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MI Golf Holidays

MI Golf Holidays / Events

Events

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04

Sep
Tue

My Shot: Vin Scully

Sing, Vinny! An American icon brings his best stuff on Sandy Koufax, a hole-in-one, striped neckties and the delicious silence of golf.

03

Sep
Mon

McIlroy's win a FedEx Cup success story

By John Strege The Deutsche Bank Championship was a victory for the abacus over the algorithm on Monday, helping reaffirm that with the FedEx Cup playoffs the parts are greater than the sum. Rory McIlroy solidified his standing as the best player in golf in dramatic fashion, withstanding a Tiger Woods rally and overcoming a Louis Oosthuizen advantage to win by a stroke. This is why we watch, of course, not to see how the FedEx Cup standings shake out. NBC does an admirable job of updating the latter, but the standings still rely on an indecipherable point system that the players can't follow even as it dictates their future. Charley Hoffman, for instance, required a two-putt par at the 18th hole to advance to round three this week, the BMW Championship. Did he know? "No clue," he said moments after holing his par putt. "No idea. None at all." Advantage abacus. An algorithm was not required to determine that McIlroy held a one-stroke lead over Oosthuizen at the 18th hole of the TPC Boston, or that Woods likely needed a birdie-eagle finish to tie. Winning a tournament, meanwhile, against a stellar field to boot, will always trump winning the FedEx Cup, notwithstanding the $10 million accorded the winner of the latter. Careers will continue to be judged by the number of victories on a resume, not by FedEx Cup wins. And McIlroy, with three victories, one a major, likely has cinched PGA Tour player-of-the-year honors, which matters more than whether he wins the FedEx Cup. These are the flaws with the FedEx Cup. Sunday explained the brilliance. The top four names on the leaderboard were McIlroy, Oosthuizen, Woods and Mickelson, or as good as it gets in golf. The FedEx Cup has delivered on its mandate: to bring the best players on the PGA Tour together for an additional four weeks at interesting courses (Bethpage Black last week, Crooked Stick and East Lake to follow), injecting interest in professional golf post-PGA Championship. The Deutsche Bank did its part by producing a playoff-worthy tournament that emphatically reiterated the point that golf is no longer a one-man show. Woods began the final round three strokes behind McIlroy (and six behind Oosthuizen) and went out in four-under par 32, yet gained nothing on McIlroy. "Tiger probably thought he was going to get some help out of these guys, maybe...like the old days when people basically would lay down and say, 'go ahead Tiger, you can win another one,'" NBC's Johnny Miller said. "Those days seem to be gone now." McIlroy's closing 67 did not even represent his A game, either. He was largely hanging on at the end and prevailed only when Oosthuizen missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole. In the meantime, McIlroy hit a pair of shots that belied his standing atop the golf world. From the seventh fairway, he chunked his second shot in the manner of a 15-handicap. Worse yet was his 3-wood tee shot at the par-4 15th hole, when he again chunked it, this time off a tee, his ball traveling a scant 170 yards. So it wasn't always artistic, but it was a success. As for who leads the FedEx Cup standings, who cares (for the record, McIlroy does)? What matters is that they get to do this again later this week at Crooked Stick. For that reason alone, the FedEx Cup playoffs are triumphant, even without, we should note, an algorithmic assist.

01

Sep
Sat

Saturday Morning Tip: Taming Golf's Fatal Flaw

By Roger SchiffmanManaging EditorGolf DigestTwitter @RogerSchiffmanOne of the worst things you can do in the golf swing is to let go of the club with the fingers of the left hand at the top of...

31

Aug
Fri

Another strong start for Woods, but can he make it count?

By Ron SirakNORTON, Mass. --  Maybe Tiger Woods can decoy his demons into thinking that since the Deutsche Bank Championship has a Labor Day Monday finish his weekend woes need not apply.Woods looked a lot like his old self on Friday as he overwhelmed TPC Boston with a seven-under-par 64. Playing the back nine first, Woods ran off six consecutive birdies beginning on No. 18. The round was marred only by a bogey on No. 9 -- his last hole -- when he chipped poorly from the back fringe to 12 feet and missed the putt. Woods' starts this year haven't been the problem. Photo by Getty Images"I hit a lot of good shots and made a few [putts] today," Woods said. "It was very tricky out there," he said about he swirling wind. "We didn't know if it was downwind or upwind. The lucky thing was that the greens were soft."The course record at TPC Boston is 61 by Vijay Singh and Mike Weir. For Tiger, it was a start that reminded folks of what he was like at his very best -- especially that run of birdies.Related: How Tiger Woods' swing has changed But beginning tournaments has not been the problem this year for Woods; closing them has. Coming into Deutsche Bank, his pre-cut scoring average was 69.65, third best on the PGA Tour. And then strangeness sets in.Tiger's third-round scoring average is 70.63,  59th among his peers, and his final-round average is 70.83, a woeful 73rd on tour. This is stunning from a man who was once considered the greatest closer in the history of the game, the best front-runner since Secretariat."It's just you can't really look at it as real bad going on this year," Woods said in advance of his great opening round about his problems on the weekend. "I won three times [this year], so it's not like it's been bad," Woods said accurately."It's just a couple rounds here and there or it's an up-and-down here and there ,or it's making one putt which is not good," he said, sounding like a political strategist spinning the news for his candidate.  "So that's a good thing."Related: The Tiger Woods timelineThe bad thing is that those "here and theres" and that one putt which is not good have come in the closing rounds of tournaments. Yes, Woods has won three times, but in the big events he has failed on the weekend.At the U.S. Open, Woods opened 69-70 and was positioned perfectly to take control on the weekend, but closed and 75-73. It was déjà vu all over again at the British Open, when Tiger started 67-67 but managed only 70-73 on the weekend.And at the PGA Championship, Woods jumped out of the starting blocks 69-71 before limping home 74-72. His final-round scoring average in the four majors this year was 72.87 and he never broke 70 in eight tries.Even last week at the Barclays, the first of the three FedEx Cup Playoff events, Woods went out 68-69 and came in 72-76. "I wasn't playing that badly," he said Friday about his weekend at Bethpage in the Barclays. "On Saturday, I had four three-putts. My rounds weren't as bad as they scored."Now he has a chance at the Deutsche Bank to take a step toward putting those weekend demons back in the closet from which they inexplicably escaped. "We will just keep working on what we are working on," Woods said about his on-going swing change with coach Sean Foley.Woods will almost certainly be in contention, if not in the lead, after 36 holes at TPC Boston. Maybe this time he can get it done on the weekend  -- or at least on Monday, when the tournament ends.                     Follow @RonSirak !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

31

Aug
Fri

Wear your college team colors in a golf shoe

By John Strege Today is College Colors Day, defined on its website as "an annual celebration dedicated to promoting the traditions and spirit that embody the college experience by encouraging fans across America to wear...

31

Aug
Fri

The art of being a golf mom

By Lyndean BrickAs my kids have traveled and competed in junior golf, I've had to learn how to become a "golf mom." At times, the learning curve has been steep. I didn't play golf until...

31

Aug
Fri

Fitness Friday: 5 Minutes Till Tee Time? Here's What to Do

Every week my colleague Ron Kaspriske, Golf Digest Fitness Editor, presents Fitness Friday on the Instruction Blog. This week he gives you some stretches to do if you have only five minutes before you tee...

30

Aug
Thu

Trending: Erik Compton on 'Real Sports'

By Derek Evers It's been an amazing year for golf; with Tiger's return to the winner's circle, Ernie hoisting the Claret Jug, and no less than a dozen of this year's PGA Tour winners coming from behind in the final round, it would be easy to call 2012 'The Year of the Comeback.' Yet as exciting as it's been on the course, the most remarkable comeback story on the Tour easily belongs to Erik Compton. Related: Change of Heart: Erik Compton profile If you're not familiar with Compton's story, you should get so. The 32-year-old PGA Tour pro was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy at the age of nine, starting him on a journey that's included two heart transplants. What makes his story remarkable -- aside from the fact he's still alive and well 20 years after receiving his first donated heart -- is that Compton not only returned to competition a mere five months after his second successful transplant, he eventually secured his 2012 PGA Tour card with a victory at the Nationwide Tour's 2011 Mexico Open. It's a story that's larger than golf and sports itself. The kind that seems almost too good to be true. Too 'made for TV.' Cue HBO. Last week, the new season of 'Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel' premiered with a feature on Compton. And though Gumbel himself wasn't on hand, it gave a great behind-the-scenes look at Compton's first full season on the PGA Tour, with exclusive access and interviews along the way. It's not only worth watching to learn more about the trials and tribulations of Compton's health, but that of a touring pro. Related: Tim Rosaforte Q&A with Erik Compton Obviously HBO doesn't have the full video available for non-subscribers, but this promo clip compels as much as it teases. Seriously, could they have cut it at a more suspenseful moment? Wait for it... Follow @derekevers !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

30

Aug
Thu

Hurricane Isaac: 'Wasn't...comparable to Katrina'

(Photo courtesy of Kelly Gibson) By John Strege The best that can be said about Hurricane Isaac was that it was not another Hurricane Katrina, according to the message conveyed by former PGA Tour player and New Orleans resident Kelly Gibson. "We survived," Gibson said Thursday. "It was kind of a unique storm. It kind of hunkered down and took quite a while to get through here, but it wasn't anything comparable to Katrina." Gibson, who was honored by the Golf Writers Association of America in 2006 for contributions to the Katrina recovery effort made by what is now the Kelly Gibson Foundation, said that the foundation is prepared to help if necessary, but that "the federal government and local government were way more prepared for these type situations than they were in 2005." As for the area's golf courses, Tchefuncta Country Club (shown above), which he designed in Covington, just north of Lake Pontchartrain, "took on a substantial amount of flooding," Gibson said. "Nine of the holes are completely submerged in three to four feet of water, maybe six feet. It had minimal tree damage, where after Katrina it took six months to clean up. "One course I'm personally concerned about is Joe Bartholomew Park [in New Orleans]. "We spent $8 million renovating it. They had received 12 feet of water for almost a month or so from Katrina and [Hurricane] Rita. We designed it to accommodate a substantial amount of rain." Gretchen Bradford, the president of the Pontchartrain Neighborhood Park Association, reported that Joseph M. Bartholomew Sr. Municipal Golf Course survived intact. "We had very minimal flooding in our neighborhood," she said. "We were very blessed. I'm not a golfer, but from what I see [of the golf course] it looks like it's OK. It has tree limbs and stuff around, and it probably did get saturated, but it wasn't flooded out." Related: The Return of Joe Ba! Meanwhile, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Audubon Park Golf Course in New Orleans "was inundated with standing water." As to how golf courses in neighboring Biloxi, Miss., fared, it is as yet unknown. "It sounds like they had a tremendous amount of rainfall, 12 to 15 inches," Gibson said. "They have a lot of golf courses in that area." Follow @JohnStrege !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

30

Aug
Thu

Weekend Getaways: 10 Great Towns For College Football And Golf

Want to pair big-time college football with great golf? Here are 10 towns to consider