Good job and 2015 here I come…..

Hats off to the United States team for winning the President’s Cup at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.  I know the President’s Cup does not live up to the competition the Ryder Cups provide, but enjoy watching the similar formats the event showcases.  If you need to understand the differences between the Ryder Cup and the President’s Cup, you only need to see how crushed Hunter Mahan was in the post interview in the last Ryder Cup; definitely hard to watch someone feel that low for losing their singles match.  Alternate shot and singles matches are great to watch.  Golf is such an individual game, then to have venues where the pro’s play in a team format, truly makes for great television.   You get a chance to see how each individual dislikes losing a hole or attempts to grind through to half a hole.   The course definitely provided different climates each day but the constant were those fast greens.  There were times were I thought the balls were rolling on ice.  Alister MacKenzie who also designed Augusta National, designed the course at Royal Melbourne where the event took place.   After a valiant effort by the international team on the last day of singles matches the Cup was retained by the Americans 19-15.  The international squandered opportunities from Day 1 and never recovered.   The President’s Cup returns to the States in 2013 to Muirfield Village Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio.       

Again I apologize, work gets in between my life’s passion and puts a wrench in my plans a lot of times.  I will no longer make promises of when I plan on writing posts.  I’ll just say until next time….

Some random thoughts I have for the winter season.   This time of year where I can rarely play due to weather conditions, I try to swing when I can and when a “rainy” day occurs that allows me to get out and play I try to take advantage of the opportunity.  Again you won’t post your low score of the year during the offseason but gives you an opportunity to still swing a club and enjoy the game.   Due to the mild weather conditions so far in the Mid Atlantic region I was able to play a round of golf on 11.11.11 Veteran’s Day.  It was a day to be thankful for all the service men and women who have sacrificed and allow me to enjoy days filled with playing 18 holes.   The weather was in the 50’s and windy and I didn’t have a care in the world what I was shooting, I was just happy to play a round with old and new friends on all 1’s day. 

During the weekend of the President’s Cup the site for the 2015 was announced.  Seoul, Korea will be the destination and I tentatively plan on being there.  Crossing my fingers and setting a 4 year goal for myself so I may have a Tebowing moment on the course.   I hope everyone on state side enjoys a happy turkey day.  Until next time.... take care and god bless.

The Last Major

This Thursday begins the start of the PGA’s last major championship of the 2011 season at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia. The course will be playing as a par 70 at over 7400 yards-mind boggling at how long the course will be playing but at least the championship is being played in Hotlanta where the humidity should be high.


I would like to give you who I think will win, leave Tiger alone, and my own major that I’m playing in.

Who I think will win, considering David Toms won here last back in 2001 with a score of 15 under, I’m figuring the winner on Sunday will have to have a similar score to succeed. No rhyme or reason but I believe Dustin Johnson is due. He hits the ball ridiculously far and makes a lot of birdies-usually a recipe in winning. Dustin has had some bad luck; some not due to him and some he causes by himself. I just think it’s his time to finally win a major and PGA Championship is his for the taking.

Now my thoughts on Tiger Woods, can people just let him be? Why do we enjoy throwing stones at glass houses? I believe the media can take a good portion of the blame but we also love to watch it. Stop hating people! Last time I remember when your employer has paid you handsomely for over 13 years, you make sure you send them a Holiday card each year and don’t publicly throw jabs at them. So the man hasn’t won in close to two years. Does it matter that in that span he’s only played in 22 tournaments? Keep throwing stones and see what happens. I don’t believe he’s gonna win this weekend but I wouldn’t bet against it either.

& this brings me to my major tournament that I am playing starting Saturday. I will be playing in The Golf Channel’s Amateur Tour Major-“Greenbrier Open”-yes the same place where the PGA held its tournament a few weeks back. I’ll be playing the Old White TPC course on Saturday and the Greenbrier course on Sunday. It will be my first time playing at either course and I have prepared since April for this tournament. A good friend of mine will be my caddie for the weekend and hope he will be able to calm my nerves during play. Not like another caddie that has been in the news, my caddie won’t bad mouth me, he’ll just laugh at me when I play bad. See Stevie you forgot that you were an employee first. You confused business with friendship. “I’m not a business man; I’m a Business, Man!”

I plan to make another post sometime next week with my thoughts on both my tournament and the PGA Championship.

U.S Open.....

The U.S Open begins today at Congressional Country Club just outside our nations capital…. The Open is easily my favorite tournament to watch. I can remember back in 2008 when Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate played 19 extra holes to determine who was going to be the Open champ. Where my boss allowed me to stream video on Monday to see who would come out on top. The conditions at the Open are usually so brutal that the USGA makes pros look like your weekend golfer. I’m anticipating watching a great tournament this weekend. With wet weather coming in on Thursday and Friday I’m expecting the course that is playing as a Par 71 that you won’t be seeing too many low numbers. Do I dare say a minus 8 would be good enough to win after 4 days? I have seen the layout online and the course is playing long but I have faith that a few people will go low over the next four days.



This brings me to a tournament format I enjoy playing among fellow weekend golfers….. The tournament known as best ball. Best ball tournaments are popular formats among group outings and usually experienced with co-workers or friends. You can have a two, three, or 4 man/woman tournament. Best ball tournaments come in different variations, first there is the Captains choice-where everyone on your team plays a ball and as a team you choose the best ball to play and continue until the ball is holed out, second you have the better ball tournament- where members on your team play their own ball and the lowest score amongst your team is recorded as your score. These types of tournaments are enjoyed by all golfers but either format allows the casual golfer to really enjoy the game.

That brings me back to the Open where it’s one of the few tournaments that allows the casual fan or non fan of golf to enjoy watching this sporting event. So if you have some time this weekend check out the coverage on NBC.

Deduction

As we approach tax season-we love the word deduction. When deduction is used to describe “when is the last time I picked up a golf club” the word makes me sad. The New Year came and passed and now the New Lunar Year is upon us, I have yet to pick up a club. I keep looking at the 10 day outlooks on weather.com hoping to see a window of opportunity to make it to a range over the weekend with no avail.




Over this past weekend watching the pros tee it up at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open in sunny San Diego while I see snow and ice outside my window makes me shake my head. It reminds me that Torrey Pines is on a long list of courses I will have to play in my lifetime. If you go to Torrey Pines website it explicitly states no reservations are accepted prior to 7:30am on the day of play. The walk on list is based on a first come, first served basis. I can already picture the site where I sleep in the parking lot with my spikes and polo shirt ready to get in line. The idea already makes me smile.



So I take solace from my “deduction” from golf by adding I have used this time to be prepared when my window of opportunity to swing a club occurs. I recently visited my local golf hub for my regular maintenance and had my putter re-gripped. I also had a representative take a look at my Callaway FT-iZ driver. During last season I noticed a rattle inside the head of the driver. Although the rattle didn’t seem to affect play I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with my club. My golf hub representative definitely noticed the rattle and said it wouldn’t affect my play but could send it in to Callaway to see if for nothing else what options were available to me. Callaway has a two year warranty on their products and my driver met the requirements. A week later, long and behold a shiny new FT-iZ awaited for me (Callaway you are great if you ever need someone to create craters in the earth for a demo of new equipment feel free to reach me). I hope my next post I will have played a round or two. Happy new year to you all and remember it’s the year of the waaabit.

Congrats to Big Bubba on winning at Torrey Pines.  When you can reach the green with a driver and wedge on a 600 yd+ par 5 your game is silly.  I would have problems replicating that on the Golden Tee game.