Jim Nantz Confirms He Gets "Hello Friends" All The Time And Talks About Life On The Peninsula

An unbylined Charlotte Observer Q&A with Jim Nantz (tied to Sunday's Panthers game) includes some fun stuff about revisiting his childhood home, fans saying "Hello Friends" to him (so original!), recording voiceovers for Tiger Woods' EA video game (Hello Friends!) and his move to Pebble Beach this year. 

Q. Is it true you live at Pebble Beach Golf Links?

I moved to Pebble Beach full time this year. I’m looking at the seventh green right now. It’s all beautiful. We got married June 9 and we moved in that very night.

Q. You got married in June on the famous seventh hole there. Why did you pick that spot?

In the book I wrote, “Always By My Side,” I wrote a couple of pages about how the seventh hole was such a spiritual setting to me and I always felt my father’s presence there. Every day during the years we covered the Pebble Beach golf tournament, I would march out there before the sun was up and sit on the rail fence there in prayerful introspection and think about all the blessings in my life.

Q. So how much golf do you play living there?

I’ve played twice since I moved here. I practice a lot.

UK Sports Minister Says Open Championship Should Only Be Played At Non-Discriminatory Clubs

Golf365 quotes a Sunday Times story (not available online) in which UK Sports minister Hugh Robertson thinks clubs like 2013 Open Championship host Muirfield The Honourable Company Of Edinburgh Golfers should not be part of the rota because "it is increasingly anachronistic not to allow women to be members."

"The defence of the Royal and Ancient is that it is a private club and so has the right to do what it wants.

"That is legally correct and I have no quarrel when it is acting as a private club. However, I believe that when a private club fulfils a public function, such as staging a major event, then there is a different slant."

And there was an interesting delineation from Muirfield secretary Alastair Brown, which I puts the ball back in the R&A's court:

"It's not our decision where the Open is. It's the decision of the R&A - it's their competition and they ask us.

"Augusta is a totally different situation. They own their event."

Translation: back at you R&A!

Flashback By Unpopular Demand: Charlie Beljan's Brief Life On Twitter

I really didn't want to bring up Charlie Beljan's brief time on Twitter, considering the poor lad was breaking down Friday and suffered the indignity of a carting off the Disney property by government health care workers, but Twitterers have been passing the link around.

So here goes, Children's Miracle Network Classic winner Beljan's infamous comments about the President and even worse in my view, vitriol directed toward an innocent PGA Tour fan of his who works in Penn State athletics.

Eventually--well in about two hours time--Ponte Vedra SWAT (or more likely his agent) moved in to convince Beljan to delete his Twitter account.

Ike: "Golf was essential to his daily routine."

Barack Obama played his first round of golf since August but after reading Evan Thomas' golf.com excerpt from Ike's Bluff, the President has a long way to go when it comes to matching the Oval Office's greatest golf nut.

We all know about President Eisenhower's 800 rounds, but there was all this...

Golf was essential to his daily routine. When he awakened in the morning, he limbered up by taking a few swings in his bedroom with his favorite eight-iron.

He sometimes swung the club when dictating to Mrs. Whitman. At 5:00 p.m. he would rise from Teddy Roosevelt’s old Navy Department desk in the Oval Office, put on his golf shoes, and head out the door, leaving tiny spike holes in the floorboards. On the Ellipse, the greensward stretching south from the White House toward the Washington Monument, he would practice fairway approach shots. His faithful valet (or as he was known in military parlance, his striker), Sergeant John Moaney, would shag the balls while tourists peered through the iron fence.

Film Review: A Journey To Golf's Past: Creating Old Macdonald

In this week's Arts Issue of Golf World, I review Michael Robin's film on the making of Bandon Dunes' Old Macdonald.

The film sets a new bar for storytelling in the design world. It also proves that when professionals like Robin--a prominent television producer and director who is also a fine golfer--and his team conveyed the many dimensions of a golf course, it shows just how mediocre network television has been at bringing courses alive.

And don't be fooled by the title, this is more than just a "making of" film about Old Macdonald. Some of the best moments come when the team travels to the world's most famous holes and dissect their attributes, including the Redan, Road and Macdonald's template holes at The National Golf Links.

The extras-loaded DVD is a must for anyone who loves architecture or Bandon Dunes.

You can order the film for all of $10 (!) via the Bandon Dunes shop site.

Update on 2012-11-09 18:28 by Geoff

**Bandon's website did indeed sell out after your orders but more are on the way and it's available again.

Must Read: Christina Kim And Other Golfers Who Battle Depression

There is a very powerful December Golf Digest story by Stina Sternberg that's a powerful, informative but in no way maudlin read (the print issue should hit your mailbox any day if it hasn't already, and the iPad edition is out).

Though Kim is the focus (and kudos to her for sharing her story to overcome the stigma attached to admitting issues with depression), she's certainly not alone.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 14.8 million American adults--or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population--suffer from Major Depressive Disorder, and more than 30,000 Americans commit suicide every year. "It's a huge medical illness on the order of cardiovascular disease and diabetes," says Dr. Michael Lardon, a San Diego-based clinical psychiatrist who specializes in working with professional athletes and has been treating tour players, including half a dozen major champions, for 21 years. (This is the first year he has no LPGA Tour patients, but he currently works with 10 players each from the PGA and Web.com tours.) "Unfortunately, it lives in the background."