Golf, The Masters, Tiger, and Happy Gilmore

YES!  A new sport is finally emerging to be covered here at Rock Bottom and Gainer will be bringing you all your golfing needs.  14 official PGA tournaments have been played thus far with the 15th currently being played in Humble, TX at the Shell Houston Open.  Spring is finally here and that means the Masters is just around the corner.

"Gold jacket, green jacket, who gives a s**t"

This year the Masters is Thursday, April 5th through Sunday, April 8th in Augusta, Georgia (obviously).  This marks the first major of the 2012 season and a good starting point to kick off our coverage of the PGA.  There are 48 tour events this year (thanks ESPN.com) and as much as I'd like to cover them all, I cannot and will not.  Here's the list of 10 events that I do hope to bring you coverage of throughout this season:

• The Masters (first major)
• 4/5-4/8
• THE PLAYERS Championship
• 5/10-5/13
• The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance (Columbus and Nicklaus, boom)
• 5/31-6/3
• U.S. Open (2nd major)
• 6/14-6/17
• The Greenbrier Classic (betcha didn't know West Virginia hosted one did ya?)
• 7/5-7/8
• The Open Championship (British Open; 3rd major)
• 7/19-7/22
• World Golf Championships - Bridgestone Invitational (Akron, holla)
• 8/2-8/5
• PGA Championship
• 8/9-8/12
• FedEx Cup Playoffs
• The Barclays from 8/23-8/26
• Deutsche Bank Championship from 8/31-9/3
• BMW Championship from 9/6-9/9
• TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola from 9/20-9/23
• Ryder Cup
• September 28-30

Obviously this is not just a great line up but you throw in a year with the Ryder Cup, it should be a tremendous 2012 season.  Further, in 2016 golf will be an official summer Olympic sport!

This is America, best country in the world

Golf is a great sport for any person at any stage in life.  It was the one sport my father wanted me and my brother to play growing up because he knew it might be the only one we could all play together as we aged. My brother played competitively through high school and I picked up the game later on in college.  I enjoy the challenge and skill it takes to compete.  I also enjoy driving golf carts because I am reckless.  Just ask me about an Oglebay Resort internship I had a few summers ago and I'll tell you about my golf carting stories.

Here are the top 25 players ranked in the world as of March 25th:

 Rank   Player                 

   1    Luke Donald              ENG     

   2    Rory McIlroy             NIR     

   3    Lee Westwood           ENG     

   4    Martin Kaymer           DEU  

   5    Steve Stricker             USA     

   6    Tiger Woods               USA    

   7    Charl Schwartzel         ZAF     

   8    Justin Rose                  ENG     

   9    Webb Simpson            USA    

  10    Adam Scott                AUS     

  11    Jason Day                   AUS     

  12    Dustin Johnson            USA    

  13    Graeme McDowell      NIR     

  14    Hunter Mahan             USA     

  15    Phil Mickelson            USA     

  16    Bill Haas                     USA  

  17    Matt Kuchar               USA     

  18    Bubba Watson            USA     

  19    Nick Watney              USA     

  20    Keegan Bradley          USA     

  21    Sergio Garcia              ESP     

  22    Brandt Snedeker         USA     

  23    K.J. Choi                    KOR     

  24    Ian Poulter                  ENG    

  25    Peter Hanson              SWE     

Here is Team America's Top 8 for the Ryder Cup Standings (as of 3/25):
Note - Captain Davis Love III will select 4 additional players of his choice to compete

Rank   Player               

   1    Keegan Bradley       

   2    Phil Mickelson         

   3    Tiger Woods              

   4    Bill Haas                  

   5    Kyle Stanley             

   6    Steve Stricker            

   7    Johnson Wagner     

   8    Mark Wilson          

He won finally at Arnold Palmer's tourney, can he keep it up at the Master's?

The FedEx Cup started in 2007 as a year long system of collecting points in all the tour events culminating in golf's first ever playoff system.  The first winner was Tiger Woods, then Vijay Singh, Tiger again, Jim Furyk, and Bill Haas last year.

And finally here is the top 10 rankings for the FedEx Cup as of this week:

Rank   Player

1 Johnson Wagner

2 Rory McIlroy

3 Kyle Stanley

4 Mark Wilson

5 Phil Mickelson

6 Justin Rose

7 Tiger Woods

8 Bill Haas

9 Hunter Mahan

10 Brandt Snedeker

I will update these throughout the summer as necessary.  In the meantime, look for a Master's Preview to come up this weekend and coverage throughout all of next week.