Monday's Pin Placement: Geoff Ogilvy Must Get Motivated by FanHouse

Every Monday during the PGA TOUR season, Monday's Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend action, with a little commentary from the weekend that was. We will focus on any news stories, including something you may have missed while you were grinding on the putting green.

Geoff Ogilvy Takes Domination To A Different Level -- Back in October, after the Ryder Cup had finished and the FedEx Cup concluded, I wrote up a little "Winners and Losers for 2008." In the losers bracket were the Australians, mainly because Geoff Ogilvy was the only golfer to do anything, and that was way back in March of last year. I'm not sure how much I can motivate golfers (if at all), but his performance at the Mercedes Championship was absolutely dominant.

Geoff had a total of one bogey in his first three rounds at the Mercedes Championship, which also included 20 birdies. All of that put him well enough ahead of the field so that he could afford a shaky front nine on Sunday.

Want to know the formula to win a PGA Tour golf tournament? Finish in the top 10 in eagles, birdies, driving accuracy, putts per round, putts per green in regulation and greens in regulation. Yeah, that should do it.

Ogilvy has always been one of my favorite young golfers on tour, maybe because he seems to hold his composure under pressure. A lot of people tend to forget that even though Phil Mickelson tanked the 2006 U.S. Open with the ugliest double-bogey in the history of golf, Geoff had to get up and down on those slick Winged Foot greens just to give himself a chance.

Oh, and Anthony Kim Isn't Going Anywhere -- I can't lie. Before the season began, I really had some concerns for Anthony Kim. I know he's an amazing golfer and all, and had a terrific 2008, but the Ryder Cup was months ago and Kim has a lot of other things going on in his life. I was worried he might stumble out of the gates and take a while to get his consistency back.

Boy, was I wrong. Kim opened the Mercedes with a disappointing (by his standards) 71, but followed that with salty rounds of 68-68-67 to put him in a tie for second with Davis Love III. Speaking of Davis...

Love III? Huh?!?! -- One of my favorite parts of The Golf Channel's broadcast of the tournament was finding out some inside info on Love. Supposedly, Davis has been "grinding" on his short game in the offseason and is hellbent on making the Presidents Cup this year and the Ryder Cup next year.

I guess the recent success of Kenny Perry lit a fire in Love, who has always been more talented than most of the other 40-year-olds on tour. Love is someone who could really get it going under the right mind frame.

So did his short game grind work this week? Love finished t-25 in sand saves, t-13 in putts per round and 5th in putts per green in regulation. I'd say practice makes pretty darn close to perfect.

Final Round Handshakes ...

-- Nothing is more strange than looking at the scoreboard of a PGA Tour event and seeing Tiger Woods' name in last place.

-- Adam Scott finished t-18, and is also rumored to be dating Kate Hudson. A good question arose between myself and FanHouser Chris Burke about this yesterday after I posted the article: Is Scott playing above his head or has Hudson dropped so low on the Hollywood scale that she is subjecting herself to PGA Tour golfers? I'm going with Scott pulling above his pay grade.

-- Vijay Singh, the highest ranked player in the field, failed to break 70 all week.