Category: PGA

This week I was fortunate to do double-duty at the Wyndham Championship: working as a Headquarters Chairman as well as a part-time media guy (thanks to Erik at The Sand Trap and to Rob Goodman at the Wyndham). I hear a lot and see a lot that happens backstage at a PGA Tour event. It probably isn’t a stretch to say that keeping track of everything requires a tenuous dance of thousands of people around the ropes that enclose our friendly neighborhood touring professionals.

Continue reading “That Damn Phone To His Ear”

Sedgefield Country Club (SCC), the site of the Wyndham Championship, is not like most other golf courses on the PGA Tour rotation. It is situated in a very small residential community that was established as far back as 1926. Roads in this area are very narrow and there is a unique juxtaposition of average, small houses and multi-million dollar mansions almost side-by-side in this area. When the Tour rolls into SCC every August, the Piedmont Triad comes out in force to watch, but what about the members and the residents of this area? How does this event impact their lives?

Continue reading “The PGA Tour’s Effect on the Piedmont Triad”

What a difference a day makes! The putting green is now a sea of color and vibrant activity. The pros, their wives and girlfriends (decked out in the latest fashions), agents, caddies, police, volunteers, PGA Tour staff, and Sedgefield Country Club personnel are all here and running around trying to get business done.

It seems like the putting green is like the bat at old Yankee Stadium – the place to meet. In the past few hours I have seen all sorts of deals getting done. Agents for companies welcoming new signed players into their corporate stable, children being herded off by their nannies, players talking about the best places to eat dinner, and the guys trying to move equipment.

Continue reading “With the Pros Come the Putters”

It is very dark at 0530 at Sedgefield Country Club and the place is extremely busy. I opened the Tournament HQ and simply watched the activity. Across the street, the greenskeepers are working to reset the pin locations for today’s practice pro-am.

Continue reading “Wyndham on Monday”

Hello world. No, that’s not quite right, I think I’ve heard that somewhere before in the world of golf, but I will quickly move on. I want to thank Erik for taking a chance on letting me try my hand at golf reporting for The Sand Trap. This is really my first time writing about golf and I hope to dig up some interesting stories while I am at the finest PGA Tour stop in the Piedmont Triad area (read Greensboro)!

I am an unabashed golf nut. I first held a club at the age of 23 and somehow I was hooked. I bought some clubs at a Wal-Mart somewhere in Pennsylvania and beat balls around courses in PA from State College to Danville to Erie. I took many (mostly forgettable) lessons and never seemed to get any better than a weekend hacker-duffer. Finally, I ran into the Stack and Tilt crew and things have become so much better for me over the past 1.5 years. I can actually hit the ball. Sometimes with a push-draw! That makes me very happy.

Continue reading “Wyndham Introduction”

Sign up now or join us later for a live chat starting at 3pm eastern time when final-round coverage of the 2010 U.S. Open from Pebble Beach begins.

We’re going to try a live “chat” this time around rather than a live blog as we’ve done in the past. We’ll have a few invited guests (primarily from the forum) who will join us, and you can pop in from time to time to add your commentary to the live feed.

The event kicks off with coverage at 2pm eastern time, so check back a bit before then.

Also, anyone who (in their first comment, prior to 2pm eastern time) predicts the winner and the final score will win a free license to Scorecard, an awesome statistics app that helps you analyze and improve your golf game. Post the final score (relative to par) and the winner’s name. Your first entry’s all that counts, and if you post multiple times, you’re DQed.

Head to any range in the country and you’ll see one thing. Well, okay, you’ll see a lot of things, like 90% of people hitting off their right foot, slicing, and firing balls one after the other as if they go bad when exposed to sunlight.

But the thing I’m talking about is actually something you won’t see: alignment sticks. Station after station, golfer after golfer, and not a single alignment stick to be found.

Walk around the range at a PGA Tour event and you can’t get away from the darn things.

Everyone wants to be like a PGA Tour pro, but very few people practice like one. Here are a couple of photos from The Memorial and the Bridgestone Invitational showing pros – and their training aids – on the range.

Continue reading “Pros on the Range”