Tom Ramsey, R.I.P.

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Phillip Heads of Australia's Daily Telegraph remembers sportswriter Tom Ramsey.

"A stubborn northern Irishman, he covered 141 majors in his 40 years as a golf writer," said Hartigan. "He was afraid of no one and regularly dished it out to the likes of Greg Norman, despite his iconic standing in this country."

At TV Week, Ramsey lived something of Hollywood life as he helped develop the Logies into the pre-eminent entertainment awards.

For five years, he had a permanent room in Melbourne's then hotel-to-the-stars, the Southern Cross. As a golf writer, that trend continued as he followed the careers of Bruce Devlin, David Graham and later his great sparring partner Greg Norman.

"I don't really think the newspapers knew how much I was spending. Because I was allowed to make my own bookings and I always turned left when I walked up the aeroplane. Never right," Ramsey told the November 2010 issue of Australian Golf Digest.

Finchem On Morning Joe; Manages To Avoid Pulling A Halperin

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"Oh yeah, there were plenty of guys on the Nationwide Tour who smoked in the middle of the round...We always talked about it. You could go in the Porta John and take your drags."

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It's always fun to read a well done player profile, especially when the player is interesting and his story is bound to have men in Oxford's running around PGA Tour offices trying to figure out the spin.

So while all the stuff Dave Shedloski tells us about in the Robert Garrigus story--Memphis last year, the 2011 U.S. Open and his struggle with addiction--these are the comments bound to be brought up the next time Tim Finchem claims that PGA Tour pros are all angels and drug testing was unnecessary.

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"He was our best player and maybe our worst dresser."

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Mike O'Malley notes that it's the 10th anniversary of Pete Farricker's passing. The former equipment editor for Golf Digest was one of the game's great characters. I had the privilege of working with Pete on a project for the 1995 PGA Championship program and loved talking about the game with him. Worth reading if you didn't know the man is Jerry Tarde's salute from the September, 2001 column.
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What A Relief: Tiger Inks Deal With Japan Pain Cream Brand!

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The blue chips may start lining up now that agent Mark Steinberg reportedly stops the itching, err...bleeding because, according to his Keeler Darren Rovell, the agent has locked up Japanese pain cream brand Vantelin Kowa for Tiger's first post-accident endorsement deal.

A moment of silence is in order for the ten-percenters at IMG who must be feeling the pain today after losing both Tiger, Mark Steinberg and now, Vantelin Kowa.

And if you had Vantelin Kowa in the pool--collect!