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.