Not at the British Open, but the State Farm Clasic. Hee Won Han is -10 for 12 holes. The broadcast comes on at 1 p.m.  Will ESPN have coverage of potential history? Han is playing the front nine.

Michelle Wie birdied the first two holes but has played par golf since.

Right now I plan to switch channels in less than 30 minutes unless something changes.

Han just parred her 13th hole of the day. She still has a chance.

While the LPGA State Farm Classic tees off Thursday, there's already a competition (of sorts) ongoing: The LPGA State Farm Classic Auction.

Lots of good stuff up for bid - Solheim Cup tickets, plus plenty of autographed items (caps, shirts, golf bags, balls) - and proceeds benefit various children's charities as well as the Golf Fore Africa program started by Betsy King.

Of course, you'll have to outbid The Constructivist for the Ai Miyazato autographed visor, and you'll have to outbid courtgolf for the Michelle Wie autographed shirt and cap. But you already knew that.

Check it out.

I often wondered what would happen if 4 of the most well known and successful swing coaches were to tee it up.  Who would win?

If they were to televise it would it generate ratings?  Would you watch? 

How about if they were playing alternate shot with one of their best students?  What would those pairings look like? 

Phil and Butch or Pelz?

Hank with Tiger (obviously)

David with Michelle Wie (Maybe there's a better choice out there.)

Leadbetter and ??? 

I don't know about you, but I am VERY tired of the media bitching and moaning about Tiger not being at Birkdale this week.  Topics like "should the winner have an asterisk by his name ?" and other nonsense from guys who get paid to write about golf and should know at least a little about the game just show that they really don't know much about their job.

All these guy do is play to the ignorance of the Tiger Woods faddists. (probably not a word - but you get the idea)  These are the people who seem to think that Tiger invented the game and the PGA Tour didn't start until 1996.

Here's an idea - try to learn the game first, THEN pay attention to TV ratings.  Tiger has won The Open Championship three times in 11 tries as a professional.  He doesn't win ALL the time, as we could be lead to believe with all this blather about the tournament not being worth watching because "the great one" isn't there.

No player is bigger than the game - and one of these days, all the marketers and media people are going to learn that lesson.

Interesting week in the world of women's golf, eh?  With Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam taking some time off before the LPGA's European swing, Paula Creamer got her 7th career victory in Toledo, Suzann Pettersen got her 9th in Dublin, Yuri Fudoh broke the billion-yen barrier in career winnings when she became the JLPGA's 1st repeat winner of 2008, and Vicky Hurst got her 4th Futures Tour victory of the season.  So whose win do you think was the biggest--and why?

Phil MIckelson says the best players will come to the fore at the Open Championship:

“I think the best players will come out on top. There will be an opportunity for the good players to separate themselves through shot-making and scoring around the greens.

"Around the fairways and around the greens some people will be able to attack the pins rather than just hack the ball out. That gives the more skilled players a chance to showcase their talents.”

The way Phil is driving the ball, he's more like to come to the "Fore!" than to the fore. But if he hits 60 percent of the fairways, he's in the mix. The Open is not a tournament Mickelson has ever thrived in, however.

But since I agree with Phil about the best players coming to the top, I'm picking Tiger Woods to win. Yes, I know he's not playing, but I figure that in spite of that serious drawback, picking Tiger makes more sense than picking Phil. I'd love for Mickelson to prove me wrong about that, though.

In the poll below, throwing out the "someone else," I'd go with Garcia. And I always like Justin Leonard in this championship, when he's playing well, because he combines great wind player with putting chops. He's come close a couple times. (ed. - As Bill "Two Gloves" points out in comments, Leonard has come so close that he's actually won the thing, back in '97.)

Ok - I'm stumped - Wie and 16 others are even par - they made the cut right on the number.  Traditionally, the highest numbers go out first - but all the Evens are going out last on #10.

They are going out in threesomes - front and back on Saturday - which means they are expecting bad weather. (60-70% probability according to NOAA)  No problem there - it happens in the Summer.

So - why are they sending out the highest scores late instead of putting the closest players to the lead out latest so they will be playing in the same conditions ?  The only thing I can come up with is...drum roll please...Michelle Wie and TV.  They want her on TV at the same time as the leaders.  If she went out early, they would have to have crews on hand to record her, then come back later for the leaders.

Reasonable ? 

Other theories ?

http://www.jfocc.com/pairings/Sat.html

Looks like Michelle Wie will make the cut - by a single shot. She's finished even par for two days and there are 76 above the cut line.  It's mathematically improbable that the cut line would move to -1 and knock her out.

She's at the bottom of the barrel looking up.  Basically no chance to win - 16 shots behind Paula Creamer and 11 behind Eun-Hi Ji.  It's going to take an effort that she hasn't shown in over 2 years to finish high enough to make a decent dent in the $100,000 she'll need to be fairly confident of a Tour card next year - in 2 and a half tournaments. 

SO - does she tank the rest of the weekend to guarantee an early tee time on Sunday for the earliest possible exit to get to England for the Women's British Open Pre-Qualifier ?

OR - does she play as hard as she can in an attempt to make as much money as possible - then head across the pond with minimal sleep and preparation for the Pre-Quali on Monday - then hop on board the jet to get back for the State Farm - again on minimal sleep and preparation ?

OR does she play hard and skip the Pre-Quali on Monday in order to give some sort of proper preparation for the State Farm because someone finally got through to her and convinced her that this year's WBO isn't worth another year of media pressure, minmal tournament play, jerking around Stanford, and more importantly, jerking around Nike, who I am pretty sure is getting tired of her abuse of their investment.

The LPGA is in Toledo for the Jamie Farr Classic and guess who is -2 and tied for the lead through 5 holes? The Korean Golf Queen aka Se Ri Pak, a five time winner of the Farr.  If this was any other tournament or golfer, you would say there is a lot of  golf left. There is, but  the early signs from Toledo say Se Ri may well may have a 6-Pak when play finishes late Sunday afternoon.

Ok - the show ended last night - but I don't want to blow the ending for those of you who haven't seen the first airing or any of the 43 reruns since last night.

So HURRY UP !!  I got questions - but if I ask them now, they would ruin the ending - and I hate it when it happens to me.

Besides - that's a really cool car that ___________ won.  I want to get a ride when she shows up in Prattville for her big LPGA prize.

(oh - the "chick" in "The Crying Game" is really a guy !) :-P