Monte the Bear

No. He's finished. His swing is now built to protect elements of his body that break down regularly, and that syrupy Els-like swing has now disappeared, replace by a hoik that looks like a guy throwing a sack of cats off of a pier. His head bobs up and down like a Johnny Football bobblehead. Finished. Sideshow Bob.

Mahan isn't fit to carry Langer's school satchel.

Child, silence. In professional golf, you have to be honourable - if players look at you and detect a whiff of dishonesty, your credibility is shot. Tringale's 'DQ' warrants investigation, but as ever, the PGA just brush it, as they have done so many times.

1. He whiffed it. 2. He knew he whiffed it. 3. He can count. 4. He recorded a 4. 5. He should have recorded a 5. 6. He allowed the person keeping his score to mark him for 4. 7. He should have told the person keeping his score to mark him for 5. 8. He played 7 more holes and said nothing. 9. Upon reviewing the cards he said nothing. 10. He knowingly signed for a 4 on #11 when he had actually made a 5. 11. He accepted $53,000 all while knowing he had signed an incorrect scorecard. How is a suspension for cheating not in order? And to quote Bobby Jones, him DQ'ing himself and you applauding it is like applauding a bankrobber returning the money.

It's just a flat out disgrace Tringale is in the mix this week - he should be serving a one-year suspension.

If you anchor, you cheat.

Problem with Scott is that, like Bradley, every history book that has a mention of his tournament / major wins will show Adam Scott - Masters Winner 2013 * (* used putter now illegal) Tringale should not even be on the tour, let alone be at the top of the leaderboard. He should be serving a ban for knowingly lying to his playing partner, marking an incorrect score knowingly and signing it in as legit knowingly. Far from being a sign of 'good karma' for Tringale, it's worthy of actually holding an investigation into him and finding out why he came forward before someone else shouted about it.

That was a perfect lie and just a poorly executed shot - landed a good 15 yards further than his intended land spot. Chose a club with way too much bounce. Mickelson's form is alarming given the RC is charging towards us.

''He's just not that great. I think Rory will be the next Lee Westwood, albeit with a prettier swing. I know a lot of you think/wish/hope he'll be the second coming, but I'm not buying that product. He hasn't shown me that fire you need to be a multiple major winner. I say he finishes his career with 2, maybe 3 majors and 10-15 tournament wins.'' Wow. Just read that. That's hilarious, but ya know hindsight..20/20...lol.

Sabatini is fine and should be applauded - he abhors slow play and lets people know it. Quite right too. None of these people I know and so the idea that I 'hate them' or 'root against them' - how can I?

You know, most architects would tell you that a blind tee-shot over greenskeeper's sheds and over a hotels ornamental pond is, at best, a bit odd. It is a one-dimensional hole, that requires one type of shot for a tee-shot (a fade for a lefty, a draw for a righty), then a shot that is hit pretty much straight. The fun of the hole is around the green - everything else is stupid and would not be built in the modern era. If Robert Trent-Jones or Pete Dye built a tee shot like that, they would get castigated.

What, you mean the way McIlroy thought his way around? What thinking did he make, seriously? 'Do I take driver or 3 wood?' was about it. If the R&A; did not care, they would'nt change the course. They can't do it too much, because there would be outrage, regardless of the fact that St Andrews has adapted to change throughout it's history. They would not be changing the green complexes and stretching out the tee boxes as they are doing. Don't get me started on 17, probably the dumbest hole in championship golf next to 17 @ Sawgrass, but like Sawgrass elevated to a level that defies belief. St Andrews has a winning score of -20 all over it. And when that happens, you know that the champion golfer of the year is just the champion putter of the year.

Valhalla produced an exciting tournament compared to the previous two which were over by day 3. It's not a great course, but the PGA is a tournament that sets up like a typical PGA tour event, only slightly more difficult. In that scenario, it did it's job. On St Andrews, the reason for keeping it purely financial and historical - it will be demolished by the current players, and it will be humiliated. The changes to the course on 11 and 17 will do nothing to alleviate that. And the excuse that St Andrews needs the wind to be more competitive is one that can be applied to every course in the world. Young Amateur's last week were hitting the ball 390 off the tee - that is coming to St Andrews real soon.

Taylor Made just closed the Adams factory in Cal. All hands fired. They also just fired 15% of the TM staff as well. Ask any pro in a shop about the horrific discount wars that have been going on between Callaway and Taylor Made - introducing new models every 6 months to appease their shareholders and then 6 months later slashing the price of the same product. Meanwhile Ping (family owned) go about their business nice and quietly, and Nike are selling VRX's at full price whilst the sheep hack away with the latest gimmick. Pro shops have a specific amount of distaste for the way Callaway and TM have gone about their business and underneath being upset for the loss of the 500 jobs from Dicks, a lot of club pro's are quietly quite pleased to see these chop shops go down the pipe.

See, this is your problem. No-one outside of America knows who Lawrence Taylor is. You guys know because he was a 'World Champion' (this always make me laugh...World Champion of one country - I digress). Jordan changed what in basketball? He won, but he wasn't Larry Bird. He just got marketed at the right time - a talented guy who stayed pretty loyal, was a decent guy, did the right thing. He's probably the biggest star in Nike's sky that has not disgraced himself. Can we say the same thing about Tiger? Have you noticed how small Tiger Woods is these days since Olympic drug testing came in? Do you think there is any connection between golf introducing drug testing and Tiger taking 6 months off? And how all of these injuries keep happening without the upper core strength he had? How far back he is? Do you think that he left the field of play at Firestone because he was injured? Or was it because he was being humiliated by Bubba and by his inability to cut it? Because that right there, those questions, are the frame of reference for the TW brand today. And that is why, worldwide, you will see Rory McIlroy's face. And slowly this is what will become the case in the USA. And you know it. And the idea that McIlroy is a copycat for Tiger is so hilarious, they are so different. I don't think Gerry McIlroy is comparing Rory to Gandhi or calling him the Golden Child, able to change the world. Besides, Woods had a poster of Nicklaus on his wall as a kid. Go figure.

Come back to me in 24 months. Ricky Fowler will be wearing Nike. McIlroy will have renegotiated his Nike deal. Tiger Woods will be building courses in China.

Meant he's a hero to white working class New York fans - we do get baseball here on ESPN (watched a bit of it this year, like the look of Oakland - but hear they fade as the season goes on). The problem is that some here think that world golf and world golf sales are all about America. It just isn't. You will be hard pressed to find Nike products in stores right now that are not pushing McIlroy over Woods. And Woods will only remain relevant as a brand as long as he is competitive and winning. He's so far from that. What you are and what you were are two different things.

He has no brand over here - I don't see Nike TW shirts on sale here any more and I don't see kids wanting to be Tiger Woods. They want to be Rory McIlroy or Ricky Fowler. He's gone. We have basketball by the way, it's pretty big in mainland Europe.

Dude, you talk about mashing it and DJ. If you can't get fired up by McIlroy's 2nd to the 18th at the Honda Or the 10th at Congressional or the 10th and 17th at Valhalla last week, then you is dead, brother. Check your pulse.

You know something, everybody gives that 'I hate Nike clubs' spiel, probably because of that awful Susquatch thing that Tiger shilled half-a-dozen years ago. But I tried a VRX the other day and liked it - if I hadn't a trusty Titleist in my bag, I'd think seriously of giving one a trial fitting. It went miles. If you think that Tiger Woods has created any market share for Nike worldwide this year, you are crazy. Tiger is finished as a Nike player. F.I.N.I.S.H.E.D. I guarantee you that Nike will be talking to Fowler and looking at their budget and thinking hmmmm....we can get him. We'll dump the old guy. As far as the racist comments go, I go with what I saw at Augusta. And if it's thought of at a tournament as conservative as Augusta, I'll back it in it's more prevalent elsewhere. As for Obama, he's just useless.

I don't know people in Europe who buy Jordans. In fact, I don't know many people who buy Nike shoes, frankly, apart from some of the retro sneakers like Renzo's. Tiger Woods is dead as a brand, and if Nike could get Fowler they would drop Tiger like a fart in a jet. He's a ****ed 38 year old father who is going nowhere quick. His biggest sponsorship deal outside of Nike is MusclePharm. Think about it. Derek Jeter is a legend, a cool guy, am honest white working-class hero. He has has as much in common with Tiger Woods as I do.

Yeah right - people are ignoring McIlroy being the longest off the tee week upon week and buying VRX's because they like the way Woods slashes it into the neighbouring property. Please. Yep. Seen the WASP anti-Tiger sentiment up close and personal and it wasn't nice. Like I said, saw it at Augusta, saw it at Congressional. No. Fowler is not a kid - he's the same age as McIlroy. He just dresses like a kid in that dumb college outfit. McIlroy floats the boat in different ways - nice guy, speaks well, humble, but a killer on the course. Like I said, get used to it. I would pay to watch Mickelson every day of the week.

The most successful American on the European Tour has been Peter Uihlein who was great in 2013 but is playing like a dog now. Brooks Koepka has been playing in Europe a lot and developed. With the web.com tour, many players hang out there now hoping to gain auto admission to the Big Show. Shame, because the European Tour definitely grows a player - you have so much more to deal with. As for courses, depends on where you go, as ever. There are an equal number of crap courses in Europe than there are good and it's the same in the US.

By the way, McIlroy will be at Old Trafford on Saturday with both the Wannamker and Claret Jug, presenting them to 75,000 Manchester United fans - should make for some interesting chants.