What Are Your Concerns In 2012?

A couple of weeks ago, we asked in the GNN Poll about your mood heading into the 2012 golf season. The reasons were simple. The weather was ahead of schedule in many parts of the country and there were signs that the economy was stabilizing, so we asked specifically how your attitude towards the season [...]

A Whirlwind Through Maui

I know I won’t get any sympathy for this one, but on Sunday, I begin a whirlwind assignment in Maui, leaving Toronto at 10 a.m. local time, with a two-hour layover in Vancouver before going on to Hawaii, about 12 hours in transit. Upon arrival, we’ll check in at the Fairmont Kea Lani, an all-suite [...]

Contemplating A Memorable Masters

The Canadian golf season is in full swing, in my mind anyway, as is the case after every Masters, but this year’s kicked it off in style, with a two-hole playoff not deciding a winner between Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, but Bubba Watson and Louis Oosthuizen. The way this one turned out, the Masters [...]

Would You Promote 12-Hole Tournaments?

During his chat during the Golf 2.0 presentation at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando a couple of months ago, Jack Nicklaus discussed the 12-hole tournament he held at Muirfield Village last year. Nicklaus reported the players had a great time with the 12-hole format, not to mention the oversized cups that were used. Next [...]

Don’t Count Out The Longshots

To hear people talk this week, you would think that the Masters doesn’t exist outside of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson. Tell that to the other guys who have won this year, or the rest of the field at Augusta National. Actually, first-time winners and longshots have done pretty well for themselves in [...]

Tiger Or The Field? Canadians Offer Their Thoughts; TaylorMade Chief Goes Undercover For CBS

To listen to all the Tiger-talk going on since Tiger Woods had his breakthrough win at Bay Hill just over a week ago, it sounds like many people have already fitted Woods for his green jacket, even before the ceremonial tee shot takes place. There was a time when a commonly-asked question going into a [...]

When Is Your Operation Opening?

Masters Week traditionally signals the beginning of the golf season in Canada. If golf courses aren’t on the verge of opening, the season is just a week or so away in many parts of the country. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was wearing shorts last week in the Toronto area, but we’ve [...]

Did Haney Cross The Line? Your Turn

It’s unlikely the students that denizens of the Canadian golf industry teach would ever be fodder for a tell-all book, or in most cases, that club level teachers get so close to their pupils that they would be considered part of their “inner circle.” There has been recent debate within the industry and among golfers, [...]

Haney Book On Tiger Hits Shelves

With the dust settling on Tiger Woods’ breakthrough win at Bay Hill on the weekend, The Big Miss by Tiger’s former swing coach Hank Haney has hit the shelves with impeccable timing. The book offers an inside view behind Woods’ seemingly impenetrable wall around him from a coach who worked with him for six years.

Tuesday Tidbits: All-Canuck Finale In Bermuda, Ontario Partners With Great Lakes Tour

The PGA of Ontario has announced a new partnership with the Great Lakes Tour that will offer its members a discounted 2012 membership fee of $99, which is more than 50 per cent off the regular fee, as well as reduced rates on entry fees into events. “It will give our members a wonderful opportunity [...]

Are You Feeling More Optimistic?

Playing catch-up after being in Phoenix recently, I didn’t get much of a chance to stick my head out the door and enjoy the sunshine and the temperatures in the mid-20s that bathed Toronto last week and from what I hear, other regions also enjoyed some weird weather for March. Weird? Sure, we’ll take it [...]

Rubenstein Comes Off As A Knucklehead In Moe & Me

In close to 35 years of covering sports, you hear a lot of nicknames, most indicating acceptance of the individual who carries that handle, some very salty and not ones you’d want your mom to hear. As Lorne Rubenstein, author of Moe & Me, Encounters with Moe Norman, Golf’s Mysterious Genius (ECW Press), points out [...]

The Industry Appears Frozen By Fear

When we first posted the current GNN Poll on Monday, I thought that it may turn out the way it’s now trending, but I didn’t think it would weigh so heavily to one side. As it stood at this writing, 74 per cent of respondents feel that the attitude most prevalent in the golf industry [...]

Phoenix Golf, Baseball, Chocolate Bacon S’mores And More

The weather was magnificent during a brief stay in the Phoenix area last week, but rain and cooler temperatures were moving in as we left and it was warmer in Toronto when I arrived than back in the Valley of the Sun. Before the cool weather came, however, we had the opportunity to play in [...]

Is The Golf Industry Prepared To Just Go For It?

There’s an old saying in sports such as hockey and football that the best defence is a good offence, which means in a nutshell that if you’re attacking in your opponent’s territory, you needn’t worry much about what’s happening behind you. No bit of wisdom is absolute, however. A quarterback might throw a pass, only [...]

Kane, Ames Up Next For Hall Of Fame? Who Comes Afterwards?

Just out of curiosity, I contact Karen Hewson of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame after last week’s teleconference that announced the late Gordon Witteveen as its lone 2012 inductee. You can read about that here. Witteveen was a highly-respected superintendent and a deserving recipient of such an honour, even if his name isn’t instantly [...]

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