A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Only variable references should be returned by reference

Filename: core/Common.php

Line Number: 257

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/miwebcas/public_html/system/core/Exceptions.php:185)

Filename: libraries/Session.php

Line Number: 672

MI Golf Holidays

MI Golf Holidays / Events

Events

Upcoming Events

17

Jul
Tue

Miura offers K.J. Choi Limited Edition irons

Miura Golf might not be widely known, but to the extent it is known, it's for its forged irons, many of which have appeared in leading PGA Tour players' bags, albeit under more familiar...

17

Jul
Tue

His golf swing a work in progress, Woods' golf mind is as sharp as ever

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England -- It's always been one of the most noticeable -- and underrated -- aspects of most Tiger Woods press conferences. The man just loves to talk golf; personal stuff not so much. But ask a golf-related question he deems worthy and Woods, contrary to the public persona he offers up when the topic at hand veers away from the game he plays so well, is invariably interesting and engaging.Woods says the severity of Lytham's fairway bunkers means he'll have to shape the ball effectively off the tee. Photo by Getty ImagesAnd he was on pretty good form two days before Englishman Barry Lane will hit the opening tee-shot of this 141st Open Championship at 6:29 a.m. on Thursday. Obviously intrigued by at least some of the questioning, Woods produced some nice insights into the week ahead at Royal Lytham. In particular, the potential plusses and minuses of the 206 bunkers littering the famous Lancashire links got his attention."At any links you've got to stay out of the bunkers, because you can't get to the green," he began. "That's just a fact. If you hit the ball in there, it's going to go up against the face, because it goes in there with some steam, and you're pitching it out sideways or sometimes even backwards. But the neat thing about the bunkers here is how they're raised up so that you can see them and then shape the ball off of them. That's different from, say, St. Andrews, where you can't see a lot of bunkers. But here they're raised up high enough where you can hit a fade or draw and use them as starting points for shots."Related: A course tour of Royal LythamThe more-than-wet summer that is currently drenching most of the United Kingdom has had a predictable effect on the course. The rough is up, the fairways are soft and ball marks are appearing on the greens. And again, Woods was forthcoming on just how much influence all of that will have on scoring and the types of shots required. Happily, however, he feels that the unusually soft conditions will not completely detract from the inherent unpredictability of links golf."The ball is not chasing as much," he sighed. "So, yes, this is different. It's a slower golf course. Which is something we players are going to have adapt to. We'll have to plot our way around. What will be interesting to see is which way the wind blows because it changes the whole golf course. I've played in two different winds in the three days I've been here. One day I hit driver, 7-iron to the 7th green, and the next day I hit driver, 3-wood and a wedge. So it can play lots of different ways."This is one of the more difficult courses in the Open rotation. As far as shot-making goes, it tests us a lot because we have to shape the ball both ways. It's not like playing Troon where you have right-to-left wind all the way out, then left-to-right all the way home. Here you have a lot of different angles. Lytham really examines your ability to hit shots the proper distances, more so than most links courses."Related: Little-known Open factsPerhaps the only time Woods displayed comparable animation in his response to a non-golf question was when asked about former South African president Nelson Mandela, who will celebrate his ninety-fourth birthday Wednesday. It would be an exaggeration to say that the 14-time major champion became excited, but he did go so far as to offer up a nice Mandela-related anecdote."It was incredible meeting him in 1998," he said. "I got invited to his home. And when my Dad and I walked into his living room you could feel his presence. 'Hey, Pops,' I said, 'do you feel that?  It feels different in here.' He said, 'Yeah, I feel the same way.' "We were just standing there looking at some of the things on the wall. And over in the corner was President Mandela. He was just meditating in the corner, and it was just a different feeling in the room. He has such an aura about him unlike anyone else I've ever met. He's meant so much to so many people around the world, not just in South Africa."Contrast all of the above with the curtness of Woods' answer when asked where he currently stands in the "process" that is the most over-analyzed move in all of sports, his own golf swing: "Somewhere in it. I'm just trying to get better each and every day."Uh-huh. OK, Tiger, we get it. Message understood: Stick to the big picture.  -- John HugganFollow @johnhuggan !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");

17

Jul
Tue

PGA Tour: Fantasy Fix: British Open

We discuss some "smart" Open wagers, soda in England, airplane food, and of course, the year's third major championship.

17

Jul
Tue

Zach Johnson: Make An Impact

Zach Johnson, who has won nine times on the PGA Tour, including the 2007 Masters, offers a quick drill to groove your impact position.

17

Jul
Tue

Video: Long Drive Champ Jamie Sadlowski

Jamie Sadlowski, 23, won the '08 and '09 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, and his 418-yard blast in '08 remains a championship-finals record. See how at only 5-ft-11, 160 pounds he hits massive drives with a remarkably graceful swing.

17

Jul
Tue

Take Your Pick

Which player has emerged as the successor to Tiger Woods? It might end up being Tiger Woods.

16

Jul
Mon

How He Hit That: Zach's zinger from the fairway bunker

Editor's Note: Every Monday Kevin Hinton, Director of Instruction at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, N.Y. and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, tells you how a tour player hits a key...

16

Jul
Mon

British Open: Searching For Seve

The Open returns to a reupholstered Royal Lytham & St. Annes, where prospective winners will be looking to invoke the spirit of the champion.

15

Jul
Sun

Stricker punts one away with the clock winding down

The John Deere Classic jilted Steve Stricker on Sunday (a Deere John at the John Deere?), ending their three-year romance on a bitter back nine on Sunday afternoon. Its new love interest is Zach Johnson, Iowa's favorite son, who won this tournament in the Quad Cities area that straddles the Iowa-Illinois border. It was his second victory of the year, the ninth of his career, and likely was more popular in those parts than any of Stricker's three consecutive wins at the TPC Deere Run. For Stricker, it was a loss, of course, but it was more than that: It also was a lost opportunity at a stage of his career when opportunities are likely to have begun their imminent decline. This is more so relevant on the eve of another major championship, the British Open, which will be Stricker's 56th start in a major. He is 0 for 55. A major is the single void of an otherwise impressive resume that includes 12 PGA Tour victories and a career resuscitated in his 40s, when he has played the finest golf of his life, elevating him to No. 2 in the World Ranking at one point. Related: Get to know your British Open courses It's not that he no longer has game, just a surfeit of time. He was still in the top 15 in the World Ranking prior to his back-nine stumble (three bogeys on his final five holes) on Sunday, and his victory in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions to start the season gave him wins in four straight years. Obviously it isn't easy to win a major whatever your age, but the mid 40s have proven an obstacle virtually insurmountable in golf. Consider the British Open. The oldest ever to have won it was Old Tom Morris, who was 46. His record has stood for 145 years. Julius Boros, meanwhile, remains the oldest to have won a major, the PGA Championship, at age 48. Jack Nicklaus, at 46, is the oldest Masters champion, and Hale Irwin, at 45, is the oldest winner of the U.S. Open. Stricker has arrived at this line of demarcation. He is 45, a difficult age in which to chase history without pulling a metaphorical hamstring. On Sunday, in a tournament one week and several light years removed from a major, he limped to the finish line. He was within one of Troy Matteson's lead on the back nine before plummeting to a tie for fifth, four strokes behind Johnson and Matteson. Given his track record at Deere Run, that was as much a surprise as Matteson nearly winning wire to wire. In 21 previous starts in 2012, Matteson's best finish was a tie for 26th. Ultimately Matteson was unable to fend off Johnson, whose three birdies over the final six holes gave him a final-round 65, a share of the 72-hole lead, and a chance to win what is tantamount to a home game for him, placing it just a notch beneath a major. "This tournament means a lot to me," Johnson said, following a winning tap-in birdie on the second playoff hole after halving the first extra hole with a double-bogey. It has meant a lot to Stricker, too, his winning streak there a cornerstone of his career resurrection. It isn't likely that it will assume a similar place in the decline that is unavoidable for professional golfers on the wrong side of 45, but with the British Open on deck and the clock running, it also is unavoidable to conclude that the sign is ominous. -- John Strege 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");

15

Jul
Sun

Dave Kindred named 2013 Memorial Tournament Journalism Honoree

Golf Digest's Dave Kindred has been named the winner of the Memorial Tournament's Golf Journalism Award for 2013. He will receive the award at next year's event, which is scheduled for May 27-June 2. Raymond Floyd will be the honored golfer. Kindred has been a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Washington Post, The National, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Sporting News and Golf Digest. Past winners of the award include Grantland Rice, Herbert Warren Wind, Dan Jenkins and Dave Anderson. In 2010, Kindred was the recipient of the PGA of America's Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award. Click here for a collection of Kindred's work that has been featured in Golf Digest and on GolfDigest.com. -- GolfDigest.com staff(Illustration by Kagan McLeod)