Oak Tree Country Club, West Middlesex, PA

Oak Tree Country Club is a shotmaker’s course: you’ll be forced to work the ball both directions to navigate this deceptively narrow track.

Oak Tree Country Club, PAOak Tree Country Club is a semi-private course near Sharon, PA. Built in 1967 and designed by Ed Ault, Oak Tree existed until 2005 as a private club. The pressure of maintaining a large, active membership in the modern day forced the club’s hand, but the transition has been smooth, and memberships are still available.

Director of golf Bob Collins invited The Sand Trap to play a round after making sure we were okay with a “tighter, tree-lined course.” After assuring Bob that we valued golf courses of all shapes and sizes and that we weren’t going to blame our poor shots towards those trees on faulty course design, he set up a tee time.

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The 2006 Players Championship Preview

As we wait to see which shotmaker will triumph at the TPC at Sawgrass a “Dye-abolical” 17th hole will strike fear into TOUR pros again this year.

Players Championship LogoYesterday, Erik touched on The Players Championship in an article that asks whether this illustrious tournament should be considered golf’s fifth major (it shouldn’t). Regardless of your own opinion, you’re still in for a real treat because the tournament draws many big names who consider this a big tournament.

It all started back in 1974 when Jack Nicklaus won the event, known then as the Tournament Players Championship. He won again in 1976 and 1978. While there has never been a repeat winner of The Players Championship, Jack is one of only four players with multiple wins on the Stadium Course. The course doesn’t have a preferred style of player but it is called by many the “second shot course.”

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The Players Championship: Golf’s Fifth Major?

The Players Championship the fifth major? I don’t think so.

Players Championship LogoThe Players Championship will be played later this week for likely the last time in the calendar month of March. As usual, “The Players” will draw a top field and be contested on a famous, testing course. But The Players is richer than that, and for years, the debate has raged: “is it golf’s fifth major?” The answer, unfortunately, is quite simple: NO.

The U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and British Open all began no later than 1916 with the oldest, “The Open,” dating back to 1860. The Players began in 1974 (or, for the more cynical, 1988). Even the Masters – which was instituted by a guy that won all four of golf’s then-major championships – came into existence more than two generations prior to The Players Championship.

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A Bright Future

The early part of 2006 has seen the rise of a few young guns on the PGA Tour.

Thrash TalkTiger Woods exploded onto the scene nearly a decade ago and proved early and often that he was a force to be reckoned with on the PGA Tour. A few years later, Sergio Garcia stole the hearts of golf fans worldwide en route to stamping his claim as a young up-and-comer. Adam Scott and Luke Donald soon followed Garcia, quickly placing their names into the hat of “young guns.”

Tiger’s résumé speaks for itself. It’s obvious he is one of, if not, the best young golfer to come along in the history of golf. Garcia, Scott, and Donald have all been very successful on the PGA Tour, and they are all currently ranked in the top 10 in the world. That’s pretty awesome in its own right. While these three haven’t been as successful as Woods, they will still be a huge part of golf’s future.

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Cycles of Greatness on the PGA Tour Poster

Chart the PGA Tour’s big names from 1916 to 2004 with this heavy-duty poster from HistoryShots.com.

I consider myself a fan of the history of the PGA Tour. Though I wasn’t around to see Slammin’ Sammy Snead, The Wee Ice Mon Ben Hogan, Arnie Palmer and his Army, or even Fat Jack Nicklaus in their primes, that does not mean that I cannot appreciate what they accomplished.

History Pga Winning PercentageI’m also a fan of statistics, charts, and graphs. The image to the right was taken from a larger poster at HistoryShots.com. It adds fuel to the fire that Tiger Woods is the best golfer ever by comparing his winning percentage (24%) to Hogan’s (22%), Nicklaus’ (16%), Palmer’s (13%), Watson’s, Casper’s, and Player’s (12%, 11%, and 7% respectively).

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Inside An Online Golf Shop

As the owner of GolfGods.com, Jason Mischel has learned the that golf business isn’t easy, but it is fun.

Bag DropLess than two years ago, Jason Mischel was an avid golfer who owned a thriving mail-order pet supply company. His biggest golf-related concern was probably trying to decide whether he wanted to buy a new driver.

Fast forward to the present, where Jason is the owner of GolfGods.com, an online golf shop in the dog-eat-dog world of retail golf. Now he’s trying to figure out what new drivers the rest of us want to buy – and how much we’re willing to pay, how to direct visitors to his site, and how to compete with the big names like Edwin Watts, Golfsmith, and Golf Galaxy.

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Volume Fifty-One

The game of golf is synonymous with history, legends, and lore. It’s one of the reasons why I love the game so much. Here are some great sites that will help you remember the history and memories of our beloved game.

Hittin' the LinksIt was between passing out and downing my last gulp of green ale this past weekend when I thought about all the memories I’ve had on the golf course. The game of golf is synonymous with history, legends, and lore. It’s one of the reasons why I love the game so much.

So I’ve been feeling nostalgic and reminiscent as of late. Maybe it’s because the Bay Hill Invitational took place this past weekend and the tournament conjures up such great imagery of past champions. Or, maybe it’s because at the tournaments helm is one of golf’s most endearing icons. Possibly, it’s because the feeling of spring is finally here, which conjures up thoughts of great rounds that have long since passed. Then again, someone could have slipped something into my Smithwicks and I’m having some trippy flashbacks. Whatever the reason, here are some great sites that will help you remember the history and memories of our beloved game.

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Pampling and Inkster Grind Out Victories

Greg Owen blows up by three-putting from 3’4″ and hands Rod Pampling his second PGA Tour trophy.

Australian Rod Pampling proved to be just lucky enough this St. Patrick’s Day weekend to overcome a two-shot deficit with two holes to play. He started the day with a substantial four-shot lead, but quickly saw that lead collapse after carding a double-bogey six on the par-four 13th hole after shoving his drive out-of-bounds. He thought that he had handed the tournament to Greg Owen on a silver platter, the two-shot lead seemed too great to overcome in just two holes. However, Owen would take three putts to get down from 40 inches on the 17th green and would drop another stroke after a putt that looked center-cut agonizingly lipped out on the 72nd hole. “I can’t believe it missed,” he said afterward. “I cannot believe it missed.”

Pampling used to be known as that guy who held the first-round lead of the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie only to blow up Friday and miss the cut. Now he’s known as only the second non-American player to ever win the Bay Hill Invitational.

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Episode 017

Lawsuits galore this week: Greg Norman and Sean Connery get “lawyered up” and Luke Donald gets “Luke Donalded” up in winning his first full-length PGA Tour event.

PodcastGreg Norman and Sean Connery go after Tim Finchem and Sherwood Country Club, the South Korean Prime Minister quits in a “golf scandal,” the odds on Tiger winning the Grand Slam in 2006 are a measly 30:1, and a little Phil Mickelson news: being dumped by Ford and holding out on hybrids. This and a whole lot more in this week’s Golf Talk Podcast.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 017 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

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