Author: George Promenschenkel

Celebrity Deathmatch: Ochoa vs. Sorenstam

The two biggest names in women’s golf top the money list.

ProfilesWe appear to be witnessing a passing of the torch in women’s golf. Come to think of it, it’s more of a snatching of the torch than a genial passing of it.

If you’ve paid any attention to the LPGA over the last three or four years, you’ve probably noticed the steady ascent of Lorena Ochoa. Even as Annika Sorenstam was having a ten-win season in 2005, Ochoa was learning how to stay at the top of a leaderboard. She notched her third win that year (to go with ten top-tens), before really breaking out in 2006-07.

Last year, Ochoa finally won a major, after coming close several times. Now that she can win the big ones, it’s anyone’s guess what kind of record she will end up with at the end of her career… maybe even Annika-like numbers.

What’s really remarkable about these two women is how much they have in common. Their dominance respectively began roughly 10 years apart, with Annika’s currently appearing on the wane even as Lorena’s seems to be gaining steam.

Let’s get ready to rumble!

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Lessons Learned from the 2008 Masters

Do you miss the Masters?

Trap Five LogoYou remember the Masters don’t you? Not the quiet recent incarnations, but the raucaus roar-followed-by-roar Sunday back nine versions?

The Masters used to be a lot more fun. A Sunday “charge” was not defined by a player managing even par. Players actually made eagles and birdies to gain ground on guys choking on their leads. It was great!

Today, there are really two majors: the Open Championship and the U.S. Open. The latter just happens to be held three times each year with the first and last being called, respectively, the Masters and the PGA Championship.

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Mizuno MP-600 Driver Review

Will the MP-600 put Mizuno woods on the fast track?

The MP-600 features Fast Track weighting technology.Mizuno has long been known for their forged irons for better players. However, that reputation has largely failed to carry over into the world of woods. Their previous driver offering for low handicappers (the MP-001) had a small, but loyal following (at the range one day, a guy with an MP-001 couldn’t help but come over to check out the MP-600). In fact, only 16 of the nearly 800 Sand Trap forum members who responded to a driver survey, or just over 2%, use a Mizuno driver.

Mizuno makes quality woods, but breaking the mindset of the golfing public can be difficult. To be fair, until this year, Mizuno had not released a new driver since the MX-500, so they’d been out of the limelight. But the fact remains, many golfers don’t even consider Mizuno woods when making a purchase. The MP-600 is here to say maybe they should.

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Favorite Holes at the Masters

What is your favorite hole at Augusta National?

Trap Five LogoIt’s among the most beautiful and exclusive courses in America. Yet everyday golfers feel close to Augusta National because every year we spend a week watching the best players in the world golf their way around a course that 99.9% of us can only ever dream of playing.

Still ask any golfer what his or her favorite golf hole in the world is, and many will still point to a hole they’ve never played, and often never even seen other than on TV. They’ll say #12 at Augusta, Firethorn, the last at the Masters, or any of the other 15 beauties at the National. They are holes that are burned into our memories. They connote spring. They make us smile.

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Nine Holes with the Masters

Nine things to ponder and watch for at the 2008 Masters Tournament.

ProfilesThe Masters Tournament is upon us again, and anticipation is running high. Most of us will spend at least a portion of the Masters sitting in front of our TVs, making many of the same comments we made last year about how pleasing to the eye an immaculately kept golf course is when set against azaleas and pines. We’ll marvel at putts that seem to roll forever. And we’ll dream of seeing the course in person (to play it might be too much to even hope).

It’s not a perfect place, though. Such places don’t exist. At Augusta, there’s the inherent stratification of society made obvious by an elite country club, not to mention issues of color and gender, both past and present.

But for all of that, the tournament is an annual rite of Spring, promising warmer days and brighter skies to those in colder parts of the world. And it’s arguably the most popular tournament of the year.

With all its history and tradition, I’m continually learning new things about the Masters Tournament and Augusta National. For instance, did you know that there’s only one hole on the course that doesn’t feature a bunker? Chinese Fir, #14, is a beachless stretch of perfect turf. Or that the first Masters included four international players: two pros from England, one Canadian, and one English amateur? Did you know that alterations to the course have been taking place for its entire history?

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Nine Holes with Myrtle Beach

We’re approaching peak golf trip season. For many of us, that means Myrtle Beach and its plethora of golf courses.

ProfilesTo many American and Canadian golfers, the words “golf trip” are virtually synonymous with Myrtle Beach. Though the total number of open courses, by my count, has now dipped just below 100 due to a number of closings over the last decade, there is still plenty of variety and quality golf to be had.

Sure, I’m personifying Myrtle Beach by putting it in ProFiles, but it is almost like a friend (or antagonist at times). We spend much of the year dreaming of a few days spent golfing our brains out with a motley collection of characters we call our golfing buddies. If you’ve been on a golf trip to Myrtle Beach, you can probably relate. If you haven’t you’ll probably recognize bits of your own golf trip in the hints and observations below.

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Sure Signs of Spring

Take heart all you golfers in the northern parts of the world. Spring is just about here.

Trap Five LogoWe got 20 inches of snow last weekend. No worries. I can feel golf season just about ready to bust out all over the northern hemisphere.

March Madness is about to tip off, the stores are filled with pastel Peeps and Paas in antipation of Easter, and one of these days (soon I hope) the snow is going to be gone. Winter is getting its last gasps in around here, and it’s about time. We’ve been dreaming about golf for far too long. It’s time to get out in the mud and hit some balls!

So with only slight apologies to those of you who live in warmer areas of the world and have been golfing all year, and more heartfelt apologies to those in the southern hemisphere (who are about to enter into autumn), signs of spring are popping up all over around here.

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Mike Strantz

Golf’s maverick designer passed in 2005, but his courses live on.

ProfilesIn the past six months, I’ve had the opportunity to play one third of architect Mike Strantz’s golf courses. That may sound like an impressive total, but because he died much too early, at age 50, his portfolio is limited to nine courses. But if the three I’ve played are representative of his work, Mike Strantz was indeed an artist of golf course design.

Mike Strantz was raised in Toledo, OH, and attended Michigan State University. After graduating in 1978, he returned to Toledo to work for Tom Fazio, who was then preparing the Inverness Club to host the 1979 U.S. Open. Strantz continued to work for Fazio for the next eight years, honing his skills on courses like Moss Creek Plantation in Hilton Head, the Links and Harbor courses at Wild Dunes near Charleston, Lake Nona in Orlando, Osprey Point on Kiawah Island, and Black Diamond Ranch in Florida.

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Nine Holes with Henrik Stenson

What’s in the water in Sweden?

ProfilesHave you noticed how many Swedish golfers are in contention these days? Jesper Parnevik (who has been showing signs lately of getting his game back) is the volcano-dust eating, wafer-thin leader of the crew. Then there’s Helen Alfredsson, Daniel Chopra, Niclas Fasth, Mathias Grönberg, Sophie Gustafson, Maria Hjorth, Fredrik Jacobson, Per-Ulrik Johansson, Richard S. Johnson, Robert Karlsson, Carin Koch, Liselotte Neumann, Carl Pettersson, Jarmo Sandelin, Louise Stahle – to name a few of the more famous – and naturally, Annika Sorenstam – the most famous.

If you spend much time watching Golf Central, you probably recognize most if not all of these 17 names. There are several other notable Swedish golfers, but there’s one in particular that is emerging as one of the top golfers in the world…

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