FanHouse PhilMickelson

Golf keeps wanting to see a final-round tough-guy battle between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for a tournament title. It gets one and it's halfway around the world.

At the World Golf Championship - HSBC in Shanghai, China, Mickelson holds a two shot lead over Woods and fellow American Nick Watney going into Sunday's final round.

Mickelson shot 67 Saturday to go 14-under while both Woods and Watney posted 70s to stand 12 under.

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.

Dave Pelz played golf at Indiana University, and his 0-22 record against the chubby towheaded kid from Ohio St. probably convinced him that his future wasn't as a professional golfer. Instead, the physics major applied the scientific method to the short game and even able to make a career out of it.

In general, traditionalists view outsiders with skepticism. Particularly eggheaded outsiders whose views are anything but traditional. But now, some four decades later, Pelz's methods are widely accepted, he's often called a guru, and he serves as Phil Mickelson's short-game coach.

No idea if Pelz can hit a reverse flop shot, but this might be more impressive: draining a 200-foot putt. Moving pictures 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:

The list of players, both young and old, who would challenge Tiger Woods is a lengthy one. Thirteen years after Woods turned pro, we're still waiting.

Phil Mickelson has always been in the conversation, but names like Charles Howell and David Gossett were gone faster than they came. Sergio Garcia was the clear choice in the late '90s and early '00s, but 10 years after bursting on the scene at the '99 PGA Championship as a 19-year-old phenom, he's still searching for his first major victory. Real life sidetracked David Duval, also a legit threat to Tiger's legacy around the time of Garcia's emergence.

And now, Camilo Villegas, Anthony Kim and Andreas Romero are often mentioned as likely candidates to unseat the world's best player.

The PGA Tour doesn't talk about such things, but I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that the decision to suspend John Daly for six months was born out of the events that took place a year ago last month. Daly, participating in the Buick Open pro-am, thought it would be great fun to hit a golf ball off a beer can. while an overalls-clad Kid Rock watched on.

Alone, it was harmless, but Daly has a long history of skirting right and wrong, at least in terms of what the PGA deems appropriate. Not long after the beer-can-as-a-tee trick, Daly was cuffed-and-stuffed for being sloppy drunk outside a Winston Salem, NC-area Hooters.

Phil Mickelson last teed it up on tour in June, at the U.S. Open, a month after his wife Amy revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. (And Phil's mother, Mary, was diagnosed with the same condition in early July.) Since Bethpage, where Mickelson finished tied for second, he's been with his family. Amy recently had breast cancer surgery and is reportedly doing well.

Thursday, Phil showed up in Jersey City, N.J. to announce a $50,000 donation to the Liberty Science Center, as part of the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy, which was started four years ago to encourage new ways of teaching math and science.

John Daly only made it through 17 holes at last week's French Open, before withdrawing with a bad back. He'll try to tee it up at the Scottish Open on Thursday before making his way to Turnberry for the Open Championship.

Despite an off-season makeover that included lap-band surgery, a shiny new wardrobe, and a recommitment to the game, expectations are low for Daly. Success has been sporadic, and his 2009 European Tour experience hasn't been much different than 2008, one of his worst years as a professional.

Phil Mickelson finished second in the U.S. Open two weeks ago, but with wife Amy beginning her breast cancer treatments soon, his playing schedule is up in the air. In the meantime, you can see Phil on his new "Secrets of the Short Game" DVD (in stores now!). And if the rest of the vid is anything like this -- demonstrating how to hit the backwards flop shot four feet from the pin -- it will remain a secret to most of us.

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."