FanHouse WoodyAustin

To be completely honest, I didn't even know Justin Timberlake played golf until late last year when a buddy called to tell me he was the group behind him on a Las Vegas golf course. After that, the flood gates opened when Timberlake appeared with Matt Lauer and Tony Romo at the U.S. Open contest earlier this year and is now set to host a PGA Tour event starting tomorrow in, you guessed it, Las Vegas.

The proclaimed six-handicapping is the host of the, deep breath, Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open which starts tomorrow at TPC Summerlin with such notables as Woody Austin, Paul Azinger, Davis Love III and John Daly. Surprised by the last one? Well, it turns out Daly and Timberlake are good buddies, even playing in the pro-am on Monday together.

Both hail from Tennessee and became friends about 10 years ago, when Timberlake first picked up the sport. Even when he was still a high handicapper, Timberlake told Daly he was going to become a good golfer.

"And he has. Now his handicap is around a six, I think, and he knows the rules, he knows the game," Daly added. "He's a great guy. We like to hang out, and it's just great to have his name on this tournament."

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo took time out of his busy schedule of ferrying Jessica Simpson back and forth to the airport to participate in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe this weekend.

Romo didn't just show up to hobnob with the important folk, he came to play. In fact, he was tied for the lead midway through the final round, but was unable to overcome Rick Rhoden or his mustache and finished third, four shots off the lead.

Still, Romo fired an even-par 72, which is pretty impressive for a guy whose full-time job and high-maintenance girlfriend now take up most of his time.

Well, it's pretty impressive to everybody but Chris Baldwin of TravelGolf.com. Baldwin, it seems, hates Romo and everything he stands for. On Sunday, Baldwin ripped Romo for falling into a pond after an awkward bunker shot (re-enacted by Woody Austin above) during Saturday's round:

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo took time out of his busy schedule of ferrying Jessica Simpson back and forth to the airport to participate in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe this weekend.

Romo didn't just show up to hobnob with the important folk, he came to play. In fact, he was tied for the lead midway through the final round, but was unable to overcome Rick Rhoden or his mustache and finished third, four shots off the lead.

Still, Romo fired an even-par 72, which is pretty impressive for a guy whose full-time job and high-maintenance girlfriend now take up most of his time.

Well, it's pretty impressive to everybody but Chris Baldwin of TravelGolf.com. Baldwin, it seems, hates Romo and everything he stands for. On Sunday, Baldwin ripped Romo for falling into a pond after an awkward bunker shot (re-enacted by Woody Austin above) during Saturday's round:

Woody Austin is notorious for on-course meltdowns that touch the hearts of golf watching Americans. So when he had a one stroke lead with two holes to play in the final round of the Buick Invitational today, all we could do was hope for the best. Meaning, in an ideal world, Woody would cough up at least one stroke to force a playoff, and drop some "playing like a dog" line on us.

But it was much better than that, only we haven't been privy to the meltdown yet. Woody closed out bogey-bogey, blasting a par look past the hole on 17 and doing the same thing with a birdie look on 18 for the outright lead. His par putt, predictably, missed left by about an inch.

Not surprisingly, CBS cut to commercial immediately after the pairings' handshakes, but we can only hope someone got a mic in front of Woody as quickly as possible.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that he brought back the most ridiculous shirt of all time (although it is quite American) from the first round of the U.S. Open for the final round at the Buick. After the jump, more of Woody's awesome shirts from this weekend.

To me, the days after an amazing sporting event are pretty depressing, time when you're thinking back on all the superhuman events that happened, recreating them in your mind, but realizing that they are in fact over and you have to move on with your sports life.

With that said, the golf world will continue to spin and starting tomorrow the Travelers Championship tees off at the TPC River Highlands with a fairy competitive field considering it's the week after a major championship.

Vijay Singh leads the field in Cromwell, Connecticut after a disappointing U.S. Open where he finished in a tie for 65th, a week that included a second round 78. Singh is slowly becoming an afterthought in the golf world, slipping to ninth in the Official Golf Rankings and searching for his first win since March of 2007.

You might think this insight is extremely deep, but I've always found it hard to win golf tournaments when you putt like a blind blacksmith during an earthquake. I think Vijay would agree with me.

Well, this is shocking: ESPN's Tom Rinaldi is reporting that Tiger Woods will tee it up today despite a sore left knee. So much for Lee Westwood being gifted his first major like it's 2006 and he's Geoff Ogilvy.

So while there's no way Woods doesn't show up on the first tee at 4:30 pm EST, he will almost certainly have to limp to get there. But to hear Tiger's post-round comments yesterday night, he's not even thinking about it. Even though, you know, he was wincing after after shot.



In any other sport, if an athlete matter-of-factly states, "If the pain hits, the pain hits. So be it. It's just pain", you attribute it to being part of the game. Football, baseball, and basketball routinely feature players who are asked to perform at something less than 100 percent. But golf? Guys are forever missing tournaments due to various nicks and bruises, some more serious than others. And you never hear a golfer announce that "if the pain hits, the pain hits," without adding, "and that's when I promptly WD and head for home."

Tiger Woods has a flair for the dramatic. I can't understate it any more than that. After opening with a double bogey -- for the second time in three days -- and going out in 37 strokes, it looked like Woods' valiant 30 on yesterday's final nine wouldn't be enough to overcome a nagging knee injury that put him on the shelf the five weeks between the Masters and the U.S. Open.

But just as he did almost 24 hours before, Woods made the turn and something clicked. Woods shot 33 on the back, and sandwiched two mind-boggling eagles on 13 and 18 around a just-as-improbable chip-in birdie on 17.

Woody Austin explained earlier today that it's unfair to say Woods "toughs it out" because things eventually go his way. (Never mind that Woods has everything to do with that.) I'm pretty sure this round is exactly what Austin was referring to. (Note to Woody: don't get mad, get better.)

This is easily the best rounds of Woods' professional career, and that would still be the case if he had two functioning knees. Instead, he's hobbled, but I suspect he'll be on the first tee tomorrow when the final group goes off. Call it a hunch.

The U.S. Open starts today, and because it's a major championship and none of the scribes here at FanHouse made the field, we are presenting a full report on every player in the field. From Michael Allen to Tiger Woods, and every potential Angel Cabrera that will have his name called Thursday morning, here is what we offer. This list gives you the player, their best finish in a U.S. Open and something interesting about them, anything from the way they play major championship golf to them throwing the deuces in their Facebook page. You know, hard hitting journalism. We will present them alphabetically, 10 excited golfers at a time.

For the complete list of players, check out the other pages:
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

Here it is, your FanHouse Media Guide.

• Michael Allen -- t-12 -- The definitive golf journeyman, Allen has had success a total of once at the U.S. Open, coming in 2001. He's never won on the PGA Tour, so I'm heading out on a limb and not taking him as my early favorite. Also, he'd be only the second "Michael" to ever win this tournament (Campbell) and the first with the last name Allen.
  

• Robert Allenby -- T-7 -- The 36-year-old has never finished in the top-five of a major and hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2001, so maybe not the safest bet, but if the U.S. Open is ever hosted in, say Australia, look out (12 pro victories in his home country).

• Stuart Appleby (above) -- t-10 -- You couldn't name this major as one of his favorites. Since his t-10 in 1998, the Australian has only made two cuts.

• Stephen Ames -- t-9 -- Maybe not somebody that would come up in early "potential winner" conversation, but two top-10s in the last four years show he can play in the toughest conditions. Also, he's from Trinidad and Tobago, which, for some reason, makes me like him more.

• Phillip Archer -- t-48 -- Archer is from England. He almost shot a 59 in the Celtic Manor Wales Open but missed the birdie putt on 18. That's about all Al Gore has provided us about Archer on the world wide web.

• Woody Austin -- t-23 -- They say majors expose your weaknesses, and with a spotty short game, it's done just that. Interesting fact -- Austin was Rookie of the Year on tour the year before Tiger, even though he's 12 years older.

• Eric Axley -- CUT -- This is the fifth straight U.S. Open Axley has qualified for, but he hasn't made the cut in a single one. USGA – 4, Axley – 0.

• Aaron Baddeley -- t-13 -- The good news? Badds has been in contention at an Open, leading at Oakmont in 2007 after the first three rounds. The bad news? He shot 80 in the last round to finish in a tie for 13^th

• Craig Barlow -- t-26 -- I'll allow the articulate genius of Wikipedia to take over this one for me. "In 2006, he was partnered with golfing legend Jeff Sluman for the final round of the U.S. Open. On the par-4 18th hole, as Barlow was about to tee off, a cart rode by on a path running parallel to the hole. Sluman motioned to the cart driver to halt driving as a courtesy to Barlow, who might have been distracted had the cart continued." Wow, now that is deep stuff. Sucks for the author of that paragraph because I now have the premise for my Oscar winning sports screenplay.
  
• Rich Beem -- CUT -- Yikes, Beemer is 0-6 in making the cut at the U.S. Open. That will never stop him from getting really excited around his birthday.

The debate always lingers when a major championship is played the week after a solid tournament like this week's Stanford St. Jude Championship -- do you play for momentum or take the week off for rest and preparation?

This week both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be skipping the St. Jude while Players Champion Sergio Garcia and King of the Diluted Field, Vijay Singh, are in attendance at the TPC Southwind.

You have to understand the grind that professional golf can take on a person to wonder why someone would decide to skip a golf tournament where they could make five figures playing mediocre at best. Two practice rounds, a Pro-Am on Wednesday, four days of tournament golf only to travel to the next destination and do it all over again.

It appears as of late, taking the week off before the Open is the right choice, as Geoff Ogilvy (in '06) is the only golfer since 2000 to win the championship after playing the week before.

Nonetheless, it's still a week away and the St. Jude has produced some solid champions of late, with always entertaining Woody Austin winning last year with a final round 62 that could be argued as round of the year on tour (Tiger did tie low round in a major with a 63 in the PGA Championship).

If you want to feel better about your game, presumably one that doesn't allow you to earn your living playing golf, here's Woody Austin showing that PGA Tour players -- even ones ranked 29th in the world -- can sometimes, um, choke like a dog:



In case you were one of the tens of millions who missed the final round of the Zurich Classic, let me set up Austin's implosion: he came to the 18th hole needing a birdie to force a playoff with eventual winner Andreas Romero.

Austin promptly hit his drive into some of the thickest rough on the course. Instead of laying up short of a fairway bunker some 200 yards away (and roughly 150 yards to the pin), Austin tried to carry the bunker with his hybrid club and leave himself a short wedge into the green.

Well, you saw how it worked out. But here's the thing: I'm glad Austin went for it. For starters, it's the Zurich Freaking Classic; if he pulls it off, maybe he'd have more confidence to try it in a more career-defining tournament. Second, golf could stand a few more risk-takers. Of course, Phil Mickelson, one of the best golfers on the planet, was routinely criticized for taking unnecessary chances, but that's probably got more to do with people discriminating against him for having man boobs.

And even though things didn't work out for Austin -- and he dumped his third shot into the drink -- I'm still glad he went for it. And there's a silver lining: Austin's whiff is now among Johnny Miller's "Top-5 Worst Shots on the 72nd Hole," and never did he once come close to falling in a lake.