On Our Mind Golf Blog

One of the primary goals of PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and his minions heading into the 2008 season was to create a buzz surrounding the FedEx Cup finale (never intended to be known as playoffs) by narrowing the gap between No. 1 and No. 125 at year's end, thus creating a more volatile postseason atmosphere.

The experiment failed, and has again been reworked for 2009. While the Tour has struggled to create drastic swings at the end of its four-part FedEx Cup event, hopeful Tour players relegated to the doldrums of Q-School are surrounded by a culture of instability capable of leaving one player with the means to purchase an Aston Martin a calendar year removed from qualifying school finals, while his unlucky counterpart is stuck roaming from city to city on the mini tours in a Toyota Prius.

California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a skier, not a golfer.

That may be the only logical explanation for golf's inclusion in a proposed sales and use tax that would also be applied to appliance and furniture repair, vehicle repair and veterinarian services Feb. 1, 2009 if the legislation passes. That rate would be 8.75 percent if the governor's proposed three-year sales tax increase of 1.5 percent also is passed. 

Monday morning Tiger Woods became the most unlikely domino to be toppled by the deepening economic crisis. General Motors announced it would be ending its longstanding endorsement deal with the world's number one golfer to cut expenses and conserve cash.

A statement released by GM read: "Both GM and Woods agreed to a mutual and amicable separation that included a desire for more personal time for the 14-time major winner who is expecting his second child in late winter as well as the search for budget efficiencies during a difficult economy for General Motors." 

The newest course built on golf's holy land, St. Andrews, Scotland, has been named the "Best New Course of 2008" by Travel + Leisure Golf magazine.

David McLay Kidd's Castle Course, the seventh course at St. Andrews, has been controversial to be sure, but has certainly garnered its share of attention since opening on June 28, 2008. 

If anyone personifies the class, integrity and self-adherence to the rules of golf, it's the late great Bobby Jones. It was Jones who once famously called a penalty stroke on himself and the remarked, "You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank."

Jones retired after his Grand Slam in 1930, and thereafter only played in his own tournament, the Masters, which he did until 1948 when he finished in 49^th place. 

Their names have become synonymous with the game of golf as the legendary figures and champions that tread upon the hallowed grounds they've carefully created.

Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones, Pete Dye and Tom Fazio are as recognized in the realm of golf as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

Today, course design is hardly an afterthought. 

Over the weekend U.S. Ryder Cupper Hunter Mahan defeated Ryder Cup teammate Anthony Kim in a playoff to win the inaugural Kiwi Challenge, a 36-hole made-for-television golf tournament contested on two lovely courses (Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers) in New Zealand. Four young up-and-coming stars (Adam Scott and Brandt Snedeker also played in the event) and stunning panoramic pictures overlooking Hawk's Bay weren't nearly enough to warrant my interest; especially on a football weekend.

Presumably, the problem with made-for-TV golf is that it often features extremely small fields or celebrities who already have enough money to last them a lifetime, playing for, you guessed it, more money. 

When the precipitous economic freefall began with rising travel costs and a disappearing real estate market this spring and summer, everyone operating within the golf industry wondered whether a "recession" would impact the sport or if a pursuit if not exclusively enjoyed by, but more readily accessible to the affluent, would be immune to such a frugal consumer climate.

That, of course, was before bailout packages were handed out to fledgling companies like PGA Tour championship trophies to Tiger Woods. After watching giants of the financial, insurance and auto industries fall to their knees, it was clear that no sector of the American economy would be spared by our growing financial mess. 

During my visit to Jacksonville, well technically St. Augustine, to watch six new members join the World Golf Hall of Fame, I stopped at two of the city's most recognizable golf courses.

The first is the private Sawgrass Country Club, located in Ponte Vedra Beach. The day I visited Sawgrass, the club was hosting the Ed Seay Invitational, a tribute to Arnold Palmer's lead golf architect who just happened to design the golf club's 27 holes. 

Two of the saddest sporting careers of all-time have unexpectedly intersected at the corner of bleak and blacklisted this week.

The boozy John Daly was taken into custody after apparently passing out outside of a Hooters Restaurant, the same Hooters establishment which Daly clings to as the last of his high-profile corporate sponsors, so he could sleep it off. It also bears noting that Winston Salem, home to Wake Forest University, isn't exactly Las Vegas.