SirMilton

Anyone other than Tiger Please!!!! I hope he doesn't make the cut so that the TV guys will cover someone other than Tiger on the weekend. My guess is Bubba Watson. I think you need to be a long hitter who is having a great week. I can't see a shorter player like a Mike Weir dominating. I won't watch Saturday or Sunday if Tiger is on the leader board simply because when he is on the leader board, he is all you will get to see and frankly I don't like watching him. I can't stand arrogant prima donnas; give me someone who cares more about me as the spectator than he does about himself. I watch golf for entertainment, and not to worship one player.

Hate - Tiger Woods; he's a major AH; I can stomach everyone else Dislike - Phil Michelson; an especially arrogant, prima donna; Nickalaus, Player, Hubert Green, Fuzzy Zoeller, Tom Kite - all immensely arrogant and condescending Like - Jim Furyk, V.J., Sergio, Walrus, Palmer, Weir Love - Trevino, Daly, Chi Chi, and all players who recognize that TV golf is entertainment first and foremost and that's what results in $ for players Don't care for - Els, Love, Funk, Austin Lust - Creamer, Gulbis

When I watch golf on TV, I want to see players playing the game. I do not want to see "human interest" recordings about where a player lives, his children, his hobbies, etc. I do not want to see replays from past tournaments. I do want to see replays of great shots of that day in that tournament. I do not want to see commentators sitting in a studio talking to each other. I do not want to see interviews on or off the course while players are still playing. I want reasonably even coverage of all players on or near the leader board. I do not want taped "lessons", taped "rules education", or any other filler in lieu of live coverage. I do not want history lessons on who designed the course, what changes have been made, etc. I do want to see a leader board about once every 5 minutes. I like to see replays of a player's swing after he or she hits a particularly good or bad shot. I like to see the hole layout, hear what the wind is doing and guesses about what club a player has selected. Criticism of players (their shots, shot decisions, etc.) should be made only by commentators who have won on Tour, like Johnny Miller; who cares what a broadcast journalist hack's opinion is of something he has never done and never will do? Can you imagine a Baseball, Basketball, or Football game where over half the TV coverage wasn't of the game?

I was reading in GOLF magazine that BBC offers two channels (BBC1 & BBC2) of coverage on golf tournaments and each channel covers different holes and players so that viewers get a better chance at seeing the holes and players they wish to see, rather than have the TV show director choose what you see. I have almost quit watching PGA Tour coverage as it always seems to be the Tiger Woods show, even when he's not on the leader board, and frankly even when he is on the leader board, I don't want to watch him. Right now I wall always choose LPGA or Champions Tour TV coverage over PGA coverage, unless Tiger is not playing. I''ll watch Asian Tour or European Tour or even amateur putt-putt before Tiger. The Golf Channel has gotten awful too as it seems more than half of its shows are about Tiger Woods. I would watch more TV golf coverage if given a choice to watch something other than Tiger Woods. Maybe what is needed is a Tiger Woods golf channel for his worshipers, and a non-Tiger golf channel for the rest of us and for the rest of the professional golfers. Three or even four golf channels would be wonderful as long as their coverage varies.

Who tends to win these? Great ball strikers or great putters? My guess would be that a great ball striker that's a good putter might be the best combination. Who's at the top of the GIR rankings?

I could easily fall in love with the money Lorena's making, but if I was going to chase a LPGA skirt it would be Creamer's. Lorena is "plain" and doesn't seem to be very "girly"; I prefer women who are 100% women. My only fear with the very girly Creamer is that she sounds very immature and somewhat of a space cadet in TV interviews. And a great body alone doesn't make for a desirable woman for very long. Natalie is a distant second; I can only describe her image as "trailer trash", but she coulod change that, or not?

If they could play on the tour, they would. If too old, they would play on the Champions tour, if they could. Teachers are intelligent people who know and understand swings and shots, but lack the natural talent and athletic ability to play competitively. The closest comparison might be a top level college basketball coach; they take top level talent and antural atletic ability and teach those athletes to play and win. The best coaches nearly always have teams in the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament, but think of how awful a basketball team they would make playing themselves, and even in their prime most were mediocre college players. Golf started as a gentleman's game for the wealthy or those earning high incomes (from business, not golf), both groups were generally well-educated and inteligent. Today's pro golfers are high-income (from golf) and some wealthy (from golf) but not particuliary well-educated, nor particuliary intelligent. In fact, about the most mentally taxing task they have each day is signing their score card.

Its hard to call the R7 Superquad 460cc club "deeply discounted" when you will still need to pay about $300 for one without the weight kit (another $100 for the full kit), and the flat faced "tour model" Superquad will go for $100+ more. Maybe $500 is a bargain; the local shops in my area still want $599 plus tax (and sales tax is 10.25% in my area) for the regular 460cc Superquad with the mini-weight kit included. The regular (non-adjustable) R7 460cc can be found on EBay for about $200 and the R7 Draw 460cc (where most Superquads end up deing set) at about $200 is a true bargain - its a great club (I have one). Now the older, smaller, 425cc Superquad can be found at a much lower price than above, but 425cc sized is no longer "hot".

Its very hard to buy the latest and greatest and have whatever you buy remain the latest and greatest for long. The PING Rapture driver is a G-10 on steriods; try it before you buy the G-10. However, the G-10 is getting some great reviews. I also noticed that TaylorMade now has a new driver called the "Beast" that apparently supercedes the SuperQuad, R7, R7 Draw, Burner and Burner Draw drivers. But apparently, the "Beast" is so new no one has tested it. I'm a bit afraid to try the G-10 or the Rapture driver as I have spent about $2,000 on TM woods in the last year and another $1,500 on PING irons and I haven't gotten fully accustomed to either yet. Thus far though, I am very happpy with both selections. One thing I hear over and over is that once a golfer finds a brand of clubs that works well for him (or her) they tend to stick to that brand for life. I have played PING irons now for over 30 years and Taylor Made woods for about 35 years. I keep trying others, but they just don't work for me. I played a 8.5 degree loft and stiff shafts when I was younger. I now use a 10.5 degree loft and regular graphite shaft, and with newer equipment hit the ball just as far as ever and lot more consistently straight.

Weather? I played Star Pass TPC in Tucson one Summer day in 112 degree heat and drank about 10 bottles of water during the round. Brutal. Worse conditions overall? Any Tucson municipal course in the summer slightly beats out the course at the MACV compound in Saigon Vietnam during the Vietnam war, even when you factor in the possibility of being shot and killed on the MACV course. The Tucson munis are like playing in a 7,000 yard fairway bunker with varying hardness and thickness of sand and rocks. Most intimidating? I hate playing any hole with a steady wind of 25 mph or more blowing straight against play.

Its now 2:00 PM and I have already played today. Lots of standing water on my home course today and I just treated it like playing a strange new course with water hazards on nearly all holes. Plugged a few and had to play "clean and place" on every shot. Now at work - ha!

$10 caddie tip? Only if you're 5 years younger, a foot taller, 50 lbs. heavier and buff as an NFL linebacker. $20 and you may just get by with a mean look. All of the caddies at that course will refuse you the next time you show up to play. I have played on courses where someone will tell you what the minimum tip is for a caddie Consider that you just used a fully-grown man like a personal slave for about 4 hours and that he is probably being paid minimum wage; how much would you consider fair if you did the same for some well-to-to guy driving a new Mercedes who probably just paid $200 for greens fees and a half cart and is losing a $20 sleeve of golf balls every other hole? $20 was standard 20 years ago. $30 is acceptable, $35 better, and $40 will get you a smile and a polite thank you; $50 or more will get the caddie to run to you the next time you appear. They all quickly learn who tips $50 or more and $20 or less. You need to refuse a caddie who is under 16 years of age. Child labor is illegal and a child will struggle to carry your bag and not help you at all with your game. If you can't afford $50 to tip a caddie you are definitely trying to play at someplace way over your budget.

Sell tickets and take your best golfing buddy to the nicest course in your area and do 18 holes like $300 was nothing to you. Be a player, not a spectator!

Every time I practice at the driving range at my club I go do past the 300 yard mark and chip and pitch about 100 balls to a practice green. I also look at what balls have been driven past the 300 yard mark. The most common ball I find is the Titleist Pro VI. At the 200 yard mark is a lot of range balls, and at the 250 yard mark the Top Flites rule. Out in the rare area though its Titliests, Pinnacles and a few Precepts - little else. Since I started used Pro VI balls I have picked up about 15 yards on my drives and a suprisingly straight flight.

I bought a new set of PING Raptures (the G10 on steriods) with graphite shafts. Very happy with these; about a club longer than anything else I tried and much easier to hit consistenly well (and I think I tried just about every premium make and model, including all the blades).

Stock on the woods and putter. Simple black neoprene on all the irons to keep the graphite shafts from getting banged up. I like covers as it forces me to completely claen a club before I put it back. I find it very distracting to have to clean a club before I use it. I do have a Memphis University decal on my cart windshield. Got my BBA there and my son has a MA from there (and will get his PhD there in 2 months). Memphis now has the best college basketball team in the USA despite the NCAA thinking that NC with twice as many losses is better. Right now the main question to me is who will they play in the NCAA finals? I hope its UCLA, so we can get payback for Walton's 21 for 22 game in the 1973 finals.

If you are under 55 or so, you have no recollection of the "old" days as you weren't alive then. Its like talking to someone about war who has never served in the military and has never been in combat. I consider Palmer and anyone who came after him a "modern" era golfer. The equipment available to the pros 50 years ago was horrendous compared to what everyone has access to today. 50 years ago pros were still using hickory shafts and persimmon heads. Irons might or might not have any grooves and some were heavier than what people call trainer or warm up clubs today. Club faces were usually tiny and the ball had to be hit perfectly. Balls weren't much better, tiny liquid center rubber balls wound with rubber bands and soft balata rubber covers that would cut and smile at you unless hit perfectly. Those balls were inconsistent, aged rapidly to poor performance, and had poor lift - like Forest Woods box of chocolates, you never knew what you would get. Pros 50 years ago never used a a new, untested ball right out of the sleeve. To be a major champion before the mid to late 1950s meant you had to be be a near perfect ball striker with perfect timing and a great putter. In short, a golf God. Palmer got a taste of more modern equipment like steel shafts and Nickalaus came in right as equipment begain changing radically. Their use of the latest equipment improvements were a major factor in their success. A Hogan, Sneed, or Nelson with modern equipment would embarass Woods today. Woods is a great putter, but they would tear him up in fairways hit, length and GIR, then match him putt for putt. I can reasonably expect to play close to par (even under some days) on my home course with my equipment; however, I know I couldn't hope of breaking 90 with the best equipment available to anyone in 1958.

I once threw an iron in anger on the second or third hole during a one round tournament and it sailed a good 50 yards and landed in a lake at least 50 feet from the shore. Fortunately, the air in in the shaft allowed it to float with about one inch of the grip showing and I had to swim out and retrieve it and played the next several holes soaking wet. I settled down immediately afterwards ended up winning that tournament by one stroke over 119 other players. This was a charity tournament, no money but a reasonably nice trophy and a bunch of prizes I didn't want or need.

How do you handle betting with your known and unknown playing partners? I will play up to $5 a hole even with just about anyone and usually double at the turn if I don't suspect I am being hustled and may double again at the last hole. When familiar players know each others games really well, we will give or get up to a stroke on from 3 to 9 holes (in hardest rank per the scorecard). In general, no matter how poorly one plays they won't get more than 9 strokes from anyone. Frequently the bet is $1 a hole straight up for everyone. I dislike playing with people who will bet on virtually every shot. Longest drive, closest to the pin, fewest putts, etc.

I play much better in tournaments also. A lot of it is taking one's time and concentrating like the pros do, and I only do this in tournaments or sometimes after an especially bad shot. How many times do you hit a bad shot in a practice round and then reattempt the same shot concentrating really hard and then hit it perfectly? Last week on a relatively weak scramble team won a ten team tournament with 5 under on 9 holes (after work). Won $40 on a $6 entry fee.

Does it count if it was 30 years ago? I hope to get close again this year

I believe it is Star Pass TPC in Tucson that has a long par 4 or par 5 green located on a plateau straight up about 50 feet from the fairway like an island in the sky. If you are the slightest bit low or short on your approach you end up at the bottom of a cliff with a shot that makes a 10 foot deep pot bunker shot look like a straight in 2 foot putt. Peak to peak par 3 shots in mountain courses aren't much better and might as well be island greens, in variably the green has to be sloped considerably from back to front and if you end up on the wrong side of the green with a low pin position your putt may have up to a 180 degree or more curve to it so that you have to putt the ball almost directly perpendicular to the left or right of the hole. I also do not like trees completely blocking the fairway so that the approach shot must be over the trees. Finally, I would probably give up golfing entirely if all courses were "target" golf courses with forced carries like you see in so many desert courses. I think that one should be able to play any hole with nothing other than a putter.

I envy people who seem to be able to hit any club available. TaylorMade "woods" work for me; Callaways do not.

I use two putters now and select based on the size, grass and conditions of the greens. I use a two ball Odyssey with a baseball (non overlapping) grip when I think need to play by feel (big, close cut, slick greens with lots of break), and a half CraZ Ping long putter on smaller, slower greens, such as the slow, straight bermuda greens common in my area. I put the left hand at the top against my body and just left of my right shoulder and for the right hand I put the base of the palm against the rear of the lower grip area so that all the right hand can do is push the club forward. The long putter is great for distance control on slow, straight greens; three putts with this putter are very rare.

I got rid of my slices (and hooks) a long time ago, but I can call up a slice with any club (including my putter) whenever wanted or needed. I recall playing in a big charity tournament scramble (team best ball with an A, a B and 2 C players) about 27 years ago on a "pro" course which had a monster par 5 (620 yard) with a short dog leg right to the green. It was over 450 yards down the fairway before you could get a straight shot at the green to the right and the best drive of our group was one our B player had crushed about 300 yards but pushed into the right rough. The two C players failed to get us a shot at the green with their seconds, but the B player hit one back to the left into the fairway that left us about a straight 200 yard shot to the green for our third. I said what the hell aimed left of the corner and put a 100% slice swing on a three wood and watched the ball swing around the corner as pretty as you please. When we got to the corner we saw my ball on the green about 8 feet from the pin (the ball had traveled about 300 yards and did a 90 degree turn, no one could see what it did, but I guessed it had ran at least 70-80 yards to the green). The first C player to putt holed it out for our eagle. This turned out to be the toughest hole on the course and was the tie breaker that gave us the win that day. The first place place plaque sits on my office bookshelf now. Calling up a hook isn't as easily done for me; all I usually get is a slight draw or a short, duck hook. So I very rarely even try a hook.