Golf Media, Everywhere, Everyday 24/7
By John Bebow

Herbert Warren Wind, the master golf correspondent, chronicled many of the great golf matches of the 20th Century with long, winding essays one could enjoy over a full evening.

What would he say today?

With the flood of up-to-the-minute golf information available at any hour of the day or night, there isn't much thunder left for old-style essayists and folks who want to sit down and digest a good tale 'o the green.

It's all about immediacy now.

Consider the typical Sunday for any Michigan golfer. You can set your favorite tee time earlier in the week by calling courses listed in any number of online directories, like those at Michigan Live (www.mlive.com) and the Detroit News (www.detnews.com).

While paying your greens fees in the clubhouse, you probably get an immediate update on the European Tour through the televisions likely placed overhead. Out on the course, satellite systems often give you exact yardages. In the clubhouse after the round, mid-afternoon lunch comes with live PGA Tour coverage.

Back at home, the real nuts among us go back online to those same local sites for reams of tournament scoring details and other pro stats, national college tournament reports, photo galleries of pro and statewide tournaments and local stories from newspapers across the state.

Then it's back to the television for tournament recap with Golf Talk Live on the Golf Channel. If that's still not enough you can go back online for spirited discussion in online forums, like those found at GolfDigest.com.

Finally, you can end a glorious spring golf Sunday with some bedtime reading. Just head over to Amazon.com, where, if you dig deep enough, you can go old school and pick up a used copy of Following Through, Wind's great compilation of golf essays published in 1986. It'll cost you about seven bucks and ships in one or two business days.

If you can wait that long.