Author: George Promenschenkel

The Format for the Rest of Us

Very few of us will ever play in U.S. Open qualifying or any type of “elite” tournament. If you want a chance at glory, the scramble may be just the ticket.

Trap Five LogoThe U.S. Open has been called the most democratic tournament in golf, but you have to carry a 1.4 index or lower just to enter a local qualifying tournament. That eliminates all but one or (maybe) two percent of the golfers out there. No, for most of us, the lowly scramble is the “tournament” we are most likely to play. And that’s OK.

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My (Nearly) Indisputable Truisms of Golf

Here are a few things that I find key to the game of golf… no warranty expressed or implied, your mileage may vary.

Trap Five LogoEarlier this week, I took the first lesson I’ve had in years. As always, it was a slightly unsettling experience to have someone watching and critiquing my swing, but one that I hope will eventually result in more consistency and lower scores. Regardless, it’s definitely got me thinking about the golf swing.

I didn’t take lessons as a kid. I just started hitting balls around, had about ten minutes of instruction from a friend on the high school golf team the first time I played a course, and that was pretty much it for the first 20 years I played. I’ve just experimented on my own and found things that worked (or didn’t). I’ve read golf books and picked up tips from playing partners. Again, some worked, and some went horribly awry. Some of them worked for awhile, and then went horribly awry. It’s a fun game, isn’t it?

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Celebrity Deathmatch: Rory vs. Tiger

It’s the mouth of the South (Africa) versus the world’s most famous Cablinasian.

ProfilesIt’s been almost a year since the last installment of Celebrity Deathmatch, but since things are shaping up in the FedExCup for a possible third mano y mano matchup between Rory Sabbatini and Tiger Wood, it seemed like a perfect matchup for Deathmatch.

I know, Steve Stricker (104,950 points) and K.J. Choi (102,900) are leading the FedExCup standings for the moment, but Woods-Sabbatini have a history extending way back to May and the Wachovia Championship. No offense to Stricker and Choi – both of whom are playing great golf – but who better to revive the Deathmatch with than brash and trash-talking Rory against the world’s number one golfer? First let’s meet the contenders.

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TaylorMade Burns On with TP Fairway, Draw Driver, and XD Irons

TaylorMade rolls out three new ways to “bomb away.”

Bag Drop LogoIt’s only been a few months since TaylorMade dusted off its Burner brand, now separated from the once popular Bubble shaft, and rolled out a of drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids under the Burner flag. Now the “number one driver company in golf” is introducing three additions to the Burner line: a fairway wood for better players, a new draw driver, and game improvement irons.

Like Ping’s G5 (and now G10) and Rapture line, TaylorMade’s club lines are separated more by technology and price rather than being strictly a “tour” line and a “regular Joe” line. TaylorMade’s r7 line is characterized by movable weights and playability (the ability to shape shots), while the Burner line tends toward forgiveness and, generally, lower list prices. While the r7 brand is more established and gets the majority of exposure, both lines get play on the PGA Tour.

Let’s take a look at the additions to the Burner line.

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Five More Things You Might Not Know About the FedEx Cup

It’s here! It’s here! Are you excited? Or just kind of amused like the rest of us.

Trap Five LogoThe FedExCup, aka the “Playoffs,” began this week. Did you notice? Has your office lost productivity this week because of all the trash talk and speculation surrounding your FedExCup pool? No? My office is the same way. Ask folks about the FedExCup and many will counter “Is that a tennis tournament?”

With all of the money the PGA Tour and FedEx have sunk into this event, you’d think there’d be more buzz. But even the guys who make a living on TV talking about golf seem more excited this week about the U.S. Amateur than the “Playoffs.”

Personally, I’ve always thought that the idea of a season-long competition to track the best players on the Tour would be a cool idea. Now that it’s here, the format leaves something to be desired. It’s complex, confusing, and not entirely logical. But we’re stuck with it (this year anyway). So, here are five more things you may or may not have heard about the FedExCup. The original five are here.

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Nine Holes with Rodman Wanamaker

A brief history of the Wanamaker Trophy and the man for which it’s named.

ProfilesOn Sunday when Tiger raised the Wanamaker Trophy, a lot of people around the country might have wondered why it’s called the Wanamaker Trophy and just who or what is a “Wanamaker.” Something about the name “Wanamaker” made me think of Walter Matthau’s character in The Bad News Bears. But a quick Google search revealed that it was Morris Buttermaker who showed up to coach youth baseball with a beer and a cigar in hand – not a Wanamaker.

Though I knew the trophy preceded Matthau’s role by some 60 years, I didn’t know much about the man it was named for or about the history of the trophy itself. Thanks to PGA.com and a handful of other sites, it’s pretty easy to learn more about a very interesting man who helped lay the foundation for golf’s popularity today.

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Five Things You Might not Know About the FedExCup

144 Players. Four Tournaments. One Champion. A whole lot of questions.

Trap Five Logo“If you don’t know what to say, it’s easy to say something derogatory.” That’s a line from Stewart Cink regarding criticism of the FedExCup.

Although the final major of the year is taking place this week, there’s this other reportedly big golf story right around the corner. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to start sorting out this FedExCup deal we’ve been hearing so much about.

By the way, if the PGA Championship is “Glory’s Last Shot,” what does that make the FedExCup? “Glory’s Mulligans?”

When you mention the FedExCup, it seems like people have more questions than answers. How is it going to work? Why do 144 players make the Playoffs? How come Tiger is going to start the playoffs with more points than he’s earned?

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Not the Top Stories from the Women’s British Open

Saint Andrews and the LPGA are in the news. These stories aren’t!

Trap Five LogoStarting yesterday, the women of the LPGA are playing the Ricoh Women’s British Open at The Old Course in St. Andrews for the very first time. The R&A is even going to let them in the clubhouse (gasp!). It’s going to be an interesting week.

The course will play to a par of 73. The seventeenth, the famous “Road Hole,” will play as a par five instead of its usual par four. Ben Crenshaw was once asked why the Road Hole is the toughest par four in the world. “Because it’s a par five,” he said. A 453-yard par five should be reachable, but it has one of the more unusual green complexes in the world.

But the course par and a quirky three-shotter are probably not going to be the only unusual things we’ll see this weekend. That started me thinking about some unusual headlines that we might see (but probably won’t). Read on for my top five list of “not” top stories from the Women’s British Open.

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Nine Roles at the Open Championship

In “Open Championship: The Movie,” here’s who starred and who only got cameos.

ProfilesWatching the 2007 Open Championship was a little like viewing a good action movie. There were heroes getting their teeth kicked in and coming back to win the day. There was comedy and drama. There were plenty of car wrecks and explosions. And at the end of the gauntlet, an evil ogre waited.

You can’t have a good movie without a great cast, so here are my picks for each of the nine leading roles from this year’s Open Championship.

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