All right golf fans, I’m blowing the dust off the blog and starting to air things out from the long winter’s nap. I didn’t have a lot to write about in the fall and winter and also chose to restrain myself from joining the chorus of voices in the Tiger mess. Some were criticizing him, some were supporting him, some urged people to pause in their condemnation of him, some said there was too much hype and more important things in life. I kind of came down in the final category but didn’t think my particular voice would have contributed anything novel to the greater disucssion. Or at least my ‘let’s get out and golf’ voice!

So here we are again, potentially a month or two from Spokane and North Idaho area courses officially opening. Even though a few courses have already had some good open days because of our spring-like winter (Fairways comes to mind), most will wait until March-ish.

In the meantime, we can find other ways to get excited. We can inventory what’s left in our bag from last year — maybe we can find good early/late bird deals on balls, tees, maybe even a closeout club or two.

Then mark your calendar for Feb. 20-21, which will see the return of the Spokane Golf  Show, an event that really gets our juices flowing.  It’s again at the Spokane Convention Center ballrooms . Look for more details closer to the show on this site.                                                        

Hi golf friends! I hope all of you are having a great season, on and off your favorite course. I’m reading that the economy has kept some people off some courses as they watch their pennies a little harder, but it could also be an opportunity to visit a neighborhood course that may be a little more affordable, or forgoing the cart fee to get some exercise. We’d love to hear from golfers some of the innovative ways you’ve found to keep your game going!

At GoGolfNW.com we’ve been trying to announce additions and enhancements throughout the spring and summer. Cool new applications and sections are being added to the site almost weekly now, and there’s more to come this year! Please let us know what sections you like or any other feedback.

One new feature we’re especially excited about is a course handicap widget (for those who don’t speak geek, a widget is something that you can put on your own web page or blog, and then we’ll always send updates to it.)  This one is not affiliated with the USGA, and may be redundant for rated players among us. But the rest of us can have a lot of fun figuring out our skill and the details of a course. To take a look visit http://www.gogolfnw.com/handicap/ or click on the Resources link on the top menu of this page and pick Handicap Calculator.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into the whole golf culture for our new golf site re-launch. I won’t bore the experts among us with golf’s interesting and colorful history. Even the sports we Americans love these days pale in comparison to the timeless appeal of hitting the little ball into the little cup — baseball, basketball are what, just over 100 years old, and football, at least the American variety, is also right around the century mark. We haven’t even had 50 Super Bowls yet.

But golf dates back 300 plus years and amazingly, it’s pretty much the same basic rules. They just keep on adding new exceptions and circumstances and interpretations. Don’t believe me, or your course pro? Then, as they say, read the book… There is a 300-plus-page tome of the offical U.S.Golf Association Rules of Golf, avaialable at www.usga.org. It is what you might call comprehensive, offering official interpretations and definititions. We’re currently working on getting some kind of reference to it on our site as a service to our site visitors, but as you would imagine, the USGA is very particular on even where their rules can appear. There’s plenty of legal stuff to even include a link to it.

Again, this isn’t news to some of you. But how many of you, even the serious golfers, have actually sat down and read the thing? Is it required reading for PGA certification? Is it something that people who go beyond simple hobbyists read for fun? I really don’t know.   For those who have poked around or skimmed for the highlights, what are the more interesting parts? Have any of you ever had to reference to resolve a challenge? I’d love to hear it!

It really isn’t GoGolfNW.com 2.0 and some of my journalism companions will certainly be shaking their heads at the horror of that turn of phrase. (Last year’s collection of overused newspaper jargon included ‘anything 2.0’ which originally described the Web 2.0 project, but soon became used for to refer to any new version of something that’s  bigger and better.)

But what we have here with our site is really something bigger AND better. Our team really did create something great last year as far as features, resources, and overall information, but they really have come a long way since then.

If you’re a GoGolf veteran or new to the site, we hope you’ll notice and enjoy everything about it. We’ve enhanced things quite a bit and added even more features. And more will be coming all summer! (and beyond!)

I’ll try to share some of the latest developments with you through this blog, and also hope it can be a place where people can ask questions or give suggestions about the site or golf in general! Happy golfing!

 

Sorry for the lag in posting, everyone — I must have gone into blogging hibernation for the winter, just like most of our courses. But, as the courses start gearing up for a great season, I also need to get the lead out and start blogging!

Wow — what a winter! I know there’s plenty of you who have had the itch to play itching itching since the New Year. And that snow that just stayed around didn’t help matters at all. Well most of it is gone, knock on wood, and most courses are open for play by now. The landscape is changed a little — Liberty Lake and Hangman are closed for renovations, and Rimrock is closed for good. By the end of the season there’s also the possiblity of a few others shutting down due to the tough economy. So be sure to support your local courses!

Along with the area courses gearing up, GoGolfNW is working on a redesign — some of the changes will be on ‘our’ side (how we handle the hundreds of pieces of data that make this site great), and some will be on ‘your’ side (how you see and access said content.) If you’ve ever had ideas, suggestions or complaints about how this site looks or works, now is the time for us to hear them! You can post your thoughts here or email me at joebu@spokesman.com!