Wisguy

Well, pretty much every single car magazine gives the BMW 3-series a top-10 award for the past 10-20 years and most have done the same every year for the Honda Accord, also. As someone who has owned a 3-series and had multiple Accords in the family, as well test driven quite a few Accords, I can tell you that magazines don't always get it right and often have very significant biases in favor of certain brands. Titleist is the BMW/Honda of the golf world at least as to their lower-end balls (the Pro-V1s/1xs are top notch balls that do carry very far, stick to greens well, and have very good feel for short game and putting). I've played the So/Lo and it was no better than average in any way, absolutely no better than any of several Nikes or Maxflis that are $6 less a dozen.

If so, it could have been made more clear that it was a joke and it could have been quite a bit funnier. When younger people come here asking for advice, adults should not be berating them or leaving them uncertain if they are being blasted or merely the participant in some good-natured, if poorly expressed, humor.

I've never hit one but I came within about 5 seconds from preventing one. I was waiting for the foursome ahead of us (two dads, two teenage sons) to tee off on the 160 yard 1st hole of an executive course and that group was being outrageously slow, even though the green ahead was empty and they saw us waiting for them. They all were taking a dozen or so practice swings, switched clubs, practiced chipping, chatting, etc... and after literally more than 12 minutes of waiting with not a single one of the foursome having hit a ball yet, I lost my patience and started walking up to the green to chew them out for ridiculous delays. But then one of the teenage boys teed up his ball and actually took a swing just as I was about to say something, so I figured I'd just let him hit. The ball hit the front of the green and looked to be short, but got a decent roll, and then broke into the cup for an ace. I was litterally two steps away from being close enough to say something and surely would have ruined that shot. Boy was that kid ecstatic. Turned out their delays were a moot point, anyway, as we would have been rained out, anyway - we never even got to hit our tee shots before a thunderstorm rolled into the area.

I can't tell is this was meant to be serious or sarcastically humorous. Either way, you failed.

Seems you're still sore I pointed out that you didn't understand the concept of tongue-in-cheek humor.

One of my guilty pleasures is that I sometimes read advice columns (yes, it's kind of lame) and this opinion and other similar ones I've seen here condemning Tiger for his infidelity remind me of the many letters I saw years ago to rather crusty, conservative Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby on the topic of marital infidelity. Almost every single one of those "Abby, my/my sister's/my daughter's/my friend's hubby/boyfriend is cheating!" letters received exactly the same response - the filthy, no good b*st*rd was always 100% to blame, men were always assumed to be fully responsible for cheating and the woman was always the poor, innocent victim, 100% blameless. Given that the infidelity rate for marriages in the US is supposed to be around 50% and there's no small coterie of super-skank women who are responsible for all this cheating, that means that many millions of woman are also fully to blame for the adultery. It is simply unfair to say that one spouse is fully to blame, one is completely blameless without knowing all of the facts. Now there are many reasons why one could criticize Tiger's judgment about decisions he made when cheating on his wife relating to who, what, where, when, why, how many, how likely indiscrete, etc.... However, none of us know a damn thing about his marriage or about Elin other than she was blond, Swedish and very pretty. Yes, she has innocent, somewhat angelic looks, but does that mean she was an angel? No, of course not. Maybe she turned into a horrible nag. Maybe she developed body issues and became self-conscious after her pregnancies, maybe she became religious or super-feminist, or maybe things just cooled off for her romantically and she turned into a frigid ice queen and she wasn't willing to do anything to make the situation better (haven't we all had at least a friend or two who found that stereotype about marriage coming true with their wives?). That would not altogether excuse Tiger's actions but it would go quite a ways toward making them seem less unreasonable. Just because Elin is attactive does not mean that she did not contribute toward problems in her marriage. Or maybe Elin was a terrific wife in all ways and Tiger really was the ego-driven POS that some people believe him to be. We just don't know. So, absent situations involving abuse and out-of-control addictions, I tend to hold back a bit on judging other people's relationship problems because there are two sides to every story and we seldom get to know the whole truth.

Can we expand this topic to include people who say that a particular pro golfer is an a-hole, but then say "but I'm not gonna explain why"? If you aren't going provide us with an explanation behind a highly controversial opinion, why on earth are you bothering to share it with anyone? Why would you think any of us care, if you don't give us a reason why? This is particularly true when it comes to someone who is as universally well-regarded as Steve Stricker. Quite frankly, I've never heard anyone say anything bad about the guy, certainly nothing worse than comment on his failure to win a major or the bad couple of years he had after his initial success when he then switched equipment for a better endorsement deal. I live in Wisconsin and I've never heard anyone say a less-than-positive word about him here. For whatever it's worth, I once grabbed a quick breakfast at a restaurant where he was eating with his family and he seemed about as pleasant and kind of a father and husband as anyone I've ever seen. I know someone who knows Stricker and I plan on asking about this [almost certainly false] claim that he's a jerk under the highly pleasant public facade. BallStriker, if you are going to make highly critical statements about someone, at least have the guts to explain why. Otherwise, you sound like a child whining on the playground. If there is a genuinely reasonable explanation for why you wouldn't share this information about Stricker, at least send me a PM and if you do have a good reason, I'll concede that point to you here in this forum.

Let's think about this: you're having a conversation at a range with someone who is giving you help, quite possibly because you're paying him for a lesson, you've got limited time there, and some stranger you've never seen before, who very likely is not as knowledgable or experienced in the game of golf as your instructor, interrupts you, tells you that he's a better golfer than you and there's no way that that you can hit it as far as the instructor tells you that your balls are going because he himself cannot hit them that far. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most polite thing you would do is say is "Uhhhmmmm ..... thanks, I guess' and turn your back on him. More likely, you'd glare and ask him if he didn't have somewhere else he needed to be. You'd think the guy is a total sticking-his-nose-where-it-doesn't-belong asshat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So to redirect to your question, do you want to be an asshat? There, you've answered your own question. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm slightly smaller and more than a decade older than you and when I connect decently on my drives and they go straight, I hit them 260 - 270 easily and have a few each season that go 20 yards further than that. Last year I almost drove a short 275yd par-four with my 3W - it came up less than 10 yards short and this summer after a really helpful lesson that got my swing the best I've seen it in a decade, I put a new range ball into the woods at the end of the range, 10 yards behind the 265 yard marker, about head-high when it disappeared into the trees, so with a bit of roll that might have gone close to 300 yards. I have an athletic friend who is 5'8" and about 155lbs whose handicap might be in single digits and if it's not, it's close and not-infrequently I can put my 3W 10-20 yards past his his well-struck drives using his new $400 driver. So there's nothing outrageous for someone who looks fairly ordinary to be able to hit the ball 250 yards some of the time (high handicappers like me can routinely hit the ball 330 yards, but unfortunately, it's 230 yards out and 100 yards sliced to the right). Now 300 yard drives, well, that's a different story. I suspect that there are about double or triple the numbers of 300 yard drives reported on internet golf forums as are actually hit on a range or golf course. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, how were the range balls? If they were old and pretty beaten-up, maybe they were losing 10, 20 or more yards compared to how a regular new golf ball would fly. How do you know whether or not the instructor wasn't factoring this into his distances, in essence saying "that's a 250 yard drive [ leaving unsaid "with a regular, non-range ball"]"? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I guess the question I've got for you OP is if you are as strong, athletic, and well-versed in the fundamentals of the golf swing as you claim, why aren't you hitting the ball at least 250 yards?

Well, to be honest, I was kind of semi-mindlessly parrotting the general consensus that Jimenez served as the model for The Most Interesting Man In The World from the Dos Equis commercials. Personally, I don't think much of anyone who smokes cigars, as I detest the smell of them so much and I think 95+% of the people who smoke them are doing it as an pretentious affectation, a prop to say "Look at me! I"m So Powerful, Rich and/or COOL!" I should have written "and the other one is generally accepted as perhaps the most suave/cool-appearing-and-acting guy in the sport." Truth be told, my opinions are closer to yours than to the more typically accepted view of Jimenez. You have to admit, thought, that the guy does have the attitude of a sauve, bon vivant ladies man, chins, hair issues, dumb cigar and all. It's nice to see that at least some other people think it's reasonable to expect a business to provide what they agreed to do and not label someone a jerk or a-hole for politely, but assertively requesting that the business take responsibility and live up to its end of the bargain. I'd rather have a few mousy, passive-aggressive types think I'm a pushy jerk than be miserable because I was a spineless pushover, too timid to say anything about unaccepable problems that were entirely the other party's fault and entirely their responsibility to fix. FYI, when I go out to eat, maybe 4-6 times a year I do speak to the restaurant's manager about the level of service we received. Over the last few years, I'm running about a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of complimenting a server to his/her manager for really fine service I received compared to complaing about truly awful service. One time when we had outstanding service I called the restaurant manager over and it must have been her first week, as she looked frazzled and also looked like she was utterly dreading having to address what she thought was an angry customer making a complaint (which is probably what happens most of the time a customer calls for a manager). She visibly exhaled with relief when I explained to her what a great job our server had done - her emotional level rose about 7 points on a 10-point scale when she realized I was complimenting her employee, not complaining about him.

Sorry, but neither the current girlfriend nor the ex-wives come close to "absolute stunning" looks - I'd put them all in the bottom half for Tour wives/girlfriends based on the photos that Mvmac posted. The second wife and the girlfriend are both significant upgrades from the first wife, but I wouldn't call either one beautiful. Mrs. Dufner was definitely better looking than any of Jimenez's women and given the two golfers' near 180 degree difference in personality and the fact one is perhaps the most suave/cool-appearing-and-acting guy in the sport and the other probably places near the bottom of the list, that shouldn't be the case.

Who? It's interesting that some golfers get the hate because they exhibit "bravado" while others are disliked because they exhibit little emotion. I guess you just can't please everyone. Let me clear up a bit of confusion here, because some people didn't read what I said. I never said that 99% of Tiger-haters are racist. I said that out of those Tiger-haters who dislike him because they are racists (not an inconsequential number, either - let's not forget that one of the 'traditions" of this "tradition rich" sport was always the exclusive white consistency of the game - that hasn't gone away altogether even in the 21st century), 99% of them would publicly deny it and come up with somewhat plausible non-racist explanations for disliking the guy.

Which golfers and professional athletes do you like? I'd bet more than half of them have exhibited bravado at times. They probably didn't show as much as Tiger primarily because they weren't winning as often. Now Geaux, I don't know you at all and don't claim to have any insight into what goes on in your head, so I am making no specific statements as to you. But I think we'd find that 99% of those who dislike Tiger for his skin color would say something sounding much like what you just said.

Penfolds

Two points: 1) Some people are simply jerks. Do as you would tell your kids regarding a minor bully at school and just ignore them. 2) Men should not be wearing capri pants. We should all honor Payne Stuart by concluding that he was the last man alive who could pull off the plus-fours and put a moratorium on men's lower body clothing that ends above the ankle but more than an inch below the knee.

I started playing golf in 1993 and started watching it on television that year too. I don't think I heard the "You Da Man!" shouts that first summer I started watching golf on TV, but I'm pretty sure people started it before Tiger joined the tour, at least by 1995. This is just a guess, but I'd say that a very signfiicant portion of that increase in tournament ticket sales when Tiger is playing is for tickets for kids. Even before the infidelity, there were a lot of anti-Tiger people out there. Some of them were probably just being anti-trendy, but although none of them would admit it, their dislike of Tiger seemed to run so deep without other explanation that race had to be a factor - I am sure that if he was blond and blue-eyed, many/most of the Tiger-haters would not have disliked him. The infidelity scandal became a convenient excuse to be more vocally and visably anti-Tiger for some people. The backlash against Tiger for his marital indiscretions was worse than that against any other athlete or celebrity who got caught cheating that I can recall in the past 25 years. Now some of that was because of Tiger's greater fame and popularity with kids, but it can't all be explained by those two factors. Both Shaq and Koby were immensely famous and popular with kids, but a year after their scandals broke, nobody remembered they happened any more and I doubt there was the level of animosity toward them that Tiger continues to receive today more than two years later.

Will one of our other neighbors to the north please explain to your countryman about the concept of "tongue in cheek." Saturday is giving you guys a bad name - he may have provided some of the inspiration for Strange Brew.

Anyone see the excellent History Channel show Vikings (the tale of an adventurous viking farmer who rose to become the first raid leader to attack the British Isles, then an earl, finally King of Denmark)? It was a bit disconcerting watching these thoughtful family men, in the process of sacking Lindisfarne abbey, momentarily pause with astonishment at how easy it was to kill the defenseless, helpless monks, before resuming the slaughter.

Call up Cleveland, tell them the truth, see what they tell you and post the results here so we know what kind of service Cleveland provides. I had the same thing happen to me with a used Ping G20 I bought off eBay early this spring, which cracked across the clubface at the driving range the third time I used it. I contacted Ping, was completely upfront with them about having bought it used from a non-authorized dealer off eBay, and asked how much it would cost to have it repaired. They told me to send it in and a week later, they Fed-Exed a brand new one to me, next day delivery, at no cost. My next clubs will be Pings.

You should have slapped them - that's the appropriate response with those Frenchie-talking types. But they're easy to push around. I vacationed in Quebec a decade ago, they didn't have the non-smoking room I reserved many months in advance (it was exactly the Seinfeld reservations scene), and instead they stuck us in a suite that smelled like it had been smoked in only a few minutes before. After complaining to the manager that I didn't care if the interior-view suite was twice as big as the river-view room I had originally reserved, and we couldn't stay in it anyway because my wife and I both had tobacco allergies, he initially tried to tell me they were booked solid. When I told him we'd take one of the rooms they always hold in reserve, he finally caved and gave us maybe the finest suite in all of Quebec, that normally cost 4x what our original room should have cost. After that, when we realized what pushovers those Frenchie-Quebec-ers were, every meal we'd walk into a restaurant, state loudly "WE'LL TAKE YOUR FINEST TABLE AND YOU BETER COMP THE HORS D'OEVRES AND CHAMPAGNE - WE'RE AMERICAN, DAMMIT!" Worked like a charm. My wife went into a boutique, found a silk scarf she liked and the store clerk stopped us on the way out, I guess to see about paying for it. We just said "OH, IT'S OK - WE'RE AMERICANS! NO NEED TO BOTHER" and they just waived us on out the door. True story (the hotel part, that is).

Good thing you Euros are so polite and civil at all of your main sporting events. I'm sure no fan of soccer would ever stoop to something so low and juvenile as a loud silly chanted song or taunt or a punch or kick at a fan of a rival team, or think that something really stupid sounding is amazingly clever, like a 97 second-long monosyllabic "GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!" Incidentally, have you noticed the attendance at a typical European Tour event? The term "sparse" is euphemistic as to the average, run-of-the-mill Euro golf event. Even at your one major, it's still pretty fairweather attendance. I think I saw, literally, three to four times more fans at the PGA Championship Tuesday practice round I attended back in 2004 than at the first two rounds of the British Open this year. And if we digress for a moment to discuss other sports, I've watched a few semi-finals and even finals doubles tennis matches at European WTA and ATP tournaments this year on the Tennis Channel where there was a seat occupancy rate of under 5 percent - literally, there were maybe 15-20 fans, tops in the entire stadium court stands for major matches involving top-ranked players. There are positive and negative things one could say about sports and sports fans anywhere in the world. Don't get all hoighty-toighty on us about how sophisticated your fans are compared to ours. There are more than enough dolts and idiots born in every country.

I agree 100%. This isn't about supporting a favorite player or being enthusiastic about the sport or a particular shot - it's purely a juvenile attention-seeking action. I don't condone violence, but it would be funny if there were a few roving officials in the crowds who administered a taser to the assclowns yelling "Mashed Potatoes" and "Baba Booey!" 50,000 volts could inspire some better manners. I understand that removal from the grounds and banishment from further Masters has done a nice job for Augusta National - the PGA and USGA should adopt that policy. There's no constitutionally protected free speech involved with shouting stupid nonsense - it has to have some sort of content. At a bare minimum, there should be a 5-second delay on the broadcasts and the shouting should be muted out. That would take care of most of the idiots, who would stop doing it once they realized it won't get them the attention they seek. The WTA (and subsequently the ATP with male grunters) should have stepped in immediately with Monica Seles and her ilk years ago. It's still not too late to change and start applying the hindrance rule. These players aren't making more than a soft exhalation when they practice, so they're are clearly doing it purely as gamesmanship in a match.

I nominate Turtleback to address this in an appropriate manner, say confiscate his clubs and, one-by-one, break them over his knee. Maybe slap him with a glove several times. The horror! Actually, it sounds like Cabrera decided to turn himself from a competitor to a marker for the rest of the round. Garrigus is tearing up the course, 5-under today after only 8-holes to take the lead.

I think they should be banned not so much because it is bothersome to the players or interferes with play, but just because a) it is moronic; and b) it is now incredibly unoriginal. Mashed Potatoes????? Only an idiot would yell something that stupid.

I've been looking at some courses in Michigan for a vacation I'm taking later this season and several of them have "Family tees" that are much closer to the greens to make them fairer for kids. On one course, kids play free with a paid parent off the 1/2 length family tees ($11 for 18 shortened holes) and on another course, Sunday evenings are family evenings, where greens fees are $6 including cart for 5 holes playing from shortened tees. I haven't heard of anything like that anywhere else. I've had courses tell me that I could bring my 6 year-old along for free and let her drop balls to hit up onto the green and putt them out, for the sake of promoting the game to kids. It was on a slow weekday, though.

In my youth when I worked as a server at a restaurant, I would say that cheap tippers could be roughly divided into three camps: 25% of them were lower class people, many of whom probably didn't know better, some of whom couldn't really afford the meal and were cutting corners where they could; 25% of them were middle to upper-middle class people (i.e. the kind who like to sneer at those they believe are responsible for the "entitlement problem") who were just tightwad cheapskates, and 50% were elderly people, at least half of whom belonged to the second group. Next time anyone is inclined to think "those damn waiters/waitresses have such a simple, easy job," keep in mind that servers have to deal with a lot more demanding, problem individuals every day than the average person. When's the last time you had to deal with a situation as unpleasant as a table of 15 old church ladies, all of whom want separate checks, half demand items or portion sizes that have never been on the menu and mistakenly complain that they just had that there two weeks ago, who will blame the server for problems with the food even when the server is perfectly attentive, several of whom will complain that their bill is too high, and half will tip 37 cents or leave a phony dollar bill with a psalm printed on the back in lieu of a tip? ====================================================================================================================================== I keep my restaurant experiences from several decades ago in mind and always tip 20% for decent service, more if the server did a particularly good job. Anyone tipping less than 15% for reasonable service at a normal sit-down restaurant in the U.S. is not just a cheapskate, they are essentially committing a theft of service, no different to me than if someone decided they were only going to pay $180 toward a $200 bill from their doctor, lawyer, or accountant. Cheapskates will very, very bitterly deny this, but they never have a good explanation other than some nonsense about it being "their discretion" and some arrogant copout "if they wanted to earn better money, they should have gotten a better job." If the server didn't provide decent service, by all means dock his/her tip, but don't stiff servers if they do a good job - it's inexcusable and it's classless. ===================================================================================================================================== Entitlement is a funny thing - everyone thinks they and their particular group are entitled to government benefits - whether it's food stamps and health care, or tax breaks for corporations and upper income individuals - but resents any other group getting any government special treatment. I heard an interview of singer Jewel once who described how in her homeless days as a teenager (fled a homelife filled with substance abuse), she almost died from a very treatable health issue because of lack of health care. She commented something along the lines of "I'm not sure I understand why some people think everyone is entitled to have smooth roads and highways but think it's less important to have medical treatment that will save lives." ======================================================================================================================================== However, I agree with Boogielicious that merely taking a customer's money and pushing a bag across the counter is not something that justifies a tip - it's no different whether it's a pack of gum at a convenience store, a turn signal bulb at an auto parts shop or a carry out order at a restaurant.