What golfer wouldn’t want free golf for life? I received an e-mail today from Golf Channel with just such a contest from Golf Now.
If you are interested in possibly winning free golf for life, for you and three friends, then you should enter HERE.
In the second round at Doral, Rory McIlroy hit his second shot on the par-5 8th hole into the water. After a brief pause, he decided the club should follow his ball to a watery grave, helicoptering it well out into the lake. Rory bogeyed the hole on his way to a 2-under round of 70.
In the third round, NBC coverage showed a diver recovering the club, while they also said that Marcel Siem also lost/tossed a club in the same lake.
I can’t say I have ever tossed a club in that manner (usually it’s just a light toss back towards my bag/cart), although I have played with plenty of club tossers. Often the offending clubs end up caught in trees.
Remember kids, take Tommy Bolt’s advice (I think it was Tommy Bolt) and throw your clubs down the fairway, as it make it easier to pick them up and doesn’t hold up play.
Lydia Ko won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open by two shots over Amy Yang. With the win, Ko solidifies her number 1 world ranking, but also managed to claim the top spot in our Power Rankings. I am sure Lydia will mark this as one of her great career milestones (yeah, right).
Lydia only had to move up one spot, displacing Rory McIlroy. McIlroy is scheduled to play the PGA Tour this week at the Honda Classic. I am sure he will be extra motivated to re-take what was just taken from him.
On the PGA Tour, James Hahn defeated Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey in a playoff at the Northern Trust Open (formerly known as the L.A. Open) for his first victory on the tour. With the win, Hahn rose from 378th to 70th.
And Anirban Lahiri won on the European Tour at the Hero Indian Open (who knew India was in Europe?). It is Lahiri’s second victory this season, and of his career, and moves him to 20th in the rankings.
Last weekend was the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. This event it unlike any other on the PGA Tour in that the PGA tour pros, while playing their regular tournament, also play alongside amateur partners in a pro-am tournament.
It seems that the amateurs used to be much more famous than they are today (where are the new celeb golfers?) but there are still pretty entertaining.
Here are a few highlights, which need to include Billy Murray, the most entertaining participant,
In the past week, two golf legends have passed away.
Charlie Sifford, who broke the colour barrier on the PGA Tour, passed away on February 3rd.
Billy Caspar, winner of 3 major championships and 51 career victories, passed away on February 7th.
Before the last week, I cannot remember the last time I heard either of their names mentioned during a golf telecast, or saw them referenced in an article. Both Charlie Sifford and Billy Casper are Hall of Famers, and I find it a little unfortunate that it takes their passing for the golfing community recall their lists of accomplishments.
So I was reading today about the latest Tiger Woods withdrawal, this time at Torrey Pines after 11 holes (Tiger was in obvious discomfort and was 2-over par on the easier North Course) and found a Golf Digest article called “5 things we didn’t know were problems until Tiger Woods told us they were“.
The article is basically a list of excuses Tiger has given over the years after bad rounds of golf, including his latest excuse of “deactivated glutes” (which is going to be my excuse for every single poor shot I hit from now on). And in the portion about the “deactivated glutes” was something that every golf fan needs to follow, Tiger’s Glutes’ twitter feed.
Not activated 🙁
— Tiger’s Glutes (@tigerglutes) February 5, 2015
So if you want to know how Tiger is feeling, just check Twitter.
The weather wasn’t great in Arizona, but it was much better than it was in 2002 at Muirfield (I was there) when Tiger shot his only other over-eighty round as a pro.
How did it happen? A triple, a couple of doubles, hitting it in the water, hitting it out of bounds, lots of poor chips and putts.
For most of his career, meaning up until the last couple of years, Tiger was the best chipper and putter in the history of golf. Now, I would be embarrassed to chip and putt like Tiger has his last couple of tournaments. And I barely practice, much less make a living by playing golf. Tiger claims to have hit thousands of practice chips since December.
In case you’re wondering, Tiger is dead last out of the 132 players in Arizona.
Here are the “highlights”.
And this tweet below pretty much sums up what appears to be the proverbial “changing of the guard”.
Nothing more telling than this. Picture courtesy of Steve Elling. pic.twitter.com/AjyWr6KoLw
— Alex Miceli (@alexmiceli) January 30, 2015
6th hole at White Spruce Park in winter
One of the advantages of disc golf over regular golf is that you can play in the winter time. I did a blog post about disc golf when we were there in the fall.
Last weekend we went out and played 9 holes at White Spruce Park in Brampton.
Saturday was a calm day, wind-wise, and it was perfect for a walk in the woods.
9th hole at White Spruce Park in winter
Playing disc golf in the winter in one way is a little more difficult due to the bulkier clothes and heavy boots, and it’s definitely a good workout trudging up and down the hills in the snow. Just be sure to dress warm.
In another way it’s a little easier in that the trees have lost their leaves, so it’s a little more open and easier to see your targets and discs, although we almost lost one disc in the snow, but found it after about 10 minutes of looking (phew).
9th hole at White Spruce Park in winter
Last winter we didn’t get to disc golf because the park was so damaged from the ice storm. The winter before we went out a few times, and actually used discs as sleds to go down one of the steep hills (it was a little bit of a rough ride).
Hopefully we can get out and play a few more times this winter.