Tiger’s Still Streaking

When and where will Tiger’s win streak end?

Thrash TalkTiger Woods is taking the golf world by storm yet again. To put things in perspective, Woods hasn’t lost a tournament he has entered since the Deutsche Bank Championship last September. Phil Mickelson outlasted the world’s number one golfer that day, but nobody has been able to stop him since. That’s a win streak in excess of six months for crying out loud!

With The Masters on the horizon, the talk of Tiger’s win streak is dominating the golf headlines for good reason. It’s a pretty safe bet Woods won’t win every tournament he enters for the rest of his career, so the win streak has to end at some point. When and where that happens is worth looking into, and that’s what I’ll attempt to do in this week’s article.

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Golf Talk [Episode 081]

1 in 150 children are born with autism, and Ben Els is sadly one of them.

Golf Talk PodcastCink sinks again, and O’Hair has two good weeks, nabbing a win and a top 10. But Tiger’s the story again as he wins at Bay Hill. Also this week: Tripp Isenhour the jerk, John Daly the jerk, and Ernie Els makes a confession about his son in this week’s Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 081 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

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Getting Ready for Spring

Spring is right around the corner! Are you ready for some golf?

Bag DropI’m doing something a bit different this week for The Bag Drop (don’t worry, we’ll get back to introducing you to new clubs next week!) and instead focusing on a great event that is coming up for those of us who live in the northern part of the United States.

That’s right, golf season is right around the corner. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for those of us who’s cabin fever is driving them (and our spouses) nuts. George highlighted a few items last week and that got me thinking about what I need to do in order to hit the ground running for the fast approaching golf season.

Hopefully some of the items below will help you out a little bit in getting ready or serve as a reminder that you should start preparing today.

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Volume One Hundred Thirty Seven

Would someone please help Mr. Daly to his room!

Hittin' the Links What a week in the golf world, and Hittin’ the Links is here to try and keep you informed. In addition, I have included a couple of links to some of the new equipment out this year so all you equipment people out there can start your spring shopping lists.

In this volume we take a hard look at what is left of John Daly after his week from Hell, see why Ernie Els is tired, and what the heck is Ian Poulter talking about? Also, we investigate my pick for the coolest new golf gadget, peruse a buyers guide for junior golf clubs, look at some golf vacation spots, and see if Tiger can win again. Read on!

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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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Scoring vs. Skill on the PGA Tour

Do Scoring and Skill statistics align on the PGA Tour, or are they just one of many factors?

The Numbers GameWell, we’re barely into the 2008 season on the PGA Tour, but the statistics collected already tell many different stories. For those of you who are at least mildly interested in statistics, if you’ve never visited the stats section of PGATour.com, you should. The dropdown menus of ad hoc reports available to anyone with a laptop and WiFi connection is fantastic! And I’m sure with some mid to high level ‘tech’ skills it would be easy to use a report writer software tool to push, pull, and twist data from existing reports to create your own.

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TaylorMade Launches Tour Burner Driver, Irons, and More

TaylorMade has a new driver with 1,071 sets of different launch conditions to choose from. Ouch, my head is starting to hurt.

Bag DropThere have been a ton of new clubs released in the past few months, and the folks at TaylorMade are jumping into the fray as they have a couple of new drivers, new irons, and a new wedge coming out just in time for spring.

I was able to take a closer look at several of the new offerings while attending the Minnesota Golf Show last month and I think TaylorMade has some pretty nice clubs coming out. I’m looking forward to see if any of their new offerings will knock out my golf bag’s current occupants.

So come along as we check out what TaylorMade has to offer.

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Volume One Hundred Thirty Six

Are you ready for spring?

Hittin' the Links Hello and good day to you from Hittin’ the Links. I fear I spoke of Spring too soon in last week’s column as Mother Nature dealt us a healthy dose of winter weather soon after. Either way those warmer temperatures get closer every day.

With the season just around the corner I have compiled a few links in this edition with a preseason feel to them. It’s not too late to start a spring ritual that will ultimately pay off by season’s end. Plus, many of us have that winter spare tire we could stand to lose.

In this edition of Hittin’ the Links we look at everything healthy, including The Titleist Performance Institute, see what you can do to get those clubs in proper order, and investigate a few other things that can be done to get ready for Spring. In addition, we check out grips on the PGA Tour, try and figure out what’s wrong with Arron Oberholser, spy on where Tiger will be practicing next season, see who is in trouble with the law, and check in on the tournament winners.

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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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