Talking Golf with the Golf Guy

Horses for Courses is a term used in golf vernacular and refers to a pocket-size selection of PGA Tour Professionals winning on golf courses that suit their games, styles, and strengths. Jack Nicklaus prevailed at the Augusta National Golf Club and won the Masters six times; Tiger Woods flourished at Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, and…

The United States Open Golf Championship returned to Southern California and the Los Angeles Country Club after a seventy-five-year hiatus to robust criticism from players and fans alike. Small galleries, lack of grandstands, forced carries, blind tee shots, and severely sloped fairways that ran off into gnarly fescue-protected island greens and rough marred the USGA's…

With 2023 PGA Champion Brooks Koepka Pain is the scourge and complaint for many athletes, primarily when the suffering exists in the knees, feet, and joints that restrict their movements and range of motion. Injuries compounded and more problematic for Professional Golfers who must forcefully swing a golf club and walk when they ply their…

Legend has it that the late Seve Ballesteros, whose 66th birthday would have been this past Sunday, could get it up and down from the parking lot to save par 2023 Masters Champion, Jon Rahm, channeling his best Seve impersonation, did just that not once but twice on a rain-delayed, soggy Augusta National's final day…

Is Tiger Woods the Greatest Golfer of all Time? That's again the question as Tiger Woods returns to competition on the PGA Tour at this week's Genesis Open contested at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. Tiger has not participated in a regular PGA Tour tournament since 2020. It's also his first official…

Thirty times, the oldest major Golf Championship has been contested on the wind-swept and venerated links of the Old Course at Saint Andrews, the Scottish ancestral home of Golf and an exalted shrine to the foibles and peculiarities of Golfers through the world. The Open Championship returned to Scotland this year to celebrate the 150th…

Undoubtedly, the game and sport of Golf is an import from the British Islands. Conceived, developed, and propagated on the wind-swept Linksland of the Scottish coast, it slowly migrated to the eastern seaboard of the American mainland, where it indifferently spread amongst the blossoming and burgeoning middle class created by the industrial revolution of the…

In my fifty-plus years as a PGA Professional, whether as a Player, Administrator, Journalist, Broadcaster, or Blogger, I've played in, administered, and covered hundred's Golf Tournaments globally. I've journeyed to and visited most of the famous and celebrated Golf cities, states, and countries worldwide. Including the 2022 PGA Championship contested this past week at the…

The History of Golf in Utah-In the Beginning, the Birth of Golf The practice of hitting, swatting, or slapping an object with a stick is as old as recorded history. Bored from tending their herds of sheep and goats, shepherd boys of nomadic Arab tribes would knock pebbles from tree to bush to pass the…

The beauty, grandeur, magnificence, and brilliance of the Master's Golf Tournament, contested the first full week of April each year in Augusta, Georgia, has become a rite of passage for adoring sports fans worldwide. This annual celebration of spring which heralds the beginning of the golf season worldwide offers up a juxtaposition of the visionary,…

Before there were the great contemporary champions like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, or even Bobby Jones, There was Young Tommy Morris. Arguably the greatest Professional Golfer of his era, Young Tommy was flamboyant, colorful, flashy, a born showman, and unbeatable as a professional. He won four Open Championships in a row by the…

Introduction The History of Golf in Utah mirrors that of the Nation in general with two essential and noteworthy caveats. The duality of the sport and bifurcation of rules. And why are Golf Courses built and for whom? The dichotomy of the question is, do we participate in Golf for recreation or competition? Golf, as…

A volatile and hyper-competitive Spaniard in the mode of Seve Ballesteros, Jose Marie Olazabal, and Sergio Garcia, coming off a heartbreaking forced withdrawal because of COVID-19 Symptoms, after leading by six shots in the Memorial Tournament, Jon Rahm, embracing newfound humility, perseverance, patience, and a new son, wins the 121st United States Open Championship in…

Phil Mickelson has been making sports history his entire life, ever since he burst on the scene as an amateur golfer while attending Arizona State University, winning three NCAA individual championships, three Haskins awards as the outstanding collegiate golfer, while also leading the Sun Devils to the NCAA team title in 1990. He won 16…

Bill Roland was a young man in Akron, Ohio, following his golfing hero, Tony Lema on the back nine of the 1966 PGA Championship at Firestone County Club, when a chance encounter with the golfing legend led to a lifelong fascination of the Major Championship winner and budding superstar, resulting in Roland’s researching and publishing…

There are some who derisively, and maybe with just a touch of covetousness, sometimes proclaim, “If you can play, then you play. If you can’t, then you teach.” A simplistic statement that often does no justice to the individual in question. Great teachers and administrators often possess extraordinary skills that are unique to the lessons…

No one in the history of the Los Angles-Southern California Radio Market has announced more sporting events than award-winning broadcast journalist, Ted Sobel. If you have tuned in to the radio, listened to any studio updates, or followed any of the sporting contests in Southern California, you have heard Ted’s concise, succinct, and crisp delivery…

You could be forgiven if a trace of cynicism enters your thoughts when discussing Augusta National Golf Club’s long history of exclusion, racism, misogyny, and believing its membership was motivated by magnanimity and not a selfish, self-interest and concern over their international branding when their exclusionary policies were relaxed and their membership rolls expanded late…

It’s Masters week, and who better to talk about it than forty-year broadcast veteran and 37-year attendee of the Masters than radio broadcast legend, John Patrick, the Morning Show co-host of NewsTalk WGAC in Augusta, Georgia. One of the great and legendary broadcasters in all the Southern States, whose distinctive voice, witticisms, and banter have…

The Shivas Irons Society is an international organization based in Southern California that promulgates the message and teachings contained in Michael Murphy’s seminal masterpiece, “Golf In The Kingdom,” first published in 1972.” The semi-autobiographic novella is a magical retelling of the novelist’s interactions with an aging Scottish Golf Professional, Teacher, Seer, and Philosopher, Shivas Irons,…

There are some pundits in the sphere of journalism that would decry the record-setting performance of the #1 player in the World and his overwhelming victory in the COVID-19 delayed 2020 Masters Golf Tournament. Those same scribes might place an asterisk next to the name of the 84th Masters Champion, Dustin Johnson, because of the […]

In Dick Schaap’s seminal recounting of the 1974 United States Open Championship, Massacre at Winged Foot, which Hale Irwin won at seven over par, lapping the field. Utah’s Bruce Summerhays was the first contestant off the tee Thursday on that cool morning in early June. It is irony indeed that forty-six years later, when the […]

Major championship golf has returned to the American sports scene with a vengeance. The 102nd PGA of America’s 2020 National Golf Championship was contested this last week at San Francisco’s Harding Park. A municipal golf course that anyone can play, the course was built in 1925 by the same architects that constructed the nearby ultra-private […]

The 102nd edition of the PGA Championship will be conducted August 6-9, 2020, at San Francisco’s Harding Park Municipal Golf Course. It now becomes, because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the first Major Golf Tournament of the year, and the first Major to be contested in over 382 days, the longest such interval since World War […]

When Kelsey Chugg, the Utah Golf Association’s Female Player of the Decade, won the United States Golf Association’s Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in 2017, she joined an exclusive group of Utah Golf Royalty. With that victory, she became only the 8th player in history with Utah ties to win a United States Golf Association event, and […]

In 2016, when Jon Rahm was a fourth-year senior at Arizona State University and winning the Pac-12 Championship at the Country Club in Salt Lake City, he was also the #1 ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. A position he held for total of 60 weeks, an all-time record. He also won the […]

Does the Bible mention Sports? If Jesus were alive today, would he participate in outdoor recreation, including golf? Is there a place for athletics, particularly the game of golf, in God’s Plan of Salivation for mankind? Existential questions that have been asked for decades and which all can pose serious challenges and obstacles for anyone […]

As the President of the 40,000 plus membership of the Utah Golf Association, Kurt Bernhisel is responsible for overseeing the administrative working’s of the Association’s Membership, whose stated objective is to “promote interest in the game of golf by encouraging, organizing, supporting, sponsoring and administering golfing activities and programs without regard to race, color, or creed, and to […]

The list of golfers with Utah connections who have won tournaments on the PGA Tour is long and distinguished and includes Hall of Fame members Billy Casper and Johnny Miller who are also Major Tournament winners as is Mike Weir. Regular PGA Tournament champions from Utah include Tony Finau and Jay Don Blake. Club Professionals […]

It has been said that Golf Professionals wear many hats, but few men in the history of the PGA have a closet stacked with as much headgear as Utah Golf Hall of Fame member, Ernie Schneiter Jr. As a player, Ernie excelled from the first time he picked up a golf club, winning the Utah […]

When Weber State collegiate golfer, Mike Malaska won the 1974 Utah Open golf tournament as an amateur, playing against the best professional golfers in the area, some who were also competing on the PGA Tour, it offered a hint of the promise of what he could accomplish in the sport of golf. But no one […]

In the long history of the United States Golf Association and its hosting of our National Championships, no one has competed in every USGA event available to her than Sue Billek Nyhus. A total of nine USGA Championships over a long and successful playing career. It is a performance that will never be matched nor […]

In my latest episode, I sit down with Golf Digest Senior Writer, Guy Yocum, a Utah boy who got his start in golf at Salt Lake City’s Rose Park Golf Course and then left home for the bright lights of New York City. As the song goes, “If you can make there, you can make […]

Fairways Media President & CEO, Randy Dodson, is, in my estimation, the hardest working man in Utah Golf. As the Editor-in-Chief of Fairways, the official magazine of the Utah Golf Association, Utah Section PGA, and the Utah Junior Golf Association, Randy covers and reports on, what is basically, the entire spectrum of golf in the […]

PGA Professional Steve Schneiter, by any criteria you choose, is one of the most accomplished players in Utah Golf history. His record speaks for itself. Among others, Utah State High School Champion, Utah State Amateur Champion, Winner of over 100 Professional Tournaments, Participant in 12 PGA Championships, Low PGA Professional-2005 PGA Championship, 1995 PGA Professional […]

New York Times best selling writer John Feinstein, is the author of forty-two books including “Season on the Brink” and “A Good Walk Spoiled” two of the best selling sports books of all time. One of the most well read and prolific authors in journalism, Mr. Feinstein’s books have sold over 10 million copies throughout […]

“There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” Susan B. Anthony On Sunday, May 19, 2019, on the eighteenth green of Bethpage Black, “The People’s Country Club,” PGA Master Professional Suzy Whaley, presented the Wanamaker Trophy, to Brooks Koepka, winner of the 101st PGA Championship. And with […]

Join PGA Master Professional Jeff Waters, as he interviews Jacob “Jake’ Miller, the Executive Director of the Utah Golf Association. Jake, aka “The Captain” has led a circuitous route on his journey to becoming only the seventh Executive Director in the long and storied history of the UGA. He joins a distinguish list of administrators […]

Join PGA Master Professional, Jeff Waters as he visits with Devin Dehlin, the Executive Director of the Utah Section of the PGA as they discuss the many issues and challenges the COVID-19 Pandemic and Shelter-in-Place has placed on local and regional golf courses and their Head Professionals. Devin talks of the many obstacles facing, not […]

PGA Master Professional, Jeff Waters sits down with 2020 Utah Golf Hall of Fame Inductee, Joe Watts in a far ranging and insightful interview about the legendary, long-time golf administrator’s career guiding and influencing the state of affairs of Utah Golf. His distinguished resume representing Amateur Golf includes service on the Board of Directors of […]

Join PGA Master Professional, Jeff Waters as he kicks off his 2020 Golf Podcast Season. Joining Jeff on today’s Podcast is award-winning Sport Columnist and Golf Writer, Kurt Kragthorpe. Listen in as they discuss the current state of affairs of Golf-Locally, Nationally, and Internationally including how the world-wide COVID-19 Pandemic is affecting both the Professional […]

There have been a number of moments and events in the history of golf that have contributed to dramatic increases in purses and the amount of money that top professionals may win. Arnold Palmer has long been the person who put professional golf on the map with his dramatic flair, style and go-for-broke attitude. Tiger […]

Major Championships are, for the most part, contested on some of the most honored and venerated golf courses in the world, and are often included in the “Top 100 Course” lists. Most, if not all, have hosted other significant championships and have stood the test of time. But can the average Joe or Jane golfer […]

Pebble Beach was an unknown quantity in 1929 when the United States Golf Association selected the new golf course to host the United States Amateur Golf Championship. The Amateur was considered the most prestigious tournament in the world and considered a Major Championship. Pebble Beach became the first golf course west of the Mississippi River […]

The world’s sporting spotlight is shinning brightly on Pebble Beach Golf Links this week as it plays host to its sixth United States Open Championship. Amid all the hoopla its easy to forget that this is a special occurrence and a special place. Major Golf Championship do not come often to the West. In fact […]

The King of golf, Arnold Palmer, may have owned Pebble Beach but he never won a golf tournament here. The Hall-of-Famer who won 62 PGA Tour titles and seven Major Championships over a long, illustrious career always got the short end of the stick when it came to competing at Pebble. He did have six […]

Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula are home to some of the most exotic and expensive vistas, beaches, resorts, private homes, villas, shops and golf courses anywhere on earth. But who owns the property now? We know it was originally part of Mexico and then deeded in the early 1800’s as part of a land […]

When one thinks about Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula one naturally associates the area with the golf course and for good reason. Pebble Beach Golf Links is internationally famous for its beauty and the challenge it presents to anyone fortunate enough to set foot on its historic premises. But the fame that is Pebble […]

The 119th United States Open in underway and the leaderboard is crowded. Ricky Fowler is the outright leader at five-under par. Four players are at four-under and seven are at minus-three. The straight-laced United States Golf Association has taken some heat in recent years with their set-up of Open Courses and players have complained about […]

The 119th United States Open Championship begins tomorrow morning at the historic and scenic Pebble Beach Golf Links for the sixth time. The list of winners at this site reads like a veritable who’s-who of golfing greats and this year’s winner will be no exception. The United States Golf Association tries very hard to insure […]

On a eagerly anticipated Sunday morning, which under normal expectations should have foretold the magnificence of all a final round of the Masters is and can be. Instead began much early than expected, under ominous conditions with darkening clouds, gusty winds and the threat of severe weather, cancelling a final round contest that had all […]