Blogs

The 2012 tournament season officially ended on Monday with the conclusion of Q-School for the Ladies European Tour. We generally don't cover much of the LET over here in the United States, but Q-School had a couple of newsworthy notes.

Joe Logan from MyPhillyGolf.com, reports that in preparation for the 2013 U.S. Open at historic Merion Golf Club, members have been asked to hit off of artificial mats from the fairway for what Merion's Green Chairman Bob Rex told Logan was, "for divot control."

Logan reports:

Are you just about finished with your holiday shopping and now just looking for something to stuff in the stocking of your loved one?

If so, here are a couple of items from CHAMP Sports that the golfer in your life will love and -- trust us -- could always use more of.

First is the CHAMP Zarma My Hite FLYTee. Thirty tees come in each package at an MSRP of $7.99. So what makes this tee so special you ask?

When Tom Watson was named captain of the U.S. team for the 2014 Ryder Cup on Thursday, a few people wondered whether the 63-year-old would be able to relate to the 20-somethings and 30-somethings that will make up his squad at Gleneagles.

That, however, is a ridiculous question. Why? Well, because only days before Watson accepted his new job, he was busy making friends with Asia's best 14-year-old golfer.

Graeme McDowell has had a pretty good run lately.

He got engaged in November. He won Tiger Woods' World Challenge three weeks ago. He's opening his own pub next month.

And on Saturday, he shot a 59.

Thanks in large part to his half-century association with the PGA Tour's Bob Hope Desert Classic (now known as the Humana Challenge), legendary entertainer Bob Hope is forever linked to both golf and Palm Springs. And now through April, the Coachella Valley is hosting a traveling version of the World Golf Hall of Fame's "Bob Hope: An American Treasure" exhibit.

Rory McIlroy and Nike Golf haven't yet officially announced that they have signed a big new endorsement deal, but already there's some serious consternation over it.

University of Texas star Jordan Spieth is calling it quits on his glittering amateur career and going pro, he announced on Friday.

I have witnessed a fair amount of accidental golfer-on-golfer violence over the years. One time, I was paired with a newly retired couple, neither of whom was very good nor hit the ball very hard. On the ninth tee, however, the husband took his mightiest cut of the day and swung so far over the ball that he somehow sent it streaking between his legs, where it hit his wife square on the ankle. She went down like she'd been shot, and I had to get an ambulance out to the tee box to take her to the hospital.

President Gerald Ford might not have been the best golfer, but he certainly was an enthusiastic one. And while spectators lining the ropes needed to keep an eye out whenever he had a driver in his hands, his clubs are now helping to keep young people in life's fairway.

Ford's golf clubs were auctioned off this week in Dallas, and brought in $26,000 – money that will be used to build a new student learning center at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich.