I’ve stayed and played at some of the poshest golf resorts in North America, from Scottsdale to Cabo to Hawaii to Whistler and beyond. I’ve never stayed at one that’s demonstrably better than Kiva Dunes on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Kiva Dunes is that rare place that manages to be both highly rated (it’s been deemed one of America’s Top 75 golf resorts by Golf Digest) and underrated at the same time. For Kiva’s good enough to be better than Top 75. It’s one of the 20 best golf resorts on this continent no doubt. There’s just something incredibly relaxing about the place. ... full post »

I’ve been to driving ranges around the world. I’ve taken my practice hacks on the best driving range/practice facility in the known universe (the PGA Learning Center in Port St. Lucie), some spectacularly good ones (the new made-over Pelican Hill’s is hard to top) and plenty of lame ones where you’re just hitting into a net. In all these driving range experiences, I’ve never come across thick, dehabilitating, beat-you-up rough. You know, the kind of rough Michelle Wie apparently encountered in a sneak attack on Stanford’s driving range. (I’ve been to Stanford’s range years ago, but maybe I just missed it). If you ... full post »

If you’re a golf fan, you know about Brandt Snedeker - last year’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year who looks like anything but a fluke with three Top 10s in nine events played in 2008. Brandt Snedeker’s a good story. His older brother Haymes Snedeker just happens to be a better one. Haymes Snedeker became the youngest judge in Alabama at age 28 when he was appointed by the Fairhope City Council and Mayor. Four years later, he’s still the youngest judge in Alabama. He’s also a criminal defense attorney and budding real estate developer. All after coming to grips ... full post »

If you’re sick of playing golf on fairways snuggled tight by homes and condos (and who isn’t?), the Mississippi Gulf Coast could be your relief. You can play high-end course after high-end course here that take you farther and farther out into nature. You remember nature, right? It’s seeing nothing but marsh grasses swaying in the breeze, tall trees lording over fairways and hawks circling overhead. At least, it is on a number of courses in the Gulf Coast. Several days into a trip here, the pure volume of truly scenic courses has caught me off guard. A lot of destinations have ... full post »

It’s too bad that all of sports talking heads and its gambling bracket junkies are so wrapped up in whining about those pathetically annoying “snubbed” teams (and you’re the No. 1 crybabies this year, Virginia Tech Hokies). For all this mind-numbing NCAA Tournament talk (scientific studies have shown listening to Digger Phelps knocks off five IQ points a minute) obscures the continuation of the greatest story in sports history. That of course is Tiger Woods’ undefeated 2008 season. This fall when Tiger is wrapping up this unprecedented feat of brilliance, walking off the green in the last FedEx Cup event having won ... full post »

It’s all about the readers here, just like the Yankees are all about making a mockery of their uniform by catering to an obscenely rich, annoying 60-year-old fan loser. In fact, WorldGolf.com’s Castle Baron boss is so reader friendly that if you requested to be led on a inside swamp tour by Tim McDonald, the Baron would probably order McDonald to do it (so please ask). And William K. Wolfrum is always available for advice on how to write a kick-butt blog (sadly, Ron Mon has yet to be ordered to take a 90-day session of Wolfrum reprogramming). Readers come to ... full post »

Staying at Omni Tucson National Resort recently, I somehow stumbled across the fact that there were none of the usual adult-only skin flicks that are prevalent in the in-room entertainment systems of both the finest and the worst hotels in the country (and everything in between). Obviously, this knowledge came about by happenstance because of course I don’t go looking for those kind of things. I’ve never seen Blind Date UnCensored Heavenly Hotties! And any argument that it’s five times as artistic as Blind Date Bodies On Fire would be pure conjecture. That $14.99 on that hotel bill was for Michael ... full post »

With everyone going crazy over a jerk who killed a hawk - and crazy means idiots calling for Tripp Isenhour’s children to be hit with hate e-mails or him to be tied up and pelted with whizzing golf balls as liberal loony bloggers like WorldGolf.com’s own William K. Wolfrum defend these crazies to advance their own political agenda - Ernie Els once again showed why he’s all class. During the PGA Tour’s PODS Championship, Els revealed that his 5-year-old son Ben suffers from autism. Els and his wife have been dealing with this quietly for years with Els never once using ... full post »

John Daly is up to his same routine in the PODS Championship. Which means treating the PGA Tour like it’s a bigger joke than Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon’s YouTube video war. Only, Daly’s not a paid comedian, just a paid clown brought in by sponsors (the only way he can still play) to do things like … well, what he did today. When the PODS (finally a tournament name that’s not longer than War & Peace, even if nobody knows what it means) went into a rain delay, Daly ducked into the Hooters Owl’s Nest corporate hospitality tent. Of course, he ... full post »

It’s nice to see that the blame for slow play in golf is finally going to who deserves it. Mainly, golfers who think they’re better than they are. Guys like myself who know we’re below average to downright mediocre are your best friends out on the course because we play as brisk as a New Yorker walks to the Subway. It’s the golfer who thinks he’s a lot better than he is that will turn your round into a rush hour traffic replay. Personally, I call them Tim McDonald types - this guy once thought he was good enough to challenge ... full post »

Ernie Els needs to do to Matt Jones today what Tiger Woods did to him in Dubai. Els must pull off the unthinkable, leapfrog the seven golfers that stood in front of him at the start of the day and win the Honda Classic. Early in his round, Els is making a nice run at it too. The man nicknamed Easy who only seems to make everything hard on himself is three under through five holes, zooming only one shot back of Jones and Mark Calcavecchia. Now Els has to finish. Second place isn’t good enough. Not for Els. Not after the way ... full post »