Speeding Up Play, Part 1 of 2

Slow play drives everyone nuts, but everyone is responsible for slow play. Odds are, there are ways you too could speed up your play.

Trap Five LogoRory Sabbatini was vilified this year for putting on a display of intolerance towards the slow play of a fellow PGA Tour player. This site even labeled him Jackass of the Week for his rude behavior towards Ben Crane, a notoriously slow player.

Who knows how Rory would have behaved playing behind that same dreadful foursome playing ahead of you every Saturday. Would he have driven over their heads? Hit onto the green while they were putting out? Or just skipped the hole and moved in front of them?

A round of golf should not take five hours to complete, despite what you may tell your significant others. This week’s top five list: the top five ways to speed up play. In fact, it’s part one of two.

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Throwing Darts Takes Aim!

Learn about the people that make the golf world go round.

Throwing Darts TitleProfessional golfers get all the glory. They are the ones written about and watched weekly on television. We know their names, their stats, their ups and downs. But what about the people who operate behind the scenes? It’s not often that we get a peek into the daily lives of those who have chosen a career in the golf industry.

Every Saturday, this column – an interview column – will bring you insightful talks with the folks who grind it out daily in a golf-related job. Whether it is a course superintendent of a local country club or the head of a major corporation I hope to be able to delve into the lives of those who make a difference but are rarely in the public eye. These people help make the golf world go round and that’s why it’s important to know a little more about their lives and daily duties. Just like anyone it would be nice to give them a little recognition or a simple “thank you” the next time you run into these people.

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Morgan Pressel

Morgan Pressel is sure to be a part of an exciting group of women golfers in the coming years.

ProFilesIt is hard to understand what life must be like for someone like Morgan Pressel. We’ve watched her successful young career since she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 12 and the media and fan attention have become second nature to her. “You’ve still got to stay a kid as long as you can be a kid,” Pressel said in the days around the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open. “You’ve got to have a golf life, or whatever your sport life is, and you’ve got to have a normal life, too. Time to have friends and stuff.”

Fast foreword to 2005 and Pressel is on the verge of entering the professional golf ranks. Adulthood is approaching at a rapid rate as she moves toward her goal of professional competition.

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TaylorMade Rescue Dual/TP Review

TaylorMade’s Rescue Mid was a good club. Can the addition of movable weights vault the Rescue to “must-own” territory?

Taylormade Rescue Dual TPThe hybrid. In today’s world, we have hybrid cars, hybrid plants and animals, and hybrid golf clubs. Which you choose to care about most is a matter of your personal, political, and playtime preferences. But here at The Sand Trap, we care about the golf clubs.

Though many can claim to have created the first hybrid (our money is on Cobra’s Baffler from 20+ years ago), some of the first to get some serious ink started showing up in 2003 and 2004. TaylorMade found that it had one of the more successful hybrids when it released the Rescue Mid in late 2003/early 2004.

What, then, is TaylorMade to do with the follow-up to a verified hit? Why, the same thing they do to everything else: add movable weights to it! 2005 saw the introduction of the “Rescue Dual” where “dual” means two movable weights. What’d we think? Read on…

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Skill Ratings

How can you rate skills? PGATour.com tried recently but it doesn’t make sense. Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting can and should be measured differently.

The Numbers GameI’m still a little disturbed. This has nothing to do with last week, but something our editor passed to me recently. Thanks Erik, I appreciate it.

It has to do with a little graph at the PGA Tour’s Presidents Cup player information website. Hopefully you will see what is wrong with it. If not, well, even if you can read my take and agree or disagree.

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Sorenstam takes the Trump Challenge

Annika Sorenstam returns to defend her Office Depot Championship title against the top 144 golfers on the LPGA tour.

office_depot_logo.jpg“The Donald” will be unveiling his spectacular golf facility this week as he welcomes the LPGA to Trump National Golf CLub Los Angeles for the Office Depot Championship.

Annika Sorenstam is back in the spotlight for another title defense and perhaps to win a share of the $1.3 million dollar purse. The good news is that Sorenstam has won this event on three occasions and has also been victorious defending her trophies in three out of four events this year.

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Chrysler Classic of Greensboro Preview

A couple young guns lead the field this week in Greensboro.

Chrysler Classic of Greensboro LogoThe Presidents Cup is in the past, and it’s time to move towards the Tour Championship in November. This week, the PGA Tour heads to Greensboro for the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. The field won’t be nearly as strong as it usually is, but there are still a few young superstars ready to tee it up on Thursday. Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott will be playing this week, and the two are ranked sixth and seventh in the world, respectively.

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Presidents Cup Gets Two Thumbs Up

The Presidents Cup stepped up to the plate and hit a home run this past weekend.

Thrash TalkThe only things I heard last week about the Presidents Cup was the constant talk of the event being the “Ryder Cup wannabe.” I could care less about all the talk because the Presidents Cup is one of my favorite events in all of golf. The last time the event was played, it ended in a 17-17 tie, and that gave the critics a bigger excuse to moan and groan. Well, the 2005 version has come and gone, and the winner wasn’t decided until the birdie putt was holed by Chris DiMarco on the 18th hole in the final pairing at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

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Golf Guys: Who are You?

I’ve noticed no matter what your profession or generation, who you are on the course, is who you are in life.

I’m fortunate enough to play a lot of golf and therefore have a lot of golf buddies: teenagers, seniors, blue collar, white collar, pros and hacks. I’ve noticed no matter what your profession or generation, who you are on the course, is who you are in life.

Now, I’m not talking about how you look, take Snoop Dog or Alice Cooper, if you were to see these guys on the course versus how they are on stage you’d never in a million years imagine them in Sansabelt slacks and plaid sweater vests. Heck you would think you were looking at Payne Stewart, Jesper Parnevik or Fredrik Jacobson.

No, I’m talking about your persona. Let me give you a few examples.

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