Everyone, it is with mixed emotions that I’ve decided to transition all of my golf blogging to Waggle Room. The most obvious reason for the transition is sheer volume of hits. Waggle Room gets over 10 times the number of hits to the home page alone, each day. That doesn’t even count hits from specific posts. It is just something that lil ole GNN Blog cannot beat.

I have mixed emotions about this because I feel that I’ve built this place from scratch. It was my baby and it afforded me the great opportunity to take over for an even bigger community, with better resources, at Waggle Room. The folks at SB Nation have the tools to take golf blogging to the next level – and hook ups with Yahoo!, Google, and the like that will take my writing to new audiences. At the same time, the Wagglers are a lively bunch. They chat it up, post on their own, and we have a great debate there.

Don’t worry, though, you’re welcome at Waggle Room too. In fact, I’d be disappointed if you don’t stop by there and join me. I’ll still talk about the same things and bash and laud the same subjects with the same vigor. The font and colors will just be a little different. I’ll still be doing the weekly podcasts and have them on Golf News Net, iTunes, and Waggle Room.

Basically, I’m replacing a small, cramped dog house, for a luxury doggie mansion where there is plenty room for everyone. I hope to see you there and I thank you for your support over the years.

Ryan Ballengee

In my monthly piece for Sports Central, I touch on how critical it is that the PGA Tour finds and defines a real identity for the FedEx Cup. After having gone to two extremes in the first two years, it may need to stick with one or risk diluting the point by going to the middle.

Check it out!

Normally, I am not much of a conspiracy theorist. (And I’m still not.) But, I found something very curious when comparing three stories on the Ryder Cup press conference yesterday. I took a look at Steve Elling’s downer of a story about the Americans’ chances, TJ Auclair’s report that is glowing with optimism at PGATour.com, and the actual transcript of the press conference at ASAP Sports.

Bottom line: Auclair mangled Azinger’s words to make them seem more positive than they really were. Check it out at Waggle Room.

Everyone, just wanted to make an announcement that I am officially taking over for Mulligan Stu over at Waggle Room. Waggle Room is a community organized by SB Nation that allows fans to post to the blog, so long as they register. Stu carried on a tradition of objective, quick hits of the golf news. I’m going to maintain that and hopefully build on it with interviews featuring newsmakers and journalists – again, quick hits of some of the same material you will find on the GNN podcasts.

The GNN Blog will live on how it is today – mid-sized, analytical posts about the stories in the game and other random things. The podcasts will go on as always. And, just to show that my productivity isn’t hampered, I even updated the Golf News Net main page too.

So, if you like what you see here, I invite you to come over to Waggle Room, join the community, and begin posting! Also, you’ll help me in my quest for golf world domination!

I have a piece in Press Box this week – a Baltimore based sports paper. It’s on The First Tee, which is a youth golf initiative that I back very firmly. We’ve been fortunate enough to have Joe Louis Barrow, head of the national program, on The 19th Hole. I hope you’ll enjoy the piece, even if you’re not from the area.

Press Box: First Tee Gets Kids Swinging

Of course, under the guise of shameless self-promotion, I have an Open wrap up at Sports Central that wonders if Paddy Harrington is the guy to fill in for Tiger Woods.

I decided to go a little off of the deep end on my monthly column for Sports Central and propose a golf all star game…er, event. Take a look at it and let me know what you think. Really, there is some rational thought to it.

In my monthly column over at Sports Central, I talk about the seriousness of slow play. I know, it’s my crusade topic for this season. But, I talk about it in light of the 5 hour rounds of the final pairings at the Masters and the Players Championship. Also, I talk about how Tim Finchem appears to be stepping up to the plate with some options. Last, I mention how everyone wins if those options are implemented regardless of trying to clean up slow play.