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.