FanHouse David Feherty

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a weekly feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Fred Funk -- It was one of the better final rounds in the history of the Senior U.S. Open, but nobody watched because of a certain someone in the accompanying photo (thanks, Woods). It was his second major championship on the Champions Tour and fifth senior win since turning 50 three years ago. Funk is the type of player that could still make the occasional wave on the PGA Tour (made the cut in both the U.S. Open and Players this year), but it seems his focus is going to be with the Champions Tour, which is probably for the best. Maybe more impressive than his final-round 65 that help vault him to a six-shot lead? The fact that he made four bogeys all week at Crooked Stick.

Despite five wins on the European Tour during his 20-year professional career, most people know David Feherty as the on-course analyst for CBS' golf coverage. He's fantastic at his current gig, though occasionally his political views obscure his television work.

Feherty is in Sioux Falls, SD this week to headline the South Dakota Make-a-Wish Foundation's annual golf tournament (it's his ninth straight appearance), and in an interview with the Argus Leader's Mick Garry he talked about his controversial comments regarding the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader.

More interesting, though, Feherty also defended Tiger Woods' British Open performance.

Hunter Mahan started the day at the AT&T National -- the tournament Tiger Woods has hosted for three years now -- tied for 16th, six shots off the lead. And with just about every hole location qualifying as a sucker pin, nobody gave him much of a chance. Which is why it was something of a surprise when he signed for a 62, good for the top spot on the leaderboard ... right next to Tiger.

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On behalf of David Feherty, I'd like to apologize for the following column. It again takes shots at House Mis-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, not to mention her fellow victims of CIA subterfuge, Roger Clemens, Tim Floyd and Mine That Bird.

Who knew the CIA was plotting to overthrow the Preakness? You will after reading the latest installment of Week in Review.

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a new weekly ranking feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Tony Romo -- He might have failed to qualify for the Byron Nelson Championship, but Romo reminded us yet again that he is the best golfing quarterback in the world. Also, he reminded us that even the top tier athletes can utterly choke it on the golf course. Two-over par with three holes to play, Romo could have thrown in a couple of birdies and hoped even par would get into the next stage of qualifying. A triple-bogey followed by closing bogeys was visual evidence that our affection towards golf can change from love to hate quicker than a hook will snap.

The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

There's a lull in the sporting world in terms of exciting things to talk about (well, OK, that's only because we refuse to talk about Manny Ramirez or Brett Favre and the NBA crew has Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban pretty much sewn up) so we did what anyone else would do: we invited* Tiger Woods on the show. Tiger declined* but we forged on and just talked about him behind his back instead: specifically, are top 10 finishes good enough for El Tigre. Also, Ryan and I discuss David Feherty's aggressive writing style as well as what sort of characteristics define a hateable professional athlete.

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.

-- After recent comments by David Feherty that have certain people a little ticked off, Devil Ball Golf put together a list of announcing slip-ups and how those situations played out. Oh, and a quick note to Feherty -- if you're going to be the funny guy, try to avoid assassination jokes. Just a thought. [Devil Ball Golf]

What a crazy week. I'd say it was a news week on steroids, but that would just prompt the week to blame everything on its doctor who prescribed the drugs.

From Manny Ramirez's departure to A-Rod's return, the news spun like a roulette wheel. That made it just like most weeks in this 24-7 news era, which is why we here at FanHouse decided a Week in Review column was needed.

Goodbye David Feherty.

We all believe in freedom of speech, and anyone can get a good laugh when the comic golf analyst makes his wacky comments. But he blew it this time, and CBS needs to take real action. Now. That means firing him, or at least suspending him for a long, long time.

Here's his latest:

"From my own experience visiting troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this though. Despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

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Phil Mickelson was the favorite heading into the PGA Championship probably because he's the world's second-best player (well, before yesterday, anyway), has won two of his three majors at the event, and, really, who else had a better shot?

It wouldn't have surprised me if Lefty won the whole thing, but I also remember thinking that he could just as easily miss the cut. Well, he made it to the weekend, but couldn't make a run, and ended up finishing tied for seventh. All in all, a solid showing, but not really all that exciting, at least if you're CBS and concerned with ratings.

But Crowne Plaza, which has blanketed the airwaves with a Philbert-centric ad campaign, did manage to keep Mickelson's mug on teevee screens even as the network focused on Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia. And of all the spots, this is easily the funniest (although, there is something to be said for David Feherty asking Lefty if he won the 2006 U.S. Open):



Ditto. Hilarious.