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Goydos, Marino Share Lead at Barclays

The four-tournament FedEx Cup might be billed as the playoffs, but Tiger Woods (along with just about everybody else in the field) are treating it with all the reverence of a practice round. Maybe it's the rain-soaked conditions, or the tricked-out, wannabe links-inspired course set-up. Or maybe the manufactured drama of the FedEx Cup isn't working.

So call the next month of golf whatever you want, but it feels a lot like the PGA Tour season officially ended with last week's Wyndham Championship. Hey, it could be worse: we could be subjected to made-for-teevee skins games.

In any event, we're three rounds into the Barclays, and 24-year-old Webb Simpson, the 36-hole leader, stumbled through moving day, dropping two shots off the lead after signing for a 1-over, 71. Meanwhile, Paul Goydos and Steve Marino each needed 68 strokes to get around Liberty National and are tied atop the leaderboard at 9-under heading to the final day.

Sergio Garcia Joins Leaders at Barclays

An inch. That was all that stood between Sergio Garcia and a playoff last week at the Wyndham Championship. Sitting in the greenside bunker on the 18th hole, the 29-year-old Spaniard found himself in need of a heroic hole-out to join Ryan Moore and Kevin Stadler in a playoff to decide the '09 champion.

The bunker shot looked perfect, coming out, biting perfectly and rolling like it was going to cash for the needed birdie. It was, as the golfing world has tended to say, too perfect of a shot, and the spin kept it from rolling that extra inch. Tap-in par, one shot out of the playoff, another hung-head for Garcia. Most times, Sergio lets these things affect him. Thursday at the Barclays, Garcia came out firing, posting a 6-under 65 to join Paul Goydos and Steve Marino as the leaders after day one.

Tiger Opens With 70 at Barclays


Ho-hum. That was Tiger Woods' opening round of the FedEx Cup at Liberty National in New Jersey. A 1-under 70 for the current FedEx points leader was good enough to stay within shouting distance of the leaders, but it was a pretty boring day by Tiger standards.


Steve Stricker Proves Experience Matters

Every Monday during the PGA Tour season, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action. Basically, we'll focus on what you missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.

Stricker Uses Experience to Edge Others -- There were three golfers in the playoff at the Colonial on Sunday, but only one had hoisted a trophy on the PGA Tour. Steve Stricker, by all accounts, had struggled on Sunday. The man that relies on his putting to get it done on the golf course hit multiple lips on his way to the 17th hole after he came off a frustrating bogey on the par-3 16th.

A second shot from just over 150 yards on 17 was yanked a hair, and Stricker found himself over the green with a tricky little pitch out of some thick rough. It didn't matter for the 42-year-old. Pitch. Roll. Pin. Birdie. Reminiscent of Nick Watney's shot on the ninth hole at the WGC earlier this year, Stricker's birdie gave him a chance at a playoff.

Inexperience by the others got him in.

Steve Stricker Birdies Second Playoff Hole for Colonial Victory

It was the fifth playoff on the PGA Tour this season, but the only one that gave us such incredible shots over just two holes.

Steve Stricker claimed the Colonial title on Sunday after dodging a birdie bullet by Tim Clark, who is still searching for his first win, and Steve Marino, who seems to have the game to claim a title on the PGA Tour but is still rough around the edges.

Phil Mickelson Follows Tiger's Lead

There is only one match play tournament a year on the PGA Tour, but it sure seems of late that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are playing a little "whatever you can do, I can do better" game against each other. At Quail Hollow this week, you might as well forget all the other names. Mickelson's round of 67 after Tiger posted a 65 this morning was a tournament director's dream, and allowed the rest of the field to look up at the leaderboard and say, "Oh, them again."

Playing with defending champion Anthony Kim and Davis Love III, Mickelson birdied his first hole, followed that up with another on the 5th and then chipped in for eagle on the par-5 7th. At times, it seemed Mickelson's short game got too much credit, similar to veteran journalists ogling Brett Favre's arm when there were younger, faster quarterbacks in the league. That isn't the case this season with Phil. He was quoted as saying his short game is as good as it has ever been due to a short game clinic he put on in the offseason, and it is showing.


Kelly Claims First Win in Seven Years

If I've said it once, I've said it a billion times. Tiger Woods has skewed our take on golf tournaments. It isn't that easy to win. It just isn't.

Jerry Kelly would agree with me. He's 42, and won twice on tour in 2002. Since then, he's finished second four times, which is pretty darn impressive from the quintessential PGA Tour journeyman, but he couldn't break through. Sunday in New Orleans, Kelly claimed his first win in seven years, taking the Zurich Classic over a group of golfers either trying to break their own winning slump or trying to claim their first PGA Tour title.

Your Attractive PGA Championship Preview

"Glory's Last Shot" is upon us, and with He Who Should Not Be Named out for the second consecutive major, we in the golf world have to type and make up things as we pick "favorites" when we really have just as good an idea of who will win as you.

If that doesn't entice you, this might -- only one golfer not named Tiger Woods in the top 10 of the Official World Ranking has won a major championship since the Masters in 2006. Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker and Adam Scott have all gone a very long time without winning a major (if ever) and it seems these top-10 golfers might be due.

Here are my favorites, their best finish in a PGA Championship, and why they made the list.

  • Phil Mickelson -- WON -- My least favorite person ever to pick in majors, but he did play good for three rounds (or four if you ask him) last week and had himself in a extremely good position even with a balky putter and his obviously struggle with weight choking. If he can somehow find a way to hit the fairway this week, he'll be near the top come Sunday (and on cue probably find a way to drop the ball in dramatic fashion).

FanHouse U.S. Open Media Guide, Page 10

Finally to double digits, it's the FanHouse Media Guide.

  • Jarrod Lyle -- DNP -- A win already under his belt this year on the Nationwide Tour, Lyle has struggled lately, missing the cut in four of his last five tournaments. At age 17, Lyle was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukiemia, taking nearly two years off from golf to treat the disease.
  • Hunter Mahan -- t-13 -- Mahan is kind of a badass. He won the U.S. Junior Amateur in 1999, runner-up at the U.S. Amateur in 2002, blistered college golf at Oklahoma State and has since won the 2007 Travelers Championship. I might be stretching here, but I have a feeling he could win a major one day.
  • John Mallinger -- t-67 -- Mallinger is 61st on the FedEx Cup point standings, with three top-10s highlighted by a third place in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
  • Steve Marino -- CUT -- Marino, in just his second full year on the PGA Tour, has won over a million dollars and unless Tiger Woods does this to him, he will be back in 2009. Marino shot a 59 in the 2006 Gateway-Grey Goose Tour Championship, winning the tournament by ten shots.
  • Ross McGowan -- DNP -- Englishman McGowan has four top-10s on the European Tour and is currently 122 in the World Golf Rankings. Also, went to the American university where the student newspaper is called The Daily Beacon.
  • Rocco Mediate -- 4 -- Seriously, is there a person in the world that doesn't get giddy when they see Rocco Mediate? He's like a soft puppy or Starbursts, they're just good for the world. Went from the PGA Tour to a reporter on The Golf Channel back to the links this year, where he had his best finish two weeks ago at the Memorial (t-6).
  • John Merrick -- CUT -- The UCLA graduate missed out on retaining his PGA Tour card by four spots last year, so he just decided to go back to Q-School and, well, school it. Now in perfect position to keep his card for '09, Merrick will be looking for his first cut made in a major.
  • Shaun Micheel -- t-28 -- OUCH, that hurt like hell, damn lightening striking. Micheel won the 2003 PGA Championship with an approach shot on 18 that nearly holed for an eagle. After a rather impressive 2004 (20 of 27 cuts made) Micheel has struggled, making just 52.4 percent of his cuts in the past four seasons.
  • Phil Mickelson -- 2 -- What more is there to say about Lefty? He's finished in second or a tie for second four times, tie for fourth once and two other top-10s. If there is ever a year for Phil to win one of these things it's now.
  • Jon Mills -- CUT -- Canadian Mills isn't having an amazing year (133 on FedEx Cup points) but he does have some things to hang his hat on. He helped launch a "Learn to Golf Program for Kids" in his hometown of Belleville to help underprivileged kids learn the game.


Golf Winners and Losers of the Weekend

Golf is such a crazy game that one week you are enjoying the Playboy Mansion while the next you're asking for pennies outside a McDonald's.

This week was no exception, with multiple winners and losers from around the cruel world of that nasty white ball.

Winners

Phil Mickelson -
Yep, no surprise here. Lefty won his second tournament of the year at the Colonial, capping it off with possibly the shot of the year from the ball-washer on 18 to make a tournament-clinching birdie. Team Mickelson couldn't have had a more timely victory than the one this weekend.

Jay Haas - Oak Hill sure seemed like a fun place to be this week, didn't it? The Champions Tour players got smacked around all week by the Rochester, NY layout, but Haas endured the punches better than everyone else, taking home the Senior PGA Championship at 7-over par! As they say around Tour, a win looks the same on your Wikipedia page.

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