In the world of golf marathoners, you have your tortoises and your hares. Several weeks ago I wrote about Bob Kurtz, an Alabama golf marathoner who completed a 500-hole outing. For Kurtz, though, it's not about playing X number of holes within a certain timeframe; it's about playing as long it takes to reach X number of holes. For the tortoise, it's about endurance, not speed. Bob played through the night, 39 hours straight, to hit 500 holes. (Kurtz still averaged less than 90 minutes per 18 holes.)

Ben Berger is a hare. The hares of the golf marathon world set a time limit - say sunup to sundown, or 16 hours - and see how many holes they can play within that timeframe.

And Ben Berger can play a lot of holes within a 16-hour timeframe. Six-hundred holes, in fact.

That's what Berger did - played 600 holes of golf in 16 hours - on June 20 to raise money for autism research and awareness. For those of you keeping score at home, that's an average of around 27 minutes for each 18-hole round of golf. All 33-plus of them. Read more...

The 2009 British Open is the next major on the schedule, and it takes place July 16-19 on the Ailsa Course at Turnberry.

The Turnberry Resort is on the Ayshire coastline of Scotland, hard against the Firth of Clyde. The Ailsa Course is buffeted by winds off the Firth, and dotted by scenery such as the Ailsa Craig, a granite dome 11 miles out to sea; the ruins of the castle of Robert the Bruce; the Turnberry lighthouse; and a monument to war dead overlooking a hole that was used as an RAF runway during World War II.

Check out the gallery of Turnberry's Ailsa Course.

Is the LPGA dying? That question is asked in our Golf Forum by forum member "gohawaii," who happens to be About.com's Hawaii guide John Fischer.

John is an avid LPGA fan who spends part of his year in Hawaii and part in Philadelphia, and recently he's had to watch the LPGA Tour vacate both areas. It was announced just yesterday that the LPGA's tournament at Kapaula Resort in Oahu, scheduled, for October, is the latest tour event to die.

John writes in the forum:

"I ask, are we seeing the end of the LPGA, at least as we know it? Will it be forced to merge with either the European LPGA or one of the Asian tours in order to survive and have enough tournaments on the schedule to keep its members earning a living?

Looking at the schedule for the rest of 2009, it's pretty bleak. There are many open weeks and few tournaments covered live on TV. That surely does not help keep up interest in the LPGA."

What do you think? Are recent tournament cancellations and the lack of contracts for many events in 2010 a sign of the imminent demise of the LPGA Tour? Read the full forum post and join the conversation.

Another tournament down for the LPGA Tour.

Kapalua Land Company, the organizers of the LPGA Kapalua Classic played at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii, informed the LPGA the company will not honor the remaining four years on its sponsorship contract with the tour.

That means the tournament, scheduled for Oct. 15-18, is dead. Unless the LPGA can force the company, through legal proceedings, to live up to the deal - probably not likely, but something LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens said in a statement the tour will try to do:

"We are extremely disappointed with their decision not to conduct the October 2009 event, and we will vigorously enforce all our legal rights under the contract due to this breach. While we understand the difficulties faced by all businesses due to the recession, the Kapalua Land Company, the contract holder, is continuing to conduct business. We are extremely confident that we will be successful in pursuit of our legal remedies."

According to the Associated Press, Kapalua Land Company lost more than $70 million in the last quarter of 2008.

The tournament joined the LPGA Tour schedule in 2008 with much fanfare. The Hawaii venue helped players transition into the Asian part of the late-year LPGA schedule; the event was played at the marquee venue of Kapalua Resort; and the Resort also signed on Morgan Pressel as its tour representative.

Kapalua the title sponsor for the 2008 tournament, but the AP reports the organizers were trying to find an outside sponsor and have been unable to do so. A representative with the company claimed it suggested skipping the 2009 tournament with the hope of returning in 2010 with a new sponsor, but also claimed the LPGA rejected that idea.

The death of the Kapalua tournament means that the LPGA Tour has lost all three of its Hawaii events within the past year (the SBS Open and Fields Open both folded earlier).

Golf World's Ron Sirak, twittering away, points out that Kapalua is the third event on the 2009 schedule to be canceled after that schedule was announced; and that only 10 tournaments based in the United States are currently on the LPGA schedule for 2010, but two of those are currently without sponsors. Among the prominent North American events that are currently without contracts for 2010 are the Michelob Ultra Open, the Wegmans LPGA and the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

Time for another gallery rounding up new golf equipment coming to retail markets now. The Adams Speedline 9032LS driver leads off, and is joined by the Adams Speedline 9032Ti fairway woods.

Also on board: Tour Edge Exotics has a new fairway wood; KZG offers a new set of irons; Henry-Griffitts has wedges that offer a custom grind; plus there are shoes and golf bags.

View the new equipment gallery

(Editor's Note: Kim Kouwabunpat was a contestant on the Golf Channel series "Big Break Prince Edward Island," which concluded this past Monday. Kim has written a diary for About.com Golf throughout the series. Below is Kim's final entry following the final episode. See also: previous entries.)

That's a wrap for "Big Break XI: Prince Edward Island." Congratulations to Derek for being the last one standing! Derek, you have a solid game and nerves of steel. Go out there and make it happen, eh?

I have to also give a big shoutout to my girl, Blair, for also displaying some great golf and playing her way to the finals. She showed good poise and I know she’ll represent women's golf well. Read more...

This gallery of Pebble Beach pictures includes several shots of the famous seventh hole, including the one to the right, along with most of the other holes on the course.

Pebble Beach is justifiably famous for being one of the prettiest golf courses on the planet, sitting on California's Monterrey Peninsula with the ocean serving as backdrop for many of the holes.

View the gallery

See also:

• Course profile: Pebble Beach Golf Links

About six weeks shy of his 49th birthday, Kenny Perry won again on Sunday. A player whose career didn't blossom until after 40 is now one win away from making it onto our list of most career wins on the PGA Tour.

With his victory in the Travelers Championship - which he accomplished by setting a new tournament scoring record - Perry now has more career wins than Jim Furyk, David Duval or Mark Calcavecchia, and has tied Hal Sutton.

Perry also moves into third place on the list of most wins after age 40. Click the links to see the lists.

Japanese phenom Ryo Ishikawa, still just 17 years old, played his way into the oldest major, the British Open, on Sunday by winning on the Japan Tour.

Ishikawa's berth in the Open Championship was secured with a birdie putt on the final hole at the Mizuno Open. That putt locked down the win, his third on the Japan Tour. His first came at the age of 15.

When the Open is over, Ishikawa will have played in three of the four majors in 2009. He missed the cut at The Masters but will also play the PGA Championship via special invitation from the PGA of America.

But Ishikawa won't be the youngest golfer in the field at the 2009 British Open. That distinction goes to 16-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero, who earlier this month won the British Amateur Championship and its automatic qualification into the Open.

Manassero will be the second-youngest player to play a British Open. The youngest was Young Tom Morris, who was just 14 years old when he first played the Open in 1865.

But then, in 1865 there were only 12 golfers in the field. The accomplishments of Ishikawa and Manassero are far more significant. (Young Tom Morris shot 60-57 in the first two rounds at the 12-hole Prestwick before withdrawing. But he would go on to win four Open Championships.)

Dwight D. Eisenhower is the first American president elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, a selection announced by the Hall today. The former president and World War II general will go in along with other members of the Class of 2009, having been selected in the Lifetime Achievement Category.

Why does Ike deserve enshrinement in the golf Hall? Hey, anyone who can manage to play golf 800 times in eight years while president of the United States is a certifiable golf nut. Read about Dwight Eisenhower and golf.