FanHouse KevinSutherland

The 2009 Masters are underway, and unlike last year, when Arnold Palmer hit the ceremonial first shot into a cloud of fog, it has been an incredible day, weather-wise, from the start.

Palmer's first shot this year found the middle of the fairway and the first group built on that momentum. In the second group of the day was Par-3 Tournament winner Tim Clark, who, in typical form, bogeyed his first two par-3s before getting it together and reeling off four birdies on his closing 12 holes before posting a 4-under 68, leading the tournament in the clubhouse.

Right behind Clark are Ross Fisher, Kevin Sutherland, and Prayad Marksaeng who all posted 3-under 69s and will enjoy the rest of the mid-70 degree day fine-tuning their game while other golfers try to put the finishing touches on some rather salty (read: "good") rounds.

It might not have been Tiger Woods against Phil Mickelson. Heck, it isn't even Ernie Els playing Vijay Singh, but the two professional golfers playing the best right now will face up against each other Sunday exactly 125 miles away from their home course.

Australian Geoff Ogilvy, who won this tournament in 2006 and was runner-up in '07, will take on Englishman Paul Casey in a 36 hole final to see who can claim title of Best Golfer During Tiger Week.

It's the second week of the FedEx Cup, Vijay Singh is fresh off an moderately exciting overtime win over Sergio Garcia and that other guy (okay, it was Kevin Sutherland, but come on...) at the Barclays Championship, and there's another big name atop the leaderboard in Norton, Mass: Mike Weir.

And not only is he leading the tournament heading into the weekend, he's doing it in record-breaking fashion: Weir fired a 10-under 16 on Friday, the lowest round of his PGA career, and a TPC Boston course record. One problem: nobody saw it.

Sure, there were people in the gallery (I assume), but in terms of television viewers, the ratings have to be somewhere south of anything you might find on CW. I'm just hazarding a guess based on what I watched yesterday, but since I'll watch anything marginally related to golf, I'm probably a fair representation. (Plus, sample size = 1 is more than enough data to make broad, sweeping generalizations.)

Yes, this has everything to do with the latest iteration of Andy Richter (really, do I even have to mention his name?), and less to do with the rest of the tour's big names stepping up to fill the void. If a Vijay-Sergio sudden death (figuratively) at the Barclays doesn't move the ratings needle, it's more a testament to the power of Tiger than the quality of play when he's not around. That's hardly earth-shattering stuff, particularly since we've seen viewership nosedive since Woods called it a season back in June.

On the upside, the Deutsche Bank still has a $7,000,000 purse, even if nobody sees it.

Kevin Sutherland, fresh off the 2002 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, fired a final round 68 at today's Barclays and found himself in a playoff with Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh. To be fair, Sutherland has had four top-10s this season, but he's about as far from exciting as you can get on the golf course.

But sometimes it's less about mind-blowing shots than it is about grinding it out, which is exactly what Sutherland was able to do today.

Garcia, on the other hand, shot a 1-under 70, and just missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would've given him the outright victory. Instead, in true Sergio fashion, he burned the edge, and after Singh did likewise two groups later, all three reconvened on the 18th tee box for a playoff.

Garcia and Singh both striped their drives, while Sutherland pushed his tee shot into the trees, effectively taking him out of contention. Sergio and Vijay found the green with their second shots, both ending up some 25-30 feet from the hole.