ESPN’s Bill Simmons has a new blog, called Grantland, which will feature longer articles than is usual in a blog, mixing sports and popular culture. The title obviously is a reference to Grantland Rice, the early 20th century sportswriter who is perhaps most famous among golfers for his promotion of Bobby Jones. Rice also elevated to mythic status such figures as Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Bill Tilden, Red Grange, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and Knute Rockne.

Simmons writes of the new site:

We had four goals for this site. The first was to find writers we liked and let them do their thing. The second was to find sponsors we liked and integrate them within the site — so readers didn’t have to pay for content, and also, so we didn’t have to gravitate toward quantity over quality just to chase page views. The third was to take advantage of a little extra creative leeway for the right reasons and not the wrong ones.12 And the fourth was to hire the right blend of people — mostly young, mostly up-and-comers, all good people with good ideas who aren’t afraid to share them.

It’s a nice idea, and I’ll be checking in to see how it develops. Truthfully, Grantland is the sort of site for which I’d like to write.

A Grantland Rice quote on golf: “Golf is twenty percent mechanics and technique. The other eighty percent is philosophy, humor, tragedy, romance, melodrama, companionship, camaraderie, cussedness, and conversation.”

I just discovered the Golf Stinks Blog. There’s some good stuff there. Give it a read.

Here’s a golf blog you may have missed: Breaking 90. Looking at the archives, it’s been a bit sporadic over the last couple of years, but it appears as though Jason is giving it a renewed go. Give it a visit.

The Good Walk blog has a moving piece on a family member’s struggle with paralysis and what the game of golf means to him. An excerpt:

What is it about the game of golf that instills such passion in the people who play it? That after an accident like Bart suffered; one of his first thoughts is about getting back out on the course. It’s something about being out on the course, in nature, taking a good ribbing from a playing partner, or a $2 Nassau bet, or the feeling of that purely struck drive that happens all too infrequently, that keep us coming back out for more. For Bart it will be baby steps for sure. Just being able to swing a golf club is going to take some serious time. But he’s determined and I believe him when he says he’ll be back out there.

The Golf Professors is a new golf website that promises online lessons, including video analysis. Press release follows:

A team of some of the most talented golfers, and long time professionals, launch a website featuring online golf lessons taught by qualified professionals and professional instructors across the country.
The Golf Professors gives the golfing community the unique opportunity to learn from professionals at an affordable rate. A golfing industry-first, the Golf Professors not only offer online golf lessons, but also provide
members with live online clinics and personal Q&A sessions from the professionals.Future plans for the website include an individual swing analysis, giving users services with direct feedback on their golf swing from the Professors themselves. All of the golf lessons are filmed in high definition and cover a variety of topics designed to benefit any golfer from beginner to competitive golfers alike.
For more information about The Golf Professors, visit thegolfprofessors.com

The Itinerant Golfer is trying to play the top 100 courses in America. He’s got a blog about his efforts.

Sky Clock, which I wrote about in a previous post, has released a free iPhone app, Sky Clock lite.

I’ll say it again. I think this is a terrific app—amazingly useful for anyone who needs to know twilight and dawn: fishermen, hunters, photographers and of course, golfers. The app—desktop or smartphone—offers a graphical representation of your geographically targeted sunrise, sunset and twilight times.

The company also has a YouTube channel which explains it further.