Good For Him

Andres Romero won the Zurich Classic yesterday! I was watching the Top Gear marathon on BBC America instead of golf coverage so I didn't get to see him win. Romero is one of my favorites on the European Tour and it's great that he won here in America.

Next Up: Houston

According to this news article, Jose Maria Olazabal will travel to Houston for this week's tournament.

I hope his health improves and he's able to return to a full schedule. I don't know if I can stomach listening to Kelly Whatshername during Thursday and Friday's rounds - I might have to mute her if I want to catch a glimpse of Jose Maria. Of course, American TV won't show him. The Golf Channel will just show Adam Scott the whole time but talk about Tiger.

Rheumatism Home Remedies

Reports say that it's rheumatism that has kept Jose Maria Olazabal out of action for the last several months. So, I thought I would look up some home remedies for rheumatism just to see what was out there. I'm sure once a person gets to a certain point in experiencing this ailment, these home remedies won't help much. But for mild cases, it might not hurt to try a change in diet for a few weeks to see if it might help.

According to This Website, one approach is to eliminate all meat, white bread, sugar, tea, coffee, alcohol and some other things. Some of the suggestions on the website I find a bit out of the ordinary, but cutting out meat, white bread and sugar is suggested by many doctors and nutritionists for many different reasons, so I wouldn't think trying that would hurt too much.

Legal disclaimer: consult your physician before trying anything you hear or read on the internet.

Final Round at the Open de Andalucia

Jose Maria Olazabal shot a 76 in the final round to finish +2 for the event. I haven't found any comments from him in google news yet. Maybe there will be something later on this evening.

I haven't watched much of the final round but I think Lee Westwood got passed by Levet and Oliver Fisher and those two are in a playoff right now (well, on tv right now).

Open de Andalucia

I watched some of the third round today. The golf course there in Spain is very pretty. I didn't see Jose Maria Olazabal today, but I think they might have mentioned him at the very beginning of the coverage. I was cleaning the family room carpet at the time. I will have to watch the first two rounds of the event. I recorded them on Thursday and Friday.

I found a news article on Jose Maria which featured some comments he made after his second round. You can check out the article HERE. According to the article, he played Monday through Friday and his back seemed to feel better each day. Hopefully, with treatment and care Jose Maria will be able to play more regularly now and give me and all of his other fans something to watch :)

Two Complaints

The Golf Channel: The commercial advertising the Houston Open makes it sound as though Tiger is playing in the event. Someone should sue for misleading advertising.

NBC: They are showing the Monday coverage of last week's WGC event today when they should be showing the third round of the Zurich Classic. First, if they wanted to air the Monday coverage, then they should have taken off the Today Show and aired it Monday. Second, if the Zurich Classic would happen to stretch into a Monday, I doubt NBC would go to such lengths to show a Briny Baird-Tim Clark Monday duel. It's more than obvious NBC just saw another way to get Tiger footage on air. The only bright spot to NBC airing the Monday coverage of the WGC event is that the world gets to see Tiger lose twice in one week. Maybe that was the secret motivation behind showing the footage. Maybe Johnny Miller is doing what he can to minimize the TigerWorshipping - LOL! I would hope the reason for showing the footage was to celebrate Geoff Ogilvy's excellent win. This is the second WGC event he's won in his career. Add that to the US Open he won and one could come out and say that though he doesn't win often, when he does win, he beats the top players in the world.

One Under Par

Jose Maria Olazabal shot a -1 round today at the Andalucia event. I think he's 6 shots back of the leader who is Lee Westwood, I think. Would you believe I saw the leaderboard and read a news story and I'm still not sure it's Westwood in the lead? I think it's him. I was just looking for Jose Maria news. One article I read reported that he said his back was a little tired by the end of the round. There's a British amateur named Danny Willett who is doing pretty well after the first round. I noticed his name because I started writing a new golf related fiction story this weekend and my main character's last name is Willett. Complete coincidence I can assure you. Now I'm wondering if I should change the name of the character.

Anyway, I recorded the first round of the tournament this morning, hoping there will be some of Jose Maria on there. I haven't watched it yet.

Another News Tidbit on Jose Maria Olazabal

Apparently and according to this news story, Jose Maria is still in pain. I really hope that he finds some answer to his rheumatism problems. Maybe he should try acupuncture or something. If he needs someone to tie his shoes for him, I'm available. As long as I can bring the dogs, I can move to Spain and see to his footwear needs. Not just shoes either. Socks too.

yippeee!!!!

Geoff Ogilvy won the WGC CA Championship today.

Oh Happy Day!

I just read on this website, that Jose Maria Olazabal is planning to return to competition this week at the Andalucian Open. I'm so excited. I hope he's recovered and ready to go.

Something Else to Watch

I found something other than TigerFest to watch this weekend. Figure Skating. That new scoring system they have doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. But, I like listening to some of the music.

One of the other bloggers has renamed The Golf Channel to Tiger Golf Channel and I think he's got it right. Everytime I access the program guide on the satellite dish, they've got a Tiger Highlight reel on. Ugh.

Par for the Course

It's both a cliche and apparently something the leader of North Korea doesn't see too much of. After I read the Merline Lovelace book (search back through the blog for my review), I decided to do a quick search online to see if there are golf courses in North Korea. Lovelace's book featured a female North Korean star golfer. Well, I found this news article that explains that some people are trying to organize tours to the ultra-private course where the leader of North Korea once made 11 holes in one (by his account anyway).

In a stark contrast to a well-maintained golf course, I also found this news article from the BBC which reports that North Korea's food shortage is getting worse. If only they had someplace with good soil and irrigation where they could plant some crops.......

CA Championship Round 1

Here are some scores:

Miguel Angel Jimenez -7 (co-leader)
Anders Hansen -5
Mark Calcavecchia -4
Andres Romero -4
Sergio Garcia -3
JB Holmes -3

I would have liked to have seen Miguel's round, but I am not participating in TigerFest.

Instead I am watching the Original Ice Dance World Championships competition. I'm not crazy about the weird dances, I like to watch the waltzes.

No News Not Necessarily Good News

I have a Google News alert set up for Jose Maria Olazabal. Unfortunately, for the last month or so, the news alert has been very quiet and not very newsworthy. Mostly, I get links to articles talking about when he made the cut on the number and went on to win whatever tournament it was. Nothing about any recent activity. This worries me. I guess whatever ailment he's been experiencing is more serious than the news accounts from early January led us all to believe. I hope he gets better and gets back out there on tour soon. I miss seeing him play.

Leaderboards and News

I checked out the leaderboard of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Here's some scores through the second round (Leading score -9 by Vijay Singh):
Lee Westwood -6
Vaughn Taylor -5
Sergio Garcia -4
Fred Couples -2 (First Round co-leader)
JB Holmes -2
Andres Romero -1

News:
According to the Golf Channel Website, David Feherty got hit by a truck while riding his bicycle at home in Texas. He has a couple of broken ribs andI think a punctured lung, but is expected to be recovered in time for the Masters coverage. I'm not sure I like what this implies: The man grows up in Northern Ireland before any peace agreements and it's America that sends him to the hospital. And of course there's the irony of Feherty getting exercise for his health and he gets hit by a truck. I'm sure he will have some very humorous comments of his own as the weeks go by.

Another NGW (No Golf Week)

Well, I hear Tiger's playing this week at Arnold Palmer's tournament. That means I won't be watching Arnold Palmer's tournament. Can't watch the golf channel because they suck up to Tiger to the exclusion of all other golf news and notes. Granted, Johnny Miller doesn't suck up as much as other announcers, but neither can he completely ignore Tiger when he's in the field. So, NBC will have to talk about him too and show him on tv. I hope there's some Tennis or something on. Maybe a figure skating meet? I did buy the Robert Ludlum book, The Bourne Identity, tonight at the store. I've been in a mood to read spy thrillers lately. It's a big book, so I might have some of it left to read this weekend. I'm planning to get on my new mini-trampoline and work out this weekend. I heard on tv that 5 minutes of trampoline jumping is the same as a 15 minute walk. I can get a workout done in 1/3 the time on a trampoline. I've been working out on it for about three days now. I took today off just so I don't get bored with it too quickly.

The newest issue of Golf Magazine has Tiger on the cover in case you're interested. There's also interviews with Mark O'Meara and Zach Johnson in there - I think it's their Masters issue. And it seems like there are a lot more pages of ads in that issue. Gee, wonder why companies think that issue would be a big seller and want to advertise?

O'Hair Wins

Sean O'Hair won the Pods Tournament by being the only guy in the last three groups to be under par for the final round. It was good to see him win again. Now maybe they can stop talking about his play in last year's Players' championship.

Slow Play

Did anyone else notice just how deliberate (i.e. slow) Stewart Cink has been in this tournament - at least it seemed that way to me. Taking so much time on his shots is probably what's keeping him from just playing and pulling away from the field. The guys in the truck at NBC have been kept pretty busy switching to other players while Cink has been evaluating every single aspect of every single shot.

Contrastly, apparently Sean O'Hair's group was put on the clock, but the way NBC showed the players, it didn't seem like O'Hair was slow at all.

It's interesting to see how the media can define these players just by the way they air the play during the tournaments. They don't even have to comment on the players to give the viewer the perception they want the viewer to have.

Atwal Wins in Malaysia

Arjun Atwal won the tournament in Malaysia this week. He's been doing well these last few weeks that he's been playing over there.

Related note: Apparently golf fans in Malaysia don't seem to care about the fallout over the elections there. I think the Prime Minister's party failed to retain a 2/3 margin in their parliament and some people are calling for him to step down.

I have a feeling Atwal should take the first flight out of there, just in case the outcry from the elections turns physical.

An Unfortunate Victim

Golf is an unfortunate victim today of the weather we are experiencing here in WV. Here we are getting some snow and it's going to be 15 degrees by morning. So, since it's cold and snowy outside, I'm looking for something warm and sunny to watch on tv. Did I find that today? Well, I found tennis on the tennis channel - Las Vegas, outside courts, and players playing in the warm sun and sweating. What did I find on NBC? Golfers playing in mid 50s temperatures. Sure there was some sun, but it didn't warm me up. Not even that interview with Fred Couples. So, tonight I'm still watching tennis.

As for the golf, first the NBC guys said that Stewart Cink came out of the Matchplay event with a lot of confidence. Then they said he was demoralized by his loss at the hands of Tiger Woods. So which is it? Johnny Miller picked Stewart Cink as the one to watch on Sunday. Well, he picked Luke Donald last week and Luke didn't win. It will be interesting to see if that becomes a trend.

Presidents Cup

I saw on Golf Channel.com that Fred Couples and Greg Norman were named future Presidents Cup captains. I don't think that's going to work out as well as some people might first think for the International Team. I don't know how inspiring and motivating Norman will be as captain. he tends to be a polarizing figure. On the US side, Couples is so well-liked that he probably doesn't have to do anything but show up to have his players play well.

"Kicking It Old School"

Despite paying $69.00 a month for the golf channel (Dish Network raised prices), I find myself reverting back to the pre-dish days and watching only weekend golf on the network this week. This is because the golf channel makes me puke with all of their Tiger Worshipping.

Although, I might have to stop watching golf this week anyway - Winnie keeps hearing birds chirping on tv and she keeps barking.

Tiger's Demise

Remember a few posts back when I told you all about the new series of books I've started reading - the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz? At the time I didn't know if any of them could be golf-related. Well, now I know. Book #3 - Skeleton Key has a Tiger Woods reference.

To set the scene: Alex Rider is a 14 year old British boy who is recruited by MI6 to carry out missions for them. In the book Skeleton Key, Alex finds himself held captive on a private plane by a former Russian general who wants to set off a nuclear bomb and take over Russia in order to restore the country to what the general believed were the glory days, the days before 'democracy and capitalism'. Well, before Alex sets out on this mission, the MI6 gadget guy gives him some tools to use on his mission and one of them is a small Tiger Woods figurine. This isn't just a statue. Oh no. It's a stun grenade. You twist Tiger's head around twice clockwise and then around counterclockwise once, throw him, count to 10 and he explodes and stuns anyone nearby.

I wonder how many competitors on the PGA tour would have an interest in such a doll?