A Look Back: Aug. 24 1929: Tommy Armour wins the Western Open with a record 273 at Milwaukee's Ozaukee Country Club. 1946: Ben Hogan blisters Jimmy Demaret 10 and 9 in the semifinals of the PGA Championship at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club. 1957: JoAnne Gunderson, who would become known on the LPGA Tour as JoAnne Carner, wins the U.S. Women's Amateur at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, Calif. 1975: Al Geiberger wins the second Tournament Players Championship by three strokes over Dave Stockton at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. 1997: Greg Norman wins the NEC World Series of Golf by four strokes over Phil Mickelson.

Events
U.S. Golf Association announces that Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore., originally scheduled to host the 2004 U.S. Women's Open, will move its commitment up to 2003. The decision comes after it was determined that Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif., would not be ready in time to host the event.
For more...

Senior PGA Tour announces it will debut the Turtle Bay Championship Oct. 1-7 at the Arnold Palmer-designed Links course at Turtle Bay Resort on the island of Oahu. The Turtle Bay Championship replaces the EMC Kaanapali Classic on the 2001 schedule.
For more...

The second Delta Celebrity Challenge to be held in mid-October, will be played at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course and broadcast on The Golf Channel. The event includes a pro-am and a professional-celebrity team scramble and raises money for a South Carolina children's hospital.
For more...

Media
PGATour.com announces a three-year agreement with Tournament Radio Broadcasting to provided expanded Internet audio content on tournament news, information shows, interviews and play-by-play coverage.
For more...

The Royal and Ancient announces an agreement with BBC Sport to televise the Open Championship through 2006. The deal also includes coverage of the Walker Cup when played in the United Kingdom and highlight shows of the British Amateur, the Boys' Championship and St. Andrews Trophy.
For more...

Advertising
New advertising spots for American Express feature Tiger Woods sharing personal insights about competition and the game of golf. Television commercials will air during the NEC Championship this weekend and print ads will appear in major golf publications.
For more...

People
Dick Bermingham, former vice chairman of American Golf, joins the Board of Directors of UpLink Corporation, maker of GPS systems for golf courses.
For more...

Technology
F2 Broadcast Network will showcase video interviews, 360-degree views of practice areas and customized video clips provided by PGATour.com on its Web site, www.f2sports.com.
For more...

Courses
Island Green Country Club, a new public course designed by Jim Blaukovitch Associates, will open in northeast Pennsylvania on Friday.
For more...

Equipment
Etonic launches its new line of shoes and gloves for 2002, including a Dri-Lite brand of shoe that includes five models and three kinds of AC gloves that feature air-cooling technology. To go with the new products, Etonic has also released a new logo.
For more on Etonic's 2002 products...
For more on the Dri-Lite shoes...
For more on the AC gloves...

Instruction
Natural Golf Corporation relocates its main office and manufacturing facility from Hoffman Estates, Ill., to Mount Prospect, Ill. The company reports that increases in golf school, video and equipment sales led to the move.
For more...

Casual Friday
Ryder Cup: Just can't get enough

Just think, it's not even September and Ryder Cup talk is in full bloom. If you're sick of hearing about what may unravel at The Belfry, then maybe tune out golf for the next four weeks because the volume is only going to increase.

If you cannot get enough of the Ryder Cup -- like us here at The Wire -- then this should be an interesting month ahead.

Monday, American captain Curtis Strange rounded out his team with Paul Azinger and Scott Verplank as his wild card picks.

Now the focus shifts to the European side. This weekend's NEC Invitational, which offers a $5 million purse to be divvied up by a 39-player field, could impact the shape of the European squad dramatically. As well, other players on the Euro bubble are teeing up in the Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles this weekend.

But Euro anxiety will not peak until the final points-earning event, the BMW International, Sept. 2-6. At which point, Sam Torrance gets to reveal his two wild-card picks.

Here is laying odds that Torrance does not pick a Ryder Cup rookie.

TAP-INS

Even on Casual Friday, the Ryder Cup spills over.

The September issue of Golf World, the U.K. monthly, features Sergio Garcia on the cover with the headline "I Want Tiger In The Singles." Inside the cover, Garcia says: "I would love to be the final singles out against (Tiger Woods) with the match hanging on my game, and for me to win." Sergio might want to be more concerned with making Torrance's team first....

Then there is this from this week's Sports Illustrated Golf Plus section. SI staffers rate the Americans who are the easiest to unnerve, which may be a consideration given the match is at The Belfry in England. With a high of five rabbit ears were Mark Calcavecchia, Scott Hoch, Paul Azinger and captain Curtis Strange. Hal Sutton, Jim Furyk and David Duval were ranked as the hardest to rattle....

OK, enough about the Cup, let's talk about the U.S. Amateur. The Wire still advocates hopping a plane and flying to Atlanta for the weekend's semifinals and 36-hole final. But if you can't make it, log on to www.usamateur.org for real-time scoring....

And if you care to see golf with a slightly different bent, check out ESPN Classic on Sunday as its Road Show broadcast live (Noon to 3 p.m. ET) from the Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic in Cary, N.C. The event, which pays tribute to former N.C. State basketball coach Jim Valvano, who died of cancer in '93, has raised over $7 million since the first one in 1994.