On the occasion of Dan Jenkins induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Wall Street Journal has a nice career retrospective.

When I grow up, I want to be a golf writer like Dan Jenkins.

Tiger has won again and the golf media in general is ecstatic. Now, instead of having to do the heavy lifting of covering 150 Tour players, they can go back to focusing on The One.  There’s no need to chase interviews—or even go outside the air conditioned, food supplied media tent—because the only interviews Tiger gives are held after a round at the insistence of the Tour. Writers don’t have to worry about being scooped because what anyone knows about Tiger, everyone knows.

The writing aspect just got easier, too. Instead of trying to find clever things to say about players no one has heard of (although if the media did its job that wouldn’t be the case), they can fall back on the worn cliches that surround The Greatest Player Ever.

Television crews will get a breather. Since all the producers will want is shots of Tiger, there’s no need to go dashing about from player to player with all of that equipment. One player, one storyline.

Everything is right again in the media world.

But for the rest of us, I think golf just got a lot less interesting.

There’s an AP article making the rounds that opens

In what Robert Louis Stevenson called “the most felicitous meeting of land and sea,” the sea was winning Wednesday at Pebble Beach.

Other writers have picked up the line, as writers and editors are wont to do, feeding off each other.

It’s a nice quote, but it didn’t sound familiar to me. I’ve read Stevenson extensively, including his travelogues, and I just couldn’t place the quote (I actually re-read much of them recently, looking for source material for the AP US History Class I teach). Stevenson lived in Monterey from August to December 1879 while recovering from an illness caused by his transcontinental US trip. From that trip, and his subsequent stay in California, Stevenson wrote The Silverado Squatters, the Amateur Emigrant, Across The Plains and The Old And New Pacific Capitals (specifically about Monterrey).

Wondering in which work he made the comment, I downloaded the books’ text files from Project Gutenberg and ran a search: nothing. I then downloaded the collection of his letters. Again, nothing. Finally, I downloaded the 25 volume collection of Stevenson’s works. Not only does the quote not appear, he never once used the word “felicitous.” Felicity, yes. But not felicitous. The phrase “land and sea” is used in a couple of places, but the closest that came is San Diego.

So there doesn’t appear to be any record of Stevenson having said this. My only supposition at this point is that the quote either comes from an unpublished letter, or from some sort of oral lore from the course. My suspicious are raised, however, because “felicitous” doesn’t appear anywhere else in Stevenson’s works.

For the record, after the break, you’ll find Stevenson’s description of Monterey from The Old and New Pacific Capitals:

I was looking over a press release from Golf Magazine declaring that Rory McIlroy is their “Player of the Year” and all I could think was: Why not Yani Tseng?

For the year, Tseng has seven wins, and thirteen top tens. One of those wins was the British Women’s Open.

In comparison, McIlroy has one win (albeit the US Open) on the European and PGA Tours and ten top tens (he also has that victory in Shanghai).

Doesn’t seem like there’s any comparison. Tseng by a length.

I’d even argue that McIlroy hasn’t put in the best performance by a male player. That probably belongs to Luke Donald, with two wins on the PGA Tour and two more on the European, plus the money title. That’s a remarkable year, even without a Major. Keegan Bradley also has two wins, including a Major. Mark Wilson and Nick Watney also have two wins.

The release somehow tries to justify the pick by saying that McIlroy has “transcended golf.” But if that’s their criteria, then Golf Magazine should change the award from “Golf Magazine Player of the Year” to “Golf Magazine’s Most Popular Male Player of the Year.”

Otherwise, the title belongs to Yani Tseng.

The GM press release follows:

If you missed the Shark’s interview with David Feherty, you can find it on his site.

Every Monday I receive an email update from Golf.Com with news from the past weekend’s tournaments. It’s called the Forecast, and each and every week it results in a jarringly stupid headline like this one:

Forecast: Stricker wins 2011 Memorial

A Forecast is a prediction, and we know that Stricker already has won the Memorial. So why is it a Forecast? Because the folk at Golf.Com think they’re being clever. Fore!—as in don’t let it hit you—cast. Get it? Only they’re too clever by half. It’s petty, I know, but it drives me to distraction.

I recently received some sample issues of G Magazine, a high-end golf publication. Very slick, with lots of great photos, and some interesting articles. It’s also VERY different from the Golf Digest/Golf Magazine genre.

They’ve let me run a GolfBlogger deal. Subscribe now to G or G Women Golfs Lifestyle & Travel Magazine and receive two extra issues completely free.

Actually, this might be best for a subscription for a dentists’s or architect’s office table, or at a golf club.