Azinger is coming to GIS!

Victorious Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger has been in the news plenty in recent days. He was featured in a story in the Golf Plus section of the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated. He talked with Bob Harig of ESPN.com about his willingness to reprise his role as U.S. team captain, should he be asked. He led the way as the victorious U.S. team — at least the team members who weren't playing in Europe at the time — visited the White House and President Bush.

And the biggest news of all — well, at least for this audience — is this: we've just received confirmation that Azinger will be the keynote speaker during the Opening Session of the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in New Orleans in February! The crack communications team at GCSAA is putting the final touches on the official news release, but 'Zinger is all but signed, sealed and delivered. You can bet that GCM will have his visit to New Orleans covered like a blanket — magazine story, blog posts, maybe a podcast or video interview — but for now, this gives us another opportunity to post the video we shot during Azinger's stop at the Valhalla maintenance facility during Ryder Cup week.

In other news ...

• Andy Kjos, CGCS at Trump International GC in West Palm Beach, Fla., which is hosting this week's ADT Championship on the LPGA Tour, gets some love from his hometown newspaper.
• Speaking of the LPGA, the loss of three events from the tour's 2009 schedule, including the previously mentioned ADT Championship, has been widely reported this week and is the first concrete evidence that the country's current economic woes are impacting the business of golf. The New York Times was the first to report on this, so we'll give them the link here.
• Enough about the bad news from the LPGA; let's talk some good news. GCSAA's LPGA Tour agronomist John Miller, CGCS, is wrapping up his first season in that position, and all indications are it's been a huge success from almost every perspective — the players, the LPGA and GCSAA. John will be in Lawrence in early December, and we're going to try and sit down with him for a quick chat about his first year on tour that you'll be able to read about both here on the blog and in the pages of GCM.
• Finally, you've probably already heard the story of professional golfer J.P. Hayes, but if not, you need to check it out. Certainly not good news for Hayes, but his honesty and his determination to stay true to the spirit of the game is a nice story. Beats headlines about John Daly passing out in front of a Hooters any day.