Golf is a game of legend and myth. While Old Tom Morris is legendary, it’s a myth that he carried a ration of haggis around in his golf bag for a mid-round snack. A website called Golf Myths Exposed claims to let us all in on seven myths of the golf swing, thereby saving us strokes and a lifetime of headaches. The site is the creation of Ben Throckmorton, who according to the website, is a 20-year veteran North Carolina golf instructor. By entering your name and e-mail at the site, Throckmorton will e-mail you a link to one of the seven ... full post »

The PGA Tour donates more money to charity than any other professional sport. And I suspect that golfers in general, with their statistically higher-than-average incomes, contribute to a good number of charities on the individual level. Now, by purchasing a hotdog at the turn, golfers can help fight ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the disease that claimed the life of Tom Watson’s long-time caddy Bruce Edwards. They can, that is, if the course they’re playing serves those dogs in Fairway Franks hotdog trays. The concept is pretty simple: A course buys the trays at ten cents each, raising the price of each ... full post »

In case you live in the center of a giant gorse bush and missed it, Tiger Woods triumphed in The Open (a.k.a. The British Open). And in the course of this victory, he hit his driver exactly once, choosing instead to use a lot of 2-irons and 3-woods to keep his ball in play off the tee. Today I have heard ESPN analysts debate ad nauseum about whether Tiger will keep the headcover on his driver at ALL future majors, because it worked so well at The Open. Some say yes, some say no. Quite frankly, the ones who say “Yes” ... full post »

My game is improving. The south side of 80 is just around the next bend, and 90 is usually only viewed through my rearview mirror. Usually. I still have bad days. Very bad days. Days when I stop counting strokes and start reckoning my round in golf balls lost versus golf balls found. If I come out on the plus side, I’m happy. The hacker’s eternal lament is not posting a snowman on the 6th hole, but rather losing a ball. The worst is losing a brand new ball when you SAW it land, and you swear you KNOW where it is. ... full post »

Perhaps those of you with daughters knew that July 10-16 was (well, still is for a day, I guess) “Take Your Daughter to the Course Week,” sponsored and promoted by the PGA of America. Sadly, the only promo I saw for it was a PGA PGA press release, which sat in my in-box until yesterday. Never did see anything in the local press or at any of the courses I’d been to over the past month. Once I read the release, though, I was inspired to take my soon-to-be-eight-year-old daughter Sophia to the Lake of the Woods Golf Course. And not just ... full post »

The TravelGolf.com blessing continues. Tom Wishon’s book The Search for the Perfect Golf Club, which I included in my summer reading list for golfers recently won the prestigious Book of the Year Award from the International Network of Golf (ING). Here’s the first paragraph from the June press release from Ann Arbor Media Group, publisher of the book: “ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ann Arbor Media Group, a publishing concern that publishes sports, classics and children’s books, announced today that The Search for the Perfect Golf Club - an Ann Arbor published book authored by legendary golf club designer and outspoken maverick ... full post »

If you think about your putter for a minute, you might discover one of the many paradoxes of golf: Your putter is lofted, but everyone says that initial forward roll is key for keep putts on line. So…why are putters lofted? Most have a 3- to 6-degree loft. (The range can be from -5 degrees all the way up to 10 - beyond 10 and you have a chipper.) The average putter loft is around 3 or 4 degrees. The loft works to get the ball airborne just a bit, so that it will roll along the top of the grass. ... full post »

So maybe I’m not cynical enough, especially not for a golf and travel journalist. Maybe, upon hearing a story about a father and his critically ill son designing a putter together, I should suspect exploitation, opportunism, and greed. But gosh darn it, upon reading the story behind the LogicalOne Putter, instead of a twinge of disdain, I get a little verklempt. I won’t try to re-tell the story, so here’s a thumbnail taken directly from the website, written by putter designer Kelly Thompson: “The ’story’ behind this putter is one that is very close and very special to me. This putter was designed ... full post »