When I see John Deere commercials, it’s usually emphasizing the tradition and quality of their line of yard equipment and tractors. What does giving Michelle Wie a sponsor’s exemption have to do with promoting John Deere tractors? I could see Wie being a fixture at the Volkswagon Invitational or the IPod Open or some other trendy company sponsor, but John Deere? Shouldn’t John Deere be giving exemptions to some Iowa-bred farm boys with a decent game instead? Isn’t that more their demographic than teenagers from Hawaii? Maybe giving her this exemption is the closest John Deere can come to using ...

Recent controversy surrounding the Tour’s decision to let Phil Mickelson play in the Byron Nelson Championship despite missing the Pro-Am due to weather had a lot of players grumbling. But Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and his boys stepped in and let Lefty play in a diluted field that had few big names. Letting Mickelson play despite the tour’s policy you must play in the Pro-Am in order to play in the tournament was not only fair but was was best for the tournament. Finchem and his henchmen had the foresight and the dignity to be fair with Mickelson and do ...

Of course Lefty is going to praise a fellow golfer for his bold shot in the closing moments of a big tournament. A very chipper Phil Mickelson was on one of my favorite shows, Pardon the Interruption this afternoon on ESPN. Fresh of his Players’ victory Mickelson had some interesting comments. Not only did he say playing partner Sean O’Hair, down two at the time, made the right decision going for the tucked flag on the island green 17th, but he also said it was good to see a young American golfer go for the win, and not just a ...

I’m all for a little jive talk on tour. I don’t think what Rory Sabbatini said about Tiger Woods Thursday at The Players Championship was out of line. The PGA needs more squabbling and Sabbatini filled the void. It was of course, indisputably premature. Forgive the South African for being a little excited at his emergence into discussion among the top-flight golfers in the world. But he had a chance to beat the beatable one last week before hooking a drive into the water, and he followed his comments up at Sawgrass with a 79. He’s not in the lead ...

In reading up on some links golf courses, I came across this quote from the late English golf writer Peter Dobereiner speaking about Royal County Down. “The essence of golf is to say that it enhances the feeling that it is good to be alive. That’s the first priority and absolute justification. The links of Royal County Down are exhilarating even without a club in your hand. This strip of dune land was 90 percent along on the road to being a golf course long before the game was invented.” I had the chance to play Royal County Down in March, ...

The time is now to become Tadd Fujikawa’s friend before the entire internet community wants a piece of his MySpace. Tadd only has 176 friends. To put things in perspective, Tiger Woods has 5,628 friends. Paris Hilton has 171,031. Clearly Tiger isn’t partying as much and making as many rad MySpace friends as Paris. But I suppose she would trade about 50,000 of those friends to Tiger to stay out of jail. Or maybe golf is simply is behind the curve in terms of its MySpace appeal. I’m guessing Tadd is hands-on with his MySpace, not like many celebrities and ...

Saturday night’s big fight, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. left me as confused and disappointed as when I’m walking out of a Michael Bay-directed Hollywood blockbuster. Millions of us were duped into watching an uneventful split decision, where neither Mayweather or La Hoya looked like a winner. Everyone in the crowd seemed to have joined HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant in a confused, incoherent daze as to what had happened. We paid $2500 for this??? This fight didn’t “bring back boxing". You’re telling me a fight between two little 150-pounders is going to revive a sport? No way. ...

ESPN and Sports Illustrated are among the media outlets wondering if De la Hoya v. Mayweather can bring boxing back to the mainstream. Why should it come back? Boxing is a barbaric sport for the Middle Ages that screwed itself over after plenty of stunts and fixes courtesy of Don King and wannabe Don Kings. Not to mention it’s highest profile champion in the last twenty years ended up being convicted of rape - not exactly carrying the touch from Muhammad Ali… My generation gets its violence from UFC, WWF, and the occasional “bitch slap” on reality TV. We don’t care ...

In the tech-dependent world we’ve created, I’m surprised we’re not ALL blubbery whales. The only reason I’m not 300 pounds is because I never get away from my computer more than five minutes to stuff two slices of Wonderbread down my pie hole. I have to replace my chair as often as I get the oil changed in my car. The 21st century diet is fast food washed down with World of Warcraft. How much fatter and inactive are we going to get? There are hippos I saw recently in South Africa starting to feel threatened. I thought this epidemic ...

Anyone hear about this new Pro Women’s Victory Tour that was unveiled yesterday in Orlando? It will offer purses bigger than the current Futures Tour, starting with $100K next year. It’s purpose will be to accommodate the growing number of female professionals who need places to compete. The tour will have eight events next year and if it’s still around, twelve in 2009. On hand at the grand unveiling of the tour was Lee Elder, the man who broke the color barrier at Augusta as the first African American to play at the Masters and Ryder Cup. It was a ...