Player/Commentators are becoming more common nowadays

Having been an avid fan of watching golf on TV, over the last few years there have been more players who have been dabbling in the announcing role.  Most of these part-time golfers/commentators are in the final stages of their "regular" Tour careers (over 45-years-old) and are basically treading water until they become eligible for the Senior Tour.  Most are not fully exempt on the main tour or want to get their foot in the door for when their careers are over for a chance to join the broadcasting ranks. However, there are a select few who play a full schedule and also excel in the announcing booth.  The following players have commentated for The Golf Channel, Sky Sports, or French TV over the few years.

Rich Beem: The 2002 U.S. PGA champion last played competitively at the Web.com Tour's BMW Charity Pro-Am back in May.  He'll be returning to action next week at the Reno-Tahoe Open on the PGA Tour and the following week at the U.S. PGA Championship.  The 42-year-old played the majority of his golf on the European Tour last season, finishing 156th on the Race to Dubai.  Over the past month or so, Beem has been appearing in the Golf Channel studio, and on-course reporting and announcing at various tournaments.

Steve Flesch: The four-time PGA Tour winner has been appearing more and more on the Golf Channel, whether it be on Morning Drive or in-studio, or on-course reporting.  He's played five times this season, with a T22 at Colonial being his best finish.  He played 12 events last season and did not make a cut, before undergoing shoulder surgery at the end of last year.  The 46-year-old lefty will be competing at the Reno-Tahoe Open, in what will be his last start via his Non-exempt Medical Extension.  Needless to say, he needs a good week in Reno. 

Thomas Levet: The likable Frenchman has been working for French TV at the majors for the past couple of years.  The six-time European Tour winner and 2002 Open Championship runner-up has struggled with injuries and poor play since winning his national open (Alstom Open de France) in 2011.  He certainly has the personality for television and has many interests outside of golf.  At 44-years-old, his main goal should be to play some of his best golf leading up to the 2018 Ryder Cup, which will be staged at Le Golf National in Paris.  Who knows, maybe a possible captaincy is in order?

Scott McCarron: It's been a struggle this season for the three-time Tour winner.  The 48-year-old has missed all seven cuts on the PGA Tour and both cuts on the Web.com Tour.  Last season, he failed to make a cut in six appearances and chose to end his season with wrist surgery.  When he hasn't been playing, he's been walking the fairways as an on-course commentator at various PGA and Champions Tour events.  McCarron is certainly biding his time before joining the over-50s circuit.

Colin Montgomerie: A commentator for Sky Sports during the Masters, the U.S. Open, the U.S. PGA Championship, and the Ryder Cup, "Monty" has been showing up at majors without his clubs and switching them for a microphone for the past two or three years.  In addition to his playing schedule, he also has a golf design business and a foundation (the Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation) that occupies much of his free time.  His play on the course has suffered since leading Europe to the 2010 Ryder Cup as captain, with only two top-10s on the European Tour from 2011 until the present.  He has since begun competing on the Champions Tour after turning 50 last month (T9 in Senior Players Championship and T30 in U.S. Senior Open).

Arron Oberholser: It's unfortunate that the 38-year-old's career may be over due to chronic hand and arm injuries.  He played two events earlier this season and eventually got to the point where the pain in his left hand was too excruciating.  While in college, he earned a broadcast journalism degree at San Jose State University, and has been working for The Golf Channel as an in-studio analyst.  While the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am winner (only PGA Tour win) still has a desire to return to the PGA Tour, he looks to have made the transition to television.

Early observations of Russian Open

The European Tour returns to Russia for the first time since 2008.  The M2M Russian Open will be staged at the Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club in the Moscow Region (located 40 miles from Moscow).  The Jack Nicklaus-designed course was opened in 2007.  The 7,491-yard, par 72, layout is described as a mix of parkland and tree-lined.

The tournament is held at a bad time in the schedule, as it is the week after the Open Championship and a week before the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.  All of the players competing in the United States for the WGC and the PGA Championship the following week will be skipping this week's event in Russia.  That being said, there are numerous European Tour winners in the field, to go along with Tour rookies and veterans.  The tournament has a €1,000,000 purse (€166,660 to the winner) and also carries a one-year exemption on Tour to the winner.

Sweden's Mikael Lundberg has won this event twice, in 2005 and 2008.  Although the tournament has not been staged since '08, Lundberg is essentially the defending champion.

The field includes notables such as Michael Campbell, Jeev Milkha Singh, Soren Kjeldsen, Simon Dyson, Robert Rock, Tom Lewis, David Horsey, Michael Hoey, Gregory Havret, Tommy Fleetwood, Romain Wattel, Soren Hansen, and Gagangeet Bhullar.  In addition, former #1-ranked tennis player Yevgeni Kafelnikov will be contesting his national open, still looking for his first made cut on either the European or Challenge Tours in his professional golf career.

Interestingly, there are only two players in the field who competed at the Open Championship: Shiv Kapur, who led for most of the first round only to finish in a tie for 73rd at +15, and Richard McEvoy, who missed the cut with rounds of 73 and 82 for a score of +13.

For me, the tournament favorites should include Dyson, Fleetwood, Rock, Hoey, and Wattel.

Dyson is coming off a T5 in the Alstom Open de France (his first top-10 since the Irish Open last year) and a T12 at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in consecutive weeks.  The Englishman has been holing more putts, which was the key because his ball-striking has been so good all season.

Fleetwood, who stands at 62nd in the Race to Dubai, is a long hitter who has had previous success on this course back when it hosted a Challenge Tour event.

Rock has had only two top-10s all season, but the most recent one came in the Irish Open four weeks ago where he finished T2 behind Paul Casey.  The two-time Tour winner needs to develop some sort of consistency, and it all starts with his putter.  

No one, with as much talent, has had a poorer season than Hoey.  The Northern Irishman has missed nine cuts in 15 events, languishing at 142nd in the Race to Dubai.  After recently becoming a father, his golf has improved over his past few events.  An underrated four-time Tour winner, he seems to contend more often in smaller tournaments with so-called "weaker fields."

One of the great young Frenchmen on Tour, Wattel is still looking for his first Tour win.  In a field where he'll be one of the favorites, this could very well be his week.    

World's best look forward to the challenge of Muirfield

The Open Championship, golf's oldest major, begins tomorrow at famed Muirfield Golf Club in Gullane, Scotland.  The course is described is described as being the fairest test in the Open Championship rotation, with no hidden obstacles; everything is right in front of you.  However, that is easier said than done.  With the fairways being rock-hard due to the weather and the constantly changing winds, the player with the best short game and/or ball-striking over the four days will be the 142nd Open Champion.  Defending champion Ernie Els was the champ in 2002, the last time the event was staged at Muirfield.  The South African is on the short list of favorites this week.  Don't read too much into his missed cut last week in the Aberdeen Asset Scottish Open; there's not an event that excites him more than the Open.  Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, the winner of the Alstom Open de France two weeks ago, has recorded three wins but has missed five cuts in his last eight worldwide events.  He has a passion for links golf, and it would be surprising if he's not in the hunt for the title on Sunday.  American Phil Mickelson comes in on the heels of his first win on British soil in last week's Scottish Open.  The four-time major winner has had a "hate/love" relationship with links golf, but seems to have adapted over the past 4-5 years.  His best finish in the Open was in 2011, where he finished in a tie for second behind Darren Clarke at Royal St. George's.  A plethora of Englishmen will be looking to build off Justin Rose's triumph at the U.S. Open last month.  Lee Westwood has employed Sean Foley as his swing coach in an effort to track down his first major.  Foley, coincidentally, is Rose's coach.  "Westy" will have the home support this week and his major drought might just end this week.  Luke Donald comes in having contended at the U.S. Open, but put in a mediocre performance at the French Open.  He'll be looking to use his short game and ball-striking talents to his advantage this week.  Paul Casey, the winner of the Irish Open three weeks ago, is a dark horse pick this week as he has built his game up after struggling with injuries and poor play the last two-and-a-half years.  Ian Poulter has had an extremely disappointing season so far, but he's been experimenting with different putters over the past few weeks and playing in the Open might just give him the spark he needs to have a special week.  For the Scottish fans, Paul Lawrie and Martin Laird look to be the favorites.  Lawrie has had a disappointing season, with his putting being the main reason for his struggles.  Laird won on the PGA Tour earlier this season and finished in the tied-fifth in the Scottish Open, so he'll be looking to delight the home fans.  In the end, it's the "Open" Championship, so it's a guess about who will be the champion.  There have been many surprise winners over the years, but this year a proven winner will triumph.  We'll find out who it'll be come Sunday night.      

5 takeaways from the Alstom Open de France

1.  Graeme McDowell's limited schedule this season has proved to be very beneficial, as he has recorded three wins (two European Tour and one PGA Tour) this season.  In his last eight worldwide events, he's either missed the cut (5 MCs) or won.  He'll be one of the favorites at the Open Championship (June 18-21).

2.  Following the Open de France, five players from the top-20 of the Race to Dubai became eligible for the Open Championship.  Richard Sterne (Race to Dubai ranking: 4th) finished second behind McDowell in France and has made a tremendous jump in the world rankings, moving to 56th after starting the season outside the top-150.  He's already won this season at the Joburg Open.  Brett Rumford (6th) won back-to-back events at the Ballantine's Championship and the Volvo China Open earlier this season, which were his first wins since 2007.  Mikko Ilonen (8th) won the Nordea Masters, a much-deserved win after showing consistent form leading up to that point.  Thomas Bjorn (13th) has had four top-10 finishes in his last five starts and has begun to return to the form that saw him win three tournaments in 2011.  Marc Warren (17th) has had his fair share of tough finishes in the past year, most notably the Scottish and Spanish Opens, and losing in a playoff at the BMW PGA Championship.  However, these results have shown that he's been playing well enough to win, but just hasn't been able to get over the finish line.

3.  Two players who have been very disappointing this season picked up their first top-10s of the season: Simon Dyson (5th) and Richard Green (tied-6th).  It was Dyson's first top-10 since last year's Irish Open and Green's first top-10 since the 2011 Irish Open (Dyson beat Green by a shot that year to claim the title).  In terms of keeping cards, these two players made a nice move towards guaranteeing their playing rights for next season.  However, both players have been in the world's top-50 for the majority of the last three or four seasons, so their objectives should be to try to build off this week and continue moving up in the world rankings.

4.  Le Golf National once again proved that it will be a worthy venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup.  The players view it as one of the best courses on the schedule.  The closing stretch of holes 15-18 might be the toughest closing stretch in world golf, which should make for quite a thrilling spectacle in 2018.  In addition, the amphitheater surrounding those holes should help add to the drama that is the Ryder Cup.

5.  Out of the 22 French players in the field, only five made the cut.  Victor Dubuisson was the highest-placed at tied-18th.  France is producing many young players via the Challenge Tour or Alps Tour (third-tier developmental tour).  Dubuisson, Romain Wattel, Julien Quesne, Alexander Levy, Alexandre Kaleka, Gary Stal, Francois Calmels, and Julien Brun (still an amateur) are the future of French golf.  Raphael Jacquelin, Gregory Bourdy, Thomas Levet, and Gregory Havret have been flying the flag for French golf in recent seasons, and I expect them to continue to lead the charge.  But, come 2018, French golfers will be rivaling their English counterparts for top dogs in European golf.