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Get creative to get published: Front 9 Punchline Contest

Friday, March 16, 2012 Comments

Our increasingly-popular contest, allowing you to help us write Golf World's weekly "Front 9" magazine feature, is back. Your name could appear in the game's No. 1 newsweekly.

Inspired by The New Yorker's cartoon-caption writing contest, Golf World is featuring the "Front 9 Punchline Contest" in every issue. Here's how it works: Every Sunday around noon, Golf World's editors will post a Front 9 setup line to our magazine's Facebook page. We'll give you until 3 p.m. on Monday to enter your best punchline to that setup.

(An example from a recent Front 9: Jessica Korda, 18, wins the ISPS Australian Handa Women's Open, the LPGA's season-opening event.")

Korda, Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko . . . These days the media guide of women's golf looks like a high school yearbook.)

Golf World editors will then select the winning entry, which will appear (along with the writer's name and hometown) in that week's issue of Golf World. In addition to having their entry published in the magazine, winners will receive an official Golf World logo hat.

Hey, even if you don't have the best one, your creativity won't go unnoticed. We'll give you a shout out on our Editors' Blog: We've gotten too many quality responses to not acknowledge some of the best.

Related: Runner-up entries in a record-breaking contest

Our last winner was Kelly J. Hahn of Wilmore, Ky., whose winning entry appeared in the March 19 issue of the magazine:

The set-up line: Rory McIlroy wins a point from tennis player Maria Sharapova during exhibition match in New York.

The winning punchline: "Following the match, McIlroy bowled a 300 and declared for the NFL Draft."

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Your chance to be published: Golf World's Front 9 Contest

Friday, March 9, 2012 Comments

Our increasingly-popular contest, allowing you to help us write Golf World's weekly "Front 9" magazine feature, is back. Get your name in the game's No. 1 newsweekly.

Inspired by The New Yorker's cartoon-caption writing contest, Golf World is featuring the "Front 9 Punchline Contest" in every issue. Here's how it works: Every Sunday around noon, Golf World's editors will post a Front 9 setup line to our magazine's Facebook page. We'll give you until 3 p.m. on Monday to enter your best punchline to that setup.

(An example from a recent Front 9: Tiger Woods loses in a second round of Match Play to Nick Watney but says he can fix his putting "in about a day.")

And when they heard about Woods' comment, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson smiled sadly and shook their heads.)

Golf World editors will then select the winning entry, which will appear (along with the writer's name and hometown) in that week's issue of Golf World. In addition to having their entry published in the magazine, winners will receive an official Golf World logo hat.

Hey, even if you don't have the best one, your creativity won't go unnoticed. We'll give you a shout out on our Editors' Blog: We've gotten too many quality responses to not acknowledge some of the best.

Related: Runner-up entries in a record-breaking contest

Our last winner was Michael Cooney of Seattle, whose winning entry appeared in the March 12 issue of the magazine:

The set-up line: USGA officials unveil plans for a 670-yard par 5 at the U.S. Open.

The winning punchline: "The hole will take four hours to play, as golfers will have to clear Customs before reaching the green."

  -- Geoff Russell, Golf World Editor-In-Chief



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Tiger to open his PGA Tour season at Pebble Beach

Monday, January 9, 2012 Comments
Tiger Woods is headed back to Pebble Beach, the site of some of his most famous golf victories.

Woods announced his commitment to playing the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, to be played Feb. 9-12, on his website Monday.  It will be Tiger's first appearance in the event since 2002, when he tied for 12th place.

While he'll be making his 2012 debut at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Jan. 26, Woods' U.S. debut will conjure up the images of some of golf's most impressive performances.

Tiger made six consecutive appearances in the event from 1997-'02, including his memorable win in 2000, when he closed with a final-round 64 that included a pitch-in eagle on 15 and birdies on 16 and 18. Matt Gogel was seven shots clear of Woods at one point, but Tiger's clutch play down the stretch gave him a two-stroke victory.

That was just a foreshadow of Woods' masterful play at Pebble, of course. Just a little more than three months, Tiger put together one of the most dominant performances in golf history with his 15-stroke victory in the 2000 U.S. Open, the largest margin of victory in a major championship.

Just how good was his 2000 win? Our editors put his historic win in perspective just before his return to Pebble Beach in 2010.

 


-- Stephen Hennessey

How excited are you for Tiger's 2012 season? Does his commitment to Pebble add to your excitement and interest to watch one of golf's more legendary events? Join the conversation on our partner site, GolfWRX.com.
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Report: Mickelson to be announced as a Hall of Famer on Thursday

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 Comments
Surprise, surprise: Phil Mickelson is a Hall of Famer.

Still ranked atop the world rankings, Mickelson reportedly will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012 in his first year of eligibility, according to a report from the Florida Times-Union.

The paper reported that the Hall of Fame will conduct a press conference at the site of the European tour's Singapore Open, where Mickelson is playing in preparation of next week's Presidents Cup. The class of 2012 ceremonies are scheduled to take place in St. Augustine on May 7, 2012.

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Mickelson made it on his first year on the ballot, which considers players only after turning 40 (Mickelson turned 40 last June.)

Other requirements include being a member of the PGA Tour for 10 years and having two victories in a major or the Players Championship. Phil's won four majors (Masters in 2004, 2006 and 2010, and the PGA Championship in 2005), and one Players Championship (2007).

Other first-year players eligible for induction: Jim Furyk and Loren Roberts. Miguel Angel-Jimenez is on the International ballot.








--Stephen Hennessey

Follow him on Twitter: @s_hennessey

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
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USGA, R&A announce more lenient revisions to Rules of Golf

Monday, October 24, 2011 Comments
Are the governing bodies of golf become kinder and gentler?

You could make that argument after looking at the changes the USGA and R&A announced today to the new edition of the Rules of Golf, effective Jan. 1, 2012, which generally offer golfers more leniency in certain instances on the course and, intriguingly for amateurs, off the course as well.

Most significant among the changes is a revision of Rule 18-2b that allows golfers not to be penalized if their ball moves after it has been addressed when it is "known or virtually certain" they did not cause the movement. The most common example would be when a gust of wind influences a ball on the green. Under the revised rule, if a player in no way caused the ball to move, there would be no penalty and the ball would be played from its new position.

The new rule would have benefitted Webb Simpson last May at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Simpson was on the 15th green during the final round and in contention for his first PGA Tour title when his ball, less than a foot from the hole, moved after he had put his putter down behind it. Simpson did not appear to cause the ball to move, but the rules required he be assessed a one-stroke penalty that eventually forced him into a playoff with Bubba Watson, one in which he lost. He subsequently went on to win two tour titles later in the year, but at the time the penalty was a hard one to accept.  Read more
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Nicklaus to host event aimed at attracting more golfers

Thursday, September 1, 2011 Comments
In a year filled with initiatives aimed toward getting more people into golf, one of the game's biggest names has now joined the movement.

Eighteen-time major champion Jack Nicklaus announced Thursday that his Muirfield Village Golf Club will host 12-hole tournaments beginning this Labor Day that will feature cups that are twice as large as normal. On top of the reduction of holes played and an increase in their size, the events will impose penalties to those players taking more than two and a half hours to complete their rounds in an effort to combat the slow-play issue in golf.

blog_wide_open_0901.jpgPhoto by Dom Furore

Golf Digest started a similar campaign earlier in the year with the W I D E Open Championship, in which competitors played on 15-inch wide holes that made the game more fun, while speeding up play. The inaugural tournament was played March 11 at Pine Needles Lodge & GC and received rave reviews from the 60 participants.

(Related: Photos of the first ever Golf Digest W I D E Open Championship)

In a related move earlier this summer, Barney Adams, the founder of Adams Golf, started "Tee It Forward" with the help of the USGA and the PGA of America. The idea was aimed at getting golfers of all skill levels to move up in tees to make courses and round times more manageable.

So what do you think of all these initiatives and would you consider playing in events with larger cups? They may still draw the ire of golf traditionalists, but having the backing of one the sport's all-time legends could start to change that.

-- Alex Myers
Follow on Twitter: @AlexMyers3


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Frustrating season continues for Couples

Thursday, July 28, 2011 Comments

TOLEDO, Ohio - What a difference a year makes.

At the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, held at Sahalee CC just outside Fred Couples' hometown of Seattle, Couples was the story of the week, drawing large galleries and dueling eventual winner Bernhard Langer. It was a microcosm of the year, as Couples played 17 Champions Tour events, winning four times and energizing the senior circuit in his rookie season.

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Couples is absent from this week's U.S. Senior Open at Inverness Club, having withdrawn last week citing back issues. The 51-year-old has played only three times on the Champions Tour in 2011, most recently in early May at the Regions Tradition, where he was T-63 after closing rounds of 77-77. His last competitive appearance came a month later at the Memorial, where he missed the cut. In addition to his chronic back problem, Couples also had cancerous lesions removed from both hands.

(Instruction: See how Freddie bombs it off the tee)

Next week's Champions Tour stop, the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn., is promoting Couples on its website as one of the "expected golfing legends" in the field and says he has committed to play.

If Couples does compete, perhaps it will get a lost year going. Other than the run he had at Riviera in the Northern Trust Open, where he was T-7, and a T-5 at the Toshiba Classic on the Champions Tour in March, this season couldn't be more different from his upbeat 2010, when in addition to his four wins, Couples had four runner-up finishes and five other top-10s.

-- Bill Fields

(Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)


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Congressional wants to host 2026 U.S. Open

Monday, July 4, 2011 Comments
From the July 4 issue of Golf World Monday:

With U.S. Open venues locked up through 2019, the USGA isn't in a hurry to consider additional championship sites, but one bid for its flagship event that could be on the table soon is for the 2026 edition.

Golf World has learned that Congressional CC wants to host a fourth Open -- even after the scoring onslaught perpetrated on its cushy canvas in the recent 111th Open -- and club officials are locked in on the championship 15 years hence. The 2026 date would return the national championship to the nation's capital just weeks before the 250th anniversary of the country's birth.


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GW Monday: Will the U.S. Open return to Congressional?

Monday, June 20, 2011 Comments

From the June 20 edition of Golf World Monday:

BETHESDA, Md. -- After every U.S. Open speculation turns to a possible return date to the host site. In the case of Congressional the answer is clear: not any time soon.

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"We will get back," said USGA executive director Mike Davis, citing proximity to the nation's capital and the lure of the Mid-Atlantic region. However, Davis also said Congressional's status as a PGA Tour stop hosting the AT&T National is a huge drawback that impacted early-week attendance and, unlike at California venues hosting the tour, presents the same golf course conditions at the national championship as the July stop experiences.

(Related: The Reasons Rory Romped)

Congressional is locked into the AT&T National for three years and sources tell Golf World the membership is looking to get out of that deal because the event is too much of a disruption in their prime golf season. Freeing themselves of the AT&T would also make the club more attractive for a return U.S. Open. But even if Congressional can wrangle its way out of the AT&T contract, it still must overcome the new perception that the Rees Jones-renovated course does not present a stern enough challenge.

With almost guaranteed soft conditions in muggy Maryland, the firm-and-fast obsessed modern-day USGA does not get to present the course the way they will at nearly all of the U.S. Open venues lined up through 2019.

-- Geoff Shackelford

(Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)


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Rory's historic win will draw inevitable comparisons to Woods

Sunday, June 19, 2011 Comments
BETHESDA, MD. -- In the sea of superlatives that surrounded Tiger Woods' 12-stroke victory in the 1997 Masters at the tender age of 21, one voice spoke with dispassionate yet disturbing calm. Earl Woods, the proud papa, took a long drag off his filtered cigarette and in a cloud of smoke said simply: "He's going to get better." As preposterous as the notion seemed at the time, it was true. The same words likely also apply now to Rory McIlroy. He's going to get better.

Of course Woods would get better; that Masters was only the first major championship he played as a professional. Never one to disagree with the man he called "Pop," three years later, Tiger authored one of the great years in the history of golf, winning three major championships, including the U.S. Open by 15 strokes and the British Open by eight. With 71 career PGA Tour victories and 14 majors, Woods is in the discussion as the greatest ever even if he never strikes another ball in competition. He got better.

And there is no reason now to doubt that McIlory will continue to improve. In a startlingly short time, the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland, whose fresh face and wild curls make him look like the kid next door who cuts your grass, has emerged as a constant force in the majors, finishing in the top three in four of his last seven.  Read more
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