The 2011 Australian Open has a little more cachet this year, thanks to an influx of players prepping for the upcoming Presidents’ Cup in Melbourne. Heading the odds this week is Adam Scott, whom bettors have set at 9/1 (a bet of $1 pays $9). Then, abandoning all logic, the bettors have set Tiger Woods in second at 10/1. He’s followed by a series of more logical choices: Jason Day (11/1), Geoff Ogilvy (13/1), Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Matt Kuchar (17/1) and Hunter Mahan (17/1). Aaron Baddeley, who has twice won the Australian Open—once as an amateur!—is in at 19/1.

The track record says that an Australian will win the championship, but that’s based on previous years when so many of the top players didn’t show. This year, it’s probably anyone’s game.

The complete odds to win the 2011 Australian Open are below, courtesy of Bodog, the world’s largest betting destination.

Kevin Hall, former Big Ten champion, has won the 2007 Deaf Golf Championship.

Hall currently plays on the Hooters Tour.

I had no idea that there was a US Deaf Golf Association. As longtime readers of this blog know, I have a “profound hearing loss” as a result of the 1964 rubella outbreak. And although I’ve always thought that I should get more involved in deaf issues and programs, I never have. I’ve just been too busy with other things (especially golf).

But here is a serendipitous confluence. I think I’ll get in contact with them.

What do you do when you’re a low handicapper hungering for real competition? You’re too good for the usual sandbagging club events, but don’t have an opportunity to play in USGA Amateur and Open events, which are dominated by pros or by college level pros-in-training. Chances are, you have a 9-5 job and can’t dedicate your life to the game.

The answer: You play in specifically designated third-party (non USGA) scratch tournaments. According to Golf World’s Jamie Diaz, there is a growing movement of scratch tournaments across the country, in which very good, and serious amateurs gather to compete. These events could someday return top amateur golf to the point where it was some fifty years ago, when people with real jobs and real lives actually had a role in competition golf.

That era passed for a lot of reasons. Good amateurs lost the run of the courses as facilities grew more crowded and expensive to play. The pro game became more emphasized, enticing the best amateurs at a younger age and taking some of the mystique away from homegrown hotshots. Local events lost their importance, and the amateur scene became centered on a few national and statewide events. Most of all, top college players began to dominate elite amateur events. In last year’s U.S. Amateur Public Links (a championship specifically designed for the blue-collar amateur) only one non-high school player or collegian reached the round of 16.

I can’t help but think that these days, there would be no place for Bobby Jones. In today’s environment,  he would have to satisfy his desire for competition with club championships. Or given, the lack of opportunity for real competition, he might lose interest altogether. These new high level competitions offer something the USGA doesn’t.

I hope these organizations succeed. In fact, what I’d like to see is that twenty years from now, one of these has gone national and is challenging the USGA for the hearts and minds of America’s true amateur golfers.

Tiger’s power to draw television audiences was evident Sunday, as the Buick Invitational recorded a 5.9 rating and 12 share—up 146% over last year’s ABC coverage.

The coverage peaked between 7 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., as the playoff neared conclusion, with a 9.4/15.

I think I’ve found the most obscure golf championship on the planet: The Vmobile Ikoyi Ladies Open Championship.

It’s a two day event starting on November 3, in Lagos, Nigeria.

I don’t think it’s going to make ESPN.

With the revamped PGA schedule, the Greater Greensboro Open’s future apparently is in doubt. It would be to bad to see it go, for it has a long and storied history. First played in 1938, the initial tournament was won by Sam Snead, who would go on to win the event eight times. Snead won for the eighth time in 1965, at age 52.

The Toronto Star’s columnist has a particularly good writeup on the last day of the President’s Cup.