The 20th Hole

The First Sign Something Was Wrong It's October, 2024 and I was playing the Dunes Course at Monterey Peninsula with the Santa Clara University golf team.  I'd had a pretty good round playing with 18-year-olds striping their tee shots over 300 yards. One of the kids...

  You've been on North Berwick for the past two and a half hours and it's an exhilarating experience.  The wind has picked up and now is directly in your face as you approach, "The Pit", the par 4, 13th hole of 390 yards now playing a lot longer than that as you...

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house-not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care with the hopes that the tickets to the 2026 US Open would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their...

I have given enough shirts, caps, sweaters, ball-markers, golf balls and all the rest as Christmas gifts over the years.  This year I have some recommendations to consider that involve giving back to the game of golf.  PARdon Me--my new book that was published in...

While Hideki Matsuyama was shooting lights out winning the Tiger Wood's invitational tournament-the Hero Challenge, Senior Tour players were competing in a unique format--the World Champions Cup.  The World Champions Cup was a display of grizzled Senior Tour great...

Another Thanksgiving full of great food, family and peace-a welcome respite from the daily dose of the toxic air that exudes from seemingly every corner of our society.  There's always the usual Dallas Cowboys victory and Detroit Lions loss offset by scrumptious...

It might be one of the most incredible golf venues on the planet.  Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand is a coastal headland and a peninsula forming the southern boundary of Hawkes Bay jutting magnificently into the Pacific Ocean. The land mass covers 6,000 acres of hills,...

The USGA Women's Mid-Amateur Championship was held at Monterey Peninsula Country Club's Dune Course.  As a member of MPCC, I know the club has been preparing for this event for over a year and genuinely embraced having a signature USGA event at the club.   The...

The US lost the Ryder Cup again for the second time in a row and on its home turf.  The Monday Morning quarterbacking from the avalanche of media commentary is amazing and completely boring.  The golf media is spending considerable effort at questioning the pairings,...

For those of you that follow these posts know that I have soured on the Ryder Cup in recent years.  My minority view is that the tolerated jingoistic fan behavior makes it difficult for the visiting squad to win these matches.  The players readily accept the...

The Ryder Cup matches will be played in two weeks and the Europeans will seek to be the first team to  attempt to win away from home in quite a few years.  In 2023, the Europeans smashed  and thrashed the American squad, which was the worst beating since Julius...

It was hard to figure out.  Tommy Fleetwood is one of the best players on the PGA Tour with a terrific career and many top ten finishes in PGA events and major championships all over the world.  However, prior to this past Sunday, Fleetwood was the best player to have...

The USGA Men's Amateur Championship was held at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.  The Olympic Club has been host to a number of USGA championships and the recently renovated Lake Course would serve as a fabulous venue for what is the most egalitarian golf tournament...

It's come to my attention that our readers and supporters have had some difficulty buying the book on Amazon and have had to reorder a few times. Our publisher has solved this problem by enabling ordering directly from the fulfillment source.  To order, click here....

Business was bringing me to Australia.  The first step would be Sydney and I would be arriving on a midnight flight from Singapore.  The business trip covered a number of Asian countries including-China, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Singapore.  The...