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If you play golf on a fairly consistent basis, you most likely have a buddy with a game similar to Anthony Kim‘s. No, he probably doesn’t make millions and sport a contract with Nike Golf, but he’s probably the kind of guy that can roll out of bed, shoot a salty round in the 65-68 neighborhood, and look like the greatest golfer on the planet.

But the next time you play with this exact same buddy, he finds a way to shoot in the 80′s and look like the biggest hack on the planet. Call it a Jekyll and Hyde complex, if you will, but it’s the kind of thing that’s beyond maddening to watch.

That pretty much Anthony Kim in a nutshell. He shows moments of brilliance from time to time, but for the most part, he’s been unable to live up to the lofty expectations that had him pegged as one of the top up-and-coming golfers in the sport, a couple years back.

Prior to last year’s thumb surgery, it looked like he was right on track. He nearly won the Masters and took home the Shell Houston Open title, before he stepped away for three months to have the procedure. But when he returned in August, he wasn’t the same player.

Sure, he’s had a couple of good starts here and there since the surgery, but when people talk about the best young players in the game today, he’s rarely mentioned anymore. Maybe it’s because Rory McIlroy and a host of young stars have taken over this year, but for a guy that was once pegged as Tiger Woods‘ next rival, he’s fallen well short of the expectations.

But after Saturday’s 8-under 62 at the Greenbrier, Kim finds himself with a one-shot lead and chance to jump back into the spotlight and be relevant again with a victory. One win won’t wipe away 11 months of mediocre play, but it could go a long way to getting his career back on track, as well as giving him a huge confidence boost before the PGA Championship.

You hate to label an opportunity like this as a must-win for the 26-year-old, but Anthony Kim needs a victory in the worst way. We’ll see if he’s up to the task on Sunday.

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Phil Mickelson rarely deviates from his yearly schedule on the PGA Tour, so when he decided to add the Greenbrier Classic and mix things up a bit, people figured there was a good reason he decided to add the event with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational next week, and the PGA Championship the following week.

On Friday afternoon we got our answer: It was a chance for Mickelson to show that his second place finish at the Open Championship wasn’t a precursor to a run of stellar golf leading up to the final major of the year.

Mickelson missed his first cut of the season with a 3-over 73 on Friday, including a stretch of seven holes that saw him make four bogeys and submarine his chances of playing the weekend.

Sure, it won’t be much fun watching the final two rounds of the Greenbrier without the tournament’s marquee name in the field. But based on the way Mickelson played, maybe it’s a good thing he’ll have a couple extra days to practice before heading to Firestone.

Despite Mickelson saying he wasn’t unhappy with his play, it’s hard to find a silver lining in his week. His opening round included five birdies, but he negated every one of them with five bogeys. And Friday’s second round was more of the same — another rollercoaster round from Mickelson that saw him lose ground on the field and then try and make it back up.

Should we look at the missed cut as a sign he won’t be ready for the PGA Championship? Probably not. Phil has played poorly leading into major championships and won before, but the thing that worries me about Lefty is how he deviated from his successful game plan at the Open Championship.

After playing conservative and posting the best Open finish of his career, he reverted back to “Phil the thrill” at the Greenbrier, continually missing greens and relying on his short game to keep him in the tournament. It makes you wonder which one of his alter egos will show up in Atlanta.

For now it’s just a missed cut for Mickelson, but if he shows up and plays the same way next week at the WGC, you can be sure people will start to wonder if he can win at Atlanta Athletic Club with an erratic game.

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You know those moments when you just see something extra special and you know you probably won’t see that again for a while? That was me on the range last season in Arkansas at the LPGA Northwest Arkansas Championship. Young Lexi Thompson, just 15 at the time, was hitting long irons high and soft, something you don’t normally see on the hybrid-obsessed LPGA Tour.

It was mesmerizing. Long iron after long iron, sent on down the fairway, soaring like it was struck by Fred Couples.

I knew then that Thompson was one of those special types that occasionally find themselves on the LPGA Tour; call her Michelle Wie 2.0.

The only problem with Thompson was she wasn’t 18, the minimum age requirement for full status on the LPGA Tour. Lucky for her, and the tour, a special exemption was granted to the now 16-year-old, and Thompson is currently competing in Q-School. How did she do at the first stage?

Good if you consider what Tiger Woods did at Pebble Beach back in the day OK. Thompson opened with three straight rounds of 66, finished with a 67 on Thursday, and her 23-under total was good enough to clear the rest of the field by 10 shots.

Thompson might be young, but she’s going to win early and often. At the Evian Masters a year ago, Thompson finished in second place, a shot back of a playoff, and she couldn’t even drive yet.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet her, and can honestly say she’s a great young lady with a good head on her shoulders and a great supporting cast led by her father, who obviously has the genes for golf success (Lexi’s brother, Nick, is on the PGA Tour right now). And her play this week, much like Rickie Fowler two years ago at Q-School, shows that sometimes, talent and confidence is all you need to get past the tough test of qualifying for your tour.

Good for Lexi, and hopefully it continues so she can compete next season in full, and show the world that there are young Americans ready to win before they can vote.

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The golf gods can be a fickle bunch. One second they’re helping you maneuver through a rough stretch of holes in a couple under par, and the next they’re punishing you in the worst possible way. As we’ve all seen before, a golfer’s luck can change in a matter of minutes.

Just ask Angela Stanford, who got jobbed in the worst way during the second round of the Women’s British Open at Carnoustie. Standing on the tee just four shots back of the lead on the 18th hole, Stanford figured a par would be good enough to get her into one of the final groups on Saturday afternoon.

But when her drive went left and a marshal motioned to Stanford that the ball had gone out of bounds, things quickly changed. She went from being in contention to fighting for bogey, as she re-teed hitting her third shot.

There was just one problem: Stanford’s ball wasn’t out of bounds. As the ESPN cameras panned to her ball, it was actually sitting just under a metal rail, which was still in play. To make the situation even more confusing, a little girl tried to move the ball so Stanford would have a shot (side note: I wish a kid would do that for me).

When she walked up on her ball, an official from the R&A informed Stanford that the ball had been moved, and that it would have to be replaced. And oh, by the way, her first ball was actually still in play.

It seemed like the perfect situation, until the official informed Stanford that because she didn’t let the group know she was hitting a provisional, she would have to play her second ball. Long story short, she was penalized for someone else’s mistake.

We talk about golf rules that need to be revised all the time. This is certainly one that should be looked at. If a marshal calls the ball out of bounds and it ends up being in, the player should have the option to play the first ball.

But she never had the option. Stanford went on to make double-bogey and finish at 4-under for the tournament, seven shots back of the lead. Talk about a cruel finish to a round of golf.

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