J.P.

The structure of the Fedex Cup is flawed. It does encourage the best players playing late in the season, but . . . The players I know of skipping at least one of four of these tournaments are Tiger, Phil now, KJ Choi, Padrig, Ernie Els, Scott Verplank - there may be more I have not heard about. Has anyone heard of any player skipping a major to get the kids to school or see their first soccer game? Sure they miss em for births - but that is a bit more important. I can't think of any playoff system where competitors can take one of the rounds off and still win the overall prize! I know some will mention that the NFL gives 4 teams a buy in the first round of the playoffs, but that is a predetermined first round policy. We've got guys here taking week one, two, or three off. It just doesn't look like there is much passion to win this thing. I can envision a time when the top players won't come to play in this thing. Too much of a grind right after the PGA and right before the Rider Cup or Presidents Cup. But we'll always see the top players at the Majors.

Oh Yes . . . I used to live right by there and my pop worked at VAFB. La Purisima is regularly voted as one of the best California courses and it has hosted PGA Tour Q-school some time back. Yes it is difficult. It is rather long from the tips - but it is very cool. You will have great fun! Try to play in the morning, cause in this area the winds pick up in the afternoon. It has nice elevation changes, it is WIDE open - no houses infringing, and it is not fairways up and back right next to each other. It winds its way through Oaks and scrub, and in and around water features. Depending on how much time you will have, you could also go to Rancho San Marcos. See their web site at rsm1804.com - I think 1804 was when something they are trying to preserve was begun. Anyway - don't take La Purisima off to play this, but if you can play 2, try it out. It is a nice course between Santa Barbara and Santa Maria, Lompoc - kind of a triangle if you will, that is also nestled in the beautiful California oaks and open range - again - no houses anywhere - just open wilderness. Might be a half hour to forty five minutes from Lompoc. The difference in the two courses is the climate. La Purisima is rather close to the ocean. You get the morning fog, dew, chill and afternoon wind and cool temps. San Marcos is well inland and while mornings can be cool, the day time temps are much higher - probably 80's to 100's in summer. You can't go wrong with either. Very nice places though I have not been to either for around 4 years or so now. Have fun! Jp

Well Ben, let me tell you. Paiute Golf Club is a wonderful setting located on the Paiute Tribe reservation well north of the Las Vegas Strip area out highway 95 about a 1/2 hour from downtown. It features three Pete Dye creations; Sun, Snow, and Wolf. These courses are among the finest conditioned in Vegas and are challenging tracks. They are on the flatter side for courses out here because the location sits at the bottom of a geological saucer, a flat area if you would, surrounded by NOTHING! No houses, no hotels, no nothing! Yucca's, Joshua trees, roadrunners, and a smoke shop on your way in to the nice club house where you can grab a few cigars for the day are about it! The stark contrast of the giant mountain views surrounding the flat valley is astounding on a clear day. (see the web site below) The courses are also not a typical "desert golf" style. Most of the holes have wide, plush, grass fairways generally with grass all the way through the green. There are forced carries off the tees, and the Dye signature railroad tie bunkers, but nothing most golfers can't handle if they are playing the correct tees. The Wolf course is the feature course, it is very long from the tips at 7604 and 149 rating, and has perhaps Dye's most difficult island green. It is 182 from the tips on hole 15. It is not as pretty as the 17th at Sawgrass, but perhaps more frightening cause you probably have a bit more than a wedge or 9 iron in your hands here. The other two courses, Sun Mountain and Snow Mountain, both finish with tough par fours bending around lakes on their left. Nice use of water on these courses in the middle of the desert. Greens are usually pristine there. Check when they are overseeding and punching greens. That has started now for most courses here. I think you are coming at the perfect time of year climate wise. Probably be in the mid eighties in October. Final take home point about Paiute. . . WIND - LOTS OF WIND. Being flat and exposed, the wind can be brutal out there. Mostly so in the Spring, but beware! If you happen to catch Paiute on a windless day - man, you will have a great time!!! Check out the resort at lvpaiutegolf.com Did I mention there could be some WIND OUT THERE???!!! Have fun!! Jp

A quote here from Al Gore . . . What is really dangerous to us is not what we don't know. . . It is what we know for sure that just ain't so . . . Get a FIRST RATE teacher and you will hear only the truth, and not waste time and energy on unimportant details. Listen only to him, no one else and you may well get there . . . Good Luck!

Great Instruction Ringer! I especially like the ball position tip - focus on the spot and bottom out where you normally would play a wedge from. I think I am always looking at the ball, wondering how I am going to get to it when it lies in such a forward position! Now I'll make my normal wedge swing with consideration given to all your advice! By the way, thats why my 60* is 7* bounce and my 56* is 12*, have to be ready for however the maint crew preps the bunkers! See both fluff and hard pan bunkers out here! Thanks again!

Guess I'm too late for Fuzzy, but Roody still needs help! The top courses out here in Vegas are all rather high. My buddies came to town a couple years ago and played Bears Best for $225 with me paying $95. No question, Clark County Residents (las Vegas) get nice discounts but you must show your ID. Not so simple as memorizing a zip code from out here. The top courses here are Shadow Creek - $500, may have to stay at a particular resort to play it. Next may be Reflection Bay, another Jack Nicklaus course at Lake Las Vegas that Natalie Gulbis plays out of. From there I would say Bears Best. Always perfect condition, wide grass filled fairways - not tight desert golf, firm, fast conditions and a caddy that helps a great deal since its your first time and they are expert at helping you read the putts. Need to tip him $30. Next is probably TPC Canyons (TPC Summerlin is Private) these two courses are hosts for the PGA tourney here in October every year. Both very nice, but Canyons not so wide open, and large houses border you all the way. Finally, Rio Secco, where Butch Harmon's golf school is based is a very nice track. Lots of elevation changes and nice condition. Also, each scorecard has Tiger Woods course record 62 printed across the bottom so you can follow hole by hole to see if you are on pace to beat him. I am sorry I can't help you with the Falls, never played it, and I hear BAD things about the Royal Links course that trys to mimic Links golf here in the desert, though I have not played there either. These are the top courses. There are other nice ones, but these are for that once in 5 years trip here. I don't think any of them are less than $150 for the out of State visitor. In fact, I think Reflection Bay may be $250+ and no discount for residents! I practice at Bears Best as a rule and live very close. It is under construction as someone said, but it is wide open still, and nestled in the mountains to the West of the Strip - you will not be disapointed with the views and vistas, the course for sure and the BBQ at the turn! Remember that all putts break towards the Stratosphere tower/strip area! Have fun!

Ok, I will give my thoughts, but first let me say that Tiger has had a pretty darn good year - we just expect him to close some of these seconds and top 10's out with wins. I'll approach this like you are supposed to approach a golf hole. Green back to the tee. Tiger is not scoring as well as he used to because of poor proximity to the hole. End of story. He is an awesome putter, and if he could get is approaches closer, he'd appear magical again with the flat stick. So, what about those approach shots? Well, he is third in GIR, but that is misleading. Hitting the green is not the object of the game for tour professionals - getting it close is. He may be hitting many greens, a testament to his skill considering where these approach shots are coming from, but he is coming from places he cannot be aggressive with. Why? Driving. Off the tee, Tiger has lost his advantage over the field. Tiger used to be 300 + in the middle. Now he is 300+ in trouble. I remember Azinger saying a few years back that Tiger was so long that it came to 2 to 4 club difference by the end of a hole. Accuracy went without saying. Now, the pressure to produce power and length has pulled focus away from precision driving and shot making. Put a steel shaft back in the driver. So, the answer is Tigers "problem" is "Tee to Green". If we give Tiger 12 fifteen foot birdie putts a round, who here thinks he won't make half? Now he just has to go out and get himself those opportunities.

I think it may be the case that many people think "celebrities" are smarter, more educated, more "street smart" than "regular people" simply because they appear in the paper or on tv. We give them too much credit in this regard. Fact is they are often neither as educated nor as smart as regular people when dealing with issues outside their specialty. This is a perfect example. I cannot understand how her father, an ex-police officer, let her grow up not knowing this etiquette, and let this happen if he was there. He must not have been there. Couldn't have been.

Yeah, I think Sergio wins this thing. It would take a melt down of the Vandevelian type to blow this. One guy within 6 and it's Stricker?? Sergio can actually play rather relaxed Sunday. Chris probably has lost an edge since his mothers sudden passing a while back. Probably been focused more off the course than on it. I never have liked the way he creates his fade - Looks like a fade, not a "power" fade. What has happened to Tiger??? This set up at Noostie is alledgedly easier than most Opens. He just seems a little out of sync. Is it odd that many of the warm weather golfers are performing poorly? Stricker is from Minn. Euro's are used to this. Cink is from Georgia so that blows that . . .

With this new PGA Tour contract Golf Channel got, you'd think they have enough money to sign Vince but signing Tillman, Faldo, and others may have used money up or . . I wonder if they decided to save some money. Vince was probably pressing for his piece of the pie since Big Break is so successful. It is a shame. I did like him. As you say, I would rather have had it been Steve Deumig. That guy brings nothing to the 19th hole show but a bad attitude - oh, and he also tells us several times a show that he is a family friend of Morgan Pressel.

As delightful as that sounds, It seems Gary is then having a run of bad luck. I refer to the May issue of Golf Magazine in David Feherty's article (pg 220). Early in the article Feherty refers to Gary being in a Scottsdale, Az hospital with pericarditis. ("inflammation of his heart and the sac around it") While certainly not cause for a heart stent (nor a penis stent for that matter), there may be more going on than we are hearing. Whatever his ills, I do hope he is back soon.

That's a great question IFAN! We must use the rules to our advantage. I don't mean cheating, but if you are, say, behind a small shrub, 120 yards out, take the unplayable stroke, drop it, and put all your effort and resolve into getting up and down from 120. If you hit from the shrub, you may still be in there, or in some worse spot. This can really add strokes. That said, I have hit my ball out of a bush before - the result? Hit it into OB. Think about this sort of decision carefully.

They mentioned on air that he was heading into surgery to have "stent" removed. This sort of heart work is quite a bit more serious than stones. Usually stents go into to prop open blockages, I suppose he had a problem with one. I hope to hear him again soon! He's a terrific announcer.

Check Franklincovey.com These people are the kings of making very nice organizers. They dropped the golf organizer couple years ago - but there binders are nice, pages are easily removed etc. . . Problem is, they all have something on them. Perhaps they make a "blank page" package you could get for your binder. I don't know. See what you think.

May have said this before, but what the hey. . . I followed outside the ropes couple years back when Phil played the tourny here in Vegas. They used to play this tourny on 3 courses & move to TPC Summerlin on the weekend. This day he played at Bears Best, a collection of Jacks favorite holes. I heard him comment on hole 7 when he was told the hole was from a scottsdale geronimo course "it doesn't look anything like that hole". So, I followed along, and heading to 9 spectators walk close to players and as we neared the tee, I asked him if this hole looked anything like the one it was meant to represent. They could have hauled me away, caddy tell me to shut up or something, but Phil turned to me and simply began discussing the differences versus the real hole for this golf hole for a short bit. I probably was out of line for asking him anything during tournament play, but he answered without hesitation nor irritation and was rather friendly about it. There was no sense of contrived or forced friendly behavior.

Heck Yes! Great purchase! You'll see! You know, I am hitting more greens since getting my pinseeker 1500 (w/o slope) but the really neat thing is that I am "pin high" MUCH more often. Even if I miss the green! Enjoy! Jp

Hitting long stuff well and short stuff bad sounds like it could be a swing plane issue - ie swinging a bit too flat for a short club. Next comes to mind is weight shift. Often players with short iron shots really focus on getting or almost leaving weight on the left foot (for righties) to make certain weight is forward at impact. If you hang back on a short iron - not good results. After 6 years of trying to learn the game on my own, I decided to find a good teacher, see him every couple months, and build a proper swing. I estimate it is a year or more endeavor, but I too tired of inconsistency and performing below what i thought my potential was. I am seeing improvements 6 months into it, but still digress to old habits. I am better able to deal with set backs cause I know I am on a path to overall improvement. Example. Two rounds back I hit 10 GIR with two fringe misses. Nice day. Last round, had no swing at all and still hit 8 GIR. Full swing consistency comes with developing a sound swing, not from hours of practicing a bad one. I know where you are. Results oriented right now - because you are learning. We have to take in all the game has to offer out there! Don't give up! What are you going to do? Lawn bowl? Croquet? Easy sports provide little gratification when mastered. Golf provides plenty of gratification when you get the best of it - even if its just for a few holes in a row. . . .because you know how hard it can be!

Football is a players driven league. You either have good players, or you don't. In Cleveland, he didn't have them. In New England he does. The big difference in the results of these two franchises' is the organization. The Big Tuna looked great with good players in the past. Not so good with middle of the road players recently. Despite being an A**, Bill B. is a very good coach. Still, I bet there are 5 coaches in the league minimum that could have accomplished what he did with New England if they had been coaching that team . . . ( Bill Parcell's, Mike Shanahan, John Gruden, Bill Cower, Mike Holmgren, Tony Dungy - just my 2 cents. By the way, I think NE won those superbowls by 3 or less points each time. Could have easily gone the other way like it did for the Raiders when New England benefited from the tuck rule to have the refs hand them their pass to their first Superbowl win in this recent group of wins. Bill loses those three superbowls and he'd look more like Marv Levy, which isn't really so bad - he's in the Hall of Fame.

No way he's leaving Haney, and Stevie is part of his family . . . Who does he go to? Leadbetter? Jim Mclean? Kostis? Certainly not back to Harmon now. I'm not sure there's a coach left for Tiger. No, I think the article has done what it's intended to do. Stimulate some talk.

He could choose Jim Mclean? Phil did see Butch a while back - and it sort of - didn't work out. Butch said as Phil wants to do is hit it as far as he can - not interested enough in control. Evidently, this has changed. How many of us have made a swing change and had it working two weeks later?

Not too much out here people don't know about. BUT, take a look at the following courses on their internet sites. Some really cool stuff. 1. Bears Best. Jack's favorite holes, west of the Mississipi-perfect condition 2. Rio Secco. Home of Butch Harmons golf school, but great track without it. 3. Paiute - 3 Pete Dye courses on a reservation - beautiful condition 4. Tuscany - a very nice "locals" course-aka tuscany hills 5. Dragon Ridge CC - kind of semi-private - but cool 6. Wolf Creek - 70minutes north of Vegas in Mesquite-tons of elevation chg That will give you a few to do. If we stray too far from the good ones, you may not like what you get. Angel Park is poor compared to any of the above. Lake Las Vegas is nice, but I would play any of these as cheaper alternatives. Have Fun!

StickBoy! I have 30's and love them. I have been tempted by the 60's but keep hearing they hit the ball HIGHER. I do not want to hit the ball higher. Out here trajectory is important to stay under the wind. Can't really go wrong with either, but there is a reason 30's are a signature product from Mizuno despite being several model seasons old. You will be very happy with Mizunos.

BigDog! All of these bags mentioned are quite nice, but most are ment for walking/carry. If you want a very good bag regarding organizing, look at the Bag Boy Revolver on any major golf reseller site or e-bay. Very Cool. Each club has its own tube & can lock in place. The entire set of 14 tubes revolves around for club selection - kind of like what your wife may have in the kitchen for spices etc. . .

No question - It's the head dip. He tends to squat a bit too much - his head position from address to impact drops a few inches in his bad swings. Let's try that and see how far off line we hit it! When he does this - seemingly to load up his legs to create a powerful press off the ground through leverage, he has too little room for his arms & shaft to move through, and he simply blocks it. You know, sometimes he gets it right and he drives it real good. Anybody notice that?

No question that the key is EXPECTATION! Early in the season, when we have no expectations, we are free to perform. As the season progresses, we begin to expect more from our game, and expect scores to drop. This brings pressure, and a tighter game. Free yourself! Lose expectation!