T.J.'s Take: Handing out the inaugural TeeJay awards

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With the 2009 version of the West Coast Swing officially in the books, it's about time to hand out some awards. We'll call them the "TeeJays," which aren't nearly as impressive -- or even remotely as prestigious -- as the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Emmys, the ESPYs, or even the Teen Choice Awards.

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No, you won't hear any PGA TOUR professional bragging about winning this piece of hardware on a range near you any time soon, but if you do, please let me know, because that would be kind of cool.

Without further adieu, the envelopes please...

Twenty-something we might want to take more seriously: Dustin Johnson

Give the kid his due. Johnson, 24 and just a second-year player on TOUR, already has two wins on his resume, including his most recent triumph in the 54-hole variety at the rain-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

We all know A.K. (Anthony Kim), El Nino (Sergio Garcia), Spiderman (Camilo Villegas), Scotty (Adam Scott) and Badds (Aaron Baddeley), but where's the love for Johnson?

Johnson isn't as flashy as any of those names above, but he has precisely as many majors as all of them combined -- zero -- and like the rest of them has multiple wins in the infancy of a very promising career.

Let's find this guy a nickname and a little respect, eh?

Most exciting storyline of the West Coast Swing: Tiger Woods makes his return to the TOUR

Woods

I know. You thought I was leaning toward Brendan Jones sneaking into the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship field as the No. 64 player in the world, right?

Well, Jones makes for a nice sidebar in this particular category as he drew No. 1 Tiger Woods in the first round after an eight-month hiatus.

But, Tiger's announcement of his return less than a week before the start of the Accenture Match Play Championship, where he was the defending champ, instantly sent the game to the top of the sports headlines.

No player in any sport pushes the interest needle quite like Tiger does in golf.

As for Jones, there's no shame in being the guy that got blitzed in an all-eyes-on-this-one pressure cooker by Tiger. He certainly wasn't the first and most definitely won't be the last.

Most difficult PGA TOUR superstar to figure out: Phil Mickelson

Mickelson

Perennially, Lefty is the King of the Swing. This year, however, he began his '09 campaign colder than a frozen TV dinner.

After starting the season with a missed cut at the FBR Open -- a place where he's a two-time champion -- and two less-than-stellar finishes at back-to-back multiple-win venues in Torrey Pines (tie for 42nd) and Pebble Beach (tie for 55th), we had no clue what to expect from Lefty when he defended his title at the Northern Trust Open.

As is usually the case with Mickelson, expect the unexpected... Which is precisely what he gave us. This time around, it was a season-best, 8-under 63 in the first round (which is part of the reason for the next award), only to be outdone by an even better round of 9-under 62 in the third round. With two mediocre rounds sprinkled in, Mickelson did enough to successfully defend his title and temporarily gag the media.

That brings us to...

The most hilarious unintentional (or were they?) comedic moments on the West Coast Swing: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson

It's a tie -- 1. Moments after Mickelson posts a then season-low 63, Tiger announces his return to the PGA TOUR and steals the thunder; 2. While masses of media await the sunrise and the impending return of Tiger on the Ritz-Carlton Golf Course driving range at Dove Mountain in Tucson, who appears first? You guessed it... Mickelson.

Coincidental, or planned? We'll leave it to you to decide. However, we've never quite known Tiger and Phil to be best of pals. When Tiger announced his return to the TOUR, he still had about 27 hours before the deadline. Why not keep everyone on the edge of their seats for a bit longer? Well, perhaps because Phil shot a 63 minutes earlier.

And then at the range, before the sun rose, and with 200 or so media on hand last Tuesday, why would Phil go out to the range first? Well, perhaps because Tiger was set to make his return.

I wasn't in the locker room before that second circumstance played out, so I don't know what went on. Phil is certainly a gentleman, so he probably welcomed Tiger back and wished him well. He had to have done it there, because it certainly didn't happen on the range.

I don't know. Maybe I'm a little too cynical. Nevertheless, both scenarios made me laugh harder than the first time I saw the movie Dumb and Dumber.

Best performance in a leading role: Geoff Ogilvy

Ogilvy

This was a no-brainer, really. The season is a mere eight tournaments old, yet Ogilvy already has two wins to his credit, including a third World Golf Championships trophy to add to the mantle at home (and second in the Accenture Match Play Championship).

The first win came at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, which doesn't count toward the West Coast Swing, obviously. But, the latest victory among a field that included the world's top 64 players at the Accenture Match Play Championship was the latest in a line of impressive wins for this big-tournament gamer.

Consider this: in all, Ogilvy has six wins on the PGA TOUR. Three of those are World Golf Championships, and another is the 2006 U.S. Open.

Pencil him in as the early Player of the Year candidate.

That's all for the West Coast Swing version of the TeeJays. Tune in after the Florida Swing to see what new awards we have on hand.

T.J. Auclair is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.