The field is expected to include 8 of the world’s top 10 ladies, as well as nine of the ten money leaders on tour this year.

I’ve filled out my bracket the hard way. David Bracket  Who is your pick?  You can also compete in the LPGA’s bracket contest here.

So what do you think about this?  Will this increase how much you may or may not follow the LPGA and its players?

I wonder if the LPGA’s program comse with requirements that participating LPGA players actively post on Twitter?

Phil Mickelson?  He is the king of winning in California and he has a monkey to get off his shoulder relative to winning a US Open.  Can he pull a Payne Stewart and finally see it through?  The word from Johnny Miller during TV coverage yesterday is that he has sat down with Phil and given him advice on how to play Olympic.  Interesting.  Will that help, hurt or make zero difference?

Tiger Woods?  He has won on tour this year and been near the top a couple times.  However his game is erratic and so are his emotions.  Can he overcome?

Rory McIlroy?  Can the kid repeat and pick up his second major championship?  He’s been a contender this year.

What about a Matt Kuchar, Ben Curtis or Hunter Mahan?

Kevin Na looked terrible, especially when stroking his putter.  Perhaps he was still shaken after being on the clock in his round Saturday or because he faced lots of criticism for his slow, strange play this week.

Martin Laird made a heck of a charge to join the names of Zach Johnson and Ben Curtis in a tied for 3rd at 11 under par.

Phil Mickelson had a disappointing week, especially in finishing bogey and par on 17 and 18 today.

With his first win coming a week before his wedding, you could say this was a very nice wedding gift for himself.

Luke Donald finished 3rd, showing that his game is improving.  He was 5 under par for the day reaching 17 under for the tournament.

David Duval had a disappointing round of 2 over par, but he finished under par the first time this year and made his first cut of the 2012 campaign.

John Daly missed this week’s cut with a second round score that would have looked like a good golfing day for me – an 80.  Yikes!

Ryan Palmer became the third person to tie the course record with a 64 yesterday.  Will the record fall today?  Or can it be tied for a fourth time?

Propelled by his putting David Duval made the cut this week (he’s 8th in strokes gained putting and T3 in putts per green in regulation).  Yay!  He’s 5 under and making his best showing of the year.  He’s under par for the first time going into the final round and if he has a big day he might be able to move up into the top 30 this tournament.  Welcome back David.  We missed ya.

I’m off to make some cinnamon rolls and contemplate what went wrong with my sleeper picks for the week.  Tim Herron is a stout 8 under for the week, but he’s 9 shots back.

Hmmmmm.

My sleeper:  Tim Heron

I’m taking Tim Heron as my sleeper pick this week.  He’s only made 7 of 12 cuts this year and only 14 of 28 cuts in 2011.  His best two finishes this year are T11 (Arnold Palmer Invitational) and T24 (Valero Texas Open).  His last win was in 2006 (Bank of America Colonial), but he finished in the top 5 three times in 2011.

He’s currently 112th in total putting and 104th in ball striking.  He’ll need to improve on both of those to be in contention.  His last win was in 2006; however, he has four career wins since 1996.

My probable winners:  Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose

My big wish:  David Duval gets a top 25 finish

My bigger wish:  John Daly gets  a top 10 finish

The biggest move of the day today probably came from Matt Kutchar, who shot a 5 under 67.  However, Kuchar is still 6 shots back.

After another terrible round today, Rich Beem (my sleeper pick for the week) will not finish the week.  It is unclear if his departure is related to his injury issues.