European Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam is telling Euros to ditch their riches in America and come home to Europe, if they want to play on his team. Euros get points in two ways: from the world rankings points and from European Tour results. It’s possible a European player could get a lot of world points, but lose out on the team if he doesn’t garner enough European Tour points. “I will be speaking to them,” Woosnam told Reuters. “I want that sort of player in the team.” Imagine the American Ryder Cup captain trying to fiddle with the schedules of American ... full post »

You have to feel for everybody in Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina swept through, including the Mississippi Golf Coast, in the Biloxi-Gulfport area. You can bet those courses won’t be up and running for some time, if ever. Calls to the area were, not surprisingly, unsuccessful. In fact, we here in Florida are having a difficult time calling out anywhere, and we were just slapped by the storm. The Gulf Coast was dealt a haymaker. What a complete shame: the Golf Coast is a great area, with all those casinos and good courses nearby. Here’s wishing them a successful recovery; I ... full post »

You can tell by Jennifer Mario’s wild and frizzy hair that she’s a young radical too caught up in the culture of pop and youth. She wanted Nancy Lopez to pick Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel for the U.S. Solheim Cup team. Instead, Lopez picked Beth Daniel and Wendy Ward. Ward is one of the hottest players on the LPGA Tour right now, and Daniel is a solid veteran that will help the team in all kind of ways. Whatever happened to earning you way onto a team that represents America? Wie is all the rage now, with her crazed, aggressive ... full post »

I’m not sure if the Auburn-Opelika area is the best metro golf destination in the country, as Golf Digest claims, but it does have some great golf at bargain basement prices. The two Grand National courses alone are worth a stay. Both the Lake and Links courses have $55 green fees and would be twice that at many other places in the country. They are that good, both designed by Robert Trent Jones. There is also a good short course. Moore’s Mill and Auburn Links are also good as well as cheap. Now, Auburn-Opelika doesn’t exactly set the night on fire as far ... full post »

It’s early, but thus far Florida has a commanding lead over Alabama in the Great Barbecue Wars. Tonight, I ate at the Barbecue House, the oldest barbecue joint in Auburn, Alabama. It came highly reccommended, and I was quivering with hungry excitement. The first sign something was wrong was when they told me they were out of chicken. How can you call yourself a barbecue joint and be out of chicken at 6 p.m.? The pulled pork was bland, the barbecued cole slaw (which I’d never had and was feverishly anticipating) was bland and even the baked beans were tasteless. ... full post »

The 54-hole Grand National complex in Opelika has to be one of the better deals in the South, and on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. Both the Lake and Links courses are excellent layouts, set well back in the east Alabama hills, with good elevation changes and terrific views of the big Lake Saugahatchee and surrounding countryside. Green fees here are in the $55 range, about half of what you’d pay in many other parts of the country, especially for a Robert Trent Jones designed course. Jones allegedly said this was one of the best areas he’d ever seen for a ... full post »

I know I’m a little late with the Great Tiger Woods Bailout – hey, seven hours of driving through the boring Alabama countryside will do that – but I cannot resist jumping in. Was Tiger wrong? Of course he was. He was the leader in the clubhouse for a while there, and anything could have happened, even in the relatively few holes left at the PGA. What if the other guys had stumbled, which isn’t exactly unheard of when Phil Mickelson is playing. You would have had a fiasco of momunmental proportions. Those people who say Tiger can do it because he’s, ... full post »

More than a few people were stunned when Golf Digest picked the Auburn-Opelika area as the best “metro” area for golf in the U.S. Don’t count the people in Auburn-Opelika among them. They were happy about the recognition, but sort of took the news in stride. Anyway, I got curious, so I’m heading up there in a couple of days to report on whether or not the ranking is valid. Anybody ever played there? Is it worthy of the ranking? We’ll see. full post »

All this worry and hand-wringing over advancing technology in golf equipment strikes me as a little hysterical. It reminds me of that era when basketball fans were clamoring to have the basket moved higher than 10 feet, when it seemed like everyone and his brother was dunking. Thank god the basketball gods never did, because it would have changed the game, making it different from the one you and I play. Yes, pro golfers are longer off the tee these days, just like hoopsters are dunking more. But, at least from a specators’ vantage, isn’t it fun to watch high-flying slamma-jammas? ... full post »

So Lefty didn’t blow it, but all you Phil Mickelson fans out there, admit it: you waited til he sank that one and a half foot putt on No. 18 before you breathed a sigh of relief, didn’t you? And you, Rebel Blogger, what do you have to say for yourself, now? Still enjoy watching Mickelson play, waiting for him to choke? Guess you’ll have to be content watching Greg Norman on the Geezer Circuit, or any of the PGA Tour events he deigns to play. I really think Mickelson will be less apt to gag now that he’s won another major. ... full post »

Is Lefty back? Maybe – after taking a four-shot lead at the PGA Championship. The question is, why didn’t he go to that power fade before this? Why did he wait so long? Nicklaus used a fade to perfection, taking one whole side of trouble out of play. Still, there’s two long days left and we all know Lefty has a tendency to get a little tight around the collar in the big ones. All those Lefty lovers must be real nervous… full post »

European golfers have already offered their pre-excuses of why they can’t win U.S. majors and particularly the PGA Championship. Now, the fawning European golf media is getting into it. John Huggan is a columnist for Scotland on Sunday and a European correspondent for Golf Digest and Golf World. He lives in Scotland. He lists five factors why the Euros can’t win here, and most are typical European whining, except for the last one. 1-Europeans were unable to play in U.S. majors for many years, for whatever reasons. That may have been true in the past, but not in recent decades. 2-He uses ... full post »

Well, the Europeans are already making excuses for the PGA Championship this week at 7,392-yard Baltusrol. “They’ve made the same old mistake, gone for length instead of subtlty,” Irishman Paul McGinley told the Irish Examiner. “Length, length, length, that’s not what the game is about, and still they’re going to have good scoring here because the greens are soft.” Well, you know this happens all the time at majors. This is what they do, make the courses longer so it will be more of a test, hopefully to produce a great champion. McGinley went on to imply the course is being set ... full post »

I’m not quite ready to make a prediction about who will win the PGA Championship at Baltusrol this week. But, I am ready to make a prediction about who will NOT win. Any European. The last European to win a PGA Championship was Scot Tommy Armor 75 years ago. It won’t happen this year, not with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and South African Retief Goosen in the field, among others. Why is it Europeans can be so good in the Ryder Cup, yet so lousy in head-to-head competition? I guess it’s because they were brought up in team-oriented golf and always crow about ... full post »