Green Posse

If you are in the majority of the country that’s been struggling with freezing temperatures the last few weeks, it’s time to plan–or at least daydream about–a spring golf vacation. To get you in the mood, here are my choices for the top ten spring golf destinations:
1. Bermuda. Bermuda, located 640 miles off the coast of coast of North Carolina offers balmy weather; British style, tea, and shopping; and the highest concentration of golf courses in the world (including the Mid Ocean Club course, pictured above).
2. Augusta. More of a pilgrimage than a getaway, traveling to Augusta, Georgia to …read more

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The PGA heads to San Diego County’s Torrey Pines Country Club this week for the Buick Invitational Golf Tournament. The event is especially noteworthy in that the Tour’s two top players–Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson–are making their season debut there. The tournament will also be good preparation for the US Open that will be played on the same course in June.
This is the first time since 2000 that a course has hosted two events. (Pebble Beach hosted the AT&T Tournament and the US Open that year.) Some are saying this takes away from the excitement and mystique of …read more

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Justin Leonard may not have won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic last weekend (he lost in the 5th round to 27-year-old D.J. Trahan), but he certainly had interesting golfing partners for the first four rounds. Leonard played with rock artists, Alice Cooper and Meat Loaf. What the interaction in the YouTube video:

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As Tiger gets ready to make his 2008 debut, at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines next week, it’s fitting to take a look at some of his incredible shots over the last few years.

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It’s the story that just won’t go away. Two weeks ago, Golf Channel anchor, Kelly Tilghman was suspended from her broadcasting duties after an offensive off-hand remark that young players on the tour should “lynch” Tiger Woods in order to replace him as the top player on the tour. It was rarely obvious that she didn’t mean to offend, but her choice of words was certainly unfortunate.
Now just when the brouhaha about her gaffe is dying done, Golfweek Magazine, in reporting the Tilghman story, Golfweek Magazine uses a noose on the cover of its January 19 edition and …read more

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Another young golfer to watch this season is Steve Marino. The 27-year-old, University of Virginia graduate finished fourth in last week’s Sony Open and had four top-10 finishes in 2007, ending the season at #63 in the FedEx Cup standings. A native of Oklahoma, Marino is a product of the Nationwide Tour (2005-2006) and was the 1999 Virginia State Amateur Golfer of the Year.

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Yes, it’s halfway through January, but golf season has yet to begin in most parts of the United States. “Golf Tips with Joe Beck” offers a thoughtful list of resolutions in their recent newsletter. He offers these thoughts:
1) Take a Trip to another Course or Historical Site
Within the U.S., take yourself to either Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, or Pinehurst. These are 3 fun, special resorts available at different price points. If you’re up for international travel, I recommend visiting the “home of golf” – St. Andrews of Scotland – and playing the old course. There, you can …read more

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The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic begins today in Palm Springs, one of the few five-round tournaments on the PGA circuit. The tournament, begun in 1960, is played on four courses and pairs celebrity amateurs with the pros for the first four rounds. Hosting duties are now the responsibility of comedian George Lopez.
Among the celebrity players are:

Alice Cooper, rock musician
Taylor Hicks, American Idol winner
Derek Anderson, QB for the Cleveland Browns
Joe Kernen, broadcaster journalist for CNBC
Don Cheadle, actor
Ming Tsai, award-winning chef
Cheech Marin, comedian
The tournament tees off at 830am PST. All five rounds are being broadcast on the Golf Channel. Their programming starts …read more

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K. J. Choi didn’t have his best round yesterday, but his play during the week helped make up for his 1+ fourth round to beat challenger Rory Sabbatini by three strokes and capture the 2008 Sony Open title, his seventh PGA career win. The swirling winds contributed to the relatively high scores on Sunday.
Choi, 39, is something of a national hero in his native South Korea. The son of a seafood and algae farmer, he grew up with a passion for golf from reading books by Jack Nicklaus, but lived 60 miles from the nearest 18-hole course. Still, the passion …read more

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You may have heard rumblings about the new PGA formula for determining which players make the cut after two days’ play–or seen new markings in the newspaper recap of the Sony Open this past weekend.
In an effort to reduce the Saturday/Sunday field and make the tournament fit more nicely into television viewing hours, the PGA has instituted a new, very complicated and controversial, formula.
Traditionally, the top 70 players plus ties qualified to play in the third and fourth rounds of a tournament. The new formula goes something like this:
The cutline is still the lowest 70 players plus …read more

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