FanHouse DavidToms

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.*

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.

Donald Ross is known worldwide to golf fans as one of the consummate masters of course design. And now, thanks to the Wyndham Championship's recent move to the Sedgefield Country Club, PGA golfers competing in the FedEx Cup event (August 11-17, 2008) will get to experience the same pristine Piedmont Triad golf conditions that legends like Sam Sneed, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer enjoyed for years after Ross' original design in 1926.

Of course, this isn't the Wyndham's first rodeo here, although it is the first year back to Sedgefield following a 31-year hiatus, and the return did not come at a cheap price. The recently finished, nearly yearlong renovation of the course cost over $3 million, but as tournament director Mark Brazil put it, the intent was to make Sedgefield "one of the favorite spots on tour."

Brazil pointed out that right now, "this golf course is as good as it gets" and by all accounts, he is absolutely right. A friend of mine recently teed it high and called the dense rough "diabolical" (by all accounts complimentary), while recent praise from former winner David Toms has already attracted some big name attention.

Three-time major winner Vijay Singh, who recently announced his entry into the Wyndham, joins an already stout group of golfers that includes Toms, last year's champions Brandt Snedeker, Tim Clark, Carl Pettersson, local favorite and Masters darling Drew Weaver, Davis Love III, and, of course, goshdarn American hero and two-time Wyndham winner Rocco Mediate.

Other media guides pour out a little as we near the end of the FanHouse Media Guide.

• Scott Sterling -- DNP -- His first season on the PGA Tour, Sterling's made only seven cuts in 13 events, with his best finish a tie for 36th place.

• Richard Sterne -- DNP -- Just 26, Sterne has won three European Tour events since turning pro in 2001. His tie for 25th at the Masters this season was his first made cut in a major.

• Kevin Streelman -- DNP -- A Q-School graduate who played on the Gateway Tour last season, Streelman's made just nine cuts in 16 tournaments this season, A Duke graduate, Streelman was paired with Tiger Woods in the third round of his third PGA Tour event, shooting a 75 to Tiger's 66.

• Steve Stricker -- 5 -- He has always said the U.S. Open is his best chance to win a major because he is used to hitting his drives in the rough. Stricker won Tour Comeback Player of the Year the last two seasons and if he wins it again, I'm starting an investigation into it.

• Chris Stroud -- CUT -- Yikes, an abysmal year for Stroud so far in 2008, he's made just four cuts all season, missing the weekend in his last six tournaments.

• Toru Taniguchi -- CUT -- Taniguchi has played in three Masters, five U.S. Opens and five PGA Championships, never making the cut in any of them. Also, his blood type is O.

• Nick Taylor (a) -- DNP -- Taylor, a recent graduate at Washington, got an exemption into the Canadian Open, a tournament he thought would be his first PGA Tour start. Turns out qualifying for the U.S. Open will be his warm up and is good experience for the rest of the year. "This is a pretty good warmup for the Canadian Open. I wasn't expecting it, but it's pretty cool." Priority mix-up, aisle five.

• Michael Thompson (a) -- DNP -- The 2007 U.S. Amateur runner-up was playing a great Masters this year, trying desperately to be the only amateur to make the cut. As he addressed his birdie putt on 15, the ball moved and he called the penalty on himself. The penalty led to a bogey there, which derailed his round and left him on the outside looking in on the weekend. Oh well, Thompson earned a ton of respect from the rest of us.

• Peter Tomasulo -- DNP -- Tomasulo is having a "ready for one break" year on the Nationwide Tour, ranked 38th on the money list and in need of a few top fives or a win. Also, he lists "Talladega Nights" as his favorite movie, a decision I'm hoping was made as a dare from his buddy that is still crashing on his couch.

• David Toms -- t-5 -- Toms is from Shreveport, Louisiana and at the FBR Open last year I kept screaming "Herby K's, Herby K's!" at him after his tee shot on 17. Toms smiled, acknowledged me and probably felt a slight rumble in his stomach. If you don't know what Herby K's is, your life has one more mission.

The debate always lingers when a major championship is played the week after a solid tournament like this week's Stanford St. Jude Championship -- do you play for momentum or take the week off for rest and preparation?

This week both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be skipping the St. Jude while Players Champion Sergio Garcia and King of the Diluted Field, Vijay Singh, are in attendance at the TPC Southwind.

You have to understand the grind that professional golf can take on a person to wonder why someone would decide to skip a golf tournament where they could make five figures playing mediocre at best. Two practice rounds, a Pro-Am on Wednesday, four days of tournament golf only to travel to the next destination and do it all over again.

It appears as of late, taking the week off before the Open is the right choice, as Geoff Ogilvy (in '06) is the only golfer since 2000 to win the championship after playing the week before.

Nonetheless, it's still a week away and the St. Jude has produced some solid champions of late, with always entertaining Woody Austin winning last year with a final round 62 that could be argued as round of the year on tour (Tiger did tie low round in a major with a 63 in the PGA Championship).

Lost amid all the hoopla that was Zach Johnson's unlikely Masters victory, was the sometimes critical coverage provided by the two CBS commentators following the action: David Feherty and Peter Kostis. I like both guys, and think they have a good understanding of the nuances of the professional game (though Kostis' ridiculous post-round interview with Phil Mickelson was ... well, ridiculous), but they took a couple of shots at Johnson during Sunday's coverage. From PGA.com's Grant Boone:

With CBS commentators David Feherty and Peter Kostis practically challenging his manhood for laying up on 13, Johnson stuck his third shot to six feet and buried the putt to shake loose from a four-way tie for the lead. Kostis prefaced the putt by saying, "Zach Johnson now, to justify his lay-up..." When it went in, I expected Kostis to say something like, "He showed all of us a thing or two, didn't he?" Instead, Kostis said, "I think that was a good decision by Zach in the fairway?" I waited for a chuckle, as if to indicate that, of course, it was the right call in hindsight. Didn't happen. It was kind of like saying, "I think it was a good idea to get out of New Orleans before Katrina."

Yeah, I didn't get this either. Johnson might weigh 160 pounds soak and wet, and to give him a hard time for not challenging the Par-5s is kinda silly. For the week, Johnson's game plan was to play every Par-5 in three shots and the 11-under total seems to support that strategy.

Plus, I seem to recall David Toms, during the 2001 PGA at the Atlanta Country Club, playing the 72nd hole -- the Par-4, 18th -- in two shots, while Phil Mickelson, then still looking for his first major victory, going for it in two. Toms would get up and down for par while Mickelson blew his second shot over the green and would have to wait three more years to win his first major. Hmmm. Maybe there is a lesson in there somewhere.