Just as one Ryder Cup ends, another begins. It's like that Dave Matthew Band song Ants Marching. (Hopefully you're all familiar with your 90s faux jam bands.) In not too long, the PGA of America and European Tours will identify captains for the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah.

The early returns indicate Davis Love III is the favorite for the American job in the wake of his vice-captaincy at Celtic Manor and his very successful PGA Tour career. DL3 had a great run in Ryder Cups past, has expressed interest in the job, and is unlikely to make the team in '12 given his current form. He is a social guy, is still currently engaged on the PGA Tour week-to-week, and is well respected among his peers. That makes him a natural choice.

In some smaller circles, there appears to be a will to bring Paul Azinger back as captain of the team. Azinger never left in some ways, with the system that he created to form the team used as the basis for Corey Pavin's nearly victorious team. He is also promoting a book that details his strategy and thinking that helped him be a very effective captain. A return of Zinger is unlikely, but a fleeting thought.

Over the last couple of days, I have wondered if it might not be too crazy to think of Lee Janzen as a captain. He certainly is in the twilight of his career, but more importantly, this might be the point in history at which Payne Stewart would be under consideration for the captaincy. Janzen has been like a father to Payne's son and participated with him in the annual father-son team event in the past. Maybe there could be one final fitting tribute to Stewart by allowing Janzen the opportunity to lead as he believes his friend would have.

On the European side, the choices are clear: Monty again - for obvious reasons - or the man who was originally slated to be the captain, Jose Maria Olazabal. When Montgomerie was announced as captain, the player committee who did so said the door was wide open for the Spaniard in 2012. The job is his if he wants it, they said. That may not be true now, though, as Montgomerie has proven to relish in this role.

So, who do you think the matchup will be in 2012?

Last night, I was a guest on the F/U Podcast. The two Mikes that host the show brought me on to talk PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. (Take a listen to my segment here, and the full show here.) We had a great conversation. They asked me who I would take with my four captain's picks if I were Corey Pavin.

I told them: Ricky Barnes (consistent year), Rickie Fowler (older guys love him), Zach Johnson (can putt his brains out), and Sean O'Hair (has really come on lately).

With a few weeks until Corey Pavin makes his selections, who would you pick right now?

For the third year now, the USGA and Golf Digest have teamed up for their US Open Challenge.  The challenge gives three celebrity hackers (with an affinity for quarterbacks) and one average Joe or Jane the opportunity to play that year's host course for the national championship under conditions similar to the pressure-cooker final round.

This year, New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees, actor Mark Wahlberg, and the greatest hockey player ever Wayne Gretzky were the celebs.  51-year-old Peggy Ference was the amateur who got in through a Web vote.

Wahlberg - clearly feeling some Good Vibrations - shot 97.  Gretzky channeled his hockey jersey, but missed by 1 to hit 100 on the mark.  Brees, perhaps still distracted from saving birds in the Gulf, shot 102.  Ference shot 118.

Seeing as though Peggy had to play the course at its full 7040 yards ('cause that's what the players do on Sunday), Ference was screwed from the start.  Ironically, her caddy for the day was Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin, who himself had his travails at the '02 Open when he couldn't reach some fairways at Bethpage Black.

Effectively, Peggy averaged a double bogey and change per hole.  Had she shot 107, she would have beaten the challenge considering the par raised to compensate for her length.

Now, this week, I want you to puff out your chest - and before wheezing back to reality - tell me what you think you would shoot in the challenge, and why.

Twitter is great.  I sing its praises like the bird that is its logo, if only it had a voice.  (In my imagination, the Twitter logo bird pecks away at an iPhone to communicate via tweets.)  The service allows people from all walks of life to communicate with each other about any subject in real time.  It has been excellent for our sport because it allows golf fans to communicate with players, writers to talk with both readers and players, and the service itself has turned into a place where news breaks.  Sometimes news breaks on Twitter, though, for something that crosses a barrier and offends a large group of people.

Dan Jenkins experienced that at the Masters and in the week after when his comment about getting takeout from YE Yang caused a stir here, at other outlets, and in the Asian-American community.  Quietly, Ian Poulter made a similar remark last week while watching a soccer match. 

Poulter's a big soccer fan - as almost any Euro that I've ever met - and roots hard for Arsenal.  His boys lost to Tottenham 2-1 on April 14, and Poulter's reaction was a bit on the crude side.  He sent out, "Not talking about football after being beaten by Yids."  Yids is a European epithet for Jewish people.

Poulter apologized soon thereafter, saying, "I didn't mean to offend anybody with my football tweet. Very sorry if I did. I am not racial in anyway."  He deleted the tweet.  Fortunately for us, the American Library of Congress is going to spend tax dollars to archive every tweet ever delivered.  Poulter may not escape suspension from the European Tour.

Anti-Semitism runs rampant in many parts of Europe.  It's a big deal in the European soccer community.  It's common, almost.  The customs of a particular community, though, don't make it ok for a celebrity of Poulter's stature - with nearly a million followers on Twitter - to deliver such a remark.  Frankly, I'd rather him stick to flipping off crowds at golf tournaments.

The examples of Jenkins and Poulter both go to show the kind of scrutiny under which "celebrity" accounts face.  When a celebrity sends a tweet, it can become instant news.  It has on this site - from tournament announcements to major gaffes - and makes news on other sites, too.  Forget worrying about drunk texting (or tweeting, in this case).  Worry more about letting something slip while totally with it, not even realizing that thousands of people could be offended very quickly.

There's a certain line here in these two examples that is probably the most clear cut.  Don't cut down people on the basis of race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation - you know, all of the stuff protected by American civil rights legislation.  Have at it for someone's inability to process a coherent thought, have a rational argument, or something like that. 

It creates a problem.  It does for me.  My moniker on Twitter is solely based on this blog.  I have something like 3,000 followers who get each message that I deliver.  I kind of have to watch what I say.  Limited vulgarity ('cause, really, I'm not going to stop cussing), and definitely have to keep some things private - be it personal information, golf info that I'm privy to but cannot share, or other stuff.  And I'm not going to waste time creating a private, personal account.

There is probably another school of thought here - employed by people from all over the world of notoriety - that says to say whatever comes to mind.  The idea that it is easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission seems to be an accepted one in a number of places.  Poulter seems to have accepted it, and he seems none the worse off for doing so.

That leads into this week's question:

This week's Decider is a very simple proposition.  You tell me the man that is the better Masters favorite.  Ernie Els has now won in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, his 18th title, and his second win at Bay Hill.  Els said after that if he could win there, he could win at any major. 

Meanwhile, Fred Couples and his golf sneakers are absolutely crushing the Champions Tour.  Equipped with driver and incredible putting, Couples fired 62 at Cap Cana to win in the Dominican Republic for his third straight 50-plus win.

The secret to success for both has been their rejuvenated putters and apparently healthy swings - something both have been missing for the last several seasons.  That said, both have been instantly catapulted into the discussion of favorites to win the Masters.

Ernie has never won the Masters, but been close on several occasions - including the heartbreaker to Phil Mickelson in '04.  Couples was close to Mickelson in '06 at Augusta, but couldn't putt.  Now at 51, Couples could make the annual representation for the pentagenarian set in the majors.

Who's your man at Augusta?

On Sunday's final round of the Honda Classic, Nathan Green cost himself a ton of money by trying to extricate his half-floating golf ball from a hazard on the 17th hole at PGA National.  It took three shots to get out of the mud as he made six.

When asked afterward what his thoughts were after attempt one, he told the Telegraph, "You can't print it."

But at that point, the Aussie was locked in to that course of action.  Take one stroke and you may as well keep going.  Otherwise, taking the penalty stroke adds injury to insult and a muddy jacket.

Then again, on my golf trip this weekend, taking the gamble paid off for several players.  One of our guys actually put the ball about 3 feet from the hole about 70 yards out in the mud.  So, sometimes the dog gets the bone.

That said, if you were Nathan Green, would you have gone for it from the mud?

Now that the West Coast Swing is over and the Tour moves to Florida for the month of March, it's time to assess the kind of golf that we saw in late January and February.  Sal Johnson makes the case at Golf Observer that this could be one of the worst WCS (as the cool kids say) ever.

His major backup is that the top ten players in the world split equal participation between the PGA Tour and European Tour.  Primarily lured by appearance fees and the growing allure of their Desert Swing, the world's best flock to the oil money. 

To add to Sal's numbers, though, that stat is also informed by the people in the top ten.  There are more Euros in the top ten than in a long time and most are loyal to the European Tour.  Of the four Americans in the top ten, they made three starts overseas.  19 starts by Euros to support their tour isn't quite as telling, but maybe indicates a changing world order in the sport.

As for the golf on these shores, the results were pretty compelling.

• Ben Crane won at Torrey by a shot over Michael Sim (the coward who didn't go for it).
• Steve Stricker won by two at Riviera over Luke Donald, which wasn't that close really.
• Dustin Johnson repeated over David Duval (!) with a birdie at the last at Pebble.
• Ian Poulter picked up his first win on US soil by pasting the field at the match play.
• Hunter Mahan played a perfect weekend in 130 shots to win in Arizona over Rickie (only one name necessary).

I'm happy with four of those five tournaments. 

Yes, the names were missing.  Phil nor Tiger won on the West Coast Swing for the first time in more than a dozen years.  Still, the golf was good and the stories were interesting.

To settle the question, I turn to you.  Was this year's West Coast Swing a dud or a stud?

As you can probably gather, I'm not a big fan of the pro-am format.  I think it's archaic, stale, and boring to watch celebrities (or wealthy people who are "famous") duff their way around the links with a pro carrying them the whole way.  No one every remembers who wins either of the PGA Tour's two pro-ams.  The only things that people remember are that: (1) Kenny G is still alive, (2) Bill Murray was in Caddyshack, and (3) celebrities are really slow golfers.

Golf fans watch pro golf to see those guys and gals make a game that seems impossible to us look pretty pedestrian.  Four times per year, fans watch to see those same players have their lunch money taken from 'em by the major bullies.

Does anyone do that for celebrities?  Maybe the people who turn on the Lake Tahoe celebrity tournament do (it's their major), but I doubt a lot do.

On the other hand, the USGA seems to have done really well for itself with the Break 100 Challenge-thing at the site of the US Open each year.  Tons of people enter and it does half-decently in the ratings.

So, here's my question: would you rather watch celebrities play golf in a competition or watch your pals on TV?  Golf Stinks proposed their own idea of how such a show would take shape.  Format aside, I would rather watch my friends play golf than spoiled celebs.  How bout you?