Let's talk Presidents Cup. After a dominating first day, Jack Nicklaus switched all of his pairings. Didn't quite get it, and it's not working well on Friday. Four matches are going to the Internationals and two are tied.
Who sits tomorrow morning in foursomes?
For the Americans, I think Woody Austin will be one. The other should be Charles Howell III based on his play, but with an undefeated record in foursomes with Tiger, he tees it up. My bet goes on David Toms.
For Gary Player, I think he goes with Nick O'Hern and Stuart Appleby on the pine.
I know nothing, so this all means nothing.

The U.S. team has been asked why they play better at the Presidents Cup than the Ryder Cup. Almost to a man, they've said Jack Nicklaus. The captain admitted he would take the Ryder Cup job if asked.

WHY HASN'T THE PGA OF AMERICA ASKED HIM?

Seriously. They have won one Ryder Cup since 1995 and that was a miracle at best. The Americans are too tense in the Ryder Cup and unless Bill Murray submits his name, no one will be hands off as much as Jack. The PGA Of America only picks players in their late 40s with Ryder Cup experience and at least one major. Davis Love III will get the gig next time around. If this organization wants to win back the Ryder Cup, ask Jack.

And the U.S. needs to groom younger players. Lucas Glover has been awesome the first two days, but what happens when he draws K.J. Choi on Sunday and gets pasted? The next time he is in one of these international contests, he's ready, that's what happens.

If it wasn't made clear, we cut out the SportsNetwork Golf Editor Challenge after the FedEx Cup. G won this year's in a landslide and did it with the type of class you would expect. I did not pick one winner all year, so good for me.

Per the agreement, Kevin Currie and I owe G a case of beer each. When we arrived in the office on Monday, written on our board were the following five words:

Lager (Yuengling Lager - local beer here in Philly. Solid, but gives me bad hangovers.)
Carlsberg (Snob.)
Hoeggarden (Family friend Mr. Conroy always had a rule against putting fruit in a beer. I agree, but a lime in a cold Corona on a warm summer night is heavenly. You put oranges in Hoeggarden and unless you have been diagnosed with scurvy, you don't need orange in your beer.)
Amstel (I'm a simple beer guy, but Amstel Light is sort of my fancy Light beer.)
Harp (Good beer, but only every now and again.)

I'll be getting Lager cause it's the cheapest. I will spend money on my own beer, but not his.

As for the biggest news of the day in golf - drug testing. I've contended all along that this is unnecessary, but this is a good policy. When trying to enact policy like this, you need uniformity and all golf organizations are on board.

My guess is that if anyone gets caught for this, it won't be a PGA Tour, LPGA Tour or Champions Tour player. (How revolting would it be for a Champions Tour player to be on steroids?)

In baseball, the majority of offenders have been minor leaugers. The players this might get in golf will come from the Australasian Tour or Canadian Tour or maybe, the Nationwide Tour. It will be the guys trying to make it to the show.

More Solheim thoughts, then Tour Championship.

The start of the foursomes was delayed two hours for wind this morning. The gusts were so strong that it was moving balls and actually knocking over trees. That's some serious wind, because most trees I've encountered have a pretty thick base and foundation.

Dottie Pepper is awesome. Bettina Hauert is whooping it up out there to get the crowd going. Pepper brought up that she used to do it and was called the "ugly American," but why won't anyone say it about Hauert? I will. Bettina Hauert, you are behaving badly. You're playing decently, but you are have not earned the right to pull that crap.

Pepper also referred to Iben Tinning as Iben Simpson, which makes me wonder how many Ibens she knows. I hope Pepper is the one of her age group that gets left out of being Solheim Cup captain, because she is so good on television.

Annika and Catriona Matthew are humiliating Cristie Kerr and Nicole Castrale. Kerr has missed four putts inside five feet and that should get her a ticket on the bench in the afternoon.

I'd go with
1.) Gulbis/Prammanasudh
2.) Diaz/Steinhauer
3.) Hurst/Lincicome - she's the easier of the tough choice between Stanford/Lincicome
4.) Creamer/Pressel

You have to realize that the fourballs will go into Sunday. If you want, say Juli Inkster to lead off in singles, you can't play her in the afternoon, otherwise she's getting up for a 7:00 a.m. local time restart then going back out for singles right away.

As for the Tour Championship, I love Woody Austin. He is now exclusively talking about easy beating Tiger is. Did I wake in some alternative universe where anyone in their right mind thinks Woody Austin could beat Tiger Woods? I mean, anytime, anyplace, anywhere and Woods wins by two shots minimum.

Who the hell is Woody Austin? Enough buddy. Tiger has won as many times since the first of August as you've won in your whole PGA Tour career. Stop talking.

Provoking Tiger is always a good idea. See Singh, Vijay; Mickelson, Phil; Ames, Stephen and Sabbatini, Rory. Tiger has made them all his "slang term for female dog" and it won't stop with Austin. Tiger, remember he's on your team in two weeks, so don't completely destroy his mind.

Since the Tour Championship is a mess with more bad weather expected on Friday, let's look at the Solheim Cup, where the morning foursomes are in the books. The U.S. has a one-point lead and the rain is coming down in Sweden as well.

I have to question the captains already. I subscribe to the theory of "if you win in the morning, unless you contract polio at lunch, you play in the afternoon."

American captain Betsy King benched three of her four winners from the morning, including the team of Laura Diaz and Sherri Steinhauer. They posted a 4 & 2 win over Annika Sorenstam and Catriona Matthew. Why aren't they back out? Juli Inkster won with Paula Creamer as well, but if you want to sit Inkster, that's fine. She's not a kid.

King wanted her entire team out on Friday and accomplished the goal. Morgan Pressel looked bad in the morning and overexcited. She would be one of the players I'd sit in the afternoon. She will play with Creamer in the afternoon against Laura Davies and Trish Johnson as both Europeans are old enough to be either American's mother.

Helen Alfredsson is sitting Bettina Hauert, the leading money winner in Europe, and Linda Wessberg, one of her captain's picks, who has played a lot of good golf lately.

Then again, what do I really know? Europe better come out in the afternoon because they dominated the Americans in alternate-shot and that did not happen Friday morning.

All in all, very dull morning.

Lots of questions about Mickelson skipping the BMW Championship last week and the bottom line is that unless he talks out loud about it, no one will know.

My two best guesses (and that's all they are) would be Mickelson is unhappy with the payment structure, and the scheduling. The payout gripe is starting to chap me. Yes, you don't get the $10 million TAX-FREE annuity til you are 45, but that is an awesome prize. Can't figure out how to pay your caddie? Open your checkbook.

As for scheduling, not much can be done there. The Playoffs are designed for the end of the regular season, so there isn't much flex on that front. The guys are asked to play a lot of golf, and I know what you're thinking, golfers have to play golf? Yes, it's true.

No one got anything last week.

Gerard Gallagher (43) - Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, George McNeill, Robert Allenby, Troy Matteson, Luke Donald, Mike Weir, Retief Goosen, David Toms, Jesper Parnevik, Johan Edfors, Sergio Garcia, Lucas Glover, Phi Mickelson, Davis Love III, Carlos Franco, SCOTT VERPLANK, Geoff Ogilvy, John Rollins, ZACH JOHNSON, RORY SABBATINI, Tiger Woods, Sean O'Hair, Jim Furyk, Nick O'Hern, Jay Williamson, Steve Stricker, Bernhard Langer, Niclas Fasth, Spencer Levin, Trevor Immelman, Tim Clark, Jonathan Byrd, Ernie Els, Carl Pettersson, Stephen Ames.

Kevin Currie (22) - David Toms, Davis Love III, Ryan Moore, David Duval, Jeff Quinney, Justin Leonard, Robert Allenby, HENRIK STENSON, Rich Beem, Sergio Garcia, Kenny Perry, Scott Verplank, K.J. Choi, Vijay Singh, Billy Andrade, Sean O'Hair, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Stricker, Stewart Cink, RORY SABBATINI, Tiger Woods, Tim Herron, Ernie Els, Brett Quigley, Brandt Snedeker, Jason Gore, Kevin Stadler, Paul Casey, John Rollins, Angel Cabrera, Luke Donald, Chris Riley, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington, Stuart Appleby.

Below Average (10) - Stuart Appleby, Rory Sabbatini, Scott Verplank, Robert Allenby, Justin Rose, Mike Weir, Adam Scott, Padraig Harrington, Carl Pettersson, Charles Howell III, Darren Clarke, David Howell, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, Joe Durant, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Bob Estes, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis, Sean O'Hair, Olin Browne, Ryan Palmer, Luke Donald, John Rollins, Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Lucas Glover, Tim Herron, Jerry Kelly.


Tour Championship
GG - Stewart Cink
KC - Phil Mickelson
JB - Steve Stricker

Currie has picked Stuart Appleby.

G - Stephen Ames
KC - Stuart Appleby
JB - Jerry Kelly

I goofed. The week I had G with Jim Furyk and Currie with Ernie Els, it should have been the other way around. Apologies, but G will still burn in hell for a myriad of other reasons. Waiting to hear back from Currie about his newest pick and I will post asap.

Gerard Gallagher (43) - Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, George McNeill, Robert Allenby, Troy Matteson, Luke Donald, Mike Weir, Retief Goosen, David Toms, Jesper Parnevik, Johan Edfors, Sergio Garcia, Lucas Glover, Phi Mickelson, Davis Love III, Carlos Franco, SCOTT VERPLANK, Geoff Ogilvy, John Rollins, ZACH JOHNSON, RORY SABBATINI, Tiger Woods, Sean O'Hair, Jim Furyk, Nick O'Hern, Jay Williamson, Steve Stricker, Bernhard Langer, Niclas Fasth, Spencer Levin, Trevor Immelman, Tim Clark, Jonathan Byrd, Ernie Els, Carl Pettersson.

Kevin Currie (22) - David Toms, Davis Love III, Ryan Moore, David Duval, Jeff Quinney, Justin Leonard, Robert Allenby, HENRIK STENSON, Rich Beem, Sergio Garcia, Kenny Perry, Scott Verplank, K.J. Choi, Vijay Singh, Billy Andrade, Sean O'Hair, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Stricker, Stewart Cink, RORY SABBATINI, Tiger Woods, Tim Herron, Ernie Els, Brett Quigley, Brandt Snedeker, Jason Gore, Kevin Stadler, Paul Casey, John Rollins, Angel Cabrera, Luke Donald, Chris Riley, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington.

Below Average (10) - Stuart Appleby, Rory Sabbatini, Scott Verplank, Robert Allenby, Justin Rose, Mike Weir, Adam Scott, Padraig Harrington, Carl Pettersson, Charles Howell III, Darren Clarke, David Howell, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, Joe Durant, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Bob Estes, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis, Sean O'Hair, Olin Browne, Ryan Palmer, Luke Donald, John Rollins, Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Lucas Glover, Tim Herron.

BMW Championship
G - Stephen Ames
KC - ??????????
JB - Jerry Kelly

No one got points last week. G cheated and took Furyk twice, so he shall burn in hell.
In fairness, I think Currie can use a guy not named Tiger or Phil a second time.


Gerard Gallagher (43) - Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, George McNeill, Robert Allenby, Troy Matteson, Luke Donald, Mike Weir, Retief Goosen, David Toms, Jesper Parnevik, Johan Edfors, Sergio Garcia, Lucas Glover, Phi Mickelson, Davis Love III, Carlos Franco, SCOTT VERPLANK, Geoff Ogilvy, John Rollins, ZACH JOHNSON, RORY SABBATINI, Tiger Woods, Sean O'Hair, Jim Furyk, Nick O'Hern, Jay Williamson, Steve Stricker, Bernhard Langer, Niclas Fasth, Spencer Levin, Trevor Immelman, Tim Clark, Jonathan Byrd, Jim Furyk, Carl Pettersson.

Kevin Currie (22) - David Toms, Davis Love III, Ryan Moore, David Duval, Jeff Quinney, Justin Leonard, Robert Allenby, HENRIK STENSON, Rich Beem, Sergio Garcia, Kenny Perry, Scott Verplank, K.J. Choi, Vijay Singh, Billy Andrade, Sean O'Hair, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Stricker, Stewart Cink, RORY SABBATINI, Tiger Woods, Tim Herron, Ernie Els, Brett Quigley, Brandt Snedeker, Jason Gore, Kevin Stadler, Paul Casey, John Rollins, Angel Cabrera, Luke Donald, Chris Riley, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington.

Below Average (10) - Stuart Appleby, Rory Sabbatini, Scott Verplank, Robert Allenby, Justin Rose, Mike Weir, Adam Scott, Padraig Harrington, Carl Pettersson, Charles Howell III, Darren Clarke, David Howell, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, Joe Durant, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Bob Estes, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis, Sean O'Hair, Olin Browne, Ryan Palmer, Luke Donald, John Rollins, Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Lucas Glover, Tim Herron.

BMW Championship
G - Stephen Ames
KC - Jim Furyk
JB - Jerry Kelly