being a male-only club ("I'm not going to comment on that. It's a private club. I'm not going to comment on it..."), and the President's promise to not play golf as long as the United States is at war, and if Cabinet secretaries have their own policies (Paraphrasing Rice, "to each their own").

But perhaps the most revealing part of the interview was Rice's answer to the question, "Do you have a favorite golfer?"

I'm pretty sure you could have named a ton of golfers to plug into the sentence, "like playing with Elvis" and before last week nobody on this side of sanity would have busted out with Rocco Mediate.

That's what a near defeat of Tiger Woods will do for a guy.

According to the New York Times, Mediate is becoming a rather popular fellow.

The 19-hole playoff last Monday at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego cast the sport's giant against one of its jolly journeymen. The ensuing drama captivated a public that responded as if it had just seen an ant move a rubber tree plant. On the course, thousands of voices, many belonging to people who could not have picked Mediate out on the driving range at the tournament's start, were cheering, "We will, we will, Roc-co!"

Mediate was attending the CVS Classic, a charity tournament put on by fellow touring professionals Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon. Rocco said since the U.S. Open playoff last Monday he had only "hit a few dozen balls on Sunday with his three boys" but managed to fire a 9-under 62 with teammate Brandt Snedeker to finish in second place after the first half of the 36-hole team tournament.

Fame can make people do some rather strange things (like wear rather flashy belt buckles) and Mediate didn't disappoint yesterday, telling random fans "I'm a hugger" before giving them a full Yogi Bear.

So it's happening: the PGA Tour is going through with its drug-testing plan, and apparently, commissioner Tim Finchem takes substance abuse very seriously. Unlike baseball, which overlooked the steroids problems for years, the PGA plans to nip it in the bud, levying stiff penalties even though I have a hard time believing anybody on Tour is juicin'.

Finchem said the tour can test players without notice anytime and anywhere, and testing at a PGA Tour event can occur before or after practice or competition. There was no limit to how many times a year a player can be tested. It was not clear if there would be any mandatory testing or players, such as the winner of a tournament.

Penalties could include ineligibility for up to one year for the first violation; up to five years for the second violation; up to a lifetime ban for multiple violations; and fines up to $500,000.

Jeebus. Imagine how happy Hank Aaron would be right now if MLB had similar rules in place in the 1990s. I'll be shocked if anybody of consequence tests positive on the PGA Tour, but if I had to guess, I'll go with Brad Faxon. Have you seen that guy? He looks like the Hulk. Freaky, really.