Jeong Jang followed in the footsteps of Seoul Sisters Se Ri Pak and Birdie Kim by making her first LPGA win a major. Not that she hasn’t come close before, she’s had 30 top-ten finishes in her six years on tour. Said the wire-to-wire winner, “It’s fantastic. I didn’t know that golf could be this fun.” Hey come on now, of course it can be that much fun. Why else would the rest of us still be playing, with our double-digit handicaps and triple-digit scores? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Sophie Gustafson—outgoing LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw’s main squeeze—had a lone second-place finish, ... full post »

Okay, I just had an interesting experience I can put under the category of “things that happen only in Hawaii.” I just called to get a tee time on my favorite course in the world. “Anything open in the next couple of hours?” I asked. “Let’s see,” said the reservationist. “You’re American?” “Uh, yes,” I answered, not sure where she was going with this line of questioning. “We have a 9:57 if you’d like it,” she said. “And a 9:02, but it’s with two Japanese. I don’t know if you’d want that one.” “Why wouldn’t I want the 9:02 again?” “Well, they’re Japanese,” she repeated. ... full post »

With one round left to play in the final major of the year, the cream has risen to the top at the Women’s British Open. Or in this case, the Creamer. The top five names on the board reads like a who’s who of women’s golf: Annika Sorenstam, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, everyone’s favorite amateur Michelle Wie, and… Jeong Jang. Actually, South Korean Jeong Jang (nickname, JJ) is leading the thing, after shooting three consecutive sub-70 rounds to be sitting at -13, and will be paired with Sorenstam in the final round. She said, “I think I’m going to be nervous ... full post »

Yes, I am the luckiest girl in the world. I just finished watching the sun rise over Haleakala, Maui’s 10,023-foot dormant volcano. In my line of sight are Molokini, Maui’s tiny crescent-shaped offshore islet, the vast blue expanse of the Pacific, and up north, Lanai. I’m here in Hawaii with my family, and while cleaning sand out of my kids’ ears and other parts is starting to get old, the natural beauty of this place, the incessantly perfect weather, and of course, the golf, are not. Tomorrow morning I’ll be teeing it up on my favorite golf course in the ... full post »

Once again, the ladies of the LPGA should give Michelle Wie a hand. Not because of her grinding performance in this weekend’s Evian Masters, at which she started weak, then clawed her way back to second place (her third second-place finish this year) with back-to-back 68s. No, it’s because once again, the rest of the field gets to benefit from Michelle’s amateur status. Usually the second-place finisher keeps the money. When Michelle plays, there’s a little bit more for everyone else to share. The gravy train’s going to come to an end before long, though; come August 25, school’s back in ... full post »

Hey look, Annika won another trophy! She picked up her seventh ESPY award last week when she won Best Female Athlete, beating tennis ace Maria Sharapova, basketball star Seimone Augustus, and swimmer Natalie Coughlin. Considering those awards are decided by popular vote, could this mean women’s golf is becoming more popular? Sorenstam then hopped a plane for Evian-Les-Bains, France, to play in the Evian Masters. All that glamour and excitement might have cost her—she shot even par in the first round to end T23. But Annika being Annika, she cleaned up her own mess today with a six-under 66 to go into ... full post »

Remember “A League of Their Own”? The war was over, they were about to shut down women’s baseball, and commissioner Ira Lowenstein argued with league owner Walter Harvey, shouting, “I sold your product when there was no product! Now there’s a product!” Carolyn Bivens might know what he was talking about. Meet the LGPA’s new commissioner—its first female—replacing seven-year veteran Ty Votaw. Her background isn’t in golf, it’s in sales and marketing. She’s a savvy pick, then, because what’s lacking in the LPGA isn’t product, it’s product awareness. With Annika Sorenstam up to nine majors (and gunning for another one in a ... full post »

Tim McDonald’s latest blog hammering Jack Nicklaus got me to thinking: who really IS the greatest golfer of all time? MSNBC is running a poll right now asking readers to speculate, will Tiger with his 9 majors ever surpass Jack’s 18? Well of course he will, because Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time. I suspect if you’re under the age of, say 40, you agree with me. Boomers tend to claim The Golden Bear, and the real oldsters are still droning on about some guy named Bobby Jones. Coincidence? I think not. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty ... full post »

Yeah, okay, that headline might be overstating it a little bit, but it’s worth thinking about. At the moment my favorite player is T2, just two strokes behind Tiger, and looking to make a move. Showing his usual unflappability, he said, when asked about the U.S. Open debacle, “Pinehurst is pretty much history. I wasn’t thinking about it at all. It was one of those rounds of golf where I played bad. And I’ve been very much looking forward to this week. Pinehurst has been completely forgotten.” Well, maybe it was forgotten, before the press kept asking about it! His worst hole ... full post »

Chris Baldwin’s latest blog on Michelle Wie describes her as “flaming out.” Well, he’s partly right—she is on fire. After beating half the field to make it to the match-play rounds, she went on to beat her first competitor, Will Claxton, of Swainsboro GA, with a birdie on the final hole. Claxton, a 2004 APL quarterfinalist, said before the round, “I won’t be ashamed to lose to her, and I’m not afraid to play her.” Won’t be ashamed to lose to her? Way to enter a match with a positive attitude! Baldwin isn’t the only guy out there who thinks she ... full post »

Today marks the beginning of an important week in the golf world. And no, I’m not talking about Michelle Wie playing in the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, although that is a pretty important event. Think back a few years to the day you first picked up a club. Who was standing by your side? If you’re like most golfers, odds are it was a parent. Well if you’re now a parent yourself, the time has come to return the favor. No, I don’t mean make a tee time for your parents. I mean call your local course and take advantage ... full post »

Michelle Wie may no longer be on the schedule for the weekend (waaah!), but let’s not forget that in Sylvania, Ohio, the ladies are still battling it out in the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger. Yes, that Jamie Farr. He lent his name to the tournament after taking up golf post-M*A*S*H. He said in an interview with the Toledo Blade that golf “takes over everything in your life. You have to keep working at it. I work this hard to be this bad, that’s what it comes down to.” Yep, he’s a golfer all right. The field is Annika-free, but ... full post »

Michelle finished her round today with a 70, one under par. That puts her ahead of more than half of the 154-player pack for the moment. Not bad for a 15-year-old girl. Not bad for a 30-year-old PGA pro, actually. Quite a bit has been said and written about Michelle Wie’s appearance in this weekend’s tournament. Should she have been invited? Does she belong? Will she make the cut? Kiel Christianson comments on some of these issues in his latest blog. But no one has asked the really important question: what should she wear? If you watch both the PGA and the LPGA, ... full post »