Phil Mickelson prevailed over the rest of the field in the final round of the HSBC Championships in Shanghai, China to be the 2009 Champion. After being in a close chase with Ernie Els, Mickelson was able to walk away with a 1 stroke win. Els worked very hard today and was able to post a great -9 63 for the day. Also with a great week was Ryan Moore, who managed to place 3rd shooting a -4 68. Tiger had a disappointing round today after shooting a 72. There was some controversy earlier in the week about camera clicks and flashes and the Chinese fans being unaware of Tiger's rules on that. I'm not sure if that was the main reason for the 67-67-70-72 for Tiger, but one thing is clear; Tiger is not the player he used to be. He still is the main focus of professional golf and we can give him credit for taking the sport to the level that it is at today. However, is his game suffering because of his age or is it because of all the side projects he has going on? Between all the media with Nike and building his resort in Dubai, maybe the #1 golfer in the world has his focus somewhere else. Time will tell and I look forward to seeing what Tiger can do in the 2010 season. I have a feeling it will either be the year of TIGER or it will be a year of winners with not so famous names. Look for guys like Ryan Moore, Jamie Lovemark and yougster Ricky Fowler to be in the top spots.

-RLH