Nationwide Renewals, Decline In Opportunities

The PGA Tour's desire to make the Nationwide Tour more attractive to a sponsor and to tie it into the regular tour's fall finish makes a little more sense when you see this noted in Sean Martin's Nationwide notes column:

The tour has 26 events this year, the fewest in its history, and a total purse of $16,075,000, the tour’s smallest since 2005. The tour peaked at 32 events in 2007. This year’s purse is $2.25 million less than last year’s and $2.9 million less than the tour’s peak of 2008, when $18,991,094 was up for grabs.

The Old Geezer Wins Mid-Am

A 54-year old in the Masters! David Shefter on Randal Lewis' 2011 U.S. Mid-Amateur 3&2 win at Shadow Hawk Golf Club.

Geezer Has Shot At U.S. Mid-Am Title

Ron Balicki reports on 54-year-old Randal Lewis's impressive run to the final match.

“I know it is so hard to get to a USGA final, and especially in something like this at my age,” Lewis said. “I realize this is probably my last chance. Heck, I’m anxious to turn 55 (May 2012) and start playing senior golf.”

With a victory Thursday, Lewis will have more to think about than what senior events he might be entering. He would have one where he would not only be taking on the young guys, but they would be the best in the world at the Masters.

“I learned from the last time (1996) to not start thinking about that,” he said. “What I need to do is concentrate on what I have to do in that match, stay patient, and keep playing like I’ve been playing all week. If I can do that, everything else will take care of itself.”

"Going To The Dogs"

I've added one from my collection, but don't hesitate to send in your dogs and golf images to the GolfDigest.com people who have quite a nice gallery going, highlighted by photographer John Stewart's epic shot of Dennis Walters' sidekick Bucky doing his best impersonation of Arnold Palmer at St. Andrews.

"So, yes, I would make the long putter illegal."

Steve DiMeglio chats with Dave Stockton about his new putting book and perhaps more interesting than repeating his thoughts on the long putter, was one ray of hope we haters of the anchoring craze can cling to:

Anchoring takes some skill and nerves out of putting. I go back to Sam Snead. They outlawed his croquet putting because he straddled the line. Well, what difference does that make? When long putters came out, they were being used by players generally who weren't good putters to start with. The long putters let them hang in there. Now you have a generation of players who started using the long putters at a young age. Now, saying that, I would never start a kid with a long putter when I could see if he or she could perform with a short putter. I just think the short putter is much better on long putts and it's much better in the wind. So, yes, I would make the long putter illegal.