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TPC Sawgrass is supposed to be brutal. It's supposed to be nasty. For heaven's sake, it's supposed to be the fifth major! Well, unless the fairways and greens are soft and the wind doesn't blow.

Ben Crane, who started on the back nine in the first round of the Players Championship, turned at 3-under 33, but went on a tear from there, making five birdies in six holes on his way to a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead. Crane, who hasn't won on tour since 2005, noted after his round that the greens were perfect, "like putting on the hood of your car," and the low scores the first day indicated that.

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In an effort to keep our golf visitors well informed on what is going on around the Internet, Range Balls is our weekly link dump. Every Tuesday during golf season, we will toss out some of the most interesting things we came across. If you have a tip, e-mail us at fanhousegolf@gmail.com. Enjoy the links.

--It appears Justin Timberlake, Michael Jordan and Ben Roethlisberger can avoid hiring that extra security detail for the U.S. Open Challenge this year at Bethpage Black. Phoenix police lieutenant Larry Giebelhausen was named big winner and will have his chance at breaking 100 at the U.S. Open venue. [Golf Digest]

--Ernie Els, rejoice, because the British Open is heading back to Muirfield in 2013. The site of his '02 victory, his last major championship, the Royal and Ancient has decided to swing back by the home of the honorable company of Edinburgh golfers for another shot at the Claret Jug. [PGA]

--If you think you're a true Tiger Woods fan, you might need to have a word with Whiskers. [Armchair Golf Blog]

--You know the only drawback to hitting drives upwards of 340 yards? You might have to wait a while until you get to hit your next shot. Bubba Watson was obviously upset with the slow play at Quail Hollow, admiitting, "I mean, it's just not fun." [CBS Sports]

--A detailed looked at the Catch-22 in women's golf. [Golf Girl's Diary]

Every Monday during the PGA Tour season, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action. Basically, we'll focus on what you missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.

It wasn't supposed to be Sean O'Hair's week. This was about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, jumping up the leaderboard on Thursday and sticking there until the last putt dropped. This was supposed to be Augusta continued. This wasn't supposed to be the week for a 26-year-old to finally cash in after five top-10 finishes in 2009.

The thing is, O'Hair's talent knows no bounds, and the guy that once had to run miles for each bogey he made is quietly becoming the best young golfer on tour. Sure, he's not flashy like Anthony Kim or as hopeful as Rory McIlroy, but this win was O'Hair's third of his career during a week at Quail Hollow that had one of the toughest non-major fields of the year.

Tiger would probably be the first to admit that Friday wasn't Tiger Woods' A game. In fact, it might not even have been his B or C game, but Tiger does what Tiger does, and a second round 72 has the top golfer in the world one shot back of the leaders and still very much in the hunt at Quail Hollow.

Bubba Watson and Retief Goosen are both leading at 8-under. The lengthy left-hander Goosen matched Tiger's 30 on the front nine from a day ago, and Retief wound up carding his second straight 68. Watson's 65 on Friday included eight birdies, three bogeys and an eagle. Goosen, meanwhile, has made at least five birdies in each of his first two rounds.

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For golf fans, this week is March Madness, a really good shoe sale, the NFL playoffs, your birthday, Christmas morning and the day "Star Wars" comes out on DVD, all wrapped into one. It's Masters week, and with it comes tradition, beauty and the first major championship of the year. As a preview of this year's Masters, FanHouse will be giving you three groups of golfers to watch at Augusta; we covered the Heavy Hitters Monday and the Regular Joes Tuesday. Here are the Sleepers.

The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic used to be a big stop on the PGA Tour. Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson have all claimed the title since Hope put his name on the event. The problem is, with all the available money these days and the ability for top pros to pick and choose their events, most of the big names avoid the Hope because they don't want to deal with 90 holes, slow rounds and, well, obnoxious celebrites.

Can you blame them?

Lets be honest, most charity events ideas aren't really that much fun. Sure, they benefit things and are great and help our society, but nobody really likes watching two professional tennis players playing doubles with the star of "Ugly Betty."

That is why I found it extremely dumb interesting that yesterday afternoon, golf pro Bubba Watson, Rams receiver Dane Looker and punter Donnie Jones tried to drive a golf ball across the mighty Mississippi River during a charity event for Evans Scholars. The goal was to drive the ball, in the air, 560 yards. Let me repeat. The goal of this event was for a human being to fly a golf ball without a jet pack or the ability to disprove gravity the entire length of a solid par-5.

As you move closer to the edge of your seat, I'll go ahead and spoil the ending -- nobody did it. Weak sauce guys, very weak sauce.




Bump [Deadspin]

Breaking into the athletic shoe industry cannot be easy, even if you're already a monster book and miscellaneous sales website like Amazon (dot com).

Combine the dangers (and barriers -- Econ 205, yeah!) of a new market with the highly combustable prospect of doing anything with Stephon Marbury and we have what could become a must-briefly-watch legal and marketing situation. From Darren Rovell:

The New York Post reported this morning that New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury, who popularized low cost basketball shoes with his "Starbury" brand at retailer Steve & Barry's, spent Wednesday in Seattle signing a deal with Amazon to sell the sneakers on their web site.

Although Steve & Barry's filed for bankruptcy reorganization on that very same day, and it appears like part of the plan is to close stores, sources tell me that Marbury's contract is still active. That makes me wonder how he'd have the authority to sign this deal.

And while Marbury appears to own the right to the name "Starbury," it's unclear if he owns the logo. It's also not clear at this point who would be making the shoe for Amazon.com.Marbury's marketing representatives at The Agency didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Steve and Barry's is going under regardless, but as Rovell points out, there are plenty of larger companies out there debating on purchasing them. Marbury -- who didn't sell his shoes online -- bouncing elsewhere would put a pretty serious dent in their value.

Laugh all you want -- Marbury, along with Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Wallace and Bubba Watson, is one of S & B's biggest marketing angles. And despite his on court failures, his cheap as all get out Starbury shoe was still immensely popular. I'd expect Steve (and maybe Barry too) to have a little something to say about this Amazon deal.

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?"

It's never too early to get major championship talk a-stirring, with the practice rounds beginning in less than two weeks at Royal Birkdale.

Two players, Shaun Micheel and some other guy I can't think of, have already withdrawn from the British Open, but the field is nearly complete with the international qualifying wrapping up, and some familiar names will be present on the links.

Davis Love III, Paul Goydos and Rich Beem were three of seven golfers to qualify yesterday at the Dearborn, Michigan site with Matt Kuchar and Alex Cejka headlining the seven qualifiers at TPC Michigan.

Goydos, runner-up to Sergio Garcia in the Players Championship after a gust of wind killed his chances in the playoff, will be making his first appearance in the British and is fairly stoked about the opportunity.

"This was my No. 1 goal for the year," he said. "If nothing else happened this year, I wanted to play in the British Open. A lot of other good things have happened on top of that, but this really has been my No. 1 goal."

Some of the less fortunate souls that missed out were Ryan Moore, Kevin Na, Bubba Watson, Jose Maria Olazabal and Darren Clarke.