One of the joys of a Scottsdale golf vacation is discovering that hidden restaurant find. And avoiding any of the overblown, food’s not so Scottsdale cool spots. 5th Avenue Gourmet Wine Cafe right in the heart of downtown Scottsdale is one of those places you can brag to your friends about being in on. No fancy foods or wine pretentiousness here. Just high quality sandwiches for around $7, tasty salads and very reasonable wines by the glass. Best yet, there’s a completely open air front, allowing you to enjoy some of those nice Scottsdale winter 75 degree breezes while people watching. The Kazimierz ... full post »

The PGA Tour is showing it’s all about the money while unceremoniously throwing La Costa to the curb. This weekend’s Match Play Championship is it for the venerable San Diego area resort as host to the PGA Tour. See ya! And oh, yeah thanks for 37 years of memories. Don’t let our spikes hit you on our way out the door. And you thought Tiger Woods treated Stephen Ames a little roughly in that 9&8 beatdown after the moronic Ames opened up his mouth a few too many times about the greatest golfer in history? The PGA Tour’s reason for leaving La Costa ... full post »

Badlands Golf Club always held the potential to be a Las Vegas showstopper. This Johnny Miller and Chi Chi Rodriguez design is anything but cookie cutter, running through canyons and washes with blind shots thrown in your way. But for the last few years, golfers haven’t always walked away from the course happy with its conditions. For a while there, Badlands could have almost held a double meaning according to some Vegas golf insiders. That’s no longer the case. The course has been in great shape all season and is recreating some of the buzz it earned around its 1995 opening. For the ... full post »

Golfers should be aware of some pesky high-priced cameras butting into fairway paradise. Otherwise known as the Phoenix-Scottsdale resort corridor. Starting this Wednesday, the city of Scottsdale is going to be using cameras on Loop 101 - one of the area’s main throughways - to catch speeders without ever using cops. If you’re going more than 11 miles over the 65 mph speed limit, the cameras snap pictures of your license plates and a ticket’s on the way to your mailbox. Get caught on camera going over 100 mph and you can expect police officers to show up at your door ... full post »

Attempting to bring a stroller into Wynn Las Vegas brings about the kind of response you’d expect Vijay Singh to receive at the door of Phil Mickelson’s Christmas party. A well-dressed “guard” quickly steps in front of the offending rolling parents and asks if they are a guest of the hotel. If you’re not a guest, strollers are forbidden, but you can go over and wait in line to have it checked by the bellhop, who clearly lets everyone know he has better things to do. All so you can get the privilege of stepping inside Steve Wynn’s overblown flower show ... full post »

Say this for Vijay Singh: he knows how to fuel a rivalry. If nothing else, you have to admire him for taking his grudges public. There is nothing sneaky about Vijay Singh (except maybe his scorecard techniques in Indonesia). If Vijay doesn’t like you, everyone’s going to know about it. There is something amusing about a guy who has his caddy wear a “Tiger Who?” hat causing the greatest golfer in history to turn into a seething schoolgirl. Of course, Tiger wouldn’t acknowledge he was peeved. He just hinted around at it and let others do the talking for him. He ... full post »

Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay mall offers every kind of beef and condiment combination you could ever imagine for a hamburger. And some you probably couldn’t. You may have never known there were this many different types of beef. Is there a difference between corn-fed beef from Washington State or grain-fed beef from Wisconsin? At the Burger Bar, you’ll be confronted with that choice. And probably spend plenty of time at your table debating it. Only in Las Vegas. If you want a great quality $14 hamburger and fries (remember, it’s Vegas), this is your place. If you’ve always been ... full post »

The Desert Sun - the Palm Springs valley’s largest newspaper - recognized TravelGolf.com’s recent Bob Hope Chrysler Classic coverage. Especially one man’s reluctant admission of Justin Timberlake love. “The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic has been king in Palm Springs-related media (from photos in People to my personal fave, Chris Baldwin’s confession of love for Justin Timberlake on TravelGolf.com),” The Desert Sun’s Julie Varnau wrote in her lead (see story here). Write one thing about loving a band boy man and that’s all people remember? My confession also ended up on Popdirt.com and numerous Justin Timberlake fansites. You’d think I was the only ... full post »

It’s so hot in the Phoenix-Scottdale resort corridor this week that hotel guests are begging management to turn the air conditioning on (yes, amazingly some hotels in the Phoenix desert disable their air conditioning in winter, which is like a celebrity swearing off prenuptial agreements. Sooner or later, you’re going to need it. Probably sooner. Still, to be fair to the offending hotels, we’re talking 80 degrees in February hot. Businessmen and women could be seen around the hotels in Scottsdale for the last few weeks, fanning themselves at the pool between conference sessions. It’s so warm in Las Vegas that people are ... full post »

Baleen - the restaurant in Scottsdale’s newly renovated Caleo Resort - claims to have outstanding fish. They practically guarantee that the fish will be so fresh it jumps off your plate. Maybe I should have known better. This is the desert after all. But then again, it’s also Scottsdale, a place that can do culinary wonders. And nearby Sea Saw does turn out sushi just as good as that found at New York’s famed Nobu. If you promise to do something great in Scottsdale, especially at Baleen’s high-end prices, you’d better do it great. Baleen doesn’t come close. The grouper entree was better ... full post »

Still think the Michelle Wie no-win craze isn’t out of control? Daytime talk show host and former Inside Edition pioneer Maury Povich told TravelGolf.com that he and his wife Connie Chung argue Michelle Wie. “My wife and I differ with this,'’ Povich said. “My wife’s so happy that she’s out there competing against the men. And I think, just in terms of golf, that winning is very important. “I don’t care whether you win in little league or whether you win in the Major Leagues, winning is important because you learn how to win. I would like to see her play in tournaments ... full post »

I like Phil Mickelson as a golf story. Really I do. No matter what I’ve wrote about his intestinal fortitude in the past. But the Phil love is getting a tad ridiculous in the Scottsdale-Phoenix resort corridor with the FBR Open in town this week. You wake up here and Phil pops out of your cereal box, smiling, with a “How ya doing, buddy?” I’m not saying I suddenly understand why Mickelson was named one of GQ magazine’s “10 Most Hated Athletes” by their peers … OK, I am saying that. It would get annoying to see this endless Phil love go on ... full post »

Bill Murray is playing in the FBR Open - otherwise known as the Phil Mickelson homage tournament - Pro Am in Scottsdale today. This is being treated as a big coup for the tournament. It would be if it was 1996. Not now. Not with the dour serious Murray who shows up at golf courses these days. Ever since Bill Murray decided he was a serious actor (Lost In Translation one of most overrated movies of all time, Broken Flowers very underrated) he’s been determined to play a serious golfer as well. Newsflash Bill: no one’s showing up to see how close you ... full post »