John Holmes's blog

Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., has reopened its Raymond Floyd signature course after extensive course enhancements and the addition of the TrackMan golf radar to its 33-acre Golf Studio.

All putting surfaces on the golf course, three regulation-length practice holes and Old Palm's locally famous 19th hole have been re-turfed with TifEagle Bermuda to provide faster green speeds and truer rolls. In addition, green complexes on several holes were re-contoured to slope from back to front and enlarged to improve approach-shot receptivity.

The reports out of the WGC-HSBC Champions that Keegan Bradley and Ernie Els might consider legal action if golf's governing bodies ban long putters prompted fellow PGA Tour player Arron Oberholser to chime in on Twitter.

In China, Bradley said that he would have the backing of many of his peers in fighting a ban.

Rory McIlroy has signed a deal with Nike Golf worth more than $200 million, according to a report on FoxSports.com posted late Friday afternoon.

McIlroy, who has played Titleist equipment for the first five years of his professional career, is switching to Nike for perhaps as much as $250 million over 10 years, Robert Lusetich wrote in the post.

Like many PGA Professionals across the country every year, Chris de Keratry recently hosted a demo day at River Place Country Club in Austin, Texas.

Unlike the others, however, he didn’t just provide some contemporary clubs for his attendees to check out. He also provided a collection of classic cars.

Last week, we saw lots of sneak peeks of new utility irons from Titleist, a new version of X Forged irons from Callaway and the new RocketBladez irons from TaylorMade.

Some of the game’s top players are grinding away at the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in China this week, but an awful lot more spent Wednesday night enjoying Halloween with their friends and families. Many of them posted photos of their trick or treat fun on Twitter, and we’ve put together a photo gallery of some of the best.

You can see it here.

Hope you had a happy and healthy Halloween, too!

The latest putter innovation from Nike Golf is its line of Method Core Weighted putters.

These putters – of which there are five models --  utilize fixed weights on the heel and sole of the clubhead to provide proper weighting by putter length. The weights help to lower the center of gravity as well as move the center of gravity away from the face.

Among the many targets of Superstorm Sandy’s wrath are the golf courses up and down the East Coast, especially those in the Northeast.

--The Metropolitan Golf Association has been collecting images and reports of damage on courses in the greater New York city area, and you see their coverage here.

Linda Hartough, among the world’s best golf-landscape artists, has introduced her newest painting, “16th Hole, East Course, Merion Golf Club,” in commemoration of the 2013 U.S. Open. The tournament is set for June 13-16, and will return to historic Merion in Ardmore, Pa., for the first time since 1981.

This is the 24th painting in Hartough’s U.S. Open series, which is commissioned by the U.S. Golf Association. Offered in a limited edition of 850 prints and an additional 85 artist proofs, each is signed and numbered by the artist.

Allen Edmonds is expanding its Honors Collection of golf shoes and expanding its Clubhouse Collection of casual shoes as well as its lineup of belts and performance socks.

The Honors Collection shoes now feature Allen Edmonds new proprietary Spikeless Versatility (SLV) sole, a lightweight and hard-wearing sole featuring multiple traction studs for a sturdier grip. The SLV is in addition to the Honors Collections' classic 11-spiked shoe.