Roody

I agree with that. She made a mistake, let's not drag her through the mud for it. Hopefully someone will tell her and she'll be better for it in the future.

Did you say something like "hey guys, did you happen to see a ball land around here?". Sometimes that will get them to say "oh yeah, sorry, I picked it up by accident, I found it over here". Or, if they're dishonest, they'll just say they didn't see anything. If that's the case, hopefully the Golf Gods will punish them for you :)

My league does the match play format with handicaps as well. Just a couple weeks back I was in a matchup against a guy who got completely screwed over by the system. His situation was that he only played the first week of the league, shot a pretty good round (for him), and then went on vacation for 5 weeks. He had subs in his absence, but when he returned, he returned to the handicap the computer figured out based on his only week of actually playing. So essentially, he had a much lower handicap than he was supposed to. Fast forward to the week he plays against me, and he shoots his normal blow-up round, and I play to my handicap. I took 6 out of 9 points from him. He was giving me more strokes than he should have been. His handicap was nowhere near as high as it was for him last year.

Agreed. I guess I'm just arguing the core of the issue, as opposed to the actual specific issue itself. We as Americans can make our nation greater if we could all learn to focus on the bigger issues (the "rocks") and not spend so much time worrying about the smaller ones (the "pebbles"). I mean, look at how the media focuses on the most ridiculous of things. Why is it I have to open the news to see 16 stories about Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan getting stupid drunk over and over again? The media makes it the focus because that's what gets people to come to their website or watch their news channel, and in the end that is what sells advertising. I just hope that this flag thing doesn't become another Paris-like episode, where the media's time would better be spent covering more important things. Know what I mean?

I think my actions towards fellow Americans, treating our veterans with respect by providing them with good health care, helping the ones in need, etc are more important than making sure that I don't drop the flag on the ground. That's just me. Is bad flag etiquette wrong? I suppose it is. But I look at things in relative terms. Again, it's just me, but I don't rank this high on my list of things to get mad about. And I think that's a lot of how I am able to I live my life with a low level of stress, because I don't sweat the petty things (or pet the sweaty things, or something) :) Again, I think it'd be one thing if Natalie deliberately threw the flag on the ground and stomped up and down on it. That's intent to disrespect. That's a whole lot different. I view it as an honest mistake, and a very small mistake at that. Actually, I'm pretty sure he doesn't, though I will be sure to bring this topic up with him the next time I visit just to see what his thoughts are. My father is a lot like me, he sees things like this for face value.

Yes, I'm not saying let's all go out and disrespect our flag today. By no means am I asserting that what the flag stands for is not important. My father served in Vietnam and was an inch away from having his head blown off in combat. Do I think what Natalie did is showing him any disrespect? Of course not. I'd rather focus my anger and outrage on other things that should be important to people, but sometimes get drowned out by crap like this.

Trunk of my car. I, too have wondered if it's bad for the clubs to leave them for long periods of time in high heat. I think the only thing it might hurt is the grips on your clubs. So far I haven't had a problem, but I'm sure it can't be great for them.

Seriously, are some of you that concerned that the sanctity of the sacrifices of our soldiers present and past is being destroyed by a 98 lb woman sitting on the flag? Don't you think that there are other things in this world that could use your concern? Like Terrorism? Crappy health care? The Iraq war? Darfur? It's one thing to not care about a symbol, but it's also something else to get so fixated on it that it steers your attention away from what should be important. Think about it.

Well, let's throw the whole flag etiquette thing aside. Let's pretend for one minute that there is no such thing as flag etiquette. All that aside, the shot they setup was kinda stupid to begin with. Why would you drape a flag over a barstool and have someone sit on it with their trophy? Not that I am a professional photographer or anything, but it looks kinda dumb. I would think a better shot would have had Natalie with the flag draped around her (though I guess that would make it harder to hold the trophy at the same time as holding the flag). Meh, whatever.

I can't say that it bothers me. I don't think there was bad intention there. Intention would have a lot more to do with it than anything. If she was spitting on it or what not, then it's a deliberate act of disrespect towards our flag. Let's not let it overshadow her victory.

See, and I thought when Mickelson said what he said, that he was referring to Nike equipment as a whole as the inferior equipment. I think that's the way a lot of people took it.

When I read the thread subject I thought to myself "Tiger's got problems? Being a gazillionaire who is the most-recognized athelete on the face of the planet, having a hot wife, and a game that any of us here would cut off our left leg for are problems? I wish I had those problems". But I digress. Personally, I think Tiger's problems are with his driver. I can't remember watching a tournament in the past year or so where I didn't see him hit at least 3 or 4 awful drives ("awful" is a relative term of course). It just seems like he's been having a hard time getting off the tee this year. And anyone remember a couple years back when Mickelson said that Tiger was playing with "inferior equipment"? I seriously doubt that's the problem, but it makes you wonder a little.

What state does Charles Barkley play in? A few years ago he was supposedly a 14 handicap, but I've heard his game has gone way downhill since. I remember trying this system out a few years ago, but haven't been to the site in a while. A few years ago I don't think they gave you the ability to see the individual scores posted, so that's rather nice.

I suppose there is nothing wrong with it. Heck, in some cases it might be a good thing to always play the blues while learning because you're learning at a higher level, thus when you do play the whites they'll seem easy. Conversely though, if your game is not up to the level that it needs to be for the longer challenge of the blues, then you'll never be able to build up your confidence either. Confidence is a large part of the mental aspect.

I did not know that Ernie had his own label. I will have to see if I can hunt those down as well. Thanks for the link. :)

A bit. My wife and I didn't really get into it until last year, but we've been on two wine tours since. I like to try and match up a good wine with good food. Love the taste of it. And to bring a golf-related note into the discussion, not too long ago I discovered that Greg Norman has his own brand of wines. I picked up a bottle of his pinot noir a couple months ago. We opened it last week, and not only did I enjoy it, but my wife thought it was a great tasting wine as well. I'd recommend it.

Best shot of the week? I think this has been one of the best weeks for me as far as sticking it close to the pin more than once. Earlier this week, I took Monday off and played one of our local courses. Par 3, about 150 yards, stuck my tee shot to within 2 feet. Then yesterday, had my work tournament (scramble). I won the closest to the pin contest. Par 3, 165 yards, stuck it to 26 inches. Then later in the same day we had an approach shot from 145 yards away, I somehow managed to stick it within 2 feet again. And I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I had my golf league tournament today, and we had two closest to the hole contests. On the first one, a 180 yard par 3, I put it 12 ft, 7 in. (that one, however got beat). Later in the day today, I put another one 23 inches from the pin on a 170 yard hole. I swear to God I am not making this up. My driver was so-so, had a few good ones. But the irons... man, it was lights out. I am still rather in awe at how well I hit my irons this week.

I played in a pro-am round with Morgan last month. I went into the round with some of the same pre-meditated thoughts that many people have about her - that she's an emotional, tantrum-throwing, primadonna. But I gotta tell you, I came away from that round with her and my opinion of her took a 180. I was very impressed. She really has grown up a lot. She handled herself very well, knew how to work the crowd. Any of the kids that were lined up for autographs, she would stop to sign and take pictures. The local media stopped her for an interview, she handled that with grace. This was the 6th year that I've done the pro-ams, and of all the LPGA players I've played with, she was my favorite. I could tell you stories about a couple of the others who weren't so great. As far as Morgan's opinion of Wie... I did ask her about Wie during the round, and she even resisted temptation on that one. Her response when I said "so what do you really think about Michelle Wie?" was "oh God, don't get me started....... no comment". She could have dished, but took the high road. Anyways, here are some pics from the event if anyone is interested: http://www.roody.net/photos.asp?cid=2&eid;=34

I've been trying to stretch more before I play this year. And not necessarily only at the course beforehand. If I have time in the morning (i.e. if I am able to drag my ass out of bed early enough) I'll sit on the family room floor and do a few "yoga-like" stretches before I head out. Other than that the only other preparation I do is to make sure to hit the putting green for at least 10-15 minutes. Occasionally I'll hit the range, but it seems like sometimes I tire myself out by doing the range before the round. Other times it's been a great warm up and it makes the round better. Go figure.

I see so many guys who DON'T belong on the blue tees when I'm out playing on the weekends. It's pretty hilarious when the group ahead of you hits from the blue tee, and 2 or 3 of the guys either shank it, or hit it off into the trees somewhere. I think with some guys it's a macho thing to play from no less than the blues. Myself, being a 15 handicap, I figure I better at least start shooting in the high 70's from the whites before I think of moving to the blues consistently. The only time I really shoot from the blues anymore is if we're playing a really short course, or during my weekly league (not really by choice in that situation since that's the rules of the league).