I remember wishing Darren Clarke wouldn't win the British Open. It's a memory that quickly took a 180, as I found myself pulling for the Irishman down the stretch last year. It wasn't that I had anything against Clarke, I just really wanted Phil Mickelson or Dustin Johnson to get a win for the U.S. I had a sliver of hope that Anthony Kim was making a career comeback at the right time or Rickie Fowler was making the leap in front of our eyes at such a young age. 

Clarke was resilient last year and his stellar play caught and emotion that Sunday afternoon just enough to drop my allegiance and realize the best story was for Clarke to raise the Claret Jug. It's a great, historic trophy and Clarke was the right man to take it home for the year. I was surprised - not disappointed - to hear Clarke, renowned for always being up to raise a pint, never put a drop of liquid to enjoy out the of the cup because he respected it to much. It made me happy that I pulled for him a year ago. It was funny to learn he got his replica of the trophy and filled that one up for a toast (you can get your own for a cool $129.99 here). I considered it for a long time before remembering I have a wedding to pay for in a couple months. 

Reflecting on the 2011 British Open has got me excited for this year's edition. As with every golf tournament, it's the questions that linger that drive the anticipation for the major championship...

Will Tiger be on a high or low at the right time to win? 

What is Phil Mickelson's game going to look like?

Is there a chance that Clarke can find magic again and repeat?

Can we really consider Tom Watson a contender?

Is it time for Sergio Garcia or Lee Westwood to get the proverbial major monkey off their back?

How many golfers are going to lose their opportunity for finding one of the 206 bunkers and not getting out in one try?

What is the state of Bubba Watson's mental golf game?

Is there any chance in the world John Daly makes some noise beyond the loud pants he'll be wearing?

I could go on forever, or worse, I could actually try to answer these questions and extend this column by thousands of words, but what's the point? All of those questions will be answered by the end of Sunday and another form in past tense will take there place. Golf is a game of questions in which all are not answered. That's why we pay attention. The intrigue never dies and this British Open is far from lacking intrigue. 

My Picks

1. Rory McIlroy

2. Tiger Woods

3. Zach Johnson

4. Graeme McDowell

5. Sergio Garcia

Round 1 Tee Times

Match Ups

Field

Ladies and gentleman of the golf world, the new year is upon us and that can mean only one thing... we just survived the shortest offseason in professional sports and the PGA Tour is back!

Each December I do a good job of complaining about how much I'm going to go through a golf depression once the season ends but since 2011 was a Presidents Cup year, we only truly had to endure 42 without golf on our weekend TV schedules. Not bad.

Needless to say 2011's golf nuclear winter did not require any medication for your favorite Hurricane Golf blogger and I'm ready to pop the champagne and crack another bottle across the bow of the ship to welcome in 2012.

Luke Donald dominated 2011 in terms of awards and making money. Keegan Bradley stole the show a few times - including at the PGA Championship - proving that age is a relative non-factor on the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy was both tragic (The Masters) and magnificent (US Open). Charl became a household name. Tiger Woods flirted with Augusta, went on sabbatical, fired his caddie and had a war of words with him, continued to play poorly, and then was a huge factor in the USA victory at the Presidents Cup. Darren Clarke claimed a piece of every golf fans heart by winning The Open Championship. Oh, and Bill Haas won the FedEx Cup.

With or without Tiger Woods, the PGA Tour really shined in 2011. But what of 2012? The easy answer is time will tell, but I've got 12 bold predictions ready to be crushed into the middle of the fairway:

1. Tiger Woods will win a major and 3 other tournaments. Let's throw the FedEx Cup in for good measure as well.
2. Rory McIlroy will have a down year, struggling to play consistently on the PGA Tour, but will dominate the European Tour.
3. Phil Mickelson will win the US Open, but no other tournaments in 2012.
4. Steve Stricker will be in contention at all four majors (Top 5) and finish 2nd in the FedEx Cup.
5. Rory Sabbatini will have another meltdown.
6. Webb Simpson will have the most wins in 2012.
7. Rickie Fowler will be a media darling and marketing sensation, but not win a tournament.
8. A player you have never heard of will win THE PLAYERS.
9. John Daly will win a tournament... yes, that John Daly.
10. Steve Williams will be fired and rehired.
11. Adam Scott will win a tournament immediately after firing Williams.
12. I will win The Masters ticket lottery and take my dad to Augusta.

One of these days, I'm going to go back through my record of making picks for PGA Tour events and see just how bad the crime scene actually is. For now, I'm moving forward and picking from my gut to decide who's going to win the Greenbrier Classic at The Old White TPC in West Virginia.

I have mostly fond memories of West Virginia, other than the fact I dislike (or hate) WVU athletics. I've enjoyed driving through it, spending time with friends who live near the state (but on the Ohio side fortunately), and I think the Greenbrier is a great golf tournament. I'm hoping the good thought karma I have for WV trumps whatever distaste I have for it and rewards me with a good week of making picks. We know how that usually turns out, but let's do this anyway. I tweeted this out last night, but thought I'd expand a little bit this morning. Call it a teaser, if you will.

Top 5 Picks

1. Jonathan Byrd - Byrd has had a strong year and I feel like - if this were pro wrestling - he's been getting a big push from the Tour (management) and a lot of exposure. Aside from that, he's playing good golf and doesn't go very long without making sure we talk about him. Plus, he did a sweet behind-the-scenes tour of his Man Cave - and that's something I can get behind. It may not be sound logic, but it will have to do for this week.

2. John Daly - Daly is coming off his first Top 10 finish in what seems like a decade. He was T9 at the RBC Canadian Open and from all the evidence I could collect, he seems to have his swing - and emotions - in check. We all know he's got talent, it's just mostly been wasted with off-the-course issues. I'd be happy to see Daly regain some prominence (in golf stature) on the Tour. I think he continues to build to that this week.

3. Phil Mickelson - If you pick Phil to finish high enough times, you'll eventually be right. That's not completely the case with this pick... but it's part of it. There's nothing I can say about Phil's game that you don't already know or probably wouldn't agree with. I think he has a good week and it's as simple as that.

4. Sergio Garcia - Kind of the same deal with Phil, except not really. Sergio rarely - if ever - comes through. That may seem harsh, but it's true. He has yet to claim a major, but if he can build up his confidence in time for the PGA, he could have a chance. I think he starts that process here.

5. Bill Haas - He's above-average in nearly every statistic kept on PGATour.com. He's finished Top 5 on five different occasions this year. He'll do that again this week and I think we should start to get used to seeing his name in the Top 10. I feel like management is going to give him a push like they're doing with Byrd (take that however you want).

Leaderboard  |  Tee Times  |  The Field  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Deal of the Week

Through all of Tiger Woods' injuries, most of the golf media has steadfastly told any fan accusing Woods of using performance enhancing drugs to stop with such nonsense. "He's never failed a positive test," they'd say... "This isn't Major League Baseball," they'd say...

Well what I'm saying is that I no longer believe Woods didn't use something, and here's why: Canadian doctor Anthony Galea accepted a plea deal after being accused of bringing unapproved drugs, including HGH, into the United States. He was charged with treating over 20 professional athletes in the US without a license between 2007 and 2009.

And the kicker, as most already know, Woods received treatment from Galea in 2009 to help speed his recovery after tearing his ACL and suffering double stress fractures to his leg. Woods has always denied any wrong doing and only admitted to being treated with PRP, or blood spinning, to help speed along his recovery.

Umm... ok. Colin Cowherd said it best on his radio show "The Herd" yesterday when he stated that of the 20 best hospitals in the world, the US has 18 and Canada 0. Athletes don't go up to Canada to get the best health care in the world, they come here. No baseball player who requires Tommy John surgery is going up to Canada, they're going to Dr. James Andrews.

We've been spurned by athlete denials in the past about their use of PED's and I'm simply not buying it from Woods anymore. His body completely changed, with muscles nearly ripping out of his red shirt on Sunday and then he started getting injured. It's not so much the injuries that bother me, it's the situation.

Woods has basically printed money throughout his career and you're telling me the best treatment he could get was from some shady doctor in Canada who we now know administered PED's to other athletes?

Of all those athletes, Woods is the only one who went there for the right reasons? Right, just like we can explain Barry Bonds' head growth and Roger Clemens being a lights-out, raging pitcher into his 40's. At this point, I don't really care if athletes use or have used PED's, but the fact that very few in the golf media have openly come out and say they believe Woods used is kind of astonishing.

The evidence is there... keep your blinders on if you want, but I can see it pretty clearly now.

Now, onto some other golf news...

Barclays Scottish Open heats up

We may want to focus our attention overseas because the Scottish Open appears to be heating up and there's a noteable name at the top of the leaderboard.

Graeme McDowell fired off an 8-under 64 to pull into a three-way tie for first with Scott Jamieson and Peter Whiteford. McDowell was -3 going into the second round but had six birdies, one eagle and zero bogeys to shoot him up the leaderboard.

McDowell may not be enough for you to pay attention, but when you throw Phil Mickelson into the mix, then it's time to tune it a little bit. Lefty didn't have quite the day McDowell had, but he made the cut and is mildly in contention. He hasn't benefitted from the great early course conditions like McDowell did, but all it takes is a few of Left's risks to pay off for him to start ascending.

Keep an eye out, because it may start to get very interesting if two notable PGA Tour players are in contention come Sunday.

What did John Daly do now?

This will be a short note so we can move on to more important things, but John Daly (a guy I picked to go Top 5 this week for the simple fact that I just wanted to) shot an 11 on the par-4 4th hole in the John Deere Classic, Friday.

As you read that sentence you may have thought I confused what you and I would have shot with what a professional golfer shot. You would be mistaken in that thought. Yes, Daly shot an 11! I wasn't sure there was much more humbling for Daly to go through, but he unfortunately continues to be more caricature than contender.

Kind of sad. Something tells me he won't be hitting the projected -3 cut line.

Full Leaderboard here

Hush, says McIlroy

Rory McIlroy doesn't want to hear your complaints about him winning the US Open then skipping straight to the British Open. Frankly, I don't want to hear it either because it doesn't matter. If he goes out and wins the British, I suggest his not play another tournament until the PGA Championship. Should he win that, skip to The Masters.

Before we get to the John Deere Classic, a quick note on Eldrick...

Covering Tiger Woods has become eerily similar to listening to a broken record of nails being scratched on a chalkboard. That's the sign of the times for the life and career of Eldrick Tont Woods.

Woods announced Tuesday that he will not be playing the British Open this year due to his left knee and achilles injuries. It was an expected announcement, but that didn't stop people from blowing up my Twitter timeline with "BREAKING" tweets or the media from having the same "When will Tiger be back... Can he still break Jack's major record" conversation.

It's stale news and far from "breaking." The only breaking news we can get from Tiger at this point is when he announces he's coming back, he has another scandal, or it is revealed he will be endorsing another strange foreign product.

Until then, take a deep breath and invest your time in the rest of the golf world. Believe it or not, there are plenty of other stories out there and the John Deere Classic starts Thursday.

Defending champion Steve Stricker enters the tournament with one win in 2011 at Memorial and three other Top 10 finishes (Hyundai Tournament of Champions, T4; Shell Houstin Open, T4; and Sony Open in Hawai, T9). Stricker is currently 12th in the FedEx Cup Standings and also finished T11 at the Masters this year.

Throughout the year I've monitored expert picks in preparation of making my own and it's been a common theme to see Stricker's name among the picks. There's no question he's played well this year and stayed in contention and most of his stats are slightly above the PGA Tour average.

With all that being said, I don't see him becoming a back-to-back winner at the tournament. The field isn't exactly stacked but it does include 7 past winners, 7 major winners, and a group of solid young and old players who have played well in 2011.

With Tiger Woods playing sparingly the last two years, it has forced anyone who follows the PGA Tour to focus their attention elsewhere once the tournaments start. Golfers like Rickie Fowler, KJ Choi, Zach Johnson and Bubba Watson have become household names and consistent contenders, while Jason Day, Webb Simpson, Gary Woodland and Charlie Wi have done enough to start joining the previous list.

Obviously, other golfers have made quite a name for themselves in the past two years, Rory McIlroy especially, but he's not in the field this week. One golfer I am pulling for this week, strictly for personal reasons, is John Daly. When I think about the John Deere Classic, I think of Daly for no other reason than that he's a country boy and that's what I think of when I see the name John Deere. It's been a long time since we've seen Daly make any kind of noise in regards to winning on a golf course, but I'm hoping for it this week.

Picks

1. Rickie Fowler
2. Jason Day
3. Stewart Cink
4. Steve Stricker
5. John Daly (why not?)

1. HP Byron Nelson Championship Update - Jeff Overton, -6, takes first round lead.

Leaderboard  |  Round 2 Tee Times  |  Round 1 Recap

2. Senior PGA Championship Update - Kiyoshi Mirota, -6, leads after weather-delayed Round 1.

Leaderboard  |  Round 2 Tee Times  | Round 1 Recap


3. If you're into the FedEx Cup, you can follow live projected scoring throughout the Byron Nelson here.

4. Sergio Garcia is battling an injury to his left ring finger, but managed to shoot an opening round 66 at the HPBNC. Garcia needs to move into the top 50 in the world rankings to qualify for thhe U.S. Open. Should he fail to do so, he said he will play the 36-hole qualifier in Memphis on June 6 to try and keep his consecutive major championships played record (47) in tact. [Tour Report]

5. Not a day goes by without some mention of Tiger Woods. His long-time agent Mark Steinberg has left IMG and the company has said Woods can go with his agent if he pleases. Of course, Woods used his usual media dance-around by stating he's committed to both IMG and his agent, but obviously he can't have it both ways. I can't imagine this really hurting Woods either way, but it will be interesting to see which way Steinberg goes in this situation. He can open his own firm if he believes his name carries enough clout for such a bold move, or he may sign with another powerhouse firm like CAA.

If Steinberg heads to CAA and Woods joins him, he'll be amongst stars like LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Cristiano Rinaldo, David Beckham, Jim Rome and many others. Only a true clone would plug Rome into that list, so give me my Jungle cred. [Tour Insider]

6. A Q&A with Scotty Cameron. If you're terrible at putting, don't blame him. Cameron makes some of the most innovative and good looking putters in the golf world. [Golf.com]

7. The Hooked on Golf Blog is live at the HPBNC and posting some nice behind the scenes stuff including photos and media tidbits. Check it out: http://www.hookedongolfblog.com/

8. Jason Sobel of the Golf Channel tweeted this morning that John Daly withdrew from the BMW PGA Championship with a hip injury. Too bad.

If you follow Daly and Hank Haney on Twitter, there's been a pretty strong push from fans for Daly to become the next golfer on The Haney Project. The show has featured Charles Barkley and Rush Limbaugh in the past. I'm not sure how much it will Daly - his problem seems to be between the ears - but it would make for great television. Daly has already stated he's up for it, so we'll what happens. 

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In case you were worried, or cared, John Daly got himself some new golf clubs. Much like his loud outfits, these metal sticks have a nice little spin to them... they're white. No word on if this will be a production model, but perhaps there's a chance it can put him over the top in his quest to return to glory. White club, hits white ball, while a white cigarette hangs from his lips. 

ESPN's Bob Harig ranks golf's most memorable moments in 2010. It should be no surprise that Tiger Woods is featured in seven of them. The biggest question is, would he have been featured in more without the scandal because he won more... or did the scandal push him over the top? And the most obvious analysis of all is that the PGA Tour and Harig's reflective column would have been very dry and non-relevant had Woods never come back at all. 

I've told you once, and I'll tell you again, if you're on Twitter... you better be following @JasonSobel. If you think Phil Mickelson with a tournament lead is unpredictable, you'll enjoy Sobel's timeline. Unlike many national golf writers, he's not afraid to rile up the Tiger. 

If you've got some time to kill at work.. enjoy the Viral Sensations of 2010 from Golf Digest.

Phil has gotten the monkey off his back, but many other great golfers still have not won a major. You'll like this list from Gary Van Sickle of Golf.com.  I wonder how a golfer can have a No. 1 ranking without ever winning a major (see Westwood, Lee). The obvious answer is that if you finish high in tournaments and win a lot of money, you'll be ranked higher, but it really gives no historical perspective. From that list, I expect Matt Kuchar and Rory McIlroy to be the first off that list and Adam Scott to never leave it. 

Only one more week until the Tour returns for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions Jan. 6-9 at Plantation Course in Kapalua, Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii with a cool $5.6 million and 500 FedEx Cup points on the line. Check out the full 2011 Tour calendar here. 

On second thought...

I found myself sitting in front of the TV Sunday... a nervous look on my face... peering over my shoulder... looking side-to-side.

"Will they think I'm a hypocrite?" I asked myself. "Can I be forgiven for not practicing what I've preached?"

Since you're on a golf Web site, I'll assume you know the British Open was played over the weekend at St. Andrews. Since you're on THIS Web site, I'll assume (good use of that word here) you've read my past columns.

So, I'm just going to confess -- I couldn't watch the British Open for more than 10 minutes without being bored out of my mind. Looking back, the highlights of the event weren't even very high, and they weren't even very bright.

The best highlights were pressed on John Daly's pants.

I've been saying in this space for about a month that golf fans should be tuning into PGA Tour events - regardless of the star being there or not - because the lesser-known players have been stepping it up and making the golf on TV worth watching.

The stars were out this weekend and that didn't even translate into good TV - or very good golf for that matter. The weather was a huge factor, as it always is as St. Andrews, but it got to the point where the conditions were no longer compelling because it hurt the performances so much. When the golf isn't that good in the first place, it creates a tournament that isn't exciting or worth four hours on a Sunday afternoon.

I'm not going to give up watching TV events because of this weekend, but I'm also not going to pretend I have any interest in seeing Louis Oosthuizen win a major either. Had he not completely run away with the tournament, I may have felt different, but there was just no substance to it. No one got close after the second round and historically - as unfortunate as this may be - no ones going to remember the 2010 British Open.

Now, had Oosthuizen been wearing Daly's pants..... well, that just changes the whole story now doesn't it?

Predictions Analysis
aka Don't Take Me To Vegas

Here is a look at my Top 10 predictions and how they stacked up (not well).

1. Tiger Woods; Actual Finish: 24
2. Rory McIlroy; Actual Finish: T3
3. Justin Rose; Actual Finish: Missed Cut
4. John Daly; Actual Finish: T48
5. Phil Mickelson; Actual Finish: T48
6. Stewart Cink; Actual Finish: T48
7. Sergio Garcia; Actual Finish: T14
8. Steve Stricker; Actual Finish: T55
9. Dustin Johnson; Actual Finish: T14
10. Tom Watson; Actual Finish: Missed Cut