His name is Brent Delahoussaye. There is no chance that rings a bell in your mind.

He has no prior success on the PGA Tour. No wins on the Nationwide Tour. No Wikipedia page. No nothing. Searching Getty Images for a picture of the first round leader of the Canadian Open had me pulling the photo to your right from April, the last time he was updated on the site.

He has 22 FedEx Cup points (the leader, Ernie Els, has 1,751), and has made exactly three cuts in his first full season on the PGA Tour.

But thus the beauty of golf. The Baltimore Orioles aren't making the playoffs this year in baseball, but the bottom dwellers in golf just need a good week to jump up to the top of the standings.

It was a 62 for Delahoussaye, a Clemson product that was even questioned in the interview room, and admitted after the moderator seemed confused on his play today, "No. It's understandable. I've played bad all year, to be honest."

This is a guy that had broke 69 a total of two times all season before Thursday, but got the ball rolling and is in the lead at 8-under. Obviously we all know where first round leaders can end up, and for a guy with such little experience in this position it is only fitting that he end up middle of the pack after this week, but it isn't like this is his first time finding himself in an unfamiliar position.

In his first ever Hooters Tour event, Delahoussaye won the darn thing, and claims that to be his biggest achievement as a professional. Three more days like this, and that Hooters hardware will have to be moved down a notch in the trophy case.

Golf may be you vs. the course, but the end result is you vs. everyone else. That is what we do here with our Devil Ball Power Rankings, a glimpse at who is currently hot on tour, that will run every three weeks during the PGA Tour season. These are the top-10 golfers currently playing, with nothing factoring in except the present golfing world. 

1.) Justin Rose: Sure, he missed the cut at St. Andrews when everyone had him pegged as their Open hopeful, but you can't take away his two wins and a tie for ninth in his three previous events before the British. Rose has always been the type of player that could get hot quickly, and his play of late has him at the top of our list.

2.) Louis Oosthuizen: With the idea of "current rankings" in mind, Oosthuizen deserves to be as high as possible. His dominate win at St. Andrews was something reserved for greats like Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo, yet he continues to play well just four days after he hoisted the Claret Jug over his head.

3.) Lee Westwood: He's only played in 10 events on the PGA Tour this year, but the resume is pretty incredible. A win at the St. Judes, a second-place finish at both the Masters and British, and a tie for fourth at The Players.

4.) Ernie Els: He missed the cut at the British after a nasty 79 in the windy conditions on Friday, but he still has two wins this season and a third-place finish at the U.S. Open. Els, who topped the rankings after Pebble Beach, is still leading the FedEx Cup, and has the game to win one or two more events before the season wraps.

5.) Steve Stricker: He claimed his second win of the season at the John Deere Classic two weeks ago as the highest-ranked player in the field, and although he didn't play great at the British, he is still in line to compete for the FedEx title at end of the season. 

6.) Rory McIlroy: After that Thursday 63, it seemed like the 21-year-old might join his fellow Northern Irishman as a major champion, but the windy conditions on Friday foiled any chance of him taking the Open title. Nonetheless, he still finished third after he righted the ship on Saturday and Sunday, making it his second top 10 on the PGA Tour since winning at Quail Hollow.

7.) Graeme McDowell: You can't make a list here without including the U.S. Open champion, who also finished in the top 25 at the British. 

8.) Phil Mickelson: He's the Masters champion, and not much else, but a "mediocre" year for Mickelson is better than most. Lefty has two top 5s in his last three starts.

9.) Dustin Johnson: It might seem strange to include the guy that blew up at the U.S. Open on this list, but his consistency has been sneaky for a young guy. Johnson never let the 82 on Sunday at Pebble affect him, and his top 20 at the British kept him in the top 10 of the FedEx Cup points. 

10.) J.B. Holmes: Talk about a solid year that nobody is talking about. Holmes has nine top-25 finishes in just 16 starts, and has only missed one cut. His tie for 14th at the British Open was his best finish at a major, and showed that he can play consistent golf on the big stage.

You can never blame guys for their major championship hangover. After a big win, you have television appearances you never thought you'd see, and people wanting to pull you from every direction. Most of the time the winner takes a week or two off just to handle all the media requests.

That wasn't the case for newly minted Open champion Louis Oosthuizen. The South African who blew away the field at St. Andrews decided he'd keep the train a-rollin' this week and committed to the Nordea Scandinavian Masters. During the pro-am, the fatigue looked imminent for Oosthuizen, who failed to break par during the Wednesday practice round.

Thursday was a different story, and Oosthuizen posted a 5-under 67 to share the lead with Richard Green and Dustin Johnson at the European Tour event.

"I had a good sleep, but I woke up tired again and the win has definitely drained me," said Oosthuizen. "But the crowds were unbelievable, cheering me onto every green and every tee.

"I wanted to play nicely. The last thing I wanted was to put on a bad show and it was important not to think too much about next week."

The question after unknown players win major championships is how they'll respond in the long run, but to come out like this the week after it happened shows the level of game Oosthuizen carries.

Our own Jay Busbee wrote on Monday, "He's had his troubles in majors before. But success breeds success, and I'd be very surprised if we don't see [Oosthuizen] back on the top of the leaderboard again, and very soon." It appears that the "very soon" part of that was just four days.

To keep up this type of play over the next 54 holes will be extremely tough, but it is a nice little encore for Oosthuizen to play so well in his first event since raising the claret jug.

Jerry Pate knows golf. He's got eight wins on the PGA Tour, including the 1976 U.S. Open, and he's an accomplished course designer. Throughout the season, he'll be stopping by Devil Ball to offer an inside-the-ropes look at the week's upcoming course. Today: St. George's Golf & Country Club in Toronto.

The Canadian Open returns to St. George's for the first time since 1968. The course originally opened in 1929 as Royal York Golf Club. The course was designed by the great Canadian architect Stanley Thompson and is recognized as one of his greatest works.

The course is routed masterfully through and around the many valleys, ridges, and hillocks on the site. Thompson utilized the terrain to deceive players — to hide the fairway beyond or to toy with the player's depth perception on approaches.

The hills are beautifully decorated with the sand-flashed Thompson bunkers. One such example of this is the par-4 seventh hole. The uphill hole plays left to right off the tee, then back to the left slightly to a green set on top of a ridge, hidden from the fairway below. A cross-bunker sits just below the ridge yet well short of the green. The flagstick beyond appears closer to the players. With the combination of the uphill approach and the visual deception, the tendency is to come up short.

Another great example of Thompson's use of the rolling terrain is the long par-5 15th hole. The fairway rolls back and forth between the ridges on its way to the green. The second shot is key on the hole as an aggressive one will need to be played blindly over a bunker set in a knob. The correct line and distance is required to find the fairway as it bends beyond that knob. A poor drive in a fairway bunker or the deep rough will not allow this aggressive second shot and a lay-up must be played well out to the right of the bunker and knob. From there, a player is left with a long, difficult off-angle approach to the green.

The players will enjoy St. George's and its classic design and I am sure Stanley Thompson is proud that his national championship has returned to St. George. He will receive great admiration this week for his work there and hopefully more light will be shed on his other wonderful works.

Jerry Pate has been designing golf courses for more than 30 years. His portfolio of work includes Old Waverly Golf Club in Mississippi, site of the 1999 United States Women's Open; Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck (formerly known as Shadow Isle) in New Jersey; Kiva Dunes on the Alabama Gulf Coast; and Rancho La Quinta Country Club in California. See more of his work at www.jerrypategolfdesign.com.    

With the U.S. Senior Open just around the corner, Doug Farrar — who has been beaten to a pulp by the Sahalee Country Club course that the Champions Tour players will hope to whip into shape this week — continues a hole-by-hole description of the course.

You'll hear it all week — Sahalee is so vertical, the only way to practice for it would be to drive right down the high-rises in Manhattan. The trees on either side of the fairways seem to touch at times, and if you're not straight off the tee, you might as well go home. Let's go through this baby and see what the Champions Tour is in for. (Here's my review of the front nine.)

Hole 10: Par-4, 400 Yards: Another narrow fairway surrounded on both sides by trees, and the fairway opens up at 235 yards, so you'll have more places to look for your ball. Once you're past that adventure, you'll take an approach shot onto a flat green that drops — of course, said green is surrounded by two bunkers and a horseshoe-shaped lake.

Hole 11: Par-5, 545 Yards: This hole was made famous by Jack Nicklaus, who shot an eagle during the 1984 Seattle Symphony Golf Classic. Jack hit a ball over the trees on a dogleg left, and then kicked a field goal with a 2-iron between trees 25-feet apart. As they say, that's why he's him.

Hole 12: Par-4, 455 Yards: The opposite of the 10th; this sucker narrows through the fairway at about 260 yards to two fairway bunkers. You've got two warning points for your approach: head away from the tree on the right side just past the fairway, and make sure you don't wind up arguing with the tree on the left side, about 100 yards from the green.

Hole 13: Par-3, 170 Yards: Fairly set-it-and-forget-it off the tee for this course, if you don't count the two bunkers in front and one in the back. The green slopes from front to back, so an exhibition of precision shotmaking is in order here.

Hole 14: Par-4, 370 Yards: On a course this diabolical, you'd have to assume that any par-4 shorter than 400 yards would have some extra evil on it. You would be correct. It's a sharp dogleg left, with four bunkers around the expected landing area. Your approach shot will have to work its way past a front bunker on the left, and a tree on the right.

Hole 15: Par-4, 413 yards: This is an elevated tee, and it's lined with trees on both sides. You go left, there's a tree near the center of the fairway. You go right, there's a tree near the center of the fairway. Sensing a trend here? Once you get past that, welcome to the two-bunker guarded green.

Hole 16: Par-4, 375 Yards: Another sub-400 par-4, and this one is a dogleg right. You'll want to plan ahead in placing your approach shot — if you don't, there is the small matter of the large fir tree on the right that will turn your projected approach into a very frustrating punch shot. Then, two large bunkers guard a two-tiered green.

Hole 17: Par-3, 212 Yards: You start on an elevated tee, try to avoid the water that wraps around the right side, and hope that little white ball navigates its way around the large bunker on the left. The lake is cut short to collect that ball of yours that missed the green; it belongs to the course now.

Hole 18: Par-4, 470 Yards: Whew! You've almost made it, padna! Don't run a draw on that dogleg left; trees and a bunker await you. Your approach will descend into a narrowing area (of course), and two trees guard the left side. You'll finish your day at Sahalee on a two-tiered green; this one is 120 feet long, and it's guarded by three bunkers.

As Jerry Glanville used to like to say, "Are ya skee-red yet?" Well, here's the upside for any player, from muni moron to PGA superstar: This place is as pretty as pretty gets, and it's great to see a course these days that focuses so much of the mind on shotmaking and pre-planning. Sahalee is a stern but fair opponent, and the Champions Tour players here this week will walk off every day with great respect for what they just engaged in, with the hope that the course will respect them back.

With the U.S. Senior Open just around the corner, Doug Farrar — who has been beaten to a pulp by the Sahalee Country Club course that the Champions Tour players will hope to whip into shape this week — runs through a hole-by-hole description of the course.

You'll hear it all week — Sahalee is so vertical, the only way to practice for it is to drive right down the high-rises in Manhattan. The trees on either side of the fairways seem to touch at times, and if you're not straight off the tee, you might as well go home. Low and hard off the tee beats high and foofy every time. Let's go through this baby and see what the Champions Tour is in for.

Hole 1: Par-4, 403 Yards: Trees to the right prevent the bomb drive, a fairway bunker at about 250 yards preaches caution to the left. You're going to see a lot of 3-woods and long irons off the tee, with second shots turned interesting by two more bunkers guarding the green. The "slopes" on the green are at left center and back right.

Hole 2: Par-5, 508 Yards: Ah, the first par-5 — always the place where a guy (or gal) can air it out and relieve the pressure of that first-hole adventure, right? Wrong, rescue-wood breath. You've got a dogleg left with more trees on both sides, and reaching the green in two requires an approach over a lake onto a left-to-right green. There are no "grip-it-and-rip-it" holes here.

Hole 3: Par-4, 415 Yards: A tight fairway that expands a bit after the tee shot gives you the shakes. A tree about 80 yards off the green, and two more left and right bunkers, make hitting the green in regulation a matter of surgical precision.

Hole 4: Par 4, 392 Yards: Careful with that driver, tough guy. You've got a right-side tree 225 yards out, so move that thing to the left. Once you get there, the approach is tempered by a two-tiered green and three more bunkers.

Hole 5: Par 3, 190 Yards: Off the tee, you're hitting into what feels like a really long closet — maybe a pantry. Trees on both sides make anything but the straightest shot an adventure in creative profanity. A lake on the right side, bunkers on the left and behind. Stay careful here, and you should be all right.

Hole 6: Par 4, 480 Yards: Again, resist the temptation to look at the yardage as an invitation to go all John Daly. You're playing chess here, not checkers. You'll want to hit it left because of the three fairway bunkers to the right, and the huge tree 275 yards out. Another two-tiered green, and a front bunker to carry for all you budding Roy McAvoys out there.

Hole 7: Par 4, 420 Yards: By now, you have the idea, right? Driver in the bag a lot of the time, approach irons should be your best, risk nothing. That will serve you well on the seventh, which gives to a tree on the right 150 yards out, two more to the left about 275 yards out, and three more bunkers protecting an undulating green.

Hole 8: Par 4, 443 Yards: Oh, this is fun. A dogleg right, with forest on the right side, and three fairway bunkers to the left. The green rises from front to back, which raises the possibility for a lot of putts if you go above the flag with your approach.

Hole 9: Par 3, 205 Yards: The rhododendron hole, with the beautiful flowers on the back of the green. If there's one thing that could mess you up on this one, it's the sheer beauty of the hole from tee to green. While you're communing with nature, you'll want to pay equal attention to the lake on the left side of the green, the front bunkers, and the green that really drops at the back. Play this one wrong, and you may need a "medicinal beverage" before you arrive at the 10th tee.

I'm off to walk the course for the final practice round, but I'll be back later to describe what these poor guys are in for on the back nine.

There are two things you need to know about Sahalee, the course in Sammamish, Wash., where the 31st U.S. Senior Open Championship will he held this week. First, it is a ridiculously vertical tree-lined course — the fairways and doglegs will widen a bit as you go, but half the time, you feel as if you're hitting your tee shots at the doorway of a very large broom closet. If you have an aversion to your precious drives hitting a tree every now and again, you'd best stick to links golf.

Second, there isn't a Stimpmeter these greens couldn't offend — I don't yet know how they will be calibrating the greens this week, but whenever I've played Sahalee, it's been like putting on a tile floor.

This ain't no muni, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around. Sahalee is an Indian word that means "High Heavenly Ground", and the course lives up to its name — it's an absolutely beautiful place, which distracts from, and numbs the sting of, the 9 you just took on the last hole. Of course, such provisos apply far more to duffers like me; I saw a PGA field fight this course to a draw during the 2002 NEC Invitational World Golf Championship, and it wouldn't surprise me to see a few of the old pros in this field give the course a good upbraiding. One name in that NEC field is worth mentioning most of all:

Fred Funk: Funk tied for second behind Craig Parry at that NEC, and appeared undaunted by the constraints of the layout — he spent the week walking around with a confidence reminiscent of Bruce Dickinson in the "More Cowbell" sketch. Can Funk emerge as the "cock of the walk," so to speak? Sahalee rewards accurate hitters above all, and Funk currently ranks sixth in fairways hit among Champions Tour golfers with more than 400 possible fairways this year. Funk won last year's Open with a 20-under 268.

Others to consider:

Bernhard Langer: Langer beat Corey Pavin by one stroke at the British Senior Open last week, picking up his first major title on the Champions Tour and moving ahead of Fred Couples for the lead in Charles Schwab Cup points with 1,450. His wire-to-wire finish, despite losing momentum on the final day with three-putts on the eighth and ninth holes, should give him the confidence needed to play a course like this. Carnoustie is a world away from Sahalee from a design perspective, but belief is half the battle.

Fred Couples: The honorary chairman, Couples obviously knows the lay of the land rather well. The Seattle native cut his teeth at Jefferson Park, and he's always had a strong affinity for the area — a feeling that is entirely mutual. He's currently above tour average in driving accuracy and greens in regulation; probably the two most important non-putting numbers at this course. And there's no doubt whatsoever who the crowd will be pulling for. Couples and Langer are the tour's only three-time winners this season.

Corey Pavin: He's been a bridesmaid all year; finishing just behind Langer last week and losing a playoff at the Travelers on the PGA run. Where Pavin comes into play on a course like this is in his driving accuracy (196 out of 252 fairways hit), his No. 1 rank in scrambling, and his T11 in putts per round.

Dan Forsman: Ladies and gentlemen, your Greens in Regulation leader also has the most top-10 finishes this year (eight in 14 events). He ranks 48th in driving accuracy (which tells us that he doesn't mind blowing it out of the rough) and 60th in putts per round, so he'll have to put the little things together for a shot at this course.

Who has the edge? Having seen the way Funk dealt with this course last time he played it, and given the T-3 283 he put up last week in Scotland, I'd be hard-pressed to project this trophy into anyone else's hands. I like Couples as a sentimental favorite, and goodness knows I'll be following Tom Watson around wondering if another miracle is in sight, but whatever adjustments need to be made by others through practice rounds may have Funk working more on specific things and less on the whole-game approach. That will come in very handy on a precision course that is less about recovery and more about execution.

Ahh, France. Home of some of the best, and most relaxing vacations imaginable. It has the Riviera, the Eiffel Tower and a museum roughly the size of Rhode Island. Everyone that goes there has a wonderful time.

That is, unless you wreck your bike during the Tour de France, or you are Michelle Wie, who was teeing it up at the Evian Masters last week with hopes and dreams of leaving the beautiful country with a touch more luggage. That was still in the cards after a Thursday 68, but the wheels began coming off after that, and her week ended with a different putting stroke, and a nearly double-digit hole in her second round.

Her second-round 77 was where any chances of a win ended. Wie made a 9 on the 10th hole on Friday, shot 40 on the back and so went another week for Wie.

To make it even worse, she decided to fool around with a putting change during the tournament, something that even Tiger Woods showed was a bad plan at the British Open two weeks ago.

Wie went cross-handed for her final three rounds, mostly because the flat-stick has been abysmal this season. (Michelle is ranked 136th on tour in putts per round, at a hefty 31.04.) It didn't help, as Wie finished with at least 30 putts per round for the entire week, and is now tinkering before the Women's British this week.

After her win last season, it seemed that Wie might have bucked that monkey, and would start contending at a more regular pace. That hasn't been the case in 2010, and it seems that she is still as lost as ever on the golf course.