Making the Cut: Scott Gets the Nod

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a weekly feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Ryo Ishikawa -- The 17-year-old (who will turn 18 on September 17) was named to the Presidents Cup, making the potential for some Tiger vs. Ryo matches all the more possible. Tiger lives for stuff like this, and even though the two were paired together at the British Open, it wasn't the same as match play. Two things will happen with Greg Norman's teenage pick -- either he comes out, shows signs of brilliance and earns a point or two for the International side, or he crashes and burns, and the Japanese media will be all over him.

No matter the outcome, it will be a bonus to see if Ryo comes out with a matching headcover of himself again.

4. Arnold Palmer -- The King turns 80 on Thursday, which is insane when you think about it. If you love golf, you love Arnie and all he's done to advance the game to what it is today. Before Jack, there was Palmer. Before Player, there was Palmer. Even before Tiger really pushed golf to a new level, Arnold was there making golf popular enough to play it for a living. He had a style that people could buy in to, and he was the type of man that knew exactly what he needed to do to win over the crowd. Maybe more than anything else, Arnie made wearing a pink polo damn cool, and he could pull it off better than anyone alive.

3. Christina Kim -- They're taking aggressive tactics, but the LPGA is trying their hardest to get more exposure to the sport. The latest move? Have three of the lady golfers pose in ESPN the Magazine's Body Issue. Kim will join Sandra Gal and Anna Grzebian as they flash their bods in the Body issue.

You can't help but notice that Christina has been working on her figure the last few months, dropping pounds through, via Twitter, "... room yoga, ab work and a lil dancing to get my heart rate going lol.. I go running tomorrow. Can't fathom it esp when I woke up at 3:45am." I guess this is the payoff for working so hard at her own bod.

2. Steve Stricker -- His win at last week's Deutsche Bank Championship was his third in nine starts, nearly doubling his career wins with seven. He is now atop the FedEx Cup points standings, and that is saying a lot about a guy that at one point in his career was so wayward off the tee that he could barely take the driver back. Two years ago he was claiming his second straight Comeback Player of the Year award. Now, in 2009, he could be winning the award for best golfer of the year, and if he keeps up his current ball-striking, not even the man in second will overtake him.

1. Adam Scott -- Oh Adam, Adam, Adam. You were supposed to be done for the year, heading back to Australia to work on your game, your mind and probably your ego. It has been a soul-sucking season of missed cuts and over-par rounds, and after you missed out on the second FedEx Cup cut, that was supposed to be it (If you want some picture irony to go with that last sentence, check out Scott above, head bowed, with two trash cans next to him, basically symbolizing his '09).

Well, until Norman nabbed you as a captain's pick, making you one of the strangest picks in any team event ever. Scott has missed 10 cuts this season, hasn't had a top-10 since January and has looked as confident with his golf swing over the summer as Andy Murray did with his tennis racket this week at Flushing Meadows.

Like Hal Sutton at the 2004 Ryder Cup, when he decided to pair Tiger and Phil Mickelson together, only to see the plan crash and burn, Norman's coaching legacy will be remembered simply by this -- picking a fellow countryman who hasn't been playing good golf. Scott will have to go out and play, or Norman will be ridiculed much the same way Sutton was five years ago.