Well, I’ll be the first to admit when I’m wrong and, man, I was really wrong on this one. Of course, I’m referring to picking Colin Montgomerie to win this week’s Open. The Scotsman had a dreadful two rounds and missed the cut at 18-over-par for the tournament. Those two rounds included something like three double-bogeys and one triple-bogey. What’s most disheartening is that Monty finished a full four strokes worse than Sergio Garcia. What can I say? I felt my pick had some merits: Monty does generally play U.S. Opens well (finished second last year after all), nearly won the U.S. ...

TravelGolf.com’s Chris Baldwin blasts Sergio Garcia in his blog today after the gutless Spaniard posted a monster opening round of 79 at the U.S. Open. Baldwin says Garcia is “the most overrated player of the Tiger Woods era.” You know what? He’s absolutely right. Garcia is like tennis’ Anna Kournikova: Long on renown, pitifully short on results. But I don’t want to steal Baldwin’s thunder (I’ve made my feelings known about Sergio Garcia before). Read what he has to say. Garcia’s defenders are falling fast. Soon, the only one left will be Bill Wolfrum.

Sports writers like to make bold predictions, so here’s mine: Colin Montgomerie is going to win this week’s U.S. Open. Think I’m crazy? People have made wackier forecasts on this site. (I hear WorldGolf.com’s Bill Wolfrum, yet to reveal his official Open pick, is eyeing Bob Estes to go all the way at Oakmont this year). This truly is the 43-year-old Scotsman’s year. And man is he due: 10 top-10 finishes in major championships since 1990, and five second place finishes. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks Montgomerie is finally ready to hoist a trophy. OK, I’ll admit ...

Watching the final round of the French Open today, in which Spaniard Rafael Nadal pretty much dominated World No. 1 Roger Federer, I kept wondering one thing: Where’s Tiger Woods? I thought I had read somewhere that these guys had developed quite a close friendship (it’s lonely on top, isn’t it?) - each attending the other’s big moments, bonded in the unity of simply being the best in their respective sports. Here in Germany, the television kept flashing to a rather unfortunate looking woman I took to be Federer’s significant other (I for one have no idea if Federer is married), ...

A lot of ink has been spilled on Michelle Wie’s bogus withdrawal from the Ginn Tribute, including two posts in this space - though I at least can fall back on the record of never having felt the need to write about Wiesy until yesterday. So I think two blogs, now make it three, is ok. I simply reached my tipping point yesterday with Wie. (The two or three readers of this blog will also know that I’ve hammered on Sergio Garcia, the PGA Tour’s unfulfilled promise of a player, so it’s not like I’m bashing only one player. I’ve also ...