12:57 p.m. PDT (8:57 p.m. GMT) The factoid seemed too rich to be real ... it had to be concocted for TV. But there it was: the 20-year-old Englishman, paired with a certified golf legend and icon of this tournament ... and word comes that Young Tom Lewis is named after Old Tom Watson. … [Read more...]
Missing a friend, in the time of the Tour
I think about my friend on the “official” days of his life, the dates and anniversaries that we mark in the absence of the man himself. I think of him at odd times, too, and one of them is now. The guy was into the Tour. He knew the courses, the athletes, the equipment they used. He could talk … [Read more...]
Gold Mountain Olympic: Just your everyday championship golf course
BREMERTON, Wash. – The roughs are long and sticky and will only get longer. The greens are fast, and might get faster. And while members and visiting players battle through – and maybe curse – the challenging setup at Gold Mountain’s Olympic Course, it’s all in the game plan as Gold Mountain … [Read more...]
Golf goes on without Tiger … let me count the ways
There have always been young guns in golf, celebrating the perks of extreme youth and outlandish talent. It’s not hard to imagine the young Arnold Palmer and Champagne Tony Lema and Lee Trevino and Ernie Els (in a ragged chronology) partying well and hard and storming the gates of The Willard, a … [Read more...]
A round with Bill Tindall
Former Junior Amateur champion comes back as honorary chairman BREMERTON, Wash. -- He was as reluctant to leave the golf course as a kid called home when there's still late-evening light in the late-summer sky. There was still a whole back nine to play. But Bill Tindall, no kid anymore, … [Read more...]
Andres Gonzales will take his road show to the U.S. Open
Andres Gonzales is no wide-eyed innocent -- check his Twitter tweaks of Tiger Woods -- but there's nothing like your first. Gonzales Your first U.S. Open. Gonzales, 28, a PGA Tour rookie from Olympia, Wash., played his way into the Open Monday with a 36-hole total of 133 … [Read more...]
Dan Raley to read from his book about the old hometown ball team
That stuff up there under the Grey Goatee heading is all about the blog being all about golf. Except for days like today, when it’s about Raley, who isn’t much about golf at all these days. Dan Raley, lately of Atlanta, Ga., is plenty busy with other things. In another venue a couple years ago, I … [Read more...]
What’s on your plate at the turn?
Comes the news just yesterday, from your United States Department of Agriculture, that the Food Pyramid is out. The Plate is in. Bold prediction: This development will not rock the golf world . The plate symbol, they say, makes it easier to visualize portion sizes relative to the kinds of food … [Read more...]
Journalism as blog, blog as journalism
Along with the slow death of newspapering as we know it, we get confirmation that in the eyes of the world (or the Daily Beast) there is no more useless piece of academic paper than our BAs in journalism. When I was in j-school, we knew we wouldn’t get rich out there – we knew, at least, that … [Read more...]
It’s the dunes, of course
FLORENCE, Ore. – He had to go inland a few miles to find it, but Sandpines Golf Links head professional Bob Rannow is resting easier now that he’s reclaimed that one piece of equipment he’s been searching for. An old Hogan-autograph spoon? A Bobby Jones hickory-shaft putter? No. Back in high … [Read more...]
Recent Comments