FanHouse KennyPerry

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.*

This seems impossible: Bob Bubka, a radio golf analyst from Long Island, predicted on Ireland's Sportstalk Radio that Lucas Glover would win the U.S. Open. I'll be honest: I've never heard of Bubka, but apparently he's well known in degenerate gambling circles; his opinion was enough to move the odds from 175-1 to 11-8.

Still, Paddy Power, a legal bookmaker, reported losses of $1.6 million, citing a "betting frenzy" following Bubka's radio appearance. But unlike some people who just stared at the list of players in the U.S. Open field and randomly selected a name (see me, for example), Bubka actually knows what he's talking about.

Some people flip to the back of a book to see how it ends. For others, the first thing they do when they open the paper is read the obits. Me, I like to check out the leaderboard by seeing who's currently on top, and then scrolling down to see who's dead last in the field.

Given the state of my golf game it makes sense. Nothing like seeing a guy who hits golf balls for a living shooting on his worst day what I might shoot on my best. Anyway, this was the ritual last night, as I perused the Travelers Championship leaderboard.

Kenny Perry fired a 61 (although he could have broken 60 in his sleep if not for Bacon jinxing him), and there, at the bottom of the page, sat Paul Azinger, crafty 2008 Ryder Cup captain, golf analyst, and former major champion.

Kenny Perry was the story on Thursday at the Travelers Championship. He fired a first-round 61, good for 9-under and two shots clear of the field.

(Also, I have to mention how Bacon "Eddie Mush-ed" Perry midway through his back nine, sending me the following e-mail: "Kenny P is 8-under through 14 holes at the Travelers. Nobody has ever shot 59 on a par-70 course, but three more birds and Mr. Perry would be there." Shane also likes to remind pitchers that they're in the middle of a no-hitter. So, yeah, Perry didn't stand a chance.)

Sure, Augusta National and the Masters has always carried that Par Three Tournament jinx, where no player has ever gone on to win the big tournament after taking the little crown. The Memorial has no jinx, so Tiger Woods decided to compete today in a little Skins Game match with Jack Nicklaus, Kenny Perry and Stewart Cink.

Tiger needed to make this lengthy birdie putt on the 18th hole to deny Perry four skins and the win, hitting the dead center of the cup. With five skins now on the line, all four players had a chip-off to see who would leave with the most cash to donate to charity. It wasn't an easy chip, from some rough just off the 18th green. Guess what Tiger did ...

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.

-- In a lengthy piece about "The Haney Project," Charles Barkley admits that he "felt bad, to be honest with you, that I didn't improve more for (Hank Haney)." If anyone watched the television show, they know how much the two worked together, but from this video at the Regions Charity Classic, it sure shows the nasty truth -- swing coaches aren't miracle workers. [The Sports Network]

The argument has been tossed around since Tiger Woods fist-pumped his way to a 12-shot victory at Augusta National in 1997. Who is the best golfer to ever play the game, Tiger or Jack Nicklaus?

We aren't necessarily going to get the answer this Wednesday at Muirfield Village, but we will get to see Tiger and Jack compete against each other for just the second time ever in the same group. Woods agreed to compete in the Wednesday Skins Game at the Memorial Tournament with Jack, Stewart Cink and Kenny Perry. The other skins group will include Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Camilo Villegas and Padraig Harrington.

Vijay Singh is 46 years old. He has won 34 PGA Tour events and the 2008 FedEx Cup and has three major championship to his credit. Arguments aside, he is the third most talented golfer during the Tiger Woods' era behind Swoosh himself and Phil Mickelson.

Knee surgery in January has plagued the Big Fijian, who has played 34 rounds this season and broke 70 only five times, a number fairly staggering for the former number one in the world. Things have changed a little since coming to the Lone Star State, as Singh finished t-16 at the HP Byron Nelson Championship with closing rounds of 67-69-66 and a 64 today in the opening round of the Colonial, his best score since September of last season.

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.

Johnson Delivers Another Playoff Victory -- Before April of 2007, Zach Johnson was a relative nobody in the golf world. He'd won the BellSouth Classic back in 2004, but he hadn't been making noise before he headed to Augusta National last year.

Yet twelve strategic lay-ups and a bunch of well played golf had Johnson wearing his first green jacket. Johnson's 2007 Masters win made us believe that golf isn't just about booming tee shots and big names.

Golf is a game of integrity. Players are self-policed, and in the rare instance they fail to correctly assess a penalty for some inane rules violation, myriad busybodies watching the telecast will invariably phone the PGA Tour Transgressions hotline to rat out the guilty party. Checks and balances, people.

Oddly, neither happened during February's FBR Open when Kenny Perry, as Local Knowledge blog's John Strege writes, appeared to "deliberately improv[e] his lie by tapping down grass behind his ball on the first playoff hole."

Video evidence after the jump.