Volume One Hundred Thirty Four

Well it’s official: Tiger is good!

Hittin' the LinksGood day from The Sand Trap and Hittin’ the Links. I don’t mean to gloat but we had glorious weekend weather here. Spring fever is now in full swing. Probably just in time for the next snow storm. Golf season cannot get here fast enough.

Wow, what a weekend of golf. The Accenture Match Play championship delivered the goods, beautiful golf course, great golf, what else could you want? And that Tiger guy, he’s pretty good isn’t he?

In this edition, we take a couple of looks at the Accenture Match Play, check in on the other PGA Tour event south of the border, and also take notice of the rest of the professional tours around the world. In addition, we see who is our next Presidents Cup captain, take a peak at Michelle Wie’s opening weekend, take a glimpse at the state of golf in Cuba, and investigate why Americans are giving up our great game.

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The Dream Season

Some day soon, there will be golf again. Until then I can dream.

Trap Five LogoIt’s dream season here in Ohio. By that I mean the only golf we’re getting to play right now is in our dreams. But it’s also close enough to spring (just over a month away) that we can start thinking about playing. One of these days, the snow is going to melt and the mercury’s going to rise into the 40s, 50s, and (dare we hope?) 60s.

Unlike many years when it’s possible to play at least a few times during the winter, it just hasn’t worked out this year (my wife and I even left the clubs at home on a weekend trip to Florida last month… What were we thinking?). Most of the warmer, dry days this winter have fallen during the work week. On the one or two weekend days that have been playable, I’ve been tied up with other commitments. So, needless to say, now is the winter of my discontent.

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Golf Talk [Episode 078]

Vijay: FAIL! Phil, Annika, and Chambers Bay: FTW!

Golf Talk PodcastVijay Singh tries to get back on track but fails. Phil Mickelson and Annika Sorenstam fare better, winning their first events of 2008. Also this week, Chambers Bay hosting the U.S. Open, a Saturday Cut, Drug Testing, and more in this week’s Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 078 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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ClubGlider Rolls Out for 2008

With the ClubGlider, you can roll through the airport in style and save your back in the process.

Bag DropIf you watched Golf Channel‘s Fore Inventors Only show last year, you would have seen some “interesting” ideas that the contestants were hoping would be “the next big thing.” While some of the ideas were strange, impractical, or just plain stupid in my opinion, there were a few that were of particular interest to me. The ClubGlider belonged among the latter.

ClubGlider inventor Gary Sherrell signed a licensing agreement with Sun Mountain in 2007 to “perfect, manufacture and distribute the ClubGlider golf travel bag.” That’s a pretty sweet gig as Sun Mountain has been around for over 20 years and the Missoula, Montana company has been pretty innovative when it comes to bags, carts, and outerwear. The ClubGlider and Sun Mountain seem like a perfect fit.

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Volume One Hundred Thirty Three

It’s the Big 70 for Sorenstam!

Hittin' the LinksHello and Happy President’s Day from Hittin’ the Links. We hope everyone enjoys their long weekend and gets in an extra round or two. We have again perused the best of the week’s golf stories and brought them to you, packaged neatly for your viewing enjoyment.

In this volume we congratulate Annika on her long awaited 70th tour win, check in on Lefty’s win at Riviera, and see why Hoch seems to be the man to beat in this young Champions tour season. Also on the menu we see why Tiger has upped the standard for young PGA Pros, peruse the Donald’s new $600 million golf complex, take a peak at a golf-ball-gobbling snake, and investigate two of the oddest new golf vacation spots around.

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Modern Marvels

One of golf’s greatest writers hits a common nerve, and Thrash Talk talks back!

Thrash TalkIn his February 8 Globe and Mail Column, virtuoso golf writer Lorne Rubenstein makes an interesting observation about televised golf: there is very little attention paid to architecture.

While I am not sure this characterization is accurate in the literal sense – every telecast of big tournaments I can remember has at least some segment on the course, either with flyovers and commentary, or the omnipresent telestrator commentary – I would certainly agree that compared to, say, swing analysis, golf viewers are indeed starved for good content on architecture. Is there anything to be learned from this sort of thing, other than the difference between tifdwarf bermuda and zoysia? I think there is, although I suspect the expert commentators would reach different conclusions than would I.

Read on to learn what I think you’d be missing.

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Cleveland Golf Launches HiBore XLS Line: Driver, Fairways, and Hybrids

Cleveland Golf comes out with a new sweet spot for their HiBore.

Bag DropThe folks at Cleveland Golf have been quite busy as of late as they have introduced new putters, a couple of new iron sets, as well as the latest incarnation of the HiBore drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids – all within the past month.

The “scooped-out” shape still remains in the HiBore XLS line but new for this year features a higher Moment of Inertia (MOI), more customization options, and even larger heads.

Let’s take a look at version 3.0.

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Volume One Hundred Thirty Two

We have Tiger, so where are all those other guys?

Hittin' the LinksHello and good day to you from Hittin’ the Links. For all you football junkies out there, we know it’s tough trying to kick the pigskin habit when the season ends. Hopefully some golf talk can ease your withdrawal symptoms a touch.

In this volume we make our rounds reporting the winners from around the world, listen in on the European Ryder Cup buzz, and look into who Pat Perez gets to play at the Accenture Match Play. In addition, we take an early peek at the 2015 U.S. Open venue, see what Natalie Gulbis was doing at Pebble Beach, and take inventory on how Els, Mickelson, and Singh ended up this week.

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Ode (and Owed) to a Goat Pasture

Not all of us play on premium-grade, hyper-manicured tracks.

Trap Five LogoMany of us from time to time find ourselves playing courses that are probably more akin to those once played by Scottish shepherds than to those that Tour players trod each week. In short… I’m talking about golf pastures. These courses are the great-unwashed of the golf world – ill kept, underwatered… and dearly loved.

What’s to like about a sub-par course? Plenty.

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