Blogs

We've all been talking about the proposed ban on anchoring putting strokes for the last couple of months, but one man is doing something about it.

It's no surprise that our man is wily veteran and inveterate hard worker Vijay Singh. As our friend Alex Miceli of the Golf Channel notes, Singh has been spending hours on the putting green out at Waialae Country Club in advance of the Sony Open.

The 2013 season will be a huge one in golf, says Dan Talintyre, a featured columnist over at Bleacher Report. In fact, he says, 2013 is shaping up to be even greater than 2012, which of course, was bookended by Bubba Watson's amazing victory at the Masters and that record-setting European comeback at the Ryder Cup.

Why is he so enthusiastic about the year that's just begun? Well, he tells all in his column on the most exciting storylines of 2013.

Listen to anyone and they'll tell you: the European Ryder Cup captaincy for 2014 at Gleneagles is a two-horse race between Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke and Ireland's Paul McGinley.

In fact, some have suggested that when the announcement is made by the European Tour in the coming weeks, it will make its selection for both 2014 and 2016, with Clarke and McGinley captaining one or the other.

But, as college football analyst Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend!"

If you really want to know what's going on in the car business, you can ask the carmakers – or you can get a broader perspective by asking companies that supply them with parts and pieces.  The same goes in golf.

The Jumeirah Group isn't renewing its five-year sponsorship with top-ranked Rory McIlroy, the luxury hotel chain has announced, which seemingly paves the way for the world's top-ranked golfer to finalize his much-rumored endorsement deal with Nike Golf.

Usually professional golfers only slice it when they want to slice it. This time, however, Annika Sorenstam sure wishes she had control over a slice.

The former No. 1 player in the world on the ladies side, a winner of 72 events on the LPGA Tour including 10 majors, cut off the tip of her left, index finger while cutting up some chicken, cooking for friends on Jan. 3.

Sorenstam tweeted a gruesome picture of the finger, which required five stitches, today.

Former world No. 1 golfer David Duval has taken a liking to Twitter lately. Since joining the twittersphere several weeks ago, Duval has already fired off over 1,000 tweets and has picked up over 8,000 followers at last check.

Before being "verified" by Twitter with that little, blue, check mark, a follower asked Duval how we all knew it was the real Duval and not some imposter. Duval responded by tweeting out a photo of his trophy case, which included a Claret Jug from his victory at the 2001 Open Championship -- his lone major title. Well played.

Plenty of putters come with alignment aids. The new Versa putters from Odyssey Golf are alignment aids.

Specifically, the heads on these new flat sticks are covered in bold black and white stripes that run perpendicular to the putting line to accentuate the face angle at address, through the stroke and at impact. This contrast, says Odyssey, prompts golfers to better align their putts, which is critical since a mis-aim of just one degree can cause a golfer to miss a 12-foot putt.

Natalie Gulbis, one of golf's most popular players, is celebrating the big 3-0 today – at Disneyland, of all places.

Despite what I'd call an unorthodox swing, she was a sensation as a junior – she won the California Women's Amateur Championship at age 14 and, at 17, she became the youngest player ever to Monday-qualify for an LPGA Tour event (a record that Michelle Wie eventually broke). She was the medalist at the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur, and won four times during her college career at the University of Arizona.

Just how big is golf?

The leading organizations within the industry that comprise Golf 20/20 set out to answer that question and the results may surprise you.

In 2011, the last year for which complete data was available, golf generated $68.8 billion of goods and services in the U.S. When you look at the total indirect and induced impact the game had on the economy it came to $176.8 billion supporting 1.98 million jobs with total wage income of $55.6 billion.