Pavin Pacifies Wife, Plays Vietnam

Former U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin Pavin said his wife’s Vietnamese heritage had a lot to do with his decision to play.

VietnamCorey Pavin will tee it up Thursday in Vietnam for the inaugural Carlsberg Vietnam Masters event on the Asian Tour. Played at the Chi Linh Star Golf & Country Club, about 50 miles outside the capital of Hanoi, Pavin hopes to best about 140 others to win the tournament because, he says, “my wife told me to.” Pavin’s (second) wife and caddie is Vietnamese.

“It’s always fun for me to go to a new place and many of you know that my wife, Lisa, is a Vietnamese,” Pavin told some folks with notepads and pencils. “It’s a great opportunity for us to come here and play in this tournament and after this, we’ll tour the country for 10 days.”

Pavin’s wife will caddie for him in this tournament if her luggage arrives. It failed to ask for directions and was lost along the way. Said Pavin, “She doesn’t help too much on advice, but it’s nice to have her around to just talk.” He later added “The sex at the end of the day ain’t so bad either.”

Vietnamese organizers hope that this event – one in which Corey Pavin is the biggest name – will spur interest in golf. Said Pavin “I’m just hoping that my wife will leave me alone about ‘touring her homeland’ for another few years.”

Of course, much of this report has been made up in an attempt to have some fun with an otherwise boring story. Read the honest truth here.

Finish Well

Your finish is often indicative of your swing: finish well to play well.

Follow ThroughWatch any amateur’s finish and you can probably guess what kind of shot they hit. Watch any amateur’s finish without laughing and friend, you’re a better man than me sometimes! Some folks fall over, step over, and even spin on their spikes!

Though it’s true that you can have a crazy backswing (Jim Furyk) or a crazy finish (Jim Thorpe), it’s not common. The follow-throughs of most pros are tremendous: weight on their left foot, standing straight, club across the back of their shoulders, hands high. If your finishing position doesn’t resemble an ideal one, there are probably errors in your swing. Analyze your follow through to analyze your swing.

P.S. The follow-through to the right? Not ideal. 🙂

Loose Impediments

Dung is not dung, it’s actually a loose impediment…

I own a copy of The Rules of Golf, and let me just say, it is close to impossible for any human (with a life) to know everything packed into this text. Yes, I visit the Rule–a–day website every so often to test my golf acumen, but some of the rules never cease to amaze me.

I know I have to play the ball as it lies, and when to hit a provisional ball, but what I didn’t know is that dung is not dung, it’s actually a loose impediment.

Swing Easy for Long Irons

As a general rule of thumb, swing your long irons easily.

A lot of people try to cream their long irons. This results in poor contact. When good contact is made, it results in excess spin that balloons the ball in the air (or imparts more sidespin). As a general rule of thumb, swing your long irons easily. You’ll make better contact, impart less spin (backspin and sidespin!), and hit more greens or fairways. You rarely see a Tour pro “really go after” a 3I. There’s a reason for that.

Meg Mallon Unmarketable? Gee…

Meg Mallon lacks sponsors and “Golf for Women” writer Sally Jenkins wonders why. Gee, that’s a toughy!

In the September/October issue of “Golf for Women,” Sally Jenkins ponders why Meg Mallon doesn’t have any major sponsors despite her stellar year. I’ll ask the readers one simple question: which of the following would you guess is more marketable?

Meg Natalie Comparison

Instead, Jenkins concludes that Meg simply doesn’t have “it” – that special quality that “makes companies pay a lot of money to put their names on your hat and bag so that your smile and their logos will flash across billboards and TV screens together.” I disagree that Mallon doesn’t have “it” – she does. It’s just that my “it” is “an extra fifty pounds.”

Continue reading “Meg Mallon Unmarketable? Gee…”

Lehman to Captain U.S. Ryder Cup Team

Tom Lehman is expected to be announced as the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup captain tomorrow.

tom_lehman2.jpgGolf World is reporting that Tom Lehman has been selected as the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup captain and will be announced as such Wednesday at Amelia Island where the PGA of America is holding its 86th annual meeting.

The PGA of America has a tradition of selecting captains who fit a certain profile – a major champion in his 40s with Ryder Cup experience. Lehman certainly fits this profile. He is a five-time winner on the PGA Tour including the 1996 British Open and was voted PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996. He made the Ryder Cup three straight times, starting in 1995, compiling a 5-3-2 overall record and a 3-0 singles record.

“I’d be honored if they choose me,” Leman said two weeks ago at the Funai Classic at Disney. “But I don’t think it’s anybody’s place to lobby for that position.”

Presidential Sports

If John Kerry and George W. Bush could play one sport against each other, which would they choose?

Both John Kerry and George W. Bush were asked the same question: If you could play one game of anything you wanted against your opponent, what would it be?

Kerry: Tennis or horseshoes. What do they play up there in Kennebunkport? I don’t know?

Bush: With my opponent? I guess it would be golf on a beautiful golf course, kind of a nice warm afternoon to just be able to walk down the fairway hitting the golf balls, but not too often, and just reminiscing about the 2004 campaign.

Cast your votes today, folks.

Cheat on Short Breaking Putts

It’s possible to cheat within the rules of golf… and make more short, breaking putts when doing it!

Putting CheatingIt’s quite possible to cheat within the rules of golf… and make more of those testy short, breaking putts when doing it. To the right you see a putt that breaks to the right a few inches (obviously not everything is to scale). You see the paths of three balls: the red ball was struck ¼-inch towards the heel, the blue ball ¼-inch towards the toe, and the white ball dead center. All were struck with the same stroke and speed.

Two of the balls go in the hole. The white ball – a stroke with perfect sweet spot contact – went into the hole, as did the red ball. The blue ball missed low, even though it missed the sweet spot by the same margin as the red ball. How is this true?

Shots struck off-center are weaker. On a breaking putt, a weak putt breaks more. Shots struck off-center also start offline (see the three lines): towards the heel, putts start left and towards the toe, to the right. A slightly slower putt that’s given more room to break (red ball) goes into the hole while a putt with the same diminished speed started below the perfect line misses completely (blue ball).

Use this to your advantage on the course: when you’re faced with a short breaking putt, set up with the ball not on the sweet spot of your putter, but slightly to the high side just under ¼ inch. The “high side” is the opposite of the way the putt breaks: the heel on left-to-righters, and the toe on right-to-lefters (for right-handed putters, anyway).

Building in this small “margin of error” allows you to get the ball on a line and with a speed that rolls the ball into the hole far more frequently. We guarantee you’ll make more of these putts… simply by “cheating” legally!

Take a Lesson

Just take a lesson for Pete’s sake!

Today’s tip of the day is a simple one: take a lesson. A new driver costs you about $400. You could get eight pretty good lessons for that price, and your old driver – I guarantee it – will work better than the new $400 one. And so will every other club in your bag.