Charity scramble golf tournament in Texas-May 11, 2007

Hey, all you Texas golfers, and blog readers who can travel to Fort Worth Texas!!! (South Fort Worth, to be exact...)

Mark your calendars for Friday, May 11, 2007, because there's going to be a scramble-style golf tournament to help raise funds for Duramed Futures Tour player D'Rae Ward, in her quest to continue playing on the Duramed Futures Tour. The tournament will be at Glen Garden Golf and Country Club, a place that describes itself as "Home of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sandra Palmer". Pretty impressive company, for sure!

D'Rae's a good player, and has made both cuts in both tournaments thus far on the 2007 Futures Tour. Her 2007 season scoring average has been 73.5, and she needs some financial assistance to help keep her playing on Tour.

D'Rae first came across MY radar scopes when I learned of her eBay sponsorship efforts. Impressed by her creativity, energy and creativity, I decided to help her out by designating ALL County Donegal Artans to play a significant role in helping her defray her Tour costs.

It would be a shame if her talents weren't encouraged due to a lack of funds...if you can help out, please check out D'Rae's website, and help out in any way that you can...

We golfers are a giving group, and if you're impressed with this young woman's creativity, determination and initiative, and we all chip in (figuratively), who knows how much good we can do??? It's worth a shot...(pardon the pun...)

Live@...DOA???

Is it just me, or is anyone else's ability to connect into Live@ NOT HAPPENING this morning???

Could we have crashed the servers from overuse???

I'm bummed - I can't see Mickelson/You play #7....

This is a SPECIAL week...

This is a special week, where one of the special events on the PGA Tour is played out in one of the most hallowed of American golf cathedrals, at the Pebble Beach Golf Course in Monterey, California. For those of you who have never seen this area in person, you have GOT to see this stretch of coastline in person, and preferably when the weather is sunny and warm, because it is simply SPECTACULARLY beautiful....bring your wallet, though, because the beauty does NOT come cheap!

Click here for some interesting tournament history.

The weather for this year's tournament doesn't look like it's going to be picture-postcard-perfect like it was last year (not by a longshot), but it's still my favorite event of the entire PGA Tour season (followed by The Masters). (Tiger's tournament doesn't count, because it's after the season's over...)

There are some pretty cool features available on the web, and one of my favorites is the 'real-time cameras' that are available...the best one is probably the first tee, followed by the 18th green, and the 17th hole. If you leave the windows up, it appears that some of them automatically refresh, too...17, especially... (if the weather gets as NASTY as the National Weather Service is indicating, these cameras might provide a glimpse into the weather-nasties...)



THIS one will likely get interesting later in the week, as it's a feed from the PUTTING green outside The Lodge, the gorgeous hotel/shopping area near the first tee...because this one's more of a close-up shot than the others, you MIGHT be able to see someone FAMOUS warming up on the putting green before their round later this week...you can actually see the GOLF BALLS on the green, it's so close!!!




Click here for PGATour.com coverage, and here for Golf Channel's. It's a drag that Arron Oberholser's back is suffering from a bulging disk (for more reasons than one!) and he won't be back (pardon the pun) to defend his title this year...
Here's the list of celebrities that are scheduled to participate in the 2007 Pro-Am segment (HEY, no WOMEN celebrities??? What is this, 1907???):
*Harris Barton • Former Professional Football Player (San Francisco)
* Chris Berman • Sportscaster
*Michael Bolton • Entertainer
*Tom Brady • Football Player – New England Patriots
*Joe Buck • Sportscaster
*Glen Campbell • Entertainer
*Don Cheadle • Actor
*Kevin Costner • Actor/Producer/Director
*Carson Daly • TV Host
*Tom Dreesen • Entertainer
*Glenn Frey • Musician
*Kenny G • Musician
*Peter Gallagher • Actor
*Danny Gans • Entertainer
*Andy Garcia • Actor
*Thomas Gibson • Actor
*Joe Gransden • Musician
*Bob Griese • ABC Sports Analyst
*Kevin James • Actor
*Huey Lewis • Musician
*Rush Limbaugh • Radio Talk Show Host
*George Lopez • Entertainer
*Bill Murray • Actor
*Craig T. Nelson • Actor/Producer/Director
*Chris O’Donnell • Actor
*Stone Phillips • Journalist
*Ray Romano • Actor
*Darius Rucker • Musician
*Kelly Slater • World Surfing Champion
*Emmitt Smith • Professional Football Player
*Clay Walker • Entertainer

Farewell, OWL....

I am TOTALLY bummed....

Laura Neal, the writer of "Online with Laura", also affectionately known as "OWL", has left her employment with the LPGA, and her article at LPGA.com will now be called "The LPGA Insider".

Laura's wit, talent and spirit was a HUGE attraction to LPGA.com, and whoever takes over for her has a HUGE set of shoes to fill...

As usual, the article gave no indication about where Laura's new home will be, or why she was leaving, but her articles for the last three years have been a guaranteed laugh (or tear, sometimes), and she's an amazingly talented writer.

Since they didn't allow a forwarding address, GOOD LUCK to you Laura in whatever you choose to pursue, and THANK YOU for brightening up our days with your pithy prose....

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....)

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!

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....