Book Review

I got the Darren Clarke book in the mail today and I've already read it. Well, most of it. Some of the player profiles I skipped. I mean really, I don't need to read Tiger's profile. But here's my view of Heroes All: My Ryder Cup Story 2006:

First, it looked as though the book had been booted around the floor of a warehouse - the dust jacket was scuffed quite a bit. But I blame Amazon for that.

As for the book, my one pet peeve is the very inconvenient spots the publisher chose to insert the color picture groupings. There are two sets of color pictures and the first one not only interrupts a chapter, but it interrupts a sentence in the chapter. The second grouping separated Brett Wetterich's picture from his player profile.

The pictures are very good pictures, especially the picture of the course that opens and closes the book.

The writing: I have only one thing to say - Americans write like I do and Darren Clarke writes like this: "When I came out of my room, dressed in black trousers, white dinner jacket, white shirt and red bow tie, all I needed to look like a proper magician was a top hat and three rabbits tucked up my sleeve." I really think America is making a mistake by focusing more on math and science and letting language skills slide. Whether you're reading Peter Allis' book, David Feherty's column in Golf Magazine or Darren Clarke's book, you just get the feeling that there are some aspects of their respective countries' educational systems that are just plain better than America's, for all of America's No Child Left Behind rhetoric.

Contents of the book: The book cover's Darren's personal thoughts on Ryder Cup week, contains team profiles, a hole-by-hole guide of the K-Club course, a some history of the Ryder Cup which also includes some of Darren's comments about the previous teams of which he was a member.

Overall, my money was well spent on this book. There was a moment when I allowed the stray "agenda question" to run through my mind. You know the question - it's the same one you get when you read Greg Norman's book. You wonder what the other side of the story is. Being an American in this day and age, I have grown accustomed to automatically looking for the angle or political point of view of any and every news report I see or read - the Trust No One philosophy. So, it was unfortunately natural for me to wonder if there was some sort of underlying purpose for this book. Then, after a second, I banished that glimmer of cynicism from my mind and embraced the story for what it is - Darren Clarke's account of the 2006 Ryder Cup. It's probably a great help that I don't know much about Darren Clarke and wouldn't know if there's a particular slant to the facts.

So, go buy the book. Read the book. I doubt that you'll be disappointed.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Whose Week is it?

Well, it's Tiger Week again on the Golf Channel. I wish they would celebrate my birthday and do an all Spaniard week around the second week of December. I think the Tennis Channel is airing the top matches of the year this week in the evenings so if there's nothing else on any of my 200 channels, then I will probably have the tv on the Tennis Channel. I'm watching/listening to Justine Hennin and Amelie Mauresmo play a grass court match right now.

I've started a new story today that hopefully will turn into a new book. It's not golf related though. I'll have to get back to the golf stories eventually.

And tomorrow I will get back on the diet. I plan to stick to it since there are no upcoming eating events to derail me. We don't do anything special for New Year's Day. Well, mom fixes cabbage to eat, but there's no way I'm eating stinky food. You have to figure that God made it smell bad for a reason. Maybe watching all of this tennis will encourage me to work out some. I think with my diet, I can actually lose some weight without working out, so I might just ride that out for a while and see how far it gets me. Since my work hours now last until 4:30pm, it makes me that much later getting home and I don't really want to work out after I get home that late. Plus, if I'm writing my story then I won't have time to work out too.

Winnie is licking my fingers as I type this. I think I'll need to stop. She loves the attention. I think I picked the right Spaniard for her honorary daddy (Sergio).

Summer Travel

Well, my brother-in-law once again mentioned the idea of me coming down to Jacksonville some time during the year and visiting the World Golf Hall of Fame, which isn't too far away from where my sister and brother-in-law live. I might have to check into travel options. I've already checked online with the local airports and they don't have direct flights to Jacksonville. If I drive, it's about 12 hours. Yuck. I could always rent a car to keep from putting miles on my car. And the rent-a-car might come with a nagivation system that is not a paper map (hahaha). There might be a chance that I could do connecting flights and make it down there in less than 12 hours, but it is flying so I wouldn't bet on that.

I would also like to go back to the Bridgestone Invitational this year. I'll have to see how everything goes between now and then.

A New Book

I found a book on amazon written by Darren Clarke - it's about the 2006 Ryder Cup. It's called "Heroes All: My Ryder Cup Story 2006." I ordered it, so once I've read it, I'll let you know how it is. I don't have the amazon page up right now so I'm not going to link to the book. But you all can find it.

Review of the 2006 Ryder Cup DVD

It's a very good dvd. It makes spending $600.00 on my laptop that keeps crashing worth it when the picture quality is so good. Obviously, I played the dvd in the laptop last night. The only thing I could criticize about this dvd is the lack of press conferences and interviews. They could have put a lot more interviews and stuff on the dvd - even make it a 2 disc special edition.

Christmas Presents

I got the 2006 Ryder Cup dvd!!!! I'm so excited. I can fast foward and skip all the boring Tiger parts. Well, except for the parts where he gets beat. I will replay those in slow motion probably. Hahahaha!!!

Other gifts I got: a little soapstone pig pendant to wear as a necklace, a pewter pig with a unique hinged lid, the Pancake Puffs pan that you see advertised on tv, and $20.00 cash.

It was great to see the reactions of everyone to the gifts they got as well. I think that's the best part.

Now I have a bunch of candy to eat before I can get back on the diet. And I'm sure my dad will bring up more food tomorrow. He loves to dump all the candy and cake on me because he wants to be on a diet.

Wendy's Three Tour Challenge

A few weeks back, the new comentators for the 19th hole show on the Golf Channel did nothing but criticize the silly season and proclaim that the time had come to end all of the events except, of course, Tiger's. Because we all know that Tiger is the only, only, only reason golf should be on tv at all (a lot of sarcasm there). Well, the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge has done more for charity and kids than any of these comentators have ever done. Plus, this weekend's golf was exciting and fun to watch. Right down to Morgan Pressel's bad shots on the last hole that set up the playoff between the LPGA and the Champions Tour. The LPGA ended up winning, but the real winners are the kids who will benefit from the money raised in this event.

I love the silly season events and I always look forward to the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge. I want to see the girls play against the guys and I want to see Dave Thomas' legacy continue to help the cause of adoption in this country.

An Update on Jose Maria Olazabal

Click here for an article about the 2 time Masters Champion. Looks like he might return at the tournament in Dubai.

I Apologize in Advance...

I found the following joke on a joke website. I apologize if it offends anyone, including Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. I thought it was cute.

The Pope met with the College of Cardinals to discuss a proposal from Shimon Peres, the former leader of Israel. "Your holiness," said one of the Cardinals, "Mr. Peres wants to determine whether Jews or Catholics are superior, by challenging you to a golf match." The Pope was greatly disturbed, as he had never held a golf club in his life.

"Not to worry," said the Cardinal, "we'll call America and talk to Jack Nicklaus. We'll make him a Cardinal, he can play Shimon Peres... We can't lose!" Everyone agreed it was a good idea. The call was made and, of course, Jack was honored and agreed to play.

The day after the match, Nicklaus reported to the Vatican to inform the Pope of his success in the match. "I came in second, your Holiness," said Nicklaus.

"Second?!!" exclaimed the surprised Pope. "You came in second to Shimon Peres?!!"

"No," said Nicklaus, "second to Rabbi Woods."

I'm Sure You've Heard This One Before.....

A joke to give you a chuckle:

One night, Peter was home watching TV when his wife entered the room and asked, "If I died, would you remarry?"

Peter thought for a second then said "Yeah I guess I would".

Then his the wife asked, "well would you have her as your golfing partner?"

Peter replied, "yep I probably would do that too".

"But surely you wouldn't give her my clubs?!", she cried.

Peter looked at her and said, "Nah, shes left handed."

Drug Testing Manual is Released

According to tonight's Golf Central, the PGA Tour released a 42 page booklet on the upcoming drug testing program. Many of the golfers interviewed on Golf Central hadn't even read through it yet. At first I thought, gee, they aren't readers, are they? Then I thought whether they think it pertains to them or not, all the golfers need to read all the material on the drug testing. As I understand it, something as innocent as cold medication can affect a drug test. The golfers really do need to be prepared to avoid any problems next year.

And yet, a criticism of Golf Central

This morning I was watching yesterday's Golf Central, I think it was yesterday's, and Inga Hammond was talking about Ernie Els and his loss last week. She called it Van de Veldian and said "sure it wasn't in a major against Tiger..." as if to say Vand de Velde had in fact had his collapse in a major against Tiger. Van de Velde didn't lose to Tiger at the British Open. He got into a playoff with Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard, I think. I just love how these so-called journalists re-write history to suck up to Tiger.

19th Hole Criticism

One of the mouthy guys said that in choosing between Lorena Ochoa and Tiger Woods he would pick Tiger because Tiger has 13 majors and Lorena has 1. Well, Tiger's also been playing for several more years than Lorena. Hello. There was no logic at all behind his statement. The real discussion should have been whether or not a perennial #1 is better for the game of golf than a volatile world rankings chase. Competition or Monopoly. Ooh, the mouthy guy was someone named Hawkins. He's also very negative on the Skins Game and Three Tour Challenge complaining that they are just staged to sell products. Gee, you mean I don't see Buick commercials during the Buick Invitational? You mean it's really called the _____ Pebble Beach Pro Am? I personally like watching the Skins Game and the Three Tour Challenge. There's a reason I never watched this 19th Hole show. I thought it was because of that Duemig guy, but no, I think it's just the nature of the show.

My World - Brandt Snedeker

Boy does he drive a lot! I can understand wanting to sit down when your job is standing on your feet for 4 hours or more a day. But really, in the suv, out of the suv, in the suv, out of the suv. If he's going to keep driving like that, maybe he needs to get himself a hybrid vehicle. It was interesting to see a golfer living in Nashville. It's not a hotbed of golfing activity. And let me tell you, if I ever had to do a My World like thing, it would be the most boring half hour of everyone's lives. I would not take someone on a tour of my hometown and talk to the camera like that. I would show you all what it's like to sit at home and watch tv, play with my dogs and surf the internet.

A Bit off Topic - you know in the last post I was confused as to what day it was? Well, I'm even more confused now. They advertised the 19th hole show for tonight. I thought that was a Wednesday show.

A Day Early

Well, I came home tonight from work, got onto the internet and went to GolfBlogger's website eager to see what the Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week was. Then I remembered - This is Thursday. I have to wait one more day to see what the Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week is. Oh well, this is a good kind of disappointment - you know, "gee how will I ever spend that day off tomorrow waiting for Golfblogger's website to be updated?" LOL.

When It maybe Sort of Gets Left at a Neighbor's House

Here's my FEDEX story for the week. I ordered something from www.dog.com and chose FedEx for the shipping. I should have known better because the idiots they have driving for them don't leave packages at my house. They leave them at the neighbor's house. So, what happened to my package? Probably left at the neighbor's house. I don't know because I never got it and the neighbor never called to let me know it was there. The tracking on the website said the package was left at the front door and delivered on Dec. 1. Well, I wonder whose front door it was left at. How hard is it for a person to freakin' ask someone where I live??? So, I emailed customer service of dog.com and told them that I never got my order and that I would be ordering that merchandise from 1-800 Petmeds from now on. It's not really dog.com's fault, but they need to realize just how lousy FEDEX is.

If Tiger Woods hasn't gotten his FEDEX Cup trophy yet, maybe he should go up and down his street and ask the neighbors if they've received any packages. Now you know why the $10 Million is an annuity. It will take 20 years for FEDEX to deliver it to the right person.

Now This is News

Steve Stricker has won Comeback Player of the Year two years in a row. In 2007 where did he come back from exactly? Now, I can see how people might rationalize this - his comeback started in 2006 and since he never lost momentum and continued to build on his success in 2007, some people might see that his comeback was actually two years in the making. But, I also see a darker reason - The voting golfers were too chicken to vote for him for Player of the Year because they would get on the Great Tiger's bad side, so they gave Stricker this award. No matter who complains that Stricker can't be coming back from his comeback of last year, he does deserve recognition and it isn't like they are going to give him the award he deserves because of the incessant need to pander to Tiger Woods, it's only right that Stricker gets some kind of award.

Not News

I just read on a golf news feed website that Tiger Woods was voted PGA Tour player of the year. How can they possibly call this news? News would be something we didn't know before and something that is, oh maybe 'new'. Tiger's voted player of the year every year. Does the phrase "ho-hum" mean anything to the news people?

I think this player of the year vote that always goes to Tiger is doing a disservice to all of the other great pga tour players who have made big strides this year. Woody Austin comes to mind. I'm sure there are others who deserve to be recognized for their extraordinary achievements. I would suggest Angel Cabrera, winner of the US Open, but he didn't play all that much on the PGA Tour this year. How about Mike Weir? I think he won this year after having lackluster previous years and injuries and then went on to beat Tiger at the Presidents Cup. Here's a crazy thought - how about making the player of the year the Nationwide Tour grads who won tournaments? Or George McNeill who was the Q-School medalist in 2006 and then won this year?

Any of these nominees would make news.

Shark Shootout Sunday

Woody Austin and Mark Calcavecchia won today with a one shot margin over Greg Norman and Bubba Watson. More good shots and great putts during the coverage. I wish NBC would have either told us more often whose shot the teams were going with or let us see the whole thing. They had cut some shots out of their pre-recorded coverage. Seeing Chris Dimarco and Camilo Villegas show their collegiate team spirit on the 18th hole was very enjoyable. It's good to see the players having so much fun.

Shark Shootout - Saturday

A lot of good shots played in this event. Very entertaining. Issues/Comments: Tired of the Aquaman thing. And I think Woody Austin is too. At least Austin and Calcavecchia are doing their best to get people's minds on golf instead of the Presidents' Cup story. Norman and Evert. I didn't like Chris Evert as a comentator and I'm not sure I like that whole relationship. It's nice that they say they are happy, but I don't know if I want to see them on tv together. And I'm sure there's a whole lot more to how that came about that doesn't really need to be brought up in the media - and an interview on NBC might just make some people think that it's now fair game to shine a light on everything that's going on. Bubba Watson needs to play this well every week in regular tournament play. He always seems to do well in these kinds of events - remember when he played in the CVS thing? And I like to think that Fred Couples and John Daly are tied for 11th, not tied for last place. The important thing there is that Couples and Daly appear to be healthy. I hope they stay that way.

Huh????

I'm watching the first round of the shark shootout. Kelly Whatshername said that Bubba Watson's ball spinning back toward the hole was like a nascar move. HUH???? Nascar drivers go around in circles and drive forward. This ball went in reverse and straight back.

A Good Way to Spend an Evening

The golf channel is showing a Shell's Wonderful World of Golf match between Fred Couples and Greg Norman this evening. What a treat to be able to spend the evening watching Fred Couples. I hear he's playing in the Shark Shootout this weekend. Everyone needs to watch the event. A lot of good players are there. I don't know about the pairings though. Fred is apparently paired with John Daly.

Golf Magazine

Sergio is on the cover of the new Golf Magazine. Inside, there's an article on Jason Day, two offerings from David Feherty, some question and answer sessions with Woody Austin and Andres Romero. I was pleased that there was something for a non-golfer like me to read.

Wrap-up

Trevor Immelman won in South Africa. I missed the final round of the New Zealand Open this morning. And the Nelsons won the Father-Son/Daughter/Grandson Challenge. The announcers on NBC were talking about how David Duval says he wants to play his way on to the Ryder Cup team next year. I hope he does. It would be exceptional and out of this world, but unfortunately, even if he did, they would still give the player of the year award to Tiger.

Duval's Playing This Weekend

David Duval is playing in the Father-Son Challenge seen on NBC. I think he and his stepson are in second place. It's good to see him doing well.

The comemtators are making mention of all the ages of the fathers and how hard it is to play at their age and things like that. 71 year old Bob Charles made the cut in New Zealand playing from the young guys' tees. Apparently Dan Hicks isn't keeping up with the news.

Off topic: You know, if Public Television wants me to donate money to them, then they really should avoid technical difficulties during the Barry Manilow concert.

Rehabilitation is a Myth?

I was watching Golf Hawaii and Mark Calcavecchia was talking about his friend and caddie who had spent time in prison. Calcavecchia said that his friend had to basically start all over and didn't know anything about text messaging or email. The general public has been led to believe that there are rehabilitation programs and education opportunities extended to those in the prison system, but it would appear that this is misleading. I could get on my soap box about prison reform, but I try to keep my blogs from being controversial and argumentative, so I will simply say that there should be some kind of transition program offered to those slated to be released so that they can more easily assimilate back into society. At least Calcavecchia's friend had people out there to help him in a positive way.

Q-School

Okay, so I went to the Golf Channel website by accident and saw the first page of the Q-School leaderboard. Brett Rumford is there. He's a stalwart of the European Tour. I was surprised to see his name, but I do hope he does well. I haven't read up on this year's Q-School final stage and the entrants. I may have to check into it this weekend when I have some time.

Kodak Sucks

I have spent hours, and I mean hours, trying to upload pictures to the kodak website because you can get calendars made there. Well, apparently every single picture of Sergio and Jose Maria on the internet is of low resolution and poor quality. Every single one.

I refuse to believe that professional photographers use bad cameras. Kodak just sucks.

How Much Do I Love Fred Couples?

Long time followers of this blog will know that the very first golfer I ever watched was Fred Couples. And the very first golf event I ever watched was the 1992 Skins game. Today, I got to watch the back 9 of this year's Skins game and even though Fred didn't win the event, he was tops in the entertainment department. I hope his health remains good and that he has a stellar year next year.

Playing with my new Digital Photo Frame

I got the idea to put pictures of Sergio, Jose Maria and Paula Creamer on a sd card for my new toy. Sergio and Jose Maria were chosen for the obvious reasons and Paula was chosen as inspiration for the diet/exercise program I was supposed to start today. A sore foot, due to the shopping yesterday and this morning, prevented me from getting back on the treadmill today.

World Cup Notes

I think it's neat how Justin Rose and Ian Poulter are coordinating their outfits this week. Talk about team spirit.

Down With WV Television

Apparently, my local ABC station has opted to air college football rather than the Skins Game. Boooo!!!!!!!!

Omega Mission Hills World Cup

How lucky am I that this is going on during my vacation from work? I get to watch the whole thing! Yippeee!!! I've been trying to see the course instead of the players since Jose Maria Olazabal designed the course. There's a lot of water and on some of the holes that have water, there are a bunch of bunkers between the fairway and the water. I'm guessing this might be for erosion purposes, but the bunkers did look pretty. And I'm not one who thinks bunkers make a course pretty. I like bridges and flowers, like the bridges at the Bridgestone Invitational and the flowers at the now non-existant International.

I don't know how coherent I'm going to be tomorrow. I'm getting up at about 3am to get ready to go with my parents to walmart at 4am to stand around and wait until the sale starts at 5am. Then I have to stay up and go to the post office when it opens later on in the day.

Thanksgiving Day at my house was pretty good. I had Winnie and PJ out of the pen all day so they could force Fritz to get used to them. He isn't yet. My parents came up and I cooked dinner for them. They brought ice cream and a single layer round chocolate cake for dessert. Mom borrowed my 4ft pre-lit Christmas tree for her house since my niece and nephew are coming up for Christmas. And we all took naps after dinner. One disappointment - The dog show that came on after the Macy's parade did not show the chihuahuas. They would have shown them on Animal Planet.

Odds and Ends

I saw on the web where the European Tour has renamed the Order of Merit, changed the season ending event from Valderrama to Dubai- I think, and tossed a bunch of money up in the air for the competitors next year. I'm not sure I like the renaming of the Order of Merit or moving the 'tour championship' from Valderrama. I like tradition and the fact that Valderrama isn't a well-liked course. It gave the European Tour some quirky character.

The mailman left a pick up notice in my box for a package. He left the package at the post office. It reminded me of that commercial on the Golf Channel about new clubs delivered right to your door, "like it's your birthday. Gee Chip, ever get a new swing for your birthday?" Yeah, I watch too much tv, but to be fair, that commercial is very much overplayed. I didn't get my package delivered to my house, like they claim the golf clubs will be.

Tonight starts the World Cup event. I think it's on the Golf Channel at like 11:30pm eastern. Jose Maria Olazabal designed the course and Miguel Angel Jimenez won last week. This might be good for the Spaniards.

I read on Golfblogger's website that the Skins Game is also on this weekend. I'll have to find out when and where. Fred Couples is returning to action for the first time in many months. Hopefully, he is healthy and will win many skins.

Yiippeeees All Around!!!!

Lorena Ochoa won the ADT Championship, so now the hype can be that she's better than Tiger this year since she's won more tournaments.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, of Spain, won the Hong Kong Open.

Decisions, Decisions

Who do I cheer for? According to the hype on tv, if Lorena Ochoa wins tomorrow, then she could be considered better than Tiger Woods for the 2007 year - and you know how much I'd want to post that on this blog. But, Paula Creamer is right there with a chance to win too. I keep wondering how this kind of format would play out on the PGA tour.

Creamer Wins

Paula Creamer blew away the competition and won the Tournament of Champions today. I really need to find a poster of her to hang up to inspire me to stick to a diet/exercise plan. I've gained entirely too much weight and need to get back to the treadmill. These next two weeks are virtually impossible for diet/exercise. Tomorrow I leave for a three day conference for work - no diet food at the resort. Then the following week is Thanksgiving. Maybe I can work out next week even if I can't do the diet. Every little bit helps.

Well, it looks like I'm going to get to see Angel Cabrera's win at the Singapore Open - the Golf Channel is airing the final round again.

Under the Tree

Winnie and PJ are getting ready for Christmas! They've already given me their list. It includes doggie treats and the official 2006 Ryder Cup DVD.

Guess What I Found!

The Official Website of Angel Cabrera. Check it out HERE.

More Bad News

Well, I read here that Jose Maria Olazabal has withdrawn from the World Cup due to continuing health problems - rheumatism. He hopes to be ready to play in January. At least Jose Manuel Lara gets to play in the World Cup with Miguel Angel Jimenez. Lara won early in the 2007 European Tour season and the pairing of Jimenez and Lara should be a good one.

Year In Review

I decided now that the golf year is essentially finished I would do a little year in review post. I'm sure I'll leave some things out both deliberately and inadvertantly, but that's how it goes....

PGA Tour -

Zach Johnson wins the Masters. Not only wins it, but beats Tiger to do it.
Mark Calcavecchia wins.
Tadd Fujikawa turns pro after wowing the golfing world at the Sony Open. Sure, Tadd hasn't made a cut since turning pro, but he's learning a lot about hard work and golf. He wouldn't have learned that by staying in school in Hawaii.
Mike Weir's Presidents Cup heroics. Yet another player defeats Tiger in matchplay.
Steve Stricker's run in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs.
George McNeill wins after finishing #1 at Q-School.
Sergio switches to a long putter. According to the PGA Tour website, his putts per round ranking is 17th and his putting average ranking is T15. Unfortunately, the rest of his game has been off for every other tournament except for the Players Championship and the British Open.
Angel Cabrera wins the US Open.

European Tour -

Spaniards win - Jose Manuel Lara, Carl Suneson, Gonzalo Fernandez Castano, Alvaro Quiros, Pablo Martin (Pablo wins as an Amateur).
Andres Romero wins.
Seve Ballesteros retires.
Padraig Harrington wins the British Open.
Justin Rose wins twice (including the European Tour's version of the Tour Championship - The Volvo Masters) and wins the Order of Merit title.

Champions Tour -

Fred Funk wins on both the PGA and the Champions Tour.
Bernhard Langer wins in his rookie year (nearly wins on the PGA Tour in Texas).
John Cook wins in his rookie year.
Loren Roberts wins the Charles Schwab Cup.

LPGA Tour (looks like there's two events left) -

Lorena Ochoa wins several times (about 7), finally a major, and takes over the #1 World Ranking.
Suzann Petterson emerges as a real contender on the Tour with about 5 wins.
Natalie Gulbis finally wins a tournament.

TV -

Aimpoint - best new tech-gadget thing. Shows you the line of the putt.
Winzone - Worst new tech-gadget thing. Completely cheezy.
Kelly Tilghman/Nick Faldo duo - AWOL for half of the tournaments.
Nick Faldo/Jim Nantz - AWOL for half of the tournaments.
Peter Oosterhaus - least vacation time of anyone.
Choking Dogs - Dottie Pepper's unprofessional comments during the Solheim Cup.

Cabrera Wins in Singapore

Angel Cabrera has apparently won the Singapore event. I can never find this on tv to watch or tape, though I'm sure it's on in the middle of the night on the golf channel. And for anyone who wants to see Cabrera win, I think the final round will be on tonight.

I'm happy to read that Cabrera has won the tournament. He's another one of my favorites.

Coming Up Roses

Justin Rose made a birdie on the second hole of a sudden death playoff to capture his first Volvo Masters win. He had already secured the top spot on the Order of Merit by that time, just making it into the playoff did that for him. And he could rise up to 6th in the world after this season ending victory.

I am very happy to see Justin Rose win today. He really deserves it. Hopefully, his back injuries are a thing of the past and he will build on this year's successes next year.

You have to hand it to him. He decided to play in Europe, to try to make the Ryder Cup team, and when he saw himself in contention for the Order of Merit title, he decided to go after that as well. And he played smart this week. He had a strategy and stuck with it. He claimed to have a couple of mental errors in today's final round, but he had built himself a cushion to absorb that kind of thing. Watching him play yesterday, it looked as though he had a psychological strategy along with one for how to play the course. He seemed to be shorter off the tee than his playing partner (Harrington) to try to sucker him in, and I think it worked a few times. I don't know if this was intentional, but it sure did look like Rose's play forced/tricked Harrington into making some decisions that didn't turn out all that great.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Justin Rose has yet another 54 hole lead - this time at the Season Ending Volvo Masters in Spain. If he finishes in the top three and ahead of Padraig Harrington, he could win the Order of Merit. I would love for Justin Rose to win because as you know, he was really, really nice and personally replied to my "Hi, I'm a big fan, good luck in the future" email. Sure his response was about four or five words, but he sent it himself, it wasn't automated. If he could take the time to do that, then I can cheer for him and support him here in this blog.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have a good track record with 54 hole leads. Maybe that will change tomorrow.

The Volvo Masters is one of my favorite tournaments. So much a favorite that I have a Valderrama Screen Saver on my pc. I got it from the Valderrama Golf Club website.

Next week begins the 2008 European Tour season. Talk about wishing your life away, but it makes for an exciting golf year. And it gives the European Tour a chance to include tournaments from the other tours, Asian, Australian, etc.

As for the PGA Tour - I was actually watching part of the Children's Miracle Network Tournament today, until, for the second time, they had to bring up Tiger Woods. I then switched over to the Tennis Channel - rerun, but there's no Tiger on there. I did get to hear the exchange between Kelly, Nick, Peter and Dottie about Nick and Peter wearing speedos if Kelly and Dottie would wear bikinis. Poor Peter to get dragged into those things. He tries to be the dignified, elder statesman of the group.

Rose in the Lead

Justin Rose is in the lead half-way through the Volvo Masters. Good for him. I haven't heard or seen anything to tell me what he has to do to win the Order of Merit title, but winning the Volvo Masters should do it, I would think. I read something about Ernie Els whining that he couldn't play in Spain because he was contracted to play in Singapore - blaming the European Tour for the scheduling conflict. Gee, I'm sure the European Tour didn't get that memo that says "Check with Ernie Els, who doesn't play a whole lot on our tour, before planning the schedule." The European Tour's events present conflicts every week, depending on who the player is and where he wants to play. Most usually, there's an American tour event going on at the same time. Instead of Ernie just sucking it up and saying "Yep, I didn't see this year's successes coming when I signed that contract to play in Singapore" he's blaming others for his decision making. I'm not too impressed with that.

I would say that I hope Justin Rose wins the Volvo Masters, but Miguel Angel Jimenez is not too far behind. Hopefully, I will get to see some of this tournament this weekend.

As for the US Tour, I tried to watch some of it yesterday, but could only stand a couple of seconds of Kelly Tilghman's voice. I switched back over to the Tennis Channel.

Roberts Wins the Charles Schwab Cup!

Finally, Loren Roberts won the Charles Schwab Cup, the culmination of the season long points race. And he looked really, really happy to have his hands on that trophy. It was fitting that he won it this year considering how he lost it last year.

The PGA tour can keep their boring Fed Ex Cup. The Champions Tour knows how to make a season long competition exciting!

Found a Blog

Check out the Jose Maria Olazabal Blog! Whoever this Becky is, she's got tons of blogs about all kinds of sports people. Check out her blogroll, she's probably got your favorite listed.

Sunny Day

Thank goodness we've got the Champions Tour. The PGA Tour event was rainy. It looked like from the highlights that the Mallorca Classic was rainy. And it's been rainy here all day. At least the Champions Tour event is sunny. And it's pretty exciting. Would be better if Loren Roberts and Jay Haas were closer to the lead, but Eduardo Romero and Jim Thorpe are neck and neck.

I didn't see any of the Mallorca Classic today. I had considered recording it and watching it later, but didn't and when I got back from shopping I took a three hour nap and pretty much finished off the day that way. I think the working out combined with my 5am wake up call every morning is catching up to me. Good thing I took this extra day off today.

Leaderboard

Well, I checked the leaderboard of the Mallorca Classic and saw that Sergio is currently tied for 11th and 2 back of the lead. Jose Maria is apparently not playing. Hopefully I will get to watch some of this tomorrow since I have tomorrow off.

I'm watching some of the Champions Tour event. Eduardo Romero is making a charge for the lead, currently held by Jim Thorpe. This week will decide the Charles Schwab Cup champion and there are about 4 or 5 people with a chance to win that. Loren Roberts is leading the way in that race with Jay Haas hot on his heels. I must have missed some Champions Tour Golf because I don't remember Loren Roberts having a really great year. I guess that's a testament to the great competition on that tour.

Out of Touch

I haven't been too into golf lately. Last week, the men were playing tennis in spain and it was an exciting final with David Nalbandian defeating Roger Federer - I watched that instead.

But this week is the Mallorca event on the European Tour and Sergio and Jose Maria are supposed to be playing. I hope Jose Maria is healthy.

I have Friday off, but I was planning to go shopping that day. I may have to record Friday's round and watch it later in the day.

Check out the GolfBlogger's website if you want some golf news. He's been paying attention.

Jose Maria in the News

Check out this good article about Jose Maria Olazabal and his Mission Hills course in China which will host the World Cup in a few weeks.

PJ's New Coat

PJ loves to show her pride in her honorary daddy's (Jose Maria) Spanish heritage and legendary role on the European Ryder Cup Team. I made this coat today with my own very sore fingers, except for the flag - I bought that from a company online.

I Guess I Missed It??

Did I miss the Grand Slam of Golf? I know it was played earlier in the week and Angel Cabrera won, but I thought it would be aired some time later on. I think I saw on the web that it was actually on Tuesday and Wednesday this week? I was watching tennis then.

Maybe He Should Try Yoga?

I just read that Jose Maria Olazabal won't be at the Portugal Masters because of tendonitis in his shoulder. It has been a knee injury that has kept him sidelined for months. Maybe he should try yoga and pilates to stretch out his muscles and strengthen them.

George McNeill Wins

Like the title says, McNeill won the Frys.com open today with a commanding performance. I like to see the first time winners. Way back on December 5th 2006, I said the following after watching the Q-School coverage: "I did pick 5 players to keep an eye on next year: Michael Boyd, who shed some tears when he spoke of his father's passing and the family paint store, George McNeill who was the medalist, Jaco Van Zyl, Anders Hansen and Paul Stankowski."

Two of of the five have won this year, McNeill on the US Tour and Hansen on the European Tour.

And for the second time, I've heard the announcers talk about players trying to get into the Masters. This time they were talking about McNeill and how he has three more tournaments to go and he's 59th on the money list. So, do the winners of the Fall Series tournaments not get the exemption into the Masters??? Did the Masters organizers pick and choose which tournaments' winners will get into their championship? That's not right, if that's what they did. Maybe they just made the magnanimous gesture for tournaments thru the Tour Championship?

Annoying Announcing

Okay, so I've watched some of the golf channel coverage of the Frys.com Open and I have the following comments about the announcing:

1. Vegas Gambling references - enough already. It's cheesy and only tells us that you aren't clever enough to make the golf itself interesting.

2. Rich Lerner's incessant other-sports analogies - if he wants to call baseball games, he's working for the wrong network.

3. As previously mentioned - Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. Some of us are sick of Tiger. Some of us would like to see the players who are actually playing in the event to be talked about. If I participated in a drinking game for every time they said "Tiger", I'd stay drunk. It's absolutely ridiculous.

26 and counting

Last night on the Champions Tour coverage, I heard them say that Andy Bean has played 26 events this year. I don't want to hear a PGA tour player claim to be tired after only playing 15. Granted, the Champions Tour players only play three rounds a tournament, but the Champions tour players are older than the PGA tour players. I'd say it evens out, which means Andy Bean has played a lot of golf this year.

For the Girls out There

A question for the girls: Do any of you watch the Champions Tour and look at the 'rookies' and think, gee they are pretty handsome? That happened to me when Hale Irwin debuted, when Loren Roberts debuted, when Jay Haas debuted and now when Bernhard Langer debuted (I won't even go into what I thought when Seve played earlier in the year). Of course, with Langer, it was more "gee, he's in great shape" rather than handsome, but you get the point. Although, comparing young Langer to current Langer, he's grown into his own look and is pretty stylish right now.

What's really depressing is that I get closer and closer to that Champions Tour rookie age. When Irwin debuted, there was a considerable age difference, but now, it's only 15 years or so. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a Rafael Nadal calendar hanging up to remind me in a different way of how old I am.

Speaking of the Matchplay

I am very glad to see Angel Cabrera in the final. I especially love the look in his eye when he hits a shot he loves. There's a fire there that compels you to not only watch but throw your support to the Argentine. And have you noticed that the European Tour coverage doesn't refer to his nickname?

European Day

Today has been European Tour day. I watched the matchplay this morning and the Open de Madrid this afternoon. Truthfully, I listened more than watched the Open de Madrid. I was making a little coat for PJ to wear. She can't wear a velcro harness because she pulls too hard against it and gets out of it, but it's getting colder and I thought I could make her a little velcro coat to wear over the harness she does wear. So, I did that this afternoon. It's a little small on her. I've been checking out little yellow star appliques to sew onto Winnie's harness and PJ's coat to turn them into European Ryder Cup team flags, but the stars I've found online are all too big. I can't fit 12 of them on either piece of doggie clothing. So, I did the next best thing - I searched for iron on patches of the Spanish Flag. I found a company that sells them and bought two. Once I get the harness and coat the way I want them, the flags will be sewn on and Winnie and PJ will proudly sport their honorary daddies' national flag :)

As for the Frys.Com Open - I got tired of the golf channel's relentless recollections of Tiger Woods' win there, so I turned the channel to the Tennis Channel and I'm watching the semifinal of the Kremlin Cup - Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova (that probably wasn't spelled right).

Stress-free and Friendly

The other day I found a blog written by a Canadian man. This guy wrote a lot about tennis and as you know I watch tennis, so I found myself bookmarking the man's site and even posting a few comments. Well, the guy calls himself an angry man, and his writing backs that up. He seems very hostile about certain subjects, which is his right. It is his blog and he can write whatever he wants. And let me point out that just because his tone comes across as hostile, that doesn't mean his points are not based in fact, or at the least, his perception of how things are in the world. Every blogger has the right to post about the world as he or she sees it (as long as the writing doesn't create a dangerous situation or puts forth a flat out lie) How does the angry Canadian's approach to his subjects affect me? Well, it ups my blood pressure. I can feel it increasing, just like that commercial in which the man is wearing the blinking blood pressure button.

Conversely, there is another Canadian who writes a much different blog. His blog is friendly, thought provoking, and relaxing. Who is this guy? It's Nolan Matthias. His blog? Golf Balls Don't Float.

While I might pop in to check out the angry man's blog once in a while, I don't think I'll make a habit of visiting it. I find my life is infinitely better if I minimize the negativity. Case in point: I could spend my blogging time talking about how much I don't like Tiger Woods, but who would want to read about that? And how would I feel if I devoted that much time to something so negative? So, instead, I try to write mostly about the things I like and only write a little bit about the things I encounter that bother me. For instance, if I know Tiger's playing in a U. S. tournament, I probably will focus on the European Tour that week.

In any event, since Nolan's website is so pleasant, I'll continue to regularly visit it. You can too. Just click here: Golf Balls Don't Float.

My Next Sewing Project

I have been hit with a very cute idea for a design for Winnie's next harness. The European Ryder Cup Team Flag - blue with gold stars. I hope the Ryder Cup folks won't sue me for making a dog harness that looks like the flag. But really, they should be thinking of these things. Just like Adidas should be turning all of Sergio's outfits into little doggie outfits :)

Disappointed

Well, I just read that Jose Maria Olazabal will not be playing this week afterall. He apparently withdrew from the tournament. I really do hope he gets better.

This Coming Week

Two European Tour events going on this week: The HSBC World Match Play Championship and the Open de Madrid. As for the HSBC, Andres Romero, Angel Cabrera, Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Woody Austin, and others are playing in that event. The Open de Madrid may possibly see the return of Jose Maria Olazabal. I hope if he plays, that he will play well and that he's healthy.

Valero Texas Open

How many lives does Jesper Parnevik have? Several apparently. I was so hoping Parnevik would win since he hadn't won in 6 years. And every time Parnevik got into trouble he found a great shot to get him out. I loved all those shots at the pin, like, why aim anywhere else?

Justin Leonard did win on the third playoff hole. He hasn't won since I think they said 2005. He's ok, but I still have negative thoughts of him thanks to Brookline in 1999. He wasn't part of the group that ran onto the green and through Jose Maria's line, but he was their cheerleader and the impetus for their charge.

So, several people secured their cards today with their finishes in this event. It will be interesting to see the rest of the tournaments in the fall series. I like overtime on the golf channel. If golf ran over to extra holes on a network, the announcers acted as though the extra time was coming out of their own paychecks, but the Golf Channel announcers just roll with it.

As Promised: Winnie's New Harness

As I said yesterday, I sewed this myself by hand. Not quite the stylish Adidas gear that her honorary daddy, Sergio, wears, but it fits her and works and she doesn't growl or snap at me when I put it on her or take it off of her. So, I say this is a success.

Dougherty Wins in Europe

Nick Dougherty finally won his second tour event in Europe today at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Justin Rose finished second and moved even closer to taking over the #1 spot on the Order of Merit. Rory McIlroy has probably earned his card for next year with a third place finish.

Oh, and for all the females out there in love with Dougherty - among all the people he thanked during the interview was his girlfriend.

It Ain't over Til It's Over.... But is it?

It just dawned on me today while listening to the Valero Texas Open that if I didn't have the Golf Channel, the PGA Tour season would be over for me. The networks apparently aren't covering the Fall Series. There are thousands of people out there who probably don't even know that golf is still being played. Someone tell me again how smart Tim Finchem is supposed to be.

I was listening to the golf today because I was in the other room ....... sewing. Yes, I said sewing. It's shocking to me too. Winnie throws a fit over every single harness I bring her except for the velcro kind. And her velcro harness that she's been wearing has gotten too small. So, today I made a new velcro harness for her. Boy are my fingers sore from those sewing needles. Pretty much the only things I've ever sewn are buttons so this was an entirely new experience for me. I don't know any fancy stitches and I followed the general design of the harness Winnie has been wearing. If I can get a picture of Winnie wearing it, I'll post it here. The whole time I worked on this harness I kept saying, "It would only take mom ten minutes on her machine to do this." It took me about three hours.

Big News so Far

The big news in golf so far is the two hot rounds that Jesper Parnevik shot at the Valero Texas Open - 61-65. And I think he switched putters at some point? I wasn't paying too much attention.

And those commercials with the Rascal Flats version of the song Life is a Highway - blah, blah, blah are very annoying. Why doesn't the company have commercials with all the versions of that song? That would be an interesting advertising campaign.

From the LPGA - they were doing a breast cancer awareness thing and wearing pink during their early rounds of this week's tournament. Beth Daniel related to the audience the story of Heather Farr who died from cancer because her doctors told her they would just monitor her condition instead of operating (they believed she was too young for her cancer to be that aggressive). There is a lesson in this story for everyone - men and women alike - and that message is: get a second opinion!!! Every day I see news article on the web about doctors misdiagnosing patients. Just the other day on the Today Show there was a woman who had a double mastectomy and then later found out she never had cancer at all. And to think state legislatures want to limit jury awards in medical malpractice cases. What they need to limit is the award amount in the RIAA song downloading lawsuits - Walmart sells cds with the same number of songs on them for anywhere between $9.72 and $15.96 - proof that the RIAA and the record companies are making a fortune on the nearly $6.00 difference there. Of course, as you all know, I have dial up access so I obviously buy cds instead of downloading songs. I can't tie up my phone line for hours for a song that I could get in just seconds by buying the cd. And of course, there's always the risk that while you are 'sharing' your music online, you could be vulnerable to viruses being sent to your computer. I should stop there - I might have just given the RIAA an idea.

The Fall Series

A lot of people aren't even bothering to watch the remaining few events on the PGA Tour. That's too bad because there are some great stories to follow. And the announcers on the Golf Channel are really focusing on the money list, throwing up projected numbers every so often. I think it's important to note that David Duval had four really solid rounds this week at the Viking Classic. Hopefully, this will propel him into a really great year next year. I think they said earlier in the week that he wasn't planning on playing any other events this year. Maybe he'll change his mind.

So, some people I'll be watching in the next few weeks are Billy Andrade and Lee Janzen. I know Andrade will be playing more, but I don't know about Janzen. And I have no idea where Brad Faxon is lately.

Presidents Cup Final Day

Again, I didn't watch much of this. I saw Mike Weir go 3 up on Tiger and Tiger hit it out of bounds and then switched over to women's tennis on the tennis channel. So, I searched the web for the results. Only took about 40 minutes to find a website that would load the information. Have I mentioned how much I hate all the video and graphics on these websites? Anyway, looking at the results I have some observations:

Mike Weir made one great Captain's Pick. He beat Tiger head to head. When are people going to start admitting the truth - Tiger isn't good at matchplay, he isn't good at team events, and his #1 status doesn't count for beans in these team events. How many people have to beat him at matchplay before people see this? O'Hern, Micheel, and now Weir. The list is growing.

Scott Verplank is continuing to make Tom Lehman's decision to set him out of much of the matches of the Ryder Cup last year look really, really stupid.

Lucas Glover began his quest for a spot on the Ryder Cup with this event - he won a point so at least he wasn't shut out.

Steve Stricker ended up winning 3 points it looks like. He's one of my picks for next year's Ryder Cup (see the sidebar). We'll see how close my line-up gets to the real thing next fall.

Angel Cabrera, a favorite of mine, won 2 points this time around. You would think he would do well in a team event like this. He's a shot maker kind of player and goes for broke.

Retief Goosen won his Sunday match despite all the announcers dogging him and claiming he was doing absolutely nothing for the International team.

It's very premature for the announcers to say that Paul Azinger needs to consider Woody Austin for the Ryder Cup team. That's a year away and who knows how Woody will be playing next fall.

Seve Trophy

The Team of Great Britain and Ireland won the Seve Trophy today over the team of Continental Europe. Once again I didn't get to see much of it. I took the puppies to my parents' house for their weekly visit. You know, they kept saying that the Seve Trophy was a warm up for the Ryder Cup. They don't say that about the Presidents Cup. Frankly, I don't see how the Seve Trophy could be a warm up for the Ryder Cup when those players aren't playing against Americans. I'd say that the Seve Trophy just keeps things even in terms of matchplay experience. The Americans play the Presidents Cup in the off year, and so the Europeans have a matchplay event of their own to play.

Ryder Cup News

The big news this week is Paul McGinley's decision to resign as assistant. People are trying to turn this into a bigger story by suggesting McGinley was ticked that there are no Irish players on the GB and I team at the Seve Trophy competition, in fact some are reporting that McGinley turned down the World Cup qualifier because he was expecting to be named a wild card pick for the GB & I team. If McGinley is upset over Ireland's lack of representation in golf events, then he's going about it the right way - deciding to improve his level of play and represent his country whenever he can as a player. Some people questioned the timing of McGinley's decision - just before the Seve Trophy was to begin. Well, the sooner the better is my way of thinking - Nick can concentrate on finding someone else and McGinley doesn't have to wrestle with the decision, having it affect his play until finally jumping off the fence.

Seve Trophy

It would be a lot better if it wasn't raining. And Justin Rose isn't putting all that great. But the score is close, just one point separating the two teams. It's too bad we don't get to see all the matches.

Presidents Cup

I haven't been watching much of this but I do have a few observations:

Mike Weir is an excellent Captain's Pick
Steve Stricker is doing great

Woody Austin is the big star of the Cup so far. He is a fiery competitor. It's too bad you don't see that kind of desire out of Woods and Furyk. This is one of the things that Paul Azinger and other Ryder Cup people have to consider - having people on the team who want to be there, instead of the people who earn the most points who see the Ryder Cup as another chore. Has anyone else noticed that it isn't the really big stars doing the best out there? I would love to comment on more of the players but it's taking forever for any of the stupid golf websites that would have the scores to load. Curse Broadband technology that's ruining the internet for us dial up people. Too much crappy video and graphics on websites causing them to load too slowly.

This Sounds Like a Really Good Book!

I received an email from Erikk at Skyhorse Publishing telling me about this book and asking that I mention it on my blog. I would be glad to mention it - I love quotes. And $24.95 isn't a bad price for an 800 page hardcover book, of course Amazon is selling it for even less! Click here to get to Amazon's listing.

Here's the blurb and the book info:

The Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations
Edited and Introduced by Jim Apfelbaum
Foreword by Arnold Palmer
$24.95 Hardcover with jacket
800 pages / 7 x 9¼ / ISBN13: 9781602390140

An inspiring collection of wise, and wisecracking, quotations from golf's greatest players—an amazing gift for any golfer.
An adage about sports writing says, "The smaller the ball, the better the writing." The 3,000+ quotations that make up The Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations prove that saying true. Quotes range from the hilarious ("It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course"—Hank Aaron) to the thought-provoking ("The most important shot in golf is the next one"—Ben Hogan).
These are just some of the names included:
Mitch Albom / Winston Churchill / Bing Crosby / John Daly / Dwight D. Eisenhower / John Feinstein / F. Scott Fitzgerald / Raymond Floyd / Gerald Ford / Ernest Hemingway / Ben Hogan / Bob Hope / Samuel L. Jackson / Bobby Jones / Michael Jordan / Bill Murray / Byron Nelson / Jack Nicklaus / P.J. O'Rourke / Harvey Penick / George Plimpton / Rick Reilly / Frank Sinatra / Annika Sorenstam / John Updike / Kathy Whitworth / Tiger Woods…and hundreds more!

This is the ultimate gift book for every golfer—and everyone who's lucky enough to own it will browse through again and again.

Sunday Wrap-up

Lee Westwood won in Europe today at the Belfry. Ian Poulter came in second. Stephen Dodd won a Jaguar for being closest to the pin on one of the holes.

In America, Steve Flesch won today. It's his second win of the season. A lot of focus on the top 125 and people trying to get their cards. Kelly Tilghman put me to sleep with her voice. Seriously, I took a nap earlier and got up to watch the final round. About an hour later, I had to take another nap.

On the Champions Tour, Mark Wiebe won the SAS championship. He's a rookie this year and he is now exempt through next year.

Updated Link

I updated the sidebar link to the Presidents Cup - it now says 2007. And I've added a link to the Seve Trophy website (the contest of Great Britain and Ireland vs. Continental Europe).

It appears that Rory Sabbatini and Geoff Ogilvy are rookies on the International team.

On the U.S. side, the rookies are: Woody Austin, Lucas Glover, and Hunter Mahan. The website is interesting in that for Glover and Mahan, their profiles say "Country: US" instead of "Birthplace". They are on the U.S. Team - of course their country is the U.S. Could the operators of the website not find out where these two guys were born? I'm sure it's in a media guide somewhere.

I don't know how much of this I will watch. The Seven Trophy is also being contested this coming week. Some particpants in the Seve Trophy: Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Gonzalo Fernandez Castano, Soren Hansen.

I think I'd rather watch the Seve Trophy.

Insulting

I just read the article on Seve Ballesteros in the October issue of Golf Magazine. Unlike the honest but respectful article written about David Feherty's troubles with depression, this article on Seve was pretty insulting, suggesting repeatedly that he is, for a lack of a better description, washed up. Even going so far as to suggest some illness he suffered in June was perhaps attempted suicide. Seve denies that and his manager reported that the visit to the hospital was related to an irregular heartbeat.

The tone of this article was depressing, snarky, and just plain rude. Rather than the Goodbye to a Legend article I was expecting, what I got was a mean-spirited look at one of Golf's greatest players.

Next time Golf Magazine wants to interview a legend, they can hire me to do it. I'd even write a respectful article about Tiger Woods.

Saturday Notes

1. It was Mike Ritz who said during one of the updates that Ian Poulter had been on last year's Ryder Cup team. Wrong.

2. Why do the PGA Tour events have to change their names? I have no idea what these tournaments were called last year. How am I supposed to have memories of last year's events which will make me want to watch this year, if I don't know what these tournaments used to be?

3. Watched the European Tour coverage today. A lot of checkered pants.

I like this Tiger-Free part of the season. Don't know if I'll watch the PGA tour today. Jeff Gove is in contention but I believe he may have been one of the belly-aching whiners complaining about Michelle Wie at the John Deere Classic. I know I commented on that incident, I'll have to search my blog to see if I can find it.

A New Website for Peter Jacobsen

Check out Peter Jacobsen's new website. He says it replaces his blogger blog. Those of us on Blogger are saddened to see that he has left us, but let's support his new website.

New Blog & Website

Check out: The Society of Secret Golfers. The blogger is prolific and has some interesting points of view and there's a forum for members to discuss a variety of topics. I will have to dig deeper into this website as there are several mentions of Sergio and I'm not altogether convinced if they are good or bad references :)

Good News

Sergio is all the way up to 8th in the world now! Yay! I don't know how he did it. It seems like he had only about three good tournaments so far this year. Instead of calling him El Nino, they need to call him El Mago (according to Babelfish that's spanish for The Magician).

It's Over

Now that the Tiger Woods Retirement Fundraiser (aka The Fed Ex Cup) is over, maybe I'll get to see Sergio play in Spain. I think there are two or three tournaments in Spain coming up, including the European Tour Championship.

LPGA Notes

I watched some of the Solheim Cup today. I got the sense that things are much more hostile for the women than they are for the men of the Ryder Cup. Dottie Pepper kept talking about agreements and rules and such as if every little thing has to be spelled out or else all heck breaks loose. Women fight over the littlest thing? Crazy, I know. Where do people get these ideas? The Americans won the Solheim Cup and I'm sure there will be many people writing about what the American men can learn from the American women. I'm not going to get into that. The biggest thing I want to talk about is Suzann Petterson and her caddie. Her caddie puts his hand on the side of her face to help her with alignment in her practice swings. I'd like to see Mark Calcavecchia's caddie try that. This is the biggest problem I have with the LPGA Tour. The caddies help the women way too much on lining up their shots and stuff.

Pointless Sounds Right

I was in the kitchen washing dishes and listening to the Champions Tour coverage. They asked some of the Champions Tour players about the Fed Ex Cup. The announcer said about the "Points List". Sounded like pointless to me. Anyway, one of the players said that they should make the playoffs a three tournament event because of these guys who don't play four in a row, you know, guys like Tiger and Phil (1 and 2 in the world). Yeah, those two are at a BIG disadvantage, they should throw them a bone. Not.

It is utterly ridiculous that all of these players are even suggesting that the PGA Tour schedule should be tailored around a player's willingness to play. First of all, if you're going to 'win' $10 million, then you should be made to work a little extra for it, put some effort into it, conquer something for Pete's sake. Tiger should be forced to play all 4 events if he wants to win. As should Phil and any other player who just can't play four weeks in a row. Secondly, if we're just going to throw $10 Million away on a 'mmm, I'll play if I feel like it" approach, then why not have appearance fees for all US PGA Tour events? It's obvious some of the players don't seem to want to work for money, so just give it to them. They can appear for one round, get their fee, withdraw, and then take their rest. I mean, we just can't expect them to work four whole rounds in a row. That's just too gruelling for these elite pro athletes.

Sure, it might bankrupt the sponsors and fans won't want to buy tickets or watch tv coverage, but as long as the players are rich-uh, I mean happy, that's all that matters.

How Wonderful

I just have to say how wonderful it is to have LPGA golf all morning and European Tour golf in the afternoon opposite the PGA Tour Tour Championship. I don't have to watch yucky Tiger at all.

New Blog

Got an email from Mike Pederson asking that I check out his blog. Looks like there's a lot of content on this blog that many people would find useful. So, here it is: Perform Better Golf.

You should check it out. He's obviously invested a lot of time and effort in it.

Open Letter to Jose Maria Olazabal

Dear Jose Maria,

You're not missing anything here in America with the Fed Ex Cup. It appears the sum and total effect of the Fed Ex Cup on the PGA Tour will be to make Tiger richer. Like he, the other golfers, or the fans, needed that. You were very smart to decide to just rest up that knee. While I miss seeing you, I'm hoping to see you soon somewhere on the European Tour.

Your honorary puppy, PJ, is doing well. Although we have had a few problems with the puppy pad training, she is quickly learning that if she uses her puppy pad, I will give her a treat. Just like a female to respond to gifts.

In closing, I would just like to say that I look forward to watching the WGC World Cup event staged on your course at Mission Hills in China later in the year. As it's a sure bet Tiger won't be there, the entertainment factor for me will very high.

Your Big Fan,
Miranda

Another Reason

If you've been a follower of this blog, you'll know I've mentioned several times that I pay $67.00 a month for the Golf Channel. Well, starting this week, that price has been discounted because I have another reason to pay $67.00 a month for the satellite dish package I have. That reason: The Fine Living Channel is airing Martha Stewart's new shows one day later at 8pm Eastern. I'm so excited. I can now see the first 20 minutes of all her shows. I usually get off from work at 4pm and miss the first 20 minutes by driving home. Her show airs locally at 4pm. So, now I can see what I've been missing. The other day I got to see Jennifer Garner's dog. Sure, I could 'save' money and just record Martha's shows on the local channel and watch them later, but as I never watch what I record and the dvds just pile up, that option just doesn't work for me.

The Lucky Losers

I have compared the Moneyleader list to the Fed Ex Cup Tour Championship list. The result - Here are the four lucky losers who got into the Tour Championship based on the Fed Ex Cup points that aren't in the top 30 on the Moneyleader list:

Jonathan Byrd
Tim Clark
Camillo Villegas
Heath Slocum

Who did they replace?

Luke Donald
David Toms
Henrik Stenson
Jerry kelly

When was the last time someone from the last 6 spots won the Tour Championship?

I predict the winner of the Tour Championship won't be Tiger Woods. He never plays that tournament which means he either doesn't like the course, or he gets his butt handed to him on that course. The course is a par 70 and Tiger doesn't play par 70s well.

As for the "Race for the Fed Ex Cup" - it looks like a race between three people: Tiger, Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson. I hope Stricker wins it. He's the only one of the three who deserves it. He's played all three events leading up to the Tour Championship and I haven't yet seen a whining quote from him. If he plays all four tournaments and wins, then he should get more respect than anyone else on tour, definitely including Tiger.

New Golf Book

James Wolfe has emailed me with news that he has a new golf book out called Little Balls, Big Dreams. It sounds like a pretty good story, but I'm more into romance novels and the "This is a love story. Love of golf. Family. Life." line that he cleverly inserted into that email just didn't do the trick for me :) But you all should check out his website and see if you'd be interested in his book.

Because They Know the Fed Ex Cup is A Dud

The PGA Tour.com website is not reporting accurate Fed Ex Cup points standings thru the Deutsche Bank tournament. The website SAYS the points are thru the Deutsche Bank event, but when the standings don't reflect Steve Stricker's WIN, then it's obvious that the PGA Tour Website is LYING. Why??? Maybe because Tiger isn't really at the top of the list, though the list they do have posted puts him there. You want proof? Here's what Copy and Paste shows:

PGA TOUR · Champions Tour · Nationwide Tour

Select Year: 2007

Y-T-D statistics through: Deutsche Bank Championship Sep 03, 2007

Rank This Week	Rank Last Week	Player	Events	Points	Last Week Finish Pos	YTD Victories	Top 10s
1	1	Tiger Woods	13	30,574	T2	5	9
2	2	Vijay Singh	23	19,129	T60	2	6
3	3	Jim Furyk	19	16,691	T55	1	8
4	4	Phil Mickelson	18	16,037	1	2	5
5	5	K.J. Choi	21	15,485	W/D	2	6
6	6	Rory Sabbatini	19	13,548	T6	1	6
7	7	Zach Johnson	19	13,341	T30	2	4
8	8	Charles Howell III	21	12,126	T30	1	5
9	9	Brandt Snedeker	25	11,870	T47	1	6
10	10	Adam Scott	15	11,196	T17	1	5
11	11	Scott Verplank	18	10,691	DNP	1	8
12	12	Steve Stricker	19	10,621	T9		6
13	13	Sergio Garcia	15	10,547	T17		5
14	14	Woody Austin	22	10,483	T30	1	3
15	15	Hunter Mahan	23	10,185	CUT	1	5
16	16	John Rollins	23	9,708	T47		4
17	17	Boo Weekley	23	9,591	T41	1	4
18	18	Aaron Baddeley	18	9,402	5	1	5
19	19	Ernie Els	13	8,980	DNP		4
20	20	Mark Calcavecchia	20	8,966	T72	1	4
21	21	Padraig Harrington	15	8,783	CUT	1	3
22	22	Justin Rose	12	8,698	CUT		6
23	23	Luke Donald	17	8,676	T60		5
24	24	Geoff Ogilvy	18	8,623	T6		5
25	25	David Toms	19	8,251	W/D		7
26	26	Jonathan Byrd	19	7,757	T23	1	3
27	27	Robert Allenby	20	7,536	8		7
28	28	Stewart Cink	19	7,080	CUT		5
29	29	Heath Slocum	20	6,801	T23		4
30	30	Stuart Appleby	20	6,799	CUT

A Comparison

I had some time, okay a lot of time given my dial up access, so I compared the PGA Tour Money List to the Fed Ex Cup points list (both are through the Barclay's Event). It's been my contention that the same top thirty on the money list will end up at the Tour Championship this year, just like always, despite the Fed Ex Cup points system. Well, I'm right except for 6 people (three spots on the list). Money list has Henrik Stenson, Jerry Kelly and Trevor Immelman in the top thirty and the Fed Ex Cup points list has Jonathan Byrd, Heath Slocum and Stuart Appleby. Stenson and Kelly are 31 and 32 on the points list, Immelman is 37. On the Money List, Byrd is 38, Slocum is 33 and Appleby is 31.

We have a couple more tournaments to go to see how it all turns out, but it will be interesting to compare the two lists the week of the Tour Championship. See if this Fed Ex Cup points system really makes a difference. It doesn't look like it does.

Skewed Reporting

This morning the Golf Channel will be providing updates every half hour on the grouping of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh - The Mediocre Amigos as I like to call them. Instead of the Golf Channel highlighting the golfers who are actually doing well this week (Camillo etc) they are choosing to cover these guys who were +1, -1, adn +4 at the 9am update.

Is it any wonder that I didn't watch yesterday's coverage of the tournament? These networks really need to get their act together or else they will end up alienating those viewers who want to see all the golfers instead of just the ones the networks make the most money off of.

And isn't this the tournament where Tiger gets skunked by the likes of Olin Browne?

Friday Round-up

Bernhard Langer debuted on the Champions Tour today. He bailed on the Fed Ex cup. Can't blame him.

Thomas Levet is leading over in Europe - at least the crawl at the bottom of the screen says he is.

Sergio had a -4 first round today.

I really, really hope that Jose Maria Olazabal gets healthy. I hate to think of him not being able to play.

What Do You Think????

I'm watching the Tennis Channel and there was a clip of Ivan Lendl talking about coaches and players. The women's tennis federation allows coaches to come on court during changeovers and talk to their players. Lendl says all tennis players should be allowed this option. He says that Golfers Have Caddies so why can't tennis players have their coaches.

So, what do you think?? Are golf caddies on the same level as tennis coaches?? Let's see - Jimmy Conners won majors but I don't think Steve Williams has. Maybe caddies are closer to coaches on the women's tour when they line up the women on the tee but I have a hard time thinking of caddies as coaches. I don't see Maria Sharipova taking advice from some ticket holder in the crowd, but yet golfers can actually pull ticket holders out of the crowd to carry their bags if they find themselves without a caddie.

When Incredibly Handsome Worlds Collide

The USA Network is covering the US Open tennis tournament. Tonight they showed........ Sergio Garcia AND Rafael Nadal in the SAME camera frame!

Women everywhere have to be swooning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stricker Wins

Good for Steve Stricker! He won the Barclay's Classic and he cried during his interview at the end of the coverage on CBS. Bless his heart. Can't wait to see him at the Presidents Cup.

:(

Well, I read that Jose Maria Olazabal won't be playing this week. Apparently his knee injury is still an issue. I hope he gets better soon.

I haven't been following golf much this week. I'm working on another manuscript. I'm about 40 pages short of a decent word count so I'm having to add stuff. Not good for a girl who only reads dialogue and therefore has trouble writing those long, long pages of nothing but exposition. And I've been watching the Military Channel lately. Weird. But, it's Samantha Brown night on the Travel Channel, so I'll have something good to watch.

Learn Something New Every Day

As there's nothing else on tv, I'm currently watching world team tennis on the tennis channel. Anna Kournikova is playing. What did I learn today? That's she's won 16 WTA titles in her career (according to the Tennis Channel stat department). Everyone on the internet acts like she hasn't won anything.

Playoffs

Watching the CBS coverage of the Wyndham Championship this afternoon, I kept hearing the announcers say that the top 86 are guaranteed entry into the first two playoff events. Well, if they are guaranteed for the second one, why have a first playoff tournament? I didn't pay much attention to the playoff system when it was first introduced at the beginning of the year, but now that we are a few days away I have to say it's looking kind of stupid. They start out with Tiger having 100,000 points and those following him having something like 500 points less as they go down the line. What's the theory of awarding 100,000 points??? Do they get points taken away? There's an idea, for every cuss word uttered on TV, take some points away. For every member of the gallery Tiger, uh, I mean a player, hits with a golf ball, take some points away. Then I could see giving so many points to start out with. If there are 144 players in the first event, then why not give Tiger 144 and the next guy 143 and so on? In the end, the top 30 will be in the last tournament, whether they have amassed 1 Million points, or 1000. Is the plethora of points just a psych-out? Gee, they have so many points, they did really great. It looks to me like there are a lot of useless points just out there for looks and not for any real purpose.

I think a true playoff system would be if no one started out with points and they earned them as they went during the four playoff events. I don't believe they spot basketball teams and football teams points during their playoffs.

And this whole bye thing has got to go too. It happens in many sports, such as tennis, and they've created a bye system in this playoff system in golf. In tennis, the top seeds get a bye in the first round of some tournaments because they play every week and it's just so tough on the players (boohoo - the men already play best two out of three instead of 3 of 5 and they still want that extra break). This playoff system for the fed ex cup has created the same kind of thing where the top players (Tiger for instance) could skip one or more of the events and still win the thing. That has got to go. If they are going to award $10 Million, then the winner had darn well earn it. If not, then I could use a couple million, they can just give me some money while they're at it.

Avoiding

Well, I haven't had much interest in golf this week. I checked out the leaderboards for this week's pga and european pga events to see who was playing and that was about it. Still sick of Tiger Woods and he isn't even playing this week. Why doesn't he just quit playing altogether? He only sucks the fun out of the sport.

Anyway, I couldn't let Friday slip away without checking GolfBlogger's website - he has the ridiculous item of the week on Fridays. You should check them out.

A Brief Respite

If you're looking for news folks that don't suck up to Tiger Woods, try BBC World News. This morning they aired comments from John Sendon. Yes, there are apparently other golfers playing in the PGA Championship this week. It surprised me too.

Doing Their Best

Well, everywhere I turn, I have to hear or see people talking about Tiger Woods. The Golf Channel has an All-Tiger Love Fest going on, only briefly interrupted by the Women's Amateur (I bet that niece, cousin, whatever she is is playing in that). CNN's crawl across the bottom of the screen's talking about him as is MSNBC and FOXNews. He's on the internet too. So, it would seem the media is doing their best to drive me to another Golf Boycot.

Today I've watched Futureweapons on the Military Channel, and the series premiere of the new Flash Gordon show on the SciFi channel, and Rick Steves on PBS. And for some reason they aren't showing the Montreal Tennis Tournament on tv today. I guess because Andy Roddick isn't playing today??? For the last two days, ESPN has only shown Roddick matches at that tournament.

Somewhere I predict there may have to be a media-backed cage match between Roddick and Woods.

I'm currently watching Bindi the Jungle Girl on Discovery Kids.

Shame, shame on the PGA of America

Let those poor golfers wear shorts!!!!!!!! It's way too hot for them to be out in the sun for 4 hours.

How about another blog?

Check out IBGS Business Golf.

Check out Mike Ferry's Music

I got this nice email from Mike Ferry. He's a songwriter who writes 'geek rock for people who laugh' (his words). He's written a golf song and you can find it on itunes or here on his website. Someone will have to let me know how good it is. I have a dial up connection and pretty much can't listen to music or watch video online. But I only pay $16.95/month for what I do have so I'm not complaining too much.

One and Only

My one and only golf observation this weekend is this:

Not a lot of Russians turned out to watch the Russian Open.


I haven't watched golf much at all this weekend. Yesterday, I meant to nap for an hour but slept for 3 and pretty much missed all the golf. Today, I was busy writing a love scene for a book I'm writing. Not the golf themed romance novel - I finished that one. This one is a new one about spies and newspaper reporters.

Another Blog Added

Thanks to another friendly email I received, I've added the Bogey Killer Golf blog to the side bar as well. He even sent me a book about how to play golf. Since I don't play golf, I don't know how effective the book will be, but we'll see.

Adding a Blog

Thanks to a very nice email sent to me from the folks at In Golf We Trust, I will be adding their blog to the Blogs of Note section in the Side bar. Check them out.

Hmmm.... Has he been whining this week?

I just heard that Shaun Micheel is playing the Reno-Tahoe Open. Is he whining yet about not being at the WGC event? Yep. I just heard an interview with him and he's criticizing the Reno-Tahoe Open by saying he doesn't know if it's a good warmup for the PGA Championship. What is it with this guy that makes him think he's entitled to be in certain events? Sheesh. If you want to be there, then play well enough to qualify or earn the invitation. Simple as that. He's ranked 107th this week on the PGA Tour money list and the Fed Ex Cup points list.