Welcome to Balls in the Air, where I size up my Fantasy Golf picks of the week, featuring guys to watch (or not) and interesting story lines. Disclaimer: Don’t yell at me if my picks suck.

First of all, I’d like to take a second to give myself a big-freaking-high-five for posting this before the tournament started. (I know, finally.)

/HI-5!

Okay, I feel so much better about myself after that. Hoo-ray. Because you all care, I’m sure. Moving on to the picks!

Group A

Phil Mickelson: The defending champ needs to step up after a crappy showing on the West Coast swing. You gotta figure he’s found a new putting stroke by now (though not sure what was wrong with the one from the end of last season). It’s time to get hot, Phil — apparently Tiger is coming back soon, so the time is winding down to move closer to that number-one spot.

Group A Bencher

Steve Stricker: Safe pick…for every week. He’s a fantastic alternate to fill in for a potential no-show Phil. Hell, it would probably be smarter to have Phil on the bench. Stricks surpassed him as the number two in the world rankings after he won the Northern Trust Open. He’s placed in the top-10 in three for three starts.

Group B

Camilo Villegas: Uh, heard he’s playing pretty well on the course in between his job as the ambassador of Colombia. Apparently he has a lot of fans out in Miami (se habla Espanol). I’m told when he came second to Tiger in 2006, he overshadowed him (yes, seriously!). But he’s had more rest and not sleeping in his own bed this week, so might be a gamble.

Jim Furyk: My friend Kevin reminded me that Furyk has an excellent record at Doral (T2 in ‘08 and 3 in ‘09). He also advised me to take Furyk over Rory McIlroy, so if Furyk shoots, like, 76 every day, then I’m taking a hit out on him.

Group B Benchers

Rory McIlroy: The 20-year-old from Northern Ireland will be the first to share cover time with Tiger on Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘11. He picked up some tips from Jack Nicklaus at lunch last week because he’s eager to learn. And he’s been playing Doral since he was, like, nine.

Geoff Ogilvy: He hasn’t done anything spectacular since he won the season-opening SBS Championship. (Maybe the new baby is keeping him up?) But he sure loves World Golf Championship events with three wins tucked away.

Group C

Paul Casey: Three top-10s in three starts. When asked what he’d say to Tiger on the first tee, he replied, “Nike 1, blue dot. I don’t know, what do you say?” Exactly.

Group C Bencher

Ian Poulter: He won the WGC Match Play Championship. Enough said.

Well, that’s all. Great field this week. For the record, I wanted to pick Alvaros Quiros to shake things up — the dude is fun to watch and hits the ball so far he almost makes J.B. Holmes look like Tim Clark. But I guess I’m laying up while wearing orange pants.

Welcome to Balls in the Air, where I size up my Fantasy Golf picks of the week, featuring guys to watch (or not) and interesting story lines. Disclaimer: Don’t yell at me if my picks suck.

I swear I’m going to get better at posting this on a weekly (and more timely) basis, but mostly it’s because I haven’t come up with lyrics for a “Balls in the Air” theme song. Submissions are welcome.

Group A

Anthony Kim: Aside from the third round 76 at the Phoenix Open, Mr. Shiny Belt Buckle had a great tournament. No word whether he was hitting it hard at the Bird’s Nest on Friday night. Oh, and this is good — he’s paired with Robert Allenby the first two rounds. Fight, fight, fight!

Group A Bencher

Ernie Els: The options were slim, so it was either the Big Easy or someone like Steve Marino. Ernie is off to a quick start with two top-10 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and Northern Trust Open. Even though his three-year campaign to challenge Tiger Woods as the world’s number one has expired, maybe it comes with a one-year extension plan.

Group B

Rory McIlroy: Gotta love this kid. More important, he wouldn’t have laid up from 231 yards on a par 5 when he was in contention. At least I hope not.

Camilo Villegas: The flashy Colombian has been playing very well. In two starts, he finished third at the Match Play Championship and T8 at last week’s Phoenix Open, including a 9-under 62 in the first round. After complaining last year about the oh-so-grueling year-long golf schedule, he talked about his overall improvement in attitude and appreciation for the opportunity to play. They grow up so quickly!

Group B Benchers

Y.E. Yang: The defending champ is always a safe pick. He also played well last week despite a mental error, where he dunked it in the water, on the 17th hole last Sunday. But last night on Twitter, he mentioned having back pain. Not a good sign and something went wrong today — he shot (gulp) 79.

J.B. Holmes: I have a soft spot for the slow-moving long hitter after speaking with him last week at the Phoenix Open. Really nice guy. He’s also started the year hot with a runner-up finish at the A&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and third at the Northern Trust Open.

Group C

Paul Casey: In two starts, he finished runner-up at the Match Play Championship after losing to Ian Poulter in the finals, and T10 at the SBS Championship. Another safe pick. (Honestly, I’m ashamed how boring I’m getting.)

Group C Bencher

Rickie Fowler: I’m still kinda appalled with his gutless play coming down the stretch. John Hawkins summed it up very well, “Hey dude, did it ever cross your mind that you could make an eagle? You’re Rickie Freakin’ Fowler, the New Kid in Town, the second coming of Lanny…You believe, Rickie, because that’s what champions do. Better safe than sorry? Sometimes, they mean the same thing.” Lucky for him he’ll have another chance sooner than later — can’t discredit him for being able to play. As he heads into the Florida swing, it’ll be interesting to see how he does when not on familiar territory.

Alright, leaderboard check! The soft-spoken Australian, Nathan Green, leads with an early 5-under. Some guys called Alexandre Rocha and Michael Connell are tied for second along with Oliver Wilson and Villegas. Watching the telecast, looks like tough conditions with the wind blowing hard.

Someone else to keep an eye on is rookie Alex Prugh. He’s placed in the top-ten three times and made five cuts in five starts. After a few off-weeks, he’s in the clubhouse with a 68 and T10.

I realize I sound like a broken record this week with some of my picks — you know, so-and-so is playing well, which was annoying because it seemed like I have nothing more interesting to say. But if you’ve discovered a formula that doesn’t involve looking at the players’ current season results and their past performance at that tournament or simply going with your gut, then please share. Maybe next week I’ll get a little crazy and point my finger at the screen with my eyes closed and see which name it lands on.

At least Villegas is making me look smart.

Nike will launch its new Victory Red STR8-FIT Tour fairway woods this month without Tiger Woods featured in a commercial giving his trustworthy testimony. In fact, Tiger, who inspired the Victory Red name with his tradition of wearing red shirts in the final round, isn’t even referenced in the marketing materials. Alternatively, they boast that the respected Lucas Glover, who was virtually an unknown before he won the 2009 US Open, tested the clubs in tournament play.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the absence of Tiger is very bad for Nike:

Nike’s inability to bank on Mr. Woods — who remains a Nike-sponsored athlete but is postponing his career as he deals with the fallout from his alleged extramarital affairs — comes at a problematic time. The Beaverton, Ore., company has faced deteriorating golf sales because of the recession. Annual revenue at the Nike Golf division fell 11% last year to $648 million after peaking at $725 million the year before.

Still, some of Nike’s retail partners said they expect the company’s clubs to sell well in 2010, with or without Mr. Woods to champion them.

But Nike remains optimistic and doesn’t believe in a long-term negative impact:

“We feel very good about how we are managing our golf business through this period and our position in the broader golf market,” [Chief Executive Mark] Parker said, adding, “We’ll continue to support Tiger and his family as we, of course, look forward to his return.”

Nike must be thrilled that the golfer it pays approximately $30 million a year has disappeared. But ultimately the company will be just fine — all golf manufacturers have experienced declines in sales because of the economy. And, as the WSJ notes, “overall revenue grew 3% to $19.2 billion in fiscal 2009.”

Tom Stine, co-founder of Golf Datatech, chipped in, “Nike golfers won two major tournaments last year, and neither guy was named Tiger Woods.” You know, like Stewart Cink, the 2009 British Open Champion, and of course, Glover. And, there’s Paul Casey, who is currently spotlighted on the website’s front page in a promotional video of the Victory Red driver. Now they’re great players, but will they have the same selling power as Tiger did? Uhhh…

For old time’s sake, here’s the commercial for the Victory Red irons Tiger helped create:

Good thing Nike has Glover, Cink and Casey to step in for those three Tiger Woods. There’s always David Duval, too.

Monty targeted Poulter for opting not to play in this week’s Vivendi Trophy match. Poulter joined seven other players that turned down their invitations. Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald are playing in the Tour Championship, and Paul Casey and Martin Kaymer are injured. Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Justin Rose didn’t have commitments this week.

Apparently Monty and Poulter have a feud that traces back to last year’s Ryder Cup. Poulter didn’t play in the last qualifying event because he banked on Nick Faldo’s captain pick. As Monty likes to do, he voiced his objections and Poulter responded with his own strong words. It soon escalated to a heated disagreement between them via the media.

So that would explain why Monty chose to direct criticism solely toward Poulter.

I spoke to Miguel Angel Jiménez. He’s never missed one of these and never would miss one. Good for him and I’m the same and Paul McGinley the same and Thomas. I haven’t spoken to Ian at all. Please don’t make any big issue of this.

As he should know, it was inevitable to become one.

I would like to focus on the players that are here and not the players that are not. It does give an opportunity for those who would not otherwise have played to impress not just the captains and their team-mates, but me also. You could have over half the [Ryder Cup] team playing here quite easily and it will be interesting to see who performs within a team environment.

So, he’s saying Poulter isn’t a team player. This time around Poulter decided to respond in a civil manner. He explained his decision via Twitter.

It would have been great to play the seve trophy, but the schedule becomes very difficult to play every event, so important not to burn out

And he wants to spend time with his family because he’ll be away for six straight weeks starting in November. Understandable. Because of the Tour’s schedule, the last few months were a tiring, long stretch for most players.

It also doesn’t seem like he’s offended by the comments as he added that Monty will be an inspiring Ryder Cup captain. At least Poulter has learned not to add more fuel to the fire.

[h/t Shane Bacon/FanHouse]

At the 2010 U.S. Senior Open Media Day Outing, Billy Rodgers paired me with two guys from the University of Washington team because he knew I was a former collegiate golfer. And my friends from GolfingMyWay.com that went to the University of Oregon played with a fellow Duck alumni.

That said, I shouldn’t have been surprised last Thursday when I first saw the U.S. Open pairings for Bethpage. (To be honest, I’d just never paid close enough attention until this year.) My first reaction? LMAO. I thought, is this a joke? Nope! It appears the U.S.G.A. is known to put together groups that will draw interest or a good chuckle - there’s a method to their madness.

Ryan Ballengee over at Waggle Room mentioned that U.S. Open set-up chief Mike Davis had announced the week prior that the top three golfers in the world would not be grouped together like last year at Torrey Pines. Instead, we’ll get to see Tiger Woods, Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington, the reigning champions of the four majors, tee-up the first two rounds together.

Here are some of the groups that immediately caught my eye:

• Sergio Garcia, Camilo Villegas and Adam Scott: Who does the best “blue steel” look? This one? Naw. Maybe this? This takes the cake. We know which group will have the largest following of ladies. It was announced last week that Sergio stole Camilo’s regular caddie is now looping for Sergio. Will that be awkward? Camilo is getting the better end of the deal though. As for Adam, well, I’m crossing my fingers that he makes the cut. Same goes for Serg. Hopefully he’s manned up.
• Vijay Singh, Jeev Milkha Singh and K.J. Choi: Singh-Singh. «ba-dum-ching!» No relation, duh.
• Andres Romero, Eduardo Romero and Miguel Angel Jimenez: Same as above. Also, both Romeros are from Argentina. I’ll bet that if Cabrera wasn’t the Masters champ, he would have taken Jimenez’s spot.
• Geoff Ogilvy, Jim Furyk and Paul Casey: Two U.S. Open champs and the third best golfer in the world at the moment. Solid group. I’d say all three have a shot at the title.
• Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen: It goes without saying that everyone is pulling for Phil. Ernie and Retief are both two-time U.S. Open champs.
• Anthony Kim, Rory Mcilroy and Dustin Johnson: Young guns! AK and Rory were paired together at the Masters for the first two rounds as well. Perhaps AK will break a record at Bethpage Black. It wouldn’t be a bad trend.

Which group will you follow in the first two rounds? Or which would you follow if you could?

• Paul Casey Overcomes Strong Winds To Win First PGA Tour Title [Golf Fanhouse]
• Sink or Swim: LPGA’s Witty Advertising Goes A Long Way [Golf Girl’s Diary]
• Looking For An Absurd Golf Gift? [Golf Blogger]
• Don’t Force The Shot: Course Management Tips [The 20th Hole]
• The Secret Behind Fred “Boom-Boom” Couples’ Power Swing [Inside The Madness]

Paul Casey embraces his caddy after winning the Shell Houston Open in a thrilling sudden death play-off with J.B. Holmes. Congrats!

Subsequent to securing his first PGA Tour victory, Casey said, “This is fantastic. I can’t believe we’ve got bagpipes playing. I love the Masters. I feel it’s my best opportunity at a major. The golf course sets up very, very well for me. Winning this week isn’t a jinx like winning a par 3 contest. Phil Mickelson has won the week before and gone on to win Augusta. Sandy Lyle has done it as well. It’d be nice to be another Brit to do that.”

Casey definitely has momentum going into the first major of the year, the Masters, BUT what about the pressure he’s facing now? Can he handle it?

Paul Casey’s tee shot on #14 at the Shell Houston Open lands in the bunker; moments after he birdies #13 to take the lead by 1 over Fred Couples.