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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
The importance of good timing
As noted earlier here, the Shell Houston Open had its best field in decades earlier this month when it was played the week before the Masters. Based on the World Golf Rankings, 15 of the top 20 players, and...
A Houston Original
One of Houston's many treasures is Jack Burke (earlier posts here), the 86 year-old co-founder and owner of Champions Golf Club. The energetic Burke was recently slowed by a "mild" stroke (my late father used to say that the...
Not a bad way to start the day
"I can only tell you that eggs, country ham, biscuits, a pot of coffee, a morning paper, a table by the window overlooking the veranda and putting green, listening to the idle chitchat of competitors, authors, wits and philosophers,...
It's 2009 Shell Houston Open Week
The Shell Houston Open has finally arrived as a big-time PGA Tour event. After an ugly divorce from The Woodlands, and a difficult transition period in which most of the best PGA Tour players avoided the event, the 2009...
What if they liked the course?
This year's Shell Houston Open during the first week of April is shaping up to have its best field in over 20 years. The Chron's Steve Campbell reports: Tournament director Steve Timms announced another flurry of player commitments Monday that...
Dan Jenkins' 2009 Golf Season Pop Quiz
Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is already in mid-season form with this hilarious pop quiz (H/T Geoff Shackelford) for the start of the 2009 PGA Tour season. Some of the questions to get you started: 7. Camilo Villegas is:...
Can he do it?
I don't think so, but I sure will be pulling for him. We mid-50 year olds have to stick together. If Norman can pull it off, his victory should put to rest one of the cruelest golf jokes of...
Gearing up for the U.S. Open
Golf course author and blogger Geoff Shackelford is blogging the U.S. Open this week at Torrey Pines in San Diego in the same manner as he blogged The Masters earlier this year, and he kicks off the U.S. Open...
The Players trumps the Masters
Well, he didn't do it with a belly putter, but Sergio Garcia fulfilled my prediction after last year's British Open that it was just a matter of time before he won a big-time tournament. On Sunday afternoon, the 28...
What is Tiger thinking and has The Masters become a bore?
So, Tiger Woods is being forced to take a month off from the PGA Tour as he rehabs from knee surgery. I know that Woods' workout routine is considered cutting edge, particularly for a professional golfer, but what on...
Another one-planer wins The Masters
Last year it was Zach Johnson (see also here). This year, it's Trevor Immelman. What's the deal with all these one-plane swingers dominating the Masters Tournament? Could it have something to do with the fact that neither Johnson last...
America's slipping grip on golf
First, PGA Tour events had to worry about the Tiger Chasm. Now, this W$J article reports that they also need to worry about competition from tournaments in foreign venues: The U.S. has, for decades, held sway over the international...
It's time for The Masters
It's the week of The Masters golf tournament, so I'm passing along a copy of the Augusta National scorecard that my late father used when he shot a cool 99 at the course back in the mid-1970's. The weather...
It's 2008 Shell Houston Open Week
Following on this post from a couple of weeks ago, this week's Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club has its best field in years (previous posts here), which includes the following top 25 players in the World Golf...
Is this the key year for the SHO?
The Shell Houston Open has been a frequent topic on this blog, particularly the tournament's troubled recent history (see here, here and here). This year's tournament is coming up during the week of March 31-April 6 and, for the...
Comparing Tiger's swing with Hogan's
In comparing the swing of Tiger Woods with that of Ben Hogan in this Links Magazine article, long-time golf teacher Bob Toski makes the following observation about how changes in the nature of golf have prompted swing changes: One year...
Final PGA Tour money lists
After last weekend's final PGA Tour tournament of the year, the PGA Tour money list has been finalized for purposes of qualifying for the 2008 PGA Tour events. The top 125 on the list are fully exempt next year and...
"A glorified club championship?"
The first run of the PGA Tour's Fed Ex Cup did not exactly transfix golf fans. However, this Bob Harig/ESPN.com article makes the Fed Ex Cup look like the Masters in comparison to the PGA Tour's initial Fall Series: Dubbed...
The PGA Tour's Texas Mess
The Tiger Chasm has had an extremely detrimental effect on the Texas PGA Tour events (see here and here). Texas golf writer Art Stricklin picks up on that theme in this Golf.com op-ed in which he points out that the...
They're off at The Players!
The Players Championship is underway over in Ponte Vedra, Florida near Jacksonville on the renovated Tournament Players Course at Sawgrass. Each year, The Players has the strongest field of any golf tournament -- 48 of the top 50 players in...
More love for Zach
Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins is not having any part of the notion that Zach Johnson's victory in The Masters Golf Tournament was boring due to a tricked-up Augusta National: I, for one, loved it. The Augusta National, with an...
The Tiger chasm defined
The television numbers are in on the just-completed Masters Golf Tournament. CBS Sports’ coverage of the tournament on Easter Sunday earned an average overnight household rating/share of 9.1/21 (meaning that 9.1% of households on average were tuned in at any...
Zach Johnson wins The Masters
It's not every day that a fellow born in my hometown of Iowa City and raised in Eastern Iowa wins a professional golf tournament, much less the the Masters Golf Tournament. But Zach Johnson pulled it off in dramatic fashion...
"Turning a masterpiece into a brute"
It's the always-anticipated day of the final round of The Master's Golf Tournament, not everyone is sanguine about the fact that Stuart Appleby's one-over-par 73 on Saturday allowed him to take a one-shot lead over Tiger Woods and Justin Rose...
It's time for The Masters
The venerable Masters Golf Tournament begins this morning at that golfing Zimbabwe in Augusta, Georgia. Golf Digest's John Hawkins does his usual fine job of handicapping the field and, somewhat surprisingly, doesn't think that Tiger Woods is putting well enough...
"A golfing Zimbabwe?"
The Masters Golf Tournament gets underway on Thursday and the fine Masters website is streaming video of the practice range so that we can watch the pros hit the rock pile in preparation for the tournament. And the NY Times...
The folly of the "resemble Augusta" approach
In the Chronicle's seemingly never-ending campaign to give the Shell Houston Open relevance, this Steve Campbell/Sunday Chronicle article reports that SHO officials are planning on setting up the Tournament Course at Redstone in a manner similar to the way that...
One of those "unimportant" tournaments
With the following breathless description of the additional player commitments for next week's Shell Houston Open, the Chronicle continues to put the best face on an increasingly troubling situation for the local tournament: SHO update The Shell Houston Open fortified...
Why I like golf
Mark Wilson is a 32 year-old journeyman PGA Tour player who won last weekend's Honda Classic. The victory was the first in 111 starts for Wilson, who has been to the pressure-packed PGA Tour qualifying tournament an excruciating eleven times...
Now, this is pressure
Canadian Press golf writer Doug Ferguson sets up the Chrysler Championship that begins today at Innisbrook in Florida, a mostly forgettable affair except that it incongruously generates some of the most intense pressure of the entire PGA Tour season. It's...
Arnie's Houston farewell
I've been remiss in not mentioning Arnold Palmer's announcement this past Friday during a round in a Champion's Tour event at Houston's Augusta Pines Golf Club that the round would be his last competitive round of golf. Steve Campbell's article...
The next troubled Texas PGA Tour event
This earlier post reviewed the problems that continue to plague the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament on the PGA Tour schedule. However, to the north of Houston, the EDS Byron Nelson Open -- which begins Thursday in Dallas -- is...
Shell Houston Open -- we have a problem
As noted in this earlier post, the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club -- the new home course of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament -- received mixed reviews from the players who played in last week's tournament, a view...
Appleby wins SHO in a cakewalk
Stuart Appleby led from wire-to-wire in winning his second Shell Houston Open golf tournament Sunday at the new Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. The final leaderboard is here, local golf writer Ed Fowler's report on the tournament is here,...
It's 2006 Shell Houston Open Week
This is Shell Houston Open week, and this year's tournament is a particularly interesting edition of the venerable local stop on the PGA Tour. As noted in this earlier post, the SHO is still recovering from a series of dubious...
Best Golf Picture of the Year
It simply doesn't get any better than this Augusta Gazette photo of Long John Daly catching a quick smoke while hitting balls on the Augusta National driving range before his first round Thursday at The Masters Tournament. By the way,...
It's time for The Masters
The Masters golf tournament begins today and, as Brian Wacker reports, the tournament is -- as usual -- a tough ticket: As I write this, the going rate for two badges to the second, third and fourth rounds of this...
The remarkable Jack Burke
One of things that makes Houston such an endearing place to live is the city's many characters, one of the most colorful of whom is Jack Burke, Jr., the former PGA Tour professional who retired at the age of 35...
Has it really been 20 years?
In this LA Times article, (regis. req'd) Thomas Bonk reminds us that the upcoming Masters Tournament next month marks the 20th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus' stirring 1986 Masters victory at the age of 46. Bonk notes that much has changed...
"Nine and eight"
The PGA Tour is in La Jolla, California for the Accenture Match Play Championship this week, and the special format of that tournament has already produced some sparks between the competitors. For you non-golfers, match play is different from the...
Spinning the new date for the Shell Houston Open
Last week, the PGA Tour announced its new schedule of Tour tournaments to begin during the 2007 season, and it remains to be seen how a new date for the increasingly-troubled Shell Houston Open ("the SHO") will play out. As...
More favorable date for the Shell Houston Open?
As noted in this previous post, the Shell Houston Open has suffered for years because it is played two weeks after The Masters Tournament when most of the best players are taking a break before gearing up for the U.S....
Dan Jenkins on The Masters
Regular readers of this blog know that Dan Jenkins is my favorite golf writer, bar none. Mr. Jenkins still covers each golf major tournament for Golf Digest magazine, and his article (not yet online) on this year's Master's tournament appears...
Singh wins his second straight Shell Houston Open
Vijay Singh took advantage of long John Daly's hooked drive into the water on the first playoff hole to win his second straight Shell Houston Open golf tournament on Sunday afternoon. Singh and Daly tied at 13 under par after...
The amazing Dan Jenkins
Given that it is Shell Houston Open week, it seem appropriate to note that Ft. Worth's Dan Jenkins -- whose writings were previously featured in posts here and here -- is the best golf writer of our times. An outstanding...
It's 2005 Shell Houston Open week
The 2005 Shell Houston Open is this week at Redstone Golf Club as the no. 2 ranked player in the world -- Vijay Singh -- returns to defend his 2004 title. Shreveport native David Toms, the ninth-ranked player in the...
It's The Masters and Martha time
The Master's Golf Tournament cranks up today and, almost on cue, Martha Burk is railing against the capitalist roaders wasting money on such nonsense. Writing in today's Wall Street Journal ($), Ms. Burk asserts that corporate sponsorship of a rich...
The Houston Open - consequences of bad decisions
This Chronicle article about the downturn in the Houston Golf Association's charitable donations after a less than stellar Shell Houston Open this past spring brings to mind how even well-intentioned people can bungle a good thing through a series of...
Dan Jenkins on Phil Mickelson's Masters
As noted here earlier, Dan Jenkins is American's finest sportswriter on golf. He has covered an incredible 53 Masters Golf Tournaments in a row, and here is his Golf Digest article on this year's spectacular tournament that Phil Mickelson won...
Mickelson wins The Masters
Phil Mickelson won The Masters Golf Tournament in dramatic style with a clutch 12 foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to edge Ernie Els by a stroke. Here is the NY Times article on Mickelson's victory. As everyone who...
But the pink hair has got to go
The following is from The Telegraph's story of today on the first round of The Masters Golf Tournament: At 10.45 there was an air of eager expectancy around the first tee as people waited for Ian Poulter. Having been advised...
Dan Jenkins on the 1954 Masters
Bar none, Dan Jenkins is the best writer on golf of our time. In this Golf Digest article, Mr. Jenkins relates his story about the 1954 Masters in which the legends Sam Snead and Ben Hogan dualed in an 18...
Arnie, about that embedded ball 46 years ago . . .
Former Tour player and longtime CBS golf color commentator Ken Venturi has written a book -- "Getting Up and Down: My 60 Years in Golf" (Triumph Books, April 2004) about his life in professional golf. Golf Magazine recently ran an...
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