FanHouse MikeWeir

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tiger Woods debuted this week as the first billion-dollar athlete. If that thought left you bemused, perplexed or angry, Woods showed Saturday why people throw money at him.

He's worth it.

Example No. 3,539 -- With the International team losing its grip on the Presidents Cup, he made a 24-foot putt to tie his match on the 17th hole. His next swing was a 229-yard laser that ended up 15 feet from the hole.

The International team of Mike Weir and Tim Clark literally surrendered.

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.

He wins. A lot. No matter the tournament, big or faux, he will probably win it, and smile big with the trophy. Monday, in New York, Tiger Woods added another trophy to his case -- the Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge, a skins game Notah, a former teammate of Tiger's, put together to help benefit the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians of California.

He won on Monday, and made it a little dramatic. What, you'd expect it to be anything less? Trailing Camilo Villegas in the skins category, after Villegas made a birdie on 14 worth $180,000, Woods went on to win the next three holes, pulling in $230,000 and five skins for the day. Game over. Tiger won. Tip your waitress ... again.

Anthony Kim has never scored better than Tiger Woods in any tournament in which they were both entered. That didn't change Sunday, when Tiger outlasted Kim, and held off Hunter Mahan, to win the AT&T National.

Kim began the final round tied with Woods atop the leaderboard. Tiger shot 67 and won, Kim signed for a 71, which was good for third place. Despite the outcome, though, Kim fared better than most of the young players slapped with the "next guy to challenge Tiger" label.

Off the top of my head, some (relatively) recent examples:

At 6:30 this morning, Tony Romo, inexplicably at Tiger Woods' invitation, joined the world's best player in the AT&T National pro-am at Congressional Country Club, some 20 miles west of FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins.

On Tuesday, Tiger said that, "...It's just going to be a fun round," before adding, "...but also an interesting one. Granted, he's used to getting booed, and it is what it is. It comes with being, I guess team sport, away from home."

And University of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams did his part to make sure that's exactly what happened.

Ricky Barnes won the U.S. Amateur in 2002, and was the low amateur at the 2003 Masters, T-21, playing with Tiger Woods in the first two rounds. In the six years since, he's bounced between the Nationwide and PGA Tours, but through 36 holes at the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, he's the best golfer on the property. (Hitting 90 percent -- 90 PERCENT! -- of the greens, and going 6-under on the par-4 holes doesn't hurt.)

In fact, his three-day, 132 total (8-under) sets the tournament record for a low score through two rounds. Lucas Glover, who had missed his three previous U.S. Open cuts is one shot behind Barnes. Mike Weir is at 6-under and the second-best story this week behind Phil Mickelson (who is currently 1-under and tied for 11th ), David Duval, is tied for fourth at 3-under.

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Not often does Tiger Woods toss around negative sound bites about himself. It seems most of the time it is always "I did this well here" or "I played solid there." Maybe the positive mentality is what separates him from everybody else.

Heading into Thursday's round at the WGC-CA Championship, his first stroke-play event in eight months, Woods was again positive of what has been and what is to come, sounding upbeat about his time in Arizona.

The final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was set to begin at 7:35 AM PT, but due to inclement weather, the pros are still in the clubhouse and the ams have been, in the words of CBS golf analyst Jim Nantz, "excused." Which is a nice way of saying, "Yeah, sorry about that, but this year's event is just a three-round affair for the hackers."

UPDATE: the fourth round is now postponed until Monday. Hopefully.

Every week, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action, with a little commentary mixed in. This past weekend, FanHouse was out at the FBR Open, a tournament known more for its party atmosphere than its golf.

Kenny Perry Nearly Made Me Emotional -- On Friday, Kenny Perry walked in the press room after a smoldering 63 that got him back in a tournament that he nearly shot himself out of on Thursday with a 1-over 72. When he started chatting, it was the same old story you get from any golfer. "I made birdie here, I missed an eagle putt there, I felt I hit the ball solid, it was a good day for me around the greens." Yawn. We've heard all that before, Kenny.

What I wasn't ready for was this. Perry started talking about his ailing father and how he felt he needed to play good golf just keep his father alive.

The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic used to be a big stop on the PGA Tour. Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson have all claimed the title since Hope put his name on the event. The problem is, with all the available money these days and the ability for top pros to pick and choose their events, most of the big names avoid the Hope because they don't want to deal with 90 holes, slow rounds and, well, obnoxious celebrites.

Can you blame them?