On Our Mind Golf Blog

In his last full season on the PGA Tour (2002) Gary Nicklaus, son of 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus, competed in 26 events. He made the cut just six times, and his best finish was T52 at the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Not exactly inspiring play from the man who Sports Illustrated once splayed across its cover under the headline of "The Next Nicklaus." Seven years later, there was Gary at the first stage of the PGA Tour's qualifying school still chasing his dream, although most probably view it as a man chasing his father's considerable shadow.

Generating a signifcant amount of energy and enthusiasm to complete yet another collaborate class project is a task high school students often fail at; after all class projects rarely give teenagers much to be excited about. My high school history teacher had us design costumes and cook dishes for a medieval feast in our school's courtyard and once that was over he had us build homemade catapults. But that was more for the Dungeons and Dragons crowd and overall enthusiasm was tepid at best. And those were the most captivating projects.

Even in college, working with your peers had its shortcomings. I thought the parties involved tended to be more concerned with the work being evenly divided up (I'll tell the professor if you don't pull your weight) rather than actually producing a successful product. During a sports marketing class my senior year, we did get to design a few holes on a golf course; although the course was fictional and we were only allotted about 20 minutes to sketch a few holes on a notepad and then discuss our ideas.

The piece of property neatly tucked between Interstate 4 and Walt Disney World is a long way from 301 Park Avenue, but the developers of the new Waldorf Astoria Orlando did their best to pay homage to the original’s historical footprint while making sure to account for the contemporary version’s more tropical locale.

Interior designer of the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, Rosie Feinberg, told the Orlando Sentinel that the question always under consideration by the staff working toward creating a combination of new and old was, “What happens when a historic, urban, gilded hotel takes a vacation?”

Tiger Woods' 2009 season will be remembered more for what he didn't do - win a major championship - than for what he did accomplish - win six tournaments and the FedEx Cup.

If you've watched Tiger from start to finish in each of the four major championships this year, you've probably caught and been left speechless by one or two phenomenally poor shots, the likes of which we've never witnessed from the architect of golf's most prosperous era. Tiger's also shown that he too can be lighthearted, interviewing himself after winning his own tournament, the AT&T National, at Congressional Country Club just outside of Washington, D.C.

That crazy Quaker William Penn and his ilk were a peace-loving people, and upon settling in Pennsylvania's largest modern-day population center, they envisioned it as a place where folks of all different creeds and colors could co-exist in harmonious accord. Penn's intentions led to Philadelphia earning the nickname, "The City of Brotherly Love."

There was no such thing on Wednesday afternoon at the city's Cobb's Creek Golf Club, site of the first public golf course in the Greater Philadelphia area that today houses 36 holes of golf. A sibling golf outing turned unruly, leading to a busted nose and an arrest warrant.

I know just where I'd want to be less than a week after one of my professional golf peers told the world that I arrived at my hotel "sideways" at 4 a.m., and as a result played the final round of the President's Cup hung over - Las Vegas.

That's right, accused party boy Anthony Kim is in Sin City, a place where bad decisions and hangovers are a byproduct of breathing and remaining upright, this week to compete in the PGA Tour's Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

West Virginia's historic Greenbrier Resort has embarked on a renaissance of sorts since native son and successful businessman Jim Justice saved it from bankruptcy earlier this year.

The resort recently opened an upscale steakhouse named for former West Virginia Mountaineer and NBA great Jerry West (Prime 44 West), and has plans to introduce an underground casino in the spring of 2010. But the feather in the cap of the new ownership came this past July when the PGA Tour announced that it would be staging a FedEx Cup event on the resort's Old White Course beginning in 2010.

At your local golf course the course marshal is the often overbearing individual dedicated to shaving every possible second off the pace of play. And yes, sometimes this person can go about their duties in a delicate and friendly manner, but on most occasions the shepherd tending to his flock of daily-fee golfers can be an ornery son-of-a-b!tch. But the demeanor goes with the territory. This traffic cop of rolling topography is also responsible for settling disputes between groups or answering questions or concerns should they arise. The order of law is a marshal’s primary concern.

A marshal’s duties are a bit different when tending to crowds at a professional tournament. If you’ve ever been to a PGA, LPGA or Champions Tour event, the marshal can be spotted wearing a brightly-colored t-shirt, coat or hat, and is in charge of crowd control and flow; they tell you to quiet down before a putt and usher you through the fairway between a labyrinth of yellow ropes before the next group arrives. 

Greg Norman would have his name in more tabloid headlines at the moment if it weren't for David Letterman and Jon Gosselin. Yet, the International Team Captain for the 2009 President's Cup is still bound to face plenty of questions about his impending split from the media assembled at Harding Park. Hell, even celebrity blogger and self-titled "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton picked up on the Shark's marital discontent.

Hopefully the lack of nuptial bliss between Norman and Chris Evert won't overshadow the action at the President's Cup which is taking place this week in San Francisco. The Associated Press reported that the announcement of the couples' separation was to quell rumors about Evert's absence in San Francisco this week. Don't you suppose the public would've bought anything less obvious than she was hiking the Appalachian Trail as a valid excuse? 

While the International Olympic Committee hasn't officially approved golf for inclusion in the Olympic Program for the 2016 Summer Games, a vote is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 9, the odds are equal to the likelihood that Tiger Woods walks away with PGA Tour Player of the Year Honors.

The bigger question is whether or not Chicago will host the 2016 Summer Games. Tomorrow in Copenhagen, Denmark a delegation led by President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will be present to make a final plea for the Games and to witness the subsequent voting that will determine the winner. The Obamas will be joined by parties from other cities vying for the Games which include Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.