It’s Shell Houston Open week in Houston, and the Wall Street Journal ($) has a timely section in today’s edition that focuses on the troubled golf business. Although professional golf tournaments continue to do well as a television product, the rest of the golf business is not doing well at all, burdened by over-construction of golf courses and a lagging supply of golfers. As usual, the Journal staff does a fine job of covering the various sectors of the golf industry. Check it out.

This Chronicle story reports on a new book, “The Rules of Golf in Plain English,” co-written by Houston personal injury lawyer Jeff Kuhn and Dallas-based legal writing guru Bryan Garner, which “brings order and clarity to the Rules of Golf as mandated by the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.” Mr. Kuhn is a volunteer USGA rules official who got the idea of rewriting the Rules of Golf during one of Mr. Garner’s seminars on legal writing.
Perhaps Messrs. Kuhn and Garner will tackle the Internal Revenue Code next? ;^)

Dan Jenkins is my favorite writer about golf. However, his daughter, Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins, is clearly an up and comer in that field. She has written this fine piece today on how Phil Mickelson overcame past failures in major golf tournaments to win this year’s Masters Golf Tournament.

Phil Mickelson won The Masters Golf Tournament in dramatic style with a clutch 12 foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to edge Ernie Els by a stroke. Here is the NY Times article on Mickelson’s victory.
As everyone who follows golf knows, it is Mickelson’s first victory in one of golf four major tournaments (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA) and finally lifts from Mickelson’s back the baggage of being “the best golfer never to have won a major.”
This afternoon was the best day of the Masters since Jack Nicklaus‘ dramatic victory at the age of 46 eighteen years ago in 1986 (has it really been that long?). The final nine of Augusta National Golf Club is legendary — there are two par fives that are legitimate eagle holes (13 and 15), two relatively short but testy par threes (12 and 16), an incredibly difficult par four (11), four solid par fours (10, 14, 17, 18), and nine greens that are severely undulating and lightning quick. Consequently, wild scoring swings can occur because, although eagles and birdies are quite possible, bogies and double bogies are looming everywhere if a player makes even the slightest error.
This final day of the Masters had more memorable shots on the back nine than any final day in Masters history. Within ten minutes of each other, Padraig Harrington and Kirk Triplett had holes-in-one of 16. K.J. Choi — a fellow resident of The Woodlands, Texas — holed a 225 yard five iron on the incredibly difficult 11th hole for an eagle, and then played superbly with playing partner Els down the stretch to finish in third place. After jump starting his round with an eagle at the 8th hole, Els stiffed a five iron on 13 to set up a 15 footer for another eagle, followed immediately by a clutch 20 foot putt for birdie by Mickelson on the devlish 12th hole. 46 year old Bernhard Langer remained in contention for his third Masters title until his 235 yard three iron hit the false front on the 15th hole and trickled agonizingly into the pond that fronts that green. And then Mickelson birdies 16 to tie Els, and then birdies 18 (after hitting a 303 yard drive with a 3 metal!) to win his first major golf tournament. Mickelson received a huge assist on his winning birdie putt from his playing partner Chris DiMarco, who blasted out of a greenside bunker to set up a putt on the same line as Mickelson’s. Accordingly, DiMarco’s putt gave Mickelson a good read for his birdie putt. These are just a few of the incredible shots that occurred today and does not include the pressure 5-10 foot putts that each competitor made to remain in the hunt.
Folks, television sports just does not get any better than this.
Mickelson’s win is surprising only because he has been so close and failed in many prior major golf events. It’s always been a mystery among Tour players why Mickelson had not won a major. He has all the tools — power off the tee, great shotmaking ability, and a fabulous short game. Moreover, Mickelson is legendary among Tour players for his ability to excel in pressure situations during the players’ “big bet” practice rounds before various tournaments. After a rather poor 2003 season, Mickelson used the off-season to make his swing more compact and controlled, and to work on his short game. The work is paying off, as he has now won two tournaments this season (the Bob Hope Desert Classic was the other one), finished third in the Players’ Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach, and had four other top ten finishes. As you would expect, he is the leading money winner on the Tour.
Now that Mickelson has the monkey off his back, it is time to figure out who is the new “best player never to have won a major golf tournament.” My initial list of candidates includes Colin Montgomerie (actually, he’s probably not good enough to win a major anymore), Darren Clarke, Stuart Appleby, Padraig Harrington, Robert Allenby, and the incredible Jay Haas.

The following is from The Telegraph’s story of today on the first round of The Masters Golf Tournament:

At 10.45 there was an air of eager expectancy around the first tee as people waited for Ian Poulter. Having been advised to play down his hair, Poulter had said he would make up for it with his clothes. Yesterday, true to his word, he was out and about in pink. Pink visor, pink trousers and pink and white striped shoes.
On Wednesday night, Charles Howell, one of the tour’s practical jokers, had used his southern drawl to impersonate a member of Augusta’s championship committee. Having dialled Poulter, he told the Englishman that word had reached the committee that he was not planning to be as soberly clad as they would wish.
Poulter, who was completely taken in, had a question for the official.

“What about Doug Sanders?” he asked, in a reference to the garish dress of the runner-up in the 1970 Open.
“We weren’t happy about that, either,” returned Howell.

So the conversation continued until Howell decided enough was enough on the eve of the player’s first Masters.

Bruce Edwards — professional golfer Tom Watson’s long-time caddie who redefined the job of being a professional caddie — died today after a year long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That disease is better known as Lou Gehrig‘s Disease, after the former New York Yankee slugger who died of the same illness. Mr. Edwards was 49 at the time of his death.
Last night at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Ga., Mr. Edwards was awarded the Ben Hogan Award, given annually by the Golf Writers Association of America to an individual who continued to be active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness. Mr. Edwards is also the subject of author John Feinstein’s new book, “Caddie for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story.”
Mr. Edwards’s struggle over the past year inspired Mr. Watson to have the best year a 53-year-old golfer ever had — he won two senior majors (British Open and the Tradition) along with $1.8 million in prize money and was named the player of the year on the Champions Tour. Watson also earned a $1 million tax-deferred annuity that he donated to A.L.S.-related charities, notably the Driving4Life, A.L.S. Therapy Development Foundation in Cambridge, Mass. The 4 represents Mr. Gehrig’s Yankees’ uniform number.

Bar none, Dan Jenkins is the best writer on golf of our time. In this Golf Digest article, Mr. Jenkins relates his story about the 1954 Masters in which the legends Sam Snead and Ben Hogan dualed in an 18 hole Monday playoff. The entire article is a must read, and the mercurial Mr. Jenkins introduces us to the subject as follows:

When you’re a fledgling youth-type adult, it appears that all people in their 40s look old enough to be in a painting hanging on the wall of a stately home in England. It’s not until you limp into your 70s that people in their 40s look too young to vote, and college cheerleaders closely resemble Yorkshire terriers.
I point this out to explain why I wrote what I did 50 years ago when I was a fledgling youth-type adult sportswriter for a Fort Worth newspaper covering the Masters in Augusta.
This is the 50-year anniversary of that particular Masters. The 1954 Sam Snead-Ben Hogan Playoff Masters. What I wrote so astutely was that this was undoubtedly the last time we would see these two wonderful immortals go head-to-head for a major championship, seeing as how they were so ancient. They were nearing 42, after all.

Here is an excellent preview of this weekend’s Players Championship golf tournament.

This post from awhile back addressed the dust-up that has occurred between Arnold Palmer and Ken Venturi over Venturi’s recent allegation in his new book that Arnie had broken a rule (might we say, cheated?) on the 12th hole of Augusta National on his way to beating Venturi to win his first Masters Golf Tournament in 1958.
Well, Arnie’s Tour event — the Bay Hill Invitational — is this week. And, as you might expect, a reporter asked Arnie during his annual pre-tournament interview about Venturi’s allegations. The King’s response was classic:

Reporter: “Mr. Palmer, what is your reaction to the issue at Augusta raised in Ken Venturi’s new book?”
The King: “I don’t know what book you’re talking about. I don’t know a thing about it. I really don’t, and I’m not really too interested. That’s my comment. Next question.”