Sports Commentary

Suggestions on how to shorten the game of tennis from what it’s been in the past is starting to gain more and more traction and it may be warranted.

May I be frank with you? Or Wayne, or Chuck, or Roger? Seriously, we all have an ego. You would love to hit that little golf ball farther than you do.

“Let’s do Mt. Whitney,” my daughter said. (Another item on her bucket list). Great, but with only two weeks’ notice, a number of challenges presented themselves, like getting permits.

A civil case currently underway in Stockton, California against U.S.A. Swimming clearly shows the “new” governing body is the same as the old governing body.

Recently professional tennis has had an explosion of tennis news that enthusiasts want to hear and keep up with.

Most of us learned the traditional method of chipping. I was a very good chipper when I practiced and played a lot. But in the golf management business, I rarely had time to practice or play. And my chipping skills suffered.

The best city for a sports fan may depend on what they prioritize. For some fans, winning championships is all that matters. For others, a team’s competitiveness on a regular basis may be the priority.

In my limited lifetime of tennis there are a few things in the game I would love to see take place that probably won’t.

Looking through my directory of hikes across the Southwest (Hoof’n It), I find several hikes in Arizona noteworthy for their display of fall colors.

Anyone who thought sports was merely about the games learned a valuable lesson in the recent dust-up between the NBA and China.

All learning encompasses three main learning styles. Visual, auditory and kinesthetic. A person will have a dominant style with the other two taking a backseat to their preference. Nowadays, the most prevalent style is, by far, visual.

California Governor Gavin Newsom did the expected last month when he signed a bill allowing college athletes in the state to profit from their own name, image and likeness.

Community tennis events are really fun to organize and put together, but it takes a good committee of people and volunteers coming together cohesively to do it in a manner that truly makes it all feel pretty darn good and that happened this past Sunday for our 5th Annual PATA Tennis Park of Tennis Fame Clinic and Induction day.

What’s in a name anyway? In preparation for a workshop on Arizona’s conifers, I returned to the Groom Creek Trailhead to hike Spruce Mountain. I was quickly reminded of two things.

Heading into the last weekend of the 2019 regular season, the 30 MLB teams had hit a record 6,647 home runs, 542 more than the previous high mark. Given those figures, the average fan might think hitting a baseball is a fairly easy task.

It’s tough to do a “perfect” study of what the economic impact of having nice public sporting facilities built, programmed and staffed in a city such as Prescott.

Title IX, which was enacted by Congress in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in education. While the statute’s specific intent was to provide equal opportunities in STEM education, courts expanded the definition of education to include sports.

The third annual “Laver Cup” just concluded this past Sunday in Geneva, Switzerland, with Team Europe taking yet another but closer match title – their third in its three-year history.

When my son failed to come around the corner within a few minutes, I retraced my steps back toward the trailhead but he was nowhere to be found.

Instead of acting like “adults,” some grownups set a poor example for young people when it comes to exhibiting common sense and doing the right thing.

I have seen many boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, friends and parents doing their best, with great intentions, to teach those they care about how to play golf.

One prescription for a longer life may be to play Major League Baseball. That was the conclusion of a recent study by Harvard researchers, published in the peer reviewed medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Originally I was quoted as saying I wanted the Top 3 ranked men in the world of tennis to lose early at the U.S. Open, well ... one made it through, Rafa Nadal who defeated Daniil Medvedev in a five-set thriller 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4 for his 19th Grand Slam singles title.

The Sheriff Deputy tried to comfort me, informing me he was trained in search and rescue with the Forest Service. Little comfort, though.

While in Cincinnati, I spent some time talking with Laura Marttinen who was working the booth for a company called “Grand Slam Tennis Tours” that has its main office out of a restored barn in Stowe, Vermont.