Slow Golf News Day: A Bridge & Boars


The golf news is pretty sparse this week. With all three of the major professional tours on hiatus - the LPGA Tour won't be having a tournament until October 7 in Alabama, finding hot golf stories is a bit of a chore.

Thankfully, the pause will be brief as the PGA Tour concludes its season at next week's Tour Championship in Atlanta. The lead-up to the event - with the "winner" (actually the overall points leader) taking home $10 million - at East Lake Golf Club is mixed.

Not only did Tiger Woods not qualify but neither did two of Corey Pavin's captain's picks - Stewart Cink and Ricky Fowler - for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. The only Pavin selection who'll be at East Lake for this limited-field, 30-player season-ender is Zach Johnson.

The upshot of such a deflating denouement to the year in golf is that the attention of the American sports' fans has abruptly - and quite decidedly - shifted to college and pro football.

To fight such powerful distractions, Cybergolf has provided the two following stories to slake the ravenous appetites of golf-news junkies.

Bridge to the Beach

For the first time in a century, access to the Puget Sound beach alongside Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, Wash., the host of the recent U.S. Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Open, will be possible with the opening of the "Bridge to the Beach."

The pedestrian overpass provides a safe crossing over the busy tracks used by the railroad cars that intermittently pierced the air during the Amateur with their loud horn blasts.

The bridge includes a viewing platform that offers views of the Sound, nearby islands, Tacoma Narrows Bridge and Olympic Mountains. The 2-mile shoreline has been described as a "beachcomber's delight."

The opening ceremony to be hosted by Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy will take place at 3 p.m. Thursday, September 16. Parking is available at Central Meadow, which is accessed by entering the Chambers Bay entrance and following the road down to the Central Meadow parking area.

Don't be a Boar

Apparently, wild boars love golf. Sadly, that affinity is being proven at a South Florida golf course where maintenance crews have observed the hogs burying their snouts in turf and ripping up large pieces of grass in an attempt to get earthworms underneath the root system.

These feral porcine critters have inflicted significant damage to the 11th and 14th holes at Sebastian Municipal Golf Course. Workers have spent more than 40 hours trying to repair shredded greens.

The crews are learning that the better fertilized the greens are, the more tantalizing they are to wild pigs.

So there you have it: some "hot" golf news during a slow week for the Royal & Ancient Game.