Tiger Woods took a break from working on his game Friday to answer some questions from fans on Twitter. What did we learn? He's fit and ready for the new season. He's still working on a putting tip from Steve Stricker. And he ate brains one time while in Thailand.

Here are more highlights from Woods's chat ...

Preparing like any other event, Sean and I working efficiently RT @The_Real_McFIy5m what's hardest part about preparing for the season?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Yes! Ready to go RT @garyianlawrence6m well the big question is : are you fit??

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

No more lessons, still working on what he told me to do RT @DCGiesII How is the putting? Any more lessons from Stricker?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

I know he can shoot in the 60s, a matter of shooting them when it counts RT @jmoore15203 does Romo have a shot at qualifying for the Open

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

RT @PaulAzinger Byron Nelson said they're 2 kinds of plyers those that need to knw a little, those that need to knw it all. Whch 1 r U, Why?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

The latter, how are going to fix something if you don't know what's wrong? RT @PaulAzinger

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Brains in Thailand, haven't had it since RT @hWAM_lebard What are some of the craziest things (to a Westerner) that you have ever eaten?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Natural progression of golf, look at how ball has changed RT @RideTheKtrain should more be done to limit the impact of technology over skill

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

1 thing you learn at S: time mgt RT @PRodgersGolf I'm a freshman on the Stanford golf team. Whats your advice on getting to the next level.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

I met him already, Nelson Mandela RT @slickg720 what is one celebrity you would love to meet but haven't yet?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Absolutely, probably more! New Justice League Doom coming out soon too RT @slickg720 are you as pumped as me about the dark knight rises?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Green man dancing in Flint, Michigan RT @mickmilligan what was the funniest or craziest thing you've seen from someone in the gallery?

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Signing off now, thanks a lot. Back to the putting green.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

Reigning Masters champion Charl Schwartzel doesn’t want to just host this year’s Champions Dinner -- he wants to prepare it. The 27-year-old has visions of grilling up a braai [right] -- a sampling of traditional South African meats -- under the iconic oak tree outside the clubhouse. Call it Pit Masters: Augusta National Edition. Global Golf Post has the details:

“We’ve put in the request and are still waiting to hear from them,” Schwartzel said. “But I’d love to be able to braai there. I want to braai everything myself, but we just have to see if that will be possible with the number of people there. I could end up with a very sore hand at the end of an evening turning all that meat.”

Schwartzel has already started planning his Masters braai. “I’ll keep it very simple. Ideally I would like to have a few lamb chops, some fillets and of course some boerewors (a traditional South African sausage).”

According to Scott Michaux of the Augusta Chronicle, Schwartzel would be the first champ to trade his green jacket for a green apron:

In general, the club balks at outsiders cooking in their kitchens. Other than Vijay Singh famously bringing in a prominent Atlanta restaurateur to prepare his Thai menu in 2001, Augusta National has used its own chefs to prepare whatever the host champion desires (with the possible exception of Sandy Lyle’s haggis).

New year, same old Phil

Phil Mickelson picked up his 2012 season pretty much right where he left off his 2011 season. An eagle here, a three-putt there, tee shots everywhere. It all resulted in a two-over 74 at the Humana Challenge on Thursday, a discouraging opening round at La Quinta Country Club that included a pair of out-of-bounds tee shots. Mickleson looked at the bright side: 

"The round wasn't indicative of how I know I was playing. I've been playing really well heading in. I played well the front nine, made some good birdies."

"And then the back nine those couple out of bounds, one was a matter of two feet and a couple of inches on the other and those could have been a big difference."

Mickleson, who dabbled with a long putter toward the end of last season, has returned to an Odyssey blade, which is “very similar to the putter I grew up with as a kid just going back to that type of freer motion.”

“I feel really good with the putter. And that was the one area that I was concerned with. I spent the whole off-season working on that, deciding on the direction I was going to go, with what putter and what have you.

“I'm trying to make, I feel like I can make everything on the greens. I had a couple 3-putts ... my speed was off on a couple, but really excited with the way it was transpiring and given the way I've been hitting it the last couple years I know I'll get that fixed and I can start shooting some numbers.”

Lefty's last win came the week before the Masters, at the Shell Houston Open.

Tiger says he’s executing “all the shots”

Hank who? After 17 months under the tutelage of swing coach Sean Foley, Tiger Woods says the Tao of Foley is finally clicking in an interview with ESPN's Bob Harig.

"Last year at this time I didn't truly understand what Sean was trying to teach me," Woods said. "I was very one-dimensional in my ball striking."

One-dimensional? Where does that leave the rest of us?

“I had this baby draw, didn't have a fade, and when I got to Dubai, my second tournament, the wind was howling and I couldn't hold the ball up against the wind with a fade.”

"One of the things we had to work on through the year was hitting all the shots. It didn't really start happening until the fall. I started picking up some good, positive momentum with the exhibitions I did in Asia, Australia and then winning [the Chevron World Challenge]."

Woods also revealed the genesis of his much-ballyhooed pairing with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo in next month's Pebble Beach pro-am.

"He called me when I was in Australia [in November] and asked me if I was playing Pebble," Woods said. "And I said yes.” He said, 'I'd like to throw my name in the hat as a possible pairing.'

“I thought about it…"

What’s to think about? Who’s a better option? Darius Rucker? Kenny G?

"…and then I called him a day later and said, 'All right, you're in if you want to be in.'"

Gee, Tiger, way to make a guy feel good about himself. Romo later admitted that he hadn’t been that nervous since he asked Betty Finkelstein to his seventh-grade dance.

Tweet of the Day

[Photo credit: Gallo / Getty Images]

Francis Ouimet, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer and President Eisenhower all helped spread golf to the masses. However, I don’t think the game ever had a greater ambassador than Bob Hope. He played more than 2,000 different courses in virtually every country that offered golf, appeared in the 1951 British Amateur at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, and spent decades presiding over his namesake PGA Tour event. He was Mr. Golf.

They may call it the Humana Challenge now, but we’ll always have the memories, including these 18 gems from the man himself. Insert your own rim shots where appropriate.

1. “Arnold Palmer has been a frequent pro-am partner…He’s the biggest crowd pleaser since the invention of portable sanitary facilities…He’s won as much money as I’ve spent on lessons. He told me how I could cut eight strokes off my score…skip one of the par 3s.”

2. “It’s fun playing with (Jackie) Gleason. He has the only cart with a bartender. Have you ever seen Jackie riding around in his cart? It looks like a Goodyear blimp giving birth to a jeep. When he gets into a trap, the sand has to get out.”

3. “I’m an international player. I can say ‘shank’ in twenty-seven languages.”

4. “I’d played Shinnecock once, several years ago, and the rough did me in. When you hit into that stuff, you need a tetanus shot.”

5. “Jerry Ford’s fame as an erratic hitter, capable of beaning anyone within a range of 260 yards, is richly deserved. He’s rattled a number of shots off heads and backsides of the fearless followers in his gallery. The President doesn’t really have to keep score. He can just look back and count the walking wounded…Whenever I play with him, I usually try to make it a foursome—the President, myself, a paramedic and a faith healer. One of my most prized possessions is the Purple Heart I received for all the golf I’ve played with him…You don’t know what fear is until you hear Ford behind you shouting ‘Fore!’…and you’re still in the locker room.”

6. “That reminds me of Sammy Davis (Jr.). Sammy hits a nice ball, about 90 yards. But his jewelry flies 110.”

7. “One of nature’s true golf masterpieces is Pine Valley…It’s an awesome blend of turf, sand, scrubland, trees and water…Foursomes have left the first tee here and have never been seen again. They just find their shoelaces and bags.”

8. “Billy Graham, our (tournament’s) earthquake insurance, is another (great guy). It’s hard to beat a guy who gets out of a sand trap just by muttering a few words and looking up. Billy doesn’t call it a score…he calls it a ‘reckoning.’ I sank a 35-foot putt against him, turned around and my caddie had turned into a pillar of salt.”

9. “I once showed Pat Bradley my swing and said, ‘What do I do next?’ Pat replied, ‘Wait till the pain dies down.’”

10. “It’s fun playing with Dean Martin at Riviera in Los Angeles. When he wins anything we always tell him. Dean doesn’t drink liquor anymore. He drinks Windex. He gets an awful hangover but his eyes are so clear…I’ve seen Deano send a ball over 250 yards…just by breathing on it.”

11. “I never kick my ball in the rough or improve my lie in a sand trap. For that I have a caddie.”

12. “One of the most exciting performances I’ve ever seen on a TV screen had to be Johnny Miller’s 63 in the final round of the Open at Oakmont in 1973. That was absolutely unbelievable. Oakmont may be the second most difficult golf course in the country, just behind Pebble Beach, and for Johnny to shoot that kind of score under Open conditions just defies description. I know what a real accomplishment that was because I’ve played Oakmont. A photographer kept shooting me every time I swung. I was very flattered until I found out he was from Field and Stream.”

13. “For the average player, Pebble Beach could be murder. It was Alcatraz with grass…After playing Pebble Beach you needed antifreeze, not orange juice.”

14. “I do try to work out a little. I go swimming twice a day. It beats buying golf balls.”

15. “My only regret is that they don’t have an intensive care unit in the Eisenhower Medical Center for my golf game.”

16. “The caddies in Scotland are something else. If you hit a bad shot they sneer at you. They all sound like Rickles with a burr.”

17. “(Bing) was an excellent player, with the slowest backswing I’ve ever seen. While he was taking the club back you could fit him for a tailored suit.”

18. “I joined Cypress (Point) a long time ago and haven’t played nearly as many rounds there as I would have wished. It’s such a beautiful place…It’s also very exclusive. Cypress had a very successful membership drive last month. They drove out forty members.”

Quotes from Hope's book, "Bob Hope's Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair with Golf."

(Photo: Tony Triolo/SI)

Tiger Woods criticized former coach Hank Haney for writing a book about their time together in an interview with ESPN.

"I think it's unprofessional and very disappointing," Woods told ESPN.com in a telephone interview, "especially because it's someone I worked with and trusted as a friend.

"There have been other one-sided books about me, and I think people understand that this book is about money. I'm not going to waste my time reading it."

Haney announced earlier this month that he had written a book called "The Big Miss" about his six years working as Woods’s coach from 2004 until after the 2010 Masters. During their time together, Woods got married, had two children, and won six major championships. His personal life also became the subject of a worldwide sex scandal following a car accident in late 2009 and subsequent revelations of infidelity.

Haney responded on Twitter shortly after Woods's comments were published.

The Big Miss is golf history. I observed greatestness and am asked about it all the time. I wanted to share it in a fair and honest way.

— Hank Haney (@HankDHaney) January 19, 2012

"The Big Miss" is scheduled to be published March 27, one week before the Masters.

PHOTOS: Tiger's Life in Pictures
PHOTOS: Tiger's Major Championships
PHOTOS: Tiger's SI Covers

(Photo: Matt Sullivan/Reuters)

Darren Clarke has never been known to turn down a pint. But now Ryan Ballengee at Golf Talk Central reports that 2011 British Open champion has given up alcohol in an effort to back up is 2011 British Open title with a strong season in 2012.

“My golf career has been extended somewhat by winning the Open Championship, and I just thought that enough is enough, and it was time to get myself into better shape,” Clarke wrote on his blog this week.

Clarke has hired Belfast-based trainer Jonny Bloomfield to get him back into shape. Bloomfield came at the recommendation of Lee Westwood’s trainer, Steve MacGregor.

The Ulsterman has shelved the Guinness with the hope of a great 2012 season, which begins this week in South Africa at the Volvo Golf Champions at Fancourt.

“Therefore, my alcohol consumption is taking a massive dint...currently down to zero! However, no pain, no gain, and I'm very excited about the route that we're going down - it's a long road, but I will give it my best shot,” he wrote.

Can this New Year's resolution possibly last? Stay tuned.

Kim ready to think less, play better in 2012
One of the more intriguing debuts this week at the Humana Challenge is that of 26-year-old Anthony Kim, who is coming off a disappointing season and is currently ranked 84th in the world. Kim told the press that a late-season surge in 2011 was driven not by mechanics but by a clear head, which he hopes to carry into 2012.

Q. You talked about what a difficult year last year was, was there a particular turning point and also anybody that helped you a lot in the learning process?
After Deutsche Bank, golf was so frustrating I didn't know where the ball was going. And I didn't know whether to go grind and practice or whether to take time off or whether to just put it away until the Humana tournament came around in Palm Springs and take three months off.

So I took a month off, I started practicing the day before I left for Asia, practiced in L.A. for one day, got on a plane, went to Korea, hit the ball as good as I've hit it all year.

And then went and played in China at the Shanghai Masters, and my game held up. I didn't know what to expect, but my game held up.

And I took a week off in Bali and didn't touch a club again, just kind of vacationed there and tried to think about what I could do to get better. And I realized that if I just let it go, my natural ability will take over and I'll be able to get the ball in the hole. That's what I'm good at. I need to just let it go, be free, and that's how I play my best golf. Some people need to think more, some people say I need to chip better, I need do this. I just need to let it go and be free. So that's what I'm going to be doing this year and hopefully it will work out and hopeful three will start this week.

Trick-Shot Video of the Day
Real of fake? You be the judge.

Tweet of the Day

Is this Golfweek stat good or bad news for Tiger: 25 of the past 100 majors have been won by guys age 36 or older.

— Steve Elling (@EllingYelling) January 19, 2012

Tour nice-guy Matt Kuchar is the newest brand ambassador for Grey Goose, the same vodka that caused Retief Goosen to miss a tee time at Riviera pro-am a few years back. Kuchar will serve as the official spokesperson for the Grey Goose golf program and will make an appearance on the premier episode of the new "Grey Goose 19th Hole," which will air on January 26th on the Golf Channel. Kuchar will also represent the brand in a number of ways including hosting meet-and-greet sessions at PGA Tour events and helping to develop Grey Goose Collection golf apparel.  

"As a longtime fan of GREY GOOSE off the course, I am really excited about joining the family and representing the World's Best Tasting Vodka as an official spokesperson," said Kuchar. "I am proud to be aligned with GREY GOOSE as the leading super-premium vodka brand continues its longstanding tradition in golf."

According to Kuchar's agent, Mark Steinberg of Excel Sports Management, the match with Grey Goose is a natural one that speaks loudly for the Georgia Tech alum's marketability. 

"They want Matt to be the face of the brand and he's very excited about it. When Matt first came out on Tour he was tagged as a future superstar and he wasn't able to exploit his full potential right away. He's a hard worker and has become one of the best players in the world and a lot of people respect him for it. You'd have a hard time finding anyone on Tour or anywhere else who has a bad word to say about Matt. As a result he's a very marketable athlete." 

Trump giving up on Scottish golf resort?

After all the hubbub surrounding Trump's development of a potential billion dollar golf resort near Aberdeen, Scotland, it now looks like the Donald might be giving up on the project after all. According to Severin Carrel of The Guardian, the massive project, which was to include a five-star hotel, luxury villas, houses, timeshare apartments, and a second golf course, is being threatened by an offshore wind farm. In place of the development, the resort would simply feature the original golf course, which is set to open this summer, and a small, temporary clubhouse which would later be replaced with a luxury building. In a statement issued from his New York headquarters, Trump said: 

"All further plans for future development, including the hotel, are now on hold until the Scottish government makes a decision on the application for the European offshore wind deployment centre submitted by Vattenfall and Areg [Aberdeen renewable energy group]. If the north-east of Scotland is serious about tourism and creating a global golf destination it cannot allow the coastline to be ruined by an ugly industrial park (11 64-storey test turbines) directly off the shoreline."

Some believe Trump might be using the wind farm as an excuse to free himself from a project that is now economically unfeasible. Back in June he admitted that he had to delay construction due to the economic recession and even said, "the world has crashed." David Milne, a property owner in the area who has resisted selling to Trump, recently said: 

"I firmly believe he is just trying to sell. The planning permission he gained [for the clubhouse] was the final piece to increase the sale value of the golf course. That is the only reason they bothered going for it. The course is not selling as well as he thought. He has only sold 3,000 rounds of golf, and that's less than a month's worth of golfing after months of intensive marketing. He hasn't got the money, no investors are interested, and he is going to cut his losses and run."

Nobody in Trump's organization has commented, so it's anyone's guess if and when the development will be completed. 

Tweet of the Day

Professional golfer Steve Thomas [right] was one of 40 people arrested in a sting operation and charged with soliciting sex from a minor via the Internet, the Osceola County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

Thomas, 55, of Meridian, Miss., was charged with Travel to Seduce Child to Commit Sex Acts; Use of Computer to Seduce/Solicit/Entice a Parent, Legal Guardian or Custodian of Child to Commit Sex Acts on the Child; Attempted Lewd & Lascivious Battery on a Child, according to the sheriff’s office.

In 2009, Thomas played in 19 events on the Champions Tour, earning $157,549. According to the PGA Tour’s website, Thomas turned pro in 1980. His most successful season on the PGA Tour was 1988, when he played in 29 events, making nine cuts and earning $22,669.

The arrests were the result of a week-long, multi-agency, undercover operation called “Operation Red Cheeks.” As part of the sting, undercover detectives posed as children or their parents in chat rooms and on Internet messaging programs. According to the sheriff’s department, suspects traveled to a meeting location in Osceola County with the purpose of having sex with a child.

[Photo: PGATour.com]

Soon we’ll be calling him MacTrump.

Donald Trump has finally received his long-sought official Scottish coat of arms, according to the New York Post. Trump will use the coat of arms -- “Lion Rampant” -- as the insignia of his Trump International Golf Links course, which will open this summer in Northeastern Scotland.

Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in Stornoway, on Scotland's Isle of Lewis, and "The Apprentice" magnate has often trumpeted his Scottish roots -- especially when it came to explaining his plans to build the so-called "golfopolis" there.

He was given an official warning by Scotland's heraldic authority in 2008 after he created an unregistered crest, breaking ancient Scottish laws dating back to 1672.

Sarah Malone, the vice president of Trump International-Scotland, said the new coat of arms was created with the "importance" of the golf resort and "Trump's family heritage" in mind.

"The Lion Rampant makes reference to Scotland and the stars to America," Malone said, describing the insignia. "Three chevronels are used to denote the sky, sand dunes and sea -- the essential components of the [golf resort] site -- and the double-sided eagle represents the dual nature and nationality of Trump's heritage."

Golf real estate struggling in Palm Springs

With its scores of lush golf courses and sweet desert air, Palm Springs is like golf heaven, except you don’t have to die to go there. But unfortunately for the Coachella Valley, few people dream of retiring here anymore, and if they still dream of it, they’re less likely to be able to afford it. The USA Today’s Mike Perrault and Keith Matheny report on the decline of golf real estate in the Coachella Valley, where one in four homes for sale is on a golf course.  

"We're not getting replacements for those people," said real estate analyst Lou Goodkin, president of Miami-based Goodkin Consulting.

"There are fewer golfers, fewer people who can pay the high amounts to buy into a club. There's going to be a lot more people out there that are challenged in their retirement years than we've had in the past."

Golf resort communities are bleeding money and members, as the recession exposed the vulnerability of the business model that created an unbreakable linkage between golf and real estate.

Wozniacki jokes that she's a bigger star than Rory  

Caroline Wozniacki told the Daily Mail that when she wants to tweak her boyfriend Rory McIlroy, she says that she’s more famous than him.

The Danish beauty, 21, says she teases the Irish ace that – while he might be a big name here in Ireland– she is the world No 1.

Talking about their six months together, she admitted: “I definitely did not expect it to become that big, it was everywhere.

“I tease Rory, saying, ‘That’s how it is when you go out with a superstar’.

“In Denmark, I’ve been in the public eye for a long time and you just learn to live your life and not think too much about everything around.”

We think we know McIlroy’s new Tour nickname: Federline. 

Tweet of the Day

One of the greatest ever? You better apologize, Luke!

Each week, 15 staffers from SI Golf+, Golf Magazine and GOLF.com vote for their top 10, awarding 10 points to their first choice and proceeding in descending order to the 10th player, who gets one point. The points are then added and the ranking calculated. Tell us your top 10 in the comments field below.

RANK (TOTAL VOTES, FIRST PLACE VOTES, LAST WEEK'S RANK)

1. Luke Donald (148, 13, 1) - Last three finishes: T12, JBWere Masters; 3, Dubai World Championship; 7, Nedbank Golf Challenge
- Official World Golf Ranking: 1

2. Rory McIlroy (136, 2, 2) - Last three finishes: T11, Dubai World Championship; 1, Hong Kong Open; T4, WGC-HSBC Champions
- Official World Golf Ranking: 3

3. Lee Westwood (104, 0, 3) - Last three finishes: 1, Thailand Golf Championship; 29, Dubai World Championship; 1, Nedbank Golf Challenge
- Official World Golf Ranking: 2

4. Webb Simpson (995, 0, 4) - Last three finishes: T38, Sony Open; T3, Hyundai Tournament of Champion; T13, Chevron World Challenge
- Official World Golf Ranking: 7

5. Steve Stricker (77, 0, 6) - Last three finishes: T38, Sony Open; 1, Hyundai Tournament of Champion; 16, Chevron World Challenge
- Official World Golf Ranking: 5

6. Charl Schwartzel (74, 0, 5) - Last three finishes: MC, Joburg Open; 2, Thailand Golf Championship; 5, Dubai World Championship - Official World Golf Ranking: 9

7. Keegan Bradley (41, 0, 7) - Last three finishes: T13, Sony Open; 16, Hyundai Tournament of Champion; 17, Chevron World Challenge
- Official World Golf Ranking: 26

8. Nick Watney (34, 0, 8) - Last three finishes: T12, Hyundai Tournament of Champion; 18, Chevron World Challenge; T4, Australian Open
- Official World Golf Rank: 12

9. Martin Kaymer (33, 0, T9) - Last three finishes: T11, Dubai World Championship; 8, Nedbank Golf Challenge; 1, WGC-HSBC Champions; 23, Andalucia Masters
- Official World Golf Ranking: 4

10. Adam Scott (24, 0, T9) - Last three finishes: T4, Australian PGA Championship; T4, Australian Open; T11, WGC-HSBC Champions
- Official World Golf Ranking: 7

Others receiving votes:
Tiger Woods (11)
Jason Day (9)
Bill Haas (8)
K.J. Choi (7)
Matt Kuchar (6)
Sergio Garcia (5)
Dustin Johnson (5)
Louis Oosthuizen (5)
Aaron Baddeley (3)

Congratulations to Sports Illustrated senior writer and Golf Magazine columnist Joe Posnanski, who was named the 2011 Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. Here are a few of our favorite Posnanski golf stories from his time at SI. If you like what you see here, you can find more great Posnanski stories on his blog Curiously Long Posts, in the Sports Illustrated archive, or in his 2001 book The Good Stuff: Columns About the Magic of Sports, available on Amazon.com for $24.95.

The Two Lives of Tom Watson (May 29, 2011)

I think Watson’s career is singular because unlike any of the other great golfers, Watson’s life is really divided in two. There was the young and wild Watson who hit the ball all over the place and won with one of the great short games in golf history. And there is the older Watson, whose ball-striking is so magnificent that men half his age salivate, but who has been held back by 5-foot putts that stubbornly go their own way.

If the game of the old and young Watson had ever met, they would not recognize each other.

If the old Watson and the young Watson had ever shared a season, they might have won the Grand Slam.

All Eyes Are Smiling (June 27, 2011)

Super Bowls ... World Series ... NBA Finals ... we tend to root for our own. But every now and again, golf gives us a chance to all root together. That's part of the charm of the game. It happened in 1986, when a legend named Jack Nicklaus, years beyond his prime, summoned a series of magical shots on Sunday and won the Masters. It happened in '91, when a chain-smoking ninth alternate from Dardanelle, Ark., named John Daly won the PGA Championship by hitting balls so hard you could almost hear them screaming. It happened in 1997, when a prodigy named Tiger Woods blew away the field at the Masters and for the first time made golf look cool, really cool, not only to those who play but also to those who are just drawn to cool things.

It happened again at Congressional, on a windless weekend, on a soft course, when the U.S. Open was won from beginning to end by another golf prodigy, this one from Northern Ireland.

The Best Never to Win a Major (April 9, 2011)

1. Colin Montgomerie

In making this list, there are many players — Adam Scott, Bruce Lietzke, Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Doug Sanders, several others — who could have made the Top 10. But nobody else is even close to No. 1. Montgomerie led the Order of Merit eight times. Eight. He finished second at five major championships. He finished as one of the 10 best players in the world every year from 1994 to 2000, topping out, poetically, at No. 2.

There seemed something doomed about Monty, something difficult to capture. There are certain people in sports who just seem to have the Charlie Brown cloud over their heads, and Montgomerie had that.

--

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