Nine Holes With Scott Verplank

While not the flashiest, Verplank is one of the Tour’s steadiest players who’s gotten off to another great start to the 2006 season. Look for his work ethic and solid game to continue to deliver high finishes for years to come.

ProFilesScott Verplank is another player we amateurs would do well to emulate. Hitting more than his share of fairways, putting like a man possessed, and doing it a most nonchalant fashion is what makes Verplank a dark horse in any tournament. Recipient of the 2002 Ben Hogan Award, Verplank has proven that he’s a fighter. Given by the Golf Writer Association of America, the Ben Hogan Award recognizes athletes who have remained active golfers despite a physical handicap or illness.

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Palmer, Nicklaus Speak Out Against Augusta Alterations

Arnie and The Golden Bear finally speak out against Hootie’s Augusta renovations.

Following retirement from the world of competitive golf after winning The Grand Slam, Bobby Jones entertained the idea of starting a private golf club. We all know that Bobby eventually decided to build the course that would become Augusta National Golf Club. Bobby worked intimately with legendary course architect Alister Mackenzie to create his “ideal” golf course.

Bob firmly believed that the game of golf revolved around the second shot – evidenced by the fact that when Augusta National debuted, it featured over eighty acres of fairway (more than twice as much as the average course of the day). Also notable was the fact that Jones demanded to design the course so that it would remain playable for both highly skilled golfers and those less gifted.

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Eight Winners by the Numbers

We’ve had eight winners on tour so far and they have been a variety of players… some long, some short. Some people have focused in on one type of player and ignored the rest. The numbers of all eight show us that things really haven’t changed.

The Numbers GameEight tournaments up and eight tournaments down. We’ve had a long hitter (JB Holmes) win at the FBR and a few not-so-long hitters (David Toms, Arron Obelholser) win at Waialae and Pebble Beach. Another thing we’ve also had is a lot of talk, discussion and consternation in our forums and from an old friend.

I’ve taken each winner’s numbers and see if they agree with one side or the other… or even both. Read on to see what it says.

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Technology, Tradition, and ‘The Facts’

If you want to get people riled up, try using “technology” and “tradition” in the same golf conversation.

TitleistLast week, Titleist posted an opinion piece on the brand’s website on the ever-contentious subject of technology vs. tradition. Geoff Shackelford responded with point-by-point dissent, which touched off a flame war of comments, and another story on sportsfanmagazine.com has covered some of the same ground.

Shackelford’s piece and the companion piece on sportsfanmagazine.com both claim to be rooted in “the facts.” There are plenty of opinions in both, but actual facts are hard to come by. Let’s take a closer look.

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2006 Ford Championship at Doral Preview

Will 2006 bring as much fireworks and ratings as 2005 did? With the top seven players in the world duking it out at The Blue Monster, we can only hope.

Ford Championship at DoralWow, how time flies! Last year’s Ford Championship at Doral made numerous headlines, from the IMG memo, Tiger and Phil going head to head, Tiger setting the 72-hole tournament record with a 24-under par 264 and Tiger regaining his number one position in the World Golf Rankings.

The fans are anticipating another great event and they shouldn’t be disappointed. The event is treated almost major like by the players and fans for the degree of difficulty in the course and the quality of the field. In fact, this is the first stroke-play event this year that we get to see the top seven players in the world in the same field.

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Match Play Madness

The Accenture Match Play Championship once again showed golf fans that rankings don’t really matter.

Thrash TalkCollege basketball has March Madness, which happens to be one of my favorite times of the year as a sports fan. Golf fans get the Accenture Match Play Championship a month earlier than its basketball counterpart, and it has quickly turned into one of my favorite events of the golf season. I’ve showed my support for the World Golf Championship events before, but I want to take this opportunity to do it again. The WGC events get two thumbs up from me!

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Golf Gods Launches New Site

Golf Gods .com is now all new. Check out the site and enter to win a Pinseeker Tournament Edition laser rangefinder.

Golf Gods LogoIn the 90s, the founders of Golfgods.com were among the first and best known of the Internet golf pro shops. Known mainly for their catchy name and for their “hot smoking deals” on golf equipment, Golfgods was a pioneer in the modern-day phenomena of “search engine marketing.”

This morning at 12:00 a.m. C.S.T. Golfgods launched a freshly re-designed web-based retail shop. The new site is a fresh look for the Minnesota-based retailer of golf equipment and a radical-change from their previous Yahoo-store. The site features many add-ons compared to the old site including tabbed product sections, brand stores, electronic buying guides which were written by the staff of The Sand Trap .com and a streamlined check-out process. The site is located at golfgods.com.

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Cobra Strikes Quickly in Tour Return

Cobra’s return to tour prominence is getting a boost from some hot young players.

Bag DropIn the mid-90s, Cobra Golf was one of the hottest brands at retail and on Tour. Greg Norman was the face of the brand, and even a youngster named Tiger Woods used a King Cobra steel driver during his first years on Tour.

After several years away from sponsoring Tour players, Cobra is back on Tour in a big way. Bomber JB Holmes won the FBR Open, and Geoff Olgilvy downed Davis Love III to win the Accenture Match Play. Pretty slick start for the snake. How’d they do it?

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Volume Forty-Eight

With some big shoes to fill, this volume gets it started off right.

Hittin the LinksWe can all agree that Josh did a great job with this column and since this is an interim issue of “Hittin’ The Links” (before Matt takes over), I think its time to show you some garbage I’ve been lookin’ at for a while – things I’ve found interesting or things I just thought noteworthy.

Let’s get started.

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