As we noted earlier, Ernie Els will lead this year’s World Golf Hall of Fame class. The scrambling is on for at least one more big name, so maybe this will be George Bush 39th’s year.

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At least one team named Jaguars is a winner. That would be the Augusta State men’s golf team, which won the NCAA by upsetting what appeared to be an overconfident Oklahoma State team in the final.

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Speaking of college golf, Jacksonville U. associate A.D. Joel Lamp will speak to the Jacksonville Area GA directors Tuesday at Eagle Landing. One of his duties is overseeing the school’s golf programs and you can credit him for the outstanding tournament at the TPC Stadium course that drew a top field.

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Pro or con on the exemption the United States GA gave Vijay Singh for this week’s U.S. Open?

A reasonable justification would be the distractions he’s had lately (knee surgery, divorce.) But methinks he should have been erased from any list when he said he didn’t think the Open was big enough for him to bother with the 36-hole Sectional qualifier.

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Our public courses miss an opportunity when they don’t take the time to figure out when the private courses are aerating and do something to promote to their members. The early summer aeration screws the greens up for at least three weeks.

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The weak corporate economy has our Gator Bowl struggling. The game lost its sponsor when Konica Minolta didn’t renew, and there’s been little progress on attracting another. So, we may have an unsponsored New Year’s day game in an unsponsored stadium.

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Players officials were pleased with the final outcome. Hard work overcame a bad economy and, while every sales area was down, it was better than expected.

Looming in the future: a reduction in the prize money. This has been sacred because it has been the Tour’s biggest, and that makes it stand out from the pack.

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Lovely book on Scottish golf is coming out.

”Scotland: Where Golf Is Great” has lots of great photos supported by good text and recommendations on where to stay and eat.

The writer is James W. Finegan, a freelancer who has several other books. It’s a coffee table-sized paperback at $25.95. If you have a book titled “Where Golf Is Great: The Finest Courses of Scotland and Ireland,” you don’t need this one — they’ve taken the Scotland part and put it in a separate tome.

— Fred Seely is editor of www.golfnewsjax.com.