Cat fight! Are golf writers Olmsted and Baldwin the next Trump and Rosie?

The lifeless blokes on the PGA Tour need to take a cue from golf writers once in awhile and get into the mud pit.

Larry Olmsted of the USA Today’s Golfer’s World Blog, and friend of my podcast, Sweet Spots, has ripped TravelGolf.com’s Chris Baldwin - and really our entire network - a result of Baldwin’s Top ten resorts in California piece.

Baldwin was quick to return the favor, calling Olmsted’s blog, among other things, unread and uninteresting.

Regarding Olmsted’s rant, his biggest diss wasn’t on Baldwin but on everyone at TG and WG: “Too many of the columnists associated with these sites seem to think controversy is good journalism for its own sake, and offer up often inflammatory pieces as if they simply crave attention.”

What Olmsted calls “inflammatory” I’d prefer to spin as “spirited, unfiltered writing". Reading Mr. Old School, Tim McDonald’s diatribe on elitist pretty boy Donald Trump this week made me want to throw on some overalls and go find a $20 muni somewhere in Arkansas. Aren’t there enough middle-of-the-road golf publications out there that are too corporate to offer much in the form of honest opinion?

I was shocked Chris even responded to Olmsted’s attack. I thought he’d be too busy hanging with Pussycat Dolls at Caesars, gabbing with Trump or getting secrets of the snap shot from Mario Lemieux. To be honest, I usually don’t even read too much into Baldwin’s golf writings because word on the street is he’s just biding time here until Mark McGrath steps down as host of Extra! so he can get into Hollywood gossip full-time.

Olmsted and I have our odds too. While he was right on the money about hidden gem Ardglass Golf Club in Northern Ireland, his words for True Blue near Myrtle Beach were a bit harsh.

Olmsted recently panned True Blue, calling it “one big waste area and one big waste of time". I played it last week, and while it is inferior to sister course and my local favorite Caledonia, is still a solid upscale resort course. It isn’t horribly difficult anymore with fairways wide enough for a jumbo jet to find - but there is so much sand that poorer golfers (perhaps so poor they lose clubs into ponds) with a fear of the beach are definitely in for a long day and would probably be better off at nearby upscale course and another favorite of mine, Willbrook Plantation.

Baldwin is also right about Olmsted being way more of a personality than his USA Today golf blog lets on. My only rationale for this is that his uptight editors from a company more in tune with traditional media have put the handcuffs on what he can write about. The result is a topical and informative travel blog. But if they let him loose, could be one of the most wildly entertaining golf blogs out there. Maybe he secretly wants to write for WorldGolf.com, where our editor is so busy trying to keep his expansive castle office fully staffed with young little Eastern European maids, he seldom has time to police our board, where posts run the gamut from home vacation pictures to who the hell knows.