Let the suppositions begin! Wie birdies seventeen and parred eighteen to get back to +1 for round one. She’s probably two shots outside the cut line. full post »

Greg Norman of Jupiter, Florida, tossed a savage 88 today during the first round of Western Amateur medal play at Point O’ Woods. The shark pup inscribed four doubles, one triple and eight single bogeys on his scorecard. He waited fourteen holes to make a par (he had three of those) and did make birdie on the third hole. Question: how is this kid in the Western Amateur? Here’s his playing record, courtesy of the Scratch Players Association: 08 Fountains Champion 08 PBGCA Stroke Play 9th 08 South Florida Open T-25 08 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Participant 07 Collegiate National Championship ... full post »

Thanks to Brad Klein and a number of other figures in the golf world, a hugely successful auction was held last month to benefit Bob Labbance. Bob is a wonderful writer and the director of notowngolf.com. He is fighting Lou Gehrig’s Disease and recently celebrated his latest birthday. There are still a few lots left from the auction and they have been placed online here. You have to register for the auction, but it is secure and free. Please take a moment today to visit the site and bid before August 1st, when the auction ... full post »

Amid the grandeur and tragedy that is 2008, golf books don’t rate very high in a global sense. Within their own universe of golfdom, however, certain ones stand out for their importance. If you have The Wow Factor on your shelf or desk and have yet to open it, do so today. If you haven’t purchased it, I’m certain that you can find it locally or online for under $20 (including shipping.) I finished reading it last night and need you to understand one important thing: this book is the most important and necessary golf read of 2008. Before I go ... full post »

Sometimes the news is real, sometimes surreal, and sometimes, completely fabricated. We give you another infrequent installment of… Notes From The Fairways *********************************************************************** John Cook made news recently by questioning the composition of the average Ryder Cupper from the US side. This from the man whose swing never reached parallel and whose repetoire of shots did not extend beyond hit the fairway and make the putt. Here a bit of what he said this week: “They don’t play the little shots any more that can help them win. Just look at the world No 1 – that’s as far as you need ... full post »

I have a piece of spam sitting in my inbox that I do not dare open. I am the fool of no one, unlike Chris Baldwin, who is the fool for all. As the director of a 3000-address email list, I receive a lot of spam in the box reserved for that list, over 200 pieces on any given day. I’ve gone through three stages of SPAM acceptance. The first was elation (I’m important enough to be spammed!); the second was frustration (Damn these hounds of Hell, they are adding minutes to my work day!) ... full post »

Throughout this politicized year of living dangerously through a rose-colored lens, I was forced into actual lens alteration. My Tamron zoom made a trip home to the factory after giving up the dreaded ERR 99. Despite the best efforts of various cybernauts, I was unable to resolve the problem satisfactorily. Thus, as I headed to Lewiston, New York, for the annual love-in that is the Party, errr, Porter Cup, I carried with me a video camera instead of my digital Rebel. Still photos represent an instant, with no real link to the before nor the after. In ... full post »

That title blows chunks, I do admit. However, I have your attention, so read on. Nationwide Tour…When does it ever come first? Today it does! Over the last four years, it has taken $196K, $193K, $178K, and $189K to make the top 25 and get a pass to the big tour. If we add $4K for usual upward spiral, $200K gets you through this year. The following ten guys are over that magical figure thus far: 1 1 Jarrod Lyle 15 $288,771 2 20 Colt Knost 12 $253,628 3 3 Rick Price 16 $251,387 4 ... full post »

Here are a few things that people will write and what I think of them. 1. Greg Norman didn’t choke…Whatever. You say potato, I say tomato. It does not matter whether he choked or didn’t choke. He didn’t win. I’m surprised on two counts: Norman, a noted high-ball hitter, stuck around as long as he did in the wind. Shows you how pure he struck the ball and how many putts he made; and Norman won two British Opens as a high ball hitter? How? Imagine if he had a “crunch punch,” ... full post »

1. He’s young… 2. He wears a tight belt buckle… 3. He makes birdies… 4. He’s young…(We have to recycle them, after all.) Anthony Kim is 40% of the way to the land of Johnny Pott, Blaine McCallister, Mason Rudolph, Roger Maltbie, Lionel Hebert, Ken Green, and 24 other guys. They all have five career PGA Tour victories. John Daly’s on that list, too, but he has two majors. Would you call any of those golfers great? Hope not. Hall of Fame? Hope not. Yet the drooling media cannot help itself in a premature coronation ... full post »

Poor Cameron Morfit…He drew the short straw over at SI/Golf.Com. Van Sickle, Hack, Phillips, Feherty and the rest got the last laugh and Morfit had to defend the application of an asterisk to the 2008 Open Championship. Here’s clarification for one and all: Tiger is a threat only when he is in contention. We’ve had a few major championships where he has been nowhere fast. What if he had played like ever-loving crap at Torrey Pines on the bad limb? Would we have placed an asterisk next to Rocco or Lee? Of course not. What if ... full post »

If you have yet to see it, you will now. Here it is: . Tom Toles has a great cartoon today on the Obama cover. It goes like this: You’d think that one of the cover editors might have shaken the cobwebs from his mind and recalled this and what it did to a fellow’s career. Always pushing the envelope, aren’t we? Think I’ll head back to Apolitica, the imaginary land that I inhabit. full post »

The USGA Junior Amateur is visiting Shoal Creek this month. Golf.Com gives some insightful commentary, then incites some more controversy. Here’s a quote: (Shoal Creek actually was close to hosting the Senior Amateur six or seven years ago but was unable provide the fleet of golf carts the tournament required.) Really? You mean they couldn’t call up the other clubs in the area and ask to borrow the carts? Smells fishy. Might have been a few “undesireables” in the field. I remember Payne Stewart being asked about Shoal Creek just before they gave up the PGA and giving ... full post »

Imagine for a moment, if you will, the Kenny Perry backswing in combination with the Charles Barkley downswing. Perry has that pronounced hitch going back, while the lump of pump has the greatest pause ever in his downswing. Would the ball ever leave the clubface? Would caddies and competitors start walking twice during the swing, stopping both times? I have to laugh. full post »

Matt Jager had autographed scorecards for 67, 66 and 64 after his first three rounds at the Players Amateur in Bluffton, South Carolina. He can be forgiven for imagining that another 66 in round 4 would be enough for a victory in this semi-major amateur tournament. Mark Anderson, three behind Jager on Sunday morning, fired a 60 to snatch the title from Jager. Earlier in the day, Chesson Hadly had lit some fireworks of his own with another 60. A weekend that began with Paula Creamer’s 60 at the Jamie Farr Classic on the LPGA Tour ... full post »

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Ladies and Gentlemen, the crime scene is rather gory. Please feel free to excuse yourselves to wretch, gag, or vomit if necessary. Adam Scott seized a tie for the lead at 11-under-par at the Scottish Open, on the strength of three birdies over the first eight holes. Inexplicably and inexcusably, the Aussie double-bogeyed the next two holes to fall calamitously from Valhal-ya, Mate (the Aussie version of Heaven) to the abyss of purgatory. He made one more double for good measure on 17 and finished in a tie for 25th, 9 strokes from victory. Scott’s fall from ... full post »

If only for a day, the goats lead the way. Angel Cabrera (Angel Goatherd) and Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Rafe Beautiful Goatherd) occupy the first positions at the halfway mark of the Scottish Open and Credit Suisse Challenge, respectively. It is truly a great day for goats, who are certainly an honorable breed of horse. One only needs see the empathy and pathos exhibited by Rob Schneider in The Zohan Chronicles to understand the importance and majesty of the goat. In fact, with the San Fermin festival running wild in Pamplona, Spain, is it too much to hope ... full post »

If only for a day, the goats lead the way. Angel Cabrera (Angel Goatherd) and Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Rafe Beautiful Goatherd) occupy the first positions at the halfway mark of the Scottish Open and Credit Suisse Challenge, respectively. It is truly a great day for goats, who are certainly an honorable breed of horse. One only needs see the empathy and pathos exhibited by Rob Schneider in The Zohan Chronicles to understand the importance and majesty of the goat. In fact, with the San Fermin festival running wild in Pamplona, Spain, is it too much to hope ... full post »

If only for a day, the goats lead the way. Angel Cabrera (Angel Goatherd) and Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Rafe Beautiful Goatherd) occupy the first positions at the halfway mark of the Scottish Open and Credit Suisse Challenge, respectively. It is truly a great day for goats, who are certainly an honorable breed of horse. One only needs see the empathy and pathos exhibited by Rob Schneider in The Zohan Chronicles to understand the importance and majesty of the goat. In fact, with the San Fermin festival running wild in Pamplona, Spain, is it too much to hope ... full post »

==Tiger Battling Boredom; Perry in Firestorm of Controversy== ==He risks the respect of his peers, however.== The first line above is a tag line from a TGC member email today. The second comes from the article itself. If you did not guess that “he” is Kenny Perry, he is. If you wonder why anyone would show disrespect toward the old-timer, welcome to the PGA Tour. Either the players or the writer edged dangerously close to membership in morons’r me. Perry didn’t qualify outright for The Masters, couldn’t physically put up with 36 holes of US Open qualifying the day after his ... full post »

I have selected three texts for appraisal this overcast July morning. Be warned: it may not be overcast where you are. The first is a titanic crime novel titled Improved Lies by Brian Kennedy. The second is a humanized version of the USGA rules of golf, titled Golf Rules Quick Reference, by Yves Ton-That. The third is a putting primer titled Optimal Putting by Geoff Mangum. Believe you me, I could not have picked three more disparate efforts for one combined review. If all goes well, you’ll have a sense (albeit not a ... full post »

It did not become clear to me until I opened the cover of a golf magazine this month and saw Luke Donald in a clothing advertisement. In all his sexy wimpiness, Donald is attired in trendy and oversized sunglasses, wearing all white (to match his blond locks, no doubt) with a racing stripe down the arm. I’ve seen Paul Casey and his Fosters-can biceps in similar style p.r., and he looks damned fine. This, then, is what has Vijay so pissed off. No one has asked the Freakin’ Fijian to be a faceboy for something so easily associated ... full post »

Two noteworthy golf writers question the absence of {buzz} (ick) regarding the Ryder Cup. I assume that they reference {buzz} on this side of the great ocean. We know what creates {buzz}, right? Madison Avenue does (is that where the advertising agencies continue to rent space?) Until the marketing machines ramp up their print, television and web campaigns, there will be no buzz. It would seem that a tiny, two-week gathering that happens about every four years will take away the focus of NBC from their Ryder Cup preparations. My guess is, you’ll begin ... full post »

If I played Torrey Pines, I’d play the 14th from the forward tees every day for the rest of my life. It would be part homage, part ego massage. In terms of homage, I’d remember Tiger opting to lay up, a supreme example of mind over matter, then bang away with my war club, hoping for the eternal ace. Regarding ego massage, when given a choice among a 450 yard par four and a 270 yard version, is there a decision to be made? I agree. If I were Mike Davis, I’d look to Bethpage Black and ... full post »

Nine birdies, nine pars, welcome to Endicott, New York. Joe Ozaki, younger brother of Jumbo Ozaki, scorched the dark earth of south-central New York State with an opening 63 on Independence Day. At this juncture, it appears that Ozone/Jimbo (feel free to submit your own nickname other than Jet) will have at least a four-stroke advantage on day two, as only John Harris is at -5. Harris, possessor of extremely silvery hair, is no bet to finish par-par. full post »

Last year the infinite P&G Beauty Northwest Arkansas Championship Presented By John Q. Hammonds (no shizzle, that is the entire event name) was canceled after one round, with then-amateur Stacy Lewis receiving the trophy for her opening 65. This year, play was suspended for 5 hours until 12:15, with no one hitting a shot. My guess is that Mr. Hammonds (if that really is his name) will apply for a change in dates to just about any other. Is this the one week that northwest Arkansas gets rain? They reach their quota for the year with half a ... full post »