Golf is like no other game in that on any given hole, amateur players like you and me, even the high handicapper, can produce a score as good as the best professional.

        During my one and only round at the Old Course at St. Andrews a few summers ago, I hit a drive just over the left edge of the maintenance building on the famed 17^th “Road Hole” and found myself on the left side of the fairway, a six-iron from the green.  I won’t ever forget the next shot which I hit straight and true and just short enough to take the required bounce and roll to about six feet from the cup, which was set at center left on the green.  Quaking with the sense of where I was and what I was about to perhaps do, I kept my head as still as I could and stroked the putt just into the front door of the cup for my only birdie of the day.

        If truth be told, I was half hoping to hit my approach over the green so I could say I had made par (maybe) from the road at The Road Hole.  But the unexpected birdie was better because, like most amateur golfers, I can brag to myself that Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson and every other professional who ascends the tee at 17 at the Old Course this weekend in the Open Championship would love to play the hole exactly as I did.

        This weekend, though, the pros will play an entirely different hole than the one I did.  Tournament officials have lengthened the Road Hole to nearly 500 yards by moving the tees back about 50 yards.  But the maintenance shed still covers the view of the fairway ahead, and the pros will be content with a tee ball that finishes just about where mine did, about 150 yards to the pin.  I would never presume to tell them what club to hit from there, but I could tell them, with some confidence, where to hit it.

With so much trouble around the Road Hole green -- the Road Hole bunker and the Road itself -- amateur and pro alike should be happy to be on the putting surface.  I was thrilled to be six feet to the right of the pin.

        I watched as many World Cup games from South Africa as I could, especially in the “knockout” rounds.  The tension quotient was high, tension of course being a key ingredient for great sporting matches.

        American media tells us Americans that we don’t like soccer because there is not enough scoring and the pace of games is too

        Okay, soccer is pretty slow too.  And the constant complaints and arm waving makes the games take on a Keystone Cops look.  The one unpardonable sin for soccer, though, is how tie games are resolved in a tournament like the World Cup.  If the overtime period of the final game between Spain and Netherlands had gone another few minutes without the goal that Spain scored, hundreds of millions around the world would have had to endure a session of five penalty kicks for each side.  There is no dopier way to resolve a sporting event of that magnitude, and no more painful reward for great play -– an epic match resolved by a mistake, by essentially forcing someone to be the goat.

        Imagine that the American and European Ryder Cup teams are tied at the end of three days, and they go to a series of five two-foot putts until someone misses, and you essentially have the golf equivalent of penalty kicks.

        That just doesn’t seem very sporting, at least from an American point of view.

        If it weren’t the law, cigarette packs, child car seats, and mutual funds (“past performance is no predictor of future performance”) would carry no safety warnings.  The most expensive pack of cigarettes, tax included, costs $14.  A home in an upscale golf community can cost $1 million and more.  And yet you won’t find any warnings posted in their sales office.

        Consider the July issue of our free newsletter, Home On The Course, your guide to some of the key questions to ask when shopping for a golf community home.  How stable is the golf club?  Does the developer have a completion plan for the community…and the deep pockets to support it?  What’s the better deal -– an equity golf membership or non-equity?   Forewarned is forearmed in our July issue, ready for mailing later this week.

        Also, Greenville, SC, is rising to a place of prominence on more and more “best places to live” lists.  We’ve been to Greenville and understand the sentiment.  With a thriving downtown restaurant and cultural scene, the city -- known to some as “G-Vegas” -- provides an entertaining respite from the quiet, remote golf communities in the upstate region of South Carolina.  In the July issue, we turn to Greenville real estate professional Lee Cunningham for a current assessment of Greenville's real estate market, including The Cliffs Communities, Thornblade Club and others.

        Use the convenient box at the top left of this page to sign-up to receive your free monthly copies of Home On The Course.  And please know that we will never share your name or email address with anyone.

        We take Lebron James at his word, that he chose to play in Miami because it offered him the best chance at an eventual championship.  But if he were a serious golfer, his choice might have been different.

        According to a chart in the Wall Street Journal today, the Miami area ranks first in the sheer number of golf courses among all the

        Not that this week’s most famous athlete, at least until the winning gola is scored Sunday at the World Cup, will ever have to play “trunk” golf at the local public facility.  But even then, Miami was not the best choice.  New York can boast Shinnecock Hills, The National Golf Club, Winged Foot and dozens of other famous courses within a short-limo drive of Madison Square Garden.  In Miami, Lebron would need to ride all the way up to North Palm Beach and the Seminole Golf Club to find a club whose course ranked near the top.

        Just in case the star wanted to rub elbows with the common people every once in a while, Bethpage Black, a public course and just 40 minutes from the Big Apple, is the only Zagat-rated club anywhere to attain a perfect 30 rating from those who have played it.