Am I the only person close to appalled to learn that the winner of the PGA Tour’s much-hyped FedEx Cup playoffs won’t get to pocket the $10 million winner’s check when he walks off the green at the World Golf Championships next month? The money, instead, will go into a “retirement fund” which the golfer can’t touch until between the ages of 45 and 60, depending on how many tournaments they play during this time. Huh? I learned this little detail from WorldGolf.com’s Chris Baldwin, who reports it today in his first dispatch from the Westchester Country Club, host of ...

It’s always nice when a “local boy” wins his local home tournament. That’s not quite what happened in Stokholm, Sweden this weekend, but it was close enough. Finland’s Mikko Ilonen won the European PGA Tour’s 2007 Scandinavian Masters on Sunday, finishing 6-under for the tournament, two strokes ahead of France’s Christian Cevaer. In many ways, Ilonen’s win came down to the wire. He carded six birdies on the day, but they were slightly offset by two bogeys and a near-disasterous double-bogey on the par-3 16th. Ilonen reached the 18th tee at 5-under-par, one shot back of German Martin Kaymer, who was playing a group behind ...

SEMLIN AM SEE, GERMANY - It’s a fair question to put to a golf club manager, asking whether or not people prefer to walk or ride during their round at the course. “We have five golf carts,” Janine Lauersdorf, manager at Golf Resort Semlin am See, told me. “We’re hoping to get five more by the end of the year.” Five golf carts at a 27-hole golf course? Yeah, it’s safe to say that walking is the preferred means of conveyance at this golf course, about an hour’s drive outside Berlin. There are legions of pull charts available, and still some old-schoolers, yours ...

SEMLIN AM SEE, Germany - So this is what they mean by the 19th hole. I sit on the generous patio of Golf Resort Semlin am See, roughly 70 kilometers outside Berlin, watching the sun turn more orange as it sinks closer to the ridge of trees in the distance. There’s just the right amount of clouds in the sky to spread this color far and wide. Before me, the green expanse of this resort’s 27-holes stretches out flat and very green (it’s been a wet summer in these parts). Still, sprinklers are doing their thing. I’m making my way ...

Michelle Wie, coming off a disappointing week in France at the Evian Masters (and let’s face it, what hasn’t been disappointing about Michelle Wie lately), rebounded to shoot even par today in the first round of the 2007 Women’s British Open, and finds herself in the clubhouse six shots off the lead. The leader is World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, who was flawless today: six birdies (three on each side) and no bogies for a 6-under 67. Louise Friberg is in second place, at 4-under, after a round that included six birdies and two bogeys. Two are at 3-under (Ai ...