Read this first. It was found on The Golf Channel. Notes: Women’s Open Prize Money Half of Men’s By Associated Press - June 28, 2006 NEWPORT, R.I. – The prize money at the U.S. Women’s Open is $3.1 million, by far the largest purse on the LPGA Tour, but not even half as much as the $6.8 million the USGA doled out to the men two weeks ago at Winged Foot. That’s not about to change. USGA executive director David Fay said Wednesday that the market dictates the size of the purse, noting that the men’s U.S. Open draws a larger audience, ... full post »

Forget all the ill gotten prognostications by uninformed golf writers and bloggers. If you’re going to place a small wager concerning the next USGA champion, please consider the ruminations of the Eye On Golf staff. We’re not picking the usual heavy weights. There’ll be no Sorenstam, Ochoa, or Wie on our list of golden girls. We have carefully observed and analyzed the field and the pairings in order to provide you, our devoted readers and obsessive gamblers, with the best possible advantage. Let’s narrow the field down. Please take note. Golfers from the good old USA don’t seem to win their own ... full post »

This is a great week for golf fans in New England. Wish I still lived there. In an odd set of circumstances the loyalty of avid spectators will be stretched to the limits. The PGA Tour makes its annual trek to CT to play another typical TPC course. That tournament coincides with the U.S. Women’s Open which is being conducted in Newport, RI. at the Newport Country Club a classic layout dating from 1894. This coincidence creates an interesting golf fan dilemma from a spectator’s and a couch potato’s point of view. If you know anything about New England, you’ll realize ... full post »

Over the years there have been all kinds of estimated statistics tossed about concerning how much of the game is physical and how much is mental. You can go with the classic Yogi Berra approximation that the game is 50% physical and 95% mental, but I believe, that once you develop some physical skill for the game, the execution of a shot is 75-25, mental vs. physical. No scientific study devised by short game gurus or mental gurus or swing gurus has produced that stat. It’s 49 years of playing, watching, observing and teaching that has fashioned that estimation. There ... full post »

Best Newspaper Coverage: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel elected not to send their top notch golf writer Gary D’Amato to cover the U.S. Open, something about budgetary concerns. (Translated: We need to pay our top executive a few hundred thousand more this year so we’re not going to give our golf fans a little hometown perspective on perhaps the biggest golf tournament of the year.) Problem is just so happens that Wisconsin native Steve Stricker was the halfway leader. Guess that’s what those big execs get paid for – making the right decision at the right time. Most Annoying Golf Announcer ... full post »

This is why the U.S. Open is absolutely, hands down, the best of the four major championships. (Or, top half-of-ten reasons why the USGA puts on the best darn show in New York City.) 5. It’s the oldest major championship conducted in the U.S. (You have to get a certain amount of points for seniority.) 4. There always seems to be a heart-warming, tear-jerking story of some virtual unknown who we all want to win but fully realize hasn’t got a chance. (Oh, Dave, did you forget Francis Ouimet.) 3. Occasionally there is a sentimental winner. (Thank you Ken Venturi for ... full post »

Show me the video! Please! Yes, I’m begging you, anyone, send me the video of the final round of the LPGA Championship. You see, I didn’t get to see the final round. No, it wasn’t because I was playing golf, or, heaven forbid, working. It’s because the cable system we are hooked up to this summer does not include The Golf Channel. The “what’s” and the “why’s” of all that are another story. The real question is why was the television coverage of a major championship delivered on a subscriber channel instead of a major network? Well, I think ... full post »

Adam Scott has been playing quite well lately, well enough so that he’s frequently being invited to spend time in the media tent. This means he gets to talk a lot and gets quoted a lot. For a young guy he’s learned to talk to the media quite well, presenting the stock terminology that is present at virtually every interview. Of course, when you do a lot of talking, there’s only so much one can say that’s original. Most is just regurgitation of the same old phrases with the appropriate blanks filled in. But this golfspeak ... full post »

Adam Scott has been playing quite well lately, well enough so that he’s frequently being invited to spend time in the media tent. This means he gets to talk a lot and gets quoted a lot. For a young guy he’s learned to talk to the media quite well, presenting the stock terminology that is present at virtually every interview. Of course, when you do a lot of talking, there’s only so much one can say that’s original. Most is just regurgitation of the same old phrases with the appropriate blanks filled in. But this golfspeak can ... full post »

I want to spend a little more time on this bunker issue that surfaced at the Memorial. The players think the bunkers are furrowed by rake and the mainstream golf media tends to agree, consistently using the “furrow” word. (Hey, think of it, this may give new meaning to the “F” word in golf.) Mr. Nicklaus says they’re not “furrowed” just raked a little differently using a specially configured rake that you can’t buy at Home Depot. But whatever word you want to employ, they are what they are and have to be dealt with. And herein ... full post »

I have always liked Nick Price and he has always been a darling of the media due to his cordial personality. And with three major championships to his name, one a British Open, you would think that he has an understanding about the general nature of the game of golf: IT AIN"T FAIR! No matter how good you hit it or how good you think you hit it, you are, from time to time, going to a bad bounce, a lip-out on a putt you thought was dead center, or, apparently in Nick’s case, a bad lie in ... full post »