The mainstream golf press has managed to miss an important development in Michelle Wie’s career saga. While it’s been widely reported that Wie will not be playing in Japan’s Casio Open this year, the strong words of the tournament sponsor spokesman seemingly indicating that it’s Casio and not the Wies who decided she wouldn’t be playing have been all but completely ignored. “It has been decided that she won’t play this year,” Casio Computers spokesman Yuichi Miyakawa told AFP. “Basically, we have determined that she cannot play fully to her potential because she has yet to recover from hand injuries suffered early ... full post »

John Daly is off to the kind of start as a golf course designer that the Colorado Rockies enjoyed in the World Series. That’s no start. Daly, who’s wasted more talent than any athlete since Mickey Mantle, is already on his fourth “Signature” design in his second career. I’ve played two of the four - Wicked Stick in Myrtle Beach and Thundering Waters in Niagara Falls. To call them underwhelming is putting it lightly. Wicked Stick isn’t a bad course, but it’s faux links design is a little disappointing - doubly so when you realize you could have been playing a Barefoot Resort ... full post »

Palm Springs has always been something of its own world. Even though it’s only an hour and 45 minutes from Los Angeles and two hours and 15 minutes from San Diego, it’s as different in vibe from those places as Rush Limbaugh is from Al Franken. That’s never been more apparent than now. With fires raging across large parts of Southern California, Palm Springs and the greater Coachella Valley remain blissfully unaffected. “This is the first day I’ve even seen a hint of smoke,” said Tim Hurja, a longtime area PGA pro who runs a golf packaging service for Palm Springs trips. “It’s ... full post »

Phil Mickelson is one of the great self promoters in the history of modern sports. He’s almost as good as Derek Jeter, who’s turned so-so stats and some supposed winning mumbo jumbo into ridiculously over-the-top praise and a contract way out of whack for his production. Still even Mickelson seems to understand that the California fires are not something that should be turned into a story about him. Too bad a bunch of golf writers cannot seem to understand this. When Mickelson was contacted by Golf World and breathlessly asked how he and his family were doing in the wake of the fires ... full post »

There aren’t that many tourists in Scottsdale right now. But the ones who are in Arizona’s top party town early tend to be Canadians. Probably because they know their country usually turns into one big block of ice around October 1st. It couldn’t have worked out better for the Canuck snowbirds in the Fry’s Electronics Open though. Mike Weir - the only Canadian golfer anyone’s ever heard of - actually remembered that pros are supposed to win the occasional tournament. So Weir battled the 25 mph winds at Grayhawk’s Raptor Course (in Canada, they call that a lovely day) and posted ... full post »

This isn’t a great time to be playing golf in the Phoenix-Scottsdale resort corridor. Many courses are closed for overseeding. Others are just coming out of it and not looking their best yet. Everyone’s pretty much still dealing with the aftereffects of a brutally hot summer. In a few weeks, it will be back to paradise as usual. But now’s a weird time to be holding a golf tournament in Scottsdale. That’s just what the PGA Tour is doing though with the Fry’s Electronics Open - otherwise known as the tournament they convinced Phil Mickelson to play so it exists. The silly season ... full post »

Vu became one of the most pretentious restaurants in all of Scottsdale after it racked up well-deserved praise from big-time restaurant critics and regular good food lovers like myself (it’s hard for a man to call himself a “Foodie” and look in the mirror). I once tried to walk in for a meal on a weekday evening when the place was 85 percent empty and was told that my party would have to wait for a half hour. This despite a line of waiters just standing around, presumably waiting to … well, wait. The blonde hostess couldn’t have been more ... full post »

Michelle Wie only wishes she could be John Daly in Las Vegas for a non-headline tournament like the Frys.com Open. Not the Daly in his prime with major hardware on his shelf. Don’t be ridiculous. No, right now Wie would settle for being women’s golf’s version of the washed up Daly. This Daly did pretty much the best that he can do these days in his extended Sin City weekend. He played very inconsistent golf against a field that wasn’t scaring anyone. Daly went 74-63-77-67 to finish in a tie for 44th. And everyone in Vegas just seems delighted (and maybe a little ... full post »

People tend to romanticize the course they cannot play over the course they can. It’s just golfers’ nature. The Frys.com Open in Las Vegas is proving why that’s often wrong and foolhardy. For TPC Canyons - the high-end public course used in the Frys - is proving to be a tougher play for the pros than TPC Summerlin - the rich man’s private course. With both courses being used in the first two rounds of the Frys, there remains little doubt which track brings more drama. PGA Tour players who have the option of practicing on either when they’re in Vegas have ... full post »

Las Vegas isn’t as ridiculously cheap as it used to be. You can still find those $5.99 steak & egg dinner specials, but you have to search them out. And sometimes go off The Strip to Fremont Street. Still in the land where everyone wants to live the high roller life for at least a weekend, there remains one deal that’s so absurd it could only happen in Vegas. That’s the $5 PGA tournament ticket. It’s happening right now at the Frys.com Open. OK, this isn’t a major tournament. But it’s still a PGA Tournament. And it costs less to get in ... full post »

I once called up TravelGolf.com National Golf Editor Tim McDonald at his home and found myself talking to a guy who sounded like he hadn’t been above the Mason-Dixon line in about 40 years. This guy made Elmer Fudd seem like a city slicker. I think he told me he was McDonald’s “Coon Buddy.” Anyway, the nice man informed me that sorry but Tim was out laying some concrete on the property. In the background, you could hear what sounded like a jackhammer and the unmistakable voice of McDonald going primeval on something. I only bring this up to add some perspective ... full post »

Annika Sorenstam is showing the class that Michelle Wie will apparently never have, turning down a special exemption to play in the Samsung World Championship. This is the exclusive 20-golfer field tournament, the one that was supposed to be limited to major championship winners from this year, top money list players … and well, one spoiled overhyped golfer. Wie, of course, took the exemption offered to her to play in the Samsung as quickly as Paris Hilton grabs for another designer purse. Everyone on the LPGA Tour - everyone in golf really - knew it was the wrong thing for Wie ... full post »

Ah, the first day of the major league baseball playoffs - the time when golf clubhouses mercifully switch off the infomercials and European Tour replays of the Golf Channel and put on actual live sports. Baseball’s playoffs also give golfers even more of an excuse to stick around long after their round and rack up a bar bill that Peter O’Toole could appreciate. This year, the baseball playoffs are a complete sham though. The events of Monday night in Colorado should leave a stain on everything that comes after. The Colorado Rockies were awarded the last spot in the playoffs by ... full post »

Canadians are funny. Not always intentionally either. Still, you’d think even people who love hockey (which automatically drops your IQ at least 50 points) would understand how embarrassing this frenzy over Mike Weir beating Tiger Woods in a glorified exhibition match at the Presidents Cup is. What’s Canada going to go bonkers over next? The Blue Jays beating the Yankees in a spring training game? The Toronto Raptors managing to lose to a New Jersey Nets team it should have completely overmatched (oh wait, that already happened last spring)? Maple syrup being featured on an episode of some lame reality TV ... full post »