Ballesteros Interview

Seve has given an interview about his experiences since being diagnosed with cancer. You can read part of it HERE.

I recommend printing it out and hanging it up for inspiration any time you think your life is difficult.

European Senior Tour Expands Its Reach

According to the European PGA Tour website, the US PGA Championship has more than doubled the number of spots reserved for European Senior Tour members. With representatives such as Bernhard Langer and Eduardo Romero, the European Senior Tour has done well around the world and it's only fair that its success is recognized like this. You can read more about this on the European PGA Tour website.

Kjeldsen Wins the Andalucia Open

Soren Kjeldsen had to fight for the win today as David Drysdale gave him a run for his money. It was an exciting round with some good shots and some equally bad shots. This is Kjeldsen's second win in Spain and I believe he was in contention in the event that Sergio won last year at his home course. So, as the announcers said, Kjeldsen might as well be an honorary Spaniard.

Surprise, Bias on the Golf Channel

Annika Sorenstam gets a one day celebration next week. Tiger Woods gets a whole week about once a month, especially in December when he has his birthday.

Sexism rears its ugly head.

Another Round for Seve

I've seen on the web that Seve Ballesteros is set for a fourth round of chemotherapy. He's posted a brief message on his website. You can check it out by clicking on the link in the sidebar. Hopefully, this will bring Seve one step closer to complete recovery.

Sad News for Me

Jose Maria Olazabal has missed the cut at the Andalucia Open. But I think he did well by only shooting 2 over par in each round Thursday and Friday. He hasn't played competitive golf for a long while and I think anyone would be thrilled with scores like he shot.

Here We Go Again

Yes, Jose Maria Olazabal has once again stated that he has not agreed to any role on the 2010 European Ryder Cup Team. You can click HERE to read the article.

This is twice now that Montgomerie has opened his mouth without having his facts straight. I saw a headline on the European Tour that said Montgomerie and friends celebrate his 500th event. My reaction was: he has friends? That might not be the case after these next two years.

I will be officially ignoring Montgomerie for the next two years.

Olazabal's Return

Finally, Jose Maria Olazabal returns to golf and to TV. He's playing in the Andalucia event on the European Tour this week. Hopefully the Golf Channel will decide it's worth airing and will have it on tv, unlike last week's European Tour event.

A Great Day in Portugal

Not that we would know it from the absence of coverage on the Golf Channel, but the European Tour had a tournament going on this week. And the winner of the event, Argentina's Estanislao Goya, scored his first win on the European tour in just six events this year. He is a graduate of the Challenge Tour and is now, according to the European Tour website, at 50 in the Race to Dubai rankings.

Callum Macaulay finished runner up with a back nine of 28. He birdied the last eight of nine holes to try to overtake Goya, but came up one shot short. Not surprising, Macaulay is happy with his performance.

You can read the European Tour's article by clicking HERE.

Note to the Golf Channel: Some of us might like to see what Portugal looks like. You should provide tv coverage of the European Tour events, even those that don't have the big famous people playing in them.

Goosen Wins

Retief Goosen won the Transitions Championship today by one shot. He had two putts to win and Johnny Miller put the hex on him by saying "he hasn't had a three putt all week." Well, it took Retief two putts to win and the final putt was about 4 and a half feet. Brett Quigley came in tied for second. I really wish he would win sometime. He's a good player and deserves it.

I didn't watch much of this tournament. It's hard to get back into watching golf now that Tiger's back. I never know when the announce crew is going to break out into a Tiger Love Fest session when they are supposed to be covering the action going on in front of them.

And it's hard to follow these tournaments when they change their names every year. Why can't it be "The Innisbrook Championship brought to you by such and such?" It's always going to be Innisbrook and that would mean less confusion for us viewers who are trying to follow along.

New Blog Added

Doug Farrick of Golfdashblog.com emailed me and asked if I would check out his blog. So I did and I like it. It's comprehensive, covering many different aspects of golf and the post titled "One Way to Kill a Sport" mirrors what I've been thinking and saying for years, only that post is very well-written. So, I've added this great blog to the Blogs of Note section. You all need to check it out.

Sort of Golf Related

Since Buick does, maybe, sort of still sponsors some PGA Tour stuff, I thought I would post about This Article I found on the web that claims the Buick LaCrosse has tied for the top spot with Jaguar in a J.D. Power and Associates reliability study. This makes me happy since I bought a Buick LaCrosse last summer.

My car is doing fine so far, knock on wood. The only problem I have is that the neighbor dog bites my front fender when I'm driving up my driveway and now I have about 4 chipped places in the paint. They're pretty deep chips too. The neighbor dog doesn't look healthy, you can see his ribs and he only has three legs, so maybe he won't be long for this world and I won't have to resort to getting a spray bottle of hot pepper water to spray on him when he attacks my car.

Olazabal Assistant Captain?

Once again Colin Montgomerie has come out in the news with the announcement that Jose Maria Olazabal is going to be his Assistant Captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup. The last time Montgomerie opened his mouth, Olazabal had to say "uh, that's news to me..." (paraphrased). So, maybe this time the news is accurate. You can read about it by clicking HERE, the PGA.com website.

Final CA Championship Notes

Just a brief post about the final round. I didn't watch it. Unfortunately, QVC conned me out of even more money on Sunday. I'm going to have to look into blocking that channel. Anyway, Phil Mickelson won the tournament, apparently his first WGC win. He posted -19 for the week. Nick Watney was probably the breakout star of the week as he contended for the trophy on Sunday but ended up just one off the lead. I love it when the lesser known guys win or almost win. Jeev Milkha Singh finished 4th at 14 under par. Two guys with very low rounds on Sunday were Thomas Aiken with a 7 under par final round and Oliver Wilson with a 6 under par final round.

Phil Mickelson is now #2 in the world. Sergio's at #3 and Geoff Ogilvy is at #4.

Tiger's Return? Not a Big Deal Here

Apparently the PGA Tour is doomed even though Tiger has returned to the game. Why do I say so? Because even though he's playing this week, the local NBC affiliate here in my neck of the woods has chosen to air College Basketball instead of the CA Championship. I would get to see only a half an hour of the golf coverage today if I wanted to watch it.

Me? I'm watching the evil QVC. They've already conned me out of $50.00 for a purse. Good thing Obama's new tax tables went into effect - I got some extra money on my paycheck today to help pay for the purse.

The Funny Side of Webpage Translations

I ran the following website through the Babelfish translator: http://www.marca.com/2009/03/12/golf/1236863818.html

It's about Jose Maria Olazabal and apparently he's planning to play at the Open de Andalucia at the end of March.

The funny part? Well, the translator translated Gonzalo Fernandez Castano's name as: Gonzalo Fernandez Chestnut Tree.

Check out the translation HERE.

Round 2, CA Championship

Kenny Perry and Alvaro Quiros both shot 8 under par today - the low rounds of the day. Good for them! Quiros made the biggest jump, from 55th to 8th place. Rory McIlroy is only three off the lead after two rounds. Phil is leading at 13 under.

I haven't been watching it and I think I'm justified. I had the Golf Channel on briefly a few minutes ago and they did an 'update' on the tournament. It was all about some guy who was 10 shots back and has been having a very lackluster event so far. And surprisingly, I'm not talking about Ryuji Imada, who is also sitting on 3 under par. So, since I figure the coverage was going to be skewed anyway, there was no point in watching.

I'll be cheering on Rory and others via the blog.

CA Championship

Rather than talk about the big names, I'm going to highlight some of the lesser known players. Prayad Marksaeng is leading the tournament (currently tied for the lead). Jeev Milkha Singh is also tied for the lead. He won the Volvo Masters in Europe a couple of years ago (their version of the Tour Championship). Dustin Johnson and Nick Watney are close to the lead and James Kingston and Louis Oosthuizen are also doing really well so far.

I think it's great that these guys are doing so well. I like watching the lesser known players steal the show. Well, they would steal the show if the media wasn't so biased toward the big named players. I doubt seriously if the media even spent that much time on Henrik Stenson's underwear incident. They were all probably interviewing experts to explore the significance of Tiger's breakfast choices or something.

Stenson in His Undies???

There's a picture on the Golf Channel of Henrik Stenson wearing only his underwear with Fanny standing there next to the golf bag looking like everything is business as usual. I haven't read the story on this yet, but I really don't think I needed to see Henrik in his undies.

I would love to read Fanny's autobiography when she gets around to writing it someday. I bet she has some really good stories about life on the Tours.

And So It Begins

Here's the first article I've seen that speculates what has to happen for Sergio to gain the #1 World Ranking. It says Sergio has to win this week and Tiger has to finish no better than 27th. Gee, and if Brad Pitt would leave Angelina for me...... Well, you all get the idea.

Y. E. Yang Wins the Honda Classic

That title says just about everything about the event. It was good to see him win. I was a little dismayed at NBC for failing to mention that one of Yang's wins was one in which he beat Tiger Woods. I think they might have eventually mentioned it but it was after maybe 10 other mentions of Yang's lack of winning experience, just nine wins worldwide until today. I can understand NBC wanting to script today's win by painting a picture of an inexperienced winner and all of the good things that will happen to him now and all of the pressure filled things that could happen to him coming down the stretch. But, give him some credit.

I don't know what the world rankings are yet. I do know that Yang was 460th before today's win. NBC repeated that a hundred times. I can't wait to check the rankings tomorrow.

Today's Honda Classic

A lot of good stories to talk about at the Honda Classic this week. Erik Compton is back. The two time heart transplant recipient is walking this week instead of using a cart. Proving to the critics that people who need a cart don't take advantage of the rules and aren't trying to ruin the 'integrity' of the sport. Jeff Overton is playing well. He made big news last fall after his appendix operation by returning to the tour just days after the surgery and toughing it out to keep his tour card. Brett Quigley is playing well this week. He's probably the player with the most tour starts without a win.

NBC is doing well to highlight the stories, even if they are a bit repetitive about it. You'd think with such journalist greats like Jimmy Roberts (yes that was filled with sarcasm) there they would get some new details or new info on the players. I like that NBC seems to be the least negative about Sergio. All the other announcers/networks like to tear him down and none of them can find one good thing to say about him. And, just as importantly, even though NBC seems to like Sergio, they don't go on and on about him when he's not making the news, like everyone else does about Tiger. Or Phil. Although, I think they were hinting at Sergio maybe making a comeback tomorrow because they kept saying that someone could shoot a 65 tomorrow and be right in it (this was while the lead was at -6). Sergio's at even par and a 65 would bring him up to 5 under. For the record, I don't think he'll shoot a 65.

I do have one criticism about NBC. They kept going on and on about the TPC at Sawgrass. Yes, we know the Players Championship is coming up. But, you're not there yet. Stop wishing your lives away, as the old folks around here say.

First Round Honda Classic

Robert Allenby is leading after the first round at -4. A bunch of people are at three under and tied for second, including Sergio. Rory McIlroy is at Even par I think.

I watched some of this tonight. It's hard to watch golf anymore because I never know when they are going to launch into some Tiger-Worshipping segment. I can't really relax in front of the tv and just watch golf. Unless it's the European Tour. Or maybe the Nationwide Tour.

The Golf channel is all over McIlroy this week. The poor guy. But I have to say that when Inga Hammond interviewed Sergio, I've never seen Sergio more relaxed. I think he likes Inga.

After the coverage and the post game show or whatever it was, they aired the Charles Barkley thing. I would have rather seen the new Playing Lessons thing with Fred Couples and Mark Walhberg. Hopefully that will be re-ran and I'll get to see it.

April '09 Edition of Golf Magazine

I just got the April issue in the mail and there are some interesting things in it. One of the most interesting feature article about Amateur Danny Lee who will be playing in the Masters this year. There's an interview with Ben Crenshaw. A one-page interview with the 'next Tiger Woods' of the week candidate: 15 year old Grayson Murray. The annual "Greg Norman at the Masters" spotlight that details all of his near misses. And the David Feherty column is kind of funny this time. The quote from that column worth remembering: "fly-fishing for women in their 20s." Who was he talking about? Get the magazine and find out.


And yes, I did leave out the Steve Williams interview. I didn't even look at it. Don't want to know what he says. Wait a minute, I think I might have just found something in common with Tiger.

Sergio Garcia Gets Vardon Trophy

Sergio was awarded the Vardon Trophy for last year's effort of having the lowest adjusted scoring average in PGA Tour events. He had to have a minimum of 60 rounds to qualify for the trophy. Sergio had 72. You can read more about this by clicking HERE.

Ogilvy Wins Again

Geoff Ogilvy won his second WGC Accenture Matchplay, closing out Paul Casey just a little early. At one point Casey was 6 down to Ogilvy, but he closed to within 4.

Ross Fisher came up just one short in the 'consolation' match. Stupid name for the battle for third. They need to come up with another name for it.

What I noted more than anything during today's event, was the completely different attitude the Golf Channel had to the match as opposed to NBC. The Golf Channel was all negative - no one was playing well this morning and both players just sucked. NBC comes along and they tell me that today is the best that Casey and Ogilvy have played all year and their greens in reg stats were amazing, driving stats were good, everything was just great. I began to wonder what match Azinger and Faldo were watching. But, no one should expect anything cheerful or happy to come out of Azinger's mouth. He's just a cranky person.

And even the "Tiger Woods Highlights" NBC showed turned out to be Tim Clark's highlights.

I have to say that when NBC announced they were going to show Tiger's highlights, I said "well that won't take long."

What a Choice!

BBC America decided to air a Top Gear marathon at the same time as the Accenture Match Play final. What a decision to make! So far, I'm watching the Match Play. I think I can trust Johnny Miller to not tick me off or spend the whole four hours lavishing praise on the non-finalist Tiger Woods.