Monday Backspin: Three end victory droughts, stock up/down

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What a weird day of golf Sunday was. All the stop and starts at Colonial. Fred Couples' back-nine charge at the Senior PGA Championship, only for the world's most interesting man to hit it into a bush in the playoff. Zach Johnson and Luke Donald winning for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Of course it hadn't been that long for Johnson or Donald. Johnson won in San Antonio a year ago -- then promptly missed the cut there this year after an opening-round 80 (albeit on a new track). Donald's last victory came in 2006, but he eagled the 16th hole Sunday in Madrid, hitting it to 12 feet from 256 yards out.

"[That] was probably one of the better things that could have happened to me, because I kind of re-evaluated some things mentally," Johnson said. "I came into this week in good spirits. No pressure, nothing to lose sort of spirit and fortunately it went my way. Thursday was probably one of the better days I had ball striking for the year. I think I missed a green in regulation."

Champion's Replay

Want to hear what Zach Johnson said about his win at Colonial? Click here Final round: Replay Johnson's round MORE HP • Shot of the Day • Final-round highlights • Complete tourney coverage

Tom Lehman did what he does best, grind out score after score. That worked well at Colorado Golf Club, where Lehman was the only player under par in all four rounds and where Couples and David Frost took themselves right out of the playoff.

Not to diminish the victory, but if you look up "winner by default" in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of Lehman from Sunday. Sometimes, though, that's what it takes, one solid shot after another.

"The wind started to blow and so I just talked to my caddie and I said, let's just play 12 really good holes, let's not beat ourselves, let's give ourselves a chance to win," Lehman said. "That's what we did, we played very steady golf from that point."

There were side stories last week, too: Phil Mickelson having another chance to take over No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings then missing the cut; the re-emergence of Jay Don Blake, who has played in just three Champions Tour events this season, finishing in the top 10 in all of them.

In the end, though, three guys won who hadn't in a while on what was a pretty entertaining Memorial Day weekend.

Stock up

Ben Crane: He didn't win like I thought he would, but Crane got his third straight top-7 finish with a very good performance at Colonial that included back-to-back 64s in the second and third rounds. He's a combined 35 under in his last three tournaments. FedExCup rank: 5th (8th last week) Jeff Overton: Speaking of guys who I think will win, Overton has two runner-up finishes and a tie for third in his last five events. Any guy who hits it as long as Overton and can putt as well as him is going to get a victory at some point. FedExCup rank: 16th (27th last week) Pat Perez: A tie for 10th at Colonial was his first top-10 since the season-opening SBS Championship. It was also a sign that he's turned the corner on a miserable stretch that included three missed cuts and a WD. In his last three events, however, Perez has gone T22, T32, T10. FedExCup rank: 69th (82nd last week)

Stock down

John Daly: The good news for Daly was that he made the cut. The bad news was that his third-round 75 at Colonial wasn't exactly inspiring. Not with two putts per green in regulation during a round in which he hit just 44 percent of his greens. FedExCup rank: 205th (208th last week) Webb Simpson: If you want to see Simpson play, you should probably tune in Thursday or Friday. That's because he's missed his last five cuts dating back to New Orleans, where he opened with an 80. Simpson is a combined 17 over during that stretch. FedExCup rank: 109th (108th last week) Steve Stricker: Obviously it was his first event in more than a month because of a shoulder injury, but I'd be leery of him right now if I was in a fantasy golf league. Since his win in L.A., he has just one finish inside the top 30 in stroke-play events. FedExCup rank: 9th (10th last week)

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. Bizarre Stat of the Week I: Only one of Zach Johnson's seven career victories -- last year's Sony Open in Hawaii -- has come outside of Texas or Georgia. He's won three times in Texas, three times in Georgia. "I moved to Georgia," Johnson said. "I'm not moving to Texas. We just moved about a year and a half ago. I don't think she wants to move any time soon."

2. What's about to be the most scrutinized neck in the history of sports will make an appearance this week at the Memorial Tournament. Tiger Woods can tell us he feels fine all he wants and all we can do is take him at his word, but the questions (and doubt) are going to keep coming until he wins. That's the standard he's set.

3. I'll see Jordan Spieth in person in a couple of weeks in Memphis, but by all accounts he's the real deal. Fellow golf scribe Damon Hack of Sports Illustrated was at the AJGA Thunderbird Invitational at Greyhawk Golf Club last week and told me the kid "burns" to be great.

4. If the idea of "Designated Tournaments" -- i.e. requiring top players to enter at least one select event each year -- were to go through, it seems the earliest something like that could be implemented would be 2012. Just the fact that it will be a topic at this week's Players Advisory Council meeting is a pretty significant step.

5. Speaking of tournaments, there's still concern over some future sponsorships, but that's nothing new. It's just a new economic climate. "Every year we have about 15 to 20 percent of sponsorship turnover, and if you look at our record over the past 30 years, we have a very good record of extending or replacing," Ty Votaw told the Columbus Dispatch. "We've come through recessions in the past in some cases better than when we went in."

6. Bizarre Stat of the Week II: With about six weeks to go, there are already more players exempt for the British Open than there are for the U.S. Open. Even more bizarre are some of the exemptions. One of them, as pointed out by Golfweek's Jim McCabe, is this: the top two players not otherwise exempt on a money list for six tournaments -- THE PLAYERS Championship, the Memorial Tournament, St. Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew, U.S. Open, Travelers Championship and AT&T National.

7. It will be odd not seeing Mark Calcavecchia on the PGA TOUR after this week's Memorial Tournament, which will be his final event before turning 50 on June 12. He'll certainly be missed for his ability to provide a quote. Asked if he was excited about the Champions Tour, Calc told the Associated Press, "I said I would be excited if the hole was bigger. But I think it's the same size out there, so I'm not that excited. I can miss 'em out there same as I can miss 'em out here." Classic Calc.

8. Want to know what life is like for a TOUR caddie? Well, Paul Tesori had some pretty revealing answers, at least in terms of what it was like working for Vijay Singh, which he did in 2001-02. "I only got a total of 24 days off out of 730 days," Tesori told Sports Illustrated. "I could complain about that, but Vijay took only three days off during that stretch. I got divorced over it." I got to know Tesori a little bit when he worked for Jerry Kelly, who he left to work with Singh for a second time. Needless to say, he regretted it and admitted as much. Tesori and Singh are still friends, but sometimes those relationships just don't work out inside the ropes.

9. Last week, Jamie Kureluk shot a 25 on the back nine at Carnmoney Golf Club in a Canadian Tour event near Calgary. That's something you'd expect to see in a video game. It's also better than any nine-hole stretch in PGA TOUR history with Corey Pavin holding that mark with a 26 during the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. Kureluk, by the way, finished with a 61 and won the event, which was cut short because of snow.

The Forward Spin

Bye, bye Texas, hello the Memorial Tournament, where Tiger Woods will play for the first time since withdrawing from the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship with a neck injury. Woods has owned Muirfield Village, winning there four times, including last year when he hit all 14 fairways on his way to a final-round 65. For the week, Woods hit 87.5 percent of his fairways. If he puts up numbers anywhere near that this year, he'll quiet a lot of his critics. Woods, though, has been wildly inconsistent in his accuracy and his results this year. At some point, however, he's going to win again. Will it be this week?

This week's Kodak Challenge hole

HOLE: The par-4, 363-yard 14th at Muirfield Village THIS WEEK: Rickie Fowler took the solo lead in the Kodak Challenge at Colonial last week. Can anyone catch him at the Memorial? Click here to tour the Kodak Challenge holes | Current Kodak Challenge standings