This Week's Tournament

This week's tournament is the Deutsche Bank Championship. Apparently this is a big money tournament, hence the big name entrants, including Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods. Other participants include the stars of last week, Brad Faxon, Tjaart van der Walt, Justin Rose, Michael Putnam, and Nick Watney, among others. It looks like it will be a good tournament if the tv coverage doesn't forget that all these other golfers are playing.

Final Round: Buick Championship

Congratulations to Brad Faxon for winning the tournament in a playoff. He really reached out and grabbed the championship by matching the course record. Van Der Walt did great as well and hit some amazing shots. Michael Putnam finished 12 under, exceptionally great for his first ever pro event. This is what I remember golf being like when I watched it in the Pre-Tiger years. I am very happy to see that some of what attracted me to the sport still exists: the comraderie, great sportsmanship, and great human interest stories.

Now for a little bit more on Brad Faxon. A few weeks back I featured him in the Spotlight for reasons that were unknown to me at the time. I just had to feature him there. Then as time went on, I kept paying attention to him, still with no specific reason. Today, I figured out why Brad Faxon has been so much in my sights. He reminds me Kevin Sorbo. Check it out. The same eyes, nose and lips, but just a little different:

Brad Faxon (from espn.com):



Kevin Sorbo (from msn.com):

Midway Through the Final Round

I love these tournaments in which the big stars aren't playing. I am finding myself wanting Michael Putnam to win, but I just cheered as Brad Faxon took the lead. This is some good golf today.

A Couple of Additions

I've added Justin Rose's website to the sidebar and the link to the Ken Rose Foundation in the Charities section. Check out both of them.

3rd Round: Buick Championship

Just a couple of things: Justin Rose in the woods on the 10th was pretty interesting. It's great that he doesn't get too excited about things like that. A lot better than the whiners who throw tantrums over missing eagle putts when they are already ahead by 2 or 3 shots. I get the feeling that Rose doesn't look at these stray shots as obstacles, but challenges. I think the game of golf is still fun for him. It may not be fun for some of the other players out there. Also, just a comment about Corey Pavin. Everyone says that he can't play competitively anymore because all the courses are getting longer, but it looked to me today that his putting was hurting him. One final thought about the third round: It seemed like the announce crew was a bit hungry. I'm sure everytime they used the phrase "crispy greens" they were really thinking of Krispy Creme doughnuts.

Another New Pro

Another young player who just turned pro is Jeff Overton. I don't think he had a good round yesterday, but hopefully he will turn things around.

Jeff Overton turning pro
( Air Date: 8/20/2005 ) Evansville golfer Jeff Overton announced on Saturday that he`s turning pro.

The North High School and IU grad will play in the Buick Championship at TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut this upcoming week.

The tournament used to be called the Greater Hartford Open. Overton got a sponsor`s exemption into the tourney.

Overton recently led the United States to the Walker Cup title in Chicago last weekend. He says he couldn`t have picked a better way to end his amateur career.

Overton`s amateur resume also includes back to back State Amateurs and a top four finish is the U.S. Amateur. He was also named the Big Ten Player of the Year twice and was a first-team All Big Ten player.

I Love the Human Interest Stories

Since there are no big stars at the Buick Championship, the announcers have more time to devote to great stories like this one about Michael Putnam. This player just turned pro and played very well in the first round. I hope he has a great career.


By BRUCE BERLET, Courant Staff Writer

CROMWELL -- Michael Putnam had to chuckle about a whirlwind ride that landed him near the top of the leaderboard in his pro debut Thursday.

The member of the U.S. team that recaptured the Walker Cup 12 days ago figures he was somewhere over Iowa on a flight from Seattle to Philadelphia about 6 p.m. Friday when his agent called with word he had received a sponsor's exemption to the Buick Championship.

"I guess I turned pro on an airplane, didn't really have a media room to do it in," he said, smiling. "So I just said, `Here we go.'"

................................ Read More ............................

The Buick Championship

Well, there is another Buick event on the schedule and it is this week. Tiger isn't playing - whoohoo. So, we will be treated to a few tv hours of players we might not get to see otherwise. The big news is that Jason Gore, fresh from the Nationwide tour, will be making his return to the PGA Tour after winning three events on the Nationwide Tour and getting an automatic 'promotion' to the big tour. I'm excited to see him play this week and I hope he does well. Vaughn Taylor, fresh off his win this past week, will also be playing this weekend. I look forward to seeing him. I don't think I've seen him play before. So, while the 'stars' of the PGA tour won't be playing this week, it still looks to be a good tournament.

Final Round: NEC Invitational

Well, Tiger won. He should win, he's only played that course a hundred times. Ho-hum, yawn. A couple of comments:

Stuart Appleby was assessed a two stroke penalty for something that happened a couple of holes prior in the round. Apparently, his caddie picked up his rolling ball during a ball drop to get relief. First, I think if the rules guy that was with that group didn't notice the rules violation at that time, then there shouldn't be a penalty. Second, why does Stuart employ a caddie who doesn't know the rules? Third, why didn't Stuart know the rule and notice what the caddie had done when it happened?

What's with the hideous striped shirts these guys are wearing? What happened to the red shirt Tiger used to wear on Sundays? For most of the afternoon, I had forgotten what day it was. David Feherty says that bad golf clothes are back in fashion and I believe him. Thank goodness for Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabel's shoes - at least there's still a couple of guys with good fashion sense on the course.

The announce team kept remarking on last week's PGA when Tiger left town on Sunday after his round rather than waiting on Monday to see if the field came back to him. Well, for once, I'm going to agree with Tiger on this. Who better than the competitor to know how the tournament is going to turn out? Tiger knew all the players well and he knew the course. He made a decision that turned out to be right. Enough already on this discussion.

Speaking of Tiger, I have one more thing to say...... I want his caddie's calf muscles. Steve Williams has the best legs on tour and it isn't fair that I've been doing all this treadmill work and all I get for it is huge ugly calves.

Reno-Tahoe Open

There must be something about this tournament that Vaughn Taylor likes. He won the event last year and through three rounds he is 21 under par this year. Here's the leaderboard. If only I had the golf channel, I might be able to actually comment on this because I would have seen some of it.

3rd Round: NEC

Just a couple of comments:

Jim Nantz commented that the difference between being number 1 in the world and number 2 was that Tiger got a ride back to the clubhouse on a golf cart and Vijay had to walk. Later he explained that Vijay was walking because he was right next to the clubhouse and didn't need a cart. But, I thought it was very unprofessional of Nantz say something that was so obviously untrue. It only served to stir up animosity between the Pro-Tiger and Non-Tiger camps. Luckily, I didn't believe Nantz and figured he was trying to be funny in an un-funny way. It isn't like he followed up his statement with a "ha-ha" or anything. Some people might not have understood that Nantz was trying to make a joke.

The other comment: Jim Nantz, again, speaking before he thinks. He actually said that the viewers would be confused over the weather delays. No. We could tell when the upper left hand screen said "recorded" that we were watching recorded coverage of the tournament.

So, Nantz failed at trying to be funny and he insulted the viewers. Way to go.

And Lee Westwood shot a 7 under par round today - I think the day's best. Good for him!!

Blogger Flagging

Blogger has a new thing called Flagging. If you look up at the bar at the top of the page, you'll see the flag button. It's supposed to be used to alert Blogger to objectionable material . Objectionable material is a subjective term so basically anyone can claim to have been offended by anything and Blogger will remove the blog from the 'next blog' programming and not include it on any recently updated lists it generates.

As a result of this, I am publicly stating for the record that just because this blog is not Tiger Friendly, that is no reason to flag my blog. I do not say anything derogatory about Woods' personal life, and I limit my criticism of Woods to his attitude on the course, his play, and the media's treatment of Woods versus the other golfers. Also, I don't harp on the Woods issue constantly. As you can see if you've been following my blog, I cover many other topics. And I've even created a link to The Tiger Woods Foundation to help promote the good work he's doing. I certainly won't be flagging Pro-Tiger blogs because everyone has a right to like or dislike whomever they want.

If this Flagging thing turns into a childish, "I don't like you (sticks his or her tongue out)" thing, it will be a shame. Blogger will have let a good idea de-evolve into some third grade playground exercise in immaturity.

An Added Step in the Commenting Process

Blogger has created a word verification option for their comments to keep spammers from posting spam as comments. It hasn't really happened on this blog but it has on my other ones so, I turned on the word verification for anyone who wants to post a comment. I apologize for adding this extra step but it will help me make sure that only real live people with something important to say will be able to post comments.

Weather delay of a different sort

Today I attempted to record the first round of the NEC Invitational on espn. Unfortunately, we experienced some stormy weather today and the satellite went out so I missed some of it. I don't know how much. I probably won't get to watch what I recorded for a while. Espn was talking about the first round and neglected to include Stenson in the group in the lead. I saw that Retief Goosen was like 7 over or something. I guess the PGA took a lot out of the players.

NEC Invitational

Click here for the first round tee times.

Mickelson Wins the PGA Championship

Picture credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times

By DAMON HACK

Published: August 15, 2005

SPRINGFIELD, N.J., Aug. 15 - Phil Mickelson birdied the 18th hole today to win the 87th P.G.A. Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club by one stroke over Steve Elkington of Australia and Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.

Tiger Woods, who did not play a shot today, finished in a tie for fourth with Davis Love III, two shots back.

The victory was the second major of Mickelson's career, adding to his 2004 Masters title, and brought conclusion to a championship that lasted five days, after two weather delays caused by lightning left Sunday's final round incomplete.

"I'm just ecstatic that I was able to get it done," said the 35-year-old Mickelson, who resumed his round today by making a 3-foot putt for par on the 14th hole.

After making bogey on No. 16, Mickelson stepped to the 18th hole - the 554-yard par 5 - tied for the lead with Elkington and Bjorn and needing a birdie to win. He laced a drive down the fairway and hit a 3-wood into thick rough in front of the green, 35 feet from the pin.

Though the ball settled down in the rough, Mickelson said the lie wasn't terrible. He hit a pitch shot - the kind he has practiced since he was a child, he said. The ball settled two feet from the cup.

He rolled in the short putt for birdie, finishing with a four-under 276, and the large gallery by the 18th green erupted in cheers, as it has each day for Mickelson.

"Phil, you're one of us now," came a shout from the gallery.

Mickelson had come close in major championships before in the New York area, finishing second at the United States Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., in 2002 and at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y., in 2004.

"The people here in New Jersey treated me and my wife amazing," Mickelson said.

Elkington and Bjorn each had a chance to make a birdie before Mickelson took the title. Elkington, playing two groups ahead of Mickelson, missed a 10-foot birdie try after hitting a wedge close.

Bjorn, one group in front of Mickelson, lipped out a 20-foot birdie attempt after blasting out from the back left bunker.

"What can you do?" Bjorn said. "You can only say that that was not meant to be."

Mickelson, who before April 2004 had no majors, has a pair of them now, each earned with a birdie putt on the final hole.

"It's an amazing feeling to be the winner and to be able to hold this trophy," Mickelson said. "It just feels terrific."

4th Round: PGA Championship

1) Tiger's tee shot on the par 3 4th - Lanny Wadkins said it wasn't a good shot, but many other competitors hit their shot in the same spot today. I don't think Lanny was watching the 4th round before coming on tv.

2) Davis Love signed an autograph, ostensibly for a little girl, before starting his round today. I doubt it was really for the little girl though. I think her daddy made her ask for it because he knew Davis wouldn't say no to a little kid. Shame on these parents for using their kids like that.

3) Swingvision - Peter Kostis showed a slow motion swingvision take on a bunker shot today. It looked really cool seeing that ball fly out of the bunker and the sand dispersing the way it did.

4) Steve Elkington is doing great so far. Good for him!

5) I believe the tv people turn up the volume on the crowd noise to try to make the players seem more marketable than they should be. I get tired of turning my tv down when the crowd noise is on, but turning it up when I want to hear the announcers describe the action. Shame on the tv people.

6) Two weather delays today and a no finish to the final round today. Tune back into CBS Monday morning at 10AM eastern to see the rest of the final round.

7) Who would I like to see win? At the beginning of the round it was Davis Love. Now it's Steve Elkington. I would also like to see Steve, Davis, Phil all finish separately in one, two and three so Tiger would finish out of the top three in the tournament. And if Vijay and Thomas Bjorn pushed Tiger even further down on the leaderboard, that wouldn't upset me much either.

A New Blog

I found a new golf blog out there so I added it to the Blogs of Note section. Check out "Bugger!! shanked it again!!"

Third Round: PGA Championship

The family of Charles Howell III must be very happy today. They got to see the replay of his Ace many times, as they should have. It's about time the tv people show something other than Tiger Woods. Davis Love III is having a very good tournament so far. He has moved into a tie for the lead and will be in the final group with Phil Mickelson tomorrow. I hope both of them turn in good rounds tomorrow. I do hate it when the leaders fall back and let Tiger get back into the tournament. Thomas Bjorn shot a 63 today which ties the record for low round in any major. Good for him. That's one record Tiger hasn't claimed yet. John Daly putted much of the day with his sand wedge. Apparently his putter wasn't working for him today. The coolest thing was Peter Kostis' swingvision camera and the shot of the ball coming out of the rough with all the grass wrapped around it. It was slow motion and probably something the average player really never gets a chance to see.

TNT 3rd Round Coverage

Just because Tiger is no longer on the course, doesn't mean they have to spend the rest of the day talking about him and showing pre-packaged 'essay' crap on Jack Nicklaus and other past champions. There are dozens of other golfers out there who are currently playing the course that TNT could and should be showing. They need to do a primetime show with all those essays and features and devote the tournament coverage to the actual playing of the tournament.

More Comments Before Round 3

I've been watching some of round 2 that I recorded yesterday. A couple of moments I liked: on the 2nd hole, after Michael Campbell's 3rd shot, he showed everyone a brilliant smile; and on the 7th hole, he made a very long putt that was pretty exciting. And, just for the record, recording this round was one of the best things I've done. I can fast forward through all the tribute video packages they have aired about Tiger Woods.

And for what it's worth, I think the falling tree limb from yesterday was the act of the ghost of Baltus Roll, who is said to haunt the clubhouse. He may not have meant to hurt anyone, I think he just wanted to make sure people don't forget him and what happened to him.

How 'bout some smores

I guess someone will have plenty of campfire wood after this incident with a tree at the PGA Championship. I hope those injured will all recover and be ok.

What tournament are they watching?

Bobby Clampett said the cream is rising to the top with the 4 top players in the world making the cut. Uh, Tiger did not rise to the top, in fact he sank to the bottom, barely making the cut. He also said Tiger played a brilliant round of golf. I would call it lucky. Not brilliant. Tiger had 3 bogeys in a row. Bogeyed 17. Bobby said it should have been a 64 or 63. Well, everyone should shoot a 63 or 64 if not for the bad shots. Bobby Clampett isn't the only announcer with blinders on today. Gary McCord actually said Tiger was "not making any mistakes" - this was after hitting into a bunker and from the bunker, hitting into the rough on some hole out there today. I am so sick of the blatant sucking up the network is doing. The least they can do is honestly describe the action and not put any spin on it.

Round 2: PGA

Tiger just barely made the cut after a round that I would have enjoyed watching. I recorded most of it so I will have it to watch over and over again. Phil Mickelson is in the lead? There must be pod people in New Jersey replacing pga golfers. Apparently only Phil and Jerry Kelly made big moves today. Seriously, check out the leader board. Only a very few had rounds under par today. I refuse to believe Phil can carry his lead through to the end so that means I really don't know what to expect tomorrow. I hear it's going to be even hotter there tomorrow. Once again I say they should be allowed to wear shorts when the temperature gets too dangerous for them.

I'm currently pondering the question should I work out this weekend or take the weekend off? I haven't worked out for three days as it is. I'm afraid I will lose my momentum and my metabolism will rebel if I take a week off. It's going to be well into the 90's temperature wise this weekend. I think it might be best to not work out. But, I am smelling biscuits for some reason and we don't have any in the house. This might be a bad sign.

I've Figured It Out

Yesterday I tried to record the first round of the PGA with my dvd recorder. Yesterday, I only managed to record 2 hours of it. I don't know if it was the type of dvd I used or if it was the EP thing I chose. But today, I used a memorex 8X dvd and chose AUTO instead of EP. Whichever, it worked. I got the whole 6 hours today that I planned to record. I considered using my vhs recorder, but I don't think I have it hooked up to record from tv. I think I have it hooked up to just play vhs tapes so I can copy them onto DVD. My personal VHS tapes, not professionally made tapes of movies and such. What kind of quality picture and sound does this DVD I recorded today have? I don't know. I'm still watching round 2. Tiger needs a birdie on the 18th to make the cut. With my luck, he'll make par and get my hopes up, only to find that the cut moves from +4 to +5 and he'll get in.

PGA: First Round

Tiger Woods shot a five over 75 today. He is 8 shots back of the lead after the first round. The lead is 3 under and 6 players are in that group including Phil Mickelson. I think this is probably one of the most stellar tournaments I've seen since returning to golf watching. The tv folks did their best to sell Tiger's first round as a death blow to his chances. Of course, the tv people did this to make any comeback he has even that much more dramatic so everyone can make more money. I look for him to move up on the leaderboard, but I don't see a 63 or 64 in the cards for him tomorrow. I don't see the low score after two rounds being more than 6 or 7 under par. But then, I wouldn't be surprised if the low score isn't worse than the 3 under that it is now. After all, they've only just completed one round so far. Plenty of golf left.

Not Tiger's Week??

Apparently, several people at this Sports Illustrated website think Tiger won't win the PGA Championship.

Bananas and Plums

David Feherty was on tv last night on the Late Late Show. He was funny as usual and looked great. He quit drinking (if you've read his column then you know how big of a hobby that was) and has lost quite a bit of weight, he said. We seldom see what he looks like. Once again, David seemed preoccupied with men's swimwear (hence the bananas and plums title). One has to wonder about him. They held up the book, but didn't once talk about it. The book David was promoting, of course, is An Idiot For All Seasons and is pretty good and pretty funny, but light on golf. I didn't care much for all the hunting stories. But I can understand why he would do something different. When I get home from my accounting job, the last thing I want to do is balance my checkbook.

"You know, I mean...."

I taped Michelle Wie's appearance on Letterman last night and I just watched it. She says a good drive for her is 310 - 320 yards and that she wants to get even longer. She plans to play next in October and she did not make a formal announcement regarding turning pro. One of her lines that got a big laugh was when she said she liked to play for money. It's refreshing to see such honesty these days.

Norman's Out

GolfWeb Wire Services

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- Greg Norman withdrew from the PGA Championship on Tuesday, saying he was dealing with muscle fatigue after playing four consecutive tournaments.

Norman had back surgery earlier this year and did not play until the British Open at St. Andrews last month, where he tied for 60th. He followed that with the Senior British Open and the Senior U.S. Open, then missed the cut at the International on the PGA TOUR.

"I knew going into this stretch that it was going to be rigorous, and I had no idea how my body would react so quickly after surgery," Norman said. "In conference with my neurosurgeon and physical therapist, they both believe I simply played too much too soon."

Norman, 50, received a special exemption to play in the PGA Championship. He was replaced by Kevin Sutherland, who will play the first two rounds with Tiger Woods and Michael Campbell.

The PGA traditionally puts the first three major champions of the year in the same group, but there was an opening because Woods won the Masters and the British Open.

This Week's Spotlight

Brad Faxon and Andre Stolz. Stolz is another one I haven't heard of yet, due to my absence from golf fandom, and Brad Faxon is one of the best all around players on tour. And he has a respect for the game that I would say could be unparalleled - as he did participate in a qualifier to get into the British Open this year.

PGA Pairings

I just saw the tee times and pairings for this week's tournament, the PGA Championship. These are some exciting pairings. John Daly, Vijay Singh, and Davis Love will all be in one group. Tiger Woods, Michael Campbell, and Greg Norman in another one. This is one tournament you shouldn't miss. It might take me weeks to watch the first two rounds, but I will be taping them.

TV Alert

Michelle Wie will be on Letterman tonight and David Feherty follows on the Late, Late Show after that. I plan to tape them both since I get up at 5am to work out weekday mornings and I need some sleep. At some point I will hopefully watch them and then comment. I have a bad habit of taping things and then never watching them. It might take a couple weeks to watch Thursday and Friday's rounds of the PGA this week since I have to tape those too.

Finally, a Winner

They finally completed the International sometime last night and Retief Goosen emerged victorious. Hopefully, everyone will now stop harping on his US Open crash. They may say tomorrow is another day, but not if you're the press on a (Hey, Tiger's not playing today, what do we talk about) slow news day.

Congratulations to Jason Gore

Jason Gore scored his third win on the Nationwide Tour this weekend and has earned his way onto the PGA Tour. I have a special affinity for Jason Gore since he won the Nationwide Tour event held in WV, my home state, earlier this year.

Discussions With the Boss

I think I'm going to have to end the golf discussions I've been having with Tony the Boss. Again, I have discovered he was wrong about certain aspects of the sport. Specifically, he claimed there are only two Buick events in the year - there are 3 that I saw on the schedule at golfweb.com (I thought there used to be 4, maybe I missed one). He claimed that Tiger will only play one of them - Tiger has played two of them so far. I can't possibly have a good conversation with Tony if he's going to back up his claims about how great Tiger is with incorrect facts and statistics. Undoubtedly, it's the curse of the high school glory day jock - heavy on sports, light on knowledge. Picture Married With Children's Al Bundy and his 4 touchdowns in a single game story if you need a reference.

2nd Round: The International

Everyone will be talking about Corey Pavin after his little woodland hike through the poison ivy. At least he played the more exciting shot rather than playing away from the green. Who says golf is boring? The announce team was discussing how you could identify poison ivy, and I thought it was interesting that the one person who would know, according to his column, is David Feherty and he didn't chime in on the discussion. Actually I thought it was right for him to keep out of it since he wasn't assigned to that group. I do have one criticism and it is directed toward Lanny Wadkins. Early in the round, Sergio Garcia hit a tee shot and then talked to the wind, or absence thereof as the case may be. Lanny said that at this altitude wind would not affect Sergio's ball and that Sergio should have hit a better shot. Well, on the 11th hole, Steve Flesch's tee shot was in fact affected by the wind and was moved a good 20 feet according to the on course comentator. Did Lanny have to pass any kind of accuracy test before getting his job with CBS? This is twice that I've caught him in conflicting situations/statements and I don't know anything about golf. I can't imagine what golfers have noticed.

36 Holes Tomorrow

They will be playing 36 holes tomorrow at the International. You have to wonder how many of players who want to be in contention at the PGA next week will be trying to make the cut to play 36 holes tomorrow.

An Idiot For All Seasons

I got this book in the mail today and I've started reading it. I love David Feherty! I even liked him when he was a golfer on the tour. His columns always make me laugh, and I think it's great that he has this whole other career as a writer. I could go into how attractive his voice is, but I won't. I doubt the male readers of this blog want to hear that. At first glance, the thing that stood out with this book is the back of the dust jacket. There's a picture of David and I'm guessing his little girl, Erin. She is gorgeous, and he is going to have one tough time being a dad when she starts driving and dating. It's no wonder the first few column entries of this book are thick with gun references. He's getting into practice for the "meet the date" ritual.

Round One: The International

Len Mattiace and the tree shot. That was wild and I bet a very refreshing change from what people are used to seeing. Yesterday during the rain out coverage, I couldn't help but think that this is the one tournament in which the players are virtually guaranteed they won't have to play more than 18 holes in one day, at the most 27. I'm sure no one who runs the tournament wants to wear out the competitors the week before the PGA. So, if there's ever a tournament to be weather-shortened, it would be this one, or any tournament the week before a Major. Especially this one since it appears that weather affects this tournament every year. And I'm not sure if I can take hearing Gary McCord talk about the altitude for two more days. Yes, we know the air is thin up there. Maybe he should go back to bikini waxing greens like he did at the Masters the last time he was allowed there.

1999 PGA

When I started the day (I had the day off from work) I believed I would have to wait until 4pm eastern to see any golf. But, to my surprise, ESPN Classics had an hour retrospective on today about the 1999 PGA Championship. I think this was one of the last tournaments I watched before deciding I couldn't continue to watch the networks suck up to Tiger Woods. It was good to see young Sergio Garcia and that wild shot he made from behind that tree. The smile he gave afterward was very cute.

Plus is Good. Minus is Bad.

It's hard getting used to the stableford scoring. I'm not even trying to add it up myself. I'm just watching the players and letting the announcers tell me what the scores are.

Rainout at the International

Round one didn't get played today due to rain. USA ended up showing last year's first round, which was ok with me since I didn't watch it last year. Greg Norman looks to be in even better shape than I thought this year after seeing what he looked like last year. It's a shame that USA couldn't do some interviews with the participants today. I did see Jim Nantz however. The International must be a huge event for Nantz to show up.

Modified Stableford Scoring

This week's PGA event, The International, uses this strange scoring system in which point values are awarded for eagles, birdies etc.. I understand how people who play golf every day would like a change once in a while, but I'm not a big fan of this kind of thing. I saw some kind of strange scoring system earlier in a celebrity event televised on NBC and I have to say, my first thought was "gee, nothing like giving extra points to stroke a few egos". I apologize if I offended anyone, but this kind of seems to me to be something that you'd see at the end of the year, not while official golf is being played for official money and rankings.

GMail Account

For the second time I've had to reset my password because I get a message that says my password and username do not match. Does anyone know if these passwords to gmail (google email) expire after so long or are they constantly being attacked by hackers and I'm getting locked out??

This Week's Spotlight

is on Jose Coceres and John Elliott. I decided to go with a foreign player and a player whose name could be in any phone book in the US. In fact there is a John Elliott in my phone book and I doubt it's this guy :)

My boss, Tony, and I recapped this weekend in golf this morning at work. And for a while, it was going great. But then he started talking about how he slices and hooks and cuts and I tuned him out. I'm surprised he didn't see my eyes glaze over. I guess he doesn't totally get the whole I'm a viewer, not a player thing. Anyway, with work being really sucky at the moment, I've now got it in my head that I could move to Florida, where my sister lives, and get a job at the World Golf Village. If I can listen to Tony's golf stories, I should be great working around golf fanatics all day long. LOL!