An enterprising forum member over on Golfwrx.com this morning managed to snap a few screenshots from the Golf Channel of Phil Mickelson practicing with a belly putter this morning.  If you’ve been watching Phil putt recently, this probably isn’t a huge surprise.

He hasn’t exactly been putting well and Keegan Bradley’s win may have finally kicked the belly putter into widespread acceptance on Tour.  But you can’t help but wonder what Bones is thinking as he’s standing on the putting green with Phil.

Phil Mickelson made an appearance on Charlie Rose earlier this week.  Personally, I find Charlie Rose a bit dry for my taste, but Stephanie Wei presumably had some free time and transcribed the interesting bits:

With Martin Kaymer missing the cut 78-72, the #1 world ranking is officially up for grabs this weekend at the Masters.  Lee Westwood (#2), Phil Mickelson (#3), Luke Donald (#4), and Tiger (#7) could all take over the number 1 spot depending on how the other contenders finish.  Graeme McDowell (#5)  missed the cut and because of the math, Paul Casey (#6) can’t move to #1 even if he wins.

You’d have to be a statistician to figure out all of the possible scenarios, but thankfully the Golf Channel’s Randal Mell has laid out the possibilities for the rest of us:

No. 2 Westwood and No. 3 Mickelson can become No. 1 with a Masters’ victory regardless what anyone else does.

No. 4 Donald becomes No. 1 if he wins and Westwood finishes worse than solo second.

No. 7 Woods becomes No. 1 if he wins and Mickelson finishes worse than solo second and Westwood finishes outside the top three.

No. 5 Graeme McDowell missed the cut. No. 6 Paul Casey by virtue of divisors and OWGR rolling two-year math has no shot to become No. 1 this week.

My head hurts now.

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

In the latest Masters odds from Bodog.com, Phil Mickelson remains the favorite at 6-1.  Tiger is 8-1 (again, wtf?). Both Lee Westwood and Nick Watney are 14-1, with nobody else under 20-1.

The odds on my dark horse picks?  Justin Rose is 30-1.  Anthony Kim is 33-1.   Ben Crane is 100-1.  And Gary Woodland and Ryu Ishikawa are sitting at 150-1.

Interestingly Tom Watson is sitting at 400-1.  That might be a good long shot bet.  He came damn close to winning the British Open 2 years ago and was on the leaderboard going into Friday at the 2010 Masters after firing a first round 67.  Yes, at 61, he’s probably too old to realistically contend at the Masters.  But at 400-1 it might be worth a little fun money.

Phil Mickelson – 6/1
Tiger Woods – 8/1
Lee Westwood – 14/1
Nick Watney – 16/1
Martin Kaymer – 20/1
Luke Donald – 25/1
Paul Casey – 25/1
Rory McIlroy – 25/1
Dustin Johnson – 20/1
Padraig Harrington – 28/1
Hunter Mahan – 28/1
Justin Rose – 30/1
Graeme McDowell – 33/1
Bubba Watson – 33/1
Matt Kuchar – 28/1
Steve Stricker – 33/1
Rickie Fowler – 33/1
Aaron Baddeley – 33/1
Ian Poulter – 33/1
Ernie Els – 33/1
Anthony Kim – 33/1
Retief Goosen – 40/1
Jim Furyk – 40/1
Geoff Ogilvy – 40/1
Sergio Garcia – 40/1
Vijay Singh – 50/1
Francesco Molinari – 50/1
Martin Laird – 50/1
Charl Schwartzel – 50/1
K.J. Choi – 50/1

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

Phil Mickelson’s win on Sunday at the Shell Houston Open moved him into 3rd place in the world golf rankings (from 6th) while Tiger, who didn’t play, slid from 5th to 7th.  This is the first time that Mickelson has led Tiger in the world rankings in 14 years (since the 1997 Masters).

Many golf fans probably asked themselves today if Hell had finally frozen over.  Ok, that’s a bit dramatic, but after Mickelson was unable to move ahead of Woods on 15 separate occasions last year, it seemed like it would never happened.  However on Sunday, Mickelson finally pulled out a big win when he needed it and vaulted past Woods.

Mickelson is now just over a point behind world #1 Martin Kaymer.  I’m not sure exactly how the math works out, but if Phil wins at Augusta this week, he would have to be very, very close to the #1 spot.  Last week, I would have told you that it meant he had no chance of winning.  This week, well, I’m not so sure anymore.

It’s official.  People that bet on golf are idiots.  Tiger Woods is currently 10-1 to win the Masters this week.  He was the odds on favorite to win this week until Phil Mickelson won in Houston over the weekend.  He dropped from 8-1 to 10-1 while Phil did the reverse.

Seriously, what the hell are people thinking?  I’m not saying that Tiger should be 100-1, but 10-1?   That’s nuts.  Tiger hasn’t done anything recently that would warrant those odds.  If he had finished well at the Bob Hope, I could see it.  But a T24 performance doesn’t bode well for his chances at Augusta.

Here’s the list of Tiger’s 2011 stats:

There isn’t anything on that list that screams “Favorite to win the Masters”.  He’s averaging 289 off the tee and only finding the fairway 47% of the time.  He’s going to have to improve one of those stats significantly this week to contend.

How are some of the other big names faring in the betting?  As previously mentioned, Phil’s win in Houston has made him the favorite at 8-1.  World #1 Martin Kaymer is 18-1.  How anybody could follow golf for the past year and a half and think that Tiger is basically twice as likely to win the Masters as Martin Kaymer is beyond me.  Dustin Johnson is 12-1 and Nick Watney (probably the hottest golfer on the planet in 2011) is 15-1.

You can never count Tiger out of a golf tournament.  But he hasn’t won since 2009 and so far this year he’s clearly not playing like somebody who’s going to win the Masters.  Stranger things have happened, but it seems like your money would be better placed elsewhere.

Masters betting odds from Golf.com:

Here are the Tropicana’s Masters odds for the top favorites:

Phil Mickelson: 8 to 1

Tiger Woods: 10 to 1

Dustin Johnson: 12 to 1

Nick Watney: 15 to 1

Lee Westwood: 15 to 1

Martin Kaymer: 18 to 1

Matt Kuchar: 18 to 1

Rory McIlroy: 20 to 1

Graeme McDowell: 25 to 1

Luke Donald: 25 to 1

Esposito said Las Vegas casinos have been seeing enough action to drop the odds on these players:

Bubba Watson: 25 to 1

Ricky Barnes: 35 to 1

Rickie Fowler: 35 to 1

Outside of Woods (2006 champion) and Mickelson (2010 champion), recent Masters winners aren’t considered strong contenders:

2009 champion Angel Cabrera: 100 to 1

2008 champion Trevor Immelman: 100 to 1

2007 champion Zach Johnson: 80 to 1

The field (all the players not given individual odds) is 10 to 1.

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

If you had asked me last week about Phil’s chances at the Masters, I would have told you that it was crazy that he was one of the favorites at 10-1.  After yesterday’s 63?   Well, it doesn’t seem completely unreasonable anymore.

Not only did Ben Crane give Rory McIlroy a serious beatdown today, he also played the fastest round of his life.  Looks like his workout and pre-round rituals are legit.

OK, so I don’t actually know how long it took for Crane and McIlroy to play their match, but since Crane won 8 and 7, that means they only played 11 holes.  So it couldn’t have possibly taken more than… I don’t know… 4 hours?

For Ben Crane, that’s like playing speed golf.

The win hasn’t exactly done wonders for his confidence though:

I’m just as shocked as anybody else.  I figured 2 and 1 would be unbelievable. Or 1 up.

So I don’t think that anyone is going, ‘Wow, Ben Crane is really coming through this bracket (laughter) look out. Gosh, sorry you’ve got to play Ben Crane, (laughter) boy, tough draw there.’

That’s the attitude!  Go get ‘em!  Seriously though it’s good to see him playing well and not getting ahead of himself.

In other news, if Phil Mickelson had beaten Rickie Fowler today, he would have moved ahead of Tiger in the world rankings for the first time since 1997.  That should have been a clue that the smart money was on Fowler.

And after Nick Watney took out Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer is now the only #1 bracket seed remaining in the tournament.  If he reaches the finals, he will take over the world #1 spot from Westwood.

Padraig Harrington, currently 26th in the world rankings,  recently told the Irish Golf Desk that he believes he can become the #1 player in the world.

I think Tiger has opened it up to everybody else. In fact, I am closer to being world No 1 now than I was when I was world No 3.

Technically, that is true.  He’s currently less than 6 points behind Lee Westwood compared to almost 11 points behind Tiger in 2008 when he was ranked 3rd.  But does anybody besides Harrington think that he’s got a legitimate shot at becoming the world #1?

An unwavering belief in yourself is a part of what lets somebody compete at the highest levels of sport, but in this case Harrington is borderline delusional.  He’s 39 years old, hasn’t won since 2008 and would literally have to play the best golf of his life over the next 2 years, while hoping that Tiger doesn’t return to form and that guys like Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Phil Mickelson, and Jim Furyk forget how to swing a golf club.

Harrington isn’t even on top of the list of Irish golfers who could become the next world #1.  If I had to pick an Irish golfer who could become the next #1, Harrington would be a distant 3rd on my list behind Graeme McDowell (#4) and Rory McIlroy (#12).

I do have to say though, that if Harrington does manage to grab the #1 spot, at least we’d have a world #1 that has won a major (or 3).  Oh no he didn’t!  Oh yes I did.

Irish Golf Desk (via Waggleroom)

[Image Flickr/James Marvin Phelps]

Surprise Surprise, even without a win for the first time in his career, Tiger still tops the list of top earners in golf in 2010.  It’s not all roses however.  Even though he earned an estimated $74.2m this year, it was his lowest earnings total over the past decade, and represented a $48m drop from 2009.  Between the divorce settlement, rumored payoffs and the lost income, Tiger was engaged in some very expensive extra-curricular activities.

But he was still $32m ahead of the #2 earner of 2010 Phil Mickelson.  And interestingly enough, the rest of the top 5 don’t even play competitive golf anymore.  Arnold Palmer came in 3rd with $36m, Greg Norman was 4th with $30m, and Jack Nicklaus was 5th with $25m.

And the new world #1 still has some catching up to do in bank account department (and the wins and majors department but that’s another article).  Lee Westwood came in 9th with just under $15m.

I’m sure that there’s some witty insight to be gleaned from all of this.  The best I can come up with is that Tiger and most of the other players in the top 10 earn most of their money off of the course.  Generally speaking, the younger guys and players outside of the top 10 earn their money on the course.  They would be well advised to take a page from the guys at the top of the list and start taking steps to develop income streams that can continue to grow long after their competitive playing careers have ended.

Golf Digest

[Image Rob Hayashida/Sandbox8.com]