The top mid-amateur golfers in the state will compete at Sawgrass Country Club this week, September 23-26, for the Florida State Mid-Amateur Championship. Nine qualifiers were held with one more on Wednesday, September 22 to complete the field of 90 players.

Midwest Sports Surfaces, LLC announces it has appointed Mike Phelan as President of the high-performance synthetic athletic surface products company.

Sea Trail Golf Resort and Conference Center has been named the 2004 host for the second annual Golfweek Junior Invitational, presented by Aldila, to be held October 15-17.

Bakersfield, California golf pro Ric Moore wins the U.X. Open Championship after finishing third in 2002 and runner-up in 2003.

Scott Ross joins Legendary Marketing, The World's Leader in Golf Marketing, as a Marketing Success Specialist. Ross was a teaching professional and affiliated with Lago Mar Country Club in Plantation, FL.

The Club at Morgan Hill has implements new green fees for autumn. Monday through Friday, after 4:00 p.m., 18 holes of golf are only $30 per golfer. Between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., the rate is $45. From 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on these days, the rate remains at $65, as does Morgan Hill's "4 Play for the Price of 3" Coupon Program.

ProStrike introduces a new spray for club faces that shows instantly where the ball is hitting the face. The 4oz./120ml. bottle supplies 200 applications.

eGolfScore delivers real-time wireless scoring at 11 golf courses in one day in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Ellen Dempsey of St. Simons Island leads the field after carding a three-over par 75 in the first round of competition at the 75th Annual Georgia Women's Golf Association Amateur Championship, which is being held at Doublegate Country Club in Albany, September 21-23.

Mississippi State closes out the Raising Cane Classic with a final round 296, finishing sixth in the 15 team tournament field at Canebrake Golf Club in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Defending champion Spencer Sappington of Alpharetta carded a one-over par 72 to take a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Georgia Senior Championship, taking place at the Country Club of Columbus, September 21-23.

Hal Sutton was right. There will be plenty of second guessing of the Americans' humbling 18.5-9.5 loss in the 35th Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club's South Course.

Should Phil Mickelson have waited a couple of weeks to make his equipment changes? Should Mickelson have been allowed to take a day off of practice and then allowed to go off and practice on his own the day before the matches?

Should Sutton have even paired Tiger Woods and Mickelson together on the opening day? Should Sutton have paired Woods with Davis Love III or Mickelson with David Toms, two pairings that had worked well in previous Ryder Cup matches? Should Sutton have overruled Chris Riley's request to sit out Saturday afternoon play because he was too tired?

If the answers to these questions had been yes, no, yes, yes and yes, and the Americans had still been throttled, then what would have been questioned? For some reason, many observers, especially on this side of the pond, just cannot accept a fundamentally simple explanation: The Americans were beaten in four-balls, in foursomes, even in singles, their supposed strength.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to the Ryder Cup, Sutton kept preaching how decisive he was going to be the week of the Ryder Cup. Sunday, following the Yankees' defeat, even he admitted to second guessing his decisions.

I can't tell you how many times I second-guessed every decision that I made, he said. Am I doing the right thing? Am I not doing the right thing? I don't normally do that a lot. I pretty much am committed with the decisions that I make and I don't really worry about it and I did this week. Ryder Cup outcomes, especially since Great Britain and Ireland reached out to include their European brethren, have become unexplainable events.

Americans have two years in which to make the team and their form the week of the matches often does not resemble their best form at some point during the qualification process. The captains come to the job new every two years, not knowing or realizing the demands. Being professional golfers themselves, the captains are often of a singular mind, and would prefer to put their own personal stamp on the team. So whatever lessons were learned by previous captains often times stay with those captains. Then, when the Ryder Cup finally arrives, we as fans or media expect everything to fall into place, expect the American team, which is favored based off a quirky world ranking format, to roll.

Well, it just doesn't happen that way. Captain decisions are made off of their own information and gut feelings. The Europeans, many of whom are virtually unknown to many in the United States, show up and hold their own. Wow, we think, those guys are playing above their weight.

Somehow, it's just hard to accept that the Europeans are simply better. But they are or at least they have been four of the last five meetings.

In mulling over why the United States rallied to win on Sunday back in 1999, the only logical explanation can be the gaudy montage shirts the Americans wore that day.

Surprisingly, Sutton was not second guessed for his sartorial selection -- at least not yet.