Round 2 - LA O- Northern Trust Open

Pretty much only one note to mention today: Even though JB Holmes is leading the Fed Ex Cup points standings, they need to talk about his bid for the Ryder Cup! That's a bigger story. I imagine no one cares about the Fed Ex Cup until the playoffs start.

Commercial Comment - Have you seen the new Ian Poulter commercial with the purple shoes? That is a very funny commercial. I like it.

Northern Trust Cla-Inv-Open

Fred Couples is making the cut this week! Yay for Freddie! David Duval - WD according to the golf channel's leaderboard. Not so yay :(

Rich Lerner's really annoying. Just what is Robert Allenby's score and how hard is it for Lerner to know how to count? The computer's wrong, no it isn't. Well, maybe. Gee, he doesn't know. Give me a break.

Brief mention regarding the SBS Open - When Winnie hears the birds chirping, she starts barking. Good thing it's so expensive to live in Hawaii. Winnie won't be moving there.

What Do You Know.....

I'm actually watching golf this evening. I turned it over around 5:45pm eastern to see if I could see a leaderboard and didn't hear Kelly Whatshername. So, I watched for a little bit and still didn't hear her. Didn't hear Faldo either. So, I finished watching the first round coverage of the Northern Trust event. I don't remember if it's called an Open, Classic, Invitational, blah, blah. I'm watching the LPGA now.

I saw a new footjoy commercial with Angel Cabrera, the cute caddie, and Vijay Singh. I didn't really get to hear the commercial because I was on the phone, but it's good to see Cabrera doing commercials.

And of course, it was very nice for the Golf Channel to have Sergio on their coverage this evening, seeing as how this is Valentine's Day.

The one down side - Rich Lerner is back to his full of himself tone of voice. When he was paired with Faldo, he left the ego behind and just called the golf, which was very good. But tonight he sounded like he was trying to give the moment some kind of Nobel Prize winning meaning when it's just a golf game. Even if Tiger Woods won all four majors and went 5-0 at the Ryder Cup this year, Lerner's inflated announcer voice would not be fitting.

What Golf is Really About

Steve Lowery and Dudley Hart both needed good results this week. Needing to make so much money within so many tournaments to retain their playing privileges due to medical extensions, both had a good chance today to get the job done. Lowery took care of his problem by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in a playoff with Vijay Singh. Dudley Hart I think finished T3 so he should have made some good money to go towards retaining his card. This is what golf used to be about - two guys who could be anyone you meet at the grocery store playing for not only history but their livlihood. Instead, the media has made golf into money, money, Buick commercials and a guy who only plays about 15 weeks out of the whole golf season.

Way to go Steve Lowery and Dudley Hart. You made this weekend a great golf weekend for me and for millions of golf fans everywhere.

Valentine Wishes

Winnie and PJ would like to show off their Valentine's Day Outfits and wish their honorary daddies (Sergio and Jose Maria) a happy holiday.

It Only Took Seconds

I turned the tv over to the Golf Channel, thinking I could get a quick look at the leaderboard of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but I heard maybe three words from Kelly Whatshername and decided I just couldn't listen to her tonight. So, I went back to Funniest Pets and People on WGN.

I was more than thrilled to see that Merline Lovelace, the author of the book I reviewed in the last post, left me a comment! That was one of those gotcha moments where someone catches you with your honest opinion (or with your pants down) and you think, gee if I'd known she was going to see it, I might have taken a bit more care with my review. LOL. I will go back and read the golf parts of the book, probably this weekend, and I'll look for the little details that will connect back to the other books in the series. I think my favorite book in the Codename Danger series has to be Doc's and Paige's book, called Undercover Man. I think it might have been the first in the series. In my defense, it's difficult to switch to a current day story when I've been reading romance novels that were written in the 60s and 70s. Lately, I've been reading a lot of Violet Winspear. I only have 6 more books to find and buy and I'll have all of the books she's ever written.

In case you missed it, I'm a collector. I have dvd collections of tv shows and book collections of my favorite authors. If you're into mysteries or detective novels, try the Nero Wolfe series written by Rex Stout. A&E aired a really good tv version of the books starring Timothy Hutton. Of course I have that on DVD. And I have all of the Nero Wolfe books. I haven't read the very last one he wrote because I want to read them all from the first book to the last in chronological order. I haven't done that yet and really don't know when I'll do that. I think the very first Nero Wolfe book, Fer de Lance, is golf related. I think that's the one where the killer has a club modified to shoot a needle of poison into the victim.

I got the latest issue of Golf magazine yesterday in the mail. It includes an interview with Mike Weir and a feature on Old Tom Morris. David Feherty once again makes many references to, well, that certain body part unique to you guys. The more the magazine lets him get by with the more outspoken he becomes. It's a shame he relies so much on these cheap references in his writing. He is so genuinely talented, he doesn't need to resort to that kind of juvenile writing.

The next holiday on my horizon is Valentine's Day. Hopefully, you all will see Winnie and PJ celebrating this special day for romance. I can't promise anything because I'm pretty lazy on the weekends. But we'll see.......

Book Review

Book: Match Play from the Codename Danger series
Author: Merline Lovelace
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Publisher: Silhouette Romantic Suspense

I bought this book because it's one of a series of books written by this author. The back of the book had no indication that there was golf involved so I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading and found out that there would golf at the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland. Unfortunately, I have this bad habit of only reading dialogue so I didn't read much of the golf writing to see how close the author came to describing the course and the golf action.

Here's a short description of the plot:

A top secret U.S. Government spy agency learns that a top North Korean female golfer might want to defect to the US with her father, a nuclear scientist. So, the agency, named Omega, sends in one of their agents to play in an international Pro-Am at St. Andrews and try to determine if the North Koreans want to defect. If they do, then the agent and her accomplices are to help them to defect. There's also the romance plot that involves the agent's old boyfriend.

My opinion of the book: Not enough romance for me. Engaging in certain acts doesn't make a book a romance novel. This is a problem I have with this writer and quite frankly, if it wasn't for the fact that I have all of the other books of the series, I might not continue to pick up these books as they are released. The idea of a North Korean golfer? I may need to research this a bit, as I was under the impression that growing things like crops for food was a monumental challenge for them. I wonder how they manage to maintain golf courses good enough to produce a top golfer. I will have to read up on North Korea. At least this book isn't heavy with tech gadgets. The last couple of books in this series had some pretty unbelievable superspy gadgets that made Q branch look like amateurs. Thankfully, the agent actually can play golf and doesn't need things likg gps guided golf balls and turbocharged 3 irons and rangerfinder tech imbedded within sunglasses. I would have been greatly disappointed if the agent had to rely on these gadgets to play at St. Andrews. Although I have to admit that when BA rigged that golf ball on that one episode of the A-Team, it was pretty neat.

Should you read this book? Maybe not. But if you decide you want to, then by all means, pick it up at your local store this month.

FBR Open: Twice as Nice (and other comments)

I would like to direct you all back to my post on January 12th of this year in which I posted questions I would like to see the media ask the golfers: one of them was to J.B. Holmes and that question was what did he plan to do with his game to try to make the Ryder Cup team this year. Well, we saw that answer today as he won the FBR Open in a playoff against Phil Mickelson. Gee, if only the media had asked my question back in January (instead of sucking up to Tiger), they would have been looked upon as visionaries, dare I say soothsayers. But alas, I will have to lay claim to one of those titles. And if you're thinking that one post back in January doesn't make me a visionary, well, go back to my 9/29/06 post in which I declared my new campaign was to see J.B. Holmes make the Ryder Cup team. Today's win is J.B.'s second win and the second time he's won this tournament. Hopefully, he will continue to do well and make the Ryder Cup Team. My reaction to J.B.'s win: I nearly flipped a chihuahua off my lap as I cheered J.B's victory. Suitably, said chihuahua was Winnie - get it? Win-nie. LOL.

Other notes:

I was led to believe that the new rule on making the cut would speed up play and stuff, but what did I see today? Groups of three going off both tees. Gee, that new rule's really working out for the PGA Tour.

CBS stands for something else: How about - Commentating B*!%S#@! Phil Mickelson was doing just fine doing more than enough on the course for any commentator to legitimately discuss, but no, CBS had to keep inserting Tiger Woods crap in there. I wonder how Jim Nantz would feel if Gary McCord kept talking about how great Dan Hicks is?

Something you wouldn't see You Know Who do: Phil Mickelson gave away two tickets to the Superbowl to a boy and his dad who were in the gallery for the final round of the FBR Open. Well, Bones actually handed the tickets over, but they were Phil's to give away. It was a really nice gesture.

Hodgepodge

Ernie Els and Henrik Stenson have good chances to win in Dubai this week. Yay! Tiger's 4 shots behind Ernie, who's leading the tournament going into the final round. Sergio is also 4 shots back. His putting has been very good this week. According to the European Tour website, he had only 21 putts in his second round. His score didn't really reflect that so something must have gone wrong for him between the tee and the green.

I was watching Samantha Brown: Latin America last night on the Travel Channel and guess what commercial they aired: Yep - a Tiger Woods Buick commercial. It's Tiger Millennium everywhere!! Can you believe, it's almost making me look forward to political ads taking over the airwaves?

I read that Jose Maria Olazabal may not be in the AT&T field next week. I'm really worried that his ailment is not as resolved as I've been reading. Hopefully, it's just an issue of the rounds taking longer since they would be playing with the amateurs and he just doesn't want to spend that long on the course his first week back.

Off topic: I bought an MP3 player today from the kids' toys section at walmart. The package says for ages 7 and up. Well, I would like to see a 7 year old figure out how to work this software and player. It took me a good half an hour to find out where the battery goes. You'd think they would put that in the instruction book, but no. Have I mentioned on this blog how much I hate computers?

Squash: The Sport, Not the Vegetable

Since I've been avoiding Tiger Millennium on the Golf Channel, I've had to find other things to watch and for a couple of days this week, it's been squash on the Tennis Channel. I don't think I like to watch squash. Smaller racquets, smaller ball, and the players almost trip over each other because the court is so confining. I still don't know all the rules and all the strategies. All I know is that if the ball bounces twice, the person who was supposed to have hit it loses a point. And I know that the ball really flies around that court - you can barely see it. I would say that squash is a sport that you would have to play to appreciate. I hope I don't have to watch that much of it, but who knows when Tiger Millennium will end. I tried to watch some of the FBR Open, but they went right to commercial and what was on the commercial? The Golf Channel hyping Tiger's first round in Dubai. And what was the second commercial? Well, it wasn't a commercial, it was the Update, which of couse would probably have been all about Tiger. So, I didn't even watch that. I switched it over to the Tennis Channel and watched a 3 year old match between Venus Williams and Amelie Maresmo.

I did check the scores of the Dubai event and Sergio is T5 so far. Aparently there was a weather issue or something for the second round - the lowest score was only 3 under par. Has anyone else noticed that Pablo Martin doesn't seem to be playing well at all? Makes you question the whole 'play American college golf' strategy. And when checking the FBR Open scores, I noticed something that I'm sure a lot of other people have already noticed: there are two players with the name Brandt. Other than Paul Brandt the Canadian country music singer, the only other time I've heard this name has been with the golfers. It's an unusual name to be so common in golf. But then I've always thought it strange that there weren't more PGA golfers with the last name Smith. It is a very common name in America.

Aerials Deflated

If you're a regular reader of the blog, then you probably know I am watching things other than US PGA Golf this week and I probably won't be watching European Tour golf next week (definitely avoiding the golf channel). Well, one of those other things I'm watching is Aerials - skiing. Yes, I hate snow and I'm watching skiing. But anyway, I saw something I don't normally see when I watch this event during the Winter Olympics. I saw a skier fall flat on his belly and face. He flew off the big ramp, high up into the air, and plop! he slammed to the ground. The guy got up and walked off the landing zone so he appeared to be okay. It was neat. I like watching this event. Cross Country skiing, though, is very boring. Later tonight is the US Figure Skating Championships - the men's competition. And in case you were tuning in here for an update on the Australian Open (as I posted quite a bit about that earlier), Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova are the big winners.

Qatar Masters Final Round

Adam Scott shot a final round 61 to win today at -20. Sergio was -10 on the weekend and moved up into the top ten. Adam had his chances for a 59. I'm sure golf fans found a more exciting round of golf to watch here than in California at that other tournament.

Pretty Dresses for Pretty Girls

Winnie and PJ now have pretty party dresses to wear for their birthday party in March. I made these today. They are such pretty girls, but then with honorary daddies like Sergio and Jose Maria, they can't be anything but pretty.

Qatar Masters Round 3

Here are some observations from the leaderboard:

Johan Edfors in leading at -12 - he had some pretty impressive shots today.
Rory McIlroy -8
David Howell -7
Luke Donald and Lee Westwood -6
Sergio Garcia and Jose Manuel Lara -5
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Carlos Rodiles -2

Adam Scott and Andrew Coltart both shot the low round of the day - 65

Qatar Masters and Other Notes

I think I saw that Sergio was 3 under in the first round but 3 over in the second. I didn't see any of the golf and only briefly scanned the leaderboard in the mornings before leaving for work so I'm short on golf notes.

Tennis notes, however, I'm full of because between ESPN and the Tennis Channel, I've seen the same matches three and four times each. The women's Australian Open final is Maria Sharapova vs Ana Ivanovic. I'm hoping Ivanovic wins. I like her. Not that I don't like Sharapova, but she's won majors before. Ana just made it to #2 in the world with the Australian Open. As for the men, it's Novak Djokovic vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. I'm hoping Djokovic wins. While he's got this crazed and scary look in his eye sometimes, he didn't knock Nadal out of the Open and he didn't express an egotistical attitude during his press conference. I read that Tsonga actually said that if he's playing well, it will be hard for anyone to beat him. I mean really, no one likes a braggart. Plus, he's French. And we know how the French are with sports - just look at the many, many accusations they throw around during the Tour de France. During Federer's press conference after he lost to Djokovic, Federer said he had created a monster by being so successful - everyone expects him to win every match and when he doesn't, it's big news. I know how he feels. Everyone at work expects me to be perfect and great because I happen to try to do my job well. Apparently, doing your job well is rare in government work. The talk this week has been about Federer possibly breaking Sampras's record of 14 majors by winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. He would have to win 3 majors to break the record. I feel bad for Federer that no one is giving him a chance at the French Open. Sure, Nadal has won it for three straight years, but Federer is the #1 player in the world. And it's sad that no one's giving him a chance there. In order for him to set the new record of major championship wins this year, he will have to win the French since the Australian Open is out.

This weekend I hope to watch some of the Qatar Masters. It would be nice to see some golf while I'm busy boycotting Tiger Week Part 1.

Qatar Masters

Well, Sergio's playing. Jose Maria isn't. I really hope Jose Maria is ok and is fit to play. It worries me that he's been out this long with injuries. He was supposed to play this week but I read that he postponed his return until next week.

As for me, I'm watching tennis this week, with a little bit of American Idol thrown in. I might manage to see some of the Qatar Masters on the weekend, but it depends on who's playing the weekend at the Australian Open.

Tennis: The Other Sport

I haven't been watching much golf this week. I saw a little bit of the women's world cup, a little bit of Abu Dhabi, and a little bit of the Hope today, but mostly I've been watching the Australian Open tennis tournament. Today seemed like Roger Federer Week as they aired his 5 set match at least three times on two different networks. But this wasn't just because he's Roger Federer (You know, like the golf media treats Tiger). This was because the match was exceedingly good and because it's very rare that he's taken to 5 sets. I would like to give the networks the benefit of the doubt and say they aired the same match because there was a weather delay, but there are two courts with roofs there and I'm sure there was some tennis going on. Oh well, at least it wasn't a Williams Sister match shown three times. You'd expect that of the American media.

Another Insult

Have you ever noticed that lately when the women play on the Big Break, they are in Hawaii in bikinis? The men, of course, aren't in swimming trunks when they get their turn at the Big Break.

The Tiger comment, women exploited as sex objects - I'm beginning to think that there is just a problem in the Golf Channel workplace culture that needs to be examined.

Another Entry For the "Puke File"

Last night on the Post Game Show on the Golf Channel, Tim Rosaforte reported that the Barclay's tournament may move to a course in New Jersey. Rosaforte ended his report by saying something about not knowing if Tiger Woods would like the course. Is the Golf Channel now suggesting that Tim Finchem had better pick courses that Tiger likes? That somehow Tiger has some power of this part of the PGA Tour's operations?

It's utterly absurd (I feel like I'm repeating myself) that the Golf Channel or anyone should happen to suggest that the PGA Tour needs to be ran in a manner that would flatter, indulge, or otherwise give an advantage toTiger over the rest of the field.

Questions I Would Like to Hear Asked on the Golf Channel

To:

Rory Sabbatini: Why did you choose Adams equipment? (I personally hope it had something to do with watching Bernhard Langer almost win that tournament last year.)

Jerry Kelly, Steve Stricker: What kind of activity do you do in the winter to keep your game sharp?

Alejandro Canizares: How much do you plan to play in Europe this year?

Kenneth Ferrie: See Alejandro's question.

JB Holmes: With the Ryder Cup being played in your home state this year, what specifically do you need to do to make sure your game is good enough to make the team?

Kenny Perry: See JB's question.

New Spotlight

With the first full field event on the PGA Tour, I've decided it's time to update the Spotlight On section in the sidebar. Last year, I had Will MacKenzie and JB Holmes on there. Today, I've put Alejandro Canizares on there. Winner on the European Tour and rookie on the PGA Tour, it should be an exciting year for Canizares. And he's from Spain :)

From The "I'm Gonna Puke" File

The golf channel is advertising "Two Weeks of Tiger". Apparently they are going to celebrate the fact that Tiger is reporting to work. Gee, does anyone else get a celebration when they go to work? Other than Mickey Mouse, who gets a parade every day, I think not.

First they had Tiger Week because Tiger was born some odd years ago - which I think was a bigger job for Tiger's mother than for Tiger. Now they are having two Tiger Weeks because he's doing his job. I have absolutely had it with all of this blatant pandering. These people who run the Golf Channel and work for the Golf Channel are not journalists and do not present responsible, balanced golf coverage. In order for golf to survive and grow in the coming decades, it will have to become bigger than any one person, and unfortunately, all of this obsession with Woods is only serving to kill the sport, one tv special at a time.

Round 1 Sony Open

Well, it's been a half an hour and I haven't heard them mention Tiger Woods once. Kelly Tilghman needs to stick her feet in her mouth more often if it keeps the Golf Channel from sucking up to Tiger.

And it seems that Nick Faldo is very happy and relaxed this week. He has a sparkle in his eye and he's actually speaking in coherent sentences and not stumbling over words and trailing off.

One thing about it, Rich Lerner can talk golf a lot better than Kelly Tilghman. I hate saying that because I don't really like Rich Lerner, but when you watch him call the golf action, you really get a sense that he is a walking encyclopedia who doesn't need notes.

On to the golf: Tadd Fujikawa is at +4 after the first round. He really needs a good round tomorrow to have a chance at making the cut. Rory Sabbatini is breaking in his new clubs in good fashion, he's at -4.

Unfortunately I won't get to watch much of this because I'm going to watch the National Body Challenge on Discovery Health at 8pm eastern. I'm working on losing some weight so I'm into all the weightloss stuff right now.

At Least His Personal Life is on Track

I was perusing the news stories listed on www.fark.com and found this story: Tennis star Venus Williams has apparently become engaged to her boyfriend, Hank Kuehne. That's right, pro golfer Hank Kuehne is apparently now known as Venus' boyfriend, and husband to be. Congratulations to the couple, but I have to say it's a bit sad that the only billing Hank received in this story is that he's her boyfriend. Hopefully in the future, if it's what he wants, he will again be known for a career and a life of his own, independent of their relationship.

On a different note - what is it with tennis players and golfers? Chris Evert and Greg Norman, Venus Williams and Hank Kuehne. I'm leaving Sergio out on purpose. You'd think they wouldn't get along considering the opinion of some tennis players that golf isn't a sport. Oddly enough, I don't think I've ever heard of a relationship between a male tennis player and female golfer.

I guess I need to take up tennis.

The Most Dominant Athlete Ever

No, not Tiger Woods. Try Esther Vergeer. I was watching the Tennis Channel this morning when I saw a feature on this woman from the Netherlands. She has not lost a singles match since 2003 and is on a 286 singles match win streak (as of November 2007 according to Wikipedia). She has been ranked #1 since 1999. And she has won Olympic gold medals in singles and doubles in 2000 and in 2004.

So, why haven't you heard of her? Probably because she is a wheelchair tennis player and they don't get a whole lot of media coverage.

So, the next time the Golf Channel sings the praises of a man who plays all of 15 weeks a year, take a minute to look up Esther Vergeer on the web and read what she's been doing. Click on the link above to see what Wikipedia has on her.

Did She Really Have That Breed of Dog?

The new Precept commercial with Nick Price and Paula Creamer - Did she really have a dog like that when she was little? It looks like either a Papillon or a Chihuahua. Hopefully I will find some interview or something on the web that will answer my question.

"I'm Lazy"

That's a quote from Boo Weekley during his after round interview with Rich Lerner and Nick Faldo. It's a good thing Boo's already married. While women do appreciate honesty, they also want a worker.

Round 1 of the Mercedes-Benz Championship

Initial comments:

It took them 10 minutes to show golf today when the golf channel began their coverage. Blah, blah, blah - they just talk and talk on there - as if they think they are reason we watch instead of the golfers. Their opening sequence I think showed the babies of some of the players. This was while they played the Pat Green song. I don't know what the babies have to do with grown men playing golf. I mean if it was the LPGA tour, I could understand. Those players have to actually stop playing the tour for a bit when their babies are born (gee, can you tell I'm an accountant by trade). I saw some blonde haired woman with a baby and thought "Was that Tiger's wife and kid? Can't they stop trying to make money off of him for even one second?" I don't know if it was his wife and baby, but if it was, it was in poor taste and Tiger should look into trademarking his baby's likeness to keep people from making money off of her. All babies should be left out of the media. They can't give their consent, they can't sign contracts, and they can't even apply for work permits and pay taxes.

How much sucking up to an Absent Tiger Woods can the golf channel do? They just had to delve into the Rory Sabbatini - Target World Challenge controversy. I happen to think there is no controversy and much less of a story. Rory is that kind of guy who's going to do things to tick people off. And his favorite person right now to tick off is the ultra-favored Tiger Woods. So what. It would have been a story if Tiger had demonstrated some uncharacteristic response, but he didn't. He downplayed it so I think the media should do the same and move on. In any event, it's a personal issue and doesn't really have anything to do with this week's tournament. Rich Lerner is the biggest Tiger suck up so far this year with his 'writing the sentence on the chalkboard' editorial he did. As for Nike 'dropping' Rory - another blah, blah, blah moment for me. The announcers alluded to some 'conspiracy' that Tiger had Rory axed, but it's a more likely conspiracy theory that Nike is yet another big suck up to Tiger and proactively dismissed Rory because they thought it would keep their #1 Cash Cow happy. Faldo, for what it's worth, said that there were rumors circulating for a while that Nike was going to let Rory go, so I doubt that the Target World Challege had much to do with it. Don't really care. There are much better stories to follow.

Billy Andrade is doing some commentary for the golf channel this week. Sure, they just had to hide his cute smile and cute face behind the microphone.

As for the golf itself - it's hard for me to get interested in the first round when everyone is all bunched up together on the leaderboard. I don't know who to cheer for yet. I do hope Steve Stricker does really well. He wasn't doing so well when the golf channel's coverage began at 6pm eastern. Angel Cabrera is playing this week, as is Daniel Chopra, Mike Weir and many other winners on the PGA Tour last year. For all of the whining that Tiger and Phil never play the event, there are two of last year's Major Championship winners in the field - Cabrera and Zach Johnson. And you can't really fault Padraig Harrington for not playing - I'm sure it's a long trip from his home to Hawaii just to play one event. I don't think his year on the US Tour is starting for a few weeks yet. And how about some other players in the field this week: George McNeill and Mark Calcavecchia. And Jonathan Byrd. No one is talking about Jonathan Byrd so I'm going to mention him now. All the players in the field this week should be featured at least for a few minutes by the golf channel.

I'm not going into the Boo Weekley ammo story. You all can find that on the web if you want to read about it. My thoughts right now aren't that nice and I'm going to keep my fingers idle on that one.

And as for Hawaii in the middle of winter - well, we've had some snow this week and the temperatures at night have been really cold so it's nice to see the lush, green course and sparkling blue water. It wasn't so nice to see the nasty rain that half of the course is experiencing, but rain means warm temperatures so rain isn't so bad.

The Golf Channel has a new tech gadget thing - it lists a player's club head speed and a bunch of other stats in the corner of the screen. Not too exciting for me, but I'm sure players will like that. They also have a doppler radar thing where they show the flight of the golf ball - that's interesting. They still have aimpoint, but I don't know if they are calling it aimpoint.

Right now Scott Verplank is discussing some ruling about his ball moving at address. They were talking about addressing the ball and I couldn't help but think of the Honeymooners' sketch where the one guy tells the other one to address the ball, and the other guy says "Hello, Ball." Oh no. They've decided to play two balls to carry on the round while the issue is still in debate. I don't like that 'play two balls' idea. That just sounds like it would lead to even more rulings and trouble. I think I'm going to flip through some channels or go do something for a bit to get away from this little drama.

Golf Magazine - feb 2008 issue

I just got the new issue in the mail today. There's an interview with Justin Rose, a small interview with Natalie Gulbis, a feature article by David Feherty - this article spotlights his trip with the USO to Iraq. And of course, Feherty's Side Spin column is also there.

First of the Year

Well, it's that time again to start watching golf. The first tournament of the year on the PGA Tour schedule starts this Thursday in Hawaii - The Mercedes-Benz Championship. I took a look at the field listed on the PGA Tour website and I have a sneaky suspicion that the list is for last year's tournament - they have JB Holmes, Will MacKenzie, Kirk Triplett, Jeff Maggert and others listed and I don't think they won in 2007. So, it appears that some people just aren't ready for the new year to begin.

Anyway, if you are tired of winter wherever you are, you can tune into the Golf Channel on Thursday night and experience winter in Hawaii.

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.