All hail the Funk. Fred Funk turned 50 last week and is eligible for the Senior Tour, to be purposely confused with the Champions Tour. It would be easy to predict Funk will be the new Dominator on the old guys tour, and so I will make that prediction. The guy is still kind of a force on the PGA Tour, having made 11 of 15 cuts this year. He has two top-10s, and has earned over a cool million the last six years. He’s second in driving accuracy, to hardly anyone’s surprise. His exemption for winning The Players Championship carries ... full post »

Well, I guess we should go back to hating Colin Montgomerie again. In one of those weird transformations that happen occasionally in sports and politics, American golf galleries have lately been embracing Montgomerie, Scotland’s greatest golfer. Whether it’s sympathy, empathy or weight loss, the Scot was one of the gallery favorites at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. I guess we’d all forgotten how churlish he can be and concentrated at his perennial runner-up status at majors. For some reason, I was among the Montgomerie fans. But, there he was getting peeved at the spectators again, directing them – albeit politely, ... full post »

I’m sure glad the PGA Tour doesn’t have a Mark Cuban. Professional golf may be a sellout to the increasing corporate influence that is gulping down all of our society, but at least it doesn’t have loud-mouthed owners trying to turn the attention on themselves. I started out pulling hard for the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, but by the fourth or fifth game, I completely changed allegiance, all because of Cuban, the Mavericks’ obnoxious owner. I tried to ignore him for a long time because I liked the Mavericks so much more than the Heat, though Dwayne Wade was ... full post »

Here I was all set to blast Phil Mickelson for his monumental collapse at the U.S. Open. He’s a big target, and an easy one. But, I can’t bring myself to do it. It isn’t sympathy, although god knows he is certainly deserving of that. I was surprised to feel a little admiration creeping in, for a guy I’ve never really liked. Mickelson lives by the sword and just as frequently gets impaled on it. Beneath that pudgy, benign exterior beats the heart of a riverboat gambler. Sure, he could have played it conservative at No. 18, slapping it out of the ... full post »

Here’s what I don’t understand about Winged Foot and the U.S. Open. Everyone knows about the rough. Everyone knows to avoid it. If you don’t, you’re screwed. Simple. Easy to understand. By now, everyone knows the greens are much slower than anyone expected. Then why – time and time again – are they leaving it short? These pros, the best in the world, come in from the second or third round and say “gee, those greens are not as fast as I thought they’d be. I left some putts short.” Who broke the big news to them? They should have known this after ... full post »

If you’re headed to the Bahamas, especially Exuma, to play golf, make sure you get your malaria shots or pills. Health officials have reportedly confirmed 16 cases of malaria on the island. There isn’t an outright panic yet but the issue is being treated seriously there, particularly since tourism has been booming in Exuma in recent years. The timing couldn’t be worse for the Four Seasons Resort, which just opened at Emerald Bay. Health officials are trying to make sure it doesn’t spread to other parts of the Bahamas. Residents and guests are being told to cover up at night and use insect ... full post »

I agree completely with Bill Wolfrum’s blog about Canada. Canada is like that big, lumbering oaf you can’t help but like, and I mean that in a good way. I just got back from playing 10 days of golf in Canada, and the best part was the company. Almost every day, I was teamed up with Canadians, not surprisingly, and I spent a great deal of time chuckling and some considerable time guffawing. They’re some of the least self-conscious people I’ve met. I’ve played with a lot of Canadians in Myrtle Beach – you can always spot them because of their ... full post »

Whatever happened to bold predictions? I was all set to take Shanks to task for predicting Michelle Wie to win the LPGA Championship – having vaguely remembered he had made some sort of prediction of same. But, when I went back and really read his blog, his “prediction” was so namby-pamby, I decided it wasn’t worth it. “I would be surprised if she is not in the hunt on the back nine Sunday, but I would not be surprised if she takes home the prize,” he lamely predicts. Man, that’s really going out on a limb, saying you would be surprised if ... full post »

Since I’m currently in Canada, I feel compelled to bring you this news: He’s not Michelle Wie, but he IS in the U.S. Open. Canadian Brad Fritsch won a dramatic, sectional qualifier to earn a spot in the U.S. Open. Fritsch is a good example of how some very good stories from the U.S. Open qualifying were lost in the Wie publicity glare. He’s been a touring pro for six years from Newfoundland to France. His total earnings this year on the Canadian Tour – $2,186. He had thoughts about quitting this past summer, but decided to stick with it. “There’s a saying ... full post »

Is Annika Sorenstam going through a Tiger Woods-like season of distraction? Remember when Woods got married and went through a slump (well, it was a slump for him)? People were predicting it was the end of the Woods era. Now, look at him. Sorenstam, the dominant player in women’s golf, has won one tournament this year, compared to five last year. She actually missed a cut earlier this year for the first time in almost four years. This happens with phenomenal success sometimes, athletes getting involved in too many things as a result of their success. Sorenstam is getting involved in the ... full post »

I don’t know why, but I’m attracted to golf courses built on old, city dumps. True, I like the environmental reasons – turning formerly rancid land into land for public use. But, it’s more than that. City dumps, old railroad yards, etc. can be interesting terrain, ripe for good golf courses. I’m thinking of the excellent Kinderlou course in Valdosta, carved from an old borrow pit. Or the Wildcat in Houston, built over an old city dump or the River Club in Augusta, which sits on the site of an abandoned railroad yard and illegal dump. Add to that collection the Fire ... full post »

I haven’t heard so many excuses since Bush tried to explain away the lack of weapons of mass destruction. The sectional qualifier for the U.S. – MEN’S – Open that Michelle Wie predictably failed inevitably turned into an Olympics of excuses. “She’s so young…she’s only 16…there was too much pressure on her…she’s playing against some of the best in the world.” Well, that’s the whole point, and it’s what I’ve been saying all along. Wie has enormous talent and potential, but her misguided effort to play with the men at this stage of her career is more marketing ploy than any noble ... full post »

Traveling golfers sick of lugging their golf clubs through airports got a bit of bad news recently. A golf club rental/demo company called Gear to Go, that I thought had a great deal of potential, has closed, it says temporarily. “We’re in the process of seeking funding to reopen Phoenix again next November as well as expand into Palm Springs, San Diego, Monterey, Reno/Tahoe and Las Vegas over the following twelve months,” company president Bob Klingensmith told TravelGolf. “With success at that level, we’ll expand nationally during the following 12 months. It all depends on funding.” It’s a great idea. You ... full post »

Jack Nicklaus is supposed to be retired, but his continued insistence on trying to change the game of golf to suit his personal ideas is still causing controversy. Nicklaus, well-known for his criticisms of Augusta National for trying to keep up with the times and lengthen its layout, apparently thinks he can do anything he likes with “his” tournament, the Memorial. Nicklaus took the thoroughly weird step of snapping off every other tine in the bunker rakes at the Memorial. The idea, as he told ESPN, was to “equalize the game. I think the game was about 80 percent shotmaking ... full post »

I hope you weren’t planning to play the Blue Monster at Doral this summer. The course will be closed May, June and July for renovations. It is scheduled for re-opening Sept. 1. Officials are re-grassing of all 18 greens, as well as the practice putting green, with TifEagle Bermuda. The course is also undergoing a complete bunker renovation. Other improvements include: all of the cart paths will be replaced with new concrete; some carts will be a whopping 12 feet wide to help with the World Golf Championships tournament. full post »

I love a feel-good, underdog story as much as the next guy, maybe more. In fact, if I have no other compelling reason to root for someone, I’ll almost always choose the underdog. But, for the life of me, I cannot make myself root for Michelle Wie to qualify for the U.S. Open. Not the women’s. The men’s. I like Wie, at least what I’ve seen of her on television, and I’m all for Title IX and equality for women, but this just looks and smells like a publicity stunt. Now, if Wie had the same accomplishments as Annika Sorenstam, I’d be ... full post »