Finishing the month on a better note

Stumbled across this interesting website that is loaded with interesting information about the origin of popular golf terms, but from a Scottish perspective.

Visit ScottishGolfHistory.net for more interesting information, and timelines about the origin of golf...for instance, did you know that golf was played at Carnoustie several years BEFORE St. Andrews??? (Me either....)

Sad news from outside of golf - Rest In Peace, Barbaro

My heart is heavy with grief as I read the news that Barbaro, the beautiful dark bay colt that was injured at the Preakness race last May, was euthanized this morning.

He was a beautiful, intelligent horse, and my heart goes out to those that fought so hard on his behalf at the U Penn Veterinary Hospital, and his owners and supporters.

Personally, I don't enjoy the horse races because I can't bear to see them break down, or the way the jockeys go to the whip, but lots of people say that these horses are born to run, and enjoy the activity...

In any event, I was saddened last May, kept praying for his recovery and survival, encouraged as he rallied, and am now just heartbroken at hearing of his recent setback, his suffering and that terribly difficult decision to end his suffering this morning.

Godspeed Barbaro...you touched a lot of people outside of the horseracing world with your spirit, your toughness, your intelligence and your beauty...

In Barbaro's memory, I've made a small memorial contribution to the UPenn Vet school here....if you want to make a similar donation to a West Coast University, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine does similar work with equine veterinary care, and companion animal research, too...the UC Davis gift site is here...

Epilogue: As I've been doing more research into Barbaro's initial injury, I read that Dr. Dan Dreyfuss, older brother of a lifelong childhood friend of mine was the attending veterinarian at the racetrack when Barbaro was initially injured. "Dr. Dan" is the best in all ways possible, and I got CHILLS reading the stories here, here, here, here and here...

Epilogue Part II: If you want to see the outpouring of love and feel the admiration that this glorious creature inspired in hundreds of people, read the comments here at TimWoolleyRacing.com - but make sure you have a Kleenex handy...or a box....click here for a beautiful slideshow overview of his courageous recuperation and a touching tribute. He was a beautiful horse, with a heart and spirit of gold...the more I read about him, the sadder I become...but apparently laminitis had begun to develop in his front hooves now, and his quality of life had deteriorated...

Epilogue Part III: Having recently lost a beloved animal companion myself, this story was a real heart-tugger...

Rest In Peace, Champ....

At first I was skeptical...

A colleague at work gave me a gift certificate to Golfsmith (How thoughtful-thank you, Kelly!) and I decided to use it for something that I've been curious about for a long time, but was too cheap to spend my own money on...(there, I admitted it...)

No, I didn't buy one of those silly Trion-Z magnetic voodoo bracelets that's now endorsed by David Leadbetter (David, David, David....c'mon...), but I DID spring for one of those ubiquitous Golf Channel infomercial-staples, the Check-Go.

For those that have not been GLUED to the Golf Channel during the morning to see this infomercial, the Check-Go is a smallish piece of equipment that spins a single golf ball really fast on a small turntable inside a plastic cage, just like a Spin-Art at the county fair.

The idea is that once the ball reaches its top velocity (several thousand RPM), you then touch it with a marking pen and draw a line on the ball to mark the perimeter line of the ball that identifies its balance point, and the ball will then theoretically roll more true on the line of your putt, and not be affected by imperfections in the manufacturing process which will cause the golf ball to "wobble" on its way to the cup...plus, it gives you a nice aiming line as an alignment aid.

Needless to say, I was skeptical. I figured that modern manufacturing techniques would produce balls that are produced consistently, with centered cores, perfectly round exteriors, and no imperfections in weight and balance, and I figured that this was another "Inspector Gadget" golf gimmick...

Not any more...

Well, I took Kelly's Christmas present, and bought one of these little fellas at Golfsmith in Woodland Hills, CA about a week after Christmas, and I've been using it for the past month.

I have to admit - I think there's something TO this product! I have noticed an improvement in the way that my putts have been tracking, and most telling - I have noticed that almost every time, the line on the ball ends up on the top of the ball when it comes to rest in the fairway! That tells me that the ball DOES come to rest with the "heaviest" part of the ball "down" when it comes to rest on its own, and that there IS something to identifying its balance point and using the configuration of each ball to assist your putting stroke!

One of the most INTERESTING parts about using this tool, is the movement of each ball that you notice as the ball is spun up to speed. I tested an entire box of golf balls by aligning the alignment mark on the exterior of each ball with the anticipated "draw line" of the Check-Go, and was AMAZED at how much variation there is from the start position and the finished "draw line" on 90%+ of the balls in a couple of boxes. SOME of the golf balls actually rattled off the plastic cage, they were so unbalanced!

I was also amazed at how true the balls roll along the draw line when I strike them squarely (which is pretty frequently). I've noticed that my biggest putting bugaboo is basic line selection (alignment) and distance management, not striking the ball off center, or push/pulling the ball, and the majority of the time the balls WILL track truly on the "draw line". Fewer balls tend to drift mysteriously "off line", and the number of putts per round have decreased by about 10%, and I'm scoring more in the mid to upper 80's per round, and fewer rounds in the 90's.

Granted, it's still too early to tell if this phenomenon is a fluke or not, but for now, I'm enjoying my rounds more, and the way that more putts seem to find their way to the cup, or much closer to it, and it's also a good feedback device to see that "draw line" when it stays solid as the ball rolls towards the cup. The Check-Go puts a line COMPLETELY around the circumference of the golf ball, unline the "Line-Em-Up" device that I previously used to draw a line on HALF of the ball...

For now, I'd have to say that the Check-Go is a worthwhile investment, and has helped lower my score by helping the golf ball to stay more truly on-line with the putting stroke, with fewer "drift balls"...

Drool buckets at the ready

Saw this at a golf newsletter that I subscribe to....and had to get out the drool bucket as a result...

Looks like our good friends at Callaway Golf / Odyssey Putters are bringing back a milled line of putters, similar to my beloved Callaway Blue TT-3, but they're calling this one the "Black Series"...

If it PERFORMS half as well as I think it looks, Callaway's got themselves a WINNER!!! (An open note to Callaway Market Research: If you guys need some real-world market research FEEDBACK on this new putter line, please e-mail me at tartangolfgripsdotcom@gmail.com and we can set something up...) =)

Seriously, nice job, folks!!!

So this is January???

I was just driving down the main thoroughfare between my work and home, and the temperature gauge on the official TartanGolfGrips.com Acura read 84 degrees!

So this is January in Southern California, huh? Not bad...

I had left my cell phone on my desk at home, so I headed home to retrieve it and drop off my golf clubs, as some colleagues and I had planned on hitting a bucket of golf balls at lunch, but our plans changed and that didn't happen today...

However, when I got home, I had a voicemail on the ol' cell phone...turns out my wife was letting me know that she was going to play golf this afternoon! She's launching an insurance sales career, and one of her potential clients were shorthanded and needed a fourth, so she got the call...

I'm TOTALLY jealous... I WANNA play golf this afternoon!!!

Anyhow, I alluded to it my last post, so here's the latest addition to the official TartanGolfGrips.com Acura - I added these decals to the back window last weekend, and I think it looks pretty slick...it gets the idea across without being TOTALLY obnoxious...

In case you were asleep during geography class, that's the flag of Scotland on the left...

Here's a little interesting trivia, according to Wikipedia: "The flag of Scotland features a white saltire, a crux decussate (X-shaped cross) representing the cross of the Christian martyr Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, on a blue field. It is named the Saltire or the Saint Andrew's Cross. In heraldic language, it may be blazoned Azure, a saltire argent.

The flag of Scotland is one of the oldest flags in the world, traditionally dating back to the 9th century, and is the oldest national flag still in modern use, the oldest state flag being Denmark's Dannebrog..."

I've seen fire, and I've seen (snow)....but not much rain (yet...)

(All photos courtesy of Los Angeles Times)

Proving again that life in Southern California is not boring, we've gone from having snow flurries, hailstorms and sub-freezing overnight temperatures LAST week, to having warm Santa Ana winds blowing TODAY that pushed the temperatures on the official TartanGolfGrips.com Acura (more on that in a later posting) temperature gauge to 74 blissful degrees at lunchtime...

However, with that temperature and the winds comes an unfortunate downside - fire.

Tonight's adventure was too close to home, literally, as this was approximately two offramps down the Ventura Freeway from the TartanGolfGrips.com creative compound.
The fire broke out about 4:30 PM, and was fanned by winds that were gusting to about 20 mph. Fortunately, as the sun went down, so did the winds, which allowed the firefighters to maintain their aerial assault well past nightfall.

The prevailing winds at the time that the fire broke out briefly raised speculation that the residents near Sherwood Country Club and the Lake Sherwood area might be affected, but that area is about four miles to the south of the blaze, and the flames were contained as the winds died down.

BIG-TIME KUDOS go to the studs (and studettes) that fly Heli-Tac air operations for the various local fire agencies...on my way home from work, I headed up to the upper parking lot at Westlake High School, and had front-row seats to the airstrikes taking place from two helicopters. Their precision carpet-bombing of flames reaching over 30 feet into the air amidst dense smoke and tricky up and downdrafts was spectacular to behold, and if I ever am fortunate enough to meet one of you in person, I will PERSONALLY buy you a beer, or beverage of your choice! This shot was taken tonight and is NOT stock footage!

The latest report is that the fire is currently contained, but the fire officials are concerned about the winds that are supposed to increase again in the morning.

Snark sighting here...



Epilogue: Following Mr. Humphrey's post at MY site, I checked out the LAFD blog (VERY cool site, by the way...I am proud to add it to MY blogroll of fame) and saw HIS POST on this event. That mutual aid agreement has saved COUNTLESS properties, and probably LIVES, too...I remember when the firestorms were burning into Oak Park in Sep./Oct. '05, I was AMAZED at the distances that the firefighters had come to protect the homes of my neighbors, and the OUTPOURING of community support and gratitude for their talent, energy and efforts.

Watch out for Julieta...

In case anyone was paying attention this past weekend, what with all the fireworks going on down in Palm Springs, the UAE and Maui, Julieta Granada powered the Paraguayan team to victory in the LPGA's season opener at the Women's World Cup of Golf down in South Africa...

Evidently, her season-ending, million-dollar win to end the 2006 LPGA Tour season was not a fluke...

I've seen this talented player up close and personal, and she's the real deal!

Watch for her on the 2007 LPGA Tour....

Missing PGA Tour Sunday on USA Network

We'll make this one short and sweet...check out this blog posting from Michael Collins, erstwhile caddy/comedian from the dearly beloved and sorely missed PGA Tour Sunday on USA Network... wished I was there in person...

MBA Buzzword BS-Bingo Lingo (TM)

After a long year of hard work, impossibly long hours and personal sacrifice making deals and taking companies public, the deal-makers at Morgan Stanley have decided to make a deal for themselves that has MULTIPLE SYNERGISTIC BENEFITS, to quote from my MBA Buzzword BS-Bingo lingo manual...

The new investment/winter meeting site/principal's vacation getaway portfolio of sites now include: the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa in Maui, Hawaii ; La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.; Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix; The Ritz-Carlton Orlando in Florida; Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, Fla.; JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix and Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley, Calif.

Now, I mean NO SERIOUS disrespect to all my friends in the Bay Area, but SOMEHOW I can't help but feeling that the Claremont Spa got thrown in as an ummmmmmm... EXTRA-ADDED benefit amongst all those other five-star beauties.... (those old palm trees ARE quite, ummmm...IMPRESSIVE!!!)

Hey Sergio...didja know...

Here's a picture of Sergio Garcia doing his best imitation of a Winn Excel AVS grip at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship....(That's the Winn grip on the right/above, by the way...)



Plus, after a hard day out on the course, looking tres' chic in your matching red and black duds, there's nothing like settling down with a big glass of milk and one of those new Titleist Incredible Edi-Balls..they're DE-LICOUS, and NU-TRICIOUS!!! (And chock FULL of minerals and vitamins, too!!!)

*** Follow up: This just in - a note from Sergio's Mom:

"Honey, PLEASE don't put those in your mouth...they spray ALL kinds of nasty pesticides and chemicals on that grass to keep it looking nice and pretty, and that ball DOES NOT belong in your MOUTH!!! Now take it OUT, and DON'T put that in your mouth AGAIN!

Patricia - that means YOU and those TEES, too!!! And NO PARTYING on a SCHOOL NIGHT, either!!!"

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

As I and "TheGolfChick" have been posting recently, it's been colder than normal here in Southern California...and WINDIER, too...(I've lived here my entire life, and it's been a LONG time since it's been SO windy...EVERY day it's like 30-50 mph winds...so, we play the ball a bit back in our stance, and keep it low...just like they do in Texas, right???)

But I digress...it was SO cold in Southern California yesterday... {How cold WAS it???} It was SO cold in Southern California yesterday that it SNOWED in the Santa Monica mountains, midway between Malibu on the coast, and Agoura Hills where I work!!! (It actually HAILED quite hard for a few minutes in Agoura Hills, and we had several lightning strikes, one of which was right overhead, because it was like Flash-BOOM...kinda spooky, actually...it got so dark outside {How dark WAS it???) It was so dark outside that the parking lot lights turned on at 11AM!!!

(This shot is of houses in southern Agoura Hills)

Check out the snow pics, courtesy of The Ventura County Star and The Daily News of Los Angeles:
*** UPDATE: For some TRULY AMAZING PICTURES of the Kanan Road snowfall, taken from the KNBC newscopter as it fell, check out CopterChick's blog here...

The shots below are from Kanan Road, headed towards Malibu from Agoura Hills...

Bob Hope Chrysler Classic news

Found this interesting tidbit on the BHCC.com website - it's the handicap listings of all of the celebrities that are competing in this year's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic golf tournament.

Note Kenny G's handicap - ZERO - the guy is GOOD!!! So is Maury Povich and Sterling Sharpe! And what about Tom Dreesen, long-time opening act for Frank Sinatra himself (super nice guy, too), and Carson Daly at a 7.

Also found this link to the celebrity scoring portion of the tournament - the sports press will no doubt concentrate on Mickelson's return to competition, but this side-story adds immeasurable interest to this classic event. ENJOY!

ZZZZZZZZZZ....

Rant on...

It appears that the St. Andrews Links and Trust announced the winner of the naming of the 7th course over the weekend....

Can you spell B O R I N G ???

The winning name??? {Drumroll please.....}


Are you ready for this???

{Make sure you're sitting down, and don't have any milk in your mouth, cuz you'll spit it out on your computer monitor when you see this lame-o name they selected....}

Ready???? Here goes.....


The Castle Course


BU WA HA HA HA HA HA - they had over FOUR THOUSAND entries, and they chose "The Castle Course"???


As this article in the Scotsman relayed, Mr. Alastair Dempster (are you sure it isn't DUmpster?) reported (somewhat defensively, apparently) "Defending the choice, Mr Dempster said trustees sought a name which was easy to understand, relevant to the course and town and which fitted in with the trust's family of names.

He added: "In golfing terms this is a major decision and a historic announcement. It's not every day that a new course at St Andrews is named. In reaching this decision, we were acutely aware that the name would have to stand the test of time and remain appropriate to a world-famous golfing destination." {Wake me up when it's over...)

Yeah, Alastair, "The Castle Course" should stand the test of time....and it SURE is easy to understand - not much risk or imagination there....apparently there used to be a castle called Kinkell Castle on the property, so there you go....(so if some farmer had abandoned his plow on the property, would it have been fair to suggest "The Plow Course"??? Unbelieveable....)

An American named Edwin Burtnett was selected from the other unimaginitive sheep, I mean contestants that played it safe, and Mr. Burtnett gets the opportunity to play one of the first rounds when the course is officially opened next year...I'm pretty sure Mr. Burtnett just AGONIZED for HOURS over his winning selection, along with the other contestants' names that were in the lottery fishbowl....

Click here for the OFFICIAL report....oh well, it still looks like a PHENOMENAL course, and I plan to go play it someday soon....along with a few others in the area....hopefully with Mom in the cart, enjoying the day, and her first trip back to Scotland since the end of World War II...

Maybe the locals will take to calling it "Seachdadhar Brae" (Seventh Heaven Hill)

Rant off....

Day off, and....

We played 14 holes at Sunset Hills on Monday, and we had the place to ourselves.

Why you ask, especially on Martin Luther King's birthday, when so many people have the day off?

Because it was COLD, that's why!!! BITTERLY cold for Southern California...in fact, we've had rather bad frost damage to many of the plants in the back yard....Southern California has been in the grips of some record-setting cold weather for the past few days and nights, and the temperature in the Thousand Oaks area has dipped into the high 20's and low 30's for the last three nights, and the cold north winds were blowing 20-30mph throughout the day today...

I bundled up in three layers of a mock turtleneck, polo shirt and my Longs Drugs Challenge Anitigua golf jacket and headed out to do battle with the course and the elements, and you know what? Thanks to the world's best golf ball (IMO), the Callaway HX Tour coupled with my new Heavenwood 4H hybrid, I managed to post a 43 (8 over) for the front nine...

For some reason, I found the sand repeatedly, but managed to make some MIRACULOUS sand saves with that magic HX Tour ball, where it popped out of the sand, checked up like it was sticking to Velcro, and stopped right by the pin for a relatively easy putt...

HX Tour's cost a bit more, but based upon today's round, I might be trading up from the HX Hot to play the HX Tour for its better spin characteristics around the green...I've been practicing a more descending stroke at the range in an attempt to get the ball to check up more, and I think that the practice is beginning to pay dividends...but the ball didn't hurt the efforts either...

And, also had an unscheduled detour yesterday...the plan was to play in the Guys'N'Dolls tournament that teed off at noon at Sunset Hills CC, but I just HAPPENED to stumble across GolfChannel.com and checked out the new Golf Inventor reality show link, and Holy SHMOKES, they had open auditions for Los Angeles yesterday!!! I had submitted my application back around Halloween, and gotten an e-mail confirmation back, but somehow I fell through the cracks, and wasn't notified of yesterday's open auditions at the LAX Hilton Hotel.

Coincidentally, that LAX Hilton Hotel was my second-ever audit client when it first opened, and I knew where everything was...it was weird returning to a place that I spent SO many long days auditing way back when I was in an internship program at Cal State Northridge...

The auditions were from 8AM to 8PM, and they had opened the doors for registration at 7AM...seeing as I stumbled across the announcement at 9:30AM, and had to complete a rather lengthy application, get ready and travel to the LAX area, I checked in at 12:50PM and was assigned #96...and they were on #58 when I got my number. I had my 5 minute audition about 5:30PM, and I had taken in three putters with TartanGolfGrips.com grips on them as part of my audition. From what I could tell, most of the inventions were more technical or training oriented than my product, but the auditioner who greeted me instinctively blurted out "Those are COOL grips!" when he saw them, which was EXACTLY the reaction that I always hope for...

We'll see how the audition process goes, but there were at least 98 people who showed up in Los Angeles, and they're having auditions in Orlando, Dallas, Chicago and one or two other cities...and it appears that there's NO shortage of golf junkies who have designed "the next big thing" and want to introduce it to the world in the new reality series on the Golf Channel.

Truly a shooting star - Lorena Ochoa's news...

I hope she changes her mind, and allows us to enjoy her grace, athleticism and class on the course for MUCH longer, but 2006 LPGA Player of the Year Lorena Ochoa announced Jan. 10, 2007 that she's limiting her playing career to only ten years. Say it ain't so, Lo...say it ain't so!!!

She's an amazingly talented player, and I got to be her standard bearer up at the 2004 Longs Drugs Challenge. Truly a classy, super nice lady, and an AWESOME golf talent...I really hope that she changes her mind, and continues to play, albeit on a more limited basis...she's such a great competitor, I'll bet that she changes her mind down the road, but I could be wrong...

If you want a Mexico flag putter grip just like the one Lorena uses, you can get one here at the secure shopping site for TartanGolfGrips.com, and learn more about that grip at MexicoPutterGrip.com.

Sherwood Country Club-2006 Target World Challenge Volunteer Day I - Jan. 8, 2007

Monday, January 8, 2007 was volunteer day #1 for the 2006 Target World Challenge, and the day dawned sunny, breezy and warm. (Sorry about the "A" pillar, there was another car turning off of Portrero Road behind me and basic photo composition went out the window in favor of being a considerate driver...)

I checked in at the guard station at about 9:20AM, and was wished a cheery "Have fun out there!" by the security guard. She called it - we had fun!

My SCORE didn't look much fun, but with the exception of a couple of blowup holes and unfortunate splashdowns, it was a GREAT day! (More about that later...)

The essence of Sherwood is that the fairways are relatively broad and generous, but the oak trees influence the line of flight on almost every hole. The greens tend to be smallish, relatively narrow configurations, and undulate like potato chips - they're TOUGH to read, and TOUGH to score well on. It's a beautiful course that makes use of the natural topography, has several water features and hazards that can be problematic, and a mudhen problem on Tournament #2/Member #11 that cannot be BELIEVED!!! There's HUNDREDS of 'em, and the little buggers need to wear DIAPERS!!! There's mudhen guano
E V E R Y W H E R E from 150 yards in....even on the GREEN! (Eew! My approach shot landed in some...double EEW!! Thank GOODNESS you're allowed to clean your golf ball - they need to declare a local rule for lift, clean & replace on the #11 approach zone) When we were going out to Member #11 in the morning, the grounds crew were running TWO Australian shepherd dogs around the water hazards to shoo the mudhens into the water hazard. (Those dogs need to be trained to do coot-doo cleanup!) That's about the only fault I can find with the course...but the coots need a place to live too, so they've chosen the NICEST place to live in the area, just like the PEOPLE who live at Sherwood!

It wasn't so prevalent at THIS year's tournament, but there have been some absolutely RAGING parties on the patios (Isn't that an old ZZ Top tune?) on Championship Sunday. From my days as a standard bearer (last year), there were some ragers going on Tournament #2 and #7 - believe me, THOSE people know how to throw a party!!! I checked this year, and that party house on #7 had Vin Scully, longtime (and BELOVED) voice of the Dodgers sitting out on a folding chair on the patio (but no loud music THIS year) - I saw him with my binoculars from the crossover on #6 - hey, it gets boring up there while you're waiting for Padraig Harrington's group.... (LOVE ya, Padraig! Seriously! But I digress...)

The guard gave me my parking pass (pictured below) and I found a great parking spot right where the Tournament organizing committee parked in the members parking lot.
I got checked in and found out that we were starting on hole #13 (Lucky 13?), which is played as hole #4 at the Target World Challenge. It's a beautiful, 459 yard par 4 from the tips, but we were playing from the 435 yard blue tees today...

Wandered down to the carts and found our cart amongst the throng that had been assembled - the organizing at Sherwood is flawless, and each cart had been outfitted with a towel, three tees for each player, two box lunches, a Sherwood divot tool and a partridge in a pear tree. (Just kidding about the partridge and the pear tree, but the guys just TOP out the carts for us!) (See if you can find the TartanGolfGrips.com putter grip in the picture of the Sherwood Country Club golf cart...and NO, I didn't Photoshop it into the picture, I COMPOSED it that way...attractive, huh? You can order your very own at https://shop.tartangolfgrips.com )


Headed down to the putting green to get the eye sharp, but with the undulations in the greens, it's an academic exercise, but at least it gives you something to do...it's a little known secret, but there's actually a SECOND putting green, up by hole #1, so I headed over there to hit a few balls and get the Stimp reading down...they were FAST - it's been really dry and windy in SoCal since Christmas, and the greens were quick! (You can see the general area of the putting green in this pic - it's at the base of the flagpole. It's smaller than the main green, but at least there wasn't three people aiming for the same cup over there!

(While we're over there - just take a look at the size of that house behind the first tee's flagpole! No, that's NOTa hotel, that's NOT an aircraft hangar, that's ONE family's HOUSE, folks! (Can you imagine VACUUMING that place??? It'd be like painting the Golden Gate bridge - by the time you're done with one side of the house, enough dirt has accumulated on the other side that you have to start over and you never finish! Please don't touch anything, and please keep the line moving....))

Sherwood is one of THE most exclusive country clubs and neighborhoods in the area, and home to many famous celebrities including Wayne Gretzky, Pete Sampras, Tom Selleck, Scott Hamilton and many others...the homes that line the fairways are truly AMAZING, and it's a real treat to see the beautiful landscaping and architectural features that the residents incorporate into their homes AND backyards...and the golf course ain't bad, EITHER!

We got our official welcome from the head pro, and headed out at 10AM sharp...it was sunny, warm and breezy - but not so windy that it interfered significantly with our games. It has been another amazing "winter" thus far, it's been windier and drier than normal and the average temperature throughout December has been about 75, and this day was no exception...on the way home, the termperature gauge in the car read 82...at 5PM! The wind kicked up a few times between 10AM and noon, but the afternoon was basically still and absolutely PERFECT for golf!

It's interesting to note this picture - notice the guy wearing the shorts! This is the first year in the seven that I've worked this tournament that volunteers were allowed to wear shorts on volunteer day! Had I known...

I had requested to be paired with Dave and Jan. Dave and I worked on #6 and #15 for the tournament, which are REALLY #15 and #6 the way the members (and the volunteers) play the course. Jan worked (tournament) #3 and #12, which are a pair of par-3's. We were told that holes #9 and #18 would be played the way they are for the tournament, and I think that instruction screwed with several groups, because there was ALL kinds of confusion in following that instruction, and we encountered several other groups that were not adjacent to our group as we played our round on both #9 and #18. Maybe it was because those were the only two holes that were played the same way as the tournament...

Dave and I used to work for Kenneth Leventhal and Company, a Century City CPA firm which is now part of Ernst & Young. I started my career with them quite a few years ago, and Dave was an audit manager for several Palm Springs developers.

I was a staff auditor on a Santa Monica real estate developer that had several Palm Springs divisions that had January/February calendar-year audits at the same time as Dave's account. Back in the day, we'd work the audits Monday through Friday, stay on-site at some of the residential units or hotels over the weekend, and play golf down at the courses that were attached to the developments that we were auditing. It was at some of these weekend golf "stay-overs" that I met Dave, and our friendship was rekindled when we met one another about five years ago at the Target World Challenge. We've golfed together every volunteer day since, and had a great time together. Dave's a member at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley, and he used to be a member at Sunset Hills Country Club. He's now a senior manager at Countrywide Financial Corporation.

I met Jan last year, and she's in the Marketing group at 21st Century Insurance, an auto insurance company in Woodland Hills who built a second headquarters building on the old driving range that stretched from Topanga Canyon Blvd to Owensmouth Avenue in Woodland Hills, where I first went to practice golf many years ago... Jan's very athletic, and plays a solid game of golf. She ALSO has the exact same Husky headcover that I have on my driver (although ours are last years model and they have PAWS that make them look better). Dave and I suggested an alignment and grip adjustment, and we had Jan hitting 30 yards farther and straighter by the end of our round - I think she was pleased with the result! It was cool offering some guidance, and actually having it help out a fellow golfer...you know what they say - those that can't DO, TEACH!

Anyways, off we headed to hole #13, a 435 yard par 4 with water alongside the right side. Dave and I chickened out and put our drives WAY down the left side on the inland side of the hole, and Jan dropped a mulligan into the drink, and then proceeded to BLAST her second drive straight down the middle of the fairway about 240 yards. Here's a shot of the tee, and another below of my second shot...












My second shot was a hybrid of about 165 yards to within 60 yards of the pin, where I pitched to within 15 feet and two-putted for bogey. Notice how IMMACULATE the fairway and second cut are...(that's Dave doing his best "Wandering Golfer" imitation, by the way...)












This is the view of my approach to the green...and Jan walking to HER approach shot...note the variety of clubs, as we were playing "cart path only"...ugh....
















Hole number 14 is my new best friend...we played it twice (ssssh, don't tell anyone) and I parred it BOTH times! Played it the SAME WAY both times, too...lasered a drive RIGHT at the double-trunked tree on the right side of the fairway, bouncing it left into the fairway (Thank you, Golf Tiki!). Hit a hybrid to the left second cut. Hit a nine iron the first time, and a seven iron the second time to the left side of the green, and funneled it down to 8-12 feet from the pin, and SANK the par putt! Here's the hole 14 shot sequence in pictures:



















Obviously I ticked off "The Golf Tiki" on #14, because my fortune CHANGED in a big way on #15, the hole that Dave and I marshaled at the Target World Challenge. I have been hitting a draw recently, and have adjusted my alignment a bit to compensate for it...

#15 features a narrow, uphill "gun barrel" approach, which is even MORE PRONOUNCED for the PGA players when they play it from the tips...it is a NARROW, BLIND tee shot into a crowned fairway. (This is where Colin Montgomerie corkscrewed his drive into the base of the hill on the left, and my crossover post is about the same place that the guy at the left on the hill is pictured below.)

Well, my "draw alignment" coupled with my sudden LACK of draw EXECUTION resulted in THREE back-to-back drives BLOCKED badly onto the hillside to the SHORT RIGHT... ( I DID find my second shot, nestled safely amongst some native scrub plants inside the stand of trees, but it WAS OB, and good for TWO....TIMES THREE...UGH....). Here's the view down the gun-barrel at #15:The guy at the left side of the hillside is near my post at the crossover to Tournament #7, the bottom of that hill is where Colin doinked his drive in the rain, and the half a tree at the right is the LEFT of where I doinked THREE of MY shots off the tee...

Unfortunately, our photojournalistic escapades end here, because with all the ON/OFF, shoot, repeat action on the course, the battery decided to take the rest of the day off, so you'll have to wait until NEXT year's blog entry to see the REMAINDER of the gorgeous scenery at Sherwood Country Club (or just tune in and watch on TV, instead - the golf will probably be better anyway...)

The irony of the day award went to ME, because I DOINKED up BOTH holes that Dave and I worked - after popping three drives into the tree/hillside on the right on Tournament #6, I ALSO decided to launch a triumvirate of topped offerings into the fishies that swim in the water hazard that guards Tournament #15, before FINALLY landing drive number FOUR about seven feet from the pin, and sinking the putt for the big SNOWMAN (on a par 3...sheesh....). It's spelled B L O W U P H O L E, Scott....(and brings to mind that old saw about crapping where you eat, or something like that...)

Here's the final evidence - I'm not proud of it, but I think I won, because I had more points than Dave and Jan did...right??? Well, at least I DID par TWO holes...whoopee!!!

Thanks for gutting it out to the bitter end - hope you enjoyed the pics and stories...it was a FUN day, and I hope the weather is as nice for the rest of the volunteers at the END of the month...

Congratulations, Chris DiMarco....

On your Florida Gators' decisive 41-14-win over heavily favored Ohio State in the 2007 BCS National Championship game...By the way, if you will please contact me, I have a TartanGolfGrips.com set of golf grips for you that I tried to get to you at the recent 2006 Target World Challenge.

I guess it was a good year for underdog football teams that wear Blue and Orange!!!

It just didn't feel like Sunday...

Without PGA Tour Sunday on USA Network...

I always liked the blend of "hard" and "soft" news, where they mixed PGA Tour and LPGA Tour news and developments with human interest stories and "golf life" stories...

I hope that Golf Channel (better not mess up the brand), picks up the exact same team, or one like it, because it really became a part of my Sunday ritual, especially since we got a TiVo machine...

I'm REALLY gonna be bummed when the AT&T Pebble Beach comes around, because they did a great job reporting on all the celebrity goings on and the human interest stories...

Anyone else going through PGA Tour Sunday withdrawal???

On a happier note, tomorrow is "Volunteer Day I" and we're playing Sherwood Country Club for FREE, as compensation for volunteering at the recent Target World Championship. It's a super-cool bonus, and my goal this year is to play the entire round with the same sleeve of balls, score notwithstanding...we'll see how that plays out...

I'll take my camera and do some posting tomorrow...

How cool is THIS???

Banfield, The Pet Hospital, the world's largest private veterinary practice, has joined forces with pet owner and PGA TOUR champion Rory Sabbatini to raise dollars for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which supports American soldiers and their families that have been affected by the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More information is here and here....

We'll buy two when they come out February 1, 2007....way to go, Rory!!!

This just in from St. Andrews...

It must be to preserve the fairways from the inclement Scottish winter weather, but it just looks ODD to see that "fairway mats" are required at the home of golf...check it out (they do their dates Euro style (dd/mm/yy):

"3/01/07 - Fairway mats are required on the Strathtyrum and New Courses as well as the Old Course. In low season, St Andrews Links continues to be one of the best places to play golf."

Click here for some cool pictures...

Turns out that over 4,000 entries were received to name the new "Number 7" course...that'll make WINNING it even the sweeter...remember Seachdadhar Brae - you saw it here first...(Seachdadhar is Scots Gaelic (loosely interpreted) for "Seventh Heaven")

Click here for some good deals on fairway mats...

While you're at it,please check out The Niblick Journal for some interesting golf observations...they've taken some time off, but they must be ramping up in time for PGA Tour season - which starts TOMORROW!!! {Wahoo!!!}

Final thought for the day - check out the fun fantasy leagues that are being run at PGATOUR.COM

And the winner is...the 2006 golf website of the year goes to...

As awarded by Scotsman.com - congratulations goes to our own Geoff Shackelford and geoffshackelford.com.

The 2006 "Huggy" award for "Best golf website" went to Geoff with a comment of "Log on today if you really want to know what's going on in golf."

Congratulations, Geoff - we love your Rustic Canyon design, and hope to SOMEDAY, SOMEHOW get to play the Prairie Club course near Valentine, NE.

My wife was born in Valentine, and her folks now live in North Platte, NE, about 2 hours south of the Prairie Club on HIghway 97. Her cousin Dan is the superintendent at Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen, NE. Sand Hills was ranked #1 in the nation in the 2006 Golfweek course rating for courses built since 1960, and we got to play Sand Hills over the July 4 holiday last summer, along with Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, NE.

What a couple of FUN, beautiful, CHALLENGING courses...if you're ever in Nebraska....you MIGHT want to check out these beauties....

New Year's Golf...why I love Southern California

It was a nice way to wind down 2006, and start 2007 - a bunch of us went to Elkins Ranch Golf Course in Fillmore to play 18 on New Year's Eve - we had two foursomes, plus one rider, and headed out at 11:30 and 11:38 AM.

It was sunny, crisp and beautiful, and I played in shorts and a sweatshirt, while everyone else was in slacks and sweatshirts. As the round progressed, it cooled considerably and in the shadows, it was COLD, I'll admit...(relatively cold, it was 57 degrees on the car thermometer when we got back...)

Elkins Ranch Golf Course is located amidst an orange orchard in Fillmore, CA, and it's about 45 minutes away from the house, but the beauty of the area, and the laid back attitude is a refreshing change of pace. The cheeseburgers or hot dogs at the turn are amongst some of the best you'll have anywhere...I don't know WHAT they do there that makes them SO tasty, but Elkins Ranch is widely known in the area for having some of the tastiest burgers around...

Their signature hole is #17 - an elevated tee 440 yard par-four that features some AMAZING views of the town of Fillmore, and the surrounding agriculture. This picture shows our friend Margaret teeing off, and the fog that was starting to move in...I shot a 91, and Cheri shot a 88 - my putting was pretty atrocious, and I will be making good use of the automated putt returner that our friends Mike and Michelle gave me for Christmas...

Speaking of which, I gave everyone their Christmas presents yesterday - it was a round of TartanGolfGrips.com putter grips for everyone!

• Margaret got one featuring County Offaly, where her family originated from in Ireland...

• Steve got one featuring the Kansai Highland Games tartan, since he's half Japanese...

• Mike got one featuring the Justus Universal tartan, since his family is German...

• Michelle got one featuring the Scozia Italian tartan, since she's Italian, and the Scozia tartan is a bit more colorful than the Italian/American "artan" design that I made up for Tim Rosaforte...

• Kirsten (Mike's sister) and "J" got one that I developed especially for them - the "Burner" tartan, which is derived from one of the "Burns" tartans...Dr. "J" and Kirsten recently moved to our area from Orange County, and purchased Anacapa Animal Hospital. The animals of Ventura and Ventura County are fortunate to have J and Kirsten taking care of them, and they have made some REALLY exciting improvements to the Anacapa Animal Hospital - it's a very impressive facility, with some amazing high-tech equipment to take care of the animals. We hope that the two of them can take some time off in 2007 to come golf with us some more!

We wrapped up our round with Jeff, our hamburger chef, who also mixes up a mean "J.D" (Jack and Diet Coke - consumed in honor of John Daly), and we toasted the New Year together in the bar area adjacent to the snack shack at Elkins. (I drowned my sorrows as my beloved Broncos looked PATHETIC in their loss to the 49ers, and got bumped out of the post-season...2007 started off nicely, though, as the Boise State Broncos beat Oklahoma to win the Fiesta Bowl!)

Everyone headed home, and we got together later with Mike and Michelle and "Mini-Michelle" from Las Vegas, and rang in the New Year together. It was a very pleasant day, and a great cap to a pretty decent year!

Here's the 2006 recap:

• 2006 started with me working with Sally Quinlan of the Ventura County Junior Golf Association to try and get a Ventura County Chapter of the Executive Women's Golf Association off the ground.
• I got the idea for TartanGolfGrips.com in early March 2006, and spent the rest of the year getting ready to launch the business, and develop the website and shopping cart. I launched the site and cart around Memorial Day, and spent the summer taking classes in Dreamweaver and Photoshop from Conejo Valley Adult School. The relaunched site went live at the end of October.
• My dog Rusti passed away in early September. Rusti's story can be found here, and I miss her every day - however, my life was improved by having her be such a big part of it, but she is greatly missed.
• However, "life is for the living" as the old saw goes, and a week after Rusti's passing, we adopted "Tailer" from the Agoura Animal Shelter. This is "Tailer" and his new Christmas hot dog squeaky toy: Rusti's buddy Triniti had been grieving and lonely since Rusti passed away, and we decided that she needed some companionship. The two of them have become best buddies, and they tussle and play ALL the time...here's a picture of Triniti:

• I've talked to a lot of people, and it seems that many of us feel that 2007 will be a better year, as the general zeitgeist seems to be improving...it's hard to believe that we're on the cusp of 2007, when it seems like only last year we were getting ready to ring in "the new millenium" - it's amazing how fast the time goes by...but I've learned that the best way to live is to live each day like it were your last, hug those that you love, tell them how much they mean to you, laugh easily and often, and play all the golf that you can! The PGA Tour season kicks off in only three days, and I'm looking forward to it, especially with the new FedEx Playoff format. I went through the 2007 PGA Schedule, and I'm especially looking forward to these tournaments:
• Mercedes Championship - Kapalua - One of my favorite courses in the world, especially the "Bay" course - even though they play the "Plantation" course, it'll be fun to see if 'The King of Kapalua', Stuart Appleby will make it four in a row, and the scenery and newness of the season gives Kapalua a special vibe...
• Bob Hope Chrysler Classic - This event moves up in the schedule this year, and I'm hoping for nice weather. The Pro-Am portion of the event is fun, and this year's grand marshal, George Lopez, should have the crowd enjoying themselves.
• Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines - I REALLY enjoy the "West Coast Swing" because so many of the courses are within 2 hours of my home, and Torrey Pines is ANOTHER favorite course. The scenery and challenge of the South course is really great, and this event is a personal favorite - it's also usually the first "Tiger sighting" on the Tour.
• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - In my opinion, this event is one of the top five all season, the others being The Masters, The U.S. Open, The British Open and the Bob Hope. The scenery of Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula courses, the history of this event and the Pro-Am makes this THE West Coast Swing event...I actually sent in a volunteer form for this event this year, and I'd take vacation days to work this event...I know the pros hate the six hour rounds that the Pro-Am involves, but it adds a special and unique element to the eventthat makes it really special for me...

I used to say that SKIING got me through the dark days of January to March, but the West Coast swing is quickly taking over for me, although I hope to make a trip to Mammoth in February to get some skiing in this year!

New Years Day was sunny, breezy and about 75 degrees in SoCal. My wife is preparing for her securities license test later this week, so I met Steve and Margaret at Sunset Hills for a quick nine-hole round. One of the benefits of having a local team (USC) in a big bowl game (the Rose Bowl) is that the golf course was DESERTED...there were only about four other people on the course with us, and we had the place to ourselves! Steve's 17 year old daughter Stephanie is just taking up golf, so it was nice for her to not have the usual weekend pressure. The wind was pretty gusty, and came into play on a few holes...but helped my drive on #2 end up about 120 yards out, making that drive over 250 yards...wind-aided, of course...but it was still fun!!! Shot 46, and couldn't POST, because the clubhouse guys closed up early, but had a nice day anyway...

Happy New Year to all!

Tiger Wood floor is complete

Well, first it was the Tiger Woods golf tournament, then it was the cold from you-know-where, then it was Christmas and the Tiger Wood floor...


Let me explain - we spent most of our Christmas weekend ripping out our old carpeting and replacing it with Armstrong Tiger Maple laminate flooring. It's a beautiful design, and it makes the house look AMAZING - when we were shopping for it, I joked with my wife that I wanted that pattern because it was a Tiger Wood floor...she wanted it because it was more attractive than the "bleahhh" blue/grey carpeting that we installed about five years ago...you know you HATE your carpeting when you come home from work and the bare concrete slab looks better than the carpeting that was there that morning...


We wrapped up the finish work on December 30, which was a huge coincidence with Tiger's birthday, and announcement of his impending fatherhood. (Congratulations to Tiger and Elin - I saw her at the recent Target World Challenge, and she's TALLER than I thought she was....) We went to Kohl's on a whim on Friday night, and scored some HUGE deals on area rugs - the budget got a bit of a reprieve, and we got some BEAUTIFUL area rugs at 40-70% off...


Now, it's a waiting game for that black leather sofa to go on sale at Plummer's Home and Office Furniture, and we're in luck...