This Week at TravelGolf.com: June 20, 2006

The U.S. Open's final hour: Golf at its best

Golf doesn't get much more ridiculous than the final hour of the 2006 U.S. Open Sunday. Chip-ins for par, balls in trash cans, doubles from the middle of the fairway, doubles from the roof of the beer tent ... with pity for Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie aside, it was the most entertainment I've had watching the tour guys possibly ever.

It also makes me wonder: Why doesn't the PGA Tour do events like this?

Aside from the U.S. and British Opens (along with a Ryder Cup Matches every two years), each week is business as usual for fans of pro golf. It's a standard formula: Put the best golfers on the best courses with the best conditions in the world and let them shoot lights out. Greens at Winged Foot were criticized constantly for not being fast or consistent enough. The Memorial drew upheaval recently for making bunkers difficult, as if it wasn't their purpose all along.

How can golf fans everywhere - who face inconsistent greens and stone-filled bunkers - relate? Where's the humanity, which we saw Sunday, in playing private and $200-courses in immaculate shape week in and week out?

I enjoyed watching Phil spray his drives - just like I did all last week golfing in Michigan.

How about some more tournaments that make tour players look human?

Such as:

A PGA Tour event where the pros have to share golf carts. Imagine the awkwardness as Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia fight over who drives. Vijay tells Sergio to quit parking so close to his backswing, and yells at him later in the round for always driving to his own ball rather than helping him look for his in the woods.

Or, what if the tour played a venue where the weather isn't perfect? Instead of Hawaii in December, Florida in the spring and the Midwest in the summer, why not have a tour stop in upstate New York in March? Or see which player is the most in shape with a stop in Scottsdale in June?

Other events sure to spice things up include: The Rental Club Open, The Local Muni Classic, and the July 4th Cup, where tee times are spaced out every four minutes, rounds take six hours, and sometimes the group ahead forgets to replace the flagstick.

Now we just gotta find some sponsors.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

Swimming with the fishes makes Cabo
more than your ordinary golf hot spot

It's easy to fall in love with the golf in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. But make that your only mistress and your vacation spice will be sorely lacking. You'll find some of the best snorkeling in the world off this peninsula, plus deep sea fishing, sailing, kayaking and more. If you like the sea, you need to be in it at least as often as you are the huge bunkers at Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s Cabo Real.

Also: Luxury golf communities reshaping Mexico's Cabo coast

Roger Clemens: An ace collects
aces as he avoids retirement

If the Boston Red Sox had agreed to let Roger Clemens smack balls on the driving range on days he pitches, The Rocket might have just ended up back in Fenway. Don't laugh: He's that addicted to chasing the little white ball. Clemens may have put off retirement (yet again) to return to pitch for his hometown Houston Astros. But there's no way he is putting off his golf.

Also: Cardinals ace Mark Mulder talks pitching confidence and golf

Florida golf vacations: Disney still tops
in Orlando, but great courses abound

The Disney empire has overshadowed everything in the Orlando area for years. But golf is emerging as an important partner to the vacation capital of the U.S. This week host Dave Berner and Tim McDonald talk Orlando exclusively. They discuss Reunion Resort, Isleworth Country Club, Orange County National, Grande Lakes Grand Cypress and more. And Tim talks up some of the great golf available just outside the city, such as Mission Inn, home of the stellar El Campeon course.

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