Swinging a “speed stick” in the parking lot to gauge his swing speed, Boston pro James Driscoll took the time to offer public golf travel tips. “I played Red Tail in the New England Amateur one year and all the players loved it. It’s more modern than many of the old Donald Ross courses and it’s in great condition. I especially liked its...
Remember 1980 and 1982 and 1983…Bill Rogers led and everybody wanted to know if he was going to run a marathon, then Jim Thorpe led and everybody wanted to see him do sprints, then George Burns led and everybody wondered if he handed out free cigars and told jokes.
Click here for my TravelGolf site. Lots of great content there too.
Hard at work, Jay at the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst.
I caught up with Sergio Garcia and Brandt Jobe outside the locker room after the round. Here are some excerpts: JF: How were the playing conditions out there? Sergio: Conditions were terrific for scoring. The rough could get tougher and the greens could get quicker. They can’t start too tough because then it’s hard to control, but they have control now...
Very quickly, tune into my travel golf site for up to the minute reports from the media tent and interviews live from the U.S. Open. Next, blogger had some trouble with the rest of my Brian Silva interview, so its to be continued soon. Please read that here. Last, before he passed away, Bunker Mulligan and I discussed the idea of a blog entry here about what its like...
Tune in to my Travel Golf site for this update on my talk with ESPN’s Andy North and other USGA officials about play conditions. I also posted my tourney preview and some random thoughts on the eve of the Open. The talk in the media tent is actually to watch out for Retief Goosen, who is a favorite of Jen Mario. Today’s practice round has been gorgeous.
Ian Poulter is his own head cover. Photo courtesy of AP.
He’s never at a loss for words, never wanting for a laugh, never lacking a story and never ceases to berate himself with self-deprecating humor. Boston golf course architect Brian Silva calls himself a “golf artichoke.” If he means infinite layers, depth, complexity and great taste, then the analogy is perfect. Silva is only 5’7″ in...
I shed a tear as I typed the lead for this piece. It was a tear for a gifted man taken from us far too young and in the prime of an extraordinary career. It was a tear of sadness for a family’s loss of a devoted husband and father. It was a tear for his design partners, business associates and golf course design colleagues who sorrow for their collective loss...
AUTHOR’S NOTE: There will be a longer piece forthcoming, but I owe it to you to satiate your appetite and to share this treasure with you. I’m in Pebble Beach, CA, but even in this mecca of superlative golf, both public and private, the golf takes a back seat for now. There are many wonderful human interest stories to tell about this small patch of Heaven...
So as I sit here getting organized for my trips to Cali and Pinehurst, I came up with a new term of art in describing golf course design that I think is important. I call it “architectural echo.” “Architectural Echo” means two different but equally important elements of a golf course. First, its the ability of a course or designer to take...
It will be a busy two weeks for the A Walk in the Park team. First, from Thursday to Sunday I will be in Northern California to play Mike Strantz’s latest two courses, Silver Creek and Monterey Peninsula GC, both of which are private. The golf world has been quick to hail MPGC as a candidate for a major championship in the near future. As many of you know, Mike...
Golf and politics blogger and foreign war veteran Mike Reed died Saturday at his home in Texas after a massive heart attack. He was 52 years old. Known to bloggers as “Bunker Mulligan,” Mike was renowned for his patriotism, his service to his country, his fierce loyalty to his home state of Texas, his concise and poignant political writing and his...
Two great pieces today. First click here for Robin Williams’ HILARIOUS take on golf.
Next, this piece goes behind the scene of caddyshack and shows how true to life it really was. Brilliant. Enjoy.
See everybody from Monterey Peninsula and from the media tent at Pinehurst soon.
Jay
      Too many rules and red pens lead to the suppression or erasure of the individual, passionate and observing voice. We have been hard-wired, indeed short-circuited to only like things we have seen before by a golf police state which created and enforce a free-thinking-free zone. Elitist golf Nazis and uptight tradition nerds cluck away like broody old...