Nothing easy for Ernie Els

The walk from the 18th green to the scoring trailer at Innisbrook's Copperhead course is a long one, with plenty of time for reflection.

Fans and volunteers lined the ropes along that trek, but even they knew better than to offer Ernie Els any encouragement at this point. He had just bogeyed the last two holes Sunday afternoon at the Transitions Championship, the disappointment oozing throughout the crowd, the pain as prevalent as if each and every one of them had missed that short putt themselves.

What can you say in a moment like this? Do you cheer? Console? Cry?

Els, a Hall of Famer who has won three major championships and tournaments all over the world, was anything but his Big Easy persona making that journey that must have seemed like miles.

He has been battling the putting demons for most of the past two years, put himself in position to win with some excellent ball-striking, could all but see that Masters invitation delivered to his doorstep -- and then let two makeable putts over the last three holes along with an errant approach ruin his day.

After signing his scorecard, he did a slow burn waiting for television and radio interviews, snapping at a PGA Tour official in the process and then doing all he could to not go off on the questioners.

He clearly needed some time to cool off after his bogey-bogey finish cost him a spot in a playoff with Luke Donald, Jim Furyk, Robert Garrigus and Sang-Moon Bae. Els probably should have won the tournament in regulation, having missed a 5-footer for birdie at the 16th and then the 4-footer for par at the last, the one that would have put him in a playoff.

Donald won it with a birdie on the first extra hole, making the clutch putt to put him back atop the Official World Golf Ranking over Rory McIlory. Els, now 42, can only lament what it was like to play that kind of golf.

"It's going to be tough to get over this," Els admitted in the parking lot afterward, searching for words to describe how a round of 4-under-par 67 and a tie for fifth could look so bad.

He led the field in greens in regulation, and hit 14 of 18 on Sunday. He was 6 under par for his round through 12 holes and leading, but couldn't coax another one in the hole that would have wrapped it up.

"Ernie was playing behind me today, and he was bombing shots I was looking back and he was 50 yards past where I was," Donald said. "He obviously felt like he was swinging well this week. Obviously played well to get into that position.

"But yes, it's unfortunate to miss a short putt like that. You know, putting is very mental. Hopefully he can figure it out. … Ernie's obviously struggled on the greens more than anything, and that kind of seeps through the bag."

At the toughest hole on the course, the 451-yard par-4 16th, Els blasted a drive 308 yards. With 147 to the pin, he knocked his approach to inside 5 feet. A birdie there and he takes a 2-shot lead with two holes to go. And he pulled the putt left of the hole.

Lost, of course, were the two beautiful shots that put him in that position.

"Back in the day I would have made that putt and would have won the tournament by two or three shots," Els said. "Now it's a different story."

It is one of missed putts, blown opportunities and frustration. Els has played in the Masters 18 times and probably should have his own green jacket. But you can't get one if you don't play, and right now, Els is on the outside looking in at the year's first major championship, not yet on the invite list for Augusta National.

That is due to his slip last year outside of the top 50 in the world. You have to go back 20 years -- to the end of 1992, when he was a virtual nobody and ranked 40th -- to find him that low.

By falling outside of the top 50, Els saw a Masters invite slip through his grasp, one that he's had three months to rectify by either winning a PGA Tour event or moving into the top 50 again. He started the Transitions at 68th in the world, and moved to only 62nd with his tie for fifth.

Next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational is the last chance to get into the top 50, and he's likely in need of a victory there, too, to crack the top 50. Short of that, his only way into the Masters would be a win at the Shell Houston Open.

"I was just trying to win a golf tournament," Els said when asked if he was thinking about the Masters, which starts April 5. "Obviously, I can't lie to you, I've been thinking about it constantly. But I just want to get the job done and win golf tournaments."

Els said the missed putt on 16 affected him on both his tee shot at the 17th hole and on the short putt on 18. After failing to convert the birdie putt, there was a long wait on the 17th tee, a difficult 218-yard par-3 where Els pushed his 4-iron to the right and was fortunate to have a shot to the green.

He left himself a 25-footer for par, narrowly missed, then walked to the 18th tee tied for the lead. After a perfect drive, Els had just 160 left, but pulled his 7-iron approach just off the green. He hit a decent chip to 4 feet, then missed.

Afterward, Els was asked by a television interviewer if he had the confidence to make the putt. You could almost see the steam coming from the top of Els' head as he answered by saying "I just pulled it a bit." He then did a radio interview when he said, "I was just trying to jam it in there and I pulled it."

This, obviously, was not the time to be asking questions, but Els consented, then signed autographs as he walked around the clubhouse and to the parking lot. There, the fire inside him having subsided somewhat, he lamented the missed opportunity.

"When you're on the hot seat, people are going to criticize you," he said. "When you hit a good putt and it misses, you're still going to get criticized, you know? So that's the position I'm in. If I hit a good putt, feel it's a good putt and it doesn't go in … doesn't matter what I say.

"I just feel like I'm in a difficult position. Have to defend myself all the time. It kind of came to a boiling point there, almost. It was a bit of an odd question."

Understandable, really.

Els could walk away from the game now and not have to apologize for his career. More than 60 worldwide wins, with 18 PGA Tour titles and three major championships is what already has the South African in the Hall of Fame.

But you could tell by how much it hurt Sunday that Els is not satisfied.

Before heading to Bay Hill, Els is playing in the Tavistock Cup at Lake Nona on Monday and Tuesday. He was asked if it's a good thing to be playing right away.

"I'd rather be sitting here drowning my sorrows," he said, chuckling. "Maybe that's also a good thing … not to do that."

Source http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/7705454/nothing-easy-ernie-els-transitions-championship-collapse

Paul Lawrie shoots flawless 65 to win Qatar Masters

Paul Lawrie is back in the world's top 50 for the first time since 2003 after a flawless performance gave him a second Qatar Masters title on Sunday.

The Scot, known as "Chippy", chipped in twice during a brilliant closing 65 to beat the Australian Jason Day and the Swede Peter Hanson by four.

Less than a year ago the 1999 Open champion was down at 272nd place in the rankings. Now he is part of golf's elite group again. The win guarantees him a place in the 64-man Accenture World Match Play championship in Arizona this month and the Volvo World Match Play in Spain in May.

He is on course to win a second Ryder Cup cap 13 years after his first and if he can stay in the top 50 for another seven weeks will make a return to the Masters at Augusta in April after an eight-year gap.

This is the Aberdeen player's first success since his long-time coach Adam Hunter died of leukaemia in October and Lawrie was close to tears when reminded of that afterwards.

"I don't think I can play much better than that," said the 43-year-old on Sky Sports after finishing with a 15 under par total in an event cut to 54 holes because of strong winds on Friday. "I've been playing well for a long, long time but it's just nice to come out one ahead and shoot seven under."

It was the joint lowest round of the day. He said: "When you've got a chance to win a tournament you don't sleep as well the night before and things go racing through your mind. You've got to get back to basics and I did that. I hit some nice shots coming in."

Also reminded that his 1999 victory in the tournament was followed five months later by lifting the Open Claret Jug at Carnoustie, Lawrie said: "Now wouldn't that be nice to get that again?"

And as for the Ryder Cup he said: "I've been trying to keep that to the back of my mind. If I keep playing as I am I will get in, there's no question, but there's a long way to go and I know as well as anyone there are a lot of good players."

The first chip-in was perfectly timed. Lawrie had been caught by Sergio García moments before, but holing out for eagle from just short of the green at the long 9th put him two in front again.

García, six under for the first 11 holes, then bogeyed the 13th and 15th to drop back to joint fifth and instead it was Day who applied the pressure.

The 24-year-old, runner-up in both the Masters and US Open last season, began each half with four successive birdies but a bogey six on the 9th left him with too much ground to make up.

Lawrie went clear with birdies on the 11th, 14th and 16th and victory was in effect sealed when he chipped in again at the short 17th.

Hanson caught Day by pitching in for eagle on the 16th and matching his two-putt birdie on the last. They finished with rounds of 67 and 65 respectively.

Fourth was the 45-year-old American John Daly. Down at 543rd in the world at the start of the week, it was the former Open champion's best display since he finished second in the 2009 Italian Open.

Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, third and fourth on the rankings, finished 12th and ninth respectively, Westwood sharing his position with José María Olazábal on the Ryder Cup captain's 46th birthday.

Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/05/paul-lawrie-qatar-masters?newsfeed=true

Cristie Kerr, seeking elusive win, is fourth

Like misplaced car keys, sunglasses or the television remote, Cristie Kerr knows her best golf is there somewhere.

But, darned if she has been able to find it.

Every LPGA season since 2003 has produced at least one victory for the 34-year-old veteran with 14 career titles. During that stretch Kerr has reigned as the most consistent American in women's golf, reaching world No. 1 last season.

Then along came 2011.

With only 54 holes of golf left on this season's schedule, Kerr remains winless, although she is No. 3 in the world ranking. She is frustrated and impatient, not to mention sick with a stomach virus.

"Something I got from Mexico," she said, having arrived straight from last week's tour stop in Guadalajara. "I woke up Tuesday and felt kind of tired and started getting some abdominal pains and the other stuff I'm not going to mention."

The good news, however, is she is 4-under par and on the leaderboard after one round of the season-ending Titleholders at Grand Cypress Resort and Golf Club.

After a six-birdie, two-bogey 68, Kerr is two shots back of leader Na Yeon Choi, one behind Morgan Pressel and Karrie Webb, and tied for fourth with Maria Hjorth.

"I didn't expect much from myself today," she said. "Maybe that's what it takes.

"It's felt like a bit of bad luck [this year]. That's the way it goes sometimes."

Kerr's frustration is fueled by a year of close calls but no celebration finishes. Eleven events into the season she had collected seven top-four finishes, including a consecutive string of three seconds followed by two straight third-places. A little luck and she could have out-Yanied Yani Tseng.

"Cristie had that unbelievable stretch in the middle of the year, what, four or five seconds in a row," Pressel said. "To think she didn't come out of that stretch with a victory is certainly surprising."

Even more shocking to Kerr was a bout of tendinitis in her right wrist that flared up before final-day singles competition in the Solheim Cup in September. It forced her to withdraw and concede a match and point that became valuable in Europe's narrow victory over the U.S. team.

Her play has been spotty since.

"I've never had to deal with trying to pay attention to an injury like that," she said.

Add in the stomach virus that kept her awake much of the night before Thursday's opening round, and there wasn't a lot of reason to expect the best.

"It's kind of the way the year has gone," she said. "But maybe somebody will smile on me this week."

Somebody certainly will leave Sunday night sporting a major grin -- not to mention the $500,000 winner's check -- to take into the offseason. By the look of the first-day leaderboard, they will have earned it.

Seven of the top 12 players after the first day are ranked among the world's top 30, including No. 4 Choi. The 24-year-old South Korean has five career LPGA wins, including one this year. There's also Webb, already a Hall of Fame member, with two wins this season, at No. 15 and Pressel at 14.

"I mean this is the last tournament on the LPGA Tour," said Choi, who makes her American base in Orlando. "I really want to finish well this tournament and achieve my goals for 2011. It's not only to win. I want to feel satisfied Sunday after I've played."

Likewise, Pressel is hoping to end the year on a high note. Despite seven top-10 finishes that helped her rank 12th on the money list, she, like Kerr, is winless in 2011. After becoming the youngest player to win an LPGA major, taking the 2007 Kraft Nabisco before her 19th birthday, Pressel's projected success has stalled.

"I felt good out there today,'' she said. "I didn't feel like I was pressing too hard. I have a bad habit that I've gotten into -- when things start to go well I start to press and almost become afraid of the hole. I was able to stay patient, stay with my game throughout the entire round. Hopefully, I can continue to do that for three days."

Or the rest of the season.

Source http://espn.go.com/espnw/more-sports/7247303/cristie-kerr-seeking-elusive-win-fourth

Supreme Court set to open crucial term

The Supreme Court on Monday opens one of its most anticipated terms, in which the justices could strike down President Obama's healthcare law, empower local police to arrest illegal immigrants, and declare an end to affirmative action in colleges and universities.

The cases coming before the court "address some of the central issues facing the country," said former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger. The clashes over healthcare and immigration "are not mere lawyers' issues, but fundamental questions about how the country is governed."

"By June of 2012, this may prove to be among the most momentous terms in recent decades," said Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center in Washington.

The justices will decide over the next few months whether to hear the cases. If they do, rulings will be handed down by late June, just as the presidential campaign moves into high gear.

Most legal scholars predict the justices will not steer clear of the controversies. "The fact that the issues are politically charged and it is an election year won't cause them a moment of hesitation," said Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus.

The court has five Republican appointees and four Democratic, and in major cases that divide along ideological lines, the conservative wing prevails most of the time.

The major issues:

Immigration: Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wants the court to rule that states and their police can question and arrest illegal immigrants. Lower-court judges blocked Arizona's law from taking effect, saying the federal government has exclusive control over immigration.

Last week, though, a judge in Alabama cleared parts of a similar state law to go into effect there. This legal split means the high court will probably move soon to resolve the state-versus-federal dispute over who can enforce immigration laws.

A ruling upholding the Arizona immigration law would encourage more states and cities to adopt measures that crack down on illegal residents.

Affirmative action: In September, two white students turned down for admission by the University of Texas appealed to the high court, arguing that officials wrongly used race to favor minority applicants at the expense of whites and Asian Americans. Their appeal urges the court to outlaw the use of race as an admissions factor in public universities, just as the court, in a 5-4 decision, barred public schools from assigning students based on race to achieve classroom diversity.

Healthcare: Republican officials from 26 states are urging the justices to rule that the Democratic-controlled Congress overstepped its power by regulating the health insurance market. They want the court to void the requirement that all Americans must have health coverage by 2014 or pay a tax penalty.

The healthcare case could be a defining moment for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Beginning his seventh year as the court's leader, Roberts comes from a conservative tradition that believes in limits on the powers of the federal government and a limited role for judges in deciding highly political questions. Those two principles are in conflict in the healthcare case.

On the one hand, a high court ruling upholding the insurance mandate would suggest the federal government could tell Americans what products they must buy. Could Congress require Americans to buy American-built cars or to pay a tax for not joining a health club? Florida Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, a Republican, said last week that striking down Washington's requirement to buy health insurance would "define the boundaries of Congress' power" and "defend Americans' rights and freedoms."

But a decision to throw out the law would be the court's most dramatic veto of major national legislation since justices struck down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first New Deal measures in 1935. Since then, generations of law students have been taught that in matters of economics and business, Congress makes the law and the court stands aside.

If the court were to void the individual mandate, it would put healthcare reformers in a box. They could go back to Congress and seek a fix, but Republican lawmakers are not likely to vote for more taxes to make up for the loss of revenue from those who do not want to buy insurance.

From the other side, outraged Democrats and liberal activists would brand it conservative judicial activism if a narrow right-leaning majority were to throw out a national healthcare overhaul that was championed by the president and passed by the House and Senate.

Political activists on the left have not forgiven the Roberts court for its 5-4 ruling last year that struck down the long-standing bans on corporations and unions spending freely on election campaigns. A ruling against the healthcare law could make "judicial activism" a political rallying cry for the left, just as it has been on the right for a generation.

Healthcare experts are also watching a major Medicaid case from California to be heard by the high court on Monday. It will decide whether courts can stop states from slashing their payments to doctors, hospitals and pharmacists who serve low-income patients.

The right to privacy is on the court's docket in November. New tracking technology, including GPS, allows police to follow a car for weeks or months. The government argues that since no one has a right to privacy when traveling on a public street, authorities can secretly attach a GPS device to a car and monitor its movements — all without obtaining a search warrant.

Dellinger, who represents the defendant in the case, said it "may be the most important privacy case in decades because it is the court's opportunity to address technology like we have never seen before."

Source http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-term-20111002,0,288690.story

New Consumer Protection Agency Faces Opposition

There's a new cop on the money beat: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it opens its doors Thursday. It was created by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, signed by the president one year ago.

The bureau will look out for the financial best interests of American consumers. And while it's popular with the public, it remains controversial.

The idea behind the consumer bureau was simple: If there's an agency to protect consumers from buying an exploding toaster, there should be one that protects them from signing up for an exploding mortgage.

"I think what we saw in the financial crisis is we didn't have anybody looking out for American families," says Michael Barr, a law professor at the University of Michigan. Before that he worked in the Treasury Department and was involved in drafting the legislation that created the consumer bureau.

"We had a whole set of practices that were wrong, that hurt American families and that in the end blew up our financial system and devastated our economy," he says. "And that's why we need a consumer bureau to set a level playing field with clear standards — fair rules of the road."

Political Challenges

But this brand new bureau faces many challenges. For starters, it doesn't have a director. Earlier this week, President Obama nominated Richard Cordray for the job. That same day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor with a message for the president.

"I would remind him that Senate Republicans still aren't interested in approving anyone to the position until the president agrees to make this massive new government bureaucracy more accountable and transparent to the American people," McConnell said.

The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on a GOP-backed bill that would restructure the consumer bureau to a form favored by the financial services industry. Among the changes, it would replace the director with a board of directors.

In short, the political fight over this bureau is far from over, even if most people now agree a consumer protection agency should exist in some form.

"Do I worry? You bet I worry," says Elizabeth Warren, a special adviser to the treasury secretary who is credited with coming up with the idea of a consumer bureau.

"There are clearly people who want to rip the arms and legs off of this agency before it has a chance to help one single family in America," she says. "I know that. I get it. They've made it pretty clear."

Warren has been building the bureau from the ground up for the past year. In that time it's grown from five employees to more than 400.

Today, the bureau receives authority under 16 different consumer laws. It gains oversight over more than 100 of the nation's largest banks when it comes to the consumer products they offer.

What Happens Next?

But until it has a director the bureau won't be able to start writing rules for non-bank financial institutions like payday lenders. Warren says the bureau is operating under one central vision.

"We want prices to be clear. We want risks to be clear. We want to make it easy to compare two or three mortgages to each other. Two or three credit cards to each other," she says.

For months now, the consumer bureau has been hard at work on the mortgage disclosure forms. Earlier this year, it posted two simplified mortgage forms in draft form on its website and asked the public to weigh in on which one was easier to understand. Warren says the agency received more than 13,000 responses.

The financial services industry says it backs the changes.

"How can you be against simplified disclosures?" asks Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable. "I mean it benefits the consumer, it benefits the industry, it benefits the entire transaction. It's all good, and the industry supports what the CFPB is doing."

In fact, so far, Talbott says the industry has been pleased with the direction the bureau is heading.

"We may not always agree with them," he says. "Where we don't, we feel so far we have been able to have good dialogue with them. But at the same time we haven't really hit the road yet. We're about to turn the keys and start it up today. And it will be out on the road for a test drive."

And that's what the industry is worried about — what comes next. "This is an entire new entity to come to grips with," says Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at MF Global's Washington Research Group. "And there's a tremendous amount of fear out there because this is a very powerful agency."

The fear is that the bureau will someday write rules that make it harder for banks to do business and make money. And that could actually limit credit available to consumers.

"There's no foregone conclusion. The agency doesn't have to fulfill the nightmares that the banks have, but until we start to see concrete actions, those nightmares are still going to keep bankers up at night," he says.

As for consumers, they probably won't notice a change immediately. But if in the future they go to get a mortgage and the forms are easier to understand, they can probably thank the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Source http://www.npr.org/2011/07/21/138550502/new-consumer-protection-agency-faces-opposition

Great course, great city struggles for great field

Location isn't always everything when it comes to attracting a strong field.

It's as much about the calendar.

The AT&T National gets under way Thursday, and it appears to have everything in its favor. For the second straight year, it is being played at Aronimink Golf Club, a course so highly regarded that there is reason to hope for a major. It is located about 20 miles outside of Philadelphia, one of America's top sports town with an affinity for golf.

About all that's missing are some of the top players.

For the first time since this tournament began at Congressional in 2007, it doesn't have a single player from among the top 10 in the world ranking. Part of that is because Tiger Woods — the former host whose foundation still benefits from the charity dollars — is no longer in the top 10 or even playing at the moment.

But there are other reasons, most of which have to do with the time of the year.

The Fourth of July weekend was a big hit outside Chicago when the old Western Open was played. It was the biggest event between the U.S. Open and the British Open, and a tournament that most PGA Tour players entered. Then again, that was when PGA Tour players ruled the world ranking. Now it has a distinctive European flavor, not only at the top but throughout the top 50.

Most of them are either playing the French Open this week, or taking a week off before the Scottish Open, the final tune-up before the third major of the year. Bubba Watson decided to go to France, too, which was only strange in that he said he planned to return home before going back to the British Open.

The highest-ranked player at Aronimink is Nick Watney at No. 15. The other three from the top 20 are past champion K.J. Choi, Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk, with Adam Scott at No. 21 also in the field.

That leads to another question: What constitutes a strong field?

The ultimate measure is the world ranking, and the AT&T National (along with the French Open) will be assigned points once the tournament starts on Thursday. This tournament has nine of the top 50 in the world. Considering that it's a PGA Tour event, the AT&T National at least can boast 27 of the top 50 from the FedEx Cup standings.

And of the 25 players who have won tour events this year, 11 of them are at Aronimink.

Then again, is a ranking more important than appeal when it comes to selling tickets? Is it more attractive to have a player from the top 50 in the world, such as Ben Crane or Brandt Snedeker, or a three-time major champion like Vijay Singh? Anthony Kim is barely on any list the way he's been playing, but his appeal is likely greater than someone like John Rollins.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he looks at fields differently from the public, and he used star power as an example.

"Somebody asked me the other day, 'How much does a player who finishes 125th on the money list earn outside of official money?' It depends on who the player is," Finchem said. "If Freddie Couples was 125th, it would be a very different thing than a lot of other players. So those things move the needle in terms of your interest among the media, enthusiasm of the television announcers, how the fans are going to react to it, how tickets are sold.

"All those things are affected by a range of players, not just the players who happen to be in the top 20 or top 30 or top 50 in the world ranking. So we look at it different ways."

The AT&T National has a short history of strong winners — Choi and Kim when it was at Congressional, Justin Rose last year at Aronimink, giving him two wins in three starts.

Among those outside the top 50 is one who is sure to attract a decent crowd. That would be Sean O'Hair, who makes his home in the Philadelphia and joined Aronimink a few years ago. He was getting plenty of club and hometown support during the pro-am, despite his gaffe at the Red Sox-Phillies game Tuesday night, when he threw out the first pitch and was just a little bit off target.

"I think I hit the camera guy right in the head," O'Hair said. "The worst thing about it, I didn't even ask how he was doing. I was so nervous. But it was fun to be there. I wish I would have thrown a little bit better pitch, but it's not what I do for a living."

O'Hair is trying to get his golf game back together, as is Jim Furyk, who is slipping into a deep slump in the year after he won the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize. Furyk, who grew up closer to the other side of Pennsylvania, has only two top 10s this year, and both those were a tie for ninth. He has missed the cut in his last three starts, the first time that's happened since the end of the 2004 season when he was recovering from a wrist injury.

Furyk has been around long enough to understand that ranking and form can go in cycles. Even though there are only nine Americans among the top 20 in the world, he is not pessimistic about the future.

"I think if you look at the under 30s, you look at Hunter Mahan, you look at Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler ... I'll take those four," he said. "You pick four players under 30 from any other region, I'll take my four, and I'll be quite happy with where my money goes."

Source http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/2011-06-29-162259854_x.htm

Can Phil Mickelson Overtake Tiger As World’s Top-Earning Athlete?

Phil Mickelson faces a monumental hurdle at Congressional Country Club this week in Bethesda, MD.

But if he climbs that mountain, he’ll also close the financial gap on his long-time rival Tiger Woods. And in the process, further elevate his historical status within the game of golf.

Make no mistake, Lefty isn’t hurting for money. Forbes recent rankings of the world’s wealthiest athletes pegs Mr. Mickelson as the 5th wealthiest athlete, earning $46.5 million between May 2010 and May 2011. He trails Kobe and LeBron (2nd and 3rd on the list, respectively) by less than $7 M, and he only trails tennis great Roger Federer by $500,000.

But Tiger currently tops the list at $75 M.

As a golf enthusiast, I’ve watched with keen interest as Phil has tried to eclipse Tiger in the world golf rankings over the better part of the last decade. And though Phil now holds a greater world ranking (Phil is 5th while Tiger is 15th), it’s more because of Tiger’s “undoings” than Phil’s “doings”.

What’s interesting from a historical perspective is to see how the financial gap has changed just over the last several years between 2 of the world’s wealthiest athletes and most successful corporate pitchmen.

Using data from Sports Illustrated’s “Fortunate 50″ from 2008-2010, we see these trends:

- In 2008, Tiger earned $128 M versus Phil’s $62 M.

- In 2009, Tiger earned $100 M versus Phil’s $53 M.

- In 2010, Tiger earned $90.5 M versus Phil’s $62 M.

So relative to 2008 and 2009, Phil is gaining ground…though both men have taken hits over the last 2 years for a multitude of reasons.

In Tiger’s case, his injuries have hampered his on-course abilities and thus have made him a less stable investment. But more importantly, his off-course transgressions likely will torpedo his long-term endorsement opportunities utterly. He’s already seen his endorsement take fall from $105 M in 2008 to approximately $70 M in 2011. If not for Nike or Electronic Arts, he likely would no longer sit atop this list.

In Phil’s case, despite his victory at the 2010 Masters for his 4th major championship, his play continues to be too erratic and inconsistent. Though he certainly scores high on the likability scale given his on-course demeanor, Arnold Palmer-like go-for-broke style, perception of being a family man, and the public’s sympathy given that his wife’s and mother’s recent battles with breast cancer.

And in both of their cases, there is no question that the downtown in the economy lessened corporate willingness to invest so heavily in celebrity endorsers. Again, for Phil’s endorsements to slide from $52 M to $42 M in the year after his 3rd Masters suggests that macroeconomic variables were at play beyond his control.

But what is in his control, at least partly, is whether he can shed the label of unlucky loser at America’s golf championship.

Mr. Mickelson has famously finished 2nd a record number 5 times in the U.S. Open with 9 top 10 finishes. Somewhat astounding when you consider that Lefty isn’t the straightest guy off the tee on U.S. Open layouts where the rough can be taller than your children.

His ability to keep coming back and playing competitively in this tournament is both commendable and surprising all in the same breath, but with his 41st birthday coming Thursday during the opening round of the tournament there may not be many more opportunities to achieve glory on a tour that is becoming increasingly deep with young talent from both sides of the pond.

More than closing the financial gap on his long-time rival Woods, a U.S. Open victory would have the short-term impact of renewing the relevance of the Mickelson brand. His current sponsors would be more likely to extend his current deals while new sponsors may line up as well. It would be too good of a story for them not to. A story of the “hard-luck best man” showing the determination and resilience to finally capture his nation’s golf championship.

And the long-term impact would be to further make a case that he belongs in the discussion of the top golfers to have ever played the sport. As it stands now, only 17 men in the history of golf have won more majors than Phil. But a 5th major would throw him in a class with Byron Nelson and the recently departed Seve Ballesteros while shrinking the afore-mentioned list to 12.

In short, a Phil Mickelson U.S. Open victory at Congressional would boost his endorsement earnings in the next year by $5-15 M above and beyond what they would be if he comes up short again. And in the process, push him ever closer to becoming the wealthiest athlete in the world as Tiger’s wealth will likely continue to dip given his recent form.

Source http://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoney/2011/06/15/can-phil-mickelson-overtake-tiger-as-worlds-top-earning-athlete/