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. I just started playing a few weeks ago, because, well, I really enjoyed Fantasy Football last year. Disclaimer: Don’t yell at me if my picks suck.

I know the tournament has already started and I believe the deadline was sometime on Wednesday. Going forward, I’ll have my picks posted earlier. FYI, I picked last week’s winner, Steve Stricker. /big high-freaking-five! And I just jinxed myself. My apologies to Luke Donald.

Group A

Luke Donald: The options were slim, but I went with Donald. He was runner-up at last week’s Northern Trust Open. He tied the course record at Spyglass with a 62 at this tournament in 2007.

Group A Bench Dude

Phil Mickelson: I was hesitant to pick FIGJAM, but like I said, it was slim pickings. Plus, I’m playing to win, so I’m doing my best to put my personal feelings aside. Phil has had two relatively disappointing weeks, but you never know when he’ll get hot. Hopefully he found his putting stroke, or got a new one since Sunday.

Group B

Jim Furyk: Safe pick. Plus, I played a few holes with him at Pebble on a simulator back in November at a Johnnie Walker junket. He knew the course very well and made two birdies in the three holes we played. Oh, Furyk also has a strong record at Pebble.

Dustin Johnson: The defending champ is always a good bet. He’s off to a decent start this season, too. He was the 36-hole leader at the Northern Trust Open and finished T3.

Group B Bench Dudes

Alex Prugh: This rookie has stayed under the radar and hype, but has actually been playing the best. He has three consecutive top-10 finishes. He’s also a fellow Washington State native. Hoping he plays well and is up for an interview after his round…stay tuned. (If you have any question suggestions, drop them below.)

Retief Goosen: In two starts on the PGA Tour, he’s placed fourth and T6. At the Qatar Masters he earned another top-10 finish. GOOSE!

Group C

Mike Weir: Last year he was runner-up at this event. He was cut last week, but finished sixth at the Bob Hope Classic, the other tournament where celebs run rampant.

Group C Bench Dude

Brandt Snedeker: Two top-10 finishes in 2010, including runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open.

OK, I’ll do a better job next week. Time to watch the always enlightening coverage on the Golf Channel. I also might be dropping in comments to Mike Walker who is live-blogging the tournament over at Golf.com’s Press Tent.

/checking leaderboard

K.J. Choi is leading at 6-under through 11 holes. David “Mock Turtleneck” Duval is off to a good start at 5-under through 12 — now let’s see if he can keep it up for four rounds, or hell, even two. And what is this? John Daly is three-under through seven!

So who are your favorites for the week? Drop them below.

*Update: Because several people asked if “Balls in the Air” was my remix to “Pants on the Ground,” here’s this:

So, clearly this weekend I’ll be thinking up lyrics for a “Balls in the Air” song.

I recently chatted with Sports Illustrated writer Damon Hack. Me = bold. Him = italics. Duh. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

You cover the NFL and golf for SI. How are the two sports different as far as coverage and access?

The NFL is much more intense. In football, the PR staff is more protective of the players — it’s very corporate and regimented. The players practice and beat themselves up. Golf is more relaxed, you get to know the players better. It’s just a little more loose than the NFL where it’s a hyper-intense environment 24/7.

The difference is that in the NFL there are 32 teams with 60 players in the locker room. The players on the PGA and LPGA Tour are more like independent contractors; there’s no PGA Tour union. They can play when they want and talk to who they want. They don’t have to worry about what they say that might upset their teammate. When you cover the NFL, there might be a defensive lineman that’s worried about pissing off an opponent he’s about to play or giving away secrets. Golf is just a little more of a collegial atmosphere.

Which sport do you like covering better?

I actually like golf writing better than football writing. At a football game, I’m in a box behind the glass window. There’s the old saying, “The smaller the ball, the better the writing.” I just think golf lends itself to really beautiful writing. I kind of fancy myself a feature writer and I just dig the profits of writing golf more so than writing football.

Don’t get me wrong, I like football a lot. But there are only a couple of must-see football stadiums, and after a while they all look the same — it’s a 100-yard field with a couple of end zones — that’s basically it. When you walk on Augusta National or Pebble Beach or St. Andrews, it’s special turf or ground. It’s just a great vibe.

Do you think performance-enhancing drugs will ever be a problem in golf? [Ed. Note: This interview took place before the PGA Tour announced that Doug Barron was a cheating doper.]

I did a story at the PGA Championship at Medinah in ‘06 about steroids and golf. I talked to Joey Sindelar and a bunch of other players about whether the PGA Tour should test. These days the courses are being built longer and strength is a much more important aspect. A lot of the [players I spoke to] said, “We think golf is different.” But the stakes are higher now and golf has become a big-money sport, just like baseball. Between the PGA Tour, the mini tours and satellite tours, we’d be naive to think there wouldn’t be a couple of guys that might be looking for an edge. I have no clue, I don’t know anyone that has done it or even thought about it. But I still think maybe for the guy who is on the fringe or almost on the next level, is he or she considering it? I think it’s a fair question to ask. As a journalist I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t think about it or ask questions, which I have.

My question to Sindelar was about PEDs in general and he said: “Up until this point in time, I would have said it is a fairly laughable question. The guys in my era weren’t workout guys. It didn’t used to be such a brute strength thing. But we’re getting some serious 6-1 baseball-player-type guys. There’s probably going to be a time when you’re going to look at guys and say, ‘Well, sooner or later somebody is going to cross that line.’”

This is a guy who won 7 times on the PGA Tour. He’s a well respected guy, who loves the game and said he believes in its integrity, but you just don’t know. There were some guys who said, “No way.” Then Joe Ogilvie said, “We market the long ball. We market the guys who hit it 300 yards. If that’s your message, and people see that beginning at the high school level, I think as a tour it is very naive to think that somebody down the line won’t cheat.”

I think it’d be a small, small number. I don’t want to make it sound like it’s rampant. I cover football and a couple times every month someone is suspended for whatever reason. As different as golf is, the PGA Tour is a big-money sport. Maybe I’m too jaded because I cover football and I just think that everybody cheats.

At the British Open, betting is legal. Do you think the players place bets on themselves or other players?

I know some guys go to Ladbrokes during the week before the Open Championship and put down some money on things. The betting houses are a mile from the course, if that. I imagine both on themselves and other players. I’d hope they’d bet on themselves.

[When I was at the NY Times] in ‘05, I wrote an article about betting at the British Open. At St. Andrews [that year] I asked players if they’d bet on themselves or in general. I remember I couldn’t get anyone on the record saying “I did that.” I was getting third-hand accounts of people saying, “Oh it goes on.”

There was an anonymous survey that Sports Illustrated [took] that year [asking players if they had placed a bet on themselves or another player at the British Open]. Apparently 20% of US Tour players admitted to placing a bet on themselves and 12% on another player. I asked Nick Faldo if he was part of the 20% or 12%. He said neither. Then I asked Jose Maria Olazabal. He said he’d never bet on himself.

At the ‘05 US Open at Pinehurst, Retief Goosen said he and Jason Gore made a small wager in the last three holes of the final round and both struggled and scored in the 80s. Goosen said, “I won five bucks.” Then I called Gore’s agent, who said no money was exchanged and they were just joking.

What do you think is the most undercovered story in golf?

I think it’s how much golf is becoming less discernible from the big-money sports. The money in the FedEx Cup is a little obscene. I love the fact that we had Tiger and Phil playing during football season and competing for the FedEx Cup. But to me, that $10 million supersedes the golf. I don’t like how the FedEx Cup is structured. I don’t like the big payoff at the end. It’s so contrived. I remember asking [Tim] Finchem when it was first launched if he expected this to compete against The Masters, the US Open, etc., and become one of the majors, and he basically said, “No, history will judge on its own merits, it’s a way to wrap up the season with some oompf.”

The money overshadows what the competition should be about. I’m sure the Tour thinks the ten million adds to the drama because it’s such a big number. At the end of the day, I think all those guys would take a Green Jacket over that — you can’t buy one of those. The Tour probably wouldn’t have been able to sell the players on [the FedEx Cup] without the money, but to me, it’s like trying create history or buy it. Given what’s going on with the economy, it just felt a little dirty this year.

As Adam Scott, the guy once dubbed The Next Tiger Woods, fell into an awful slump this year, the scrutiny quickly followed.

Recently, one of his peers gave his take — the soft-spoken Retief Goosen (seriously!). In the November issue of Golf Magazine, he said, “Scotty’s still young and he has a lot of hot chicks on his mind. I’m sure once he gets over that his game will be back.”

Ouch?

When Adam was spotted at Wimbledon cheering on girlfriend, Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic — in lieu of competing at Tiger Woods’ tournament, the AT&T National — more speculation surfaced. His relationship appeared to be taking precedence over his game, which, logically, was the cause of his poor play.

But in today’s edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, Adam denies such claims [via golf.com]:

‘I don’t know how to respond to that,’ Scott told the Herald of talk golf had not been his main priority. ‘Should I not have a girlfriend? I tried to do everything that I felt was 100 per cent right for me this year. I wasn’t working on the right things for a period of time and it took a long time to work out what was right again.’

So there you have it. But I still blame Kate Hudson.

[Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images]

And as far as the question concerning the rematch, never again. (Laughter) I would like to stay as the guy who won over Tiger at the PGA Championship, and that’s about it. No redos. (Laughter) —Y.E. Yang, post-win presser, August 16, ‘09

Unfortunately for Yang, Freddie and the former Mr. Evert had a better idea. And a well known golf blogger and I had the same one — on Thursday we decided it would be the best thing in the world if Yang and Tiger played each other in Sunday’s single matches.

I hope we get to see Yang hit another 3-hybrid like this. (Go for broke!) And when he takes down Tiger, he should totally hoist his bag over his head again — even if a chance for an International team victory is futile.

Thank you, captains.

******

The Americans currently lead the Internationals 12.5 to 9.5. Here’s the complete lineup:

International vs. US (matches begin at approximately noon EST in ten-minute intervals)

Camilo Villegas vs. Hunter Mahan — Grade: C-

Adam Scott vs. Stewart Cink — C+

Mike Weir vs. Justin Leonard — B

Robert Allenby vs. Anthony Kim — B

Geoff Ogilvy vs. Steve Stricker — A-

Ernie Els vs. Sean O’Hair — B+

Ryo Ishikawa vs. Kenny Perry — A+

Tim Clark vs. Zach Johnson — D

Y.E. Yang vs. Tiger Woods (!!!) — A+

Vijay Singh vs. Lucas Glover — F-

Retief Goosen vs. Phil Mickelson — B

Angel Cabrera vs. Jim Furyk — C+

[Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images]

Y.E. Yang, the non-English speaking Korean, confirmed via his Twitter feed that the confusion on the 18th hole was just a simple misunderstanding — and not a shady attempt by Retief Goosen to get under Justin Leonard’s skin (read from bottom to top):

Translation: Leonard just yipped the 3-footer. Fair and square. And Goose had a Jessica Simpson moment. But did anyone really think he was intentionally being sketchy in the first place? Naw. I mean, it’s not like this is the Ryder Cup.

[Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Image]

Adam Scott is making International team captain Greg Norman look smart. Norman’s controversial captain’s pick was highly scrutinized — and rather surprising — considering Scott, once dubbed the next big thing, played downright awful this season.

But on Thursday, we saw indications that the slumping Scott is on the road to recovery. Paired with Ernie Els, Scott hit solid golf shots throughout the match. The two closed the match with consecutive birdies. On the 17th, Scott faced a 6-footer (gulp) for the win…and OMG, it went in! Scott/Els won 2&1 over O’Hair/Mahan.

Following the victory, Ernie praised Scott’s stellar play: “He hit it so good today. I had a great partner and obviously a great pick.”

Norman had mentioned that he hoped a good showing by Scott would jumpstart his confidence. And it appears it’s working:

Honestly, I haven’t felt like that for a while. Juices were really flowing and I had one of those feelings that, I mean, I used to have a lot of the time, and to get it this morning was fun. To smoke a drive down there felt even better. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. But it was hard work.

Now, the question is whether Scott can keep up the solid play, not just through this week, but going forward, too. Let’s hope so ‘cause it’s sure nice to see the former number-3 ranked player show up and play.

In Friday’s four-ball matches, he’s teamed with Retief Goosen — the two will be battling Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard.

[Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images]

The Presidents Cup matches at Harding Park in San Francisco begin tomorrow. Here are the pairings for Thursday’s foursomes:

International vs. US.

Tim Clark and Mike Weir vs. Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson

Adam Scott and Ernie Els vs. Hunter Mahan and Sean O’Hair

Vijay Singh and Robert Allenby vs. Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink

Angel Cabrera and Camilo Villegas vs. Kenny Perry and Zach Johnson

Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa vs. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker

Retief Goosen and Y.E. Yang vs. Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard

My favorite is Ogilvy/Ishikawa vs. Woods/Stricker — the Americans have the advantage with the world’s number one and two playing together. Plus, they’re BFFs! It will definitely be interesting to see how the 18-year-old Ishikawa, who just won his fourth tournament on the Japanese Tour, perform. With the format being alternate shot, Tiger’s and Stricker’s games balance each other. And lucky for Strick, the rough isn’t too thick. So, if Tiger is hitting errant drives, it won’t be a huge travesty. Ogilvy and Ryo better bring their A-game to stand a chance.

I also love Cabrera/Villegas vs. Perry/Johnson. Given that Angel doesn’t speak English, it’s probably smart Norman paired him with Camilo because, you know, communicating with your teammate is important.

And then there’s Scott/Els vs. Mahan/O’Hair. Everyone will be watching how Adam Scott plays. At least he’s paired with Ernie, who has been playing pretty well lately. Good news is that none of the four are good putters. Oh, apparently Ernie requested to play with Scott:

Yeah, I think Scotty wanted to play with me. I really enjoy Scotty. I think he’s one of the great talents of the game. He’s had a very tough year. So mentally, I want to help him, and you know, if he can get over the little stumbling block that he’s had it will be great for his career.

What a generous, helpful friend! No, seriously. Let’s hope Scott can regain his confidence this week.

Now that I’ve shared my super-insightful thoughts, it’s your turn. By the way, Mike Walker will be live-blogging the matches over at Press Tent tomorrow — stop by for his Beavis & Butthead commentary on the action.

[Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images]

I ripped into the FedEx Cup last week. Perhaps I was being a bit unfair and it was premature to predict how the changes the PGA Tour made to the system would play out. While I’m still not a huge fan, I’ve reassessed and the format isn’t that terrible. After the Deutsche Bank Championship, it now appears the playoffs are intriguing for both fans and players. Finally.

Another Look at How It Works

The changes the Tour imposed were meant to reward players for consistent play in the regular season and put more significance to their performance in FedEx Cup events. Well, it’s actually working (shocking) somewhat now. We’re seeing how many spots players can move up if they finish well and how it doesn’t affect others much if they’ve played pretty well all year.

Steve Stricker won the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second “round” of the FedEx Cup. As a result, he moved to first place in the points standings, dethroning Tiger Woods, who held the lead for most of the season. So, it’s not going to be so easy for Tiger to win the whole thing.

Stricker has been playing solid with three wins and ten top-10 finishes. More important, he placed second and first in the past two weeks — he’s stepped up when it matters, which is the whole idea of playoffs.

But I find it absurd that Heath Slocum is still ranked third in the standings. I mean, seriously, he didn’t even make the cut this week! Not to mention Jim Furyk is only in 18th. He has made 18 of 20 cuts and has eight top-ten finishes.

What Made the Deutsche Bank Championship Compelling

First of all, the players like the venue, TPC Boston. The tournament was focused on the actual golf instead of the (poor) course design and for that matter, the awe-inspiring views.

Tiger made one of his Sunday-come-from-behind runs, shooting a 8-under 63. Even though he couldn’t complete it, it’s always entertaining and exciting to watch.

Had Jason Dufner or Scott Verplank won instead of Stricker, it would have been another ho-hum outcome (a la The Barclays, but a playoff between them would have made it OK). Stricker birdied the last two holes for the win, no less. (I was at the tournament and watched him play the 17th — he made a great clutch putt. He had that look in his eye that said, “I’ve got this. I will win.”)

Overall, the leaderboard was interesting. It was filled with big names, a few of which we hadn’t seen up there in a while, like Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy, Sean O’Hair and Retief Goosen.

Why We Care Now

With two events remaining, Tiger is no longer the points leader. And, well, we know how he feels about second place.  It’s doubtful he thinks of these tournament as anything “special” per se, but fact of the matter is that he cares about winning. Regardless of how he feels about the FedEx Cup, there’s still something on the line to lose (not money, duh). He’s shown a new level of frustration over the past two weeks — to say the least — and he hasn’t been hiding it well (5-hop clubthrow into the bushes in the first round).

Needless to say, Tiger is fired up and looking for redemption, and let’s face it — when that happens, it always make things more engaging. And, it likely won’t be him running away from the field. He’s up against Stricker, a very worthy opponent, who has shown that he will be tough to beat. Even better.

The FedEx Cup has my attention. For now.

[Photo by Michael Cohen/Getty Images]

Paging the PGA Tour’s class of young rising stars. What’s happened to them this year? I’m talking about guys like Anthony Kim, Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas and even Sergio Garcia (who isn’t that young anymore but fits in the category). They all have multiple wins on Tour, but ‘09 hasn’t treated them well.

Perhaps they’ve become complacent. They never had to fight hard for their early successes. AK and Camilo won twice last year. Adam won a tournament each year between 2006-2008. Sergio only has two victories on the Tour. Aside from Camilo, who has made 16 of 18 cuts this season, the others haven’t even been in contention on a consistent basis. Sergio had a chance last week, but in standard Serg style, he choked. None of them have won a major.

Sure, AK and Adam have dealt with injuries. Adam is also tweaking his swing. Then there are his girl problems — similar story to Sergio. (Don’t even get me started.) We know break-ups are tough, but they should be able to separate their professional and personal lives. Think about it this way: The majority of people have a “regular” day job and they still show up to work and get it done. Yes, golf is more mental, but that’s not a valid excuse. Man up.

These players have it all — money, lucrative endorsement deals, fame, private jets, girls, whatever their hearts desire. AK has had a mediocre year at best, but he’s won almost $2 million. The effort is fairly minimal yet the rewards are quite high. Perhaps this has made them a bit lazy. No doubt they practice, but how much? I’m not saying they’re not “trying,” but there’s not as much on the line for them.

Or is it their “bomb and gouge it” style? They’re excellent ballstrikers, but other than AK, they struggle with putting (ahem, Adam and Serg).

Of course, the fields have become more competitive over the past few years. Winning isn’t easy — Tiger Woods has skewed our perception, making it look somewhat effortless. Other than Tiger simply being a super-human, he truly thinks he can win every time. If he’s not at the very top of the leaderboard at the end of Sunday, he might as well have finished DFL.

It seems like some players don’t necessarily care about winning because even if they finish in the middle of the pack, they still make a good living. Look at Stewart Cink — before he won his first major, the British Open, he was already 10th on the all-time PGA career money list. While he’s played on Tour for about 15 years, he “only” has 6 victories. He’s a great player, but isn’t necessarily considered a marquee player, so to speak.

Golf needs big stars like AK and Camilo. They’re fun to watch and more important, they’re great personalities. Fans like myself want to see them in contention regularly. In the last decade or so, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh consistently won or were always in contention — they’ll still be competitive on Tour for a while, but their time is limited and they aren’t exactly the most captivating guys. It’s time for the current generation to replace them. They need to rise to the occasion. Tiger drives ratings and the sport’s popularity, but it’d certainly be a boost if we could turn on the TV every Sunday and see those names week in and week out.

Hopefully this year has just been an anomaly. It’d be a shame to waste so much talent.

With all that said, what can give the players more incentive to finish better consistently?

“This ain’t a funeral. It would have been a helluva story. It wasn’t meant to be.”

Those were Tom Watson’s opening words in the press conference which followed immediately after Stewart Cink was presented the Claret Jug. Our favorite PGA tweeter beat Watson in a four hole playoff to capture his first major championship. To say it was tough to watch Watson crumble during those extra holes is an understatement.

It did feel like a funeral for some - present company included. I held it together until Watson walked up to accept the silver plate for placing second. Then I lost it for a few minutes (on several occasions, including while I wrote this post). You would have thought my dog had just died.

To Cink’s credit, coming down the stretch, he was the only guy who made a putt when it really mattered. And that’s what it comes down to winning in majors. He drained a 10-footer for birdie on the 18th hole. Rewind eight years to the ‘01 US Open. Stewie blew an eighteen inch putt on the final hole to miss the playoff between Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks. So, you could say the putt today was some sort of redemption.

Yesterday I wrote, “Win or lose - Tom Watson has put on a performance of a lifetime and captured our hearts. He’s already made history.”

So it happened we didn’t get our fairy tale ending with a Watson win - one that would have been the greatest moment in golfing history and the biggest sports story of the year, no less. In my mind, it still was. To watch 59-year-old Tom Watson even almost win the ‘09 British Open is the most inspiring and extraordinary golfing moment so far in my lifetime — at least one that I’m old enough to appreciate.

No doubt Cink was a deserving champion. But in a few years or maybe even less, we’ll look back and remember the ‘09 British Open as the one Watson almost won; the one where he almost became the oldest major champion in any sporting event. We’ll remember Watson’s solid ball striking and those 20-40 footers he drained. We’ll conjure up the memory of him walking up the 18th hole and waving his hat to the crowd. His performance this week might not be more impressive than Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters in ‘86, but it sure will be just as memorable, if not more. Hats off to you, Mr. Watson.

[Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images Europe]