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Tens of thousands of golfers have improved their skills and technique via the teaching and writings of the world-renowned instructor, Jim McLean. They might all be worse off in the swing department if a North Carolina patrolmen had shown a little mercy one warm evening 33 years ago. The year was 1977 and the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School was being played at the Pinehurst Resort in the Carolina Sandhills. That era was known for its continual experimentation with Q School formats and policies, and ’77 was certainly a tinkered-with edition of the annual ordeal. Known as a marathon that would stretch out ...

If you were anything like me in high school, you spent a lot of time during history class drawing impossibly difficult golf holes in your notebook.  What avid golfer doesn’t imagine he could design a great layout? Several years ago, Phoenix-based golf course architect Greg Nash-- Billy Casper’s partner, and designer of dozens of courses-- offered me the chance to quit day-dreaming and step up to the drawing board.  Nash agreed to build one golf hole of entirely my creation into a layout he was designing near Las Vegas. Nash was tired of golfers misunderstanding the difficult nature of course design.  He ...

After resigning as Tiger Woods’ swing coach, Hank Haney said that it was strictly his decision and told Golf.com that “Tiger won’t spin it any other way.” Later, Woods wrote on his website that “Hank Haney and I have agreed that he will no longer be my coach.” If not backspin, that’s at least some sidespin, no? The story behind the Haney resignation story is that it was probably a case of, “You can’t fire me, I quit.” (Or “You can’t quit me, I’m fired,” as the old joke goes.) There have been rumors and reports of Woods sending out feelers ...

The final round of the Players Championship could have been titled Three Men Desperately in Search of a Win (for this post, we’ll ignore the subplot titled Pain in the Neck, more on that later). The leader, Lee Westwood, hadn’t won in his last 125 PGA Tour events since a lone victory in 1998, and had finished second or third in the last three major championships. He was being chased by Robert Allenby, winless in 222 PGA Tour starts since his last win in 2001, and Tim Clark, who had never won in 205 attempts on the PGA Tour. Clark ...

Jack Nicklaus was in his prime when he took a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the 1976 Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. He proceeded to shoot an 82 in the final round, including a 45 on the back nine. The weather wasn’t even bad that day, but Nicklaus was. Nicklaus had just turned 36 when he had that horrific round, but he rebounded to win 14 more tournaments and four more majors in his career. It’s an instructive round to remember in light of Tiger Woods’ terrible 79 and 43 on the back nine in missing the cut ...

Behind many of his more than 250 golf designs in more than 40 countries on six continents, stands a man who works on many levels, who welcomes a new challenge, and who sees the game and his pursuit of it as not just a physical-- but as a metaphysical-- journey.  Like the best writers and artists, Jones employs subtext and symbolism, imagery and illusion, as well as a range of other techniques from the verbal and visual arts to express aspects of philosophy, drama, and aesthetics.  And his courses tell stories. Jones may actually be an even better storyteller than he ...

Several years ago, my friend (and self-made millionaire) Nate offered to pay me $6,000 a month to follow a story he believed would make a gripping book and movie. My job was to track the story’s progress, scribble notes and wait to see whether certain events panned out in a way that would make them worth writing about. At the time, I was between book contracts and struggling to finish a novel, and found his proposition too sweet to pass up. Nate’s story was about Jerry Major, a 41-year old golfer who’d qualified for the U.S. Open 20 years ...

Mark O’Meara doesn’t have a bad life.  He plays golf for a living, and finds time to fly fish and hunt when he’s not on the course.  He’s sometimes able to drag his good friend Tiger Woods along to the river. Mark’s 22 year sojourn on the PGA Tour has been impressive.  Since being named rookie of the year in 1981, he’s notched sixteen professional victories, including both the Masters and British Open in 1998, and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on four different occasions.  He lives in the Orlando, Florida area with his wife Alicia, daughter Michelle and son ...

Jon Krakauer in 2006 with Commander Ghulam Khalil of the Afghan Special Forces.   Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer's narrative of pro football player Pat Tillman's odyssey, as he calls it, from the playing field to the battlefield, is nuanced, thorough and chilling. The outline of Tillman's story is well-known, but the details Krakauer tallies, based on reporting trips to Afghanistan and interviews with many of the soldiers who participated in the fratricidal firefight that killed Tillman, give this story the weight it deserves. Though we know before we even begin reading that Tillman will die, Krakauer's sympathetic account of Tillman's journey ...

Nationally speaking, the name Tim Cate doesn’t necessarily jump out in the world of golf course architecture. In fact, many people in the country probably never heard of him. In the Coastal Carolinas, though, Cate needs little introduction, especially along the Grand Strand or golf mecca of Myrtle Beach.             Basically, along this 60-mile coastal stretch that runs from Georgetown, S.C., to Calabash, N.C., Cate is one of the most successful and popular architects around – having designed numerous top-ranked courses such as Panther’s Run and Tiger’s Eye at Ocean Ridge Plantation, the Players Club at St. James Plantation and The ...

A cold, hard sideways rain  rattles the windows at Bandon Dunes  as Grant Rogers, the resort’s director of instruction, looks outside. He  doesn’t appear all that happy about playing in this weather—it isn’t nearly bad enough to suit him. “I like when you have to bring your North Face gear to play,” Rogers observes, scanning the windswept links. “There are other extreme sports. Why can’t there be extreme golf? There’s no bad weather for golf; there’s just weather. People should experiment with it because some people who think they won’t like it will like it a lot. Anything can happen, and that’s ...

The Asia Pacific Golf Summit in Kuala Lumpur in late October highlighted the degree to which people who make their living in the game are praying that the decision to include golf as an Olympic sport, starting in 2016 in Rio, will revive our moribund industry. The Summit was a pretty typical example of its species—the regional golf show, featuring various industry insiders, most of whom pay for the privilege of parading their expertise before a captive audience. Some of the speakers had interesting things to say, but for most of the industry insiders, sitting though ...

This column was originally written for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the summer of 2007 but never ran in the paper because I never made it to the golf tournament in Vernon, B.C. Norman and Evert separated in October 2009. Sometimes you don’t want to look behind the curtain. You don’t want to know what’s going on back there. Especially when it involves a person you idolize such as Greg Norman. You should just watch him golf and reminisce, revel in his former greatness, and leave it at that. Norman is playing in the TELUS World Skins Game in the Canadian Okanagan, competing ...

This column originally appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2006: SNOQUALMIE, Wash. – “Don’t you have any new questions, like why am I fat?” Craig Stadler asked before yesterday’s Wells Fargo Pro-Am at Snoqualmie Ridge. I was squeezing in an interview before Stadler teed off, and he was already busting my chops. “Do I know you well enough yet to say ‘(Bleep) you?’ ” I asked. “Absolutely,” Stadler replied. “The sun’s up, isn’t it?”  For the next three hours, the Go 2 Guy tagged along with Stadler on the front nine, posing as his caddie as he prepared for the Boeing Greater Seattle Classic, which starts today.  I ...

Second in a Series David McLay Kidd’s first golf course design project, Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast, was a spectacular success, launching a career that is, judged by the standard biographical trajectory of most prominent golf course architects, still in its adolescence. An unlikely prodigy in a profession whose leading practitioners emphasize the virtue of experience and the wisdom that comes with maturity, Kidd emerged full-blown, as it were, gifted and composed. I had the good fortune to meet David on the cusp of his fame, in a soft pre-opening of Bandon Dunes. Mike Keiser, Bandon’s developer, invited a group of ...

This column originally appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the summer of 2006: STATELINE, Nev. – Charles Barkley, chronologically… It’s Wednesday night and I somehow finagled my way into a pairings party for the American Century Championship atop the Harvey’s Casino parking lot. I am trying to confirm with Barkley that I will indeed caddie for him in Thursday’s pro-am, as he promised last week. Mingling with celebrities galore, including Donald Trump, I am clearly out of my element but decide to partake of the Alaskan king crab and lobster bisque and free booze anyway. When you’re as big as Barkley is, you can never ...

David Fay, Executive Director of the USGA, grew up in the New York metropolitan area and began his golf career working for the Metropolitan Golf Association. From those humble beginnings, Fay was recently awarded the MGA's Distinguished Service Award for 2009. What follows is the article originally published in the November/December issue of The Met Golfer magazine, profiling Fay and his accomplishments. David Fay is a rabid fan of the Yankees, Giants, and most other New York teams, so when asked how he feels about being honored with the MGA’s Distinguished Service Award for 2009, he uses a sports cliché to ...

http://www.theday.com/article/20091128/NWS01/311289968 My hometown newspaper, The Day in New London, CT, ran a feature on my journalistic career and my involvement in The A Position in its Nov. 28 edition.

This column originally appeared Dec. 1, 2009, at seattlepi.com. We’ve all seen Tiger Woods when he’s 235 yards from the green, behind some trees, horrible lie, yet none of it matters. You know what’s going to happen – his ball will roll within 10 feet of the flag as Tiger roars and pumps his fist again. But this time? Can the world’s best golfer free himself from his latest predicament? I’m thinking no, not even Tiger can pull this one off, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I’m referring, of course, to his accident last Friday morning outside ...

How sick is our world? Real sick, very sick, so sick that a website has posted odds on Tiger Woods' personal problems.      According to a release that arrived in my inbox Friday afternoon, Playblackjack.com has released odds on a possible divorce and how many women he had transgressions with.       Will Tiger Woods or Elin Nordegren file for divorce?        Yes, Tiger or Elin will file for divorce -200. Bet $200 to win $100.        No, neither will file for divorce +180. Bet $100 to win 180. If Tiger or Elin do not file for divorce before December 31, 2010, then all bets will be graded ...

Tiger Woods’ slide from grace was lubricated by hypocrisy.   Right after he turned professional, Woods spent some time with a canny reporter in New York, and the resulting portrait of a wise-cracking, flirty and slightly scatological young man terrified Tiger’s handlers, who then lowered an iron curtain secure enough to have made the Kremlin proud.  No outsider would ever again be allowed into Tiger’s private lair.  When he got married in Barbados, the wedding planners hired every helicopter in the Caribbean to keep the paparazzi away.  A shipyard in Washington state had the audacity to tell potential clients that it ...

This story originally appeared in Links Magazine in 2001. I’ve always been fond of both adventure travel and golf, and I recently had the opportunity to combine the two-- by undertaking an adventurous golf trip with my girlfriend Renee and my parents.  What could be more fraught with danger than risking twelve hours in the car with Mom and Dad? It happened like this: Renee and I decided to spend last Thanksgiving with my folks in Florida.  To help defer trip costs, I landed an assignment to visit and write about the new Ocean Hammock Golf Club, in Palm Coast.  The course ...

The Royal Calcutta is the oldest golf club in the world outside of the UK.  Founded in 1829, the “Royal” moved to its present location in Tollygunge, a district then on the southern outskirts of the city, in 1910.   (There is also a Tollygunge Country Club, just down a lane and across the road from the Royal.  Tollygunge has a riding school, swimming pools, tennis courts and a hotel, and shares much of its membership with the Royal, which is strictly a golf club.) The Royal sits on a dead flat site, and no longer is much of a challenge for ...

P.T. Barnum in khakis. That’s how I think of Pete Dye. Artist. Salesman. Impressario. And golfer. When I called him at his winter home in Delray Beach, Fla. the other day to congratulate him for the ‘Best New’ awards showered on his mammoth new course at French Lick Resort in southern Indiana, he was pleased to hear from me but was also eager to get off the phone. He had a game that morning at Gulf Stream Golf Club, where he’s a member. While he’s too modest to admit it, Pete, who turns 85 in 2010, can count on two hands ...

If you’re a sports fan, you are familiar with the photographs of Walter Iooss and Neil Leifer. Even if you don’t know them by name, you’ve seen their work in Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest, Time, and countless other magazines, books, and ads over the years. Both started taking photographs as teenagers back in the 1960s, and their friendship/rivalry over the decades pushed them to become the best in the business. Through March 7, a monumental show of their work called Sport: Iooss & Leifer is on display at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. The 82 images are breathtaking, ...

Rating golf courses is, at best, an inexact science. Just about everyone associated with the game has some personalized standard that builds points and platitudes for sizing up golf’s better courses. Criteria might include conditioning, defense against par, player friendliness, scenic locale and artistic shaping. Perhaps the most telling litmus test, the one that helps resolve whether a track is even worth a greens fee, is: “Who designed the layout?” A bit petty, perhaps. Nonetheless, whoever orchestrates the course layout is a telling indication of just how serious the developer is about building a credible test. In years past you might ...

As the Tiagra Woods scandal continues to unfold, what were the odds that Valentine’s Day and the beginning of the Chinese New Year would coincide this year, unleashing the Chinese Year of the Tiger? Well, they weren’t that good.  This is only the fourth time the two annual events have matched up on the calendar since 1900, and it’s not going to happen again for 38 years.  There are 12 creatures in the Chinese New Year rota: February 14, 1915 began the Year of the Rabbit; February 14, 1934 the Year of the Dog, and February 14, 1953 the Year of ...

Anyone who writes opinions about golf is almost obliged to comment on the Tiger Saga. But Wall Street demands that you do more than tell people what is already known. What is already known is ‘priced into the stock’ so to speak. Wall Street demands that you foretell the future, and that your opinion carry some benefit of insight that can actually be acted upon. To start with, the idea that current Tiger sponsors had to make an immediate decision is a premise born out of ignorance of the process that sponsors employ. Those that acted rashly will eventually have second ...

I’ve stated the proposition before that if all the world leaders played golf, peace would soon break out. No one would have the time or inclination for conflict, because everyone would be consumed with swing thoughts. This may have been on my mind when the invitation arrived to have breakfast with the President, not something that comes my way every day. So when the opportunity arose last May, I jumped at it. It was also a chance to spend a night at the Fairmont Copley Plaza (right) in Boston. Stately since its opening in 1912, the Plaza ...

While recognizing that many are on the edge of their seats waiting for my 2010 golf equipment review (Manufacturer's quote: I can't wait to see how many Casey's we won), a singularly curious incident happened while I was on the exhibition floor of the Show. I got the call. THE CALL!  A long standing client of mine who is also a fine golfer called and started a conversation by asking What kind of odds will you give me that I can tell you the exact tournament that Tiger Woods will make his return at? Well, knowing that my client is no dummy and ...

It’s uncanny, really, the similarities to Dr. Emmett Brown, the wild-eyed, time-traveling inventor played by Christopher Lloyd in the hit movie trilogy, Back To the Future (Part 1-3). That hat-challenging mane, those cantankerous eyebrows, the mischievous smile and acute stare—everything’s there, sans the ghost white hair or the plutonium-powered flux capacitor. Doc Brown’s eccentric-scientist persona is a fitting alter ego for Tom Wishon, the celebrated and habitually rebellious golf club designer who, for the past 37 years, has been zealously knocking the club designing industry on its self-righteous fanny and, in the process, gaining status as one of its most knowledgeable ...

Yesterday I wrote the piece “Why Tiger Can’t Take Questions”. There was a lot of feedback before Tiger spoke today. There were two very distinct reactions. My associations from the media simply insisted that I was wrong, that Tiger had to take questions, that he was being the same old Tiger. Controlling. Over-managed. Frankly, they have always disliked him, and they want him to pay for not being cooperative in the past. The non-media readers had an almost universal reaction. Just say you’re sorry and move on. Enough is enough. And don’t drag your wife through the mud any more than you ...

I was in Milan for a tourism conference when Tiger delivered his mea culpa.  I didn’t see it live, but I watched what I could bear of it when it was shown on Italian TV, with simultaneous  translation turning Tiger’s stilted recitation into a lilting monologue.  Later yet, on CNN, the only English-language channel available at my hotel, I caught Larry King interviewing numerous experts and interested parties, including: a media coach, commenting on how well-served (not very, in his view) Tiger was to initiate such a staged event; a psychiatrist specializing in addiction treatment for celebrities, who said a ...

Billy Casper, who 40 years ago won his only Masters, was a putter for the ages—rolling his ball so prodigiously at the 1959 U.S. Open that he was able to execute one of the strangest stratagems in major championship history. Ken Venturi and Gardner Dickinson wore Hogan-style caps, symbols of their esteem for Ben Hogan’s skill and style. Nick Faldo devoured Hogan’s “Five Lessons” and tried to assemble a swing from its pages. Grinders like Tom Kite and Chip Beck practiced all day, imitating Hogan’s diligence. There is no end of top players influenced by Ben Hogan’s systematic approach to tournament golf. ...

With a mind that rarely stops whirring and a jam-packed schedule, Sean Foley doesn’t have many quiet moments. But every once in a while, he’ll find himself alone with a little time, and it will hit him: He’s living his dream.  “Two nights ago I was sitting in a resort in Maui looking into the ocean with (PGA Tour player) Parker (McLachlin) and all I’m thinking is ‘Wow’,” Foley reflected on the phone from the Mercedes-Benz Championship.  The Canadian native has gone from dreaming about working with some of the best players in the world to doing just that.  His roster of players is ...

A gracious Irish host once told me, as he handed me a wee dram and a small pitcher of water, that in Ireland there are two things you never, ever do: “Add the water to another man’s whiskey and put your hands on another man’s wife.” Despite this rather prudish attitude to life, the Irish seem fine with the image of one Tiger Woods, which has taken some hits back on his home soil. I had earlier read a survey that Tiger’s approval rating had shot up in Italy since his marriage scandal broke, and that makes sense. The Italians have ...

[ Part  III of a three-part series ] Billy Casper, whose previous best Open finish was 14th place at Oak Hill in 1956, had been suffering through a luckless season when he set off to compete in the1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club.  He arrived a week early and dropped his bags in the private home of a Navy buddy, Dr. Joseph Bloom, who had an oral surgery practice in Elizabeth, N.J. When he returned there after spending his first day at the course, Casper spoke enthusiastically about his chances, despite the poor showing so far that year. “I said to ...

Following up on his stunning victory in the WGC – CA Championship at Doral last weekend, which put him at the top of the European Tour’s all-time career money list, Ernie Els confirmed March 18 he will play this year’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club on May 20-23. � It will be Ernie’s first tournament appearance in the United Kingdom in 2010 and it is entirely fitting that it should be at Wentworth where Ernie has for the last four years overseen the modernization and refinement of the iconic West Course. The course has been closed for the last 10 months while new ...

Just because I’m a part of the media, it doesn’t mean that I don’t listen to the media. Living in the New York Metropolitan area means that I am inundated with media messages. The message the media is sending out today is one of abject frustration and hostility that Tiger Woods is finally making a statement tomorrow, and that he will not be taking any questions. I listened to a New York sports talk radio host yesterday have an absolute fit, because Tiger Woods has carefully crafted this pristine image and made millions from endorsements as a result of the crafted ...

I think most of us, including Tiger Woods himself, were surprised at the overwhelmingly positive reaction he got from the fans in his return to golf at the Masters. A couple weeks ago, Woods said he was hoping to get “a few claps.” Instead, he was greeted with hearty applause and yells of encouragement. There was no heckling. What we forgot is that a golf tournament is a sports arena, not a place for dishing out judgments. We cheer all the time for players on the home team who may be complete jerks in their personal lives. We also clap ...

I don't think this got any attention last year, with the focus on Kenny Perry's collapse and Angel Cabrera's off-the-tree shot in the playoff. But I recently took a look at Cabrera's shot-by-shot account of his final round last year, and it is extraordinary. He did not hit more than a 7-iron into a par four, he reached all the par fives in two with irons, and he hit more than an 8-iron into only one par three. This shows two things: 1) Cabrera is monstrously long and 2) Even at 7,435 yards, Augusta National is still very manageable for even ...

The first Masters I covered was in 1980 when Seve Ballesteros won the first of two green jackets. It’s hard to believe it was 30 years ago. What’s really strange is that, in terms of years, the 1980 Masters bears the same relation to 2010 as the 1950 Masters does to 1980. Yet, from the perspective of a 24-year-old working for the Augusta Chronicle in 1980, the 1950 Masters was ancient history. Actually, it wasn’t just the callowness of youth. The Masters really did change enormously from 1950 to 1980, whereas the Masters of 1980 is the same in ...

In this day and age of polarization, I suppose it is not so unusual for two people to attend the same press conference and emerge with opinions as diverse as this. After the Tiger Woods conference on Monday, Gary Van Sickle of Sports Illustrated and Golf.com wrote, He was conversational. This was a small window into the real Tiger Woods. When all was said and done, there was a sense of relief, certainly a small sense of closure, and concluded, It might have been the most important day of his golfing career, and maybe even the most successful. Then ...

The first two rounds of the Masters were must-see TV. The only problem was that much of it was can’t-see TV, because it wasn’t on. The other three major championships provide virtually all-day coverage in the early rounds. The Masters limits its cable coverage to the 4 to 7 p.m. (Eastern Time) window. When Tom Watson shot himself into contention in the first two rounds of the British Open last summer, we were able to see it. When Watson shot a 67 at Augusta on Thursday, all we saw were highlights because he finished before the TV cameras came on. ...

Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that people were complaining the roars were gone from the Masters? What happened? Two things. First, the complaints were an over-reaction to course changes that involved both lengthening and narrowing that took place over the years 1999 to 2006, combined with an extremely harsh weather year in 2007 and a dull final round in 2008. Second, Augusta National officials saw the developments and heard the complaints and made some tweaks. They knew themselves that birdie and eagle roars were a big part of the fabric of the Masters, and they didn’t want ...

Remember how in 2009 the wrong player kept winning major championships? Welcome to 2010, where karma is back. Phil Mickelson was dressed in black on Masters Sunday, including a black cap, but figuratively he was wearing a white hat. He and his family have been through a rough time in the last 11 months, with his wife and mother both undergoing treatments for breast cancer. This was the first time since last May that his wife, Amy, was able to attend a tournament. Phil is a fan favorite anyway, a modern-day Arnold Palmer when it comes to making eye contact ...

Some thoughts on the similarities and differences between Tiger Woods’ last tournament and his next one: Masters Similar. Woods’ last tournament, in November of 2009, was the JBWere Masters, the official name of what is more commonly referred to as the Australian Masters. His next tournament is the Masters (no further identification needed). National News Story Similar, except that the nation in question last time was Australia. Woods’ Australian appearance was his first in that country since 1998, so it was big news Down Under. And the news angle spilled beyond the sports desk because half of his $3 million appearance fee was paid by the ...

We’ll be hearing a lot about the honorable actions of Brian Davis in calling a penalty on himself during a playoff at the Verizon Heritage. The praise is well-deserved, of course. However, there’s one aspect of the “honorable” theme that I can do without. Invariably, some commentators compare golf to other sports and say something like, “Can you imagine an offensive lineman calling a holding penalty on himself or a baserunner admitting that he was out instead of safe?” Sorry, but the situations are in no way comparable. In those sports, and most others, there are officials watching whose job ...

Phil Mickelson won the Masters Sunday at Augusta National, and was brilliant doing so. The victory will make Phil even more popular than he already was. But you simply could not watch without being drawn to the drama that envelopes Tiger Woods. The ironies that played out on the final Sunday would make Shakespeare blush. It’s the audacity of real life that it can be so much more fanciful and ridiculous than any fiction writer would deem credible to put down on paper. And in this case, the ridiculous farce actually did produce a happy ending. And justice was also ...

The news that Tiger Woods plans on making his return to professional golf at the Masters Invitational in April has been released. Tiger’s return is more than a golf media event: it has a life of its own. Let’s face it, how often does the National Enquirer ask for media credentials to a major golf tournament? Tiger’s statement goes like this: “The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta.”   Let’s put ...

First, Annika Sorenstam retired. Then Carolyn Bivens made tournaments disappear. Now, Lorena Ochoa has retired. It’s been a rough couple of years for the LPGA. The future is not necessarily bleak, however. If nothing else, things are looking up because the reign of error of former commissioner Bivens is over. Bivens was a woman with a plan. Unfortunately, it was the wrong plan at the wrong time presented by the wrong woman. She had the idea that the LPGA had undervalued itself, that it was time to raise purses, increase benefits for the players, and rewrite the contracts between the ...

A writer as good as Russell Banks wouldn't blurb a novel unless he believed in its author's talent, so when Banks compares Peter Nathaniel Malae to a young Nelson Algren or Richard Wright, one of those writers who can hit it out with either hand, it raises a reader's expectations. But Malae's novel What We Are, the object of Banks' praise, is disjointed and uneven, more like bundled short stories than a novel. There are moments of manic energy in the prose, cascades of association flowing down the page. But there's no plot, nor any dramatic tension. The narrator, Paul Tusifale, the ...

It’s not every golf-minded Englishman who can wander into Scotland and make a name for himself as a keeper of the greens. But that is what George Brown, who got his start at Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich near his home in Deal, did in his 20 years at Turnberry. The announcement four years ago by the Royal & Ancient that the 2009 British Open would be staged on the resort’s Ailsa Course after a 15-year hiatus was like the singing of skylarks to Brown’s ears. The 72-year-old Brown, who played to scratch for decades (his index is now 4.5), was the ...

Jason Day’s path to victory at the HP Byron Nelson Championship led through the water on the 18th hole at TPC Las Colinas. Three times. Day hit his tee shot into the pond to the left of the 18th fairway in the first and third rounds, and pulled his second shot into the water on the finishing par four in the final round. He escaped with a bogey on Sunday thanks to sinking a 14-foot putt and a two-stroke victory thanks to Blake Adams also finding the water and making a double bogey. The adventures on the 18th typified ...

It’s not too early to start thinking about how the Ryder Cup teams are shaping up, and in that context the victories by Zach Johnson and Luke Donald last weekend represented good news for both sides. Johnson was having a lackluster year until he got to the Colonial, but a victory there moved him to 12th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. That puts him into position to challenge for the top eight and an automatic spot or, if not, to become a viable candidate for one of the four captain’s selections that will be made by Corey Pavin. Donald’s ...

I was a bit surprised that the USGA gave Vijay Singh a special exemption into the U.S. Open, but only because they are usually stingy with them. In fact, they’ve been really stingy in recent years. From 2006 to 2009 there was not a single special exemption handed out. This April, they gave one to Tom Watson, but only after some deliberation. You would think that his near-winning performance in last year’s British Open combined with his history at this year’s U.S. Open site, Pebble Beach (site of his 1982 triumph), would have made an exemption a no-brainer. But the ...

He was standing by the first tee at the storied Port Royal Golf Club on the western edge of the impossibly gorgeous island of Bermuda, tattered golf shirt faded into an unidentifiable shade of vermilion.  His polyester doubleknit pants had once been white but had fallen victim to excess bleaching.  Too many golf balls strained at the pocket seams that barely held aging material together.  His golf shoes looked like something in which a swamp monster would consider himself to be quite nattily attired.  But that smile!  Teeth clenched in a grimace posed as a grin, porkpie hat positioned pertly ...

We had only been a day in Phan Thiet and, frankly, I'd have rather stayed another two. The links at Ocean Dunes Golf Club, part of the seaside Novotel Phan Thiet Resort, were superb (good enough to warrant another go-round, or two) and only a fool would have begged off one fully flaked-out day on the hotel's long, quiet stretch of beach. But the itinerary can be a stern taskmaster, so I kept my peace and prepared for our scheduled departure. Then, on the way to breakfast, I saw them — those motorcycles and their attendant sidecars, all neatly lined up ...

Mark Calcavecchia ended his PGA Tour career at the Memorial last week by making a 2 and a 7 on his last two holes, a birdie followed by a triple bogey. Perhaps it was an appropriate way to go out. Calc was always a volatile player, capable of birdie streaks but prone to the occasional big number. His emotions could be up and down, too. The ideal temperament for a pro golfer is staying on an even keel. That wasn’t Calcavecchia’s personality, but, on the plus side, he could ride the wave when things were going well. But in looking ...

What’s wrong with this picture? Justin Rose won the Memorial Tournament to rise to 33rd in the world ranking. As a result, Simon Khan got into the U.S. Open…but Rose didn’t. It came about because the USGA holds a spot in the Open for the Memorial winner if it’s his second PGA Tour title in the last 12 months and he isn’t already exempt. Since that wasn’t the case, the USGA awarded the spot to the first alternate in the European sectional qualifier that had already been held. That happened to be Khan. On the plus side, Khan recently won ...

Atlanta-based tour operator Richard Pace was never a soccer enthusiast — until the World Cup was awarded to his home away from home. Now, he's promoting the event as a springboard for American fans wishing to experience the wonders of a faraway paradise. As a young man growing up in Greenville, N.C., Richard Pace didn't care much for the sport of soccer. Like the majority of youngsters around Eastern North Carolina, baseball was Pace's passion. Today, Pace runs an Atlanta-based travel company called Southern Sky Adventures, which specializes in organizing for its clients guided and self-drive trips through southern and East Africa, with his strongest offering ...

My wife has never told me how much she spent so three friends and I could enjoy a weekend at Jack Nicklaus's place, the Bear's Club, in Palm Beach.   I know that it started at a charity auction in her hometown in South Carolina; I wasn’t there because of a scheduling conflict. The auction was tied to the Nationwide Tour event in the upstate region and one of her nephews was helping to run it. One of the organizers had business ties to Jack, which accounts for why the opportunity was up for sale. She felt obligated to be a good ...

July 8, 2010 - Silvis, IL Got to love it when one of golf’s really “good guys” becomes only the 4th golfer in PGA TOUR history, and the first in eleven years to shoot a 59 (12-under par) during the first round of the John Deere Classic.  And how about following that with another outstanding person also shooting his career best with Steve Stricker just one shot back?  You could pair many top amateurs together and few of them could equal, let alone beat either score with their better balls on this course in tournament play.  Who cares that the conditions ...

Blanton’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Single Barrel 93 Proof, Buffalo Trace Distillery Bottle 106, 4/09/09, Barrel 211, Warehouse H/G, Rick 56 Blanton’s is one of America’s most important and historical bourbons. The Blanton family began making whiskey in Kentucky shortly after the Civil War, and in 1984 released the country’s first single barrel bourbon, igniting a barrel-centric trend that helped bolster bourbon’s legitimacy—not to mention its quality—in the age of pervasive vodka and dance club spirits. The Blanton’s bottle is equally iconic. You know it: the squat, faceted globe; the parchment wrapped equator; the pewter thoroughbred figure attached to the cork. It’s perhaps the ...

BEAVER CREEK, CO – Michigan’s President, the late Gerald Ford, is buried in his hometown of Grand Rapids on a shaded hillside along the Grand River beside the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. But Ford maintained a home in Beaver Creek, Colorado, 12 miles to the east, of Vail, for the last 40 years of his life. It was his Western White House for the Republican President Ford. Gerald and Betty Ford lived in Beaver Creek for five months of each year; hosted celebrities in an annual charity golf tournament; ceremoniously lit the Beaver Creek Christmas Tree each year; and ...

I  spent the 1990s as a full-time freelancer, drifting from assignment to assignment. Top golf getaways of Central Delaware. Choosing the right sunglasses for your game. And how about those Internet tee times—wave of the future? One day a different sort of project came along, one that strummed my ethical sensibilities. It was for a non-profit group trying to ease tensions and improve communication between golf course developers and environmentalists. They were paying me to compile a sourcebook full of glossaries and fact troves that would help cut through prejudice and enlighten parties on both sides. The core of the book ...

Whenever an unexpected player breaks through and wins a major, the questions are always immediately asked, “Is this guy for real or a fluke?” and, “Will he win another major?” The answer to the first is almost always, “Oh, yes, he’s for real.” And, surprisingly often, the answer to the second is, “He’ll win more majors.” I guess it’s human nature. It would seem churlish to badmouth a guy who has just won a major championship. Perhaps more to the point, it would go against what we’ve just seen with our own eyes. We just watched the man win a ...

Take a swing on three golf gems by Canada’s greatest course designer The late Stanley Thompson was the greatest golf course architect that Canada ever produced. Between 1920 and 1953 he designed or remodeled 145 courses from coast to coast. Some of his most famous, consistently rated in the country’s top ten, include Highlands Links in Cape Breton and Banff Springs in the Rockies—the first tract in the world to cost more than a million dollars to construct back in 1928 Thompson’s genius was in refusing to impose a course on its setting. He only moved trees and rocks if it was ...

Deane Beman today seems an overlooked and forgotten man, but the PGA TOUR and its players owe much to this golf visionary who came from the playing ranks to transform the PGA TOUR into the 800-lb. gorilla it is today.  While the rest of American golf has suffered for more than decade of decline in play and spending, the TOUR and it’s players continue to play as if the economy was healthy.  Some may say it’s because of Tiger Woods, but it all really goes back further than that to Deane Beman. I suspect that not many of today’s players or ...

One detail I forgot to mention in my last post about pro-ams and pairing parties. Most regular season PGA Tour events have between 132-156 players in the field, but the pro-am typically only has room for 50-55 groups, since the four and fivesomes play much slower. PGA Tour rules stipulate that the entrants in the pro-am are based on their world ranking that week and the highest ranked 50-55 players in the event HAVE to participate in the pro-am. There are rare exceptions, and at one event I was in Fred Couples got excused from the pro-am because of a hand injury, ...

I love watching the 2010 Masters.  Even better this year was after Phil Mickelson had won.  While many folks who watch golf just move on, I flip over to the Golf Channel.  Why?  Because they carry the complete interviews of the players live.  The thing about Phil Mickelson and his interviews following rounds at the Majors like the Masters is how accessible his thoughts are about his game and his competitors. Now before I show you an example there's a couple things about Phil that I find completely amazing in his interviews.  First, without notes or prompting he can recite what he ...