GOG BLOG WRITER RORY SPEARS
PHOTO VAL RUSSELL CHICAGO AREA GOLF

SORRY..for the late column. Steve Strickers heroics led to a late
departure from the Quad Cities last night. Arrival in the Chicago
area wasn't until almost midnight.

This morning I was awake only 3 minutes, when the warning came
about this bad storm that was going to hit any second and it did.

As a result it took only seconds for the Gog Blog to be out of power
in the home office, and I am still playing catch up as a result. Typing
from my folks house 10 miles away, and them in a small pocket
of folks who actually are still not sitting around waiting for CON-ED
to either turn the power on, or let us know when they will.

RAVES GO OUT TO:

The John Deere Classic for another thriller and a great week. Kudo's
to everyone at Deere and Company for doing an event the right way.
Tournament Director Clair Peterson and staff find a way to make it
good every year, of course some drama with two-time defending
champion Steve Stricker didn't hurt.

Stricker who went from up five shots to down two shots with two
holes to play, and still won without a playoff. WOW. Strickers
general concern for for runner up Kyle Stanley in the post round
news conference was heartfelt. Unlike somebody else would have
been had he actually played there and been healthy enough to do
so.

I'll bet Stricker wasted no time finding Stanley on the John Deere
plane to the the British Open to offer some words of encouragement.

RAVE... Mike Keiser owner of Bandon Dunes who just hosted
the USGA Publinks Championships for men and women at the
same time on his four or five courses what ever it is at Bandon.

In one of the great gestures of all time, Keiser allowed ALL
participants to stick around and play FREE GOLF all week
after being eliminated from the tournament. Try the other
courses, bring a guest, mom, dad, caddy, brother, sister, buddy,
you and guest free all week. Play unlimited golf, then spread
the word about this place. Fantastic, hey if you go that far
make it worth your time. Nice job Mike...Oh can I play too.

RANT..The Golf Channel..WHAT are you thinking. Promote
a major announcement this morning at 10 AM, regarding Tiger
Woods. With everyone expecting to hear if World #17 was
going to play again in 2011, we heard something about a new
sports marketing firm for him. Or something like that, I didn't
get all the details, Com-ED prevented that. But a source in
the golf world called it a major joke, and waste of peoples
time.

TGC..nobody is desparate to hear news like this regarding
World #17, thats right WORLD # 17...and dropping every
week.

Oh well..it's off to the show..Hopefully WJJG-Am 1530 has
power, otherwise they will be in the dark, like the folks at
Com-Ed.

The Gog Blog speaks out, are the opinions of Rory Spears,
not always my radio partners on Golfers on Golf. In the
meantime, GO Play..all the trees have not fallen down.