FanHouse SergioGarcia

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.

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens made news last year for the tour's peculiar language requirement. The policy was short-lived, but it's one of those things you can easily point to as an example of why the LPGA struggles to remain both relevant and solvent.

Bivens understands as much (although misguided, her attempt to get international tour players to learn English was to help broaden the sport's appeal). Which is why she'd support LPGA players using their Twitter machines during their round.

His legacy is one of smattered popularity. One minute he's slapping an iron with his eyes closed around a tree that Paul Bunyan couldn't have figured a way through, and the next he's doing things that would make even the closest to him scratch their head in troubled wonder.

Sergio Garcia's career as a pro golfer has been confusing, not by his play, but more by his ability to always pick the worst time to do certain things, so the fact that he might have found his game again, and is overcoming some personal problems, is music to professional golf's ears. We've been waiting for this moment, we just weren't sure it would come again.

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 new weekly ranking feature we call Making the Cut.

5. The Mickelsons -- A week after learning that Amy Mickelson was diagnosed with breast cancer, the golf world has jumped directly behind Phil Mickelson and his family during this tough time. John Daly wore pink pants in honor of Amy. A flurry of support from fellow tour players including Twitter posts has shown that no matter what you think of Phil, everyone understands and respects the man as one of the better family men on tour. He will be missed on the golf course, but he is where he should be right now, and for that he is quickly earning tons of respect from places that it may have been lost over the last few years.

TPC Sawgrass is supposed to be brutal. It's supposed to be nasty. For heaven's sake, it's supposed to be the fifth major! Well, unless the fairways and greens are soft and the wind doesn't blow.

Ben Crane, who started on the back nine in the first round of the Players Championship, turned at 3-under 33, but went on a tear from there, making five birdies in six holes on his way to a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead. Crane, who hasn't won on tour since 2005, noted after his round that the greens were perfect, "like putting on the hood of your car," and the low scores the first day indicated that.

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MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

What a zany week for a pair of pitchers with amazing stories: Zack Greinke is America's favorite story right now, somehow managing to be hotter than Twitter. (And if Oprah starts doing him too, I'm just quitting. And I mean everything.) Meanwhile, Rick Ankiel (you may hear word of this "podcast" we're doing about him, but that's because I'm shameless like that), a former star on the mound as well, nearly decapitates himself running into an outfield wall. And yet, life goes on. Just like our Power Rankings.

It is the most famous golf hole in America, and if not for another famous 17th, the Road Hole at St. Andrews, it would be the top hole in the world. It's the island green at TPC Sawgrass, and with The Players Championship coming up this weekend, it's in full view.

The thing is, any golfer's opinion of the 17th is displayed firmly on their sleeve. They either love the hole or want to blow it up, but why such black-or-white thoughts? Well, there are a few reasons.

Who knew Quail Hollow would be the site of one of the best fields in golf next week?

The Quail Hollow Championship (formerly the Wachovia Championship) committee chairs probably celebrated early Friday like they had won the dang golf tournament when Tiger Woods committed to playing next week. The week after Quail Hollow, Tiger committed to the Players Championship, making it the first time since his knee surgery that Woods will play back-to-back events.

Before Phil Mickelson broke through at the 2004 Masters, Lefty held the ultimate "kissing your sister" title. Phil was the "best player to never have won a major championship." Sure, Phil had made waves in majors, nearly taking the title at the 1999 U.S. Open and the 2001 PGA Championship, but he couldn't break through. Once the infamous birdie leap occurred at Augusta National in '04, Mickelson passed that title off to someone. The thing is, nobody has really grabbed it as feverishly as Phil did. He was the major-less face. Now, according to Forbes, it isn't Sergio Garcia.

The year 1999 was a long time ago. Justin Timberlake was a guy in a band called 'N Sync. People were buying bottled water and canned goods in fear of something called Y2K. Oh, and it was probably the last time Sergio Garcia was popular, when he battled Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship, falling just short but touching golf fans everywhere.

Now, Garcia just continues to rub people the wrong way. He waggled his way around Bethpage Black at the U.S. Open in 2002. He spit in a cup after a missed putt in the 2007 Doral Open. He blamed anyone and everyone for his loss in the 2007 British Open. Now? Sergio let Augusta National, golf's sanctuary, have it, lashing out about the course conditions, saying, "I don't like it, to tell you the truth. I don't think it's fair, and, you know, it's just too tricky."

Follow me after the jump for full video of Garcia's ridiculous rant.