It was 75 years ago this week that Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur title, which was the final triumph of a historic Grand-Slam run that saw him take home the U.S. and British amateur championships, and the U.S. and British Opens. “To say it’s remarkable is really not even a fair assessment,'’ Phil Mickelson has said of the accomplishment, and Lefty is as accurate as his short irons. Jones set out in 1930 to win all four prestigious titles. But there was no special ESPN feature presentation on Jones’ quest and no shoe deal to promote his campaign in ...

There’s a popular bumper sticker in Alaska that reads “Please God, let there be another oil boom, I promise not to piss it away this time.” Now the golfing world, which saw a huge opportunity by the name of Tiger Woods fall into their laps, may have a shot at a do-over with Michelle Wie. While there’s no denying that Woods helped shine a huge spotlight on golf, in the end, the gains of his mercurial breakthrough are slowly falling by the wayside. According to the National Golf Federation, the number of core golfers in the U.S. (golfers that play at least ...

Golf had to be created as a gentleman’s sport with strict rules of conduct and etiquette. If not, it would just be a blood bath out there on the links and scientists would be scurrying to create an antidode for a Big Bertha to the forehead. So, welcome everyone to the first installment of “The Weekend Rules.” Every weekend (that I feel inclined), we’ll go over a different scenario to see what the ruling or etiquette would be. Feel free to send in your own scenario, by the way. The stranger the better. Today’s scenario: You and your pal are at No. 14, ...

In a seemly endless array of “Well, they played some good shots today” interviews following the first day of the President’s Cup, International captain Gary Player – who is, let’s face it, the coolest human to ever trod on this planet – made a comment that struck me deeply. “I was standing next to President Clinton and he said to me, ‘Wow, what a match.’ At the same time, I’m thinking ‘isn’t this fantastic?’ Here the No. 1 player in the world is teeing off first, at this wonderful event, here are two ex-presidents of the United States, and my mind ...

Not satisfied with polluting the golf courses of their homeland, members of the U.S. political system have now gone and drug St. Andrews through the mud. News Brief: Bush administration official charged with obstructing federal investigation. So it seems that one David Safavian, who resigned from his position with the Office of Management and Budget on Friday, sort of took liberties with the truth when he accepted a trip to Scotland to play famed St. Andrews a few years back. And it also seems that U.S. representative Bob Ney from Ohio was also on that flight. So to make a long story ...

Less than a week removed from kneeling on the golf course clutching his chest, David Toms has announced that he will hold off on corrective heart surgery so that he can compete for the PGA Tour in the Presidents Cup. David Toms: Championship golfer, great American, idiot. “I’ll be fine,” Toms said on Sunday. “I’m going to … see how my body reacts to the medication I’m on and go from there.” So if Toms drops dead from a massive cardiac incident on the fairway, we’ll assume his body didn’t react as well to the beta-blockers as he had hoped. As a sport, golf ...

Born in Davenport, the odds had always been stacked against Jack Fleck. After returning from service in World War II, Fleck continued what had been a lackluster golfing career. It all changed in 1955, when Fleck put it all together and stunned the legendary Ben Hogan in a playoff for the 1955 U.S. Open. It was an upset that kept the golfing world buzzing for years afterward, and gave Fleck instant international fame. Jack Fleck: WWII veteran, golfing champion, international hero, and most of all, an Iowan. Now who do you suppose Iowans should respect? A man who fought the odds to author ...

The city of San Antonio has thrown down the gauntlet: If you plan on doing something, they plan on taxing you for it. Yesterday, the San Antonio City Council announced their 2006 budget which will include a raise in property tax payments and new fees on everything from ambulance rides (this will go from $90 to $500), increases in parking at events, as well as golfing at one of San Antonio’s six municipal courses. Mark Lawson, manager of Mission Del Lago Municipal Golf Course said it appear that the fee for golfers will be an extra $2 for cart fees, though it ...

When Mike Weir missed the cut at the Bell Canadian Open and Canada as a nation didn’t implode into crazed anarchy, I was somewhat red-faced, to say the least. I blame myself for that overeager prediction, which was made immediately after I watched The Day After Tomorrow". I suppose I figured if global warming could wipe out the Earth in 15 minutes, a Mike Weir collapse should take out Canada in roughly the same time. Luckily for my predictions career, it does appear Canada is being overrun with hippies, but they’re lollygagging, as hippies are prone to do. Case in point: In ...

That Iowa still desperately clings to the selling point that John Wayne was born there is really enough to kick them out of the Union, in my opinion. But recently, Iowans everywhere are showing a graphic display of anti-golfer behavior that one wouldn’t expect from people who live in the same state as the world’s largest strawberry. Oh, call me an alarmist if you will, but it’s time golfers everywhere faced the growing menace that is Iowa. To wit: A recent City Council meeting in the thriving metropolis of Ottumwa, led to a glorious debate on whether hunters should be allowed to ...

In a stunning rebuke to the common theory that only Americans like huge, mostly worthless things (i.e. SUVs, quadruple-bacon-cheeseburgers, Oprah), the Khaleej Times reports that they have created the World’s largest tee in Dubai. The tee stands five meters high (about 17 feet). It will be used as a promotional tool for an upcoming GolfEx convention, so that people can look at it, and exclaim, “Wow, that is one big tee.” Just so no one gets the wrong idea, however, the paper pointed out that the tee is likely illegal on most golf courses. “When playing on a course, the legal height of ...

There’s nothing worse than putting additional pressure on a professional athlete. Oh, who am I kidding. There are plenty of things worse than that. Things like death or even a good toe stubbing. So in that case, while doing my normal, exhaustive research on the Bell Canadian Open, I realized one important fact: If anything ever happens to Mike Weir, the entire Canadian golf industry will collapse. In fact, maybe all of Canada. Since the tiny, island nation of Canada welcomed home Weir after winning the 2003 Masters, he has become the lifeblood of the sport. This year, with hockey sidelined, Weir ...

After more than a week of hearing golf relentlessly disparaged, I feel it’s time someone spoke up. As has been reported everywhere by everyone, President Bush was playing golf while Hurricane Katrina was busy making New Orleans into a giant jacuzzi of death. Now, the hardcore golfers amongst us look at this and privately think, “Hey, he had a tee time,” but please remember these people are in the minority. While I feel that it’s vital to point out that golf isn’t the issue here, I also believe it’s time for a nation-wide ban on presidential golfing. I mean, it’s not really ...

The Associated Press ran a story awhile back on the recent “startling” growth of golf in Brazil. “The sport has grown at a very fast rate, it is amazing what has been happening,” said Alvaro Almeida, president of the Brazilian Golf Confederation. Everything sounds fantastic until you bring up the numbers: Five years ago there were 6,000 Brazilians playing golf, while today there is 25,000. Now, this falls into the category of “you can make anything look good with math.” Brazil is a country of around 200 million people. When 25,000 of 200 million pick up a club at least once a year, this ...