Lions Muny Gets Endangered Places Landmark, Still Needs Help

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Jenni Lee of KVUE reports on the dedication ceremony bequeathing official national endangered status on Lions Municipal. The course land is owned by the University of Texas, the former football power mired in another rough season, which wants to turn the historic course into a mixed-use development.

Among those turning out where golfers who enjoyed the links thanks to integration and affordability.

Such rich history is the reason Muny was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July.

But it was also added to the list of Most Endangered Historic Places earlier this month. The University of Texas Board of Regents wants to shut down Muny when its lease expires in 2019 and replace it with a mixed-use development.

"Here we go again," said Mary Arnold, a member of the group Save Muny.

This is the third time 81-year-old Mary Arnold is fighting UT. The university’s Board of Regents has already sold off acres of the donated Brackenridge tract of land for development twice before.

A stone lion has been greeting visitors at Muny since 1924. Supporters hope it sticks around.

I would argue that the fight for Lions is important in establishing the vitality of city-center golf courses as green spaces, but when they are in deteriorated shape, they become more expendable. One more reason we need a serious program restoring important public courses and WPA project links.

A video from KVUE's reporting on the ceremony:

Repot: Dick's Sporting Goods Wins Golfsmith Bankruptcy Auction, Loves Golf Again!

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By winning the Golfsmith auction, Jessica DiNapoli of Reuters says Dick's Sporting Goods will become the leading golf retailer based on number of stores (it may already be now).

Pending bankruptcy judge approval, DiNapoli says:

Dick's plans to keep open at least 30 Golfsmith stores and wind down the rest with liquidators from Hilco Global and Tiger Capital Group, the people said. It plans to keep about 500 of the company's employees.

Golfsmith had 109 stores in the United States at the time of its bankruptcy filing last month, and has been closing stores since then.

With the bid, Dick's, the largest U.S. sporting goods retailer, also won Golfsmith's intellectual property and inventory, the people added, asking not to be identified because the results of the auction are not yet public.

Mike Stachura of GolfDigest.com notes Dick's bullish attitude towards golf continues after the retailer gave indications that it saw golf as in "structural decline" and layed off its professional fitters not long after buying into Mark King and Adidas' Taylor Made vision of three new driver releases in one year.

Now, it looks like Dick's Sporting Goods, whose sporting goods store model is megasized but its Golf Galaxy brand model is a more conservative sized store, will be dictating a big part of golf's retail footprint going forward.

Flashback: When Bjorn Wasn’t Captain Woosnam’s Biggest Fan

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You know Thomas Bjorn is in full Ryder Cup captaincy campaign mode when he's congratulating old ("barmy") pal Ian Woosnam on his newfound World Golf Hall Of Fame status.

It's been a decade, but James Corrigan's story on Bjorn lashing out at then-Captain Woosnam from a decade ago makes for enjoyable reading, including the jab about not being burdened "with too many leadership qualities."

Amazingly, the issue was primarily over Lee Westwood getting a captain's pick with little-to-no consideration for Bjorn and others. How times haven't changed!

"So far his captaincy has been the most pathetic I have ever seen," said the 35-year-old, who is one of the European Tour's most respected players, and who is extremely popular throughout the Ryder Cup team room. "The man is barmy - to be captain and not communicate with a team or those in contention at all. I haven't spoken to him for six months, and then I find that I'm not in the team by watching it on television. How can that be right?"

This was nice too...

"I haven't heard a word off him for half a year, and I've spoken to several players who are on the team, and have been for a long time, and they haven't either," he said. "What sort of captaincy is that? I have lost all respect for him. My relationship with him is completely dead and will remain so. This will be the first time I don't even watch the Ryder Cup on television, and you don't know how sad that is, given how much I care for that tournament. I desperately want the 12 players to be a success, but I want them to do it in spite of the captain."

Ahhhh...but all is well now...that someone wants to be captain!

"Possibilities abound for South Shore-Jackson Park golf course"

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The Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein considers the possible South Shore-Jackson Park-Obama-Woods-Keiser-Rolfing project on the South Side and gives it an endorsement, seeing plenty of potential "greatness," assuming green fees for the locals do not go up substantially.

The project has been a dream of Rolfing's that has taken an intriguing turn with the possible inclusion of Tiger Woods and now, the Obama library. I hate seeing the dreadful TPC Harding Park redesign--a massive cost overrun boondoggle with dreadful architectural results--as a precedent setter, but Greenstein notes the green fees have at least held steady:

That's what officials did at TPC Harding Park, the San Francisco course that was transformed into a facility worthy of the 2009 Presidents Cup. Senior residents of the city can play the 18 holes from Monday-Thursday for $39, about one-fourth of the standard rate.

Rolfing also wants to design a "short course" in the vein of what Harding Park has — nine holes ranging from 140-405 yards

Tiger No Shows Galore But Makes Time For Colbert, Rose!?

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It’s a sorry state of affairs, and I want to sympathize with Tiger's swing and injury issues, but celebrating the 20th anniversary of his fine Foundation and the not-so-fine launch of his rebranding with appearances on Colbert and Charlie Rose? Strange timing.

It's not a great look that he committed before pulling out of last week’s Safeway and inexplicably passed on Arnold Palmer’s funeral, yet Woods can make time for talk shows? Given the amount of money he has made thanks to Palmer’s breakthrough efforts for athletes or the intelligence gleaned by his operation from IMG as a result of Palmer and Mark McCormick’s pioneering ways, the appearances seem poorly timed (at best).

If you want to set the DVR, here is a preview often October 20th appearances from Joel Beall at GolfDigest.com.

Woosnam In The HOF: Miscarriage Of Justice Rectified?

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That was Anthony Woolford's view of Ian Woosnam's previous Hall Of Fame slights, now rectified by the committee.

We discussed on Golf Central both Woosnam and, more importantly, Henry Longhurst's selection, and while I'm happy for Woosnam and the validation of his 29-win European Tour career, in a strange way his selection is fascinating because he overcomes a bold Tweet.

From Woolford's story:

Woosie wrote on Twitter at the time: “After seeing the results of the World Golf Hall of Fame, I think it’s time to say goodbye to golf and retire.”

But two years on former world No.1 Woosnam took to social media again to tweet his delight at finally being recognised by the World Golf Hall of Fame when he joined fellow inductees Davis Love III, who captained the US to Ryder Cup victory over Europe this autumn, another well-known figure in British golf, the legendary late BBC commentator Henry Longhurst as well as Solheim Cup stalwart Meg Mallon and former women’s world No.1 Lorena Ochoa.

Jason Day: Tiger Won't Be Back Until Next Year**

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Jason Day texts with Tiger Woods and has visited him and says he senses an eagerness from Tiger to return, but doesn't see it happening anytime soon.

Robert Grant, reporting on the sidelined world No. 1's comments about the sidelined former world No. 1. **

"I think he misses being out here, which is understandable because the competition is so addicting," Day said.

"He saw Phil Mickelson playing well at the (British) Open Championship, and that got him going. But he knows he can't push it.

"I never really had any faith in him coming back this year. The state of his game, I'm not sure. His back is so sore. I think we'll see him sometime next year, but I'm not sure when," he said.

Day went on to suggest winning will be tougher than ever due to the competitiveness of today's tour.

**Apologies for not catching this, but the author unfortunately chose to lift these remarks from Brian Wacker's Golf Digest feature on Tiger's low-profile existence in the greater Jupiter area. A story worth reading given the latest suggestion that Tiger tried to cram for his first tournament back and WD'd upon actually testing his game on a course.

As for dating the story October 18th and giving the impression of original reporting, the Golf Australia story should not have been posted and distributed as news.