The 20th Hole

We visited Rancho del Pueblo Golf Course in San Jose which is a public course in East San Jose that is the venue for participants of The First Tee of Silicon Valley.  We really appreciated the time that Executive Director, George Maxe, spent with us in explaining how...

The latest LPGA debacle came at the ANA Inspiration Tournament where tournament leader Lexi Thompson was assessed a four stroke penalty--two strokes for marking her ball incorrectly and another two strokes for not recognizing the penalty and signing an incorrect...

Sergio Garcia got the monkey off his back, slayed the dragon, beat off the demons, and any trite saying you can come up with,  by winning the Masters Championship on Sunday in dramatic fashion in a playoff over Justin Rose.   Sergio, at age 37, had failed four times...

It's Masters Weekend and the first two rounds are complete with blustery windy conditions.    The wind and cold had a significant impact on the field with fewer than 10 contestants breaking par.  This is the first Masters without the presence of Arnold Palmer and the...

Boulder Ridge CC is located adjacent to Almaden Valley in San Jose.  Overlooking Almaden Lake and in an elevated location, the course sports some very nice views of the Bay Area.  The word "boulder" is operable here as the course is carved out of mountain with a...

The future of golf is threatened by a lack of new players in the game.  I discussed this in my book, Golf Chronicles, and made some recommendations as to how to bring new players to the game.  One endeavor is The First Tee organization.  The First Tee is a national...

We played the TPC Stadium Course on Saturday 3/18 which is the home of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.  The PGA event which was completed on Super Bowl Sunday drew over 600,000 spectators this year and is, by far, the biggest show on the PGA Tour.   I had the...

I couldn't resist!  Left Bangkok, Thailand at 8:30AM on Saturday, 3/11 to Hong Kong and then on to San Francisco.  With all the time zone changes, you get two Saturdays (3/11)  and we landed at 10:00AM on the same day-3/11.  After a formal charity affair at Bellarmine...

We moved to Thailand after 4 days in the Philippines to review operations in Thailand.  Unfortunately there was no time for golf but we visited Amata Country Club about 90 minutes from downtown Bangkok.  We had lunch there and had a view of the course but had no time...

We had the good fortune of playing another great golf course in the Philippines yesterday. ( Tagaytay Midlands Golf Course) about an hour from Manila.  The club was in the mountains and wind was a big factor yesterday.  The wind acted as an air conditioner in the warm...

I hadn't played golf in the Philippines since 1982 but thanks to Richard Cohen, I was able to get a game with Philippe Tordjman at Sta. Elena Golf Club about an hour outside of Manila.  Of course, playing golf was the right thing to do after a 24 hour trip from San...

The recent proposed changes by the United States Golf Association and the R&A are welcome by most of us who believe the esoteric penalties for doing unintentional things should cease.  One of the most important rule changes to my liking is the time requirement for...

Following more torrential rain in Northern California the previous day which lasted into the evening, we decided to show up for our Saturday, 9AM tee time at Cordevalle GC in San Martin, Ca.  We really didn't know what to expect as we knew the course would be very...

On a glorious California sun-filled day, Jordan Speith won the AT&T Pro-Am by four shots.  Newspapers and media will report this victory as just another easy conquest by Speith who was never seriously threatened in the event.  Speith started his fourth round with...

Friday morning at 8:30, the players that hadn't completed the first round went to finish in the sopping conditions of the golf courses.  The courses were very wet from further overnight rain but none was forecasted for today-so everyone played, "lift, clean and place"...