At least once a week during the golf season, I walk 6 miles carrying a 40-pound bag on my shoulders. Sometimes the temperature is close to 100F, and the humidity is over 90%. When I’m playing well, I can drive the ball over 300 yards, and, if necessary, I can stretch my 9-iron to 170 yards. And compared to golfers who are actually good – not to mention professional Tour players – I’m a total wuss. Still, one hears and reads lots of sports commentators and regular folks who insist that golf is not a sport – that it requires no ... full post »

New golf equipment is arriving almost daily, begging for thorough testing and review. This sounds pretty great, but with a foot of snow covering the ground and high temperatures in the teens, it’s just torture. At least I have the NFL playoffs to fill my golfless hours on the weekends. And even better, I have a handsome bottle of Johnnie Walker Black to keep me company. The Johnnie Walker Centenary Pack ($50) celebrates the 100th anniversary of this pioneering blend. It’s housed in a sleek, opaque black bottle with the iconic label etched in gold. This amazing blend is as deep ... full post »

As a kid, I remember receiving the worst possible Christmas present: underwear. Now that I’m an adult (in body, if not in mind), new underwear would be a welcome gift – especially if that underwear were Equmen. Equmen’s new Precision Underwear ($59) are inspired by the high-performance fabrics worn by athletes, yet they’re designed for regular guys. The boxer briefs I tested during a late-season round of golf made me feel like I was wearing a superhero uniform: it felt like every muscle in my thighs and, um, haunches was flexed and ready to power through each shot. Somehow–and I’m not ... full post »

I received the most bizarre press release of my career on Friday. It was from Bookmaker.com, announcing that official odds were out on which of Tiger’s sponsors would drop him first. Here’s a portion of that press release: “Earlier this week, CEO Mickey Richardson and his team put together odds on which sponsor will be the first to give him the boot, with Pepsi Co’s Gatorade and Tag Heuer as frontrunners and TLC Vision Corp and Accenture following close behind. Full odds below for you: First Sponsor to Drop Tiger Woods Nike ... full post »

Have you ever noticed the distinct inverse correlation between the age and expense of a golf ball and the likelihood of you losing it? There must be some sort of equation to represent this apparent law of golf, but I’ll let the more mathematically inclined figure it out. All I know is that old, mud-stained balls with road-rash are nearly impossible to lose, while brand-new, top-shelf pearls disappear from my bag faster than beer from John Daly’s fridge. Take, for example, the ball in the chompers of the imposing pit-bull in the photo below. That picture was taken moments after I ... full post »

Let me be perfectly blunt about my golf game of late: It really does not matter what type of ball I play. If I’m hitting it well, I can play an yellowed wound water-ball and still bomb, gouge, and score. If I’m not, well, I lose a half-dozen or more $6 balls, adding financial injury to insult. I have a strong suspicion that I am not alone in this candid admission of my on-course foibles and fallibility. (In fact, there may be some of you out there reading this with a quivering lower lip and tears streaming down your cheeks, ... full post »

A few days ago, I received an e-mail from golf author Bob Thomas’s wife, Mary Anne. She informed me that Bob had had a major stroke about 11 weeks ago. Bob is on his way to what is hoped to be a full recovery, she said, and she promised that he would be writing golf books again someday. Nevertheless, as we all know, strokes are much worse in real life than they are in golf, and Bob could use some help from his golfing fans and friends. In Mary Anne’s own words: “My aim is to raise enough cash to protect what ... full post »

There’s a lot to keep track of in golf: 14 clubs, one or more golf balls, etiquette, score, playing partners, cigars, beer, and the course itself. Seems like I’m always fiddling with something or other – it’s a wonder I even remember to hit the ball. (Well, sometimes I do forget…) I’ve just discovered a multifunction divot tool called the DivPro. But to call DivPro a “divot tool” is a massive understatement. I can count at least six functions for this Swiss Army Knife of golf. First, it is a divot tool with extra-long tines and a sleek, curved shape that fits ... full post »

Over the past several years, it seems every golf apparel manufacturer has introduced a “moisture-wicking” fabric of one kind or another. The purpose of these high-tech textiles is to draw sweat away from the skin to keep the wearer drier and cooler. Many of these fabrics are synthetics, incorporating the flexibility and durability of polyester with newer structures and materials. Antigua has just introduced its new Desert Dry Extra-Lite (D2XL) line, which improves on their previous moisture-wicking technology. The line features fabrics that are so light, they almost feel like you’re not wearing anything. Best of all in my opinion, though, is ... full post »

Golf will be played in the Olympics in 2016 and 2020, after more than a century of banishment from the games. According to the AP, “Padraig Harrington and Michelle Wie addressed the IOC in person before the vote. Wie talked about starting to play golf when she was 4 but never being able to dream of an Olympic medal until now. “‘I can dream about doing something that neither Tiger nor Ernie [Els] have ever done, and that is to make the final putt to win an Olympic gold medal,’” Wie said. ‘If this dream comes true, somewhere in the world there ... full post »

Jon Fitzgerald, film-festival organizer and 12-handicap golfer, turns 40 and decides to try to turn pro. He’s going to chase the dream all avid golfers have dreamt, and he’s going to take us all along for the ride. That’s the premise for “The Back Nine,” a golf documentary that is as much about Fitzgerald himself as it is about golf. To be fair, however, in order to understand Fitzgerald’s quixotic journey, one must understand the man who decides to mount up on his donkey, driver in hand, and tilt at golf courses. Being a film-festival organizer, Fitzgerald knows what it takes to ... full post »

Last night I was part of a dominating and victorious night-golf scramble team. If you haven’t played night-golf, you don’t know what you’re missing. And because night-golf is played in the pitch dark with glowing golf balls and glow-stick-lit flagsticks, even the players don’t know what they’re missing – or hitting, for that matter. Nevertheless, we rang up eight birdies against just one bogey on the devilish greens of the par-3 course at Lake of the Woods Golf Course, starting off with a miraculous putt from the fringe, followed by an other-worldy chip-in from across the green, and then three straight one-putts ... full post »

I’m not much of a jewelry guy, nor do I generally buy those little bracelets that are supposed to support – or at least signify support – for some cause or another. But the other day, I was sent a bracelet by the I’m Tired of organization that hooked me. I’m Tired Of makes bracelets from recycled and renewable materials that say things like “I’m tired of cancer” and “I’m tired of global warming.” The black rubber and green metal bracelet I received said, “I’m Tired of Bogeys", and lord knows I am tired of those. More importantly, though, is that half ... full post »

Golf in general, and professional golf in particular, has a long history of supporting charitable causes. And in hard economic times like these, it seems that this effort actually increases. A number of groups have contacted me recently about helping to get the word out about their deserving causes, so I thought I’d devote a few blogs to them. The first of these is a charity bicycle ride in October that begins in Scottsdale, Arizona on the 14th and ends 430 miles later in San Diego, California on the 17th. The objective of the ride is to raise funds and ... full post »

This just in: The European Solheim Cup Team has just announced that they will not acknowledge the U.S. victory until a key player—unbeaten rookie from Hawai’i Michelle Wie—can produce a long-form birth certificate. Laura Davies was the first Euro to raise the issue. “Is Hawai’i even in the U.S.?” she asked. “I’ve been watching FOX News a bit—which we all know is fair and balanced—and they seem to believe that it is not.” Suzann Pettersen, a native of Norway, also raised the issue, when she noted, “In Norway, we used to etch birth records into the shells of hollowed eggs. Can Michelle ... full post »