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If you play golf on a fairly consistent basis, you most likely have a buddy with a game similar to Anthony Kim's. No, he probably doesn't make millions and sport a contract with Nike Golf, but he's probably the kind of guy that can roll out of bed, shoot a salty round in the 65-68 neighborhood, and look like the greatest golfer on the planet.

But the next time you play with this exact same buddy, he finds a way to shoot in the 80's and look like the biggest hack on the planet. Call it a Jekyll and Hyde complex, if you will, but it's the kind of thing that's beyond maddening to watch.

That pretty much Anthony Kim in a nutshell. He shows moments of brilliance from time to time, but for the most part, he's been unable to live up to the lofty expectations that had him pegged as one of the top up-and-coming golfers in the sport, a couple years back.

Prior to last year's thumb surgery, it looked like he was right on track. He nearly won the Masters and took home the Shell Houston Open

GREENBRIER_CLASSIC_GOLF_20374637Phil Mickelson rarely deviates from his yearly schedule on the PGA Tour, so when he decided to add the Greenbrier Classic and mix things up a bit, people figured there was a good reason he decided to add the event with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational next week, and the PGA Championship the following week.

On Friday afternoon we got our answer: It was a chance for Mickelson to show that his second place finish at the Open Championship wasn't a precursor to a run of stellar golf leading up to the final major of the year.

Mickelson missed his first cut of the season with a 3-over 73 on Friday, including a stretch of seven holes that saw him make four bogeys and submarine his chances of playing the weekend.

Sure, it won't be much fun watching the final two rounds of the Greenbrier without the tournament's marquee name in the field. But based on the way Mickelson played, maybe it's a good thing he'll have a couple extra days to practice before heading to Firestone.

Despite Mickelson saying

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The golf gods can be a fickle bunch. One second they're helping you maneuver through a rough stretch of holes in a couple under par, and the next they're punishing you in the worst possible way. As we've all seen before, a golfer's luck can change in a matter of minutes.

Just ask Angela Stanford, who got jobbed in the worst way during the second round of the Women's British Open at Carnoustie. Standing on the tee just four shots back of the lead on the 18th hole, Stanford figured a par would be good enough to get her into one of the final groups on Saturday afternoon.

But when her drive went left and a marshal motioned to Stanford that the ball had gone out of bounds, things quickly changed. She went from being in contention to fighting for bogey, as she re-teed hitting her third shot.

There was just one problem: Stanford's ball wasn't out of bounds. As the ESPN cameras panned to her ball, it was actually sitting just under a metal rail, which was still in play. To make the situation

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Well would you look at that ... I think it's safe to assume the Barry Burn on the 17th hole at Carnoustie isn't the best place to park a golf cart, but apparently an official at this week's Women's British Open thought otherwise.

In a hilarious photo with a rather ambiguous caption (it just mentions the cart sitting in the burn following an errant drive), all we can gather is that someone was probably paying more attention to the Twitter feed on their cell phone, and less on where their cart was headed. Either that, or R&A official had a few too many pints and went joyriding around the course before dumping the cart in the iconic burn.

I guess if you're going to dunk something into the burn during the tournament, you'd much rather it be a golf cart than a golf ball. I'm pretty sure Jean Van de Velde would agree with that statement.

119651716The best players on the Champions Tour will be teeing it up this week at the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Inverness Golf Club, but one significant name will be missing from the major championship's field.

That would be Tom Watson. No, he isn't out with an injury or anything; he's actually playing this week ... on the PGA Tour.

Now before you start to wonder if we're talking about the same guy here, yes, I am talking about the 8-time major winner who turns 62 in three months.

Watson is in the field this week at the Greenbrier Classic, deciding to play in a tournament that, well, isn't a major championship by any stretch of the imagination.

So what the heck is Watson doing? Most people have chalked up his decision to play this week to a hefty appearance fee. Quite honestly, that would be the most logical reason for him skipping out.

But in actuality, it's because Watson is a man of his word. Prior to last year's U.S. Senior Open, Watson promised long-time friend Jim Justice, who's

With roughly a month to go before high school football returns to the state of Texas, teams around the state are already working out in weight rooms and preparing for the sweltering heat that comes with two-a-days that are right around the corner.

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But one team that won't be preparing for the upcoming varsity season is Eastside Memorial (Texas) High School, after Austin Independent School District superintendent Meria Carstarphen announced that the football team wouldn't be competing at the varsity level in 2011.

As the Austin American-Statesman reported, the decision to cancel the season, which was first proposed by the district's athletic director Tommy Cox, wasn't an easy one. But considering Eastside only had 19 players on the varsity football roster -- and only one senior -- the district figured it made sense to move the school down to the varsity level for the upcoming season.

"It still gives the youngsters a opportunity to participate and chance to be successful," Cox told the Statesman. "It will help them to build for the future."

Eastside has had a rocky history on the gridiron over the last couple of years. The school was outscore 229-41 during the 2007 season and had to forefit four games due to academic issues and injuries that depleted the roster.

After two seasons as a junior varsity team, the school came back last year and went 1-9, but ended up winning a game against St. Andrews that helped them break a 43-game varsity losing streak that dated back to 2003.

But there's more to the story that just the cancellation of the football season. The decision has also had a ripple effect, as teams within the region that had Eastside on their non-conference schedule are now being forced to scramble for another game.

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Sizing up the TV coverage from the RBC Canadian Open ... and away we go.

Tiger Woods hasn't played in a tournament since he withdrew from The Players Championship, but that didn't stop CBS from discussing one of the biggest topics in golf on Saturday afternoon -- that of course being the Tiger Woods-Steve Williams saga.

Ian Baker-Finch, an Aussie who had Williams on his bag during his golf career, gave his take on the situation.

"The [firing] wasn't much of a surprise to me, I must be honest" Baker-Finch said. "I've been a good friend of Steve's for over 30 years, in fact he was my caddie before he went to Greg Norman, so I've known him a long while. We've been talking over the last couple of years, and I think the toughest thing for Steve is that he thought he'd been extremely loyal with Tiger through all of the ups and downs over the last 18 months, and Tiger basically fired him the Sunday of the AT&T, saying he felt he hadn't been loyal. And I think that's what hurt Steve the

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For at least one week, Kyle Reifers was living right. When his birdie putt dropped on the 72nd hole of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational on Sunday, Reifers found himself one shot behind eventual winner Harris English, which meant he'd be taking home the second-place check for $70,400.

Considering Reifers had missed the cut in eight of 11 events and made just $43,000 on the Nationwide Tour in 2011, taking home $27,400 more than he'd made all season, in one tournament, seemed like a win.

But for Reifers the week would get even better. That's because winner Harris English and John Peterson, who finished in a tie for second with Reifers, couldn't take home their checks for the week.

Both players didn't refuse the cash; they simply couldn't take it because they were both playing in the event as amateurs. Thanks to a wonderful rule that forbids amateurs from taking home prize money when they play in professional events, Reifers ended up with an even bigger surprise: a