At least once a year the TOUR Insider likes to step back, scratch his head, and attempt to comprehend the ridiculously sublime unpredictability of golf.

The U.S. Bank Championship of Milwaukee is next on the tee, and TI knows we’re going to see plenty of beer, brats and birdies at Brown Deer Park Golf Course north of downtown. TI knows that it’s going to take good ball striking to steer through the old-styled layout’s leafy corridors, and he knows a hot putter is a must on those fast, flat greens.

He knows that Ryder Cup points are becoming more precious as the weeks melt away, and that pressure to perform, be it for individual goal, can make any golf course seem like a torture chamber, even one as short as the 6,759-yard, par-70 Brown Deer Park layout.

He knows the field is 156 players. He knows just about all of them are capable of winning. He knows that between now and Thursday one of those players is going to find that secret happy place where his game congeals and he plays some of the best golf of the year. It might be the most miniscule adjustment in the downswing or a change of putters that turns a player around.

It can happen in the blink of an eye. Just ask Chris DiMarco, who had struggled much of the year, missed the cut at the John Deere Classic, then a week later finished second to Tiger Woods at the British Open. On the flipside, Joe Ogilvie was in contention to win two straight weeks and then struggled to finish 50th at the B.C. Open.

Just goes to show you that good play is rewarded, no matter the competition or the venue, and no matter what has gone on before -- but only good play will do.

So, which player will step up? Well, TI has his educated guesses. But he just doesn’t know. What’s more, the player who finds his magic key might not know it until he’s in the midst of flying up the leaderboard.

Makes you stop and ponder, no?

Last year: Ben Crane didn’t need more than a 1-under-par 69 in the final round to complete a wire-to-wire victory by four strokes over Scott Verplank. Crane opened with a career-low 62, followed with a 65 and his second straight bogey-free round, and never looked back in tying the tournament record with a 20-under-par 260 aggregate score.

How he did it: With brilliant and opportunistic work on the greens. Crane was far from the straightest or longest driver, but he led the field in putts per round and putting average. He converted 21 birdies, two eagles and was a perfect 100 percent in sand saves.

Ben Crane is seeking his first win of 2006. (Cohen/WireImage)

Strange but true: Fifty-one players in the U.S. Bank Championship of Milwaukee field missed the cut or withdrew the last time they played in the tournament.

True but not so strange: The last eight winners in Milwaukee have shot four rounds in the 60s.

If the course could talk: “Unconscious putting was Crane’s ticket to success, but you’d be better off sticking to trying to hit fairways and greens.”

Worth Knowing:

• You might file this under strange also: more British Open champions have finished second in Milwaukee (7) than have won it (2). The two are Mark O’Meara and Greg Norman. The seven runners-up: Sam Snead, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Lehman.

• Twenty-one players who competed in the British Open are coming back from England to compete in the U.S Bank Championship in Milwaukee. The highest finisher at the Open among them was defending Milwaukee champ Ben Crane, who ended up tied for 10th at Royal Liverpool. Others who played four days at Hoylake: Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Funk, Jerry Kelly, Hunter Mahan, Jeff Sluman, Vaughn Taylor and Scott Verplank.

• Calcavecchia this week is making his 25th start in the event -- second most in the field behind Wisconsin native Andy North, who is making his 28th appearance. Ten times Calcavecchia has finished in the top 10, including joint seventh last year.

• Having withdrawn from the British Open to be with his wife for the birth of their second child, Justin Leonard has decided to enter the U.S. Bank Championship of Milwaukee, where he hasn’t played since 1995 (tying for 17th).

• Another long-absent player with Ryder Cup aspirations returning to Milwaukee is Stewart Cink. He finished tied for 12th in his only appearance in 1997.

• Six of the last 10 winners in Milwaukee have been over 40 years old. Since 1990 only two men in their 20s have won it: Crane and Jim Gallagher, Jr.

• Kenny Perry, the 2003 champion, has posted scores in the 60s in 13 of his last 16 rounds at Brown Deer Park. He has finished in the top 10 each of the last six years, including tied for ninth in ’05.

• Playing in his first PGA TOUR event of ’06, Gary Hallberg made the cut at the B.C. Open with the help of some new clubs. That’s hardly news; guys change equipment all the time. But Hallberg had to borrow a set of clubs after the airlines lost his. Even after the sticks were found, Hallberg stuck with his replacements and ended up tied for 24th, his first top-25 finish since the 1998 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill.

• Speaking of inspirational finishes, Chip Beck at the B.C. Open finished tied for 66th place for his first PGA TOUR check since the 2000 John Deere Classic.

TOUR Insider’s strength of field index: Time for some guys to pick up the Ryder Cup points pace. 7.2.

TI’s power ranking for the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee: 1. Ben Crane, 2. Steve Flesch, 3. Hunter Mahan, 4. Scott Verplank, 5. Nick O’Hern.

Parting shot: “You’d have to ask Tiger what’s in Tiger’s mind. I can only guess that he’s a competitor, he’s a highly competitive person, and he does everything that it takes to win.” -- Former British Open champion Tom Watson on Tiger Woods.