After just two months with WorldGolf.com I’ve decided to retire. At my age, I don’t need the stress of a full-time job anymore. But before I go, I’ve got a few parting words for Chris Baldwin about his friend Rush Limbaugh. So, Chris, you like the guy because he agrees with you about Michelle Wie? And because you saw him being nice to people on a golf course? And you admire him because he had the drive to succeed in the radio business? I think when history makes its judgment, those factors won’t weigh heavily. This is a guy who I ...

Two women from Missouri introduced a line of products unlike any other at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. Their Sassy Swings hand-beaded women’s golf gloves are targeted at the high-end customer who cares about style on the golf course. Each glove is accented with 14K gold and sterling silver, and each has a bracelet whose beads can be used as a stroke counter. The gloves drew admiring stares at the merchandise show, and now they’re sold in five countries and 12 states. The biggest problem for the owners of the company is convincing the men who run pro shops ...

This week’s TCL Classic is the most watchable European Tour event since the Johnnie Walker Classic. It’s got a better field than the tournaments in recent weeks in Singapore, Jakarta and Malaysia, and the Yalong Bay Golf Club on the Chinese island of Hainan is a well-maintained course with manicured greens like we’re accustomed to seeing at PGA tour events. David Howell, billed as the “Tiger Tamer” and currently 14th in the world, is the favorite, but Ed Loar, an All-American from Oklahoma State and Liang Wen-chong of China lead the field after the first round, tied at 10-under-par 62. This ...

What’s this big uproar from Duke University fans who are stumbling over each other to defend Mike Krzyzewski’s foul language? Next time you’re at a college basketball game, try shouting the same language that Coach K uses and see what happens. Chances are a gang of burly security guards will escort you from the arena. Why? You’re offending the people around you. So I guess it’s OK for a coach to offend the fans, including families, sitting near him, but it’s not acceptable for the rest of us. Can’t anyone see the hypocrisy in that? Who says coaches should get ...

Everyone knows about the exponential growth of China’s economy. One outcome of that growth is the burgeoning popularity of golf. For a little insight into that, check out the website for the Mission Hills Golf Club. Located 90 minutes by car from Hong Kong, the club features an astonishing 180 holes of golf – ten very lush golf courses designed by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Nick Faldo. Half the members come from Hong Kong, but 3,000 come from the mainland, and are paying $25,000 a year in dues. It’s very important in China not ...

The writer Dan Jenkins once did an interview with Golf Digest in which he complains about the lack of charisma and excitement on the PGA Tour – aside from Tiger Woods who he admires tremendously. PGA tournaments, he says, are about “getting sunburned at the rich man’s country club” and then he goes on to talk about the players. “I think Greg Norman still sells some tickets. (The interview was in 2001.) Maybe Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson. All the others you lump together. Part of the spectacle.” I pretty much agree with Jenkins and that’s why I’m joining W.K. Wolfrum ...

Marcus Fraser of Australia holed two chips to tie for the lead in the sultry Singapore Masters on Thursday. Singaporean Mardan Mamat shares the opening-round lead at seven under par 65. I watched the stunningly listless broadcast on Thai satellite TV. By the ninth hole, many of the Europeans were rather unattractively bathed in sweat, a condition which afflicts every white golfer in Southeast Asia. With the problems these tournaments are having in attracting sponsors, maybe somebody should approach Bristol-Myers Squibb, the makers of Ban Roll-On. Maybe that company would agree to support a European Tour event in which none of ...

The Singapore Masters begins Thursday with a field of players similar to the lackluster one at last week’s Indonesia Open. Many of the top European players have gone missing again, in pursuit of larger purses in the United States. This is an issue that has plagued the European Tour for years. Its lenient rules state that tour members must participate in 11 European-sanctioned tournaments to remain in good stead. However, those include events co-sanctioned with the PGA such as the majors and the World Golf Championships, which will be played only in the United States for the foreseeable future. Thus, ...

While researching my Phil Mickelson, generous tipper blog yesterday, I came across a hiliarious Web site I’d like to share with you. It’s called www.bitterwaitress.com and it’s full of juicy anecdotes about the behavior and tipping practices of famous people. Like most folks, I like to read about famous people in their unguarded moments. Some of the celebs come across on the website as genuinely nice people - like Teri Hatcher, Howard Stern, Katie Couric, Pedro Martinez, Joan Rivers, David Schwimmer, Drew Carey and, yes, Pete Rose and many more. But then there are others – Dennis Miller, Bud ...

I read with interest today’s story on Yahoo about Phil Mickelson, the big tipper. The story says that Phil once gave a waiter a $700 tip after a cheap meal. Personally, I would like to know the details: Did the waiter give Phil a sob story about his kid needing an operation? Was Phil high or drunk when he gave such a generous gratuity? Had he just won the Masters and, relieved at no longer being called a choke artist, decided to share his good fortune? After reading this story, I’m starting to feel that GQ wasn’t fair to Phil when ...

The No. 2 man in the South Korean government is on the hot seat for a scandal that’s escalating by the hour. No, he didn’t embezzle money or take bribes. And, no, he didn’t get caught with a hostess at a karaoke bar. What Prime Minister Lee Hae-Chan did was something most of us do routinely. He played golf on his day off. Lee, who is second in command to President Roh Moo-hyun, spent Wednesday on the golf course. Wednesday in Korea was a national holiday marking a 1919 civil uprising against colonialist Japan. It was also the first day of ...

Just like the Malaysian Open last month, the Enjoy Jakarta HSBC Indonesia Open is having thunderstorm problems. That’s one of the hazards of Southeast Asia along with bird flu, malaria, ant bites, dengue fever and jock itch. Simon Dyson of England shant complain. He shares the lead after two rounds with Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand. Dyson’s round was smooth and consistent while Thongchai weathered a wild one: He three-putted five greens but still carded a 68 thanks to two eagles and four birdies. Jai dee in Thai means “good heart.” He needed a good, strong heart on this day. Thongchai is ...

If you ever decide to travel to Southeast Asia for a golfing vacation, consider Vietnam. Until recently, golf in communist Vietnam was considered a decadent capitalist pastime. No more. With a reforming economy that’s growing nearly as fast as China’s, golf is the new status symbol in the Land of the Dragon. Currently there are only nine golf courses in the country, but recently the government announced that a consortium of Japanese companies will invest $1.2 billion to build a “romantic town” with 30,000 villas, five-star hotels and, yes, a 36-hole golf course just a chip shot away from the ...

Part of the charm of the European Tour is its threadbare, seat-of-the-pants quality which mirrors the harsher realities of life on this continent. Some of these tournaments - like the recent Malaysian Open and this week’s Indonesia Open - don’t even find sponsors until the month before they happen. So I’ll be careful to mention the sponsor’s name of the “>Enjoy Jakarta HSBC Indonesia Open, co-sanctioned by the European and Asian tours. The purse is just $1 million, compared to the $5.5 million purse at the other big tournament this week, the Ford Championship at Doral on the PGA Tour. So guess ...

A few readers objected to yesterday’s blog in which I said Arnold Palmer ought to stop playing golf on television. One reader called me a loser. A second said he was surprised that hit men hadn’t already gunned me down. What we are dealing with here is a taboo. I don’t like taboos. Here’s how Webster’s defines a taboo: “The stinking turd on the carpet that everybody is too polite to smell.” Every one of you, including the guy who called me a loser, knows it’s undignified for Arnold to play golf in his present state of deterioration. Have you looked ...