Donald Trump fired Carolyn Kepcher, simply Carolyn to Apprentice fans, reportedly for excessive self promotion. Yes, I know. The laugh track should start immediately. What’s next? Paris Hilton firing someone for excessive dizziness, Ben Roethlisberger firing someone for being moronic enough to ride helmetless, Pete Rose firing someone for gambling. Only, I’m not sure Trump is as big of a hypocrite as he at first appears. The New York Post story that broke the news, quotes an unnamed source saying that Trump couldn’t reach Carolyn because she was off making $25,000 appearance speeches. Look, Trump called me out of the blue once to ... full post »

M. Night Shyamalan is the most interesting director in Hollywood. He knows something about being a prodigy too, having rocketed from relative obscurity to magazine cover fame when Sixth Sense went box office phenomenon. And Shyamalan knows that golf’s favorite phenom Michelle Wie is no Tiger Woods. Not when it comes to character. When Wie took that illegal drop that disqualified her from that first tournament in which she called herself a pro, Shyamalan didn’t see dead people. He saw a character flaw. “Michelle Wie’s your subject, you’re looking for moments when she reveals her character, and the moment she took that drop ... full post »

There’s an alarmingly lack of breakfast talk on this big blog board. I excuse myself because I’m usually stumbling in about the time most folks are considering breakfast. But National Golf Editor Tim McDonald is one of those rise-at-4 a.m. farmer types who has time for three breakfasts before most sane people have even considered food. The lovely Jennifer Mario no doubt has a great exotic Brazilian omelet recipe she learned from Dukie Coach K. And surely, the hip BTuck has a story about a Belgian Waffle or two from his European travels. But no … Do you know how many times ... full post »

Spend several days playing golf as a single in Lake Placid and you’re liable to become convinced you recently caught SARS (remember when people worried about SARS?) During my time here, it’s been myself and my clubs … and well, myself and my clubs. This isn’t because I’ve run into a slew of soccer fans (this is still the U.S. after all, they don’t exist), NASCAR rednecks or Wie Warriors who refuse to share a cart with me either. The courses are just that wide open. In the middle of August when the temperature’s dancing right around a perfect 75 degrees almost ... full post »

Leave it to all these golf bloggers who look at life through the opening of a straw to miss the real story of the PGA Championship at Medinah. The biggest deal of the tournament wasn’t Tiger Woods’ yawn-inducing stroll to victory. Or even that Tiger actually decided to stick around for the entire PGA Championship this year (remember his early fly home from Baltusrol last summer that helped the always shakable Phil Mickelson grab the trophy). No, the true highlight was Tiger ripping on soccer. This came when a reporter asked Woods if imagined himself being a soccer dad in 20 years when ... full post »

Bill Clinton turned 60 today - Saturday, August 19. In celebration, during my round of golf this afternoon, I took a minimum of three mulligans on every hole. But never more than 60 on any single hole. I also shaved a stroke here and two strokes there whenever possible. And at the end of the round, I lopped 10 more strokes off my score just for the Clintonian heck of it. No comment on how I celebrated with a cigar afterwards. Yes, I now hold the course record at Saranac Inn & Country Club. All thanks to Bill. Really, has there ever been a ... full post »

Steroids are all rage in sports talk today. Floyd Landis clings to his soiled yellow jersey, no doubt thinking up his 12th outlandish, completely illogical excuse for his cheating right now. The journalists who wrote the Barry Bonds roids book are being threatened with jail time if they don’t spit on the first amendment and reveal sources they promised confidentiality. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is being forced to do his embarrassing tap dance on the subject more and more. Heck, even TravelGolf.com’s own Tim McDonald became the seventh or eighth blogger here to write about steroids, proving it’s an issue ... full post »

It’s been almost two months since I’ve been in Cabo San Lucas. Which means that serious withdrawal pains are setting in. And not just because I missed Kate Beckinsale running around Cabo in a string bikini last weekend (and getting photographed endlessly by the tabloids.) It’s not even the supremely high-end golf courses with the fawning service, the crazy partying at Cabo Wabo or the genuine Mexican charms of sister town San Jose del Cabo. No, I yearn for the local limonata. An American couple living in Cabo recommended it to me during a dinner at the Westin Resort and throughout the rest of ... full post »

Kimberly Kim won the U.S. Women’s Amateur, one of those tournaments that Michelle Wie used to duck to avoid losing and soiling the hype. And Kim didn’t just win. She won in storybook fashion. And get this, Wie Warriors, Kim’s only 14. Kim - the youngest winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur ever - obviously already knows more about winning than Michelle Wie. She came from behind in the championship match (yes, Wie Warriors, amazingly rallying to win is allowed in golf!), beat a player 12 years her senior. But that isn’t the best part of Kimberly Kim’s story. The best part is that ... full post »

Anyone who’s been to a major airport this summer knows that everyone and their grandmother - and usually literally their grandmother, great aunt and third cousin - had returned to those so friendly skies. With automobile gas prices so high that many SUV owners would have to consider taking out a loan for anything approaching a 12-hour drive, dads couldn’t even shout at their kids about how much fun the family car time would be. Plus, if you’ve been on America’s highways recently, you understand that most citizens should let someone else do the driving because they sure can’t. Enter the ... full post »

While the entire golf world fixates on Michelle Wie firing her caddie 10th hand - whoa, what a shocker the endlessly fawned over Wie holds a big ego and no manners - a much more significant golf figure’s real news making is being ignored. Jack Nicklaus went off his rocker in Canada. In someplace called Banff at something called the Telus Skins Game, Nicklaus could not avoid going off on another rambling rant about Tiger Woods inevitable smashing of his majors record. Nicklaus laments that it took him six or seven years to realize that the majors were important (yes, this is ... full post »

I recently wrote a story that asked the question if Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course was better than the legend-that-only-builds Pebble Beach. The conclusion came out that at $200 per round Edgewood Tahoe is an undeniably better play than the $450 greens fee (plus often required hotel stay to get on) Pebble. Which caused reader Mark E. Tinger to write an impassioned tirade defending what he calls “the greatest American resort golf course". OK, Tinger didn’t really bring anything to the table to defend Pebble Beach. Instead, he went to the Wie Warrior frequent strategy of attacking the messenger instead. “I understand that you ... full post »

Brandi Chastain - one of the most famous female athletes in the world (hey, you try and rip your shirt off with that much skill after scoring a World Cup clinching goal) - obviously knows a thing or two about what makes women’s sports work. While TravelGolf.com National Golf Editor Tim McDonald effectively details why the LPGA needs a new commissioner in a column which has received only slightly less promotion than Spiderman 2, he misses the obvious solution on Bivens’ replacement. One that Brandi Chastain would whole heartedly endorse. One that would send the Wie Warriors, already reeling from having to ... full post »

Not everyone who stays at Wynn Las Vegas who’s interested in golf wants to shell out $500 for the needlessly mysterious wall-enclosed Tom Fazio course behind the hotel. And Wynn Las Vegas sometimes doesn’t have room on the course to comp some of its medium rollers (and a huge portion of the golfers on the $500 course are comped). These scenarios have brought about something of an unofficial high-end golf partnership in Las Vegas. When the Wynn needs another course to send golfers to, it often turns to TPC Canyons. This Wynn runover is introducing more golfers to one of the ... full post »

Usually, I read William K. Wolfrum’s blogs on Michelle Wie with the same stunningly bemused expression the 3-year-old I sometimes baby sit for wears when she’s watching the Wiggles sing about fruit salad. Sort of a horrified, yet transfixed mug. For Wolfrum - or Special K. as he’s known around the office - waffles around on Wie, dramatically changing opinions with the ease Sergio Garcia changes ugly shirts, like one of the paralyzing indecisive liberal politicians of his early-morning dreams. One blog, he’s mocking Wie’s inability to ever win with a cutting remark about the Year 2000 (Conan O’Brien wants his ... full post »