FanHouse LucasGlover

The Presidents Cup is a month away, and Tuesday the teams were announced. It's a welcome break from the FedEx Cup excitement. (To be fair, this year's event has been infinitely more interesting than it was in 2007 or 2008 but still, it's hard to get too worked up about manufactured drama. Well, unless it's wrestling.)

In any event, the International captain, Greg Norman, and the American captain, Fred Couples, were joined by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem in Washington, DC to name their selections during a televised press conference.

The captains' picks (as well as their comments from the presser -- beware, there's a lot of excitement) are after the jump:

Tiger Woods won five times in 2009, but for the fourth time in his 13-year career, he was shutout in the majors. That may not be cause for concern for Woods, but it gives fans and the media something to talk about. It also makes the "How would you rank the major championships?" question a lot more interesting.

With only one tournament left on the PGA Tour calender, now seems like as good a time as any to make my case. Obviously, this will be a scientifically rigorous endeavor, and I hope that you would treat the results accordingly. Or don't. Whatever, let's get to it.

In reverse order, the most exciting majors of 2009:

Last week, after five rain-soaked golf-crazed days at Bethpage Black, Lucas Glover emerged as the 109th U.S. Open champion. This is noteworthy for a number of reasons: Glover had missed his three previous Open cuts, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson -- for different reasons, the two most popular guys on tour -- didn't add to their major totals, and, finally, the fans.

It wasn't your typical outside-the-ropes golf experience, even by U.S. Open standards. But that's what made it different, special (for the most part, anyway). And after the tournament, it prompted Mickelson to suggest that Bethpage would be a perfect venue for a future Ryder Cup.

"The people here are incredible ... the course is terrific, because 16, 17 and 18 are so close together. And the way the fans are, I think we would have a big advantage."

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.

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.)

If this had happened three weeks ago at Memorial, it wouldn't even have merited a mention in the clubhouse after the practice round. But because Lucas Glover is now introduced as "2009 U.S. Open champion," whatever he does (or is done to him) is news. Even on a Wednesday prior to a tournament most people don't care about.

That was the case yesterday at the Travelers Championship, two days after his improbable victory at Bethpage Black. Following his introduction on the first tee to start his practice round, and amid polite applause from the gallery, Lucas teed up his golf ball, stepped back to begin his pre-shot routine, and promptly took a pie to the face, courtesy of PGA Tour buddy Johnson Wagner. (Click the photo above to see the video.)

Lucas Glover was born in Greenville, SC, played golf at Clemson, just won his first major -- the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, NY -- and more surprising than that, perhaps, he's a Yankees fan.

So even though Glover grew up 750 miles south of the Big Apple, he loves the city and its Bronx-based baseball team. Alex Rodriguez appreciates the support.

On Tuesday, after outlasting the field -- and the weather -- over five days, Lucas was in New York City, making the rounds, and that included a stop at the Ed Sullivan Theatre to rattle off the Top Ten List. Hilarity ensued.

Moving pictures after the jump.

Other than deploying the squeegee brigade, there wasn't much Bethpage superintendent Craig Currier could do about the torrential rains last week. But if the U.S. Open is to return to the Black Course -- and there's no reason to think that it won't -- the USGA might have to do something about the finishing hole.

The 18th is listed as a 411-yard uphill par 4, and the fairway is one of the lowest point on the course. Which means that a downpour will leave the landing area for tee shots virtually unplayable. The USGA's workaround? Move up the tees.

Phil Mickelson has an unfortunate history of seeing bogeys on the closing holes of US Open final rounds, and the same sort of short putting troubles and misfires happened again today: after an eagle at 13 put Lefty in a tie for the lead, he followed with a par and then closed out bogey-par-bogey-par to finish two strokes behind Lucas Glover as he headed into the clubhouse.

In other words, it was psuedo-tragic scene, simply because Mickelson was easily the crowd favorite at Bethpage Black this weekend, especially considering his wife Amy's struggles with breast cancer leading up to the Open.