This coming weekend 64 of the top ranked players in the world will compete in a match play tournament in Carlsbad California. Tiger Woods is the defending champion, and needs to win six of six matches to repeat.

Upsets are definitely possible, and drama is sure to be high in this head to head elimination tournament. For more information, and the full set of player brackets, see the Accenture Match Play Championship - World Golf Championships website.

The 2004 Canadian Tour is about to begin, with its first tournament in Austin Texas at the Barton Creek Resort.

This year’s tour will feature alumni from the Golf Channel’s “Big Break” reality TV show, as well as a bunch of Canadian upstarts eager to make their way up the ranks of professional golf.

The Golf Channel will be broadcasting all 4 rounds of this first tournament, and in lead up has an interesting article on the tour.

Canadian Tour Article

Canadian Mike Weir has become on the third person in history to win back to back championships at the Nissan Open (formerly known as the Los Angeles Open). This was a big win for Mike, as it was his first since last year’s Masters. As a Canadian, Mike has felt ignored by the American media, and even in this tournament, received little attention over the first 36 holes. However nobody can now deny that Mike Weir is one of the world’s best. Next week at the Accenture Match Play Championships the pressure will be on Mike to again demonstrate his prowess.

For more info, you can check out the Official Website for Mike Weir.

John Daly defended a 3rd round lead to win the Buick Invitational this past weekend. While most of the press focused on his past adversities, few noted how fun it is to watch John play golf.

John is one of those all american heros that crowds can get behind and really cheer for. The season is still young, and there’s no telling what can be done when Daly plays solid golf. His style of “grip it, and rip it” golf certainly makes for an exciting professional game. His official website The Lion’s Den has lots more info. His next tournament will be the Nissan Open. Good luck John.

This weekend the Horizons Golf Resort in Salamander Bay, New South Wales, Australia, will host the ANZ Championship. A joint event of the European and Australasian tours, the tournament uses a modified stableford scoring system:

Double eagle + 8 points
Eagle + 5 points
Birdie + 2 points
Par 0 points
Bogey - 1 point
Double bogey - 3 points

Another feature of this tournament will be the appearance and play of Laura Davies, who becomes the first woman to play in a European or Australiasian Tour Event. After the first round she was T124.

The first round leader is Nick O’Hern with 18 points.

This year the 86th PGA Championship will be held in Wisconsin, at the Whistling Straits golf course. The State of Wisconsin announced this week that in the lead up to the event it will promote and enable the growth of golf in Wisconsin. Culminating in a Golf Wisconsin Day on May 16th, where youth will be able to play free at over 100 courses, the State plans to make it easier and attractive to play golf in Wisconsin.

According to the PGA, Wisconsin is second in the nation in the number of golfers per capita. Wisconsin is also in the top 10 nationally in the number of golf courses. There are 492 courses in the state, according to the National Golf Foundation.

JS Online: State offers major support

On February 4th, Eric and Jesse of Openflows played an enthusiastic round of Disc Golf with our friend Dave Grossman of Top Quark Computing in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The course was slightly icey, but the sun was strong and warm. Dave ended the round a few shots under par, while Eric and Jesse threw a score modestly over par.

Disc Golf is a challenging sport, mixing similar skills of accuracy and distance as with “ball” golf. Experienced disc golf players are able to make drives of several hundred feet, as well as “hit” putts of several dozen feet.

After the game was finished, the participants agreed to stage a game on the Toronto Island Disc Golf course, perhaps some time in the Spring. For more information on Disc Golf, check out the PDGA website (and what do you know, they’re based in Toronto).

The University of Florida Gators won their own SunTrust Gator Invitational Tournament this weekend, defeating the University of Alabama-Birmingham and 13 other collegiate teams.

Teams from the University of Kentucky, and the University of North Florida, finished in third and fourth place respectively.

The best individual player was Chris Cousins of UofAB, shooting a 67 70 70 for a three round total of 207 or 3 under par. Congrats Chris.

For more info on this tournament check out Gator Men’s Golf News @ Gatorzone.com

While checking out the PGA Exhibitor’s Show, we took note of the M.A.C. Driver from Burrows Golf.

The acronym stands for Magnitude Amplification Cavity, which is a big indent on the bottom of the head of the club. While it looks kind of funny, the science behind it is rather interesting.

The technology employed by golfers these days really is incredible, helping the average hacker hit the ball farther and straighter. While this certainly makes the game more popular and accessible, at some point there is a conservative pull to keep things as they once were, while another to create a new offshoot of golf that is technology driven and is even more mass market and accessible to any level of player.