The Buick Championship: Round 1

I forgot this was on today. I had tried to record the European Tour event but my dvd recorder doesn't like the -r dvds I have. First, it said it recognized the blank -r dvd I put in this morning. But when I turned the dvd recorder on this evening to watch what I thought I'd recorded, the recorder said the -r dvd was not recognized. So, I'm scrapping all of my remaining -r dvds. I have -rw dvds I can use. Anyway, back to Hartford - Camilo is close to the lead and Paul Azinger is playing this week. I haven't had a chance to pick a favorite to watch this week, but hopefully I can do that soon.

Spaniard Watch 6/29/06

Jose Maria Olazabal is playing in France this week. Hopefully he will make it to the weekend. You can see him, maybe, on the golf channel Friday morning.

Rafael Nadal (tennis) will be playing Andre Agassi at Wimbledon this weekend (I think on Saturday). That will be a big match since Agassi announced he will be retiring after the US Open.

Some New Sparklies

Kelly Whatshername on the Golf Channel finally has a new necklace to wear. She's been wearing the same necklace (the thick chain like one with the hoop in the center) for weeks. Tonight she wore something different. That's really been bugging me that she didn't have anything else to wear.

On to Golf Central content: Phil couldn't play in the par 3 shootout but he could fly to GB to play a practice round at Hoylake. I hope he has a sucky British Open too after backing out of a previous commitment. He chose his greed for another major over his fans.

Book Notes

Well, I think I've finished chapter 5 and I'm on to chapter 6. I still have to type up chapter 5 to see how long it is. I have a four day weekend coming up so hopefully I can get the typing caught up. Tonight I've been working on organizing my fictional golf universe. I've had to create tv networks, personalities, golfers, tournament names, names of golf club manufacturers and all kinds of other things and all without infringing on copyrights or trademarks. I hope I'm succeeding. It's really tough to rename something like the British Open. I mean, it's in Great Britain, and it's an open championship. At least with other tournament names I can just string together some letters and say they stand for a Swiss banking institution or something.

Happy Birthday to the Blog

Today Even Par Round is one year old. A lot's happened in this last year. I'm skinny now. I lost about 5 or 6 dress sizes in the second half of last year. I got Phoebe, my chihuahua puppy. My parents moved out, and I finally got the Golf Channel on my satellite dish. I needed new tires for my car last year, and oddly enough I still do. I am going to a PGA golf tournament in August, which I probably wouldn't have done if I hadn't started watching golf again and blogging about it. And I've met a lot of really great people through blogging about golf. Anything I've been surprised by while blogging about golf? All the people out there who are searching for naked pictures of the golfers. The only one who has naked pictures out there that I know about is David Feherty who was the focus of that really good article in the Golf magazine, and strangely, no one is searching for him. If you've happened across my blogger profile or been to Miranda's Window Dressing (in the sidebar) then you can tell I am a habitual blogger. I don't know what the next year will bring to this blog, but hopefully, part of it will be a reflection of the happiness I feel from watching one of the greatest sports.

Roundup

Paul Casey emerged with a one shot lead over Colin Montgomerie after the third round of the European event.

Ben Curtis has a commanding lead going into the final round of the Booz Allen Classic. Brett Quigley is playing well again this week. I like Brett Quigley. No one smiles more on the PGA tour than Brett Quigley. I think they should show more of him on tv. If they explained where Paul Azinger was today during the ABC coverage, I missed it. And once again, I'm going to say that Mike Tirico is one of the smartest, clued in, announcers out there. Golf is going to miss him next year. And as for Peter Allis and Nick Faldo's obsession with J. B. Holmes' pants - at least they stay up. He's not showing his underwear out there.

The Senior Tour was in a rain delay when I checked in on them, so I don't have anything to report there.

And the third round of the LPGA event hasn't aired yet. I hope Brittany Lang does well. She's one of the youngun's but you don't hear anything about her or from her. She just goes quietly along, playing her game. I think I have picked a player to keep an eye on though. Virada Nirapathpongporn. Can you imagine how she felt in kindergarten when the teacher had the kids write their names? Five minutes later, she's still working on it because it's so long. I work in a job where I see a lot of names, and we at work always think about how the names could affect the people they belong to.

Spaniard Watch 6/23/06

Carl Suneson

Francisco Valera

Miguel Angel Martin

Santiago Luna


All of these guys made the cut at the Johnny Walker Championship this week.

Booz Allen Classic

Like I said earlier, I haven't had a chance to see much of this tournament so far. I don't know who to cheer for since I haven't heard any of the personal stories you're likely to hear during rounds 1 and 2. Hopefully, I'll find someone to cheer for this weekend. I was checking out the leaderboard on the pga tour website and I got to wondering about something: why is it some of the competitors don't have flags by their names to signify their countries of origin? I can understand not having a rank on the money list or something. But pretty much everyone has a flag to represent their country. It makes it hard for a girl to do Spaniard Watch. LOL! I think I should check out the European Tour for this week's Spaniard Watch. I might have better luck.

He Isn't

Well, I watched a little bit of the Booz Allen coverage today and Sergio is not playing. That article I saw yesterday was a mistake. I didn't get to watch too much of the golf today. I went to walmart after work. Tomorrow night, I'm going to the grocery store after work so I won't get to see much of it then either. We don't have a walmart supercenter yet so I have to shop in separate stores. It's being built though.

Is he or isn't he??

I just read this that says Sergio is playing this week. The golf channel said the other day that he's not playing. I wish people would stick to one story. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I check the scoreboard at the pga tour website.

Stop Searching for Naughty Photos!!!

I just checked my hit counter stats again. And again, someone is looking for pictures of an un-clothed golfer. Stop that!!! These guys are family men and mama's boys. They don't have any pictures out there like that.

Moving Along

My golf related romance novel is moving along. I've finished chapters 3 and 4 and will be starting chapter 5 any time now. I've even written some actual golf stuff for it. After having watched golf for a number of years and hearing the announcers say the same thing over and over again, I don't think it will be as much of a challenge as it could be for a non-golfer to write golf scenes.

I've been watching the CVS Charity event on the Golf Channel. It's nice to see these guys have some fun after playing Winged Foot. I even saw Jose Maria Olazabal and got to hear an interview. Of course, I'm a big Brad Faxon fan so I was happy to get to see this event. Brett Quigley won an SUV for a hole in one. Lucky him.

Sergio Garcia has withdrawn from the Booz Allen tournament citing a back injury as the cause. I hope he gets everything all worked out soon. He's falling in the world rankings and the Ryder Cup is coming up sooner than he thinks.

I've been thinking about the upcoming trip to the tournament in August. The way I figure it, I will be spending a WV fortune to go to this thing. I hope for all I'm spending Sergio Garcia at least sneezes on me as he walks by, even if I can't get his autograph or take pictures at the tournament.

US Open: Final Round

1. Johnny Miller comment of the day: Ferriedust (How many more Ferrie references can they come up with?)

2. It was not flattering at all to see that close up of Jim Furyk eating right before his round. Gee thanks NBC.

3. The network coverage came on at 12:30pm but we only saw about an hour's worth of golf until Phil Mickelson teed off at 3pm. The feature stories were nice, but once again I say, there were 60 other golfers in that event, it would be nice to see some of them. It was the toughest test in golf and they survived it. Give them some TV time people. And it was father's day, you'd think their kids would like to see their dads on Father's day.

4. Mickelslam - I am so tired of this word. And every time I hear it, I can't help but think of a breakfast platter at Denny's.

5. Ogilvy played the last three holes at par while everyone else in contention played them worse. He hit a good number of fairways for the most part, considering the course. He deserved to win the tournament. It certainly wasn't handed to him.

6. Montgomerie's 18th hole was painful to watch. I feel really bad for him.

7. Around 6pm, Phil had a two shot lead I think, and people were backing up so I decided to take the dogs for a walk. Part of that depressed thing about people making bogeys and doubles instead of pars and birdies. I ended up missing about 40 minutes of the tournament. But apparently, the last 20 minutes was all anyone needed to see.

8. Phil's 18th hole. I can't join everyone else by saying bad decisions were made etc because I don't play golf, so I don't know what kind of decisions were out there for a man in the lead on the toughest golf couse anyone's played in probably 32 years, since the last massacre at Winged Foot.

9. Golf Channel Poll: Player of the Year so far? It was a close vote by golf channel viewers with Phil coming out just ahead of Ogilvy. But I think Ogilvy should have the edge. Phil's won a major and the Bell South. Ogilvy's won a major (with one of the toughest courses in 32 years) and the matchplay event which had the top 50 in the world competing, and Ogilvy had to play more golf and come back from behind more than anyone else to win that event. You can't really say the Bell South event had that level of competition.

10. Since I will be attending a golf tournament later this summer, I thought I would scan the gallery to see what women were wearing and carrying with them. There weren't too many women in the gallery. Wonder if that is a characteristic of New York?

11. I still say this whole toughest course mentality the USGA has is bad for viewers. I didn't even watch the whole thing and if Phil would have won after missing all but two fairways, not only would I have had to re-think my decision to watch golf, but the USGA wouldn't be able to hide behind the old quote of not embarrassing the best players, but trying to identify the best players.

12. Steve Stricker gets his tour card (that's what Dan Hicks said). Good for him; he moved up from 80th on the money list to 59th and finished T-6.

13. David Duval moved up from 152 to 137. A few more good tournaments and he should hopefully keep his card.

Golf Channel Post Game Show

The Golf Channel is conducting an internet poll regarding who is going to win the US Open. Apparently, about two-thirds of the tv audience believe Phil Mickelson is going to win. I think I will watch the final round until he tees off and then find something else to watch. I can't stand much more of this bogey, double bogey stuff. It's too depressing to see everyone playing so badly. At least Kenneth Ferrie had some smiles out there early today.

A Note to David Feherty and Cobra Golf

Golfers do do the butt pat. I saw Steve Stricker's caddie do that to him on a replay today of one of Stricker's holed bunker shots.

US Open Round 3

There were some nice shots early that made you happy you were watching: Fred made a long putt, Peter Hedblom had a hole in one and then had an eagle a hole or two later. But then things went south and it was more of the same: who could play the least bad. It's so depressing. If I keep watching, I might have to take some of my dad's welbutrin medicine.

Did you notice that whenever Johnny Miller said something "this could come out ___ and do this ____" that it did? Too bad he doesn't play anymore. I'd like to see him play against Lanny Wadkins - maybe one round for charity or something.

And two quotes from Johnny Miller that I had to mention:
1. "He's in Ferrieland." Dan Hicks had to clarify that Miller was referring to Kenneth Ferrie for the sake of the censors.

2. "He's like a David Feherty who can play." Commenting on Kenneth Ferrie. I love David Feherty, but that was a good quote.

Spaniard Watch: Jimenez and Olazabal are pretty far back. If I want to see them tomorrow, I'd better tune in early.

Hottest Bachelor?

Listed in People Magazine's current issue as one of the hottest bachelors is Camilo Villegas. I might actually have to buy the magazine to check this out. Although he should be ranked higher than the American Idol guy. They showed a picture of Camilo in the magazine yesterday on the golf coverage and it was a very good picture. (The picture on the right isn't from the magazine.)

Quotes and Notes from the US Open

Quotes and Notes from the US Open

Tickets

Well, I ordered the tickets for the Bridgestone Invitational and reserved my hotel room. So, I guess I'm going. Hopefully I won't get lost.

US Open Round 2: General Observations

1. When the NBC announce crew makes a mistake on air, they correct it. You don't have to wonder what tournament they are watching like I do sometimes when CBS is covering an event. I don't remember the specifics, but someone tried a chip shot or a shot from a bunker and the on course commentator said it was a good shot, but it turned out to be a bad one and Johnny Miller corrected the on course guy. Then the on course guy agreed and said he had spoken too soon.

2. The Tadd Fukikawa story is a good one. He didn't make the cut, but he did get some air time which is great for the 15 year old qualifier from Hawaii.

3. In contention: Steve Stricker, Colin Montgomerie, Kenneth Ferrie, Jim Furyk, Geoff Ogilvy, Arron Oberholser. I look forward to watching these guys. I hope they can keep up the good play.

4. Spaniard Watch: I saw Sergio a couple of times this morning, which will be the last time I see him this weekend unless the golf channel airs some old highlights show or something. Jose Maria Olazabal made it to the weekend and I saw him a couple of times today. Miguel Angel Jimenez is still the best of the three.

5. Chris Berman of ESPN: Sounds like he belongs on the Sopranos and it sounds like he wouldn't know much about golf, but he seems to be more knowledgeable about golf than ESPN Carl. And even today, ESPN Carl didn't bother me.

6. Michelle Wie would've shot at least +20 in this tourament and that's probably being generous. I think I see now why so many guys interviewed on that Monday she tried to qualify were so supportive. Maybe they wanted to see her fail miserably in the tournament.

7. The guys who yell "Get in the Hole" on par 5 tee shots should be smacked. Really, really hard.

Tiger Woods at Winged Foot

Did he come back too early? Too late? Did he underestimate the course? Was he not focused enough on the tournament? All questions people will be asking. I'll just say that I had hoped he would make the cut. There's no way anyone +9 could contend for the championship on Sunday, but it's a shame that the current #1 in the world isn't a part of weekend play, if only to take some attention away from Phil Mickelson (he gets too much attention).

Winged Foot: Too Tough for TV?

1. Good play to cheer for is rare.

2. It's doubtful anyone can mount a charge and come from behind or shoot a really low score to challenge leaders.

3. It's depressing to hear the announcers say over and over again, "this is for bogey", "rough, rough, rough", "this is to save par".

I think the announcers are stressed over trying to find something to wake up the tv audience with.

And I think that all the golfers are going to be too exhausted after this tournament to play next week. I know many players don't play the week after a major, but some do and I don't think they will be playing this year.

Vacation!!!

I'm off until Wednesday. Yay!! Hopefully, I can work on the book. I've started chapter 4, but I have a sneaky suspicion that chapter 3 is extra long.

US Open Round 1

Colin Montgomerie is leading the pack! HAH! to everyone who said his time had passed. But what happened to David Howell? I left him at 2 under par to go water the vegetable garden and I come back and he's at even par? I hope he can continue to play well this week. Spaniard Watch: I saw two or three glimpses of Sergio (who is at +8 - he needs to do some work if he wants to play on the weekend), nothing of Jose Maria Olazabal, and quite a bit of Miguel Angel Jimenez. Jimenez is a great player, I'll settle for watching him if I can't see the other two. Kevin Stadler is doing well so far. I think that's unexpected. He had a dismal trip abroad a few weeks ago and really hasn't done much since winning earlier in the year. And one more name to single out: John Cook. He's had a really good last few weeks. Oh wait a minute, one more name to throw out there: Jason Dufner who won the Nationwide event last week. He's at +2.

Tiger and Phil? I actually said "yay" when Tiger made a putt today. I want him to make the cut this week and do well. Maybe not win, unless Phil would be the only other guy with a chance to win, but I would like to see Tiger do well. As for Phil, what would happen to him if he spent all that time before the US Open preparing and didn't win? Would he change his preparation plans for the next major? It says a lot more to me that Colin Montgomerie is playing as well as he is with as little preparation as he's had. And if a Colin Montgomerie wins (someone who didn't spend all that time playing the course ahead of time) it will be a bigger win and will mean more to the sport.

I Was Going to Order Tickets ...

to the Bridgestone Invitational this evening when I got home from work. But I did this instead. Phoebe prefers to go naked, however.

I think I'm on the verge of chickening out of going to the tournament. I would have to go by myself, and I hate going anywhere alone. Which is odd since I love living by myself.

ABC spells WRONG

I was just on the google news webpage checking out the headlines when this one jumped out at me:
Wie Gets Playoff Victory Over Webb. Se Ri Pak won, not Michelle Wie. Sloppy journalism from ABC. Anyway, here's a link to the story. I don't know if they will change the headline or leave it.

Barclays Third Round

Billy Andrade is in the lead with Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Brett Quigley, David Howell and Fredrik Jacobson right behind him. It should be a good final round tomorrow.

Best part of the third round - the return of Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger to the commentator's booth. Yay! Best line of the day: Nick Faldo saying that Paul took so long to hit a shot that Ben Crane called in and said to get a move on. LOLOL!!!!!

Comments on the Golf Channel

Just a couple of thoughts I had regarding last night's Golf Central show:

1. Brian Hewitt's comments about Sergio's recent play. I completely agree that Sergio's whole game has been off lately. I keep telling my boss that, but as he is one of those 'men', he thinks he knows everything and doesn't listen to a word I say. He claims it's just Sergio's putting. Thank you Brian Hewitt for validating my observations.

2. Americans should not call Padraig Harrington Paddy. It sounds like they are calling him 'Potty'.

Spikes

They've been talking about Steve Elkington's spike controversy on the Golf Channel. He wasn't allowed to wear metal spikes at the sectional qualifier even though other venues for sectional qualifying allowed metal spikes. While I feel bad for Elkington, I can't help but think of where this debate might lead, especially if it goes all the way to some kind of court action. Someday, someone will file a lawsuit claiming it was unfair that course A was longer than course B. Or that course A had more bunkers than course B. Apparently people get to choose where they want to play their qualifying rounds, so it would seem that Elkington just chose the wrong venue.

Barclay's

Sergio Garcia and Rocco Mediate withdrew citing back injuries. I want to know how Jim Furyk hurt his back brushing his teeth. I read that story yesterday on the web.

Notables:
Billy Andrade, David Howell, Joey Sindelar, Arron Oberholser, Paul Azinger, Jose Maria Olazabal, and Loren Roberts all seem to be on track to make the cut.

Vaughn Taylor - just as I say something nice about him, he shoots +4 for two rounds and will probably miss the cut. Sorry for jinxing you.

USA Network: Thanks for showing Jose Maria today.

Thank You Golf Channel

CBS might not show Sergio and Jose Maria, but the Golf channel does. They have repeated the 2006 Memorial Clinic show with Jose Maria Olazabal several times and tonight they showed highlights of the 2004 Barclay's Classic (then called Buick Classic) which Sergio won.

Two Chapters Down

I've written two chapters and have begun working on the third of my golf themed romance novel. I have no idea if it's any good, but at least I haven't gotten bored with it and put it aside yet.

US Open Qualifying

Well, Michelle Wie didn't qualify for the US Open. But she did well, finishing +1. Rich Lerner from the Golf Channel interviewed her after her second round and she apparently said all the things the commentators had been saying. I really think she needs to work on that putting. The Golf Channel folks have been interviewing other competitors about Michelle Wie and some of them have been saying that she should play the women's tour, they don't know why she isn't playing the LPGA tour, etc. Well, she isn't playing every week on the LPGA tour because they won't let her. I say Michelle should play where ever she can play, be it a men's event or a women's event. She's not going to get any better sitting around until she's 18 when the LPGA finally lets her in. According to Steve Sands, some of the LPGA players have been making some comments about how Michelle playing the men's tour and then coming back to the LPGA tour 'cheapens' the women's tour or lessens its importance. Well, if the women don't want her playing the men's tour, they should be trying to change the LPGA rules so she can play more on the women's tour. But they aren't. She would probably beat them. Seems to me they don't really want her anywhere.

Next Up: Sectional Qualifying

Will Michelle Wie make it into the US Open? I'm not predicting this one. I would love to see her play her way into the tournament. Unfortunately, I will be working tomorrow, not in front of my tv watching the updates on the Golf Channel. But hopefully, I can sneak a peek at google news and find out if she makes it.

Memorial Final Round

Carl Petterson, Brett Wetterich, and Zach Johnson made the final round very exciting. Even though Johnson and Phil Mickelson both shot a 2 under par round today, it seemed to me that Zach might have played better. It seemd Phil was in trouble more than Zach.

Other notables and their final round scores:
Mark Brooks -6
Paul Azinger -5
Brandt Jobe -5
Ian Poulter -5
Jose Maria Olazabal -4
Vaughn Taylor -4
Sergio Garcia -3

David Duval shot an 82 in the final round, but what's more interesting is that Ernie Els shot an 81.

Memorial: Round 3 (so far)

They aren't done yet, but here are some observations:

Paul Casey is doing pretty well, but from what I've seen of him on the European Tour lately, he's had trouble with Sundays. Wonder if that will continue tomorrow.

Adam Scott, Tim Clark and Sean O'Hair are all having trouble today. Hopefully that will mean they will shoot low tomorrow.

Vaughn Taylor plays pretty well often and yet no one talks about him.

Robert Gamez had a 4 under round today. The best so far.

Right now the pgatour website is showing 6 withdraws. I hope those guys had pretty good reasons. I wouldn't want to think these people bailed just because it was raining.

Spaniard Watch 6/3/06

French Open Tennis: Raphael Nadal - 2 1/2 hours.

Memorial Tournament: Thanks to Jay Haas, one brief glimpse of Sergio's backside.

C'mon CBS, Show some Sergio and Jose Maria.

My Take on the Rake Controversy

Jack Nicklaus has said numerous times during this week's coverage that guys shouldn't be aiming for bunkers or rough, they should aim for fairways and greens. And I completely agree with him. So, when the new rake made its debut and the game got just a little more challenging for the millionaires, I was happy to see it. And quite frankly, these guys are professionals. They should suck it up and play. Not whine.

An interesting side note: The top prize this week is about $1 Million. It would take me 38 years at my current salary to make that much money.

Suckiest Tee Time

8:00PM Eastern: Kevin Stadler, Edoardo Molinari, and Kevin Hall.

It gets dark between 8:30 and 9PM. These guys might get to play two holes, maybe three, before having to stop for the night. I wonder how long they had to wait around today. Can you tell I'm a morning person?

As for the rest of the comments about day 2: I still didn't get to see Jose Maria Olazabal. The only time I've seen him in probably the last month has been the 2006 Memorial Clinic show on the Golf Channel.

Chris Couch and Steve Lowery have apparently withdrawn from the tournament.

Memorial: Round 1

Guys doing well:
Sergio, Sean O'Hair, Fred Couples, Davis Love, Nick Price, David Howell, Paul Casey and David Duval

Doing OK:
Brad Faxon at +1

Guys who have work to do:
Vijay, Retief, Ernie and Jose Maria at +2

Needs a Prayer:
Camillo Villegas +7 thru 14

Yes, I left out Phil. Someone else can talk about him.