The number one ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking, Tiger Woods, has been questioned after his latest competitions. However, Woods arrives at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational as a leading candidate for the title.

The golf betting entities still have Tiger Woods standing as the favourite even after Woods poor performances, which is the reason the overall ranking between Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Lee Westwood has been reduced.

Woods accumulated 9.47 points, while Mickelson and Westwood have 9.24 and 9.04, respectively.

On his part, Phil Mickelson is one of the most recognized figures in the sport and will return to Northern Ohio to participate for the 18th consecutive year in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, taking into account that the American golfer has participated in this event since 1992.

In addition, the professional golfer has won four major championships, the last of which was won in April, when Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters Tournament.

However, since the Bridgestone Invitational became a World Golf Championship event in 1999, Mickelson has failed in his attempts to win it.

On the other hand, after missing five months and despite the dramatic return, Woods has arrived as a big favourite to this years tournaments.

For the 2010 Bridgestone Invitational, Tiger Woods will try to get his first win since he was involved in his infidelity scandals of last November.

However, we cant expect that much, considering Woods has failed in his attempt to achieve a victory in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and at the British Open this year. But despite all this, he remains ranked as number one in the overall standings.

Finally, this will be a tournament that promises a lot of action, in which Woods will attempt to recover his good level of golf, but in which he will have a major contender that could remove him from the top of the table, Phil Mickelson.

The US Masters at Augusta was a great showcase for golf this weekend. With all eyes on Tiger Woods return from self-imposed exile and strong representation from the UK it was a brave man who was going to bet against Woods winning another green jacket.

Surprising joint leaders going into Saturday’s third round were Lee Westwood & Ian Poulter. Both had played some great golf over the first two rounds but Tiger played some amazing shots to show he was back!

From the first round Phil Mickelson was in the leading pack and also playing some top quality golf. By the final day’s play Woods was struggling to keep up with Westwood and Mickelson, the overnight leaders, and Poulter and fallen away.

In the end Westwood was a couple of birdies short and Mickelson was playing a brilliant round. Nothing was going to distract him from winning his third US Masters green jacket for his wife who last year fell ill with breast cancer. But almost without notice, Anthony Kim was playing some amazing golf and if there had been another 9 holes may well have clinched a victory.

The Final 2010 US Masters Leaderboard:

Phil Mickelson -16
Lee Westwood -13
Anthony Kim -12
KJ Choi -11
Tiger Woods -9

The US Masters is one of the best golf tournaments of the year, and 2010 was a perfect accompaniment to the lighter evenings a sunny weather we are currently experiencing in the UK.

Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter showed they can compete with the best in the world, though once again Rory McIlroy failed to deliver in a big tournament.

In an interview shortly after completing his final round Tiger Woods said he will now take a break before deciding whether to compete in the 110th US Open Golf Championship which will be held at the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course in June.

The golfer in question just happens to be the best active player in the world at the moment, but how things have changed in the last five years for Steve Stricker, who looked to be heading out of the sport not very long ago.

The 42-year-old Wisconsin native won for the first time on the PGA Tour back in 1996 at the Kemper Open, and went on to add a second tournament victory that season but those would be his only successes until the new millennium.

His biggest victory, in cash terms, came in 2001 at the WGC-Accenture Match Play but only three years after that, with his exemptions all gone, Stricker lost his way and eventually lost his card before spending time in the wilderness.

But he regained his love for the game after a break and, relying on sponsors exemptions, became the PGA Tours Comeback Player of the Year in 2006 after finishing in the top ten of seven tournaments.

A win would come in 2007 at The Barclays, but 2009 proved to be his best year and the one that put him right up there among the Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelsons of the world as usual, he got no headlines.

Steve Stricker has already visited the winners enclosure in 2010 so his next aim is to break a duck in the major championships his best performance so far came all the way back in 1998 in the US PGA at Sahalee. He might manage this before the summer as the golf betting currently makes him joint fourth favourite for the US Masters.

However, regardless of his performance at that event his game should be ideal for St Andrews this summer, especially if the weather is good. The fact that he missed the cut on his only previous visit back in 2000 can be ignored as his form was nothing like it is now.

Stricker does not rely on booming drives he is more a finesse player and St Andrews should set up perfectly for him since his putting will be a huge bonus on the massive greens he will face.

If Tiger Woods fails to make his way back to the tour by then he would still probably be favourite if he turned up then Stricker could be land the biggest payday of his career and secure a massive boost in a Ryder Cup year.

Tiger Woods was victorious the last time the tournament was played at the Old Course, with his 14-under finish enough to win by five strokes from Colin Montgomerie, and he would have been a short-priced favourite had he confirmed he would be in attendance this time around.

But it appeared from his interview towards the end of February that his mind was not on golf, solely on rebuilding his home life after the tabloid headlines that all came out of his untimely car crash outside his home last December.

Now all we can do is wait and see if he turns up hopefully from a golf betting perspective the announcement will come in plenty of time so as not to confuse things even further.

In his absence, it would be almost impossible to name a favourite for Open Championship Betting at the moment but it could well be a couple of Irishmen with differing levels of experience who end up making the market without Woods.

Padraig Harrington was denied a third successive Open title last season at Turnberry, when Stewart Cink secured the Claret Jug, but if he gets to St Andrews without breaking his winless streak it would be nearly two seasons since he last tasted victory.

Right at the other end of the spectrum, in terms of major experience, is Rory McIlroy, but despite consistently excelling he still only has one tournament victory on his resume, just over a year ago in Dubai.

He has started 2010 in positive fashion with a couple of top 10 finishes, but it has to be a slight worry that he has been complaining of back problems at such a tender age, and he admits he might need to make changes to his swing at some point down the line.

Rory McIlroy says he is not worried by the early part of his career, which should be a very successful one, being plagued by near misses but that it appears is not going to stop him visiting a sports psychologist.

But the good thing to read, in stark contrast to some other precocious players in the past, is that Rory McIlroy is keeping grounded and not making his life harder by playing in a long run of tournaments he wont play more than two weeks back-to-back at all between now and May.

What a story it would be for a player just turned 20 to lift the sports biggest prize in only his second full season.

In amongst all the promises, the apologies and the admissions, the sporting world learned absolutely nothing about Tiger Woods after he revealed he had no idea when he would be returning to the PGA Tour.

Rumours had him returning next week, next month, in time for the Masters, not at all this season or never depending on the source you read, and Fridays press conference did absolutely nothing to stop any speculation about the world No 1s future.

While Tiger Woods is under no obligation to tell everyone when he might be ready to return, the style of the speech he made showed that he is in no frame of mind to be taking his eye off family matters for now, and just a brief mention of the sport that has made him a worldwide superstar showed that he clearly has plenty of other things on his mind.

For now, golf betting has Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy as the front runners for most tournaments and it is up to them to try and keep Woods out of the headlines. The way his return to the public eye was designed was widely criticised though, most vocally by Ernie Els.

You can understand the South Africans disappointment as well, given that the speech took plenty of gloss away from the WGC-Accenture World Matchplay, ironically sponsored by one of the companies that used to sponsor Woods.

So what now? Well, the PGA Tour has to move on without Woods and based on the first six weeks of the season it might not be easy. Attendances are down (although next weeks Phoenix event is traditionally a big draw), interest is down and the names of the winners so far have hardly set the Online Betting world alight.

No doubt PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, while publicly backing Woods, is desperate for him to return sooner rather than later but, for now, he will have to hope that some fireworks come soon or even big events on the schedule like Bay Hill and the Masters could prove to be damp squibs as well.

But for now there is nothing golf fans, golf punters and the golfing press can do but speculate, and thats never really good for anybody. We all went into Friday hoping for something concrete, but despite the candidness of the admissions and apologies, all that happened was a scripted piece of theatre which told most people nothing.

Steve Stricker moved back to the number two spot in the world rankings after his victory in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club last the weekend on the PGA Tour.

The dependable Wisconsin native led for most of the last three rounds and, unlike early last season, showed a good deal of composure after seeing his six-shot lead cut to two on a couple of occasions by Luke Donald and JB Holmes.

Stricker’s story is quite an amazing one as it is only six years since he lost his card on the PGA Tour and wondered what the future would hold after completely losing his swing with a driver, something a player with little distance off the tee would find a career-killer.

But he bounced back in style in 2006, finishing in the top ten at seven tournaments, mainly on sponsors’ exemption entries. Since the end of 2006 he has won five tournaments and competed well in the majors.

Victory in one of those has to be the next aim as he has top ten finishes in all four of them over the last two seasons.

Stricker’s resurgence is underlined by the fact that those betting online can get 5/2 on him topping this year’s US Money list.

He will never win any prizes for distance or for playing an exciting game, but in these times of improved technology he gets by, and on the greens there is barely a better player in the world. He topped the PGA rankings with the flat-stick in 2009 and putted superbly at Riviera while others were wasting chances.

Now, with Tiger Woods on the sidelines, he has the right to call himself the best active golfer in the world and what a deserved honour that is for a man who could walk down most high streets in the US and not be recognised.

Steve Stricker is certainly more deserving of the recognition at the moment than a surly Phil Mickelson, who huffed and puffed his way around a Riviera course he has won on twice in the past.

Who cares if Stricker admits to being boring? When it comes down to it, getting that little white ball into the hole is all that matters to him. At the moment he is the best in the world at doing it. Golf doesn’t always have to be exciting or controversial – boring will do just fine after all the travails Stricker has been through.

lee westwood leads the european money list

The top four players on the European money list have managed to avoid each other in the draw for the Volvo World Matchplay Championship in Spain. The group stages will be played at Finca Cortesin close to Marbella and will take place on the 18th green, with the semi finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday.

To fit all three group games into two days the players in the first two groups play twice on Thursday and those in the last two groups do the same on Friday.

Europe’s top money earners Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey have been kept apart for the tournaments new round robin stage.

Current Race to Dubai leader Lee Westwood is seeded second and will be up against Camilo Villegas, Ross Fisher and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh.

Kaymer is up against Sergio Garcia, Robert Allenby and Oliver Wilson, McIlroy’s group is headed by Swede Henrik Stenson and includes Angel Cabrera and Simon Dyson.

The fourth quartet is made up of Paul Casey, returning from a torn rib muscle that has kept him sidelined since the start of August, Retief Goosen, Anthony Kim and Scott Strange.

Casey, Northern Ireland’s McIlroy and Germany’s Kaymer all have the chance to take the European number one spot from Westwood should they make the semi-finals.

cristie kerr-liberty health

One of the top professional woman’s golfers, Cristie Kerr last week joined Liberty Health in announcing the founding of The Cristie Kerr Women’s Health Center on the Jersey City medical centre campus. The center will offer breast cancer screening programs including free mammograms and education to women with or without insurance.

To be equipped with both analog and digital mammography equipment, The Cristie Kerr Womens Health Center will mark the first full-service facility in the Hudson County area providing detection, healing, support, and recovery services. Cristie Kerr and LibertyHealth aim to have the center fully functioning and open to the community by February 1, 2010.

Cristie Kerr is a passionate breast cancer activist, having witnessed her mother, aunt and godmother battle the disease. In 2003, she founded the non-profit organization Birdies for Breast Cancer with a mission to raise funds and awareness.

Cristie currently ranks number one in Rolex Player of the Year points and number two on the Ladies Professional Golf Associations (LPGA) Money List, with nine top-10 finishes in 15 tournaments this year. On Friday, August 14, Cristie will host the fifth annual Birdies for Breast Cancer Charity Golf Classic in Jersey City at Liberty National where all proceeds will be dedicated to developing The Cristie Kerr Womens Health Center.

I am truly proud to be a part of something that so many women and their families will benefit from, said Cristie Kerr. I look forward to collaborating with LibertyHealth, which already plays such a crucial role to the Hudson County community, to accomplish our shared aspirations.

Tiger Woods is determined to put right a poor recent record at the Players Championship at Sawgrass. The American is yet to register a top-ten finish at the tournament since winning the so called fifth major back in 2001.

The Stadium Course at Sawgrass is one of the most famous in golf and Tiger Woods admits that even though it is the best field around, it is also a very demanding 18 holes.

Since returning from a long term injury, Tiger Woods has managed to finish ninth, first, sixth and fourth in his four strokeplay tournaments. This is far from a spectacular comeback, but considering the changes he has made to his game, he has done very well.

The player himself says that he thinks that he has done alright, all things considered. Amongst other changes, Tiger Woods has experimented with different drivers in recent weeks.

As a result of this, Tiger Woods believes that it is going to take a little bit of time to hit the ball the same distances as he could prior to his injury. However, he believes that it is coming and that he could be back to his best soon.

The World No.1 went on to reveal that his body is starting to get more comfortable with everything, including being able to practice after a round.

Overall, things are slowly slipping into place for Tiger Woods and perhaps he can move his form up a notch this week at Sawgrass.

Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia both missed the cut for the tournament, but Tiger Woods and the rest of the field will be taking part in the Players Championship between the 7th and 10th of May in Florida.

Northern Irelands hot prospect Rory Mcllroy has turned down the chance to join the US PGA Tour after finishing 20th at the US Masters last weekend.

The youngster was approached by officials during the week who offered him a special temporary membership which would have meant that the money he has earned on US events this year would have counted towards their money list.

However, if Rory Mcllroy was to have ambitions of reaching the US Tours end of season play-offs, he would have had to play in 15 of their tournaments.

Considering his commitments to the European Tour and the new Race to Dubai, this wouldnt have been practical for the 19-year-old. It would have been too much for him to take on at this early stage of his career.

Speaking about the situation, Rory Mcllroy said that joining the US Tour would have meant playing four more tournaments in America than originally planned.

Overall, this is probably a sensible decision. Rory Mcllroy is at such a young age that he will have plenty of time to join the US Tour in the future. There is a chance that he would have been taken on too much if he went for it.

The media pressure on him is great enough already and this would have increased if he had joined the US PGA Tour.

Rory Mcllroy is one of the next generation of young golfers with a serious chance of winning a major golf tournament. But Mcllroy seems like a sensible young man with good advisors though, so they appear to have his best interests at heart.

The decision to decline the temporary membership has been passed on to the relevant people and now Rory Mcllroy can concentrate on the rest of the year.

Fellow European Tour members Ross Fisher and Oliver Wilson accepted similar invitations to that which Rory Mcllroy received.