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.