This post represents a milestone, of sorts, for GolfBlogger: six thousand posts. I’m not sure what that it represents, though—dedication or insanity. I do know, however, that it’s a labor of love. I started GolfBlogger back in 2004 because I love to write and I love golf. It was a natural fit.

Here’s the first GolfBlogger.Com post, from way back on March 22, 2004. It’s prescient, if you ask me.

SI.com - Golf - Woods continues to struggle as Bay Hill winning run ends - Sunday March 21, 2004 8:40PM

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters)—Tiger Woods’s bid for a fifth straight Bay Hill Invitational title ended in miserable fashion on Sunday when the world number one shot a one-over 73 in the final round to finish on even-par 288, 18 off the leader.

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You’ve got to wonder what’s happened to Tiger. He’s been in slump for some time now. Is Elin Nordegren bad for Tiger’s game? Jack Nicklaus said that his own marriage was good for his game—and that the same would hold true for Tiger. But everyone reacts differently to love and romance.

Quite unexpectedly, I found that some comments I wrote regarding Tiger’s news conference has made The Week magazine’s online edition. Thanks, guys.

GolfBlogger.Com proudly announces the hiring of Roger Cleveland, legendary golf club designer, for an as-of-yet undisclosed project.

Or at least, that’s what Google seems to think.

I got this letter from Google in the GolfBlogger mailbox yesterday.

Not sure what to make of it.

GolfBlogger Friend Phil Lawrence has some good reviews of southeastern Michigan golf courses on his Golf Instruction Courses blog. He covers Moose Ridge, Timber Trace, Indian Springs, Hunter’s Ridge and Huron Meadows. I’ve not played Indian Springs, but his positive write-up has inspired me.

The blog is an adjunct to Phil’s main business, online Golf Instruction Courses. I worked with Phil personally earlier this summer, and he was able to help identify some glaring weaknesses in my game—specifically, a lack of swing speed in some of my short and mid irons (driver and three wood were fine). I’m still digesting the information he gave me, but will have a full write-up on the experience later.

With his online instruction courses, Phil is at the forefront of an education revolution. During my appearance on the Internet Advisor on WJR-760 AM yesterday, we discussed how online instruction is changing the way people learn. The Internet Advisior, Gary Baker, and I both are Scout leaders and talked about how the Boy Scouts of America offers some of its adult training online. Show host Foster Braun discussed online training that he has done with a project at Disney.

But selfishly, I hope that online courses don’t replace classroom teachers any time soon ... or at least until I retire.

I’ve joined with the twenty-somethings, and started a Facebook page. Click the link to find the Golfblogger.Com Facebook page.

I’ve had a GolfBlogger MySpace page for a couple of years.

Be my friend! Help spread the Gospel of Golf!

Happy Blogging Birthday To Me!

The last couple of weeks have been very busy for me, and I somehow missed the site’s sixth birthday. The first GolfBlogger post appeared on March 22, 2004, so GolfBlogger.Com now is in its sixth year.

GolfBlogger is, to my knowledge, the second oldest golf blog (the oldest is less than two months so), so when I started, there really were no models to follow. I did not want to turn it into a site that simply recycled news on the PGA Tour (and I’m glad I didn’t, for there are far too many of those now). Instead, my models were Instapundit, Gizmodo and BoingBoing. Like Instapundit, I decided to offer short, pithy comments and links to news; as with Gizmodo, I planned to link to new products and review them; and following BoingBoing’s lead, I would simply write about and link to things that interest me. Finally, as with any blog, I would offer observations on life—in this case, my golfing life.

In the past year, I’ve published 858 articles, bringing the total to 4,276 since March 2004. And in doing so, I’ve managed to avoid the fate of thousands of others who have started a golf blog—that of writing a few pieces and then losing interest. The internet is littered with the corpses of abandoned golf blogs.

I’ve kept the blog going because I love to write. Before I changed careers to become a teacher, I was a professional editor and ghostwriter. I also love golf, so the match was a natural.

Among the highlights of this past year were my visits to, and reviews of top Michigan courses Forest Dunes and Tullymore, and a trip to the PGA Championship. The Tullymore Review was noticed and appreciated by course designer Jim Engh.

For this year, I’m going to finish my project of playing, photographing and reviewing every course in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Then, I’m going to play and review some of Michigan’s top—and nationally known—courses, such as True North, Arcadia Bluffs, and Black Lake. I’m also making a real effort to upgrade the photography on the site. I purchased a Canon Rebel XSi and several lenses just for that purpose.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the many thousands who make a habit of visiting the site, and the sponsors who make it financially possible for me to keep it all going.

Stay tuned.

Last fall, I had an opportunity to play Tullymore Golf Course in Western Michigan, a track which was rated by Golf Digest as the #14 course in the country. It’s an amazing layout, and I wrote an appreciation / review for GolfBlogger. (You can read the Tullymore review here).

Tullymore’s architect, Jim Engh, has won Golf Digest’s Best New Course Award four times, and was that magazine’s Architect of the Year in 2003. So I was quite honored recently to receive a personal note from Engh about my Tullymore review. In part, the note read:

Dear Golf Blogger,

I just saw your blog for the first time. It seems that you have an appreciation and feel for the “art of golf”. It is very rewarding when someone “gets” what I am doing. Trust me, the “old guard” is doing a great job of “guarding the old”. Mind set that is.

That’s high praise, as far as I’m concerned.

Most of Jim Engh’s courses are in the west—and particularly in Colorado. But we in Michigan are blessed to have two of his designs available. In addition to Tullymore, there’s also True North in Northern Michigan. I plan to visit that one this upcoming summer—expectations are high.

You can see Engh’s courses, and watch a nicely done video at his website, http://www.Enghgolf.com