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...