Wie in Europe

Michelle Wie is playing the LET Tour this week and has actually had some decent rounds of golf. I read that she's -9 after the third round of the tournament. I think she's still about 7 shots off the lead, but still, considering that in America she's been scoring in the 80s, I think this week would be a positive step in her career. Maybe she should think about playing in Europe instead of the US for a while.

A New Blog In the Blogs of Note Section

I've added a new blog in the side bar. It's called Buzzin Golf and it focuses much on the European Tour. Check it out for a different perspective on golf.

Round Up

Spaniard Watch was successful today with Miguel Angel Jimenez winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in England.

Phil Mickelson won the Colonial with a birdie on the 18th after hitting his tee shot left on that final hole, reminiscent of Winged Foot. This time the end result was better. Tim Clark really made a charge on the final day, allegedly inspired by the thought of wearing the winner's Tartan jacket to his wedding. Had Phil only known that was on the line ............

All the people on the golf channel covering the LPGA event are harping on Jang's size. She's 5ft 2 inches tall and apparently that is just the worst thing ever if you listen to women calling the action. I'm 5ft 2 inches tall and I function just fine in the world. And believe it or not, there are adults shorter than me in the world. The Golf Channel is going to force me to cheer for Jang today.

Jay Haas won the Senior PGA Championship with a score of I think 4 over par. I'm all for courses testing the golfers, but the winning score really needs to be something near Even par. Those in control of course set-ups need to keep it in mind that they're main goal should not be to demoralize the players.

An Inch Taller

It seems people on the golf channel are doubting Phil Mickelson's claims that since he's begun martial arts training, he's gotten an inch taller. I would like to support Phil in this claim. After I started doing pilates, my mom thought I'd grown an inch too.

Completely Pathetic

I was watching the Colonial coverage today and the golf channel people announced that it was on Tiger's website that he wasn't going to play next week. Well, I thought that would be the end of it. But, no. The Golf Channel people kept holding their breath, like some school girl waiting for the phone to ring on a Friday night, hoping Tiger would change his mind. It was pathetic. And it was completely insulting to the Memorial and all the participants. They were in effect saying that the tournament didn't mean anything if Tiger wasn't going to be there. If Tiger puts it on his website then I'm sure that's the final answer. I've never met the man and I figure he means what he says. The golf channel people kept saying "he's got thirty minutes after the end of play today to commit..." That was well after he'd already made the announcement on his website.

New Blog To Me

While checking out the stat counter stats, I discovered that there's a blog out there with a link to this one. It's called Outta My Mind. So, I'm putting a link to it over in the sidebar. Check out the blog when you get a chance.

Not a Timely Post

Finally, I'm getting around to post about the Fittest Guy in America thing - the news story about Tiger being named the Fittest Man in America by Men's Fitness magazine. Before this morning, my comment would have been - if he's so fit why is he needing surgery on his knee. This morning, I was reading google news headlines about Tiger to see when he was going to play again (so I'll know what not to watch on tv) when I saw the following headline "Obama joins Tiger on list of fittest guys". I may not be a fan of Tiger's, but I find it objectionable to introduce politics into golf and for Obama's supporters to try to ride Tiger's coattails in a cheesy effort to get more votes. I like the following headline I saw much better: "Tiger Woods tops Barack Obama in men's magazine." It still introduces politics into golf, but at least it puts things into the right perspective: golf first, then politics. And it separates the two subjects rather than trying to join them together.

Deja Vu

Once again, Lorena Ochoa wins. I think it's funny the way she's not helping the media out when they dubbed the rest of this year as "Annika's Fairwell Tour". LOL

I watched the LPGA coverage instead of the PGA coverage until LPGA was done and then switched over to CBS.

Which brings me to another case of deja vu: Imada in a playoff for the second year in a row. This time, he wins. It's good to see first time winners, but I really felt for Kenny Perry. This week, his miss was just bad luck with his ball ricocheting off a tree and ending up in the water.

And I really appreciated ESPN running scores across the bottom of the screen while I was watching the LPGA. I don't have to watch the women's final in tennis today because ESPN already told me who won (Yankovic of Serbia). Oddly enough, they didn't report that Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in Germany today for his first win at that tournament. I guess Nadal beating Federer isn't considered news. I would consider it news.

And the final bit of deja vu - I just finished eating about a half a jar of peanut butter. I seem to be eating way too much. Hopefully, I'll get sick of it and won't want it anymore. I'm not quite at the Paul McKenna-mind trick stage of imaging worms crawling all over the peanut butter to keep me from eating it.

"How To Really Stink At Golf" - A Book Review

I found this book this morning at Walmart and had to get it. It's written by Jeff Foxworthy and Brian Hartt so you know it has to be funny. The idea of the book is that it's more of a hassle trying to be good at the game so you might as well try being really bad at it. And to that end, Foxworthy and Hartt provide advice and tips to make sure you can score as high as possible. Embracing your 'stinkiness' at the sport, as theorized by these authors, will bring you "an inner peace that surpasses all understanding."

Some advice from the book:

"Try to pick a cart that looks like it's been through a war. Because with your game, it's sure to have to go off-road at some point."

"In the mysterious world of golf, there are evil forces at work that will keep you from having a bad round. And one of the most powerful of these is 'having fun.' Avoid fun. Fun is for children. And otters." I love the otters thing.

On the subject of playing partners: "As we've discussed, it's next to impossible to really stink at golf without stress. So you should select the group you're playing with carefully.... (a promising foursome) You, your wife, your ex-wife, and your girlfriend."

It's a very small volume and I'm not finished with it yet. I started reading it at lunch today and have a few more lessons to go.

I don't know how golfers who spend a lot of time trying to play the game well will react to this book. I guess it would be like a life-long dieter being told that she (me) should eat chocolate cake every day. Or maybe it would be like that book "1984" where the bad guys keep trying to convince the main character that up is down and black is white and so on.

It's a funny book and I get the feeling that it needs to be read a few times before you get the whole meaning behind it all. And there are some nice drawings in the book as well. One is of a very cute little duck standing on a green in a rainstorm.

I paid $10.97 for the small hardcover edition. The price tag says list price is $16.00. You might be able to find it cheaper online.

Annika's Retirement

Since Annika has the rest of the year to go before she retires, I propose she spends the rest of her competitive rounds trying for that 'birdie every hole' theory that her coach has. One more achievement for her career.

Yippeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sergio won the Players Championship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I admit, for the last couple of holes I closed my eyes when he hit his shots and I kept thinking, "How's he gonna lose this one." But, maybe I shouldn't have thought that. He was coming from behind today instead of leading like at the last British Open. I think that had something to do with his good play. His putting, of course, was much improved (except for the playoff hole).

As for the controversy about the playoff starting on the 17th hole, here's my two thoughts on it: 1. It's called Sudden Death, not Lingering On with the Aid of Life Support Systems. Why not finish the playoff as soon as possible? 2. Tournament organizers need to do what they can to prevent a Monday finish. Regulation play was planned for a 7pm finish and the players were a bit late on that. Obviously, the organizers picked the shortest hole near the clubhouse for the playoff. With all of the pomp and circumstance with the award ceremony, the organizers need to plan for a little bit of daylight left at the end of the day to accomodate it.

I need to see what Sergio's new world ranking is.

Round One: Players Championship

I didn't watch any of this today but I think I saw Sergio with a 66? Are they sure Boo Weekley didn't add up that score for him? Don't get me wrong, you know how I like Sergio, but a 66 - that came out of nowhere. And I think I saw Jose Maria at -2. Good for him.

I'll have to check Sergio's stats for this round later.

Latest Issue of Golf Magazine

I got it in the mail today. This issue contains their US Open Golf preview. Some other interesting things in it: a Father's Day article featuring some PGA players and their offspring, a feature on the Metlife blimp, David Feherty's latest column - this one's about his accident and recovery, a good interview with Angel Cabrera, and something that caught my eye and I'm sure will catch the eye of every man reading this issue: a teaching how-to featuring a female player - the name of the how-to: Set Up to Bust One. Get it?

Watching Fox Mulder Pee in an Alley

I started out watching CBS coverage of the Wachovia Championship. When I heard Gary McCord start the whole (completely unwarranted) talk about young guys to rival Tiger (obviously attempting to mean Anthony Kim), I turned the tv to the next station down - the Fox affiliate. They were showing the X-Files movie and apparently I caught Mulder at one of his finer moments. Still, it was better than listening the CBS crew try to make Anthony Kim the greatest player ever. I'm all for talking about rivals to Tiger, but talk about Adam Scott, Steve Stricker, Trevor Immelman, if my memory serves, has beaten Tiger twice in tournaments to win and one of those was the Masters. Kim's got one win. Troy Matteson has one win and I don't think I've heard the media claim he's the next big rival for Tiger Woods. Let's just put Kim's win into some realistic perspective.

CBS, by the way, is very fickle. In the span of about 15 minutes, they went from talking about rivals to Tiger, meaning Kim, to Peter Kostis saying "another mistake. One mistake a hole for the last four holes" when critizing Kim. Never mind Kim was 17 under par and had made a birdie in those last four holes. They need to understand that 'good cop, bad cop' means that you have to be one or the other. You can't be both. And of course the best option is to be completely neutral and just call the action without trying to create news stories. News stories take care of themselves.

So, I gave up watching that tournament and found the LPGA event. That was much better. Exciting - ending in a playoff with Paula Creamer claiming the victory over Julie Inkster.

And I hear the European Tour event also ended in a playoff and Ignacio Garrido just coming up a bit short. Peter Lawrie won that one. It was his first win in 175 events.

The Spaniards have a way to go in terms of representing their country in the Ryder Cup. It looks like so far the only one within reach of the team is Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Non-Golf note: I am desperately craving peanut butter today. I've had to ban peanut butter from my diet because last week I ate a whole jar in two days. I might have to turn to peanut butter tasting snack bars or Slimfast bars.

Yes, I'm Still Around

Just being lazy for a bit and not posting as often. Ignacio Garrido and Miguel Angel Jimenez are doing well at the Open de Espana. And Fred Couples is having a good week at the Wachovia.

Lucky for me, the Tennis channel is rerunning the Rafael Nadal semi-final match they aired this morning opposite the European PGA Tour coverage. So, I get to see what I missed while I was watching Garrido and Jimenez. I need to get off the web and watch the match. It's one of those blink and you'll miss it types. He only needed about an hour to win and advance to the finals.

New Phil Commercials

I just saw some of the Crowne Plaza commercials with Phil Mickelson. I think the best one has to be the one with the look-a-likes. I think it's a very good career move for Mickelson to show this comedic side. Although, I thought the Winged Foot reference in the Phil meets his biggest fans commercial was a bit harsh. Mickelson must have agreed to it though or else I'm sure it wouldn't have gone to air.

Scott Wins in a Playoff

Adam Scott won another tournament in Texas today over Ryan Moore in an I forget how many hole playoff. I was hoping Moore would win since he is in my Ryder Cup list over in the side bar. But Scott's win was a good one too. I wish the announcers would forget the Greg Norman and Tiger Woods Swing mechanics trivia with regard to Adam Scott. That's getting very, very old. It would have been acceptable for Scott's first couple of years on tour, but he's been out there long enough to have things of his own they can talk about. Just another example of lazy announcers who don't want to do any research or come up with anything original. I mean, during the playoff they could have talked about Scott's matchplay record on the International Presidents Cup team, but did they? No. They did, however, bore everyone to tears with the constant references to the car that the winning player's caddie would win. And after all that hype, did they show the tournament people presenting the car to the caddie? No.

BMW Asian Open

Darren Clarke won the tournament today. I didn't get to watch much of this. Tennis has been on and I chose to watch Rafael Nadal instead.

EDS Byron Nelson Cla-Inv-Op-Whatever

Sergio shot a 65 today and had under 30 putts for the round. Good for him! I don't know how far back he is. I think I missed the ending of the third round. But hopefully, Sergio will have a top 10 finish this week.

A Couple of Emails

I got a couple of emails that I thought were worth commenting on.

1. Get Your Fairway Fix at the AT&T Classic - This email tells me about the weather forecast, the expected participants, the affordability of the event (tickets starting at $30.00 and free parking), some VIP lounge, and it's reportedly one of the most fan-friendly events, according to the email. The one thing the email didn't tell me was where this tournament is - Is this the one in Georgia? Too many AT&Ts and too many Such and Such Classics. Obviously, you can go to www.attclassic.com for more info.

2. A Chance to Play With Tiger - The sender of this email said she had just seen my post regarding the tennis tournament and thought I would be interested in this contest sponsored by Gillette. The winners and their fathers will have a chance to meet either Tiger Woods, Roger Federer or Thierry Henry and compete with them in their respective sports. You can go to WWW.gillettechampions.com to enter the contest. Now let's see, I would have to borrow a dad who watches sports, since mine doesn't, and I would have to act like I can play a sport. Probably tennis. Don't want to meet Tiger Woods and 90 minutes of soccer watching would put me to sleep. Wonder how Federer would feel if I asked him all about Rafael Nadal?

Oh Happy Day

There's a live tennis tournament on the Tennis Channel this week. That means I don't have to watch the BBC World news in the mornings. Yay! No depressing war talk. No depressing rising food prices talk. Just a bunch of red clay and the hypnotic sounds of two guys hitting a tennis ball back and forth. Hopefully this will last all week, but I have a feeling the closer we get to the finals, the less it will be on tv.

To be fair, I could have watched the highlights of Arjun Atwal's win earlier this year - they were on the Golf Channel this morning. But I saw it the first time around.

Sunday Wrap-Up

Lorena Ochoa has done something that no PGA Tour guy will ever do. She's won four weeks in a row. Why won't a man do that? Because after three weeks, they are just too tired (and if you're a top ranked player, too spoiled) and have to take a break.

As for the PGA Tour - Boo won. Presumably he's not adding up his own score. Hopefully he wasn't keeping track of Kim's score either.

Third Round's Over

Now, Rosaforte can say it will take some effort to catch Boo Weekley. Weekley has the lead going into the final round.

LPGA on CBS

Was this a planned event for CBS to broadcast or did they jump on the LPGA bandwagon after the media started comparing Lorena Ochoa to Tiger Woods? Whatever the reason, it's good for the LPGA to be on CBS.

As for Lorena, they had a statistic earlier that said her fairways hit percentage this week was something like 53% or 57%. My reaction to that: "Hey, she is like Tiger Woods."

I've been waiting for Bobby Clampett to say something inappropriate, like "check out the gams on that dame" or maybe a "choking dogs" reference but so far from what I've heard, he's been pretty politically correct in his reporting.

Same Old Golf Channel

I happened to hear some of the Pre-Game Show this morning. As I understand it, Lucas Glover had a one shot lead over Boo Weekley going into the third round. Rosaforte said that it was going to take a special effort to catch Boo Weekley. He can say that sitting in a studio in Florida. I wouldn't recommend saying that to Glover's face.

Speaking of the Ryder Cup

I mentioned it below and I have one more observation to make. I haven't seen on the internet news any great passion of the European players to concentrate on making the Ryder Cup team this year. Admittedly, I'm not watching much of the Golf Channel so it could be that they are giving all kinds of interviews on that network and I'm just missing them. But, I haven't seen much on the web about them and I have to wonder if maybe some of the top players that were on the team last time might not really want to be there this time because of Faldo. Sure, Olazabal wants to be there if he's playing well and I think I've heard Ian Poulter and Justin Rose talk about it. I just wonder if maybe some of the players from the 2006 team are secretly non-upset (can't bring myself to say happy) that their game isn't where it needs to be to be in prime position on the points lists.

Hey, Golf's On......

I haven't seen much of the golf this week. When I come home from work, I watch BBC America which has the You Are What You Eat show on and then the How Clean Is Your House show. By the time they go off, golf is off too. So, I've been checking out the European Tour and PGA Tour leaderboards. I saw some strange looking flag beside a player's name on the ET leaderboard but unfortunately when I clicked on the player's bio, they didn't have a bio so I still don't know where the guy comes from. I'll have to do more research later. As for the PGA Tour, Lucas Glover is leading after two rounds. Nick Dougherty is playing in America this week as is Niclas Fasth and Richard Sterne. Davis Love, Brett Quigley and Lee Janzen all made the cut. Paul Azinger missed the cut. Wonder if that's karma at work. He said some things about Faldo that didn't get reported in a positive light. Faldo laughed them off and said that he and Azinger were friends, which if Azinger did say those things as reported on purpose, he's probably really steaming mad that Faldo didn't take the bait. Who knows what was said and what wasn't. I have a feeling that the media is going to do its best to ruin this year's Ryder Cup because Azinger and Faldo are so accessible.

Lorena Ochoa is playing this week and is in contention. As usual. They were talking on the LPGA coverage about how Laura Davies needs two more points to be eligible for the Hall of Fame and that Lorena has already earned a spot there provided she plays on Tour for three more years. It makes you wonder how someone as famous as Laura Davies still needs to do more to qualify.

There He Is.....

I wondered if 60 Minutes had actually come on as scheduled so I turned the tv over to CBS and found that the Masters was still going on. So, I turned back to the Tennis Channel and kept checking back about every 15 minutes or so. This meant that I did actually see the Jacket Ceremony in Butler Cabin. After Jim Nantz went on and on and on in his "Oh Trevor is the greatest golfer here today" tone of voice (the one that sounds so insincere after all the years of him fawning over the cash cow, uh, I mean Tiger), I really and truly thought he was going to launch into the Miss America song. And that last shot of Trevor wearing the jacket - I was stunned that they didn't give him a crown. Really. That thought did run through my mind (Where's the crown, he's not wearing a hat or anything.) I know Augusta National and the people who run the Masters have very favorable opinions of themselves, but gee whiz. If the sprinkers had come on in that cabin, everything would have melted it was so sugary.

As for Trevor Immelman, it's good that he won. And it's good that Brandt Snedecker, Andres Romero, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and Sean O'Hair get invites to next year's tournament because they finished in the top 15. And I had the feeling that Zach Johnson wanted to high-five Trevor or jump for joy or something. He looked like he was ready to burst.

One final comment on the CBS announce people - I don't know how they can live with themselves when they spend four days talking up Tiger and talking down the rest of the field and then at the end they say something nice about Trevor. I'm sure they can't be sleeping well at night.

Spaniard Read: Masters Edition

Since I'm not watching the Masters, I can't do a Spaniard Watch post, so it's Spaniard Read today. And apparently the only one left to read about is Miguel Angel Jimenez. Jose Maria and Sergio both missed the cut. I've read that Jose Maria plans to go home and rest for a few weeks, that he states he was not formally offered the Ryder Cup Captaincy, and that his deal with MacGregor expired at the end of last year and that's why we don't see the clubmaker's name on Jose Maria's hats.

Olazabal Offered Ryder Cup Captaincy

Not this fall. But in 2010.

Here's the news article about it. It also gives a little bit more information on Jose Maria's health.

Round 1 Masters

As I said before, I'm not watching it, but I did check out the leaderboard and here are a few scores:

Justin Rose tied for first at -4
Jeev Milkha Singh -1
Andres Romero -1 through 15
Angel Cabrera +1
Bernhard Langer +1
Fred Couples +4
Jose Maria Olazabal +4

If you're looking for news or recaps and the like, then try Hooked On Golf Blog.

A Gladiator Among Men

In this article, Butch Harmon compares Jose Maria Olazabal to a Roman gladiator. A very good compliment I think.

A Rare Entry

A rare Masters Week entry from me. I don't plan on watching it so I am just reading things on the web about the Masters. I found this humorous article today talking about the pairings. While it was kind of funny, I don't think Jose Maria will punch Rory Sabbatini like this guy speculates.

Final Round Notes

Houston Open:

Fred Couples finished tied for 4th. His rounds got lower every day. Brett Quigley shot an 82 today. I hope it wasn't because of an injury or anything. Jose Maria Olazabal was -1 in his final round and finished tied for 26th. And Johnson Wagner won the event and earned over $1 Million and a trip to the Masters.

LPGA:

Lorena Ochoa won the first major of the year with a 5 shot lead. Lucky for tv watchers, she was playing the 18th just as Fred Couples finished up his round, so if you flipped over to watch Lorena take the leap into the pond, you didn't miss much of the Houston Open - well, you didn't miss Fred. Hopefully now people will stop trying to find excuses for not giving Lorena Ochoa her due. For some reason, the press wants to keep from recognizing her #1 status by saying things like "Annika was hurt last year." The press doesn't want to compare her to Tiger Woods either. But, ESPN did yesterday and had some interesting stat comparisons. Truth be told, the press just doesn't want to give the LPGA any recognition because they can't make as much money off the LPGA as they can Tiger.

Estoril Open de Portugal:

Bourdy won in a playoff. David Howell had a really good week in getting into the playoff. And Gonzalo Fernandez Castano contended in the final round.

Houston Open, Round 3

Jose Maria came back with two birdies after making a double bogey on the back nine in round 3. He's at -4 going in to the final round.

Brett Quigley and Fred Couples are doing well too.

Adam Scott withdrew due to cold/flu symptoms. I'm sure playing in the rain yesterday didn't help him a bit.

Jimmy Roberts asked Fred Couples a question and then interrupted him while he was answering. Why didn't they send Jimmy Roberts out to the horse racing event? They don't need him at the golf tournaments.

How Do I Rate?

Blogged.com has this blog rated at 8.2. I checked out Blogged.com and it looks like a nice way to waste a lot of time looking for new blogs to read. I'll have to check it out more using my mom's high speed internet connection.

Round 2

Jose Maria Olazabal continued his good play today and was under par for round two of the Houston Open. I will have to try to watch the rest of the tournament this weekend.

Brett Quigley was doing well when the Golf Channel ended their coverage this evening. I hope he continues to play well too. He needed to make some money for the medical exemption thing from where he had knee surgery last year.

BBC Coverage

I was watching the BBC World news this morning before leaving for work and they had a recap of the first round of the Houston Open. The guy said that Wagner Johnson tied the course record. I can understand thinking that Johnson was a last name. It usually is. But I've never heard of Wagner being a first name. Maybe it's a popular first name in the U.K.

Mouthing Off About the Masters

And no, I'm not talking about Colin Montgomerie. I found this news story while googling Jose Maria Olazabal. According to the story, Stephen Ames says that the Masters is the easiest major to win and it's easier to win than the Players Championship. He goes on to talk about how 'weak' the Masters field is.

Yeah. The Masters is so easy to win. That's why Ames has all those Green Jackets in his closet.
What's that? The only green jackets he has he bought at the mall? Oh, well then..........

What a Surprise

Not only did I get to watch Fred Couples and Jose Maria Olazabal this evening on the round one Houston Open coverage, but there was no Kelly Whatsername, so I got to listen to some of the commentary as well.

As for what I saw:

Fred looks like he's lost some weight. Good for him. That's got to help his back a little bit.

Jose Maria shaved. I was almost getting used to seeing his beard.

Jose Maria finished up round one at 3 under par. That's very good after a long flight to America. I hope he plays very well at Augusta next week.

Good For Him

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

Next Up: Houston

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

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

Rheumatism Home Remedies

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

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

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

Final Round at the Open de Andalucia

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

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

Open de Andalucia

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

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

Two Complaints

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

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

One Under Par

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

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

Another News Tidbit on Jose Maria Olazabal

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

yippeee!!!!

Geoff Ogilvy won the WGC CA Championship today.

Oh Happy Day!

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

Something Else to Watch

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

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

Par for the Course

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

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

CA Championship Round 1

Here are some scores:

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

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

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

No News Not Necessarily Good News

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

Leaderboards and News

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

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

Another NGW (No Golf Week)

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

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

O'Hair Wins

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

Slow Play

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

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

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

Atwal Wins in Malaysia

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

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

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

An Unfortunate Victim

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

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

Presidents Cup

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

"Kicking It Old School"

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

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

Tiger's Demise

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

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

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

Wendys Champions Skins Game

4 two-man teams and no mention of Tiger Woods. This was a good afternoon for me because even if I wanted to watch something else on the golf channel, I couldn't due to their constant Tiger-infused commercials and updates. It would have been nice to see the LPGA event this week, but not if I had to suffer through Tiger commercials and updates. No thanks. I had the tv on the Tennis Channel for part of the day, BBC America for part of the day and then I found the Wendys Champions Skins Game on ESPN. It was very nice to hear Terry Gannon's voice again and to see and hear Andy North and Judy Rankin. As for the golf, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson seem to be winning the event. They won several skins today.

Well, there's a dog show on Animal Planet to watch tonight. The first time a poodle of any size wins anything tonight, I'll be looking for something else to watch. Poodles win everything on these shows and they aren't even the cutest or cuddliest of the contestants.

What Golf?

Not watching golf today. I bought this book at walmart this morning and it was really good. It was also the first of a series of books. So, I had to buy the next two in the series tonight after work. The series of books is the Alex Rider Series. It's about a 14 year old boy who is recruited by MI6. Yes, these books are meant for kids, but this first book was really good. I recommend that you all read the books. As far as I know, it's not golf related. But I've only read the first book so far.

As for golf, I checked leaderboards and saw that Angel Cabrera is pretty much the only golfer I like left in the matchplay. Michelle Wie shot a score of 3 under par at the Fields Open. I don't know where that places her because they were still playing when I checked the leaderboard. I haven't checked the alternate pga tour event to see who all's playing and what's been going on. I'll have to check into that this weekend. They deserve some attention too.

There's nothing on tv right now so I have it on Antiques Roadshow. These people can't possibly expect me to believe all of these antiques are worth that much. I watch Cash in the Attic on BBC America and they don't have this many pieces worth this much. I think this just means that Americans spend more money than the British and we are stupid enough to pay that much for an antique.

Matchplay, Round 1 Matches

I didn't watch any of this and have only read one account of one match and that was over on Hooked on Golf Blog. But I did check out the results on the Golf Channel website and here are some winners and non-winners (I don't like the word loser - today it's too mean):

Winners:
Sergio Garcia
Padraig Harrington
Ian Poulter
Niclas Fasth
Adam Scott
Woody Austin
Colin Montgomerie
Bradley Dredge
Paul Casey
Angel Cabrera
Luke Donald
Andres Romero
Steve Stricker
Lee Westwood

Non-Winners:
Justin Rose
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Mark Calcavecchia
Ernie Els
JB Holmes

Now I think these are all accurate listings, albeit not inclusive of all the match results - I just picked out some names of players I have an interest in. The bracket didn't look right on the golf channel website (or at least it was too hard to read) and I think I wrote down the right names with the right results.

JB Holmes apparently gave Tiger some worrying moments today. Hooked on Golf Blog has the account of it by someone who watched it. I was really hoping Holmes would advance. Not so much because he was playing Tiger, but because I want to see Holmes do well enough this year to make the Ryder Cup.

Got a Question For You.........

How can you tell when Miranda's had a sucky day at work?


Answer: She decides she prefers watching Tiger Woods to thinking about her sucky day at work.

Does she watch Tiger Woods? Well, maybe. The night isn't over yet.


The Work Story: Evil boss who doesn't supervise me either hates me or my boss so she again tries her best to harass me and get me into trouble. If the bosses who directly supervise me wouldn't loan me out for special projects, this wouldn't happen. It never, never, never pays to do anything well. Let this be a lesson to the young people out there: Be average. Don't do anything well because it will only land you into trouble later. I'm taking this lesson with me to my next job, whatever that might be. Unless my next job is handing Fred Couples golf balls during practice rounds (like that guy I saw at the Bridgestone Invitational a couple of years ago). For Fred Couples, I'd do an exemplary job :)

How Do You Mark Your Titleist?

Has anyone else wondered if the players in this commercial really do mark their golf balls the way they say they do in the commercial? Here's why I'm asking: if they do mark their golf balls that way, then what's to stop some tv viewer from copying that design on a ball and then selling it on Ebay?

Site Updates

I tried to update the links to the Fed Ex Cup points list and the PGA Tour money list over in the side bar, but when I tried to click on anything on the PGA Tour website that might take me to the 2008 Fed Ex Cup points list, I got last year's list - gee wonder why that was. It couldn't be because JB Holmes is leading so far this year, and last year's list had a certain overexposed golfer at the top. As for the money list, I got nothing when I clicked on the link on the PGA Tour website to go to that list. I don't know if that website just doesn't like my Firefox browser or if the PGA Tour has turned the list off until Tiger wins more money.

As a result, I have removed the links to the Fed Ex Cup points list and the Money leaders list. I have no intention of wasting any more time trying to find the accurate, current lists to link to. If you're looking for some stats, I recommend checking out the European Tour Order of Merit. It's up to date.

New Dresses for Winnie and PJ

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.