Fairways to Heaven

Here’s a great game from Chi Chi Rodriguez that requires accuracy, timing, and the ability to handle pressure.

Here’s a great game from Chi Chi Rodriguez’s book, Chi Chi’s Golf Games You Gotta Play that will help you focus on hitting the ball in the fairway. It requires accuracy and timing and features a little bit of pressure to boot. The game is called “Fairways to Heaven.”

In this game, each player antes up a predetermined wager on the par 4s and 5s. Bet a quarter, a dollar, whatever’s comfortable. The order of play is determined and followed for the entire round, and a different golfer is “on the spot” on each hole. If that player hits the fairway, he collects the money in the pot. If he misses, the pot carries over and new bets are added on the next hole.

If your course has 14 par 4s and 5s, then each player gets three shots to win the pot. The last two driving holes should be played as a team: players 1 and 2 on the thirteenth driving hole, players 3 and 4 on the fourteenth. Play “both must hit the fairway” or “if either hits the fairway” depending on your level of skill.

Singh-ing Again

Vijay Singh holds a two-stroke lead over lefty Canuck Mike Weir going into the third round of the Mercedes Championships.

SinghVijay Singh holds a two-stroke lead over lefty Canuck Mike Weir going into the third round of the Mercedes Championships. Weird pulled to second place with a blistering 10-under par 63 in the second round. Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, and Tiger Woods remain within five shots.

Singh opened his round by going six under through seven holes, then cruised to finish the round eight under at 65. “He shows no signs of slowing down,” said Weir. “It’s just a given he’s going to be there.”

Woods, currently at -10 and five strokes back, would be leading the tournament if he could figure out the grainy Hawaiian greens. On Friday, he missed three straight birdie chances from inside of eight feet on the front nine and three-putted for par on 18 from 35 feet. As noted here, Woods also missed eight birdie chances inside of 18 feet on Thursday.

Pos.  Player          Total     R1   R2   R3   R4  Total
1     Vijay Singh      -15      66   65    -    -   131
2     Mike Weir        -13      70   63    -    -   133
3     Ernie Els        -12      69   65    -    -   134
T4    Jonathan Kaye    -11      68   67    -    -   135
T4    Sergio Garcia    -11      68   67    -    -   135
T6    Chad Campbell    -10      69   67    -    -   136
T6    Tiger Woods      -10      68   68    -    -   136
T6    Stewart Cink     -10      68   68    -    -   136

Coverage continues on ESPN at 7pm ET both Saturday and Sunday.

Bad Balance? Here’s a Quarter

Do you play golf like you’ve just walked out of a bar after slammin’ back a twelve pack? In other words, how’s your balance?

Do you play golf like you’ve just walked out of a bar after slammin’ back a twelve pack? In other words, how’s your balance? Poor balance is one of the most common problems in amateur golfers. If you can’t stay balanced, you’re not going to play consistent golf.

Here’s a trick to teach you to stay a bit better balanced: put a quarter on the toe of your left shoe (for righties). Swing while keeping the coin there. After your swing, have a look at the coin. Still there? Good. Fell of? No good.

If the coin falls to the inside of your foot, you’ve probably rolled your front foot on your backswing. You’re shifting too much weight, making it difficult to move forward through the swing. If the coin’s fallen outside of your feet, you’ve rolled too far to the outside or towards your heel on your downswing and finish.

And that’s the best advice you can get for a quarter.

Ty Votaw to Step Down After 2005

After seven years, Ty Votaw, president of the LPGA has decided to retire after the 2005 season.

Ty VotawThe commissioner of the LPGA tour, Ty Votaw has announced today that he will resign after the 2005 season. Votaw has been the commissioner of the LPGA tour for the past seven years. During his tenure, the tour has seen unprecedented growth. Before Votaw, the average purse of an LPGA tour event was $840,000 and only 12 tournaments had total purses of over $1 million. Now, the LPGA has 30 tournaments with total purses over $1 million and the average tournament purse has risen to $1.4 million. Votaw’s decision came as a surprise to many, considering the popularity of the LPGA with superstars like Annika Sorenstam and no shortage of talent from youngsters like Paula Creamer. Still, Votaw has decided to leave on top, “I feel very much at peace with this decision. I feel very good about having given the LPGA everything I’ve got, and I feel good about the results.”

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Vijay Still Hot at Mercedes

Vijay Singh leads by one after the first round of the Mercedes Championships.

Some things never change. Or at least it doesn’t look like things are changing yet. After Vijay Singh’s record setting year in 2004, he continues his hot play by firing a bogey-free 7-under 66 in the first round at the season-opening Mercedes Championships. After birdies at holes 3 and 5, Vijay shot up the leaderboard thanks to short birdie putts on 10, 11 and 12, then added two more at 15 and 16 to take a one-shot lead over Craig Parry.

Just behind those two standouts lurks groups of people at -5 (Stewart Cink, Tiger Woods, Jonathan Kaye) and an even larger group at -4 (Bart Bryant, Vaughn Taylor, Woody Austin, Steve Flesch, Chad Campbell, Adam Scott, Health Slocum and Ernie Els).

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What Will Phil Do Next? Write a Book!

Phil Mickelson has authored a book called One Magical Sunday: But Winning Isn’t Everything which will be released April, 2005.

Phil MickelsonDetails are still pretty sketchy right now, but a quick search on Amazon.com for Phil Mickelson turns up a book titled One Magical Sunday: But Winning Isn’t Everything. Golf fans shouldn’t have to scratch their heads for too long before realizing that the book has something to do with Mickelson’s dramatic win at Augusta National. Phil fans will have to wait a few months though, the book is slated to be released on April 4, 2005. The authors are listed as Phil Mickelson and Donald T. Phillips who is famous for his On Leadership series of books which discuss prominent historical figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln. Phil already has so many titles under his belt: golfer, Ford pitch-man, wanna-be pitcher. Will he be able to add legitimate author to his resume? We shall see.

Shape your Swing with your Head

Can your shot shape be determined by the eye with which you watch the ball? You bet!

We’ve all seen Jack Nicklaus tilt his head just before starting his backswing. He’d cock it to the side a little, looking at the ball out of his left eye a little more so than out of his right.

It’s a relatively simple trick that can have a massive impact on your game. Looking at the ball out of your left eye (for right-handed golfers) forces the shoulders closed a little. Looking at the ball out of your right eye forces the shoulders open a little. Thus: look out of your left eye for a more inside-to-outside swing (draw or hook) and out of your right eye for an outside-to-in swing path (fade or slice).

I’ve personally used this drill to affect the shapes of my shots. The changes it makes to your swing are natural and need not be thought about while “the machine is in motion,” yielding consistent results. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

Big Break III – Women in Williamsburg

BBIII is almost upon us; go over to about.com and learn a bit about the contestants for the Ladies Only installment of our favorite reality game show.

Big Break III's Danielle AimeeWith Big Break II wrapped and finished, The Golf Channel is preparing to air the next round of challenges and episodes of the Big Break series: Big Break III. After watching the season premier of Alias (mmm… Jennifer Garner…) last night, this is the perfect time to catch my attention with a photo montage of the BBIII contestants over at about.com.

And, best of all BBIII was filmed in Williamsburg at Kingsmill Resort; as much as I can, I’ll try to provide some local insight into the course and the area. Kingsmill also hosts the Michelob Ultra Open, where the winner of BBIII will earn an exemption.

The Big Break III: Ladies Only premiers on February 8 on The Golf Channel.

Free Two-Week TOUR Pass

TOURCast is offering a two-week special promotion. We think…

TOURCastI’m a TOUR Pass subscriber (hey, it was on sale!), and today I got an email that says:

For the next two weeks, PGATOUR.COM will be running an early-season free access promotion of TOUR Pass.

Currently, the TOURCast site mentions the 20% off annual pass ($59.95 down to $47.95), but no mention of the free pass. If you can find the two-week free trial, well, congratulations.

For those of you on Mac OS X, TOURCast runs only in Internet Explorer. Safari, Firefox, iCab, OmniWeb, and Camino all fail. Some pop up an empty window, others load empty regular TOURCast pages, and all manner of anomalies. Only Internet Explorer – a browser that has not been substantially updated within the last four or five years – works.