New golf architecture blog; Thompson in Shackelford

• So renegade upstart Canadian golf architect (and my good friend) Ian Andrew has started a golf blog called "The Caddy Shack." So far Ian has gone blog crazy, writing about taking his father to Ireland on their last golf trip (I was on the trip which was remarkable), the problems with green speeds, his logo and other things. Given that he's the most notable restoration architect in Canada (no one in this country is really a close second), I'm sure he'll have plenty of interesting posts on his work. Hopefully he'll give people a sense of how golf architects really work and some of the details on courses they've never even considered. Ian is thoughtful, but with strong opinions. It should be fun to see how the site develops. You can find it at thecaddyshack.blogspot.com.
  
• I forgot to mention the appointment of Kevin Poole to the job at Ridge at Manitou. That's been corrected. Interestingly, apparently the demise of high-end golf in the Toronto area is not forthcoming for all courses. During a conversation yesterday with Chris Neale, the director of golf at Copper Creek, he noted the club is essentially packed full of corporate events from June through September. Maybe business is still strong or maybe Copper Creek just does a better job than other clubs...

• Golf's premier contrarian and blogger, Geoff Shackelford, has a nice round up of the week in review and mentions my comments on the whole LPGA versus Associated Press situation. The situation has now been resolved, not a surprising move given the power of AP. The only surprising fact is that the LPGA tried to pull such a ridiculous move off on the first place.

• Been a bad week for Canadians at the matchplay. First there was "9 and 8" Ames, and followed by Mike Weir's precedent setting meltdown against Geoff Ogilvy. Already one paper is calling Ogilvy's recovery, down four holes with four to play, as one of the great comebacks in sports. Or maybe it is one of the great choke jobs on Weir's part. Surely Canada's best golfer can't be faulted for Ogilvy's remarkable eagle on the final playoff hole, but there's no way the Aussie should have been in the position to make the eagle in the first place. It is called "close him out," something Mike should have done on the 15th hole.