Not now, of course. Golf course developers are cutting back on building new courses and focusing on renovating old ones.

“From hurricanes to a weakening economy, the golf industry hasn’t seen anything like this since the ’80s,” Russell Redford, CEO of the Redford Golf Group told Market Watch.

Look at it this way: We may not be able to play more new courses, but we can watch more golf reality shows.

Entertainment company WGL says it’s nearing agreements to air its new golf reality show “WGL Million Dollar Shootout” series.

Spike TV and ESPN are among the networks said to be interested.

Also on the positive side, Kodak says it will quit NASCAR and concentrate on golf, in terms of marketing.

I guess that’s positive.

Mickelson told AFP he hopes the Singapore Open becomes part of the European Tour.

“… If it were to become a European Tour event it would be great for me as it would be included as one of the now 12 events that you need to play to become a European Tour member,” Mickelson told the news service.

“Although I haven’t yet joined, it is something I am certainly considering.”

Who would have ever thought the European Tour would be where the money’s at?

Nice to know that when things are getting tough economically here at home, the already-wealthy American golfers are abandoning us for greener pastures.

I know that as soon as this is posted, some celebrity-lover like Chris Baldwin will point out several such deals, but it still seems stupid to me.

Callaway recently announced it “reached an agreement” with Justin Timberlake to “endorse and play Callaway equipment.”

The company said the terms of the contract “are not being disclosed.”

Damn! We need to get MSNBC on that. We NEED to know the terms of that contract.

“We’re thrilled to have Justin as part of the Callaway staff,” said some company mouthpiece on a press release. “He has everything we look for when signing new talent – natural ability, a strong worth ethic and passion for the game.”

“New talent?”

This is dangerous territory. We don’t need any more celebrities horning in on the sports world. They get enough women as it is.

The Club Glider from Sun Mountain is the best golf/travel bag I’ve ever used. It has fold-out legs that start roughly in the middle of the bag, and makes it so easy to roll, you can – I mean, literally – move it with your pinkie finger. Bag, clubs and everything you can stuff in it. They also have pivoting wheels.

Here’s my review of the bag.

Now, Club Glider is coming out with three different models: Pro, Meridian and Cascade. They’re designed from “weekend warriors” to pros, according to Sun Mountain.

The Meridian is the name for the original Club Glider. Cascade is the entry-level model and the Pro, the biggest, can carry a staff bag or two carry bags.

They range in price from $269 to $349.

I haven’t tried the other two, but the Meridian gets my vote. It’s worth the money if you travel a lot and want to save your aching back for golf.

My name is Tim McDonald and I approve this message. No, I ain’t getting paid a dime for it.

Mangrove Bay Golf Course is one of those munis nobody seems to ever bad-mouth.

It’s been around since for about30 years, and although it’s busy, the marshals are pretty aggressive in making sure pace of play keeps up.

It has cheap green fees – $30-$41 – is well-conditioned and convenient, sitting here in the heart of St. Pete.

It has decent length at 6,779 yards from the back tees and fairly easy, but a good day’s play, especially for the golfer who’s looking for a simple, fun day on the course.

The greens are particularly good, and some are tough. Otherwise, it’s pretty player-friendly. Most of the fairways have plenty of room, and there is little rough to speak of.

Plus, it’s good for walking, which you want in a muni.

Look for the full review here.

Granted, I’m playing golf during the day, but I’m also doing a lot of driving around town, including around Tropicana Park, and I see and hear – almost nothing.

A few small signs on businesses, a couple of people overheard talking about the game. That’s about it. If you didn’t pick up the local papers, you might never know the Tampa Bay Rays were playing a historic World Series with the Phillies.

Where are the raucous fans? Where are the huge banners? Where are the wild gatherings?

People make sport of St. Pete for being God’s Waiting Room, meaning they think it’s just a bunch of old people waiting to die.

That’s not totally accurate. I lived here for five years and had some pretty wild times here. There are a lot of young people here.

Maybe they’re just not baseball fans.

“I’ll have six months off from surgery,” Woods told ESPN. “That puts me into January. And another four months puts me pretty much at 10 months. That’s a long time. I figure I can come back after 10 months.”

Woods is basing his comments partly on how long it takes other athletes to come back from such injuries.

“Generally, it’s six to nine months when football players are able to come back and compete and play. And if they can do it at that level, I hope I can do it in golf.”

Woods said he is being cautious with his injury, and following doctor’s orders.

I’ve said before I think Woods’ chase of Jack Nickalus’ 18 wins in the majors is over, and I still believe that. Woods admitted he will have to tinker with his swing. Two full years before his injury is healed – PLUS tinkering with his swing.

Nicklaus’ record is safe for the foreseeable future.

The Belleview Biltmore Golf Club in Clearwater is such a course. Ross designed the layout back in the Roaring twenties, 1925 to be specific, right down the road from a course that claims to be the first in Florida, the Bellair Country Club.

The Biltmore shut down the course for about a year in 2001. Over time, bunkers had shrunk and some had disappeared altogether, because of maintenance costs.

But, the biggest problem was that modern technology had rendered them obsolete – oversized drivers meant golfers were simply blasting their tee shots well past the bunkers, taking them out of play.

So Chip Powell, who oversaw the renovation, with help from the Donald Ross Society, moved them back to where they would again serve their purpose.

It’s a fine golf course that showcases Ross’ elegant talents, from the bunkers to the playing corridors to the gracefully contoured, crowned greens. Playing a Ross course usually means that you have to pay more attention to the nuances of the game, more so than simply blasting the driver on every hole. Ross makes you think about your short game.

Look for the full review coming soon.

It’s ludicrous, of course. What’s even more ludicrous is that a State Supreme Court Judge issued a temporary restraining order against the club, forcing it to shut down the hole in question, the par-3 sixth hole on the East course.

Donald Trump is a member there, and he was quoted in the New York Times as saying he might “visit the gentleman,” referring to restaurant owner Anthony Pecora, the man who is bringing the lawsuit.

“I’d love to go and mediate it,” Trump told the paper.

First of all, if Trump came to me and tried to throw his weight around, I’d throw him out of my house. This guy thinks he has the profound respect of the world. News flash: He doesn’t.

Still, I’m in agreement with him, in theory. I simply cannot believe people would buy a home on a golf course and then complain about errant golf shots.

These sorts of cases crop up from time to time, and the golf clubs almost always win. Still, it’s caused one of the country’s best courses to become a 17-hole course.

I hope the club, after it wins the lawsuit, turns around and sues Pecora. They should also tell Trump to butt out.

This is the kind of thing where you’d love to run into the guy in a bar or out on the course and hear the story first-hand. In any event, Berle turned it into a book. Unfortunately, he decided to write it himself.

There’s some interesting stuff in there, but the self-published book has the feel of an amateur, a concert-promoter trying to write.

The bad writing takes away from the content, which is a shame because there’s some good material. He should have had a ghostwriter.

Read the whole book review here, and listen to Dave Berner’s podcast here.

Hershey, Pennsylvania is Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, except for real. I happen to be a choco-holic, and I knew I was where I should be when I drove down Chocolate Avenue. Seriously.

You can take a bath in a tub of cocoa at the Chocolate Spa. Again – seriously. Or a Fondue Wrap. Or a chocolate bean polish or chocolate “super scrub.”

Myself, I prefer just to eat the stuff.

The golf isn’t bad, either. Hershey Links is a scenic layout a touch over 7,000 yards from the back tees, on 175 rolling acres of natural bluffs and ravines, overlooking the Kingdom of Chocolate.

Read the hotel review here.

If you stay at one of the island’s three Super Clubs resorts – Grand Lido Braco, Grand Lido Negril or Breezes Runaway Bay – you can play at any of their owned or operated golf clubs for free.

No tee times, either. Just show up when you want and play as much as you want for free.

That includes the best one of the bunch – the Breezes Runaway Bay course. It also includes free instruction, both private sessions and on-course instruction.

It’s a good golf course, 6,870 yards from the back tees with a fairly mild slope rating of 124, which seems a bit low to be honest, especially when the wind can come howling through with gusts up to 35 miles per hour.

Look for full reviews of the resorts and the golf courses soon.

The show is based on teams of pros and amateurs, focusing on their skills and personalities as they do drills that are part of the Red Zone Challenge. The Red Zone, as we all probably know, is the scoring area where the short game is crucial.

The program was developed by Charlie King, director of the Reynolds Golf Academy.

“We think that golfers who watch this show will see other golfers facing the same obstacles as they do on the golf course, and see that there is a way to learn skills that will make them better golfers,” King said in a statement. “That will make them want to play more and enjoy the game more, which is the ultimate goal.”

The show will be broadcast in selected regions, including Philadelphia, New England, Chicago and California.

I’m specifically referring to an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal recently regarding the new course he’s designing on the Baja California coast in Mexico. It’s in a development called Punta Brava.

The development will have about 125 homes ranging in price from $3 million for a one-acre vacant lot to $3.5 million for a condo.

Interviewer: “I understand the cheapest homes on this course start in the multi-million-dollar range? Why did you choose to do a development that focuses on the high end?”

Woods: “I just wanted to do something that was on this amazing piece of property. Brady (Oman, one of the principals in the development group) allowed me to work on this project. It’s been unbelievable. It’s so beautiful there. You can see the ocean from all 18 holes. That’s something we didn’t ever want to lose.”

Interviewer: “Are you planning to have a home in Punta Brava?

Woods: “Yes.”

Interviewer: “What do you look for in a house?”

Woods: “I want my home to be comfortable, first off. And now that I have a family, being safe is very important. That is near and dear to me.”

Well, my home is comfortable and relatively safe, but somehow I don’t think Tiger would be interested.

Look, there’s nothing wrong in him saying “I’m Tiger Woods, I want my ‘brand’ to be the most upscale in the world and I am making enough money on this project to bail out Wall Street, for whom you work, you little cretin.”

I’d buy that.

The European Tour has just come out with its new look, a look that will take place in two dozen countries on five continents, culminating with the grand lalapalooza, the $20 million Dubai World Championships.

How can they do this, you’re asking? Isn’t Europe just as caught up in the global economic chaos as us?

Well, here’s a clue: In Arabic, the word Dubai means “we will crush you because we’re swimming in oil.”

So the European Tour has dropped its Order of Merit – which sounded so “European” – and replaced it with a name more suited to our times: “The Race to Dubai.”

Now, you might think that encouraging our players to defect to the European Tour could be considered unpatriotic.

Not so. PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem is a savvy businessman and can see which way the wind is blowing.

It’s all about oil now. More and more American corporations will go bankrupt. Same with our government, not to mention you and I. The oil industry is our savior.

I spoke with several tour officials, who preferred to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the subject and also because they hung up before I could get their names. They confirmed that the PGA Tour, in order to keep up with the Euros, has a similar plan.

It’s called the “Race to ANWR,” better known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It will make the $20 million Dubai World Championship seem puny.

Sarah Palin will hit the first, ceremonial tee shot. Behind her will be arrayed an army of mighty machinery, ready to drill as soon as Sarah America gives them the word.

So get ready to be the first on your block to buy the “Drill, Baby, Drill” t-shirt and support our oil companies.

Otherwise, you’re looking at solar panels, windmills and corn in your gas tank and we all might as well just up and move to Sweden.