"By virtue of his win, they became the eighth father-son combo to win on the PGA TOUR."

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Reader Mike noted an intriguing claim by the PGA Tour and I know when I heard it said on the telecast, the number seemed high:

• Bill Haas joined his father, Jay (1988), as the winner of this tournament. By virtue of his win, they became the eighth father-son combo to win on the PGA TOUR. The last to do so were Al and Brent Geiberger.

Randell Mell noted the previous seven father-son combos. And if you didn't guess the first two since they never knew what the PGA Tour was, well, you're forgiven:

Here are the seven previous father-son combinations listed in the PGA Tour media guide as winners of Tour events:

Tom Morris Sr., Tom Morris Jr.
Willie Park, Willie Park Jr.
Joe Kirkwood Sr., Joe Kirkwood Jr.
Jack Burke Sr., Jack Burke Jr.
Clayton Heafner, Vance Heafner
Julius Boros, Guy Boros
Al Geiberger, Brent Geiberger

"Exacerbating the dilemma is that IMG, the most powerful sports marketing firm in the world, is now managing more events worldwide"

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Tim Rosaforte wonders if there will ever be a better time for the PGA Tour to institute a 1-every-4 years rule for tournament appearances after the Hope drew a weak field and longtime La Quinta resident Anthony Kim passed for a chance to play in Abu Dhabi.
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"Who is going to want to play golf when they're setting off dynamite and running haul trucks with all that noise and dust?"

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Bill Fields looks at the endangered Clearview Golf Course in the wake of course creator Bill Powell's passing.

On a damp winter day, with the American flag still at half-staff two weeks after Powell's passing, his family and friends ought to have been able to mourn in peace. Instead, they were busy trying to rally support against Buckeye Industrial Mining's proposal to mine coal, from sunrise to sunset, within 370 feet of Clearview's 15th hole. "It's a dire threat," says Jeff Brown, who was instrumental in helping the course be listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2001. "What they propose -- mining and blasting over a period of five years -- will kill this course economically. Who is going to want to play golf when they're setting off dynamite and running haul trucks with all that noise and dust?"

Powell's daughter, Renee, the second black woman to compete on the LPGA Tour, is urging Clearview supporters to write letters opposing the strip mine, which is awaiting approval from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. State Senator Kirk Schuring has communicated with Kevin Collins, president of Evergreen Energy, Buckeye Mining's parent company, urging him to halt the project. "There doesn't need to be a strip mine here," says Schuring.

He also filed this video report:

Phil Contemplating PING Wedge Switch...

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Tim Rosaforte reports a couple of not entirely shocking but still intriguing items from Phil's Sunday practice round at Torrey Pines. The first, that he toured the course "with short-game instructor Dave Stockton by his side," and "two Ping Eye 2 wedges tucked inside the Callaway bag over his shoulder." He's also been hanging out at the Callaway test center...
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Tiger's Been Spotted Clippings, Vol. 3

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Get past Matthew Futterman and Douglas Blackmon's slightly misleading lede, because it's a fascinating WSJ look back at Tiger and the PGA Tour's relationship. There were several "oh-wow-I-forgot-about-that" anecdotes. My only beef is with the opening assertion that this week at Torrey Pines is a glimpse into the post-Tiger-accident PGA Tour (weren't things a mess there before the accident?):
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"Finchem said to me, 'If you appeal, you would come down to court in Jacksonville and will lose.'"

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Nice work by Ryan Ballengee with his interview and latest info on Doug Barron. Obviously the tour will counter this with their side, but it's going to have to be a strong case they make if Barron's claims of ultimately relying on his doctor pan out in court:
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"It's all about the golf."

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Great to see John Paul Newport filing this excellent look at the return of the golf-only, smaller-scale clubhouse, including some great stuff on the economics of big buildings. There's also a slideshow with the column.

You could see the trend beginning in the early 2000s, just as the golf course building boom was ending, with the opening of such clubs as Dallas National in Texas, The Dye Preserve in Jupiter, Fla., Friar's Head on New York's eastern Long Island, and the Chechessee Creek Club in Okatie, S.C. All of these have relatively small, understated clubhouses, superb golf courses (those at the last two designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore), and no swimming pools or tennis courts. It's all about the golf.

Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, Ariz., which opened in 2004, is another good example. It's expensive, with initiation fees running now at $130,000, and, as an all-male club, politically incorrect. (Women and children are allowed to play golf there several days a week.) But its casual atmosphere (club motto: "It's all about the hang") and two highly ranked courses have attracted an enviable membership that includes something like 40 current or former PGA Tour players, all of whom pay the full initiation fee and regular dues. During a recent lunch visit there, I spotted Paul Casey, Gary McCord and Peter Kostis.

So out of curiousity, what would you all nominate as an ideal clubhouse in golf?