FanHouse DavisLoveIii

SAN FRANCISCO -- Anything with the name Presidents Cup sounds like it is ripe for a Golf Czar appointment.

Are you qualified to rule over this week's PGA Tour team matches between the United States and an International squad of non-Europeans that tees off Thursday at Harding Park Golf Club?

Take this test and decide for yourself.

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) -- PGA Tour rookie Matt Bettencourt and Mark Wilson have survived a roller-coaster afternoon at the Memorial to share the 54-hole lead, with Tiger Woods and a pack of major champions behind them.

Bettencourt made eight birdies to offset his mistakes in a round of 4-under 68. Wilson bogeyed his first three holes, but recovered for a 69 to join the rookie at 9-under 207.

Face it, Twitter was made for guys like John Daly. Minimal type, short messages and the ability to reach out to thousands of people ... it is his little paradise.

Now, it can be your adventure as well. If you're on Twitter, and become Daly's 100,000th follower (he's currently around 5,000), you win a bunch of free stuff.

Daly is going to give the lucky person an Adams golf Speedline driver, a John Daly lion headcover and Loudmouth shirt and slacks, which hopefully make you either hit the ball as far as Big John or look nearly as goofy.

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.

There is only one match play tournament a year on the PGA Tour, but it sure seems of late that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are playing a little "whatever you can do, I can do better" game against each other. At Quail Hollow this week, you might as well forget all the other names. Mickelson's round of 67 after Tiger posted a 65 this morning was a tournament director's dream, and allowed the rest of the field to look up at the leaderboard and say, "Oh, them again."

Playing with defending champion Anthony Kim and Davis Love III, Mickelson birdied his first hole, followed that up with another on the 5th and then chipped in for eagle on the par-5 7th. At times, it seemed Mickelson's short game got too much credit, similar to veteran journalists ogling Brett Favre's arm when there were younger, faster quarterbacks in the league. That isn't the case this season with Phil. He was quoted as saying his short game is as good as it has ever been due to a short game clinic he put on in the offseason, and it is showing.

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In an effort to keep our golf visitors well informed on what is going on around the Internet, Range Balls will be our new 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.

--Davis Love III went into this season set on making the Masters after missing out last year for the first time since 1990. The 44-year-old tour vet will have to win this week at the Shell Houston Open if he wants to make that beloved trip to Augusta. [Waggle Room]

--Jay Busbee makes a great point about Tiger Woods and 18th hole dramatics -- normally, he's winning by so many shots he doesn't need to bury that birdie putt for the victory. Here are a collection of important putts Tiger made to win tournaments with video. [Devil Ball Golf]

--It almost seems like Twitter and golf were made for each other. According to my math skills, you can enter 35 four-letter words in each Tweet. [Golf Girl Diary]

--Some people just aren't as happy about Tiger Woods' robotic ability to make clutch putts. [Rumors and Rants]

--A 44-page Masters Tournament Guide by a blogger? It can't be! [Armchair Golfer]

Every Monday during the PGA TOUR season, Monday's Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend action, with a little commentary from the weekend that was. We will focus on any news stories, including something you may have missed while you were grinding on the putting green.

Geoff Ogilvy Takes Domination To A Different Level -- Back in October, after the Ryder Cup had finished and the FedEx Cup concluded, I wrote up a little "Winners and Losers for 2008." In the losers bracket were the Australians, mainly because Geoff Ogilvy was the only golfer to do anything, and that was way back in March of last year. I'm not sure how much I can motivate golfers (if at all), but his performance at the Mercedes Championship was absolutely dominant.

To be completely honest, I didn't even know Justin Timberlake played golf until late last year when a buddy called to tell me he was the group behind him on a Las Vegas golf course. After that, the flood gates opened when Timberlake appeared with Matt Lauer and Tony Romo at the U.S. Open contest earlier this year and is now set to host a PGA Tour event starting tomorrow in, you guessed it, Las Vegas.

The proclaimed six-handicapping is the host of the, deep breath, Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open which starts tomorrow at TPC Summerlin with such notables as Woody Austin, Paul Azinger, Davis Love III and John Daly. Surprised by the last one? Well, it turns out Daly and Timberlake are good buddies, even playing in the pro-am on Monday together.

Both hail from Tennessee and became friends about 10 years ago, when Timberlake first picked up the sport. Even when he was still a high handicapper, Timberlake told Daly he was going to become a good golfer.

"And he has. Now his handicap is around a six, I think, and he knows the rules, he knows the game," Daly added. "He's a great guy. We like to hang out, and it's just great to have his name on this tournament."

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.

Take it from me, there is nothing more annoying that wrapping up a long day of blogging when you don't have your best stuff only to be pulled aside by your editors to pee in a little plastic cup.

Colin Montgomerie knows what I'm talking about. After his two-over 72 at the Bridgestone Invitational, Monty, always one to be patient and understanding, was pulled aside to relieve himself in the name of HGH.

The 45-year-old Montgomerie acknowledged he didn't really know what the procedure was. Then, as he left the scorer's trailer, he turned to his caddie and said, ``This is a complete waste of time.''

This really is comical. The PGA Tour made a big stink about implementing steroids testing and so far they've pulled aside the likes of Davis Love III, Charles Howell III, Tim Clark and now Monty. Has anyone seen Monty? It's not like he's injecting at the turn or anything.

Since Tiger Woods is obviously what keeps the tour rolling, I'd like to start an ongoing bet on how long it takes before he's pulled aside for a test. I think it's fair to say that nobody really believes Woods is juiced, but wouldn't it make a tad more sense to pull aside the guy that is jacked like a football player than a man past his prime that looks like something you'd make in a Build-A-Bear? What are they scared of, muscle profiling?