On Our Mind Golf Blog

On the golf course, Tim Tebow is just like you and I.

In an interview with Jacksonville's First Coast News , Tebow said he plays for the one or two good shots per round worth remembering and appreciates the escape a golf course offers.

"Playoffs?! Don't talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I'm just hoping we can win a game, another game!"

With apologies to former Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora, who's imfamous post-game press conference has lived on thanks to Coors Light, I'm gonna talk about playoffs.

The last we saw Sergio Garcia, the 29-year-old Spaniard with a penchant for speaking his mind was looking disinterested if not downright disgusted as he wallowed his way around Quail Hollow Club.

Sergio shot an unflattering 78 to miss the cut Friday, and he didn't need to discuss his round with the media once he finished in order to convey how he was feeling. His body language said it all. Instead of looking like a multi-millionaire with a world of talent, his gait resembled that of an undergraduate trudging to an 8 a.m. Philosophy lecture they'd put off until second semester of senior year after quarter draft night.

With the set fading to black at Bay Hill in mid-March, Tiger Woods knocked out Sean O'Hair with one of his trademark big money putts on the 18th green. At Quail Hollow, O'Hair played the part of Manny Pacquiao leaving Woods resigned to the role of Ricky Hatton, dizzied and dropped to the canvas by a young player on the rise and a golf course in major championship form.

It was sweet revenge for O'Hair, who was quickly branded as the latest in a string of PGA Tour players to crumble under the weight of Woods' considerable legend after he flamed out at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

With his purchase of a 36-hole private golf club in the nation's capital, Donald Trump has designs on taking the Chesapeake Bay area golf scene by storm and luring high-profile events and powerful Washington, D.C. players, including President Barack Obama, to his newest golf course holding.

A number of news outlets, including the Washington Post, have confirmed that Trump has acquired The Lowes Island Golf Club, which will now be known as Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C.

Golf Digest's most recent list of "America's Top 100 Public Golf Courses" featured eleven layouts from the state of South Carolina, the most by any state.

In honor of South Carolina's newfround supremacy, here is a look at the eleven courses to make the list in order of their Golf Digest ranking.

It's not a bad time to be second best.

Miss California Carrie Prejean is the most famous runner-up in the history of Miss USA, and is cashing in on her pro "opposite marriage" stance. Larry Fitzgerald's Arizona Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, but Fitzgerald still managed to grace the cover of Madden 2009. And Hillary Clinton has parlayed her bridesmaid finish in the Democratic Presidential Primary into a gig as the world's top diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State.

Golf is a game of honesty and decency, but it's also just so damn difficult that on occassion one just can't help but let an obscenity fly on the course, or in the case of professionals, in front of the cameras.

The modern technology used for golf broadcasts is designed to pick up intimate exchanges between golfer and caddie or golfer and tournament official, so it's only happenstance that those same cameras and microphones pick up a brief yet muffled F-Bomb from time to time.

I've never had a particular reverence for Ellias Sports Bureau types who incessently crunch numbers to measure an athlete's might, whether it be for the purpose of rankings, Hall of Fame worthiness or bar room debate.

Numbers are no doubt helpful when comparing the careers of two players who competed in different eras, or present-day athletes who are competing side by side. Unfortunately, it's likely that the two sides of the debate, after much spirited discussion, will arrive at an impasse.

With Tuesday's announcement in Shanghai disclosing that China's HSBC Champions event has been elevated to World Golf Championships status, the lucrative WGC series immediately added a layer of legitimacy to its title by including an international venue in a tournament series that touts itself as a worldwide competition.

Sounding a bit like the villainous Dr. Evil character of Austin Powers fame, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem stopped short of fantasizing about global domination saying, "The map of the golf world may never look the same."