Golf Course Trades did a wonderful job on my Cal Club article. (You can read it here on-line or pick it up in print.) Cal Club is one of those golfing wonders of the world you have to savor at least once in your life. With the shining city on a hill in every picture window green, it’s as magical and transportive as any Shangri-La. Bravissima, Kyle Phillips...
Are you ready or some football picks? We are. Jay’s Plays NFL Picks is back for it’s 11th season. First we want to welcome back all our readers from Golf News Net. Glad to have you aboard again. Also welcome to all the listeners on the Jay’s Plays Radio Show. We’ve been kicking ass and taking names for much of the last decade, batting a...
We had Ryan Ballengee and Gary Van Sickle on the Jay’s Plays show on the Golf News Net Radio Network. We talked about the Masters, Jordan Spieth, the Players, Fowler, McIlroy, the USGA Fourball and the Anderson Memorial, both at Winged Foot, and the best moments of Tropic Thunder! sadly, no one has gotten the JB’s Best Hot Sauce Trivia Question right in a...
MAMARONECK, NY – Set your TiVo for Fox Sports 1 this weekend, because you’ll get a rare and wonderful opportunity: Winged Foot’s East Course, in all its majesty and splendor, will finally get the close-up it so richly deserves as the USGA and the television cameras descend on the venerable club – the Yankee Stadium of golf – for the...
Great job by the wonderful folks at GolfCourseTrades.com for running my article on Old Town Club, the last great course of Perry Maxwell. It’s a wonderful course in Winstom-Salem, NC, the home course of mighty Wake Forest! From the article: “It is impossible to understate how important Old Town is to both Maxwell’s legacy and the study of golf...
Jason and the Argonauts, contrary to popular belief, are not a pop punk band from Staffordshire, nor a football team from Toronto. Jason was an old Greek hero whose kingdom was wrongfully usurped, so he had to go on a quest for the fabled Golden Fleece to reclaim the throne. He got it in spectacular fashion, slaying a dragon to do it, and all manner of other...
Big hat tip to Ryan Ballengee for fantastic editing and support over at Golf News Net for my Oral History of the 1986 Masters, my first piece of the week. Also thanks to Jaime Diaz, Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf, Art Spander, Kenny Knox and of course to my idol Dan Jenkins, whose book Jenkins at the Majors had his remembrances in it. From the article: “Golf...
The Masters is less than a month away, and this year being the 30th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’s miracle win in 1986, we have a special preview piece commemorating the event. Also, we’ll be reporting on thee Masters with Friday and Sunday recaps and columns here and at Golf News Net. In other news, coming up on the Jay’s Plays Show we’ll...
My first Golf Course Trades article is up! It’s my review of the architectural and agronomic changes to Poppy Hills, the great RTJ, Jr. course on the Monterey Peninsula that shares hosting duties with Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and Spyglass Hill. You can click on the entire article here. Here’s a teaser: “Pine Valley’s...
We had a blast for 90 minutes on the Jay’s Plays Shoe with guests Steve Smyers (president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and a world class golf designer) and Steve Eubanks, golf writer for the Global Golf Post! Steve Smyers talked about the initiatives the USGA and ASGCA are working on together, along with his new courses in Dallas and...
That’s not Godzilla in that picture, it’s Ernesto the Prediction Iguana at the cashier’s window collecting his winnings. A gargantuan 8-0 week (4-0 in teasers) puts the season totals at a blistering 59-19-2 (21-17-2 in teasers). Since coming back from being benched early in the year, the Animal Kingdom’s Top Sports Prognosticator has been...
We had a stellar guest list on the Jay’s Plays show on the Golf News Net Radio Network. Golf architect Bruce Charlton joined us to talk about Cordevalle (host of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open) and Poppy Hills(former co-host of the AT&T). Then architect Tom Doak and GolfClubAtlas.com proprietor Ran Morrissett came on and talked about the second volume of...
It appears we have the makings of a quarterback controversy when it comes to our football picks this season. A lackluster 4-4 week by our intrepid Ernesto the Prediction Iguana makes the season totals 42-16-1. That stat is misleading, however, as Barstow the Cat’s three-week appearance subbing in accounted for 16 of those wins, balanced against just three...
Barstow the Prediction Cat went a blistering 7-1 last week, making his 3-week total in relief of Ernesto the Prediction Iguana a terrific 16-3-1. The season total here at GNN is a solid 38-12-1. Ernesto returns after his three week benching. My bet is the time off did him some good: He usually starts slowly every year, then heats up come crunch time, putting up...
It was a weird week for our picks: 3-2-1, bringing the season totals to 31-11-1. The Pats were the lone push for the week, let alone the season. Plus everyone who played the Steelers-Browns game got crossed-up when Ben Roethlisberger was forced into action. Here’s a sure-fire bar bet winner here for you: Who is the Steelers emergency QB? (Answer below.) While...