In honor of National Golf Day (April 16), and despite the fact that golf is temporarily on hold pending a change in Mother Nature’s current stance on spring, we are extolling a few of the economic, health and environmental benefits of the game: Economic: Golf is a nearly $70 billion industry, providing nearly 2 million jobs and total wage income of $55.6 billion. In Minnesota, the golf industry accounts for 34,653 jobs and $776.7 million … Continue reading
Author Archives: WP Ryan
Did Masters’ officials do right by Decision 33-7/4.5?
In assessing Tiger Woods a two-stroke penalty (for breach of Rule 26-1) rather than a DQ for signing an incorrect score card, did Masters tournament officials correctly invoke their right to waive a DQ penalty on the four-time Masters champion? Read the text of the official statement delivered by Fred Ridley, the chair of the competition committee: “Yesterday afternoon, the Rules Committee was made aware of a possible Rules violation that involved a drop by … Continue reading
Minnesota Golf Bids Farewell to Two Champs
It’s always a bit sad and sweet when figures important to golf in Minnesota pass from the world of the living. The sadness, beyond the obvious loss for the families and friends involved, comes with the realization that the ranks of an important generation are being culled on an almost daily basis. The sweetness comes with recognizing the significance of the lives they lived, celebrating their noteworthy successes, and acknowledging the indelible mark they leave … Continue reading
Anchors Away: Golf’s Governors Pull Plug on Anchoring the Club
The R&A and the USGA (the game’s governing bodies) today announced a proposed rules change that prohibits anchoring the club in making a stroke. In a global news conference televised by the Golf Channel, the R&A’s Peter Dawson and the USGA’s Mike Davis explained that the rules-makers were seeing an increase in “the advocacy” of the anchored stroke at the elite amateur and junior levels, and that “in the best interests of the game moving forward,” it … Continue reading
Are Ye Teeing it Forward?
Imagine the starter at St. Andrews addressing groups of nervous yet eager golfer-tourists at the famed Old Course’s very broad, very exposed and very public first tee (spectators of all stripes linger near the first tee to watch golfers, most on shakey pins, strike their first blows at the historic town links). “Are ye teeing it forward today?” I have a hard time imagining that scenario even at the likes of the Old Course, where … Continue reading
Leaping Leprechauns — weather and golf records are falling right and left.
Weather guru Paul Douglas says we might see 80 degrees this weekend. It was 73 on Wednesday and he thinks we may see six days with temps above 70 this month (the old record was five days in 1910)! Snide remarks about global warming aside, if the winters lose their bite won’t everyone want to live here? Padraig Harrington posted a record-breaking 61 yesterday at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Fla., and the Transitions Championship. Too bad Padraig … Continue reading
Answers to “Time to get in Golf Mode” Quiz
1. a/d, b/c, c/a and d/b 2. a/d, b/a, c/b and d/c
Scratch your golf itch this weekend
Is the great non-winter of 2012 in Minnesota giving you the itch to get back on the green? Even though the days are getting longer and the snow-less landscape holds real promise for an early start to the golf season, it’s hard to get giddy knowing Mother Nature can be temperamental or even downright ornery. But don’t let her fickleness keep you from giving that itch a good scratch this weekend. How? Head down to the Minneapolis Convention … Continue reading
Wouldn’t you love to . . .
Wouldn’t you love to see the game’s great playing golf for their own money, on a great golf course, and under four hours? Continue reading
Golf gets a “kickassery” injection
“Kickassery” is not a word one finds in the definitions of the Rules of Golf… Continue reading