FanHouse SergioGarcia

FanHouse is fighting the rain at Greensboro's 2009 Wyndham Championship.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Ryan Moore never really looked like a candidate to win the Wyndham Championship. It's not that he's untalented by any means (in fact, nothing could be further from the truth), but a third-round 70 seemed to doom the unsponsored youngster. But he fought back several times late in the afternoon at Greensboro and won his first ever PGA event in five seasons on the Tour.

Only four other players in the top-20 shot above 70 during a third round that saw Sergio Garcia make tremendous leaderboard moves, and Moore was, for most of the day, well behind the leaders. But a scorching 31 on the back nine that featured five consecutive birdies from holes 12 to 16 suddenly vaulted Moore into the lead by himself.

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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.

Adam Scott was the third-ranked player in the world a year ago. Now, he's 46th and falling. He's fresh off a missed cut at the PGA Championship, carding 82-79 for a two-day, 17-over finish that left him outside the line by 13 strokes.

His Hazeltine experience has been a microcosm of his season. But as John Paul Newport, writing in the Wall Street Journal, pointed out Saturday, there are mitigating circumstances.

"The 29-year-old broke a hand last year and split with his longtime girlfriend, but his biggest problem is putting. In 2008 he led the Tour in putts from 10 feet to 15 feet and was third from 15 feet to 20 feet. This year he ranks 192nd and 152nd, respectively."

Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington and Rich Beem have seven Wanamaker Trophy among them. They're playing together the first two days of the 91st PGA Championship, and midway through the first round, Tiger is alone in first place after a 5-under, 67, Paddy trails by one, and Beemer is tied for 13th at 1-under.

Apart from Woods, who is the story whenever he tees it up, Harrington arrived at Hazeltine after a demoralizing loss at last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. But any doubts about his mental state were quickly erased on the front nine Thursday.

Paddy went out in 34 strokes, matching Tiger shot for shot (as did Beem, who won the PGA Championship the last time it was at Hazeltine in 2002, but hasn't done much in the seven years since). On the back, Woods separated himself, needing only 33 strokes to get to the clubhouse. Harrington was steady and efficient, shooting a 34 on the way in, and Beem, save a double-bogey on No. 3 (his 12th hole), looked like he belonged, carding a 36.

Tom Watson has waited 26 years to win his ninth major, and after a "no way that's got a chance" putt to save par on the 18th green came up woefully short, he'll have to wait at least four more holes. The 59-year-old five-time British Open champion now heads to a playoff with Stewart Cink to decide the 138th Open Championship.

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You'll never believe this, I'm sure, but the favorite to win the 2009 British Open at Turnberry (starts Thursday, OMG, so excited!!!) is Tiger Woods. Go figure, right?

But it's not just that Tiger is favored so much as it is that he's getting the "05 Tiger at the Masters Treatment" really. Because, as you can see from our good friends at BoDog, he's the only guy even remotely near single digit numbers when talking about the odds to win; you can tell from the top five favorites:

Scotland's Sandy Lyle has something countryman Colin Montgomerie doesn't -- a major victory. But Monty, who had a firm grip on the Best Player to Never Win a Major crown until age and Sergio Garcia caught up with him, beat out Lyle for the 2010 Ryder Cup captaincy. Small consolation, perhaps, but also a nod to the fact that he was Europe's best player the last two decades.

Throughout his career, Montgomerie has been known as much for his robot-like consistency as he was for his raging case of between-shots rabbit ears. Notorious for glaring into galleries, now he's having to deal with accusations from his colleagues. Interestingly, it's Lyle doing the finger-pointing.

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:

I love NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller but I'm also not a member of the PGA Tour. The former two-time major winner has a straight-talkin' approach in the booth, and it sometimes rubs the objects of his pointed comments -- the guys on the course -- the wrong way.

During the 1999 Ryder Cup, Miller suggested that Justin Leonard was playing so poorly he should go home and watch Sunday's matches on television. Never mind that Leonard would drain a 45-foot Cup-clinching putt. During that same weekend, Jim Furyk took exception at Miller's suggestion that he was an underdog in his singles match against Sergio Garcia.