FanHouse David Toms

The PGA Tour's best players are dog tired. They are at Chicago's Cog Hill this week for the BMW Championship feeling playoff pressure. They are running on fumes.

Do you feel their pain?

In a word: NO!

Golfers, despite all the sore backs, have never impressed anyone with their toughness. The game may have as rich a history as any sport played but rarely anywhere in its memoirs do you find Curt Schilling's bloody sock, or Willis Reed's emotional strength. (OK, Tiger at Torrey Pines in 2008. We'll give you that one, but who else?)

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Just like we did with Augusta and Bethpage Black we present your "Regular Joes" for the British Open. Turnberry is hosting its first Open Championship since 1994, and most players have never played a competitive round at the beautiful course on the west coast of Scotland. So who are the Regular Joes who might be a little overlooked when the big boys tee it up on Thursday? Here's a list of five.

Retief Goosen -- Best Finish: t-5 -- He is everything you want in an Open Championship pick. Playing well heading into the tournament (t-6 at last week's Scottish Open), has won already this year (at Transitions Championship), is a major championship winner and has fared well in British Opens in the past.

Kenny Perry is your 2009 Travelers Champion. I'll be honest, it's hard to get excited about any tournament that follows a major. Partly because I'm burned out on golf after five days of watching nothing else, but also because the field is usually watered down.

But it's late June, and other than Major League Baseball, every other sport is out of season. So other than USA-Brazil (which was fantastic for 60 minutes), there weren't many options. Plus, Perry did his best to make it entertaining. He opened with a first-round 61, briefly lost the lead on Saturday to Paul Goydos, and then fired a final-day 63 (22-under) to win by two shots over David Toms.

It was Perry's second win of the season (he also won the FBR Open), and it should move him into first in FedEx Cup points. Also, it's his seventh top-10 of 2009, which is tied for most on tour with Tiger Woods. There's more: Perry has the most wins on tour since June 1, 2008, two clear of Woods. Clearly, this is proof that Tiger has lost it.*

The name Craig Thomas probably doesn't ring a bell with a lot of golf fans. And why would it? Well, it just so happens that Thomas currently holds the non-PGA Tour tournament record at Bethpage Black, shooting a 64 in the -- you ready for this -- North Fork Bank New York State Open Championship.

Friday, at Bethpage Black, Mike Weir was trying his hardest to make Craig look like a dud. The problem was, the Black course has teeth, and Weir couldn't avoid its nastiness on his way home. Six-under par and sneaking up on a lot of records (lowest score in a U.S. Open is 63, lowest score ever in an Open at Bethpage), Weir made a double-bogey on the 408-yard par-4 6th hole. No problem. Weir birdied his last two holes to shoot the 13th 64 in U.S. Open history, and the first since the second round at Olympia Fields in 2003.

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Saturday Morning Update: You might say that Phil Mickelson isn't much of a morning person. Having to wake up and finish his last three holes because of weather on Friday, Phil birdied the par-5 16th hole before going bogey-double bogey to close. This is the second round in a row that Phil has doubled the par-4 18th hole, putting Mickelson at 2-under for the tournament and well back of being in contention. John Daly did make the cut at even par.

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In mid-April of 2009, Brian Gay became a two-time winner on the PGA Tour when he smoked the Verizon Heritage field, winning the tournament at Hilton Head by ten shots. With just three holes to play on Friday, it looked like Gay might be doing much of the same at the St. Jude Championship.

Standing on the par-5 16th hole, Gay was 12-under for the tournament, but a disappointing par there followed by closing bogeys on 17 and 18 left the 37-year-old Texan with just a two shot lead over Bryce Molder and Woody Austin.

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Tiger Woods has played in The Players Championship 12 times, and has never broken 70 in any of his first rounds. On a calm Thursday that gave up some very red numbers, Woods continued his trend of taking a mild approach, carding a 1-under 71 on an up-and-down day.

Woods' round was highlighted with an approach shot on the par-5 16th hole that ended up three feet away for a kick-in eagle. Tiger followed that up with a solid 9-iron on the 17th hole's island green to just outside 10 feet, but a nasty horseshoe left Woods with just another par.

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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.

Mickelson Toughs It Out -- You don't usually see "tough" and "Phil Mickelson" in the same sentence. His lone shining moment under pressure was at the 2004 Masters, when he rolled in a birdie putt on the last hole for his first major championship. Otherwise, he has never been that dominant in the high stress environment of the Ryder Cup, and his additional attempts at "clutch" have ended with "fore left" at Winged Foot and final-hole major losses to David Toms (2001 PGA Championship) and Payne Stewart (1999 U.S. Open).

Well, on Sunday, at a tournament he had never won, on a golf course he had never conquered, Mickelson had to be tough. And tough he was.

The Ryder Cup starts tomorrow and for the first time in ages, the Americans are the clear cut underdog. They don't have their best golfer, they are one bad weekend away from the most consecutive U.S. losses in Ryder Cup history and they don't really have someone, as of yet, to step up as a true team leader.

The Europeans on the other hand look great, with the hottest golfer in the world accompanied by one of the hottest Ryder Cup players ever. With the matches beginning early in the morning on Friday, here are five questions that might be asked before the matches begin.

• What will the absence of Tiger Woods do to the American team? -- Well, obviously not having the best golfer in the world in your corner puts you at a disadvantage, but maybe the biggest loss is with the Jim Furyk-Woods team that had some mild success in 2006. The duo went 2-2-0 which is a huge step up from the success of Tiger with other golfers in the team portion of the Ryder Cup. With some experience behind them, this could have been the two to carry an American team to victory. Now Furyk will have to find chemistry with someone else.

If you thought Tiger Woods was the biggest name missing out on the Ryder Cup this year, you're wrong.

Englishman Luke Donald went under the knife to repair his wrist and will be out for the remainder of 2008 which is good news for any and all people hoping for a U.S. upset.

"While there is never a good time for an injury, the timing of this injury was especially disappointing for me considering that it forced me to miss the Open Championship and it comes in a Ryder Cup year," said Donald. "But taking proper care of it is my highest priority and I'm encouraged by Dr. Weiland's experience with this type of injury and his outlook towards my recovery and rehabilitation. I am appreciative of his guidance, as well as his staff's, and look forward to working diligently at my rehabilitation and returning to action next season."

It really isn't good for the European team looking for a solid captain's pick. Donald was 11th on the Ryder Cup World Point List and has been an absolute BEAST in Ryder Cup play in 2004 and '06.

His record of 5-1-1 is impressive in itself but becomes even shinier when you look at the teams and individuals he's taken out. Teams of Woods and Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and David Toms and a singles victory over Chad Campbell two years ago after Campbell slaughtered Donald in '04 are just some of the highlights.

Some don't know this fact, but Jack Nicklaus once said the PGA Championship was his favorite tournament to win. Tiger Woods has coined it "the championship of championships." Vijay Singh said it was a thrill unlike any other.

Yeah, the fact that you're rolling your eyes makes it easy to see you don't believe me.

It's a major championship and it has made names like Shaun Micheel and David Toms household names. Can Sergio Garcia claim his first title? Will Phil Mickelson dominate 71 holes until he quadruples the last? Is it Singh time?

Grab a chicken sandwich and join us at 1 PM Eastern for a live blog, and maybe a joke or two.