Here’s one less excuse for you not to take a lesson, Chris. Bob DeStefano has posted a comment here saying that if you’re ever on the east end of Long Island, he’ll give you a one-hour lesson at no charge. Here’s a PGA guy who’s been doing this for nearly half a century willing to offer help gratis to a sprat who spends his time kicking hornets nests instead of practicing. You can certainly find some courses to review back East, Chris, then hook up with Bob for an hour. If not, I’m sure there are some pros out in Nevada ... full post »

Man, can you trust anyone in Las Vegas!? I wish I could say I was shocked at reading Tim McDonald’s account of how some of the “leading” Las Vegas resorts continue to shill for courses in lousy condition. When I travel - even to Sin City - I expect the staff at my hotel to help me. Too much to ask? Don’t steer me to an over-priced track that looks like a final exam for grad students at Greenskeeper University. And while you’re at it, don’t steer me to Bradley Ogden either. Who’s paying your salary anyway!? Me, the customer, ... full post »

In his latest intro to our weekly newsletter, Chris Baldwin started out: “Golf instructors always struck me as the modern-day equivalent of snake-oil salesmen or chiropractors.” Predictably, this set off a torrent of angry comments, many by PGA Professionals who (they’ll tell you at every turn) have dedicated their life to bringing a fundamentally sound golf swing to, uhh, the huddled masses or whatever. In wading through some of the venom and blather, though, I have to say, these club pros are RIGHT! While I know Chris was taking aim at the charlatans, he did unfairly rip a whole bunch of ... full post »

In their April 20 edition, the Washington Post gave some love to golf bloggers – specifically mentioning the Rebel Blogger, Jennifer Mario and the rest of the crew here at Blog Central. Here’s an excerpt: “Travelgolf.com has gathered a stable of bloggers (www.travelgolf.com/departments/blogs) in service of drawing eyeballs to its golf travel booking site. Several of these journals are devoted to the pro game, but a couple at least mix in observations about life from the white tees. The Rebel Blogger (despite his habit of picking dogfights with other golf bloggers) is refreshingly unforgiving of various resorts, courses, equipment, teaching methods, ... full post »

I’m definitely onboard with the Santee, S.C. strippers’ challenge for the Rebel Blogger to head his old El Camino in the direction of Santee and go soak up some Southern hospitality with the ladies at Spinners. Something tells me, though, that the very thought of being in the same room with real live women in various states of undress would have the ole Reb’s cigar shriveling back into his pie hole like a frightened turtle’s head. Come on, Reb. Go for it! You can’t rip poor Santee from afar and then refuse their olive branch (I mean, how often do you get ... full post »

Okay, so maybe I’m the last male golf aficianado on the planet to have heard of Sophie Sandolo, but I am the first blogger to report on her 2005 calendar here at TravelGolf.com’s Blog Central (which makes me a little like the smartest kid on the short, yellow bus). Sandolo, a 28-year-old Italian swinger (sorry, couldn’t resist) on the Ladies European Tour, could be the greatest thing to ever happen to women’s golf. Ever! Or, hell, maybe not. One way or the other I think it’s my duty as a blogger to at least keep the conversation going. full post »

Sorry for an insider question like this in a public forum but, as managing editor, I’m considering instituting a uniform for all TravelGolf.com bloggers (even the Reb). You know, kind of like how the Ryder Cup teams wear matching outfits. It’d be great for team spirit, not to mention branding. So, bloggers: Which of these should we go with? And readers, let me know what you think. full post »

TravelGolf.com is happy to have a new blogger on board, Jennifer Mario. In her first post here, she touched on something many golf writers (and all gear manufacturers, course designers and owners) forget: “… you don’t have to have a single-digit handicap to enjoy the game … you don’t have to be good to enjoy golf.” I attended the innagural PGA Business of Golf Summit in 2003 and a number of industry leaders agreed with the research showing that, well, most golfers suck. In other words, the vast majority of golf consumers use those cutting-edge, mega-distance drivers to fire their ... full post »

Tiger’s back! Tiger’s not back! You’ve heard it at work, you’ve heard it from the jerky boys on your favorite call-in sports radio show. You’ve read the blather here at blog central. I realize talk, while cheap, is also fun. And I understand that, for your average golf nut, pontificating about and combing over every drive, chip and putt, and (my personal favorite) pretending to know anything about what’s going on inside a pro golfer’s head, is like lifeblood. But the conversations swirling around about Tiger being “back” or not are largely steering around one central, titanic truth: Tiger is the biggest golfer ... full post »

So Kiel Christianson goes and makes me spit coffee all over my laptop with his hilarious line about being “0 for 6 unloading my snubnose .38 at my television.” The world ain’t seen shooting that bad since Mark David Chapman went gunning for Yoko Ono and missed with every shot. I feel your pain, Kiel. Hang in there! full post »

God, I feel old sometimes. I have to confess, I have no idea what a “Bowling for Soup” is or why a fellow golf blogger would be writing about it. Could be that I live in Europe now. Could be that I don’t watch MTV or even VH1 anymore. Could be that most of the CDs in my collection were recorded before Seve Ballesteros won his first major. After reading Flemma’s blog, I figured the Soup Bowlers are some kind of band that golfs (every decade needs its Hootie & the Blowfish, I suppose). Flemma’s not the only one around here ... full post »