FanHouse Mondayspinplacement

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.

Golf writers like myself don't have a lot of things better to do than discuss Tiger Woods. He is to us what George W. Bush was to Fox News, Sarah Palin was to The Daily Show and Brangelina is to Perez Hilton. Dissecting every Tiger move is what keeps us ticking, and for good measure, because most of the time it seems Tiger is the only person worth talking about.

This season has been a different one for Woods. One week he's the world's biggest mystery, constantly sticking that right hand out to warn spectators that another Tiger bomb is heading for the gallery. The next week, he's absolutely splendid on the links, firing mid-irons with the precision we have grown to love since the 1997 Masters.

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 Wins Again -- Sometimes, being old has its perks. You can get a cheaper breakfast. You occasionally get helped with your groceries. And apparently, you can also still cash in victories on the PGA Tour.

Steve Stricker became the second 40-something to win twice this year on the PGA Tour when he took the John Deere Classic on Sunday, joining Kenny Perry and adding to the seven wins in 2009 by people in their 40s (Angel Cabrera and Phil Mickelson have also won, but are a year shy of the group).

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.

Is Kenny Perry the Second Best U.S. Golfer? -- He's 48, yet Kentucky native Kenny Perry is playing the best golf of his career. Perry, who announced earlier this year that he wants to get to 20 wins in his career (he's currently at 14), has put up some staggeringly consistent numbers over the last year that now have him in the conversation as one of the top American golfers right now.

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.

If you've ever checked this page (or Dogs That Chase Cars) you'll know one thing -- I'm far from a Phil Mickelson fan. Far from one. If Phil, who finished tied for 59th at the St. Jude Championship, was a nice pair of Bugatti shoes, then I'm the old Converse that sit neglected in the back corner of your closet.

For me, it isn't anything more than a personality change. Back in 2004, you couldn't have moved me away from the television when Mickelson was charging on the back nine of Augusta like a demolition ball. I loved him. I adored him. He had more guts than I did on the golf course. He took chances. He was a fellow left-hander that left it all on the golf course and never let anyone tell him his style was wrong.

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.

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.

Johnson Delivers Another Playoff Victory -- Before April of 2007, Zach Johnson was a relative nobody in the golf world. He'd won the BellSouth Classic back in 2004, but he hadn't been making noise before he headed to Augusta National last year.

Yet twelve strategic lay-ups and a bunch of well played golf had Johnson wearing his first green jacket. Johnson's 2007 Masters win made us believe that golf isn't just about booming tee shots and big names.

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.

It wasn't supposed to be Sean O'Hair's week. This was about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, jumping up the leaderboard on Thursday and sticking there until the last putt dropped. This was supposed to be Augusta continued. This wasn't supposed to be the week for a 26-year-old to finally cash in after five top-10 finishes in 2009.

The thing is, O'Hair's talent knows no bounds, and the guy that once had to run miles for each bogey he made is quietly becoming the best young golfer on tour. Sure, he's not flashy like Anthony Kim or as hopeful as Rory McIlroy, but this win was O'Hair's third of his career during a week at Quail Hollow that had one of the toughest non-major fields of the year.

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.

Ochoa vs. Woods -- When Annika Sorenstam was at the peak of her game, a stretch between 2001-05 that had Annika claim eight major championships in 18 stars, she became buddies with Tiger Woods, text-messaging Woods after majors to compare their big tournament wins.

With Lorena Ochoa continuing to dominate the LPGA, it might be time for Tiger to land Lorena's phone number.

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.

Gay Crushes Field in Harbour Town -- One of the strange things about tournament golf is how people can navigate a golf course in totally different ways (big drives, short shots, putts, chips, bunker play), yet still finish 72 holes with a score that is nearly identical to others' rounds (see last week's Masters).

That was not the case on Sunday. Brian Gay, playing in his 330th event as a PGA Tour member, put a beat-down on the post-Masters field; a beat-down the likes of which had never managed done before at the Verizon Heritage.

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.

In 1996, Greg Norman had one of the most epic collapses in the history of golf. Carrying a six-shot lead into the final round of that year's Masters, Norman was set to finally grab that green jacket that had eluded him for so long.

You all know the story. Norman wound up losing the tournament to Nick Faldo and in accordance with the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words," has this lasting image that summed up his experience at Augusta. After a final round 78, Norman had two choices: he could duck out of Augusta or he could face the music. Norman responded courageously by heading into the press room and answering all questions asked of him for 45 minutes. He earned the respect of darn near any golfer that has played the game.