No more PGA Tour Perks for Craig
Tuesday May 6, 2008 | 09:04:37 am 317 words, 373 views
24 of the first 28 winners of the Players Championhip were also Major winners. From Jack Nicklaus in 1974, through Tiger Woods in 2001. These include a passel of current or future Hall-of-Famers named Floyd, Trevino, Norman, Price, Couples, Sutton and Love, among other luminaries. But that stellar roster of champions has slowed to a crawl in recent years—only two of the last six champs have hoisted Major hardware, though the resumes of several of these latter victors like Fred Funk and Adam Scott are impressive regardless.
Not so Craig Perks, who followed Tiger to the winners circle at Sawgrass by ...
Wobbly Wachovia
Tuesday April 29, 2008 | 04:22:12 pm 135 words, 733 views
I’ve had every nickel in the Wachovia Bank since they gave me a free toaster some eleven years ago when i opened my first account, and times are looking tough. It’s not enough that their one-year stock chart resemble a ski slope. But now the world’s best golfer, and the defending champion of this week’s Wachovia Championship, isn’t in the field. Tiger is nursing his bum knee, and Wachovia is nursing a stock price barely half of what it was a year ago. Hopefully the bank and the game’s most bankable superstar will be in much better ...
Harbour Town's a challenge--and so is my latest quiz question!
Thursday April 17, 2008 | 03:02:59 pm 154 words, 1195 views
The Tour has moved over to beautiful Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island—a welcome, mellow respite after the crucible of Augusta. Pete Dye’s Lowcountry classic will test the shot-making skills of the world’s finest players this week, and serves as a prelude for other Dye designs (or Dye influences, as the case may be) that will be taking their place on the event schedule as the year progresses—The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, TPC River Highlands near Hartford, Connecticut, and Q-School in the autumn, which will be partially contested at the Stadium Course at PGA West. ...
Masters Minutia--If you haven't been there, you won't know it
Wednesday April 9, 2008 | 08:49:55 am 335 words, 1536 views
Spectacle though it is on television, The Masters is an event that should be experienced in person, though tickets (badges, actually) are almost as hard to come by as a date with Catherine Zeta-Jones. If you’ve never been, the wonders of Augusta National go well beyond the multitudes of flowering plants, or the “TV doesn’t do it justice” quality to the steepness of the terrain, heading down the first, up the last, etc. Here are a few other items that make the in-person experience so unique:
When the gates open in the morning, hundreds of “patrons” (not customers, or ...
Tiger's as much of a lock for The Masters as was Memphis
Tuesday April 8, 2008 | 09:15:36 am 188 words, 1543 views
I admire and root for Tiger Woods as much as anybody, despite the fact he brushed off my photo request at the Golf Writer’s Annual Dinner the year after he won his first Masters. But despite his recent otherworldly play, he’s as much of a lock for this year’s green jacket as was Memphis for the NCAA hoops championship the other night, despite a nine point lead with little more than two minutes to play.
Sports are all about “what have you done for me lately?” And though he’s been dominating the golf world since mid-summer of last year, here’s ...
Enjoy the Masters with a brand-new pair of free shades!
Monday April 7, 2008 | 10:10:28 am 167 words, 1520 views
In honor of the best week on the annual golf calendar, we’ll briefly turn the spotlight off Pete Dye, and instead focus on The Masters. Regrettably, there wasn’t a single correct answer in last week’s contest, though there were dozens of entries. Perhaps the public’s fascination with the Masters will lead to greater success, and at least one person will be able to choose the right answer in this Masters-centric trivia contest. The lucky winner will be styling in a beautiful pair of Rudy Project sunglasses, sent directly to their home.
All you have to do to ...
Free Sunglasses Today!
Friday March 28, 2008 | 08:32:58 am 113 words, 2026 views
Time to give away another pair of Rudy Project sunglasses, as I continue to slowly bang the drum in anticipation of the release of my next book, due out this September– PETE DYE–GOLF COURSES—FIFTY YEARS OF VISIONARY DESIGN.
All you have to do to win: visit www.vagabondgolfer.com and then click on the sunglass icon on the lower left side of the homepage, underneath the suitcase. Correctly answer the Pete Dye question that’s been posted there, and a random winner will be chosen from the correct responses received within the next week, Please—just one entry per person. Good ...
Happy 50th, Emo Harris!
Saturday March 22, 2008 | 12:26:49 pm 176 words, 2297 views
I quick shout-out to my Brother-in Law—the Maharajah of Marblehead, Massachusetts, the Sultan of Sausage, the President-in-waiting of the Hair Club for Men–the redoubtable, irrepressible Emo Harris, who turned FIFTY just the other day.
I have numerous golf memories of Emo, he of the truncated backswing, and diving duck hook, but space constraints will allow just a single reminisence.
Several years ago I took him out to venerable Salem Country Club, near his home on Boston’s North Shore. Emo hacked, whacked and gacked in the standard fashion, though he somehow managed to bury a 3-wood shot into the hole on a ...
A Good Friday, Indeed
Friday March 21, 2008 | 01:11:38 pm 288 words, 2347 views
Though I lived there happily for nearly a decade as a young adult, my visits to Manhattan are few and far between. But I was up there a few weeks ago to meet with the publisher and editors of my new book, and view the galleys–basically the pages in a loose-leaf form–prior to printing. The book looks fantastic, and PETE DYE–GOLF COURSES will be a handsome addition to coffee-tables all over the world upon publication this autumn. Why the confidence? Because tens of thousands have been pre-sold to private and resort courses in the Caribbean, Central ...
With Apologies to fellow blogger Cheap Bastard
Sunday March 9, 2008 | 11:51:04 am 240 words, 2989 views
It’s still some six weeks away, and much golf drama awaits in the interim—Arnold Palmer’s Orlando hoedown, a World Golf Championship event at Doral, and that little Augusta dustup that takes place in early April.
But on the morning of April 21st, a dozen, perhaps as many as 20 discriminating and well-heeled aficionados will be the first golfers off the tee at Harbour Town, tackling the same pin positions the pros were dealing with little more than twelve hours prior, at the conclusion of this year’s Verizon Heritage. The action-packed trip, just four days and three nights, also includes access ...
Doing the Tiger Rag
Sunday February 24, 2008 | 07:29:08 pm 365 words, 3558 views
I first became aware of Tiger Woods in 1987. I was a young adult, just beginning my infatuation with golf, and I heard or read about some 12-year old California kid who had a “plus” handicap. It sounded like an urban legend to me; I could possibly believe a “scratch” handicap for a pre-teen, but not a “plus.” Of course, Tiger had been doing the implausible for a decade even then, appearing on the Mike Douglas Show and “That’s Incredible” as a two-year old. Needless to say, he has been amazing the athletic world in the ...
No Hill-Billies in the White House!
Monday February 11, 2008 | 10:07:23 am 190 words, 3885 views
Years ago a Savannah neighbor was carping about all the carping taking place after the dubious results of the 2000 presidential election. He came up with a catchphrase, patented it, and sold a zillion bumper stickers, key chains, towels, etc. His phrase that pays: Sore-Loserman.
I thought of him last week, when another Savannah buddy of mine came by the house with another homegrown political bumper sticker—one that he has recently patented. This Gulf War vet and entrepreneur is apparently no fan of the Clintons—either of them. So his slogan of genius, accompanied by the universal ...
The golf-rich are getting richer in Cabo San Lucas
Monday January 28, 2008 | 01:34:50 pm 325 words, 4124 views
The three questions I’m asked most often:
1) Why don’t you have a real job?
2) Considering how much time you spend on the golf course, shouldn’t you be a better player?
3) What’s the best destination in the world?
Answering the first two questions might incriminate me, but I’m happy to respond to the third, and in a word, the answer is Cabo.
The reason is simple: Perfect weather. I love playing in Scotland and Ireland, but one must pack a steamer trunk full of sweaters, Gore-Tex and waterproofs to be adequately prepared. Conversely, Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja ...
New and decidely different at the PGA Show
Sunday January 20, 2008 | 01:00:55 pm 556 words, 4264 views
It ain’t what it used to be. Orlando’s PGA Show has dwindled a bit over the years, hurt by a continued soft golf economy, and hampered by the absence of some of golf’s marquee names. (Titleist, Taylor-Made and Ping make up a “Big Three” of recent abandonment, opting to use the millions of dollars it takes to have the appropriate presence at The Show and divert the resources to other areas of their respective operations.)
But what The Show will always have in spades are dreamers—entrepreneurial types, inventors, little guys with a hopefully big idea. Here’s a quick ...
Happy 25th Anniversary, John Smith!
Wednesday December 12, 2007 | 05:43:15 pm 242 words, 4253 views
It was 25 years ago this very day, cold and blowing in New England, a Nor’easter having dumped a foot of snow on the field at Foxborough Stadium. The Englishman was the kicker for the New England Patriots, and broke a sloppy, scoreless duel with a snowplow-aided field goal late in the fourth quarter. Final Score—Patriots 3, Dolphins 0.
Smith was assisted that afternoon by an ex-con named Mark Henderson, out on work release, who veered his snowplow over to the hash-mark, clearing the snow (although not the ice, as Smith told me recently) so he could make the ...
The Vagabond Golfer
by Joel Zuckerman
Joel Zuckerman, a.k.a. the Vagabond Golfer, has been called "one of the most respected and sought-after golf writers in the Southeast." His golf stories have appeared in more than 100 publications and his books include "Golf in the Lowcountry, "Golf Charms of Charleston," "Misfits on the Links" and the recently-released "A Hacker's Humiliations." He is also in demand as a public speaker. Joel was honored to be selected by the Dye family themselves to write the authorized celebration of Pete Dye's great courses around the world. His next book, "Pete Dye Golf Courses - 50 Years of Inspired Design,"will be released in September, 2008. Visit www.vagabondgolfer.com for more information.
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