"The ability of a big hedge fund to get several hours alone with a corporate executive on a golf course reveals the great information disparity that exists between ordinary investors and the savviest of traders."

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Matthew Goldstein gives people more reason to love golf, profiling golf-pro-to-the-hedge-fund-stars Sam Evans, who brokers rounds at elite courses for hedge funders and other corporate tycoons. Warning, this is mildly painful reading.
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"It didn't matter all that much."

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E. Michael Johnson concludes that the groove rule change had little impact on PGA Tour play even though some players insist it made a difference.

The numbers show there may be a reason for that. Or at least a reason not to abhor them. Although the tour's scoring average did rise to 71.15 (from 71.04 in 2009), driving distance was nearly the same (287.3 yards compared to 287.9 last year) and birdies per round was a virtual dead-heat (3.43 to 3.42 in 2009). Greens in regulation rose, from 64.7 percent last year to 66.26 percent this year. Driving accuracy rose from 62.91 percent to 63.51 percent. To put that jump of slightly more than a one-half percentage point into perspective: PGA Tour pros, on average, were hitting one additional fairway every 13.5 rounds. When you consider that the primary rationale for the rule was to restore accuracy to the game, that's not a lot. In short, whether the numbers moved up or down, not a single stat that can be related to grooves showed a significant move in either direction. 

So is it fair to judge the impact of the groove rule change after one year?

"No one will dig them up. Golfers play without reflecting upon what lies beneath the verdant 18th hole."

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James Montague of CNN.com suggests that Lebanon Golf Club is a possible mass grave. (Thanks reader Digsouth via Kevin Robbins.)

British journalist Robert Fisk, who wrote "Pity The Nation" about the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, has repeatedly claimed the golf course as the burial site of many of the missing bodies.

"There are perhaps 1,000 murdered Palestinian civilians under the golf course near Beirut airport, dumped there by Israel's Phalangist allies after the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres," Fisk wrote in the British newspaper The Independent.

"No one will dig them up. Golfers play without reflecting upon what lies beneath the verdant 18th hole."

The piece includes a photo gallery of the club in various war-torn stages and scenes from today.

"It will be interesting to see which, if any, may be formidable films."

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In Golf World's classy looking new Arts Issue featuring a Mike Miller painting on the cover, Bill Fields looks at the mixed bag of golf films and concludes that for most of the failed movies, it comes down to the golfers not making convincing golfers. He also notes a few possible film topics and what's on the way...
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"Northern Trust Open announces more affordable ticket prices for 2011 event"

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Last year's Northern Trust Open ticket price increase was documented ad nauseum here and the resulting attendance disaster was clearly noticed by the folks in Ponte Vedra, whose Championship Management took over last year and jacked up prices for an event that was already witnessing an attendance decline.
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"It's a very good indication to him, though, that if he keeps his hair that's how he's going to look when he's 45."

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Rory McIlroy is carrying on the peculiar European Tour tradition (Poulter, Clarke, Westwood, Donald) of putting his hard earned millions toward regular visits to a high-priced hair salon where he was convinced life as a blond would be better. Maybe this is why he's going to stay closer to home next year?
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