Episode 002

The Tour Championship, Phil Mickelson’s decision not to play in it, the legs on the ladies of the Big Break III (and why IV is such a snore), Jeff’s hole in one, and much more!

PodcastWe’re happy to announce that the second episode of our podcast is now available. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 002 as an MP3 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.

Linda Warnshuis, Tournament Director for Lake Erie Charity Classic

Linda Warnshuis is the Tournament Director for the Nationwide Tour’s Lake Erie Charity Classic. Hear her thoughts on Jason Gore, Kip Henley, and running a small-market Nationwide Tour event.

Throwing Darts TitleToday’s interview is with Linda J. Warnshuis, Tournament Director for the Lake Erie Charity Classic. Her responsibilities included day-to-day operations of the tournament, from sponsorship, organization, operations, volunteers and liaison with the PGA Tour and The Golf Channel. The Lake Erie Charity Classic is held at the Peek’n Peak Resort in western New York which gives guests the opportunity to watch professional golf while still enjoying the amenities of the resort has to offer.

Jason Bohn

Jason Bohn jumped from 131st on the money list in 2004 to 34th in 2005. He’s going to have to buckle down to stick around after the 2006 season is over.

ProFilesWhen Jason Bohn was seven years old he dreamed of winning on the PGA Tour. For the first thirty-odd years of his life he pursued that goal but failed to attain it. He had spent years on mini-tours, on the Canadian Tour, and Nationwide Tour chasing that dream but it had eluded him. After a long struggle he earned his card in 2003 by finishing 9th on the Nationwide money list. In the process he won the Chattanooga Classic by posting a 263, a new tournament record.

Top 30 – In Numbers

The top 30 golfers on tour this year have fit right into the mold of previous findings and research. Greens in Regulation continues to be the leading factor in earnings.

The Numbers GameSo my picks were a bit off last week. Choi withdrew and well, I won’t go into the rest. It was a great week of golf though, with a couple of big moves made by Chad Campbell and Tim Herron. At least I was right about the number of players that would drop out. Two guys, Ogilvy and Maruyama, were the unfortunate ones.

Now that we have the top 30 I wanted to look a little further into who these players are. Earlier this year I went into great detail about Greens in Regulation (GIR), Putting Average (PA), and other statistics. I wanted to see where the top players stood in each and if the same trends we found earlier still held up. Let’s have a look…

Mizuno Classic Preview

Annika Sorenstam defends her trophy once again at the Mizuno Classic. Although the competition is stiff, American viewers will once again be left out in the cold.

LPGA logoAnother week of golf in Asia, this week in Japan, and relatively little news coverage. Again the LPGA has scarce knowledge on their website about which golfers are playing in the final field and who will be competing against the multi-talented Annika Sorenstam.

Most of the golfers who played last week at the CJ Nine Bridges Classic will fly here to Japan but this story should certainly focus a bit on the number-one golfer in the world because she just might win this tournament a record fifth time!

A fifth consecutive victory for Sorenstam would set a record not only on the LPGA tour but on the PGA tour as well! Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen are among the few who can lay claim to such an extraordinary defense. It would be nice to see a woman take top honors as well.

Live Blogging Tim Finchem’s Speech

We’re live blogging Tim Finchem’s speech on the changes coming to the PGA Tour season in 2007.

PGA TourPGA Tour.com is carrying a RealAudio stream of Tim Finchem’s announcement (see previous coverage here), so we’re going to do something a little different: live blog it.

10:05 – Someone can’t figure out how to use the microphone, as it’s on. We are treated to interesting talk about how we’re going to leave the A/C off until Tim is done with his talk.

10:08 – Casually late, Tim eases into his speech.

10:10 – Tim says “we’re not gonna talk about the details of our schedule today.” Someone in the back groans.

10:15 – Tim, despite saying we’re not going to talk about it, talks about it. Details include:

  • “If you consider that we don’t have a strong finish like in other sports, or a playoff system, we wanted to create one.”
  • “And you want to create a dramatic finish with a year-long points competition.”
  • “… on better courses and with better fields…”
  • “… and a real season…”
  • “January-through-September, based on points structure to be determined.”
  • “FedEx will be the sponsor of the ‘FedEx Cup’.”

Tour Championship Preview

The top-30 golfers on the PGA Tour money list head to East Lake Golf Club this week.

tour_championship_logo.gifThe field for the Tour Championship is small, but the prize money is awesome. The best players on the PGA Tour battle it out all year to make it into the top-30 on the money list, and the Tour Championship is their reward for doing so. The field this week will be playing for an overall purse of $6 million, with a little over a million going to the winner. The golf courses selected for this event are always respectable, and this week is no different. East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA has become the permanent home for the Tour Championship.

2005 Year in Review

The year 2005 has had its fair share of ups, downs, and everything in between.

Thrash TalkWith the Tour Championship on the horizon this week, the 2005 PGA Tour season is quickly coming to an end. The top golfers on tour will do all kinds of different things in preparation for next season. Some will play in charity events, skins games, etc. Others will simply use their free time to work on their golf games and spend much-needed time with family.

Volume Thirty-Three

Anyone want their linky-poo’s for this week?

Hittin' the LinksI packed my clubs up this past week and have been getting ready to retire for the season. A couple things I like to do is give them one last cleaning, new grips and unload any equipment that has treated me bad that year. I also come up with a few things to work on over the winter (i.e., fitness or mental). This year, I want to improve my posture over the ball and my core strength. Does anyone else have off-season goals?

Leave them in the comments. It’s links time.