Golf's Hall Setup Is Too Easy

For a game that generally demands the highest standards and decorum, requirements for gaining entrance to the World Golf Hall of Fame have always seemed just a little too vague and a little too low to us in the Grill Room.

On Monday night, Lanny Wadkins, Jose Maria Olazabal and Christy O'Connor Sr. were inducted into golf's shrine to itself in St. Augustine, Fla.

These three gents join the likes of Tony Jacklin, Gene Littler and Larry Nelson -- to randomly pick just a few of the head-scratching members for no good reason at all -- as inductees.

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Allenby's Mouth Reaps Reward

Shortly after losing to Anthony Kim in their singles match at last month's Presidents Cup, Robert Allenby made some disparaging remarks about Kim having been out drinking late the night before.

It was a classless move by Allenby, and even though the two reportedly had met to clear the air, it seems Kim hasn't forgotten what was said.

The duo met up today during the semifinals of the World Match Play Championships in Casares, Spain, and Kim exacted some revenge on Allenby with a 5 & 4 victory to advance to the finals against Angel Cabrera.

But it wasn't the win itself that gave Kim his vengeance, it was how he went about it. During the first half of the 36-hole semifinal, Kim refused to concede any putt to Allenby, no matter how short the length. Usually in match play a short putt is concede quickly, but Kim was having none of it in the early part of the match and by the time they completed the first round Allenby was displeased.

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Remembering Payne Stewart

This Sunday will mark the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of Payne Stewart and as I will be traveling this weekend I wanted to take a few moments to mark this sad event.

Stewart had capped a great year for his career in 1999 by winning the U.S. Open at Pinehurst and helped spur the U.S. to a Ryder Cup win three months later. Then, just one month later, Stewart left his Florida home to head for a meeting in Dallas, Texas (ironically, the same city where I will be spending this weekend) before heading down to Houston to play in the season-concluding Tour Championship.

As we all know, neither Stewart, his agents Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, the pilots Michael Kling and Stephanie Bellegarrigue, nor Bruce Borland, who was a golf architect with Jack Nicklaus' golf course design firm, made it to Dallas that day.

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Did Phil Just Seal the Cup?

Yes Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker are a big part of why the U.S. will go into Sunday's 12 singles matches with a three-point lead, but why the U.S. kept that three-point lead can be placed on the shoulders of Phil Mickelson.

Trailing the International team of Tim Clark and Vijay Singh all round, Mickelson rolled in a 40-foot putt, lasered in a brilliant approach on 16 to stay tied and all while getting little, if any, help from his playing partner, Sean O'Hair.

Michael Jordan's "project" hasn't faired too well and will need to step up tomorrow for his team. If O'Hair can right the ship and at least salvage a half in his match tomorrow, it would go a long way toward redeeming the Cup rookie's dismal performance so far.

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Sports' Babe Ruth of Billionaires

It was reported by Forbes Magazine last week that Tiger Woods is a billionaire.

I'll wait...

Hmmm, nothing.

OK, let me type that again...It was reported by Forbes Magazine last week that Tiger Woods is a billionaire...

Hmmm, still nothing. Guess I didn't think there would be. I'm betting your reaction is somewhere in the ballpark of, 'Yeah, so what, pally?'

Am I right?

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Double Your Golfing Pleasure

So exactly what was it with the month of September anyway?

No, I am not talking about Tiger Woods rolling to another FedEx Cup championship and another $10 million dollar check (that likely went to the petty cash fund anyway)that Mr. Woods deposited into his account.

What was truly amazing about the recently concluded month was a flurry of holes-in-ones across the globe. Now, I don't know what the exact numbers are on how many times a day someone, somewhere, experiemces the ultimate joy of golf. I'm sure there has to be at least one or two every week if not more.

But what we saw in September was above and beyond the norm for golf. Three people not only carded a hole-in-one in September, they did it twice. In the same round. And that number we do know.

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Presidents Cup an Easy Ryder

Because you can never have too much of a mediocre thing, the PGA Tour is rolling out the eighth edition of the Presidents Cup beginning Thursday at San Francisco's Harding Park Golf Course.

OK, maybe that teaser's a bit harsh. Anytime you can get Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Vijay and a cast of other sweet-swinging notables on the same course in October, you've pulled off quite a coup. Heck, who knows, a great show might even break out.

Most likely, though, this match-play extravaganza will offer up sweet spoonfuls of aw-shucks camaraderie, expert shot-making and, if we're lucky, maybe even a little suspense on Sunday.

For the average golf fan, this is hardly an event you'd rearrange your plans to watch.

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PGA's Off Week Still Eventful

So we take a week off from the chase for the FedEx Cup in the PGA and you think that means all's quiet on the golfing front do you?

Not so fast.

A 57-year-old Southern California man decided to pay tribute to fallen duffers everywhere by throwing golf balls out his car window while driving through Joshua Tree National Park, located in the Mojave Dessert just northeast of Los Angeles.

By the time park rangers discovered who had been tossing the golf balls in the park, Douglas Jones had deposited nearly 3,000 golf balls in the dessert. Park rangers, who had to pick up each golf ball, along with some other items Jones left in the park for various reason, were not amused.

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Lanny Wadkins Has Plenty to Say

Golf Magazine features one of the best sports interviews you'll ever read when it goes shot for shot with Lanny Wadkins in its October issue.

Writer Alan Bastable stood in there strong and put a number of potentially contentious issues in front of the feisty Wadkins.
Wadkins (pictured) seldom backed off and gave as good as he got, taking on, among other things, the World Golf Hall of Fame, CBS Sports, and Tiger's lack of competition.

But rather than continue to tease you, we'd like you to check out of the Grill Room and go to this link so you can read the thing.

Yeah, yeah, we know that by directing you out of here, we are probably breaking some golden tenets of website traffic, or page views, or unique visitors or something else we don't understand. No matter, we are nothing, if not committed, to serving our clientele with the very best in sports prose.

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All Fed Up with FedEx Cup

Great minds...

On Tuesday, we laid out a simple suggestion to the brass at PGA headquarters aimed at making their confusing FedEx Cup playoffs less like chess and a lot more like checkers.
Our aim was to offer up a simple scoring system that would allow pros and high-handicappers alike the opportunity to follow the event with a real good clue of how it worked.

Basically, we advocated using good ol' golf scoring to determine the standings, rather than some point system that only Apple and Dell understood.

So today, while refurbishing the joint (we hope you like the upgrade), and busily readying for another busy weekend of football, we came across this column from Sports Illustrated's superb golf writer, Gary Van Sickle.

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Please Fix the FedEx Cup Already!

Because we believe in straight talk and candor in the Grill Room, the management feels compelled to warn you that this column is mostly about golf's FedEx Cup.
Who says we don't look after you around here, eh?

To those of you brave enough to stick this one out, let's move on...

Yes, golf's version of the 'playoffs' has improved. The gods of Ponte Vedra Beach actually managed to make the confounding format a little more compelling and comprehensible this year.

And, yes again, the result of any championship system (sorry, Commissioner Finchem, this is a points race, not a playoff), no matter how wacky, should be to determine the best player or team when it is all over.

Well, right now Tiger Woods is leading the FedEx race, and even if he took an 0-for-4 in this year's majors, is still undeniable the game's best player by about the length of a solidly struck 3-wood.

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Tiger Puts Stricker on Notice

Coming into Round 3 of the FedEx Cup, both Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods needed to just finish in the top 10 to all but secure that one of them would win the Cup this year.

Tiger got the memo, currently tied for first after 36 hole of the BMW Championship at Cog Hill in Chicago. Woods usually does well at Cog Hill, so it is really no big surprise to see his name atop the leaderboard on a Friday evening. And while Tiger cannot clinch the Cup with a win this week, he certainly can put a huge amount of pressure on the current Cup leader Stricker.

Maybe that is why Stricker is struggling horribly after two rounds this week.

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Two-Man Horse Race for FedEx?

Barring an amazing back-to-back win performance over the next two weeks, the chase for the FedEx Cup has pretty much become a two-man race between Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods. Based on their play over the past two weeks, Stricker goes into this weeks' BMW Championship outside of Chicago with the advantage.

Stricker's win on Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship put him in first place by 909 points over Woods. While Woods usually does well at Cog hill, the simple fact is he is struggling with his game, Monday's 8-under, 63 notwithstanding. Woods' balky putter either runs red-hot or ice-cold and it not only cost him a chance to put the FedEx Cup out of reach, it has opened the door for Stricker to cruise right on by.

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