Wynn Las Vegas, the just opened Las Vegas shrine to all things money, is impressive enough. All the fresh flowers are a nice touch if you’re not allergic to the beauties. The themelessness of the casino is a welcome departure. And who can quibble with the idea of a Ferrari dealership to browse through on the grounds? But with all that said, it’s still just a casino. Which is why the scene at this week’s opening extravaganza spoke to the ridiculousness of the Las Vegas hype. People waited in line for four hours and more to walk through the doors. Four ... full post »

Well, I did have a root canal scheduled for next week. I guess I can cancel that and go with the more painful option: a golf lesson. Now that my boss has ordered me to take a golf lesson, I’ll be trying out the world of Zen mumbo jumbo and nifty props. (Can’t wait till I get handed a porcupine in one those swing something besides the actual golf club to learn how to swing the golf club properly drills.) I go into it with an open mind (or at least not a completely closed one) and a putrid swing. And you can ... full post »

Yes, I did say that golf instructors always struck me as the modern-day equivalent of snake-oil salesmen or chiropractors in the latest TravelGolf.com newsletter. And yes, I stand by the notion that some of these PGA-certified instructors charge hourly rates that some lawyers would be embarrassed about. But my instructing friends (forget the chiropractors, they’re definitely quacks), I was ready to come over to your side. I was prepared to take my first lessons, see how they improved my horrible hacker game and write about it in a series for BadGolfer.com. I had been swayed by Tim McDonald’s Stepford Wives ... full post »

Majerle’s Sports Grill draws most of the attention in the Phoenix sports bar scene. It’s owned by Suns fan favorite Dan Majerle, it gets the occassional celebrity drop in and it’s in a downtown building with history. If you just want to watch the games though, Upper Deck Sports Grill in Scottsdale is the much better choice. It’s dominated by a HDTV screen that’s bigger than what many movie theaters offer. Surrounding that main screen are tons of other TVs of various sizes spread over two levels with an open-air front (so you can feel like you’re outside enjoying the ... full post »

Be afraid, be very afraid when checking your golf clubs on a flight into SFO (San Francisco International airport for the acronym impaired). On a recent trip to the San Fran area, I had four different golfers volunteer SFO club horror stories to me. They detailed disappeared clubs, but the biggest complaint seemed to be that sometimes the system at SFO makes you wish they had lost your clubs. Because after waiting and waiting to get them, a vanished set can seem like the lesser of two pains. It turns out SFO has this system where oversized bags like golf club ... full post »

Now, I don’t want to start sounding like the resident old crank blogger - Is that Tim McDonald or Archie Bunker? - but hotel parking is one of the last great scams out there. You have to love these establishments that charge you for a room and then turn around and charge your car for a room. The Omni in downtown San Francisco charges $45 for valet parking, plus $7 in taxes. Heck, you could feasibly get a room at the Omni through one of those travel sites for less than it would cost to park your car. No kidding. ... full post »

Walking into the old ferry building along the pier and taking in the bustling, buzzing city market is turning into one of San Francisco’s true pleasures. Whichever city planner decided the ferry building should be renovated and put to use deserves some kudos. The place is usually filled with people from all walks of life, shopping for dinner ingredients, flowers or books, or just hanging out. It’s everything tourist trap Fisherman’s Wharf isn’t. Which means you’ll actually find people who live in San Francisco here and you won’t be paying the pumped-up, tourist-placing plan (Fisherman’s Wharf: Where a meal worth $30 ... full post »

Now that dimwits everywhere are declaring Tiger not so dominant (no surprise to see my favorite Lefty Loving blogger Matt Paulson joining this Mensa society), here’s a little reality check. Tiger Woods is not only going to break Jack Nicklaus’ major wins record, he going to blow by it, to the tune of at least 22 career major titles. Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, will forever be stuck on one. I think the golf-playing rat Brandon Tucker featured in his latest unique blog actually had a better shot at Augusta than Phil. I wouldn’t have been so confident in declaring ... full post »

The yahoos calling up to complain about Tiger Woods’ stance on a tap-in putt (imagine a viewer phoning ABC to say Shaq took an extra half step on a uncontested slam, who cares?) aren’t as funny as yahoos like Tim McDonald who rushed to call Woods’ Masters over after a soggy first round. Here’s a new flash for Tim and the rest of the contrarians: Tiger Woods is no Phil Mickelson. Tiger’s back. He showed it at Doral when he outdrove Mickelson and turned the people’s choker into a quivering mound of yips in that one-on-one Sunday showdown. And for those ... full post »

Vijay Singh may sometimes make Barry Bonds look like a nice guy by comparision (hear Vijay call his old caddie a drunk, etc…) But no one can doubt how intelligently and ruthlessly cunning Singh is. Not after what he did to Phil Mickelson at the Masters. Vijay messed with Phil’s already fragile mind by accusing the defending Masters champ of ripping up the greens at Augusta. Singh claimed that the metal spikes on Mickelson’s new Callaway golf shoes were “unduly damaging the greens,” brought it up to a rules official and had to grin glare when he heard that Phil was ... full post »

The only time Billy Casper embarrassed himself at the Masters is when he refused to take credit for his record-setting folly. That’s when the 73-year-old former champion went bush league. When Casper “no-carded” - declined to submit his scorecard - electing to disqualify himself rather than write his 34-over-par 106 into Augusta’s record books, he became the worst kind of sports baby. Casper effectively turned himself into Jose Hernandez, the forgetably bad baseball player who sat rather than break the major league strikeout record, in 2002. From a man who showed such class in posting that 106, including the 14 on ... full post »

While it did make me reconsider my Phil Mickelson No Masters repeat guarantee when Grandpa McDonald agreed with me, there are more important things to move onto. Like my new favorite golfer and Masters pick Jesper Parnevik. Jesper went to the Masters without his clubs. That’s right, a pro golfer showed up at the biggest golf tournament in the world, sans clubs. Jesper forgot his sticks back home in his garage. He had to call his neighbor Tiger Woods and ask him to swing by his house and…oh, bring his clubs to Augusta. Could there be anything more perfect than this? Here’s ... full post »

Hope that BellSouth trophy was worth it. For Phil Mickelson hurt his already remote repeat chances at Augusta by doing what he does best: pulling out a win in a run-of-the-mill tournament missing the other big names. I don’t want to say that my fellow blogger Doug Carey is suddenly showing the logic of our favorite Nutty Professor, but…Then again, even Kiel Christianson would know to stuff that money he’s hording from college athletes into his own pockets, rather than betting it on Phil. Here’s a news flash Doug: When humorless Vijay Singh takes a weekend off, it’s probably a good idea ... full post »

Even now that Phil Mickelson’s closet has held a green jacket for almost a year, people have trouble seeing the real Lefty. Instead of recognizing that Mickelson’s had his one shinning moment, a once-in-a-lifetime experience when everything came together for a good guy who deserved it, they project future majors dominance. Mickelson will forever be the romantic pick and seldom the realistic one. Phil repeating at Augusta? That would be the equivalent of the Red Sox winning the World Series again this year (even Stephen King would laugh at that one) or Villanova toppling that Patrick Ewing ... full post »