FanHouse Ricky Barnes

I've played both courses at the wonderful Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., sitting in the shadows of Pinnacle Peak, a few miles north of the more well known TPC Scottsdale and it's raucous FBR Open. I'll tell you this -- that course isn't as easy as the PGA Tour players are making it look after the first round of the Frys.com Open.

Nick O'Hern is leading the par slaughterfest after his 7-under 63 skipped past Bob Heintz and Heath Slocum's 64s, four others at 65 and 15 players at 66. The problem is, after the Presidents Cup, is anyone besides us golf enthusiasts (Read: driver nerds) paying a lot of attention?

See, after the FedEx Cup, the PGA Tour kicks off what is called the Fall Series, that includes the last two weeks, the Frys.com, and two more tournaments that end in mid-November. Basically, the Fall Series is a fancy name for the more definitive name, "Race to Gain More Money and Earn your 2010 PGA Tour Card." Okay, lengthier, but more truthful. Players that struggled all season have a chance to go out in these tournaments and earn more money, hoping to find themselves in that coveted top-125 which keeps them with a good paying job for another season.

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:

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.)

Ricky Barnes finished in the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list last season, and for the first time in his then-five-year professional golf career, he had earned his PGA Tour card.

Success has been fleeting for the 2002 U.S. Amateur champion, who was also the low amateur at the 2003 Masters. From 2005-2008, Barnes competed in just five PGA Tour events as a professional, making two cuts. This year, he's played 13 tournaments, played on the weekend seven times, including a second-place finish at Bethpage Black last week (although prior to the U.S. Open, his best finish was a T47 at the St. Jude).

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a weekly feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Ana Ivanovic -- Yep, she plays tennis, but she also is wooing a golf heartthrob away from the AT&T National hosted by Tiger Woods. Adam Scott, who is to the PGA Tour what Erin Andrews is to sideline reporting, has said he will miss the AT&T to go watch Ivanovic at Wimbledon. The word is they're dating, but nothing has been confirmed. I guess here's hoping Ivanovic makes it long enough so that Scott can sport his Burberry on the hallowed tennis grounds.

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.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Just once, as his pleading fandom mustered a "Let's Go, Phil!" chant with the vocal force of a late-inning Yankees rally, you wanted him to focus and make the damned putt. All his life, Phil Mickelson has been missing the shorties in the critical moments. Now, as his cancer-stricken wife and concerned kids watched on TV in San Diego, he was standing over a ball that could pave his path to one of the most inspirational victories in the history of, well, sports.

This was on the 17th green at Bethpage Black, where Mickelson was being hand-delivered his first U.S. Open title by a chorus line of stumbling wannabes -- that is, if he could take advantage. He had nailed a 35-foot birdie putt at No. 12, sending familiar roars blasting through the trees and quaint, Buttafuocoan homes of suburban Long Island. On the 13th, he ripped an approach to within a few feet of the cup and converted an eagle. Was the Win One For Amy dream actually going to happen? Was a man who has experienced so much heartache in his career -- and, suddenly, in his family life -- about to trump just about anything we've witnessed in recent golfing memory, including the monumental victories of his far more successful rival, Tiger Woods?

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- When it was over, they stood together at the ceremony, Lucas Glover, Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ricky Barnes.

And then someone handed the cup to the wrong guy.

Glover. Yes, he won the U.S. Open Monday, and he deserved it. But this tournament is going to be remembered for the other three guys, and maybe for Tiger Woods, too.

It wasn't supposed to end like that. Not at all. Phil Mickelson was supposed to claim the US Open title for his wife Amy. David Duval was supposed to give the 1980 USA hockey team a run for its money on underdog stories. And heck, we haven't even gotten to Tiger Woods and his first-round collapse that ended up costing him the tournament.

Nope. It wasn't supposed to go the way it did, but the US Open never does. Lucas Glover, the 29-year-old that married his soul mate and reads a book a week, came out of nowhere to claim the 2009 US Open title on great drive and gutsy putting. Glover had never finished in the top-10 in any major and had missed the cut in all of his previous US Open appearances, but this was Bethpage Black and Glover can do one thing better than anyone ... drive the golf ball.

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.