In his latest book, Johnny Miller has some interesting thoughts on what he thinks is an increasing lack of civility in the game of golf. He upbraids the in-your-face, f-bomb dropping younger players as harmful to the game; and specifically takes Tiger to task. Tiger, of course, dropped the first f-bomb of the new season Thursday on national television at the Mercedes.

I think that Miller may be looking at the game through rose colored glasses. I’m quite sure that the players of the 40s, 50s and 60s could swear up a blue streak. The difference is that there weren’t any high powered mikes pointed in their direction, or tv cameras following them all over the course.

Still, he did make one point that I do agree with. Golf is in the process of morphing from a “game” into a “sport.” And with that will come the trash-talking and showmanship of the NBA (worst offender), the NFL and MLB.

I’m sitting here watching the Mercedes Golf Championship on ESPN, and one of my sons distracted me while Tiger Woods was taking a shot. The bad news is that, unlike other sports, golf doesn’t seem to do replays. The good news is that I have TiVo. I just hit the back button a couple of times and watched it again.

My television viewing has been revolutionized since we got DirectTV and TiVo. I watch what I want, when I want. The “season ticket” function—which sets the machine to record particular shows whenever they air—is especially useful. I now get to watch shows that I’ve always wanted to see, but missed because they were on at awkward times.

It may seem like I’m watching more tv, which is definitely NOT a good thing. What I’m doing is not watching as much junk filler. When I’m ready to chill, I don’t have to flip around to find the best of the bad things on at that time. I can to to the “Now Playing” list and watch something I wanted to see, but didn’t have time to watch at the time. 

Best of all, I get to watch more golf. The Euro tour always seems to be on at times that I can’t possibly watch. With TiVo I can ignore the time zone issues.

Frustrated by years of violent religious conflict, the leaders of the world’s three great religions decided to resolve their differences by holding a golf tournament. Each party would send one of their holy men to represent them in the tournament.

Hoping to gain an advantage, the Pope called Jack Nicklaus and asked him to play.

“But I’m not a priest,” Nicklaus said.

“Not a problem,”  said the Pope. “I’ll make you a Cardinal.”

A few weeks later, Cardinal Nicklaus made a phone call to the Vatican. “Your holiness,” he said. “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I beat Ayatollah Trevino. The bad news is that I lost to Rabbi Woods.”

For more golf jokes, see the humor category.

My three-year-old is in a “phase” where he likes to point to things and say “What’s his name?” He even does this with things that he already knows the name. If you’ve ever had a three year old, you know how annoying this can be. So I do my best to annoy him back. When he asks the name of an already familiar object, I give him a ridiculous answer.

He points to a cup. “What’s his name,” he asks.
“That’s a dog,” I say.
He looks at me and says “Daaaaaad. That’s not a dog.”

On Friday night, he was sitting next to me in a chair and watching the Mercedes Championship. As the players appeared on screen, he began to ask: “What’s his name?”
“Vijay,” I answered.
“What’s his name?”
“Chad.”
“What’s his name?”
“Stewart”
“What’s his name?”
“Tiger”
“Daaaaaad. That’s not a Tiger.”

The Voice of America is reporting that LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw will resign at the end of the 2005 season. By many measures, Votaw’s tenure with the LPGA has been successful, more than doubling the number of million-dollar-plus tournaments, and nearly doubling the average purse. Tournament attendance, network viewership and the number of sponsors also have apparently increased.

I’m sure he was well paid. It leaves me to wonder why he decided to resign. Last I heard, he was dating LPGA player Sophie Gustafson. Perhaps wedding bells are in their future and he didn’t want to face teh conflict of interest problems any more than he already has.

And speaking of Todd Hamilton and his Sonartec hybrid, here’s a good article on what lies in store for last year’s breakout star.

Golf Magazine has published its list of the top 100 golf instructors. There is absolutely no chance that I will ever get a lesson with one of these guys .... unless I win a contest, or something.

Still, I wonder just how much better they are than my pro friend, or the pro at my club. Is it that these guys are really better at teaching, or that they have lucked into a few “A” list clients and thus have built a reputation?