Andy Zhang Resurfaces; Wishes He Would Have Cut Off The Media Questions Sooner

/

Stephen Fastenau talks to the 14-year-old U.S. Open contestant about his appearance at Olympic Club as Andy Zhang prepares for the AJGA event at Hilton Head Plantation.

The 14-year-old landed in the U.S. Open field after Paul Casey withdrew with an injury. He played a Tuesday practice round with Masters champion Watson, and after walking off the 18th green was surrounded by media members who didn't stop asking questions.

"It's my first time doing all this stuff," Zhang said. "I should have said 'Stop,' when I wanted to stop. I didn't know what to do. I kept going and answering questions. I didn't want to keep up the group behind us."

Ah the young lad, who was better than most twice his age at answering questions, just needs to understand that we didn't want to talk to the geezers behind him.

Barnbougle Legal "Stoush" Finally Over

/

Lost Farms 15th, as viewed from the resort restaurant (click to enlarge)From an unbylined ABC report, landowner Richard Sattler has prevailed in a dispute that has paralyzed one of the great golf destinations from moving forward with future plans and better coordinating operations between two world class designs, Tom Doak and Mike Clayton's Barnbougle Dunes, and Bill Coore's Lost Farm.

Links Golf Tasmania, the operator of Barnbougle Dunes, sued Richard Sattler the owner of the land upon which Barnbougle and the neighbouring Lost Farm courses are built.

LGT claimed Mr Sattler, a former director and chief executive officer of the company, used expertise gained while involved with Barnbougle to set up the rival Lost Farm course.

LGT claimed it should have had the opportunity to build and operate the Lost Farm Course and Mr Sattler breached his position of trust and duties under the Corporation Act when he developed it as his own. But Federal Court Justice Christopher Jessop has found as the owner of the land it was up to Mr Sattler how he used it.

Getting In The Mood: Royal Portrush Edition

/

The Irish Open returns to one of the world's great courses in Royal Portrush this week, with a solid field that includes 10 major winners, including Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Keegan Bradley. This is also an opportunity for Portrush to show the R&A if it's capable of hosting another Open Championship, which last visited Northern Ireland in 1951.

Golf Channel will be airing coverage in the U.S. at 6 a.m. PT Thursday and Friday, and starting at 5:30 a.m. PT on the weekend. Whether you've been there or not, or just remember it from recent Senior Opens, it's a fantastic links worth watching.

Here's a European Tour preview story on the field and expected massive galleries.

Philip Reid explains the history of the event and its much anticipated return to the north.

In the years from 1927 to 1953, an informal rota of using courses North and South operated and, then, after a 10-year hiatus, the tournament returned (under the Carrolls International banner) and was played exclusively in the South (mainly at Woodbrook) before the Irish Open was properly revived in 1975.

Since then, 11 courses, all in the South, have played host to the championship  . . . and, so, its return to Northern shores, for the first time since Belvoir Park in 1953, is both apposite and timely.

Brian Keogh on the 100,000 plus expected for the week.

Deborah McAleese explains how Northern Ireland is preparing for the Queen's visit along with the Irish Open, and notes that Bill Murray is among those scheduled to play the pro-am.

The club has posted a couple of image galleries, with this excellent course overview and hole-by-hole option found in the lefthand column.

Ran Morrissett's GolfClubAtlas.com review has some super insights and images of the Dunluce course.

The club's member site also features this super newsreel video of Max Faulkner winning the Open Championship there in 1951.

Finally, there's an excellent Renton Laidlaw narrated "Hidden Links Golf Tours" video that is just under four minutes and tremendous fun, including a tour inside the Doctor's Locker, a look at one of golf's great halfway houses (but not halfway on the course), and plenty of fun course insights.

"I've never hit a golf ball. I've never set foot on a golf course. Everything I draw is from inside a 6-by-10 prison cell."

/

Max Adler ghosts Valentino Dixon's lengthy and (so far) extremely compelling July Golf Digest feature.

I say so far because it's a long one and I'm going to savor the rest in print or on the iPad, but here's a sampling from the Attica Correctional Facility resident's story of crime, redemption and terrific golf hole drawings.

Except for that one drawing for the warden, I never copy holes exactly. I use a photograph as a starting point and then morph the image in my own way. Sometimes I'll find a tiny piece of reference material, like a tree on a stamp or mountains on a calendar, and then imagine my own golf course with it. I find the challenge of integrating these visions very rewarding.

The past two years I've drawn more than 130 golf pictures with colored pencils and 6-by-8-inch sheets of paper I order through the mail. We're not allowed to have brushes and paints, but that's all right; I like pencils. When I was little, my mom and grandma used to slap my hand because of the unconventional way I gripped the pencil, until one day my aunt Gwen told them to stop and look at the comics I'd done from the newspaper. My mom didn't believe I'd done it without tracing, so she made me draw them again freehand as she watched.

 

Leishman Reportedly Wins Travelers Even Though He Shot 62 Long Before Cameras Were Rolling

/

John Strege explains the peculiar Travelers finale where Marc Leishman fired a 62 and the leaders playing two hours later all folded down the stretch, handing the win to the 28-year-old Australian.

Leishman, it should be noted, counts another Aussie, Greg Norman, as his idol. Norman won here, too, in 1995. But Norman is known as much for his pratfalls as for the otherwise stellar record that landed him in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and he'd have been at home among those kindred spirits littering the course on the back nine.

"It's a funny game," Leishman said. But a comedy of errors doesn't make it a comedy, nor does a one-stroke victory make it a drama. That leaves horror among the available genres.

If you look closely during the highlight package, you'll see Leishman make one putt during his round.

Wittenberg Passes On PGA Tour Spot And Wins On Nationwide Tour

/

Ryan Ballengee explains the terrific move by Casey Wittenberg to pass on the Travelers Championship, even though he was guranteed a spot based on this T-10 at the U.S. Open. He instead stuck to the Nationwide Tour where he is playing in hopes of earning a PGA Tour card and won this weekend's Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open by two.

Earning $108,000 for the win, Wittenberg jumped from 10th to second on the Nationwide Tour money list, all but ensuring a return to the PGA Tour in 2013. The top 25 players on the Nationwide Tour money list earn full PGA Tour status.

I wonder if a player will do that in 2013 when the Nationwide money list may not mean as much, all because of the atrocious playoff system that looms?  Assuming they ever figure it out.