On Our Mind Golf Blog

The second round of the St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind in Memphis has been suspended, so we won't know the official 36-hole leader until the final few holes of round 2 are completed on Saturday morning, but it certainly looks like 2009 Verizon Heritage winner Brian Gay will occupy that position at 10-under-par.

Gay broke two significant records at Hilton Head's Verizon Heritage in April by completing the tournament at 20-under-par and crushing his nearest competitor by 10 shots.

Kudos to the LPGA Tour and The Golf Channel for injecting a little bit of life into this week’s LPGA Championship held at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, Maryland, which began Thursday.

In what has become a normal pre-tournament routine for the ladies’ Tour this season, early week chatter centered on the Tour’s shrinking schedule and resigning sponsors instead of the players to watch in the event.

To celebrate the upcoming U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, the 109th edition of the tournament, Golfer's Guide is giving away a $50 GolfSmith gift card to the winner of the Golfer's Guide Contest group participating in the ESPN.com U.S. Open Best Ball Challenge.

The rules are simple: Head over to ESPN.com, join our group and then put together a foursome of golfers, which you can change each day of the tournament, who combine for the lowest "best ball" score for the week.

Follow this link, search for 'Golfer's Guide Contest' and build your team. I'll contact the winner and mail out your gift card at the conclusion of the event. Good Luck!

Made wildly popular by financial institutions, automakers and insurance giants, bailouts have become almost a right of passage for any company struggling to make monthly loan payments.

The list of businesses seeking public funding has grown to include high-end luxury resorts, golf courses built as part of lavish properties, private clubs and even municipal layouts that annually struggle to make a profit.

Without outside aid, many developers and owners are faced with the prospect of foreclosure and significantly devalued properties. 

Tiger Woods is no doubt still relishing his victory at The Memorial, and it certainly looks as though he's hitting his stride as the U.S. Open nears, not to mention plenty of fairways (Tiger was 14 for 14 on Sunday). But according to the recently released Forbes Celebrity 100, Woods doesn't even beat out Beyonce Knowles, diva and singer famous for imploring men to "put a ring on it" if a woman is to their liking and urging ladies to upgrade their men if they're not up to par.

The magazine's annual power rankings, which are based on earnings and fame, feature movie stars, rockers, athletes, models, on-air personalities and even a few top chefs. Woods is No. 5 overall, but he does rank as the No. 1 man on the list, falling behind well-known and well-funded females like Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Madonna and Beyonce. 

Circumnavigating Lake Tahoe and traversing through the varied terrains of the High Sierra golf courses is what I imagine it would be like to be inside of  postcard. Whether you're on the valley floor looking up at nature's skyscrapers or on top of the world looking down upon the blue waters of America's most famous mountain lake, it's difficult to ignore the beauty of everything around you.

Here is a sampling of what I've seen over the past few days and a little bit about the places I've passed through. 

Aptly described as majestic, magnificent and truly remarkable, the unmistakeable Edgewood Tahoe golf course set along the shores of one of America's most photographed natural wonders is the toast of the Lake Tahoe-High Sierra golf scene.

Annually Edgewood hosts the American Century Championship, a golf tournament that has featured celebrities like Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice and John Elway over the years.  This year the event celebrates its 20th anniversary and the anticipation of Barkley debuting his re-tooled swing to the public is quite palpable around these parts. 

In 1990, Arnold Palmer flew into a tiny airstrip less than a mile down the road from one of his newest design projects, Dayton Valley Golf & Country Club, to help christen the new course by participating in grand opening ceremonies. Palmer's personal touch was felt then and now. In his design philosophy Mr. Palmer states “I believe in traditional, straight forward design that produces courses with lasting quality and that are exciting and enjoyable for all players," and that's certainly true at Dayton Valley.

His high-desert design has been challenging players for nearly two decades, with plenty of water hazards and deceptively difficult greens, plus significant mounding and undulation throughout the layout. 

This week I'll be golfing and blogging the High Sierra, which encompasses the Reno-Lake Tahoe region and surronding places such as Carson City, Nevada and Truckee, California.

As a golf destination, Reno-Tahoe doesn't deserve to be labeled as underrated, because those who have golfed here tend to offer a decidedly favorable opinion of the place.

But when compared to popular golf hot spots like Central Florida, the Carolinas, Phoenix/Scottsdale, etc...Reno-Tahoe just doesn't have the exposure or the quantity of courses. The High Sierra destination is more like an untapped golf resource with plenty of quality layouts concentrated within an hour's drive of one another. It's out there to be discovered and I hope to highlight some of the places to play, stay, eat and drink over the next few days. 

When I think about avoiding danger on the golf course, it's usually in reference to laying up short of a fairway bunker, keeping my ball away from the water or preventing golf stains from ruining new golf pants.

Steering clear of trouble took on a very different meaning Wednesday afternoon at Newman Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in Peroria, Illinois that is part of the city's Park District.