With an extra hour on my hands this Sunday morning, I chanced upon the myriad statistics available on each tour player on the PGA Tour’s official website. Driving distance, accuracy and greens in regulation percentage are fairly standard, long-ball categories. Putting average, sand save percentage, and birdies and eagles are other aspects I would expect to be covered. Total driving is my personal favorite, as it reminds me of Thurman Thomas with the Buffalo Bills in the 1990s. He never led the league in rushing or pass catching yards, but he was always number one in ... full post »

There’s a crazy little thing called the World Amateur Team Championship going on in South Africa. I’m a bit late checking in, but better late than early (wait, that’s not how it goes…) In team competition, Canada held a one-stroke lead over the USA after round two, although Argentina and Denmark closed fast in round three. The format is a simple one…each country provides three players, and the low two scores count. Ergo, with Sebastian Saavedra tossing six birds, one aguila, and a bogey, and companero Estanislao Goya (no relation to the food) cheeping in with 4 birds ... full post »

Column A: Round one of the Q-School is underway. See all the scores here. Go here for relief. Column B: One of us (bloggers) is even after one round. Click here for his blog. Column C: Just heard about this beast: What will they think of next? Anybody got a line on one? Cost estimates? Alternative uses? full post »

The top 30 players and ties in the national finals will be eligible to compete in weekly professional qualifiers held in conjunction with open, full-field Champions Tour events. Nine spots will be available in those Champions Tour events through the qualifiers. The q-school participants be joined in the qualifier by former PGA TOUR and Champions Tour players who meet pre-determined criteria. This plan comes directly from the PGA Tour itself. Yahooo!! I can make it through sectional and national qualifying tournaments, only to have to qualify YET AGAIN on a weekly basis. Can someone explain the logic ... full post »

The news is finally out. The fourth course at Bandon is to be called Old MacDonald, and is to evoke the spirit of Charles Blair MacDonald (or Chuckie B., as his friends from the hood called him when they rolled) and Seth Raynor. Classic golf holes such as Redan, Biarritz, Alps, Sahara, and Cape, will be recreated on the turf north and east of Pacific Dunes. The land, the soil, the terrain, are all perfect for the recreation, and anyone who has not had an opportunity to play a MacDonald or a Raynor will now have that ... full post »

In a thinly-veiled attempt to regain the spotlight of last fall’s Michelle Wie “intervention,” Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger has announced plans to travel back in time and convict Jack Nicklaus of an offense he did not commit. When asked why he waited 32 years to come forth with his allegations, Bamberger revealed that, since he wasn’t actually in attendance at the Open Championship, he could not give eyewitness testimony to the shot that didn’t hit Jack in the back. However, since the only witness to the alleged shot, Joe Dey, currently resides in the great beyond, Bamberger ... full post »

If my keystrokes seem a little erratic, please bear with me. Today, in the US mail, I received a personal nomination from the 2006 US Ryder Cup Captain, Mister Thomas Lehman, to join the PGA TOUR Partner’s Club. My hands were quivering with uncertainty as I gently detached the envelope flap, although not so gently that I avoided a deep, painful paper cut. After applying ointment and bandaging the wound, I managed to read through the blood stains that I have received an honor accorded to a very few golfers throughout the world. If you can ... full post »

Many of you have doubtless read my panning of Tiger Wood’s flat-line technique, aka, the anti-viagra of the arms. Well, I’m here to recant my criticism, and let you know that it does indeed work…for snow shoveling and sump-pump well bailing. If you haven’t seen the news, western New York got hit by yet another “perfect storm” in the past 18 hours. Two feet of Ohio white sand, also known as snow, got dumped on us in the midst of a gorgeous Fall golf season. At 8:30 this morning, I was up, bailing the sump pump ... full post »

I could hardly wait to crack open a cold bottle of Golf Digest, circa November 2007. After all, Tiger Woods promised that I could “Try my flat-line tee-shot technique to hit more fairways.” Cool, thought I. Even if I’m hitting all 14 driving fairways in a typical round, 15 would be even better. It was then that he lost me at “flat-line.” In other words, I was dead, I flat-lined, I could not understand his Cypress version of English. Here’s what he writes: The key to the shot: I BREAK MOMENTUM ON THE FOLLOW-THROUGH ... full post »

I swear to you, I speak his English language, but I am having the hardest time keeping up with Tim Finchem. First I read, way back in the Summer, that the Fed-Ex Cup is set. Then we get the “Chase for the Card,” or whatever the leftover events are called, with Turning Stone Resort supplanting Broome County as the upstate New York event site. Afterward (unless I dreamed this), En-Joie gets a Nationwide Event, then that idea apparently gets pitched for a Champions’ Tour event. Now the Greater Greensboro Open…I mean the Chrysler Championship of Greensboro ... full post »