On Our Mind Golf Blog

Michigan Golfer's Guide Publisher Phyllis Barone was on-site at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan for Wednesday's Pure Michigan Pro-Am and Thursday's opening round. Here is a look at some of the action and sights from this year's Buick Open.

When Tiger Woods committed to the Buick Open last Friday he returned the tournament to a relevant position on the PGA Tour schedule for the first time since 2006, the last time he participated in the event.

Just when it appeared that what will most certainly be the final edition of the Buick Open as we now know it was headed back to obscurity, if Tiger missed the cut or failed to contend, our hero saved the day, scorching Warwick Hills to the tune of 9-under-par to vault himself onto the leaderboard.

In today's New York Times, Thomas Friedman took a break from his usual commentary which focuses on globalization, foreign policy and Middle Eastern affairs, to write about his friend Tom Watson.

Friedman is an award-winning author and journalist. He contributes a bi-weekly column to the New York Times and has won multiple Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of international events. He's also written best-selling books, such as "The World is Flat."

After spending a weekend in Greenbrier County, West Virginia to attend a friend’s wedding, I was pleasantly surprised to read that the Greenbrier Resort, which is located in White Sulphur Springs where the ceremony took place, is in negotiations to host an event that would replace the Buick Open on the PGA Tour tournament schedule.

In a report posted on its Web site this week, Golfweek published the following: “Golfweek has learned that the Greenbrier, the venerable mountain retreat recently rescued from financial straits, is awaiting confirmation from the Tour to join the schedule for 2010. The West Virginia resort would replace the Buick Open, which this week will end a 51-year run on Tour, according to two sources familiar with The Greenbrier’s operations who requested anonymity.”

By now, you've probably heard that the "People's Champion," Phil Mickelson will return to action next week at the World Golf Championships - Bridgestone Invitational following a six week hiatus to be with his wife and mother as they simultaneously battle breast caner.

We're sure to be inundated with sad, depressing stories leading up to the tournament about Phil and his family and rightly so - it's been a banner year for tragedy in the Mickelson household.

Last weekend multi-talented entertainer and lone credible survivor of the bygone boy band era Justin Timberlake unveiled his eco-friendly golf course project, Mirimichi, a 7,400-yard layout he saved from development and turned into America' preeminent "green" golf course for roughly $16 million.

The course is situated just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, and is Timberlake's latest contribution to a game that he's becoming increasingly involved in.

When Buick Open tournament officials announced late last week that Tiger Woods had committed to participate in this year's event, which begins this Thursday in Grand Blanc, Michigan, I'd imagine local golf fans felt similar to local baseball fans when a big league club announces that one of its superstars will be making a rehab appearance with a minor league affiliate that plays nearby.

Woods showing his face at PGA Tour stops perceived to be on the "B" list just doesn't happen anymore.

Spanning more than 840 miles, which is longer than the drive from Augusta, Ga. to New York City, Nullarbor Golf Links will claim to be the world's longest golf course when it officially opens for play on Oct. 22. It's the kind of overindulgence and extravagance you'd expect to find in America, but this course is a collection of golf holes set upon the desolate and arid terrain of the Australian Outback.

The 842-mile, par-71  golf course will traverse the almost treeless, limestone Nullarbor Plain that covers a wide stretch of land from South Australia to Western Australia. Depending on your pace of play, and how fast your drive, the golf course will take about four days to finish.

Tom Watson's unlikely renaissance at this year's Open Championship has helped to relight the nearly extinguished embers heating the often revisited question of whether or not golf should be considered a sport.

At the most basic level, a dry and direct dictionary definition, sport is defined as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess, often of a competitive nature. It should be clear to even the most biased of dimwitted national columnists, like CBS Sports.com's Mike Freeman, who we'll get to shortly, that golf does indeed fall in line with these simple yet substantive criteria.
 

Everyone who attended this past weekend's 20th anniversary American Century Championship, a star-studded golf event featuring athletes from every professional arena and a variety of actors, comedians and television hosts, and hoped that Charles Barkley would show up with a fluid golf swing consiting of one sweeping motion left disappointed.

Despite working under the watchful eye of Hank Haney, recently named one of the top five golf instructors in America by Golf Digest, Barkley's hiddeous hitch still haunts him, like a ghost lurking in his attic.