Colin Montgomerie's run on Ryder Cup appearances could be over. Yesterday I mentioned that word on the street had captain Nick Faldo naming Ian Poulter's couture to the team, and that, coupled with Monty's recent rough patch (and by "recent" I mean "2008") could spell the end of a Ryder Cup career that spans eight events.

...[T]he 45-year-old Scotsman might have thought himself entitled to a little respect from Faldo, or at least a little insight on how his putative captain is thinking. Instead, he has been left hanging like a first-year rookie.

"None at all. None at all," Montgomerie said when he was asked if he had had any communication with Faldo. Asked if, as a senior player, he was disappointed not to have received a phone call, he struggled to remain diplomatic: "Yeah, good question. I don't know if anyone else has had any communication with him."

If I'm Paul Azinger, I'm on the horn with INS to get Monty fast-tracked as a U.S. citizen. Yeah, Montgomerie's an insufferable killjoy, but he might be America's best chance at winning one of these things. I've accepted that this probably won't happen, although I can't think of anything more riveting than watching Sergio Garcia and Montgomerie facing off in match play.

Two of the planet's biggest whiners going head-to-head makes for exciting television, I'd think. Plus, there's always a chance a cat fight breaks out. And if there's anything golf needs more of, it's cat fights. Just as long as they're in English, of course.

Once a year, like Christmas, we as golf fans get to see Tiger Woods completely open and talkative to all media outlets. About his video game. That EA Sports one that is named after Tiger. He will talk to anyone about this video game.

Last night Woods continued his Tour De Wii on Conan O'Brien (second part after the jump), where the two chatted about the U.S. Open victory, his knee, baby Sam and, of course, the game. As awkward as these two seemed to be together, a few of the questions thrown at our Golfing Pope brought out some solid emotion.



Asked about his knee currently, Tiger said, "It's Better, better than it was then, that's for sure." When questioned what they actually did in the surgery, Woods told us, "They took my hamstring tendon out of my right leg and put it into my left as my new ACL and repaired some cartilage damage."

No matter what you think about Tiger Woods, the one thing we can all agree on is his intmidation factor on the golf course. Just watching him on the television gets you a little out of your element.

His stare boars through walls, his fist pumps break into more senses than just sight and his build and distance almost blankets what his opponents are donig. I think it's safe to say Tiger bothers his playing partners.

Flash in the 2008 pan Greg Norman thinks even stronger about this. He thinks the opponents, especially the young lads, don't even give themselves a puncher's chance when Woods is lurking.

"This generation of golfers has just been whipped by Tiger. They go out there thinking that they can't beat him, so they don't."

Well, I think it is a little jab at the players but isn't this just fact? When people play with Woods, they're beat before they tee off, right? Who in their right mind was sitting around watching Rocco Mediate playing Tiger and thought, for a second, that Woods was defeated?

Just one day after the LPGA announced that you better be able to yell "sit" to your ball in English, some are wondering if this is even legal.

Starting in 2009, golfers on the LPGA will be forced to pass an English proficiency test and if you fail, you will be suspended from the golf tournament and not let back on tour until you improve your speaking skills. This all is predicated around the fact that pro-am partners and the media couldn't really communicate with some of the foreign golfers taking over the LPGA. But, forcing people to learn a language? That sure sounds like something that might break a law.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

"Language and national origin are inextricable," says Steven D. Jacobs, an attorney that is currently working on an English-only case at a sheet-metal factory in Connecticut. "The LPGA is making English a precondition of access. That's a classic no-no. I don't see how this will stand up in court if a player challenges it."

The LPGA is making their plan a little more clear after their fishy way of announcing the plan yesterday. The first language test will be next fall when the season is coming to a close, so if you fail a test you might have the entire off-season to not only practicing putting, but pronouncing. This might help deter anyone from missing golf at all.

Tiger Woods is alive and well, even though he's not scheduled to make his triumphant return to the PGA Tour until sometime next spring. Meanwhile, during an interview on CNBC's Power Lunch this afternoon, Eldrick touched on the typical fare: he's recovering well, loves spending time with his family, can't wait to play tournament golf, blah blah blah.

He also managed to get in a plug for EA Sports AND Gillette, and name-drop both Derek Jeter and Roger Federer. After dispensing with the pleasantries, however, host Bill Griffeth got all journalistic, asking Tiger his thoughts on the whole sordid LPGA mess. Awkwardness ensued:

Griffeth: Let me ask you something before you go, here ... Golfweek broke it on Monday, the New York Times put it on the front page today -- you probably saw that -- the LPGA is now going to require all of their golfers to be conversant in English next year, or face suspension. Good idea, bad idea?

Tiger: I don't know, that's the first time I heard about it. I was just in Dubai and I just got back, so ... um, that's the first time I actually heard about that, so...

Ah, yes, the ol' "I was out of the country" excuse. That used to work really well before the advent of the telegraph, and later, the phone and a little something Al Gore likes to call the internet.

It gets better:

A lot of "experts" talk about Camilo Villegas like he is still one of the next big stars. The thing is, the extremely good looking, muscular, Colombian hero who probably lands more women than a Gynecology waiting room doesn't really ever win. Honestly, he's probably best known for the maneuver he's doing in the picture that is supposed to help him reads putts better (?).

On Tuesday, Villegas fans can take solace in his victory at a skins game event, where he took home the gold with a chip-off against Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, Stewart Cink and Notah Begay III.

The rising Colombian star won a chipoff Tuesday against Singh, Weir, Cink, and Begay III to walk away with top money at the inaugural Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at Turning Stone Resort's Atunyote Golf Club.

Villegas' winning pitch on the extra hole of the skins game competition boosted his earnings for the day to $220,000. Singh won two holes to finish with $180,000, and Cink finished with one skin worth $100,000 from the total purse of $500,000.

Now I know what you're probably asking yourself, so let me answer all the fuzziness for you. Yes, a chip-off is the lamest thing possible to decide the victor. The only thing worse than that is tossing a tee in the air and seeing who it points to. Yes, like you I was about a month away from totally forgetting who Notah Begay was. Yes, there could be a more random five-some on the PGA Tour, but not by much (I'm picturing a little K.J. Choi, Ian Poulter and Fuzzy Zoeller).

I guess the budding star that is Villegas will have this to hang his hat on. Sure, he's been on tour for three seasons without a victory, but the next time he is in that situation, I'm sure this chip-off victory will be that experience he's needed to finally pull through.

The Ryder Cup is less than a month off and Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo, captains for the American and European sides, have to fill out the rosters by the end of the week. I've pretty much accepted the fact that it doesn't matter who Azinger names with his picks (well, unless they're Europeans), the U.S. will probably lose.

Faldo, however, has some intriguing options facing him. Colin Montgomerie, arguably one of the best Ryder Cupper in history of the event, is lobbying for a spot on the team even though he's had a forgettable season, and hasn't played in two weeks.

While we wait for that drama to play out, rumors are afoot about other potential candidates:

Nick Dougherty was brave enough to articulate what most were thinking here on the range yesterday as the news circulated of Ian Poulter's late withdrawal from this week's Johnnie Walker Championship. "All I can think of is that he's been given the nod," said Dougherty. And so the great Ryder Cup conspiracy theory gathered momentum. True or not true it has given the build-up to Nick Faldo's wildcards announcement on Sunday night a fascinating edge.

The LPGA has spoken, and if you understand English, the message is clear: the tour will henceforth be a one-language operation, which creates all sorts of ironical hilarity since a good many tour winners are from non-English speaking countries.

No matter. In an effort to improve sponsorships, and presumably ratings, the tour is getting the Stepford Wives treatment: Homogenize everything. In addition to English-only requirements, players will also be encouraged to bleach their hair blond and get breast implants. Because if there's anything LPGA fans love more than watching golfers speak a language we can all understand (and by "we," I mean "lazy Americans"), it's watching golfers speak a language we can all understand while being able to point and gawk in the process.

Perhaps I've overstating things a bit, but the whole idea of require players to learn English is farcical. The theory for the new rule goes something like this: the amateurs who take part in pro-ams can't communicate with the pros because of the language barrier. Apparently, that's a no-no, and a much bigger concern than finding a way to mass-market the tour to a wider audience. Which probably goes a long way in explaining the tour's current run on abysmal ratings.

As the extremely popular Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009 hits stores, EA Sports continues to dazzle us with their marketing.

In this video, via You Been Blinded, Woods putts, and drains, a Rubik's Cube. As sweet as the walking on water ad was, this one might trump it. The celebration after Tiger makes the putt looks very sincere and raises the question, is this real or fake? I've watched it five times and can't decide.

Drop your opinion in the comments.

Since 2000, Vijay Singh has won more tournaments than anyone on tour not married to a former Swedish model with an identical twin.

The consistency can be attributed to his incredible ability to hit the golf ball as good, if not better, than anyone on tour and not so much to his putting, which has always plagued the Big Fijian. After his playoff win this weekend at the Barclays, his first victory in the short history of the FedEx Cup playoffs, Singh said he's finally decided to approach putting a little different. He's just going to believe he's good at it. Hey, sounds simple enough!

"I think through the past weeks and months and years, with the media talking about my putting and writing about my putting and people talking about my putting and people want to help me, I must have had hundreds of letters and phone calls and all saying that they can fix my putting,'' said Singh, who is now 8-4 in playoffs. "You know, at the end of the day, it kind of gets to your head that you're not a good putter.

"So I made a point after last week that, you know, I'm going to change that attitude, and I believed in myself that I'm the best putter, and I came out here with a different attitude, and I putted great this week. If I keep doing this, I'm going to win a lot more golf tournaments."