Lee Westwood appears to be an obvious favorite to win it all at Royal St. George’s. Westwood placed third at the British Open two years ago and finished as runner-up last summer. He also finished second at the 2010 Masters. Westwood overtook Tiger Woods as the world’s No.1 ranked golfer last October and spent 17 weeks atop the list. He is the only golfer to hold a no. 1 ranking without winning a major. Westwood ranks 10th all time on the European Tour with 20 victories.

His biggest challenge could come from Martin Kaymer, a German golfer who currently ranks No. 1 in the world after taking over the top spot in late February. Kaymer claimed his first major PGA title when he won the 2010 PGA Championship. He finished regulation tied at 11-under par with Bubba Watson and defeated Watson in a three-hole playoff to win the tournament. Kaymer has earned three other top 10 finishes in his last five majors.

Besides Westwood and Kaymer, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson can always be considered realistic contenders to claim the Open Championship. There will be no discount golf on hand at this year’s Open Championship; only the highest quality will be on display.

Mickelson defeated Westwood by three strokes to win the 2010 Masters. He is a three-time Masters champion and also won at the PGA Championship in 2005. For his career he has accumulated 17 top 5 finishes in the four majors. His best showing at the British Open came in 2004, when Mickelson came in third for his only top 10 finish in that major.

Woods ranks third all-time in both PGA Tour victories (71) and European Tour victories (38). A rough year in 2010 dropped him from the No. 1 spot in the world rankings. But Woods can get it done at the British Open. Three of his 14 victories in the majors have come in the United Kingdom and he has posted four other top 10 finishes.

An unheralded winner could come out of nowhere, however, given what happened the last time the British Open was played at Royal St. George’s in 2003. That year, Ben Curtis shocked the field when he shot a final round 69 to claim his first major title.

Royal St. George’s has hosted 14 Open Championships during its history. The course has developed a reputation for being a rugged one to manage with deep fairways winding through thick rough and imposing sand dunes. Even the best golfers have a tough time staying under par on this course.

2011 British Open is a post from: The Golf Slice

This will be the 91st PGA Championship but only the second time at Hazeltine. The course was built by the famous Robert Trent Jones in 1962. Hazeltine will play just over 7,600 yards long for the Championship. The layout of the course has narrow fairways over rolling hills. It’s also known for having small greens and, to make matters worse, half of the holes have a water hazard of some sort.

The last time the PGA Championship was played at Hazeltine was back in 2002. That was the year, you may recall, that Rich Beem narrowly edged out Tiger Woods as the latter tried to make a late comeback with a series of birdies to close out his round. Since that event several changes have been made to the course. It is now 300 yards longer and several bunkers have been added and tee boxes have been moved.

This year’s field is packed full of golf superstars with 100 out of the 101 topped ranked players in the world planning to attend. As always, I’m pulling for Tiger because I’m a total front-runner when it comes to picking the winner. I’ve basically been a terrible prognosticator this season so take my pick with a grain of salt.

It’s 2009 PGA Championship Time is a post from: The Golf Slice

For the third consecutive time this season, Tiger Woods has won a Tour event two weeks before the start of a Major tournament and will come in as the leading favorite to win. But, as most of you probably know, Woods came up short in both of the previous majors: letting his putting beat him at the U.S. Open and not even making the cut at the British. The PGA Championship will be Tiger’s last chance to win a Major this year so be on the lookout for him making a showing just as strong as the one he made in the final three days of the Buick Open this past week.

Tiger Wins Buick Open is a post from: The Golf Slice

This year the Open Championship is being held at Turnberry in Scotland. The event will be played on the Ailsa Course, which will be hosting the British Open for the fourth time and the first time since 1994. Turnberry also has another 18-hole course, called the Kintyre Course, that has never hosted an event as big as the Open Championship but still offers quite a challenge.

I did a little research and anyone interested in seeing the Open Championship live and in-person can still find excellent travel and accommodation deals this close to the event itself. A lot of the travel packages available include lodging and passes to the Open itself as part of one deal. This makes it easy to kill two birds with one stone and take care of everything you need for a nice golf vacation in one shot.

The 2009 British Open At Turnberry is a post from: The Golf Slice

The 2009 US Open has lots of interesting plot lines developing already. The surging Tiger Woods is probably everyone’s favorite to win. After his performance at the Memorial there aren’t many doubters left about whether or not Tiger has returned from his injury. The talking heads on sports television are back to picking between Tiger or the field again like they used to do when Woods was crushing the opposition week after week.

With the recent announcement of his wife’s illness, the sentimental favorite to win will be Phil Mickelson. Since it’s now heavily rumored he’ll be missing the British Open, this year’s US Open will be the end of his streak of 61 straight appearances is a major.

My personal pick to win is Tiger Woods (tough choice, I know) but I can certainly see someone on the fringe of people’s minds right now, like Sergio Garcia maybe, taking a run at things. Whomever wins I know I’ll be enjoying it on television even though I wish I was going to be there in person.

The 2009 US Open is a post from: The Golf Slice

Some very awesome prizes are up for grabs at Falcon’s Fire Golf Club, for anyone proving to be a skilled golfer and being able to ace one of their par three holes.

Proceeds from this benefit will be helping to provide many career opportunities for veterans that are making the transition out of the military, our youth that are at-risk, several individuals with disabilities, and many dislocated workers.

There have already been more than 1,000 people who have enjoyed benefiting from this outstanding program.

The Golf Classic is to be held along with Breakaway, a conference held annually for members of CompTIA. It is schedule to be held at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, also in Orlando on August 5 through 7.

The mission of CompTIA, which was founded in 1998, is future hopes of being able to eliminate shortages in the industry of certain skills and to produce individuals that are qualified to handle entry level IT positions.

For further reading check out the Travel Guide Orlando.

Hole-In-One Contest Added To Golf Classic Held In Orlando is a post from: The Golf Slice

The completion of the spectacular greens of Els Club in the sports city of Dubai certainly has caused some excitement among the world of golfers.

So how could something so exciting be causing any problems?

Dubai’s popular golf course and academy that opened in 2002 is foreseeing trouble in being able to compete with the fabulous new look of the Els Club and other new courses that are expected to be opening soon. To hold their spot with the competition, the Montgomerie’s fading 18 hole course has started an overhaul that will bring a much nicer look for the popular older course.

9 of the holes are expecting to be completed by September, and the remaining 9 holes are set to have their new look finished in the following year. Having constant problems with the turf wilting horribly in the areas intense heat has prompted the need for a new look.

Such a huge project will undoubtedly cause a rift among existing members of the course. Some of these members have already voiced a opinion of thinking they should receive compensation because players will end up losing half of what they have already paid for.

Tiger Woods Designing A Golf Course In Dubai is a post from: The Golf Slice

What about individuals whose life is not enclosed around the golf world? Rand Jerris, the director of the USGA Museum has voiced concerns about this very question. Apparently he has a few concerns on if other individuals outside of the golfing arena will even know where they are located at, and that they even exist.

With the recent changes to the museum, the public will get a better idea on some of the important history of golf and learn what the game is all about

As many of the renovations were being made to the museum, many of its popular exhibits were taken on the road to a lot of the USGA events. It is without question the exhibits were enjoyed by many who had the chance to view them.

Will the USGA Museum become what is known as the Cooperstown of golf, like Jerris would like it to be?

Multi-Million Dollar Expansion Of USGA Museum Now Open is a post from: The Golf Slice

Construction plans for the new course will begin next year. They will be starting out with an 18-hole golf course, giving them the ability to assess its success.

Sporting a putting range for the public, located in the center of the Cambodian Senate’s grounds, Korea is fast becoming known for their true love of the sport of golf.

Of course the golf course will not only hold a lot of fun entertainment for the Cambodians, the ever-flowing and ever-increasing amount in green, of the tourist dollar is obviously a very large reason for the elaborate plans of the golf boom that is arising.

Already having previously designed 300 golf courses, Arnold Palmer and his design company are obviously in tune with the demands being placed on it for adding the thrills of elite golfing communities to many other areas around the world.

Arnold Palmer To Design Golf Course In Cambodia is a post from: The Golf Slice

Golf is such a widely recognized and popular sport. So why has it been since the year 1904 since it played an important part like that of being included in the Olympics? Part of the problem could perhaps be that seven years before the target games arrive, is when it has to be voted in.

We may have an answer to this hopeful question by next year when IOC will assemble in Denmark, when a host city will be chosen for Summer Games.

Some fear that since golf is sitting on a ballot right next to baseball and softball, that it is an unlikely call that it will be added. All three of these games were rejected, and both baseball and softball were taken off the program for the 2012 Olympics in London.

The Future Of Golf In The Olympics is a post from: The Golf Slice