ScT1

I definitely think some strength training and a stretching mobility program is a good idea for all people, and is a great idea for golfers. Since I often play as a single walk-on at my local course, I get joined up with all types of partners, but if there is one common thing I see, is that the older the golfer, the more likely that he or she just can't make the full movement of a golf swing. Some of them can still play a pretty sharp game, they keep the ball very straight and know it's going to be in play, but they can't hit with any sort of length. I've been trying to work on my joint mobility this year, although not with as much diligence as I should, but because that at age 42 I am far too inflexible and stiff, and I've lost a noticeable amount of distance with my clubs. I want to get that distance back because I wasn't the longest hitter to begin with.

Yeah, I can't get all over the guy for venting frustration over what was probably his biggest and best chance at glory. It looked like he hit a good putt at 18, and the replay shows that it took a crazy little bounce off of some small imperfection in the green to knock it just enough off line that the ball did a horseshoe around the cup. I'm pretty good about keeping my emotions in check while I play, but if I had come that close at something as big as the US amateur like that, I could see myself doing pretty much the same -- congratulating my opponent, then walking off the green, maybe kicking or slamming my club against the bag, then having the tidal wave of emotion dropping me down to where I would need to cry some at losing out on what would have been my best chance ever.

You forgot the psycho killer stare that Bradley uses. It's a routine that wouldn't be complete without the psycho killer stare. Although we have to give Bradley some credit for eliminating the spitting that was part of his routine earlier in the year.

I've been juggling in my head over which collapse was worse - Van de Velde's at Carnousite, or Adam Scott's yesterday at Royal Lytham? But I've come to think, in spite of how Van de Velde threw it pretty much all away at the 72nd hole, that Scott's was worse in some ways. Scott had a long-drawn out collapse. A string of 4 bogeys. Scott's collapse is also worse some because he's next in line after Westwood and Donald to end up with the tag of best active player to never win a major, and yesterday he had it. He had a 4 shot lead, he was managing the course well and hitting good shots. Then one of his tires developed a slow leak and his car struggled in to the finish. I also remember that when I saw Els sink his birdie putt at 18, I thought, "That's it. Scott's going to lose this." If it weren't for the way Scott lost, I would be extremely happy. I've always liked Els, he's definitely been one of the finer players in the game and he very much deserves to be one of the few to win 4 or more majors. Such a strange final round. There was no real drama until those last few holes, then in a span of 45 minutes, everything changed.

The course I play frequently has some foxes hanging around. One time, on the 18th hole, a playing partner laid up to about 100 yards out from. We were still on top of the hill when we saw a fox come running out of the woods, pick up his ball, and take off with it back into the woods. Snapping turtles sometimes can be waddling around the 10th fairway when they decide to take a break from the pond. I once saw a hawk hanging out in the tall rough, hoping for some small rodent to pop up out of a hole. There's been a heron this year hanging out in the pond of the 10th fairway. See lots of deer too. Amazingly, they don't ever seem to trample on the greens, although maybe the grounds crew repairs that damage early in the mornings.

Yeah, I like too how Brandt Snedeker plays quickly. I've been up early both days to watch the action. Last weekend, my old tv set finally bit the dust and I had to go out and buy a new tv. Watching this tournament on ESPN HD made it very tempting to call out sick today. Golf in HD is beautiful.

The course is playing kind of soft and easy this first round. No wind. The only danger out there right now is being offline and getting into the tall rough which is thicker than normal because of the rain they've had. Or if a player hits into a fairway bunker. The course is going to need some wind to give these guys a challenge.

Full wrist cock. It's not like a putter stroke at all.

At the course I usually play this year, they've grown some thicker rough around the greens. That's put me in some spots where I don't have much green to work with and I need to get the ball up in the air and drop softly. If the ball is sitting down some though, it's harder to play a flop and I've never been able to flop the ball with enough consistency to feel confident with it. But a couple months ago I began playing around with severely choking up on the lob wedge. I'll grip it all the way down below the grip, I'll have m hands down on the metal shaft and it's working really well. I find it a lot easier to make a good accelerating swing that gets through the grass and catches the ball cleanly. Playing with a couple of people yesterday, they saw me doing that and getting good results, and I said, yeah, I just started playing around with it and find it to be a good easy way to get a good result from the rough around the greens. Is there anyone else who ever chokes up a club like this? I've also found it really useful on 30 to 40 yard shots from off the green. I just make about 3/4 swing with the lob wedge and I've found it's worked really well with bare-patch lies.

I figure Michael Thompson has no chance of repeating his short game and putting performance of yesterday. I hope I'll be able to connect my Android to the video feed or the radio feed today, it was never able to connect successfully to it yesterday. Grrr. That course just looks brutal.

Yeah, I think their servers are getting overwhelmed.

Hitting off of mats at a driving range tends to be very deceiving. They can hide times when you're hitting behind the ball. If you hit behind the ball when out on the grass and turf, it's going to be a fat shot that won't go far. If you hit behind the ball on a mat, the club can slide forward and result in a decent looking sort of hit, even if somewhat shorter than ideal. But another thing that mats can do is make a golfer a little bit timid about striking the ball solidly, because hitting the mat with the clubhead can be somewhat jarring, much more jarring than when it happens on grass and turf. That timidness can then create a tendency to hit thin shots when out on the course, as you will try to protect your wrists from getting jarred and unconsciously swing slightly above the turf. It's much much better if you can go to a driving range that has a grass area which can be used. If you've got a practice green where you can go to and practice chipping and putting, that can be a huge help. One good thing about concentrated practice at a practice green is that you get much more obvious and immediate feedback than you do with hit long balls at the driving range. You can really see what's working and what isn't. It's also a good place to begin to develop a routine that you can use before every shot and stroke. You can also play games, even almost play sort of mini-rounds of golf on a practice green. Select some different starting shots from areas around the green and then practice on trying to get the ball into the holes in as few of strokes as possible.

They can get really bad up there. That's why I try to keep a can of insect repellent handy, because they seem to love me. I once up did a 10 mile run in a park up in that neck of the woods in July and got nearly driven crazy over the last 2 miles of the run as they began to feast on my head. The person I was running with said there was this cloud of them just chasing after me those last miles. It made me run faster up until the point I ran out of juice on my legs.

I'm fine with making an exception for Casey Martin and don't feel it opens the floodgates to ridiculous exemptions. I find it much better fitting to the overall spirit of the game that he is given this accommodation which will allow him to compete and put his golfing skills to the test. But I was watching the Golf Channel last night and Martin came on the The Golf Fix program. It was interesting to hear him talk about his swing and what he needs to do because of his right leg. He sounds very stack and tilt! He said he needs to keep his weight on his left side and get it more left when he makes his swing through the ball.

But the other point maybe about Phil Mickelson's decision at 4 is that he came very close to hitting his ball into himself on the first try. The second try wasn't all that much better except for the fact that it finally got him clear enough to have an actual swing. He took 2 risky righthanded swings were he could have quite realistically picked up penalty strokes. Going back to the tee wasn't any great option either, that pin position was brutally difficult. It's one of those cases either option is about as appealing as licking a dirty toilet.

Maybe if Bubba had holed it, you could erect some sort of marker. Great final round. Certainly not the greatest finish ever, but up there.

They should put them in kilts.

I have the Masters android app. But when I've tried to watch the live streaming video, it tells me that Flash is required. When I tried to go to Google Play to install Flash, it informed me that my droid can't handle Flash. It's a bit annoying, but survivable. There'll be plenty of time to watch this weekend.

I can't watch live streaming video on my phone because that requires Flash and my droid phone can't install flash. But I was able to listen to the radio stream yesterday afternoon which comes on at 2. Until then though, I just watch the leaderboard, as I can't in good conscience abuse my workplace's bandwidth to stream the video on my computer.

I find Nantz somewhat annoying and overly melodramatic. But at least with Johnny Miller, you can play a drinking game. You just need to figure out what his big catch phrase is for the tournament and then do a drink every time he uses it.

Yeah, that was ugly to listen to on the radio feed. A snowman is always painful.

Stenson falling apart at the 18th hole.

I don't know how much bandwidth abuse you can get away with, but the Masters website, http://www.masters.com, will have live streaming coverage starting later this morning.

I feel so wrong pulling a ball out of my pocket and see it say Top Flite, but the Gamer V2 is the reasonably priced 3-piece ball that gives you decent spin around the greens. Even the cover isn't too bad. A couple years ago or so I remember playing the Maxfli HT Tour, which was a 3-piece ball and it spun well, but the cover was kind of hard and it felt a bit wrong when putting. But anyhow, I'm using the Top Flite Gamer V2 or any 3-piece balls which I find while out on the course and have low enough compression for my swing speed.