If you’re going to be at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills next week (I’ll be there), you might want to stop by the American Express pavilion. They’ve got a variety of activities, such as a mobile PGA Learning Center and complementary golf lessons. For American Express members, there are other perks. Read more after the jump:

Caiman Fairway Wood

The Caiman Fairway woods are another of those geometrically odd clubs that are designed to offer a high moment of inertia and high launch. Hireko engineered these fairway woods with a variable crown thickness (as little as 0.5mm which is as little as the thickness of 5 sheets of paper!) All the unwanted weight normally reserved for the crown of ordinary fairway wood was repositioned deep within the head. Hireko says that this offers a high launching ball flight with incredible accuracy

The National Park Service has given its approval for a golf course to locate three holes on parkland dunes in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The 22 acres on Lake Michigan will be part of the Harbor Shores development project, which includes a Jack Nicklaus course, 800 upscale residential units, hotels, a conference center, an indoor water park and commercial space. Between $500 and $650 million will be spent on development.

Benton Harbor is one of the worst cities in a state with the worst economy in the nation. The project will be built on former “brownfields” and should attract tourists from Chicago and northern Indiana.

More here.

Nike Dri-Fit Terry Stripe Long Sleeve Golf Shirt

Fall is coming and with the cooler weather, the need for many of us to start wearing long sleeve golf shirts. As any outdoorsman knows, one of the keys to staying warm in cooler weather is to stay dry. Wet skin gets cold quickly, and wet fabric doesn’t hold heat. So it makes just as much—even more—sense to have a moisture wicking fabric in cooler weather as in warm.

I’ve got a couple of Nike Dri-FIT long sleeve shirts, and they work perfectly. They’re just the right thing for the changeable weather in Michigan. Even better, they’re on sale right now at Golf Locker.

Hopes in Michigan were high for the appearance of Greg Norman at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. It would have gone a long way to filling the hole left by Tiger Woods.

It won’t happen, though. Norman has officially said “no thanks.”

“While I truly appreciate the PGA extending me an exemption for this year’s PGA Championship, I have elected to decline in favor of adhering to the professional and personal commitments I made prior to the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale,” Norman said on his Web site, http://www.shark.com. “I wish the PGA and Oakland Hills all the very best for what I’m sure will be a great week for golf.”

In the most recent odds for the 2008 PGA Championship in Oakland Hills, Michigan, it looks as though Phil Mickelson is the favorite, at 9/1. Interestingly, Sergio Garcia is the next on the list at 14/1; I wonder what he’s done to make anyone think that’s a real possibility.  Anthony Kim—the latest anointed successor to Tiger also sits at 14/1. Ernie Els, who has shown some signs of life in the last two majors, is next at 18/1.

My favorite, Kenny Perry is a long way down the list, at 33/1.

Odds are read by looking at the second number first. So, a bet of 1 on Sergio pays 9.

Read the rest of the post to see the complete odds for the PGA Championship, provided courtesy of Bodoglife.Com, the world’s largest online sports betting destination.

The Franchise Babe: A Novel

by Dan Jenkins

Grade: A-
Teacher’s Comments: A cynical look at the LPGA, and mostly funny. It’s not Jenkins’ best work, but still is very good.

In The Franchise Babe, sporstwriter extraordinaire Dan Jenkins takes on the LPGA and its new crop of “lolitas”—the young girls who bring so much talent, and so much sex appeal to the Tour. It’s not as good as “Dead Solid Perfect,” but still worth reading.

The book’s protagonist is Jack Brannon, a cynical, politically incorrect, Texas-bred sports reporter. Weary of Tiger Mania and the “fat happy slugs” who are happy to play second fiddle, Brannon decides to spend a few weeks covering the other Tour—the LPGA. There, his attention is caught by Ginger Clayton—one of the lolitas—and even more by her mother, a stunningly attractive divorcee.

Brannon travels with the Claytons to several tour stops—the Firm Chick Classic, the Speedy Arrow Energy Bar Classic, and the never-to-be-forgotton Le Grand Cheval et Petit Chien Classique (known as the Dinah Shore before the commissioner sells out to a French company that specializes in horsemeat dog food). Along the way, Brannon falls further and further in with the Claytons until, at the end, he loses his objectivity entirely.

The Franchise Babe is a love story, a mystery, and a very funny sports satire. Jenkins pulls no punches in skewering players, agents, the LPGA Commissioner, golf executives, sportswriters, editors, pushy golf parents, the rich, corporate sponsors,golf course architects, fans, protesters, liberals and anyone else who happens to get in the way.

This is by no means Jenkins’ best work, but it is an enjoyable read. I really like Jenkins’ writing style, which features a lot of snappy dialogue and “insider” golf language. At 224 pages, I finished it in just under two hours.

I’ll happily recommend this book for everyone but the easily offended.