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

11

Jun
Mon

Zhang's trip to Olympic will result in history

SAN FRANCISCO -- A week ago, when 14-year-old Andy Zhang headed to his U.S. Open sectional qualifier at Laconta, Fla., his father tried to be realistic about his son's chances."He said, 'Just play your best, and if you finish in the top 30, I'll be proud of you,'" Zhang recalled.So Zhang played his best, and finished tied for third. Then came Monday, and Zhang boarded a plane from Orlando as the second alternate into the Open. Once again, expectations were modest."They told me it was 50-50 I'd get in, but I didn't think it was that good," Zhang said. "I mean, who wouldn't want to play in this tournament?"Zhang received his answer around 5 p.m., Monday, when the USGA's Jeff Hall called Zhang's trainer and caddie, Chris Gold, while the two were on the putting green."Jeff called and said, 'He can play if he wants,'" Gold said. "I said, 'What does that mean?' He said, 'He's in.'"Withdrawals by Paul Casey (shoulder) and Brandt Snedeker (ribs) means Zhang will be the youngest contestant in the history of the Open. It means he now has access to a courtesy Lexus he isn't old enough to drive. And it explains why he wore a look on Monday evening that was somewhere between euphoria and disbelief. "I will just try to enjoy it as much as possible," Zhang said, his mouth full of braces, minutes after attaching his official player badge to the brim of his cap. "I want to play well, but just to play on a major championship course is great." When Zhang's family moved to Orlando from China four years ago, their distant goal was to arrive on this stage. But they didn't expect it to happen this soon, and certainly not after he injured his back in 2010, forcing him to take a year off from golf.

11

Jun
Mon

For Martin, same venue, but a different landscape

SAN FRANCISCO -- There was a time several years ago, when Casey Martin was off the PGA Tour but still kicking around as a professional golfer, that a change in careers was inevitable. When an opportunity arrived for him to coach the golf team at the University of Oregon, Martin's father had his doubts."I didn't know if that was going to maximize all that he had," Martin's father, King, said Monday at the Olympic Club. "But as I look back at it, and I can see what his life experiences have been and how it has played out with young kids and the passion he has for that, I realize it really has been the right thing. It's not about some high-paying job but more about impacting people's lives."Few figures in golf have made an impact like Martin, in part for who he is, but also for what he represents. Fourteen years ago he was a reluctant controversial figure at the Olympic Club. Martin successfully petitioned for his right to ride in a golf cart because of a debilitating circulatory disorder in his right leg and finished a respectable T-23. Now he's back as another kind of longshot -- a 40-year-old golf coach who plays most of his competitive golf in hit-and-giggle scrambles yet survived two rounds of qualifers to make it back to the Open.

11

Jun
Mon

Golf helping rough neighborhood near San Francisco's Olympic Club

When a spiffy, artificial turf short-game area and first-class netted driving range was installed in 2009 for a new First Tee program at Visitacion Valley Middle School in southeastern San Francisco, less than 10 miles, but a world away from U.S. Open site Olympic Club, skeptics had their doubts. The school is situated in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods, including the notorious Sunnydale housing project. Seventy-eight percent of Visitacion Valley's students -- sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders -- live below the poverty level. The parents of only 2 percent of the students graduated from college. Several years ago, 70 of the school's 400 students had both parents who were incarcerated. Few have been unscathed by the area's violence. "There was a spree five years ago when we had 41 murders," says the school's outgoing principal James Dierke. "I had kids coming in all wearing pictures of somebody who died. They were related to the person who died or related to the person who did the shooting or they witnessed the shooting." Three years since the golf facility was put in at Visitacion Valley, on the same land where, as Dierke says, "neighborhood kids would come with the cars they stole and light them on fire," there is no graffiti, no damage. "No one has destroyed or vandalized anything in three years," Dierke says. It looks like new. So, in fact, do many of the students. !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");

11

Jun
Mon

U.S. Open: 10 Ways To Win At Olympic Club

We break down what it will take to be successful at Olympic Club

11

Jun
Mon

Style for Dummies

Send a picture of your buddy's outfit to Mr. Style to get a thumbs up or thumbs down.

10

Jun
Sun

Q&A: Herb Kohler on trying to buy near Bandon, Hamilton Grand and his latest victory.

The last time I did a formal Q&A with Herb Kohler, the prince of porcelain and owner of 90 holes of golf, was in 2008. He told me about saving dogs, landing planes and taking...

10

Jun
Sun

Remembering Al Geiberger's 59 on its 35th anniversary

Just the other day, near his home in Palm Desert, Calif., Al Geiberger was telling someone who didn't know him from any other trim, tan retiree in the Coachella Valley, "You know, I have a record in golf."   Yes, he does. "Mr. 59" shares it now, but Geiberger was the first. Thirty-five years ago, on June 10, 1977, he shot a 13-under 59 in the second round of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, becoming the first golfer to break 60 on the PGA Tour.   Geiberger is 74 now, but what he did as a 39-year-old on that broiling Friday afternoon at Colonial CC when he hit every fairway and every green and had only 23 putts resonates still. Before Chip Beck, David Duval, Paul Goydos and Stuart Appleby (players to subsequently shoot 59s on the PGA Tour), there was Geiberger.   "I respect it more and more," Geiberger says of his achievement. "When I initially shot it, I thought if I can do it, then anybody can do it. I didn't understand how hard it is to do. When someone gets close to a 59, they tend to run out of holes."!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");

10

Jun
Sun

The stars are aligned, ready to prove their Olympic mettle

A U.S. Open form chart in golf cannot account for the rub of the green or the diabolical hand of the USGA and accordingly renders the Open only marginally more predictable than an earthquake, which, incidentally, isn't out of the question at the Olympic Club. The San Andreas Fault runs beneath several of its early holes. But a form chart that contains the following can heighten interest even beyond an Open's inherent hype: -- Two weeks ago Luke Donald, No. 1 in the World Ranking, won the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship. -- A week later, Tiger Woods, No. 4, won the Memorial. -- On Saturday, Lee Westwood, No. 3, won Europe's Nordea Masters by five shots. -- On Sunday, Rory McIlory, No. 2, was tied for the lead at the FedEx St. Jude Classic before an errant tee shot and resultant double bogey at 18 toppled him. -- And later on Sunday, Dustin Johnson, who possesses talent of a quantity sufficient to supplant any of the above, won the FedEx St. Jude Classic in only his second start in nearly three months, the result of a back injury. Throw in Phil Mickelson, who is his own fault line, capable of shaking things up at any moment, and we have an Open potentially as memorable as any in recent memory. Then again, Fleck beat Hogan, Casper beat Palmer, Simpson beat Watson and Janzen beat Stewart in the first four Opens at the Olympic Club, which coincidentally features three bunkers guarding the 18th green that loosely and mockingly spelling out I, O, U. Yes it does, notwithstanding the fact that the Open is not a popularity contest. Still, on one of the game's great stages, aren't we entitled to a cast featuring its greatest performers?

09

Jun
Sat

Weekend Tip: Free your arm swing to find more distance

I was talking to my friend and longtime personal teacher, Jim Flick, yesterday. He was telling me how his star junior pupil, Beau Hossler, qualified again for the U.S. Open, being played next week at...

08

Jun
Fri

Grace Park announces her retirement at age 33

PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- The buzz going into the 1999 U.S. Women's Open at Old Waverly in steamy Mississippi was about Beth Bauer, the Duke star who was expected to take the LPGA by storm....