FanHouse Darren Clarke

SAN FRANCISCO -- Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods had just improved their Presidents Cup record together this week to 4-0 and were about to do the obligatory network interview Saturday evening when a leather-lunged voice from bleachers behind 16 green stopped everything.

"Wisconsin and Stanford in the Rose Bowl!!"

Sticker laughed out loud. Even Woods, who can ignore a marching band, turned to look into the stands, shook his head in disbelief and responded with a smile. Some things just are not going to happen, but this week at Harding Park Golf Club the loud guy was on the right track. Stricker, a big cheese in Wisconsin, and Woods, the Stanford dropout, are the granddaddy of all golf pairings.

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) -- Luke Donald was almost perfect with his putter on the way to an 8-under 64 at Kingsbarns on Sunday that gave him a one-stroke lead over Rory McIlroy and Simon Dyson in the weather-delayed third round of the Dunhill Links Championship.

Donald had nine birdies and just one bogey, at the 15th.

Golf is resting from a long, grueling season and rest it shall; it was a doozie of a 2008. We had some of the same old names winning consistently, some of the same old names losing consistently and a list of new golfers sure to find their way in golf conversation for years to come. Without further ado, here are your winners and losers of the 2008 PGA Tour Season.

Winners

Padraig Harrington -- With all respect to Tiger Woods and what he accomplished early this season, Harrington is our player of the year and for good reason. Padraig won two major championship in a row, making it three of the last six, and trying his best to accomplish what Sergio Garcia once said his goal was, to top both the PGA Tour money list and the Order of Merit in Europe. Harrington's second shot on the 17th hole at Royal Birkdale was one of the better executed shots of the year considering the pressure, setting up a Claret clinching eagle and repeating at the Open.

It took nine years, but the Americans have finally won back the Ryder Cup, a feat that, frankly, not many people were expecting a week ago. But Paul Azinger, the U.S. captain, is a wily sort, or, at the very least, had the great fortune of going up against one of the worst captains in recent Cup history.

Nick Faldo, a six-time major winner quite possibly known more for really loving himself, made several curious decisions during the three-day event (and several prior -- like leaving Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie at home), and that had a lot to do with the outcome.

But Azinger, and perhaps, more importantly, the fans who flocked to Valhalla to support the American side, also played a huge role.

The "home-field advantage" played a giant role this weekend...

On the eve of the event, Azinger told a rally crowd in Louisville not to be afraid to cheer if the Europeans missed a putt, as long as the missed putt secured an American victory at that particular hole. Garcia was witness to the obedient response. After Garcia rinsed a pair of shots into the water and conceded the seventh hole, he walked 200 yards to the green listening to bedlam with Kim pleading for the crowds to cheer louder.

"We created the 13th man, and I'm real proud of these people," Azinger said. "They made a big difference and kept our guys energized."

First, I'd like to apologize to the European Ryder Cup team. Not for Anthony Kim allegedly welcoming Ian Poulter to Kentucky, or the pranksters that rung Lee Westwood's folks at the hotel (By the way, just a thought, but ever heard of checking in under an assumed name? It's outside the box, I know, but it's just crazy enough to work.) but because they had to play for the egomaniacal nutter, Nick Faldo.

It's not like Faldo suddenly became a media whipping boy; he's been at odds with the British press, as well as most of his European counterparts, his entire professional career. And now, it's raining schadenfreude in the United Kingdom. And while we have yet to hear from Colin Montgomerie or Darren Clarke, two Ryder Cup veterans who Faldo left off this year's team, the media have more than picked up the slack.

"Faldo's thin skin, the need to have his sports shrink by his side even out on the course and his grating sense of humor, had confirmed what we knew all along, which is that he is no natural leader," the said. "But what we had not expected was that a man who had dedicated himself so much to this job would make such a colossal mistake."

So, um, yeah, let's hang Faldo in effigy! Or something.

It was a pretty special week for the Americans and just because it is a team event doesn't mean we can't do a Winners and Losers about the Ryder Cup. Lets dive in and check who did some good and who did some bad.

Winners

The Americans -- From the first guy to the last, from Steve Stricker to Jim Furyk, this was a complete team effort and they made sure to do it with some laughs and high fives. Rejuvenated and with a swagger that's been missing the last three matches, the American team made the putts when they needed to, had a good break here or there and even when they slipped up, bounced back on the next hole.

The Six Rookies -- When you have half your team playing in their first ever Ryder Cup, you hold your breath. When they go 9-4-8, you can exhale with a grin. Hunter Mahan gained the most points for Team USA, Anthony Kim pounded Sergio Garcia in singles and Boo Weekley and J.B. Holmes turned out to be an amazing duo. I bet there weren't a lot of people around this world yesterday that had as much fun as those four. Also, Ben Curtis and Stricker weren't all bad, combining for two points over the week.

We're two-thirds through the 37th Ryder Cup and the Americans are holding onto a 9-7 lead heading into the Sunday singles matches. The Europeans trailed 5 1/2 - 2 1/2 after Day 1, and 7-5 after the Saturday morning foursomes, and despite cutting into the lead, nobody had the U.S. a) being competitive, and b) two full points up on a European team that won the last two events without much effort.

But this is different -- so far, at least -- and maybe it's because the Americans have rallied around not having Tiger, or perhaps a revitalized Justin Leonard, outta-nowhere performances from Steve Stricker or Hunter Mahan, or clutch ball-striking from Boo Weekley have all been the catalyst. Whatever, captain Paul Azinger has to be ecstatic about the team's predicament, and, if nothing else, the U.S. will be spared a Saturday night Ben Crenshaw "I have a good feeling about this" pep talk.

Now, though, the Americans have to play with the lead, which puts the pressure squarely on their shoulders, a position they are not familiar with in the Ryder Cup.

Somewhere in the United Kingdom, Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke are having a good chuckle. It's early -- we're only one day into the 37th Ryder Cup -- but the European squad is in an unfamiliar position: down after seven matches. Specifically, they trail the United States, underdogs on paper and in real life, 5-2.

And part of the reason for the early-on beatdown is because captain Nick Faldo, known just as much for his quirky disposition and sometimes vindictive personality as for his six major victories, thought it would be great fun to go with Ian Poulter and Paul Casey over grizzled Cup veterans Monty and Clarke. So far, so bad on that front.

The U.S. got off to a 3-1 lead after the morning foursomes, but Faldo inexplicably decided to break up the Lee Westwood-Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington-Robert Karlsson pairings for the afternoon four-ball, even though they were the only groups to earn points (halves, as it turned out).

Instead, Harrington was paired with Graeme McDowell, and Sergio with Miguel Angel Jimenez (Johnny Miller's a big fan, by the way). The result: 0-2. For more perspective, when Poulter and Justin Rose are the only group on the European side to win a match in seven tries, things are pretty dire.

Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo made the final selections for the European squad and he's been hearing about it ever since. Paul Casey and Ian Poulter got the nod over Cup-tested veterans Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, and apparently, the only people happy about the picks are Faldo, Casey and Poulter.

Take, for example, this nameless, faceless former player:

"Faldo clearly didn't want anyone in the team room with the potential to rock his boat," points out one former Ryder Cup player who prefers to remain anonymous. "The 2004 Ryder Cup was all about Monty and his divorce; 2006 at the K Club was all about Darren and the tragic death of his wife; Nick wants Valhalla to be all about him."

It's no secret that Faldo's a narcissist, but it's less of an issue when you're playing for yourself and not actually captaining the Ryder Cup team.

But will it have an effect on the proceedings in 12 days? I'm skeptical; the Americans have been the best team on paper for a decade now, they've won just once, and that was on the back of a Justin Leonard "there's no way he's making this ... oh my God, it went in!" putt.

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.