Top-125 on the PGA Tour Money List

This week, it's due or die for the PGA Tour folks trying to have a high-paying job for next season. Sure, the Nationwide Tour is an option, and a damn good option, but think about it like this. Number 125 on the Nationwide Tour money list made $34,624 this season, while the No. 125 guy on the PGA Tour has banked $623,824. Just a shade of a difference I'd reckin'.

Anyway, the Bubble Boys this week are as follows ...

120 Richard S. Johnson
121 Ricky Barnes
122 Steve Flesch
123 Robert Garrigus
124 Rich Beem
125 David Duval
126 Chris Riley
127 Jeff Maggert
128 Tim Herron
129 Matt Jones
130 Jimmy Walker
131 Will MacKenzie
132 Nicholas Thompson
133 Todd Hamilton
134 Stuart Appleby
135 Joe Ogilvie

Before anything, how incredible is it that Duval is the barometer here? He's the guy that is make or break this season? Seems almost fitting for the man in defining his insane career.

But that is the list of guys that have to have a good finish this week to continue playing, unless some exemption is around otherwise. Two major winners and a U.S. Amateur winner brings me back to one of my favorite golf quotes, compliments of Craig Stadler. Stadler overheard some young kid on the driving range babbling about his accolades before an event. The Walrus waddled over to the kid and delivered this incredible truth.

"You see the guy next to you? And the guy next to him? Everyone of them, All-Americans. There's an NCAA Champion, a U.S. Amateur champion, a British Open champion -- hell, some of these caddies were All-Americans. So just so you know, nobody here gives a damn if you're an All-American, or if you even to college at all. All anybody here here wants to know ... can you play stick?"

This weekend, it's all about playing stick.

Rory McIlroy Finally Makes Up His Mind

It's always a big decision if you're a foreigner. Stay overseas, where you're comfortable, and get less exposure, or head over the bright lights of the United States for the PGA Tour.

Rory McIlroy, the 20-year-old Northern Ireland freak that makes your hair go wow, has been battling with this like a kid trying to pick between colleges, and it seems has finally decided that the PGA Tour is going to be his home in 2010.

From the AP ...

Rory McIlroy has decided to join the PGA Tour next year with hopes of moving up in the world ranking.

McIlroy, a 20-year-old from Northern Ireland, said Wednesday at the Hong Kong Open that he will be competing against stronger fields in the United States, which should make him a better golfer.

While I still think playing on the European Tour would be more fun (the feel of brotherhood is way more apparent between those guys than most of the robots that play on this tour), you can't call yourself the best if you spend most of your time on that side of the pond.

This is where the game is. This is the "A" Court. Here, you get Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia (yep, just did that) and Y.E. Yang. It isn't happening week in and week out anywhere else.

McIlroy is going to have to learn how to beat some of these guys down the stretch, because it seems to be something that takes learning. Hell, Mickelson is just now learning how to take down Tiger, and has been competing against the guy on tour for 12 years.

I'm excited to see Rory knock it around for a full year on tour. He's the kind of superstar Europe needs right now, with most of their potentials flaming out. Just think ... in the next ten years, we will get to watch Tiger and Phil, plus Rory, Anthony, Ryo, and Rickie. Golf hasn't had this type of firepower since the Arnie, Jack and Gary days.

Jerry Jones Approves of Tiger's New House

Imagine it's Spring Break, and you are heading down to a Florida beach to catch some rays, have some watered-down Pina Coladas and try to get frisky with the rest of the bums. You arrive at your destination, and see this above picture.

Pretty nice, right? Yeah, except it isn't a hotel or a resort or some sort of swim up and stay package ... that's Tiger Woods house, and it's absolutely enormous.

Page2Live.com got some pictures of the new estate, worth upwards of $40 million, and it is as dominant as Woods at St. Andrews (See how I avoided Augusta in that analogy? Too easy, and he hasn't won there lately).

Anyway, thoughts on the place? Bigger than your apartment?

Australians Love Them Some Tiger Woods

This photos are of Tiger Woods, at the Australian Masters. Also, these are PRACTICE ROUND PHOTOS!

Something like 10,000 people followed Tiger around as he, again, practiced golf. It appears Australians have less to do than we Americans do! Winners again.

Getty Images

The Day Things Turned Lefty

For golf fans, this day was probably inevitable. Phil Mickelson, the second best golfer in the world rankings and best golfer playing the game at this moment, played in the final group with Tiger Woods, number one in the rankings and number two as of today, and, to put it kindly, handed Tiger his ass.

Yep. Mickelson took down Tiger with a putter that should probably be banned from the game if others hope to compete in the next few months and some moxie that we haven't seen since his amateur playing days (back when Phil was a young lad, he was a bit of a prick on the course, if you can imagine).

With that win at the HSBC CHampions, when Phil shot a final round 69, he did one of the more important things we've seen in golf in ages. He made us all realize that no matter the luck or the opponent or the course or the conditions ... if you go out, and play some good golf, you can beat Tiger. No lucky 3-iron on the 18th green to set up a birdie. No final round 61 to come from behind the pack. Just go play golf, forget about the man in the red Nike shirt, and try to finish a stroke or two less than him.

There is no sport as mentally challenging as golf, and I think anyone would agree with that. You spend a total of about two minutes actually hitting golf shots, and the rest about all the other shit on the course. "I don't like the looks of this tee shot." "This putts gonna be fast." "Don't miss this right." "Don't yank this left."

It's a mental ping-pong game against yourself. Tiger adds another opponent. It was nice to see Mickelson finally do what most will never be able to. He forgot who he was playing with.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ, AFP/Getty Images

This Guy Did Steroids

Seriously. That guy. Doug Barron. He juiced and became the first PGA Tour "star" to be suspended for a year.

I'm not sure what to believe anymore. First Kevin Brown juicing, and now this guy? I'm pretty sure if when you take steroids, there is one thing they tell you not to take with it, thus offsetting the effect, he did it.

This guy looks like a steroid offender like Patton Oswalt looks like an actor, and I actually like Patton Oswalt.

(Also, I have absolutely no idea why he has his shirt off in this picture. I'm assuming he was going for a shot in the water or in mud, but it's pretty incredible that one of the five guys ever to strip when hitting a mud ball was one to be suspended for trying to increase muscle mass. Thanks for mishitting this tee shot years ago, Doug.)

Well, That Looks Friendly

As you know, Anthony Kim and Robert Allenby played each other on Saturday (today, but it was in Europe, and I'm told the time is different or something ... I don't really get it. Who am I, Hans Wilsdorf?) in something called the Volvo World Match Play Championships.

The photo above is one of their exchanges, taken completely out of context because there are actual pictures of them shaking hands and smiling but this wouldn't be a real, true, mean spirited blog (I said "spirit" ... DRINK!) if I gave you actual facts.

I'm basically like that Apple Rumors website. You think they're going to dog Steve Jobs? Hellllll no.

Anyway, Kim smoked Allenby's ass again, and this time completely and utterly sober. Good job, Robert. Thanks for playing.

Richard Heathcote, Getty Images