On Our Mind Golf Blog

President Obama passed on throwing out the first pitch on opening night at the new Nationals Park. The POTUS probably didn't want to be associated with a perennial loser (The Nationals) in the middle of a financial meltdown. The man was in search of good vibrations, and the D.C. baseball club has enough trouble with grade school level spelling.

But Obama has decided to finally take the mound. He'll do so at the MLB All-Star game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 14. He will be the fourth President to throw out the first pitch at the All-Star game, joining John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Ceremonial first pitches are as customary as trips to Camp David for U.S. Presidents. In fact, the first pitch tradition outdates the Presidential retreat by two decades. Every President since William Howard Taft in 1910 has thrown an first pitch at either Opening Day, the All-Star game or during a World Series. 

The towering grandstands surrounding Bethpage Black’s signature stretch of holes from No. 15 to 18 will be merely a memory by the time the first public golfers tee off Monday morning. That’s when the Black Course is schedule to re-open for daily-fee play despite the beating it took during U.S. Open week.

"Honestly, it’ll be all right," Superintendent of the Bethpage State Park golf course Craig Currier told New Jersey’s Star-Ledger. “We’re going to mow, we’ll put some holes in the green to get some air in them. Just give them a break for the week and keep the rollers off of them. Just let them dry out.” 

With his hands shaking and heart racing 29-year-old Lucas Glover sank a short par putt, which was anything but routine, considering the circumstances, to become the champion of the 109th U.S. Open contested over the waterlogged links of Bethpage Black. When Glover’s ball banked off the bottom of the cup just after 1 p.m. Monday it signaled an end to what will most likely go down as one of the oddest weeks of major championship golf ever played.

Patience was at a premium at Bethpage for players, tournament officials and spectators, who all waited out multiple weather delays throughout the week and did the best they could despite a rather ramshackle schedule. In the end, it was Glover’s patience that propelled him to a victory likely to define his career. 

On the eve of the 109th U.S. Open championship, it's tough to imagine a player not named Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson winning the tournament if you've been watching any of the preview programming put on by the likes of The Golf Channel and ESPN.

Obviously Lefty is the sentimental favorite and rightly so, and as someone who'll be in the gallery at Bethpage Black on Sunday I'd absolutely be thrilled to experience the emotions of a Mickelson march up 18 with victory in hand, but if I had to pick between the two, I'm taking Tiger all the way.

Repeat after me, the LPGA Tour is not the PGA Tour, not now nor will it be at any point for the forseeable future unless the American competitive sports landscape drastically changes. Even after Tiger Woods has moved on to the Champions Tour or accepts an offer from the 46th President of the United States to become a goodwill ambassador for our nation, the LPGA will not exceed the PGA in popularity, watchability or bankability.

With that said, I found the announcement earlier this week that the No. 2 Course at Pinehurst Resort in the Sandhills region of North Carolina would be the first ever venue to host both the Men's and Women's U.S. Open Championships in the same calendar year (2014) and would do so in consecutive weeks to be a bit disconcerting.

Update: The Allentown Morning Call is reporting that Michelle Wie was one of 75 players who failed to qualify for the Women's U.S. Open Monday, shooting 71-74 to finish with a 2-over 145. The necessary score to make it into a playoff for the last of the 30 spots available at Woodmont Country Club was 1-over 144.

Blair O'Neal managed to survive another elimination on the Golf Channel's Big Break: Prince Edward Island Monday evening, but wasn't so fortunate Monday afternoon. She struggled en route to an opening round of 80, and finished with a more respectable 75 but was never seriously in contention for a spot.

"It was really rough," she told the Washington Examiner, which was on hand to cover the event. "I really struggled on the first 18. It was like I wasn't even there. It was like I was on the outside, looking in."

Natalie Gulbis also failed to qualify during the proceedings at Woodmont.

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.