Let's Get This Website Going!!!

Catchy headline right? Well there's a reason I've baited all you 6 people who venture onto this website. The reason is we have to let the golfing gallery know that there are 4 words that are absolutely destroying golf.

Those 4 puke inducing words are:

GET IN THE HOLE!!!!!!!!

Those words are absolutely killing golf as we know it. It wasn't too bad 10 years ago when a putt was really tracking and someone yelled it out but really folks, the ball isn't going in the hole from the tee on a par 5. Not to mention, they're screaming it .008 seconds after the clubface hits the ball. They will forever be known as the 4 words we don't speak of.

I've been ranting about those 4 words we don't speak of for about 3 years but finally, just yesterday, the announcers made a comment about how abnoxious it is for the fans to scream that. Why can't the marshalls do something? Why can't they kick out every douchebag that screams those 4 words we don't speak of at ridiculous times? Can they put up signs that say, "Jerkoffs will be escorted from the premises"?

It's insulting a bit to the integrity of the game to have it made a mockery of in that fashion. Maybe I'm looking a little too deep into it but there's just no need for it. Golf is a game of quiet, of concentration, of nerve control. This is the only sport where you need to keep your excitement in check or you won't be able to perform.

This is the reason we need to spread the website so people can read this post and the agreeing comments that you, the reader, will provide. This way people who are screaming those horrible 4 words we don't speak of can realize how stupid they are. If that doesn't work, we need to get some low flying planes with banners attached to them reading to not scream those words.

This is the only sport that people can actually learn lessons in life by playing by the rules. This sport teaches honor, integrity, and humility. Let's try to preserve it and get rid of idiots who are trying to tarnish this great game. If you're ever around someone who likes to scream those 4 words we don't speak of, be sure to let them know how much of an idiot they sound like and how they're disrespecting over 100 years of tradition. If golf can have rules for every single scenario in the world, they can sure as hell get rid of those 4 words we don't speak of.

On another note, why can't photographers wait until the golfers are finished with their swing before they take the picture. Someone is going to get seriously hurt one of these days, and legitimately. Not like John Daly who can hurt himself getting off the toilet. There are so many muscles that are utilized in the golf swing that a simple distraction can do some serious damage.

So clicking cameras are just as big a nuisance as those 4 words which we won't speak of. Let's get rid of both and get golf back to normal.

Some People Still Don't Get It!!!!

Bart Bryant is a journeyman on the PGA tour and had a chance to win his 4th career title last Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. He fell short when Tiger sunk a 25 foot snake for birdie to beat Bryant by a single stroke.

While he was gracious in defeat saying how amazing Tiger has been playing and what he's doing right now is unbelievable. Also saying he's never seen anyone play like that in his life.

However, I was a little taken back by his other comments about taking second place. He mentioned that because he didn't win, he wasn't gonna be invited to Doral or to the Masters. He kind of bitched about it. He said it's great to finish second but it's unfair that he doesn't get an invite for taking second place.

And here's my problem. Dude, you just got a check for $650,000 for playing golf. You've already made $861,642 just this year. You've also made over 8 million dollars for your career. Yeah, cry me a river Bart. You get paid to play a game that we have to pay to play. So you didn't get invited to play at Doral or at the Masters. Take the couple weeks off to chill out. Maybe play some golf with your time off. But remember who's watching this. It's amateurs, people that would kill to be in your position.

Bart Bryant is known as a journeyman yet has made 8.1 million dollars in his career. Not bad for a journeyman. These guys need to get a grip on reality. Then again, when you're spoiled your whole life you have no clue of reality.

So you're gonna have to find some other people to cry for because you're not gonna get any sympathy from us for not getting to play in those tournaments. Maybe you should have played better in other ones. So take your $600,000 and go buy something nice for yourself. Maybe that will make you feel better. Now go get a life and realize how good you have it chump.

Windy Golf

Well we trudged out for a round of golf yesterday and the winds were up to 50 mph. It was absolutely insane and it did whatever it wanted with your ball. It was just a helpless situation yet a ton of fun. The insane thing is we've played in worse conditions. Back in November of 2003 we decided to grab one more round in before the season finished. During that round, a 25 year old Christmas tree uprooted and toppled over next to the 18th fairway as we were on the adjacent 10th fairway.

Anyway, back to our thumping. It was a lot of fun in the sense that you really had to concentrate on your target and it was all the more rewarding when you made a good shot. Hitting into the wind was particular brutal for me because I have a notoriously high ball flight. Even with these so called 'low trajectory' irons I will still hit my 5 iron higher than you hit your pitching wedge. I was able to keep the ball a bit lower than normal playing a few knockdowns when we were into the wind. When the wind was at our backs it was 'get the ball up there and let it play'. Basically it was a lot of luck.

Club selection was fun also givin the wind conditions. I witnessed my playing partner crush a 3 wood that traveled only 190 yards. He's a beast and he averages at least 265 with his 3 wood. That's no exaggeration either. I, on the other hand, hit a 9 iron 175 yards with the wind at our backs. It was fun having to calculate how much the wind was a factor. Even in cross winds you could play your target way left of the green and the wind would carry the ball to the complete right side.

I got outta there with a respectable 92 and we'll just say I was the low round of the group. Being forced to not go for the career shot kept me in play. That score also includes a lost ball quadruple bogey on the 9th hole so it could have been better.

I also know that the pros play in some windy conditions overseas and sometimes here in the states and they still shoot under par. That's why these guys aren't given the credit they deserve. They play in these conditions and can still work the ball to almost take the wind out of the equation. They'll hit knock downs (wind cheaters) with wind in their faces, hit draws against a left to right cross wind, and hit fades against right to left crosswinds. It's so hard to do that yet they make it look easy.

Those commercials that say "These Guys Are Good" doesn't even to them justice. Those guys are on another planet.

A Perfect Season????

Tiger Woods is in such a zone right now that there's actual talk of him having a 'perfect season'. The media, and other golfers, are tinkering with the idea that a perfect season is attainable. Does anyone realize how much you have to dominate in order for that to even get brought up? The scary thing is, he just could do it. The chances are slim but it's the first time in the history of golf that the chances ever reached as high as slim.

It's very far fetched to think he could but you really can't bet against it. This guy hasn't lost since before the PGA Championship which was in August of 2007. He's unconscious. He hasn't lost in so long that he almost doesn't know what it's like. It's that type of mentality that just could propell him to an undefeated season. Hey, if he loses this week at Doral, where he's won the past 3 years, then this is a moot point and we go back to the grand slam talk. It should be far fetched to even talk about a perfect season. It used to be if you won 2 or 3 times in a year, you were considered for player of the year. 3 wins in a year, and if one of them was a major, you were the top dog. Tiger isn's satisfied with 7 or even 8 wins. He wants to win every single time.

It was only 2 years ago that Phil Mickelson was 1 hole away from winning the first half of the grand slam, winning 3 majors in a row, and 4 out of the last 10, when he inexplicably melted down on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot and lost the US Open by a single stroke. He was finally getting compared to Tiger and the rivalry was starting to take shape. In fact, Tiger missed the cut at Winged Foot (due in part to his fathers death) for the first time in a major in his career.

Well look what's happened in those 2 years. The best thing that happened to Tiger, and the worst thing that happened to the rest of the guys on the tour, was him missing the cut at Winged Foot. Ever since then Tiger has been unstoppable. He was 2 strokes from winning 3 of 4 majors last year. He finished tied for 2nd at the Masters, 2nd at the US Open, tied for 13th at the British (the only major he didn't factor in) and tied a record for lowest round ever in a major while winning the PGA. He hasn't looked back since.

How about these stats. It took Tiger to get to 64 wins in 219 starts. It took Arnold Palmer over 400 to get to 62 wins. Only Ben Hogan has a winning percentage even close to Tiger's. That's out of every single one of the all time greats. Jack Nicklaus also had well over 400 starts to get to 73 wins. It won't take Tiger more than 300 starts to overtake the all time wins record which stands at 84.

Will Tiger Woods have a perfect season this year? The answer is I doubt it but you can't say no. Will he win the grand slam? Probably. Winning the grand slam hasn't been discussed as often as it is with Tiger playing, and having a perfect season has never been discussed, EVER. These posts are getting a bit redundent but it's impossible to not talk about what this guy is accomplishing. He's battling 150 people every week not to mention the golf course. These aren't just 150 average Joe's, these are the best golfers in the world. Guys who at any moment can go low. Tiger just goes lower.

The grand slam, a perfect season, closing in on the all time career wins mark and he still has the drive and determination to go out there and dominate. He will never be content and that is bad news for the rest of the tour.

There's Just Nothing Left to Say

Once again Tiger Woods won a PGA tour event, this time tying Ben Hogan on the all time career wins list with 64. Next up is 'The Golden Bear' Jack Nicklaus with 73 wins. But that's not important right now.

This time Tiger let the field sort of hang around a bit until he decided to drop a 25 foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to beat journeyman Bart Bryant by a single stroke to win his 5th straight tournament. It marks the 3rd time in his career that Woods has had a winning streak of at least 5 wins in a row.

Tiger was going against a stacked field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. This tournament ranks just slightly below the TPC at Sawgrass in terms of importance and toughness. It's also known for some brutal holes at the end of the course. Numbers 16, 17, and 18 have been known to cause some serious heartaches for players over a number of years. A bunch of guys hung around with Tiger but for the most part they were no-names. Vijay Singh and last weeks winner Sean O'Hair were the ones expected to give Tiger a challenge. The others were either newer tour members with a 'too happy to feel the pressure' attitude, or some seasoned vets who had the 'I'm not even expected to contend' attitude.

While no one really pushed the pace, no one disappeared either and there were at least 8 guys within 2 strokes of the lead at any time during the final round. Going into the 72nd hole, he was tied with Bart Bryant, who was already in the clubhouse, with the lead at -9. He played his approach shot to the center of the green which had a right, front tucked pin directly over the water (the traditional Sunday pin location). The announcers just so happen to bring up the fact that Tiger hadn't made a putt of over 18 feet all day. Well duh, he made the 25 footer which rolled in on the very last revolution. He exploded as the putt fell, spiking his hat into the ground and then facing the crowd demanding them to rise.

The crazy thing is I don't think anyone was surprised that he made the putt. That's just what Tiger does, he does it often, and he does it better than anyone who has ever played. You got that right folks, we're watching the absolute greatest golfer in the history of the game. Everyone should absolutely appreciate what we're getting to witness in golf. We will never see anyone dominate this game the way Tiger is doing. Honestly we won't see anyone even come close to playing at the level he does every time he's in a tournament. Take Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. Those 2 guys are all world golfers. They, at one time or another, have shown some serious flashes of dominance on the PGA Tour. Vijay having recently attaining the #1 world ranking for a brief period in 2004. They have also won a lot on the PGA tour. Yet their combined number of victories doesn't equal that of Tiger's number of wins.

Tiger Woods now brings his win streak to Doral and the Blue Monster which doesn't bode well for the rest of the tour. Not only is he the defending champion but he's quite possibly playing the best golf of his career. It's not often that in mid March a golfer has won every tournament he's entered. There's actually some crazy talk of a 'perfect season'. Obviously that's never going to happen but it's also never even been talked about. Tiger is playing so perfect that he's giving the media a reason to talk about it. So sit back, relax, and watch the greatest ever play the game during what could be the greatest season ever.

On a side note, a classless heckler was in the stands and the announcers barely touched on it. Vijay was in the middle of the fairway on the 18th hole, only 2 strokes back, and had to go directly over the water to hit the green. In the middle of his backswing, not after he swung, a douchebag screamed out, "Hit it in the water Vijay!" Vijay hit a great shot to the center of the green which showed the heckler up. There is no place for that in golf, and why no one did anything about it is beyond me. His caddie or a marshall should have found out who it was and forcefully escorted the sap out of the gallery. Vijay gave a harsh glare into the area of where it came from but still had to remain focused on his upcoming putt. At that point he still had a chance if he made a birdie by forcing the guys in the groups behind him to make par. He made a 2 putt for par and showed a lot of class by not even bringing it up in his post round interview. There is no place for that in golf and I can tell you now, the Golf Gods will get that jerkoff back in a big way. I, for one, will not feel bad for whatever they have in store for this classless, yuppy bastard. Say goodbye to your golf game chump!!

For everyone else, we'll see you after Doral.

Why Golf is the Greatest Sport

In every other sport there's a degree of cheating that goes on. That's why there's referrees or umpires that have to police the players in every sport. Without them, the games would be total anarchy. There would be no way to even keep track of what's going on.

Let me explain:

There isn't a single football play that doesn't have cheating going on. Besides the infractions the ref's actually see and call, there's holding on each and every play. Not to mention coaches have been trying to steal signals, another mess now.

In basketball, there are fouls called on every other play, and if a player gets touched with just a finger, they jump in the air, scream, and throw the ball way up in the air with their arms flailing because they got hit so hard. Not to mention they're crybabies.

Hockey and soccer are kind of the same way. I used to play hockey years ago so I'm not bashing the sport but I'll tell you why. In hockey and soccer, some players try to draw a penalty so bad (known as taking a dive, and is cheating) that they drop to the ground as if they were shot. Yet they weren't even touched. They'll drop down, grab an area they think could be hurt and flop around like a fish out of water. It's really bad in soccer, whereas it's mildly bad in hockey.

Baseball is just full of cheaters-period. I won't even go into the whole steroids thing either. Most of the other sports have a ton of juice heads too so it's across the board and not worth going into. But baseball has been known for it's cheating since the beginning of the century. Pitchers were doctoring the ball any chance they could, and got into the hall of fame no less. Gaylord Perry and Don Sutton were notorious for scuffing, greasing, and sanding the ball, anything to get the edge. There's a lot more than that going on but I guess it's not cheating if you don't get caught. They will also try to steal catcher's signs and peak to see where the catcher is setting up for a pitch. That's more of gamesmanship than anything and the players will control that but for the most part there's a great deal of cheating.

Now before you're steamed because I'm ripping on these sports because they do need referree's for more than cheating. All these sports are very physical, very fast, and things happen in the blink of an eye. There's more than cheating that the ref's are looking for because all the action that's going on. They're in a way protecting the players as well. But they're looking for cheaters, there's no doubt about it.

So getting to golf, the action is much slower so there isn't a reason to have ref's to call flagrant fouls, or to make sure an injury isn't going to happen so I understand the reason for ref's and umpires. However, golf is awesome in the fact the players call their own penalties. If you're reading this and know nothing about golf you might say, 'that's stupid, just don't call the penalty on yourself', and that's the beauty of it. There isn't a golfer on any tour that would ever not call a penalty on themselves. Even if no rules officials are around and no one was there to see the penalty, they'll call over a rules official just to make sure they're applying the rule properly. No matter what position there in, how important the tournament is, they will undoubtedly call the penalty on themselves.

Golf teaches you honor and integrity. Such that a golfer wouldn't be able to sleep at night if they committed a penalty and didn't enforce it. Sergio Garcia (who is not a favorite of mine or most people) was asked about a ruling that he inquired about. It appeared that he was entitled relief from a storm drain which was affecting his stance. Garcia was, in fact, entitled to a free drop but for some reason it came into question whether or not he should have been allowed the free drop. He was adamant that he was and even called a rules official to confirm. You could tell he was telling the truth and did correctly enforce the rule. He then said, "I'd rather shoot 85 by the rules then shoot 69 by cheating. That's just not how it is in golf." Even though I can't stand the guy, that was a pretty good synopsis of how golfers think.

Play the ball where it lies folks.

Harmon Done with Daly

Butch Harmon has ended his brief and uneventful tenure with everyone's lovable, common man John Daly.

The two became associated with each other when they had shot a series of Winn Grips commercials last year. They started working together earlier this year in hopes of restoring the form that helped Daly win two major championships in the '90s. But when Harmon became aware of, among other things, recent published reports that Daly’s problems with alcohol abuse had resurfaced, he became frustrated.

There were eyewitness reports out of California that Daly had to be helped from at least one of the parties he attended in January at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Then the Tampa Tribune ran a story in its Sunday editions detailing a Daly appearance Saturday at a nearby Hooters Owls Nest during which Daly reportedly consumed multiple beers and autographed the blue-jeaned back end of one female fan.

Harmon said he hasn’t spoken to Daly in 10 days. And, he added, “I don’t even want to be associated with him now.”

My take on the whole thing is, are you really surprised to read this news? It was just a matter of time when this parting ways were to happen. Daly is still blaming the 2007 Honda Classic as his reason for not playing well. If you recall, Daly heard a picture being snapped in mid swing and pulled a rib muscle. He's been blaming this injury for his inconsistent play and has considered suing the event for his injury.

John Daly is always going to be one of the most watched golfers no matter what his actions are. He still comes across as the regular guy you just want to root for. Unfortunately though, with 3 missed cuts and a withdrawal in 7 events, he's running out of time for fans to root for him. He doesn't have his PGA Tour Card and is only playing a handful of tournaments on sponsors exemptions.

This could be the big man's last hurrah. As much as I wish he could, he'll never return to his early 90's form. After this year, considering his level of play, it's going to be tough for him to be granted more than a handful of sponsors exemptions which could send him back to Q-School for the 2009 or 2010 seasons. He's always going to be a big draw but it's not worth it to the tournament sponsors to have a big draw for two days, knowing the chances of him making the cut are slim to none. Nor is it fair to a young player that's really busting his hump on hopes of making it to the big dance.

It might be time to bid farewell to our old pal JD. That is until he turns 50 and becomes eligible for the Champions Tour, but that's in 9 years. Plenty of time to work on his game though.

The Conclusion to the 7 Iron Saga

If you're familiar to this website, you know that during a January round of 'cart path only' golf I had left my 7 iron on the course. That's usually not too big of a deal because the etiquette amongst golfers is to return any club you find that isn't yours. Sometimes it just takes a couple hours for people to get back to the clubhouse and give it to the lost and found.

That night I had called my playing partner to check and see if he had picked it up. He checked his bag and we began to re-hash the back nine when I possibly used it last.

This 7 iron did not turn up anywhere and I went to the course the very next day to check areas where I had hit from but that too was unsuccessful.

I decided I would wait about a week or two just to see if it was gonna turn up. All the while, not understanding how someone would take someone else's club. Especially when the golf gods frown upon that sort of stuff. This is a game where honesty is paramount and when you aren't honest, your game will suffer drastically.

I had ordered a new 7 iron after a couple weeks and my set was complete but was still perturbed as to what had actually happened to my old one. All the while, jokes were thrown out, hexes were cast, stories were told, just about everything short of a funeral was done for this 7 iron.

Which brings me to today. We played a round of golf at the scene of the crime, and the guy who I played with that fateful day joined us. It's been 2 months since the missing 7 iron so it wasn't even a thought in anyone's mind. That is until we got to the green of the 2nd hole. We're all on the green when the fellow turns ghost white and exclaims, "Holy shit, your 7 iron!!"

Even though he had checked his bag, he didn't check it thoroughly enough because there it was. My 7 iron was in his bag the entire time. The guy felt horrible but we had a good laugh because of it.

It couldn't have been solved in a better manner. We were at the same course, and I was playing with him. Had he just called me and said he found it, or if we were at a different course it just wouldn't be the same.

Well there you have it. The 7 iron saga comes to a close and we know what happened. So if any of you want a brand new 7 iron, or know of anyone that would like one, just let me know because I have two of the same exact club.

It's just comforting to know exactly what happened. Now I can stop praying to the golf gods and my faith in golf etiquette has been restored.

I'm Screwed

It turns out Sergie Garcia is using the SuperStroke Putting Grip. I might have to take the grip off depending on how bad he stinks up the joint.