Golfobserver's new section

• I'm guilty of having become addicted to Golfobserver.com, the cool website that plucks golf news from all over and plugs it together on one site. Sure, they still don't acknowledge that my columns exist anywhere on the web (apparently they are only interested in Lorne Rubenstein's writing from Canada!), but the site is a valuable resource nonetheless. Anyway, they've added a new component to the site called Courseobserver, which is self-explanatory. The mini-site will house news on golf courses. In fact, there's some interesting stuff up right now on Bandon Dunes, including a story that (wrongly) contends Bandon Dunes, the first course designed by David McLay Kidd, is the best of the lot. That said, I really like Bandon Dunes a great deal and think Kidd did a great job. It is just that Pacific Dunes is a better course.
• I've said it before -- I like David Duval. I've always found him fascinating and he was a congenial interview when I spoke with him a year ago at the Canadian Open. Anyway, as most know, Duval managed to resurrect his game for three rounds in Japan and played well enough in the final round to finish in seventh. He also shot 64, which demonstrates that there's some strong play left in him. The Golf Channel analyzed his swing last week and it was interesting to see he's back more to the unorthodox flat swing he had when he was winning. He's also staying behind the ball a lot more, which means he's crushing some long drives as well. Duval has always been smarter than your average golfer, so it doesn't surprise me to see some reflection in his quotes from Japan: "You have to gain some confidence and belief in yourself. When it's been chopped down to nothing, it takes a while to build it up. I've been number one and number 1,000, but I've hit bottom and I'm coming back up. Had the (PGA) Tour season been starting as opposed to ending now, I think I'd be doing well there." There's a full story from Reuters here.