The moronic City Council and Mayor of Detroit intend to sell the city’s Rackham Golf Course to developers. The City of Huntington Woods, which lies adjacent to the course, correctly wants to preserve the historic course.

They’re in court now.

The course was built in 1924 by Horace and Mary Rackham and given to the City of Detroit with the understanding that it remain a golf course. The track was designed by none other than the legendary Donald Ross. The course is historically important—not only for the designer—but because it was one of the few open to African American golfers. Joe Louis, and various Motown stars were regulars here. Rackham Pro Ben Davis was one of the first African American teaching pros in the country. Davis, who is now in his mid-90s, still plays there twice a week when weather permits.

Read this previous GolfBlogger article on Rackam. The photo is from the Flickr collection here.

A new study on putting techniques shows that Tiger’s advice—keeping you head still—just isn’t very good.

Using an infrared tracking system, researchers recorded the putter head and the golfer’s head during sixty putts.

Surprisingly, both expert and less-skilled golfers moved their heads about the same amount during the execution of putts. The big difference was in the direction: less-skilled golfers moved in an allocentric direction—moving their head in the same direction and timing as the motion of the putter; the expert golfers moved in a tightly coupled but egocentric direction—moving their head in the opposite direction as the putter, but timed similarly to reverse when the putter reversed.

I’ve seen this sort of study a couple of times, and it makes me wonder about the advice you see from the pros in the monthly golf magazines. While the pros are highly skilled, I wonder about their self-awareness. What they think they’re doing might not reflect reality.

Like most courses, Royal Birkdale—site of this year’s British Open Championship—has had to undergo some changes in response to the extraordinary distances players now are hitting the ball. Sixteen of the eighteen holes have changed since Arnold Palmer won the Open Championship there forty years ago.

Jack Nicklaus, for one, is not amused:

Three-time British Open winner Jack Nicklaus said it’s ``stupid’’ that courses are forced to make alterations because modern balls fly so much farther.

``You’ve got one of the greatest golf courses in the world, and they changed 16 holes because of a stupid golf ball,’’ Nicklaus, the winner of a record 18 majors, said in an interview in May. ``That is just ridiculous.’’

More on the changes to Royal Birkdale and the players reactions in Bloomberg.

TAYLORMADE Burner

Grade: C
Teacher’s Comments: They feel dead.

I played the TaylorMade Burners in two rounds last week and was less than impressed. My overall impression is that they are “dead” balls.  It’s not just that they’re soft (and they do indeed have a nice soft feel)—it’s that they just don’t seem to have the “pop” of some others I’ve played recently. They certainly don’t have the crisp feel of the HX Hot or the Bridgestones I like so much. And the distance seems to be off also; I’m convinced they’re a club shorter for me.

On the positive side, they do seem to be very straight, especially off the driver. And there’s plenty of spin for those who like to stop the ball on a dime off the wedges.

But that doesn’t offset the distance issue for me. Your own mileage may vary, but I don’t think I can recommend these.

The Haywards Heath Course in West Sussex was destroyed after a greenskeeper accidentally sprayed it with a concoction containing an herbicide.

Agent Orange is not good for golf courses.

CLICGEAR Cart Model 2.0

I saw one of these at a golf show last winter and was amazed at just how small they fold up. You could fit one of these even into the trunk of a compact car (of which more and more of us will be driving in the near future).

Chicago Sun Times writer Len Ziehm raves about Michigan golf:

I know it seems hard to believe: Michigan, with a golf season even shorter than Chicago’s, is the golfing hotbed of the Midwest.

And there are some, myself included, who consider Michigan the golfing mecca of the entire United States.

Michigan boasts 1,038 courses, and more than 850 of them are open to the public. By comparison, the Chicago District Golf Association lists about 360 courses, public and private, in its 2008 membership. And some of those are in Indiana, Wisconsin and—you guessed it—Michigan.

Golf Digest magazine, in its annual ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, recognized nine Michigan courses: Arcadia Bluffs (ranked 10th), Tullymore (14th), Forest Dunes (20th), Bay Harbor (23rd), Black Lake (35th), Shepherd’s Hollow (37th), Red Hawk (40th), Lakewood Shores (54th) and Eagle Eye (81st).

Only Florida and California have more places to golf than Michigan, and no state has more public or resort courses. Michigan has more golf courses per capita than any other state, and Golf Digest calls Michigan the 12th best golf destination in the world.

My recommendation: Head up to Gaylord, Michigan, where you can’t swing a dead rat without hitting a golf course—and nearly all of them are great courses, at bargain prices.