If you haven’t been to Sarasota in the last 10 years, you may not recognize it. The place has really boomed in the last five years. Once part of that area known as “God’s waiting room,” it’s experiencing both growth and an influx of yuppies. The average age is now lower than 98. The place has always been a bastion of older, wealthier folks who wanted the sleepy town to stay exactly the way it was. But, you can’t contain growth in Florida, and Sarasota has learned that. The result is a building boom, which includes golf courses. Sarasota County is home ... full post »

The Venetian Golf and River Club, in North Venice, just outside Sarasota, Florida, has a driving range that actually makes warming up fun. It’s a lake, for christ’s sake. Now, I’m sure there is someone out there who will point out other courses that have watery driving ranges, but it’s the first time I’ve run across one, and it’s a blast. They have floating greens with flags and when you try and hit them it’s almost like when you were a kid playing some stupid, made-up game just for the sake of playing it. I almost forgot my tee time. The ... full post »

Lost in the crazed madness of the U.S. Solheim Cup team win this past weekend was veteran Mark Calcavecchia’s first win in four years. It was almost but not quite a blast from the past, when the 45-year old won the Canadian Open even though his last two rounds were over par. His five-under 275 for the tourney was the highest score on the PGA Tour this year, other than the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. Here I was thinking just the other day Calcavecchia was through. He was starting to seem like an anachronism, one of those older, also-rans you thought ... full post »

All those Nancy Lopez critics who stubbornly cling to their mis-placed critiques of the Solheim Cup captain should listen to the U.S. youngsters. You see, picking a team to play in international competition is more than just looking at numbers. It’s striking the right balance, which Lopez did to perfection. Paula Creamer: “I mean, I played with two veterans and Christie Kerr. What better than to have a first Solheim Cup than that?” Chrstina Kim: “Players of the likes of Julie, Rosie Michele, Pat, Nancy Meg, Beth all of them, they came in and told us of their past experiences, so we could ... full post »

Nancy Lopez sure knows how to pick them, huh? The U.S. Solheim Cup team, displaying a perfect blend of youth and experience, won the Cup easily Sunday, taking six of the first seven singles matches and running away with it. Lopez made her team practice alternate shot play before it ever arrived at Crooked Stick, and it paid off. The two teams were tied at 8 going into Sunday’s final match, which had to make U.S. fans happy, since Americans usually dominate individual play. They did, and the Cup remains on American soil. I guess all those critics who said Lopez is ... full post »

I have a theory about why the Solheim Cup is getting so much interest this year. It’s a pretty simple theory: The U.S. men can’t win the Ryder Cup, so we’re pinning our hopes on the women. Americans are getting fed up with the pampered U.S. male golfers who seem to go down every other year to the Europeans without much of a fight. The U.S. team squabbles with each other, they’re aloof, they don’t seem to care that much, about each other, the event itself or even the American fans who are ostensibly pulling for them. Maybe the women will be ... full post »

While the PGA rivals FEMA in its red tape-hampered assistance to Hurricane Katrina victims, players and courses are doing it directly. Greg Norman lent both his helicopter and pilot to the rescue efforts, helping ferry medical supplies to hospitals. Other courses all over the country are holding every kind of fundraiser. Desert Dunes Golf Club in Hot Springs, CA, will be donating 25 percent of all green fees to the effort, to name just one example. Why can’t the PGA just write a check, as so many other athletes and entertainers are doing? full post »

This is a little belated, but I have to respond to the Rebel Blogger, who once again must have had some of that wacky tobaccy in his cigar. He responded to a blog I wrote praising Thistle Golf Club near Myrtle Beach for its 12-minute interval tee times, a welcome change of pace on the Grand Strand. The Rebel said it was a PR ploy built to disguise the fact the Thistle’s rounds were sagging. Actually, rounds are sagging everywhere on the Grand Strand – that doesn’t take away from the 12-minute intervals. Also, note that the Thistle instituted those 12-minute tee ... full post »