Category: Tap-Ins

Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods’ former instructor, is starting a souther Nevada developmental mini-tour. The “Butch Harmon Golf Tour” will begin in June 2005 and run for sixteen (16) weeks at courses in and around Las Vegas.

Harmon plans to offer $3.2 million in tour prize money: a $175,000 purse for each of the 15 weekly events and a $600,000 purse for the tour championship. Players are going to be asked to pay a $25,000 entry fee, and the top 40 money winners will qualify for the tour championship.

It sounds to us like Butch is short on sponsors and long on hope. Q-School costs $4,500. $25,000 is a lot of scratch. Personally, we think ol’ Butchie has been watching too much of The Big Break II.

There’s a new golf magazine out there, if you’re into that sort of thing: Golf Punk labels itself as an “alternative” golf magazine, with hot chicks, tattoos, and a bunch of other “in your face” type of coverage. Your grandfather’s Golf Digest this is not.

We just like the hot babes (that’s two separate links, folks). We don’t like the cost (£21 for Europe to £42 for the rest of the world).

Edward S. Stimpson, the 1935 Massachusetts Amateur champion, devised a device to measure the speed of a golf green, over sixty years ago. The result of his efforts was the Stimpmeter.

The Stimpmeter was first used at the U.S. Open in 1977. Once a ball travels down the contraption, it will hit a speed of about 6.00 ft/s. The distance the ball travels is called “the stimp speed”. A stimp speed of 11½ means the ball has rolled 11½ feet. An average speed on your local muni hovers around 6½, while the fastest reading recorded was a 14 at the 1981 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

How fast is 14? Take your Titleist to the nearest sidewalk and putt a few.

Do you think a hole-in-one would make a bad round great? How about two? At the Liberty Lake Golf Course in Spokane, WA, Chris Varallo hit a 7-iron on the 143 yard third hole and one-hopped it into the hole for the first hole in one. Eight holes later, took 8-iron 140 yards to again one-hop it for the second hole-in-one of the round.

“The first one was pretty amazing,” said Varallo, 31. “But after the second, everyone was in utter disbelief. Other people on the course heard the screaming and were coming over to see what had happened.”

“He did fall apart a little more than usual after that second one,” said Dave Knutson, a member of his foursome who works with Varallo. “But he’s a hack. Even leading up to it, his scorecard read something like 8-7-1-6-7-9 … I mean, I don’t know how it could have happened. Both of them were good-looking shots. In fact, they were almost identical — same trajectory with a little fade. And both of them were one hop and plunk!”

Varallo, an attorney with a 22 handicap, finished his round at 31 strokes over par for a 101.

Both John Kerry and George W. Bush were asked the same question: If you could play one game of anything you wanted against your opponent, what would it be?

Kerry: Tennis or horseshoes. What do they play up there in Kennebunkport? I don’t know?

Bush: With my opponent? I guess it would be golf on a beautiful golf course, kind of a nice warm afternoon to just be able to walk down the fairway hitting the golf balls, but not too often, and just reminiscing about the 2004 campaign.

Cast your votes today, folks.

If you took dead aim and recorded a hole-in-one, you can register your ace at PGA.com and bask in your own glory. Enter your details for the world to see, or poke fun at. For example, this fine lady used her trusty driver to conquer the monstrous sixty-yard par 3 in 2001.

Ahh, who am I kidding. I’m just annoyed that Tiger bagged his first ace when he was six, and I’m still hoping.

There are two kinds of rules: rules governing play and rules governing conduct. Golf may be the only sport to include a section on player conduct in the official rules. These rules of etiquette are as important to enjoying an afternoon golfing with three friends as the rules of play are to playing the game correctly.

In other words, proper etiquette is as much a part of the game as knowing what to do when your ball gets stuck in a tree. Newcomers typically learn the rules of etiquette as they go, but we’re happy to offer the crash course in on-course etiquette.

Continue reading “Etiquette: Golf’s Order”

First Dilbert had a golf cartoon, and now Wizard of Id and B.C. have joined the fray:

You can’t laugh at yourself (or your sport of choice) enough, I say!

This relates to golf, I promise. 🙂 But here’s a little quiz for you…

In 1923, who was…

1. President of the largest steel company?
2. President of the largest gas company?
3. President of the New York Stock Exchange?
4. Greatest wheat speculator?
5. President of the Bank of International Settlement?
6. Great Bear of Wall Street?

These men were considered some of the worlds most successful of their days.

Now, 80 years later, the history book asks us, if we know what ultimately became of them.

Continue reading “Work”