I think TravelGolf’s West Coast Bureau Chief and blogger Chris Baldwin should quit his convoluted rantings about golf instructors and take a lesson. I’d like to say he definitely needs it because I’ve seen his golf game, but I haven’t. The one time I was supposed to play golf with him, he showed up with his arm in a sling. This was when he was new to the job and still trying to convince us he once played on the Hooters Tour. Some guys will say anything to get a job. I seem to recall telling publisher Robert Lewis me ... full post »

I know golf is a different kind of sport and you can play until you’re 106, but it still doesn’t seem right to me to have a guy still playing on the PGA Tour and be in the Hall of Fame. Nothing against Vijay Singh, who was just named to the HOF, but he’s only 42. Football, baseball and basketball players retire at that age, but not golfers. Officials say naming golfers to the HOF is tricky because they don’t retire. True, but can’t they wait until the guy is at least ready for the Seniors Tour – sorry, ... full post »

So I’m watching John Daly warm up for his playoff with Vijay Singh at the Houston Open by chain-smoking and joshing with buddies and officials, whoever happens to pass by. He finally warms up when he gets to the first tee, cigarette dangling from his mouth, ashes dropping on his shirt. A politically correct person I’m watching with is horrified. “Why doesn’t he take that thing out of his mouth? Do they have to show that? What kind of role model is he being?” I’ll bet if he had been taking sips off a cool one, you’d never hear such remarks. ... full post »

It seems to me that the problem of golf courses charging premium fees even while their courses are udergoing aerification or other types of maintenance that disrupt the golf, should be addressed by the National Golf Course Owners Association. This is a hot-button topic for golfers, who really get the screws put to them when they play a good course under lousy conditions. Any other business would give discounts or at least SOME incentive to play under sub-par conditions. Golf courses who respond that it costs them just as much money to operate the course under such conditions are ... full post »

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Brandon Tucker recently wrote a good blog about a course with bad conditions, but a reader pointed out that Brandon didn’t NAME the course, which is why a lot of people read TravelGolf.com, to learn which courses to avoid as well as which courses to play. So I’m calling on Brandon – name that course! full post »

I don’t know what The Rebel blogger has against Santee, but he’s at it again, disparaging the small, South Carolina town – even though he has apparently never been there. How can you ‘diss a place you’ve never been to? Easy, you call on all the old stereotypes. I’ve been to Santee, and enjoyed it thoroughly: the golf, the fishing and especially Spinners, the Gentlemen’s Club. This isn’t your average strip joint, like they have in Myrtle Beach and other places. It’s more of a friendly-bar type atmosphere, dare I say even a family environment, where the strippers ... full post »

There’s nothing I detest more than a phony, and Dennis Silvers, aka the Las Vegas Golf Guru, takes the cake. Here’s a guy who brayed and bragged about being a no-holds-barred, kick-ass, tell-it-like-it-is blogger. But, when it came time to do just that, he backed down into a corner like a quivering, church mouse. Turns out, the Guru was making money from all those Vegas kingpins who think nothing about screwing the little guy to make an extra buck. Oh, he had all kinds of nasty things to say about people OUTSIDE of Vegas, but when it came time to ... full post »

The older guy who had been playing in the group in front of me, who looked like he was comfortable ordering people around, was in a lather about the ball boy wiping his clubs down without permission. Now, it’s one thing for someone not to tip, it’s another matter entirely to try to embarrass people. Yes, I would probably agree the act of wiping down clubs is a manufactured task designed to get tips, but so what? These kids are working on the cheap, many of them trying to save money for college, so what’s the harm in tipping ... full post »

TAMPA – I’m becoming one of those people I loathe. It’s the result of staying at two of the best golf resorts in Florida – the Westin Innisbrook and Saddlebrook. Since they’re both excellent, I can’t help comparing the two in small, selfish ways. I don’t say these things out loud, but I can’t help them from forming somewhere in the pampered-and-obnoxious region of my brain, right below the medulla oblongata. The Westin has better parking, you can drive right to your villa – Saddlebrook makes you walk if you don’t want to pay for valet parking. Saddlebrook has fluffier bath robes, ... full post »

PALM HARBOR, Fl. – Hey, I’m no rube fresh off the hay truck – I know when you go to a golf resort, you’re going to pay resort prices. Just as when you go to an airport, you pay airport prices. But, still – enough is enough. I ordered a shot of Chivas from a clubhouse bar here at the Westin Innisbrook. I gave the bartender a $10 bill. You know how much I got back? Nothing, just a handshake and a how-do-you-do. I should have been a man about it and ventured onto Highway 19 and gone to ... full post »

If you’re a serious carnivore and you’ve been to Tampa, you’ve probably eaten at Bern’s Steakhouse. I have another great steak place for you: Packard’s, at the Westin Innisbrook resort, at nearby Palm Harbor. They bring out a cart-load of meat for you to stare at before you order, so you know it’s a classy joint. It looked so good, I wanted to eat it right off the cart, but I backed off because there were women in the room. They have cuts ranging from “mega-lumberjack” to “instant-death-by-cholesterol.” I got a barbecue shrimp appetizer and a filet with ... full post »

PALM HARBOR, Fl. – I was born and raised in Florida, so when I drive down the horror that is Highway 19 these days, starting well north of Tarpon Springs, I can only shake my head and mutter at what it’s turned into. Tatoo joints, strip malls, bumper-to-bumper traffic. That’s why I was pleasantly shocked when I turned into the Westin Innisbrook resort, right off 19. I’ve only played one course here so far, the Island, but there are pockets of swamp that looked like the Florida I grew up in as a kid – moss-draped Cypress trees, bald eagles, ... full post »

Pro athletes are so predictable. All you have to do is pick them to win, and they lose. Pick them to lose, and they win. It’s all about motivation and perceived respect – or disrespect. I’ve done this for years in my storied journalistic career, and it is a nearly infallible rule. When I wrote that Tiger had taken himself out of the running at the Masters, after his initial screw-ups, I knew exactly what effect it would have. Now, I happen to know that, obviously, Tiger doesn’t read this blog, but a very close friend of his ... full post »

Here’s some thoughts from TravelGolf’s Jennifer Mario. I was wondering the same thing: Why is CBS holding the Masters hostage? Right now Tiger’s made seven straight birdies to steal the lead from Chris DiMarco. This is exciting stuff, and what is CBS airing? Besides CBS News Sunday morning, we’ll also be treated to The Backyardigans and Dora the Explorer. Okay, so maybe they’re married to their own programming, but CBS doesn’t even have the decency to farm it out to ESPN, or even USA. USA is now showing some quality infomercials. Surely the Golf Channel would be happy ... full post »

I knew Vijay Singh was Indian, but I didn’t know he was a master tracker. I thought it was only American Indians who could track a lizard over rock, but apparently Singh, an Indian from Fiji, managed to track Phil Mickelson’s golf shoe cleat prints, which have gone from six milimeters to eight in recent weeks, on the greens of Augusta. The guy recognized a TWO MILLIMETER difference! Singh noticed what he considered illegal cleat marks on the group in front of him in Friday’s round, and determined them to be from Mickelson. He told officials, who checked Mickelson’s ... full post »

I’m watching these chuckleheads on TV, one of those idiotic shows where a bunch of sportswriters sit around arguing (what is it about this country now where all we do is sit around either arguing or watching other people argue?) and they’re all high and mighty about the people who called the Masters on the phone to say Tiger Woods broke the rules when he tapped in a bogey putt. “Bad for the game.” “Ridiculous,” they intone. I say, what’s the problem? Golf is an elitist game – geting a little interaction from the Great Unwashed is good. Giving ... full post »

What’s up with Tiger Woods at the Masters? He putts the ball into a CREEK. He hits a flag, knocking his ball into a bunker. On Friday, he hits a tree on No. 8 and ends up with a bogey. A soggy Augusta has El Tigre tossing clubs and kicking his bag. Then he gets accused of an illegal putting stance when he tapped in a putt at No. 14. You think there’s a golf official in the world, even at the Masters, who’s going to penalize him for a tap-in putt? How does he feel about all this? We ... full post »

With rain pouring down at Augusta, like it is here in northeast Florida, I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you who is going to win the Masters. Everybody’s talking about Phil Mickelson, who won’t win it because he has the game but not the nerve. Ernie Els has had his chances; you only get those so often at Augusta. Tiger Woods, maybe. Retief Goosen is just not playing as well as he is capable of right now, which even he will tell you. The guy everybody seems to be forgetting is the one who should be on everyone’s ... full post »

I guess all that controversy over letting women join the Augusta National boys club is over. It was never that much to begin with – only 40 people showed up at the rally well-known feminist Martha Burk organized there a couple years ago, less than the media and cops present. Hootie Ingram defused that situation very efficiently: he just held his tournament without advertisers, who felt threatened by the idea of a boycott. Now, they’re back of course, and there will be more television coverage than ever – 90 minutes more, to be exact. As for Burk, she said she would ... full post »

I have to agree with my younger and less insightful colleague, Chris Baldwin, though I usually disagree with him on more complicated matters, which tend to confuse him. This one is easy, though: I don’t see Phil Mickelson repeating at The Masters either, especially if it’s close, as the tournament is likely to be. There seems to be this national subtext: we all want Lefty to win. He’s smiling all the time – why, I can’t say – and he’s got the soft, lumpy body of most weekend warrriors. He talks like us, he says “awesome,” and “cool,” all that ... full post »

I agree with the decision of Hootie Ingram not to introduce a doctored golf ball to this year’s Masters. Why single out the tournament to play with golf balls that don’t travel light years, as today’s modern golf balls do? Jack Nicklaus feels the Masters is one of the few places that has the power to introduce the change, since the USGA doesn’t have the guts to do it. Part of golf’s popularity lies in the fact the average hacker uses the same equipment and the same venues as the pros. Nicklaus should get off his high horse. At ... full post »

Dennis Silvers, blogging for TravelGolf under the name “Las Vegas Golf Guru,” has been suspended until further notice, pending the outcome of an internal review. Silvers failed to disclose business interests in Las Vegas to TravelGolf, prompting the review by the golf network. full post »