The PGA Tour, Still Working To Capture The Teen Girl Demographic

The Michelle Wie experiment really hasn't panned out for the PGA Tour. Her failure to achieve any type of success in the PGA events that she's played in hasn't helped draw in many teenage girls. But have no fear, a big star is here to save the PGA's day, and he definitely appeals to that demographic more than anyone else. Or at least he did a few years ago.

That's right, Justin Timberlake is joining forces with the PGA Tour, and he's even getting his very own tournament.

The biggest event of the 2008 PGA Tour season will not be the Masters.

It won't be the U.S. Open. The PGA Championship takes a back seat.

British Schmitish.

All of them aren't sexy enough.

If sexiness equals dollars, then we're talking about the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in October at TPC-Summerlin in Las Vegas.

Yep, the lowly Fall Series is taking off thanks to a pop-culture phenomenon who announced last week he will host the event with a concert. He's also playing in the pro-am.

All that, and a Timberlake concert? Tickets for that event are going to be harder to come by than ones for a Hannah Montana show(right Mr. Aikman?).

Maybe Tiger can find another singing partner, and join JT onstage during "SexyBack". I'm personally nominating John Daly right now.

Golfers Really Are 'Roiding Up?

Will and MJD at Deadspin touched on the topic of golfers using steroids a while back, but Gary Player has stepped into the spotlight of this matter by saying that he's certain that golfers take performance enhancing drugs.

"Gary Player said he knows of at least one golfer who has used steroids, and is urging golf organizations to move quickly toward a random drug-testing plan.

The Hall of Famer estimated 10 players from tours around the world are taking some type of performance-enhancing drug. Asked how he knew golfers were taking steroids, he said a player told him in confidence.

'One guy told me -- and I took an oath prior to him telling me -- but he told me what he did and I could see this massive change in him,' Player said. 'And somebody else told me something I also promised I wouldn't tell, that verified others had done it."

While 10 players total isn't a huge number, it's still affecting the sport, especially if any of them are successful golfers. It also increases the speculation about who the juicers are. I'm guessing they're not on the Champions Tour, and that it's probably either the PGA or Nationwide Tours. For some reason, steroid use doesn't seem to be as prevalent in Europe, though maybe it just doesn't get reported here quite so much.

One thing, exactly what type of oath did Player take? Also, not telling everyone something after just telling them that you know something they would probably like very much to hear is just bad form Gary.

How To Create A Superstar Athlete? Combine 1 Part PGA Golfer, 1 Part NASCAR Driver And 2 Parts Supermodel

Yesterday's birth of Jeff Gordon's daughter might not have garnered quite as much press as the birth of Tiger Woods' son daughter(I'm an idiot) on Monday, but it was very important nonetheless.

You see, the opportunity that we have before us could very well affect sports, even the entire world for years to come. Imagine a racecar driving, golf playing phenom that can dominate the opposition, and has equally stunning physical features. Well, that's what you would get if the son daughter of Tiger and the daughter of Jeff Gordon came together to produce a sort of superhuman.

Seriously, look at the stats for each dad.

Tiger's won 12 major championships, he's the only active golfer in the top 10 in career major wins and career PGA Tour wins and he's been ranked #1 in the world for both the most consecutive weeks and total weeks.

Jeff Gordon has 79 wins in the NASCAR Nextel Series, he's won the NASCAR championship 4 times and he recently passed Dale Earnhardt for 6th place on the all-time wins list.

Now take a look at the mothers.

Tiger's wife, Elin Nordegren, is a Swedish model.



















Jeff Gordon's wife, Ingrid Vandebosch, is a Belgian supermodel.




















There's little doubt that the children of Tiger and Jeff will turn out to be gorgeous and talented people. Think about if all that talent and beauty was wrapped up into a single individual. They would be a marketing company's dream. Heck, they could probably even run for president with no political experience, and win on looks and charisma alone. And that's the kind of thing I'm talking about, a person who betters everyone with the decisions they make. That could very well be the combination of Sam Alexis Woods and Ella Sofia Gordon. All we need are some test tubes, race fuel and golf tees.

The Mickelson-Woods Rivalry Is Starting To Heat Up

A little over a month ago, I commented on Phil "FIGJAM" Mickelson hiring Tiger Woods' former hitting coach, Butch Harmon, and subsequently winning The Players Championship. At that time, it seemed like a friendly rivalry was being born, but Harmon's latest comments have added some HGH to this baby. With reference to Mickelson taking the #1 world ranking away from Tiger, Harmon had this to say:

"Tiger's got a big lead as No. 1 in the world so it'll take a couple of years but I think he can and I think he will actually," said Harmon, 63, hired by Mickelson a few months ago to re-do the southpaw's swing.

Not to belittle Mickelson's accomplishments, but Harmon, better than anyone, has to know how much Tiger has dominated the #1 world ranking spot. As of right now, he's been ranked #1 for a total of 446 weeks, and his current streak at #1 started back on June 12, 2005. Since turning pro in 1996, he has finished the year ranked #1 eight times, Greg Norman('96 & '97) and Vijay Singh('04) are the only other golfers to finish ranked #1 turning that span.

While it is nice for Harmon to voice his full support for Mickelson, it does seem rather unlikely that he will be the golfer to overtake the #1 ranking from Tiger. Harmon said that he believes it will take years, but Mickelson is currently 36(5 years older than Tiger) and he's not getting any younger. Eventhough I find it doubtful that Mickelson will be able to move up to #1 and finish the year there, it does add one more element to the Mickelson-Woods rivalry heading into the U.S. Open next weekend.