One of the great myths of this Phoenix-Scottsdale Super Bowl - and probably every Super Bowl - is the buzz about locals being able to rent out their homes or golf condos for major cash during the week. You couldn’t pick up the Arizona Republic in the months leading up to The Game without hearing some fanciful story, reported with Jimmy Olsen earnestness, about some schmuck who figured he’d be clearing 10 grand to let a few Patriots fans spill cheese dip on his couch for six days. It got to the point where even those with a condo about the ... full post »

Golf Range Magazine - not to be confused with Soccer Practice Fields International - just named the PGA Learning Center one of the Top 100 golf ranges in America. Sorry, Golf Range, but the list both starts and ends with the PGA Learning Center. It’s the only worthwhile practice center in the world. Most practice venues/ranges are simply places to be endured until you can get out on the course. PGA Learning Center is actually in better condition than many golf courses and full of things that will keep your mind engaged rather than beaten down by the monotony of pounding golf ... full post »

I don’t know if the Bahamas should be encouraged that it has a few defenders or if it should be discouraged that it has so many less defenders than the New England Patriots - in response to WorldGolf.com’s Willie K. Wolfrum writing a largely admittedly fawning ode to the fraud Pats. Newsflash: If these Patriots go 19-0, they’re still not close to the greatest NFL team ever. A number of Joe Montana’s 49ers teams would destroy these little-defense Pats. The NFL’s just much more watered down now and weaker overall. Now, back to the Bahamas. Some people just don’t like truth telling ... full post »

Travel enough and you’ll come across your share of shady places. I’ve been in a bar in Mexico where the roaches scurrying across the table are bigger than the beer bottles and you have to be drunker than you’ve ever been to stomach it. I’ve been chased by a group of would-be muggers through the narrow streets of the French Quarter long before Hurricane Katrina. I’ve been in Texas border towns where you wonder if the Constitution still applies. Heck, I’ve just walked around South Beach late at night - by far the seediest tourist spot of all. South Beach can ... full post »

Spend any time in the Bahamas and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that the only thing holy here is the U.S. dollar. Though, if you think about it, it’s refreshing that at least one country still worships our falling currency. Still, this is a land where everything often seems like it’s for sale. Even the islands’ history. So when Greg Norman undertook a massive renovation, retooling of an old Joe Lee design in the south ocean section of Nassau, Bahamas, there was actually thought that The Shark might elect to just have the slave ruins on the site bulldozed over. In most ... full post »

I always thought Sean Connery was a tough guy, the rare soul who managed to stay cool as his hair turned gray. I thought Connery stood out as several generations’ version of a man’s man, the gruff confident character you didn’t want to mess with. Now, I think Sean Connery’s wimpier than your average iPhone generation trust fund kid, that one of those Paris Hilton want-to-bes that gets a BMW for her 16th birthday could take out James Bond with one scrawny arm tied behind her back. What brought about this dramatic 180? Connery wimped out on a Bahamas golf outing like one ... full post »

I’m not even at the PGA Show in Orlando like WorldGolf.com’s version of Jack Lemmon (out cold by 8 p.m. every night, Tim McDonald) and Walter Matthau (can’t find anything better to do at 9:45 p.m. on Friday night in a party town than stare wistfully at his gratis energy drinks and wait for McDonald to wake at 5 a.m., Brandon Tucker) and I’m already sick of self adjustable golf clubs. From the vantage point of a hot tub, these clubs seem almost as completely ridiculous as they certainly do in person. We’re not talking about the club heads and shafts ... full post »

Nick Faldo probably wishes he could have back that laugh he let out at Kelly Tilghman’s inexplicable - and still pretty much unexplained by her - lynch Tiger Woods line. And if he doesn’t, he should. For most TV talking heads, you could brush it off as simply a nervous response to an offensive crack by a co-worker. Only Faldo doesn’t seem to do nervous and he definitely doesn’t usually do the tired fake TV laugh. Faldo should have called Tilghman on the line right there on air. Still, without Tilghman in the booth at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Faldo continues ... full post »

The Bob Hope Chyrsler Classic - the first PGA event of the season in the continental U.S. - has turned into a bad tournament pretty quickly. Only a few years ago, you could find both Phil Mickelson and Justin Timberlake out in the California desert. This year, your biggest names are Mike Weir and Samuel L. Jackson, who forgot how to make a good movie about six years ago. While, this isn’t a compelling tournament - unless you want to see if American Idol’s worst winner ever (which is really saying something) no-talent Taylor Hicks is even more annoying than his band ... full post »

Cabo - one of the great luxury golf destinations on the planet - has been taking a lot of flak lately. All because Dallas Cowboys quarterback/starlet boytoy Tony Romo spent an excused break there with Jessica Simpson before choking away another playoff game. Cabo was taking digs even before Romo followed up his Bill Buckner act in last year’s playoffs by going sail-pass happy and directing the NFC’s highest scoring team to a whopping 17 points Sunday at home as a heavy favorite. Greg Norman wants Tony Romo to give him a call. Wait, The Shark also won big ones. Leon ... full post »

I enjoy a good natured rip of the self-righteous bluebloods at Duke as much as the next guy. Mostly because the most famous Dukie is Sports Ultimate Faker himself - Mike Krzyzewski, the coach who preaches family and fair play and spends his time screaming at his college-kid players, berating refs in old Chicago style bully fashion even though most nights his Blue Devils get the most lopsided favorable whistle in America, trying to intimidate every beat writer his team’s ever had and playing himself off as a saint again in big money American Express commercials all about bolstering his ... full post »

Everything would have turned out a lot different for the Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman if Tiger Woods hadn’t taken it upon himself to try and make her “lynch” remarks go away. Tilghman has to know that. She has to know that being a friend of Tiger’s, on the fringe of his inner circle, saved her from herself. For Tiger’s done for Tilghman what he wouldn’t do for Fuzzy Zoeller - whose remarks, let’s face it, look at least slightly more tame now that Tilghman’s brought lynching into golf commentating. “Tiger and Kelly are friends and Tiger has a great deal of respect for ... full post »

Rory Sabbatini straddles the fine line between being the most compelling golfer in the world not named Tiger Woods and being a punk. Well, Sabbatini went and took another dip into punkhood at the PGA Tour’s season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship by conducting a media boycott. That’s right, the man who has something to say about everything (including Tiger) refused to talk to reporters at all the entire tournament week. Which suddenly makes Sabbatini just another athlete who’s come to the conclusion that he should blame that all-powerful mysterious media for his own issues. Sabbatini is better than this. Really, he is. The guy’s ... full post »

Tiger Woods spent his Wednesday night watching an Orlando Magic-New Jersey Nets game courtside in Mickey Mouse country. While the PGA Tour was preparing to kick off its 2008 season in Hawaii several time zones away. What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, except for maybe the fact it was a Nets game. Tiger’s stooping to watching the Nets? It’s never a bad thing to catch Magic big man Dwight Howard, the next dominant force in the NBA, in person. But against the Nets? What courtside ducats to the Bucks visits to the Amway Arena were too pricey for Tiger? And oh yeah, there’s ... full post »

Boo Weekley made a heck of an attempt. Really, he did. The character from the Florida boondocks who infamously talked about wind that could “make your butt hole pucker up” once on the Jim Rome show walked through an airport x-ray machine with two bullets in his carry on. Proving that airport security is at least good enough to thwart Florida hillbillies, Weekley was stopped, detained, questioned and placed in very serious danger of never making it to Hawaii for this week’s season-opening tournament. While Weekley no doubt gave Phil Mickelson a good idea on an excuse for one of his many ... full post »