Rainy-day wonderings...

Last week’s Viking Classic in Mississippi was literally a washout. Torrential rains left the course unplayable, and the year’s next-to-the-last PGA tournament was cancelled, with no rescheduling. Interestingly enough, the final tournament on the schedule is two weeks after the Viking, leaving an open week of improved weather, during which it would likely be possible to play a tournament. There have been some decent explanations on why the tournament wasn’t just rescheduled for the open week, mainly dealing with financial and scheduling factors, but I have to wonder if the lack of marquee names also played a part in the decision. John Daly and David Duval are probably the biggest names who were in the scheduled field for the Viking. If Tiger Woods and/or Phil Mickelson had been scheduled to tee it up in Mississippi, would we be seeing tee times for this Thursday? I suspect we would be. In the meantime, the people of Mississippi and those players who are fighting to get or keep their cards just got a lot more rain dumped on their parade, literally.

Picks: Viking Classic

Fall Series picks can be more challenging than the “regular season”. With a lot of the bigger names in the game shutting it down around September, the fields of the later events often elicit a lot of “who’s he?” That said, here are my three picks for this week’s Viking Classic in Mississippi.

Rickie Fowler. Is there any player on the Tour who’s got more of the “hot hand” than Fowler right now? The 20-year-old, who has only played a handful of events as a professional, has two top-10's in his last two starts. If his form continues, he may join the elite ranks of players who are able to qualify for full Tour membership in their first full year without having to go to Q-school.

David Toms. Toms is one of the strongest players in this not-so-strong field. He has seven top-10's so far this year. Is there any reason not to pick him?

David Duval. Yes, you read that right. After several years as a punchline, Duval’s game is coming back, and he’s currently at 125th on the money list. But for those who analyze potentially meaningless trends, there’s another reason to pick Duval: two of the three Fall Series events so far have been won by Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Matt Kuchar at Turning Stone, Troy Matteson at the Frys.com Open). Could DD make it three out of four for the Ramblin’ Wreck?