On Our Mind Golf Blog

Should a player who has a major championship to his credit in 2009 win the FedEx Cup does he deserve consideration for PGA Tour Player of the Year, even if the world's most recognizable athlete has won five tournaments during the current season?

Undoubtedly yes. Although that scenario is unlikely, and the favorite to win the FedEx Cup can squash any and all debate by taking care of business as he's done at Bay Hill, Congressional, Muirfield Village, Warwick Hills and Firestone CC. 

The only athlete to receive more pub than Tiger Woods last summer was swimmer Michael Phelps, who captivated the country for two weeks with his record-setting performance at the Beijing Olympic Games.

In 2016, Woods will have an opportunity to shine on the world stage. 

Conventional wisdom has Tiger Woods winning the 91^st PGA Championship going away. The man who transcends his sport is firing on all cylinders as the world's best golfers descend upon Hazeltine National Golf Club for golf's fourth and final major, and two convincing victories in two weeks have made Woods the overwhelming favorite and swept his dismal performance at Turnberry under the proverbial rug.

The story of the major championships in 2009 is simple. In his final performance before the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, Woods has won, effectively leading everyone to believe that finding his name alone on top of the leader board as each major concluded was inevitable. 

While the ‘On the Clock Rule' designed to govern slow play on the PGA Tour hasn't been enforced since 1992, the rule itself and the official who threatened to use it are being called out for playing a critical role in Padraig Harrington's unfortunate triple bogey during the final round of the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational.

After rules official John Paramor informed the Woods-Harrington group that it would be timed by stopwatch for each shot on No. 16 tee, Harrington hit a series of poor shots, including a flop shot that came out hot and found the water guarding the 16^th green. Harrington wound up making triple bogey, while Tiger Woods stuck an 8 iron only a few feet from the pin on his third shot and subsequently rolled in a short putt for birdie. The exchange left Harrington three shots behind Woods and effectively ended what had been a captivating battle between superstars. 

The PGA Championship is rapidly approaching, and the last major of the year is the final chance for Phil, Tiger and the rest of the world's best golfers to capture one of sport's biggest prizes.

It's also a chance for you to win a prize pack from the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, which includes a sleeve of U.S. Open logo golf balls and an official souvenir program.

In a column published in Monday's edition of the Washington Post noted author and Golf Channel contributor John Feinstein explored the weekend that was in sports, and concluded that a normally uneventful period on the calendar had turned out to be rather fruitful for sports talk radio fodder.

"This is supposed to be a quiet time of year in sports," Feinstein wrote. "Things are usually so dull that a one-day holdout from an NFL training camp by a first-round draft pick passes for news." 

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.”