John Daly has at the last moment qualified for the Masters Tournament in Augusta Ga. John was able to hold on to 10th place in this year’s PGA Money List, which is how he has gained entry into golf’s most prestigious tournament. Now the real piece de resistance will be for John to win the actual tournament.

Defending champion, Mike Weir will have his work cut out for him, if he intends to repeat as Masters Champion. The competition this year should be fierce, and while John Daly is our sentimental choice to win, look to Phil Mickelson to make a charge at winning his first major.

Today there was an article in the nytimes about the line of clothes called Urban Golf Gear.

Based out of Oakland California, their logo is that of a natty dread swinging a golf club. Their selection includes shirts, vests, and jackets, for men, women, and kids. They’ve also got all sorts of hats, and even golf towels.

They’re definitely worth checking out. Hopefully they’ll be able to get their gear onto the shelves of stores across the continent.

Recently I heard about a rather fascinating golf course which has been built in Mosul, in Iraq. Mosul is an ethnically and religiously diverse city, similar to my two favourite cities, Toronto and New York.

Iraq however is still quite unstable, and violent. And while Mosul is quite tame compared to the rest of the country, it still has a rowdy element.

All the more reason for golf! A game of relaxation and mutual respect. So US Army 1st Lt. Jesse White, of the 426th Forward Support Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, designed a six hole golf course for Mosul! I thought this was pretty surreal, and not such a bad idea, so I thought I’d send Jesse an email congrats, and ask him a few questions.

Where did you get the awesome idea to build a course?

“I really enjoy golf and decided that I needed a place to hit balls when time permitted. I initially built 1 hole of about 150yds. I used a HUMMV antenna with a shop rag on top as a flag. After a while my Battalion Commander, LTC Jeff Kelley, asked if I could add a few holes. So 1 hole grew to 3, then 3 holes grew to our final total of 6. They range in yardage from 40yds to 250yds.”

Is the course open to only american military personnel or officers? What about the locals? Have they shown any interest in golf?

“Everyone can play and most everyone does. There are several American civilians who play and a wide range of different military ranks. We had some Iraqis express interest in playing, but they opted not to because they thought they would embarass themselves. They did putt a couple.”

What role does golf play in helping relieve the stress of being away from home for so long?

“The golf course was our one great escape. Things were not easy in Iraq. The weather was tough, the living conditions were at times tough and we all missed home tremedously. So when we got a chance to play we made the most of it. It was like not being there for an hour or so.”

Do you think that golf can help with the larger role of stabilizing Iraq?

“Maybe one day golf can be a part of the friendship building process. I see how the Ryder cup, even with the heated competition, always seems to be very positive. The President’s cup was another good example of how positive golf can be. But, we still have a lot of hard work left in Iraq before golf will have a chance to bring us closer together. Maybe one day we can have a team event and call it the Freedom Cup - that would be cool.”

I think Jesse White is pretty cool, and the idea of building a make shift golf course a spot on idea. Way to go dude.

Recently we stumbled across Cangolf.com a portal site focused on golf in Canada, and explicitly, Canadian pro golfers. As a resource it has the capacity to raise the visibility of Canadians trying to make their way in the world of pro golf. It could use some improvement in terms of how its software is setup, but its running php which is impressive enough. We’ll add this site to our links bar on the right.

This weekend Annika Sorenstam had little difficulty cruising to a seemingly easy victory at the ANZ Ladies Masters. She shot 65s for her last two rounds, and was 4 strokes ahead of the next competitor, and a full 8 strokes ahead of third place. That is an incredible showing.

Clearly Annika needs a more competitive field and the results of this tournament definitely show that she could and should play against the men.

In the future I think its inevitable that the top tier of professional golf competition will be free of gender discrimination or distinction.

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