Rae's Internship Journey

She's traveling the country to interview at potential internship sites for next year...wish her luck!

Help Me Win A Round At The US Open

Golf Digest is running a contest to give a way a round of golf at the 2008 US Open (Torry Pines, June 12-15). They are going to group the winner with three celebrities and have them play under the same course conditions as the tour players. To enter, you need to tell them what you think you would shoot, and why you should be in the foursome with the celebs, in a hundred words or less. Here's what I'm going to say:

"After weighing my strengths, my weaknesses, and the inhumanity of a US Open venue, I have determined that I would shoot 105, plus or minus twenty strokes. The length of Torry Pines will cost me a dozen strokes, and the green speeds a dozen more. But with all those cameras, at least one person will have seen where the hell my ball landed, saving me a walk back to the tee. In your face, Jack Wagner."

The Jack Wagner comment is in reference to Golf Digest's 2007 ranking of celebrity golfers, in which he finished first. Apparently he played Frisco Jones on General Hospital and Dr. Peter Burns on Melrose Place.

What do you think? Have any ideas to improve my entry?

Dinner in Seattle

Mmmmm, sea urchin.

World Championship Yo Yo

I've been trying to find a good follow-up to my cowbell post, something from YouTube that is truly inspiring. I have found it in the form of Shinji Saito, a world-class yo yo artist. Shinji has serious game.



Can't get enough? I think the single yo yo champ is here.

Book Review: The Impact Zone

Earlier this summer I read The Impact Zone by Bobby Clampett, and a book review is well overdue. I give this book three and a half stars with a cautionary asterisk. The stars are because it presents a genuinely new and insightful view of the golf swing and I thought it was great. The cautionary asterisk is because this book is for full-blown golf nerds only. If you've spent hours comparing and contrasting the swings of tour players on YouTube, you'll love this book. If you're a beginner, you may want to keep your distance from The Impact Zone.

For those not in the know, Bobby Clampett is a former golf prodigy and ex-tour player who currently works as a commentator for CBS. He is an awesome golfer and golf uber-nerd, and I trust what he has to say.

The gist of the book is pretty logical: all that really matters in the golf swing are the dynamics at work during the period of impact, when the club head is in contact with the ball. He considers many of the commonly-stressed aspects of the swing to be matters of style. In his opinion, the important dynamics that players must strive for are: 1) the flat left wrist at impact, 2) the forward swing bottom, 3) loading, 4) lag and the body pivot, and 4) the straight plane line. Each dynamic gets its own chapter, followed by a chapter on equipment and a chapter on visualization.

I got the most out of dynamic #1, the flat left wrist at impact. I'm a mid-handicapper who makes classic mid-handicapper mistakes: I tend to over-swing, come over the top, and then compensate with a chicken-wing move. Focusing on obtaining a flat left wrist at impact really did help with my swing. It also paid dividends with my bunker shots, where like many players I fight an urge to flip my wrists to get the club under the ball.

In short, I recommend The Impact Zone to anyone who considers themselves a student of the game.

Goodbye, Dome

My beloved winter golf sanctuary, The Golfer's Dome, has closed its doors forever. Apparently the dome was purchased by Wegmans, who will deflate it and replace it with a warehouse or perhaps some sort of Wegmans super store.

Rae and I had a great routine over the last few years of heading out to Clay and doing work in the Barnes and Noble cafe. I snuck across the street every time to hit a bucket in the dome. I also took lessons there from Paul, who is now out of a job.

The good news is that there are a few winter golf alternatives near Syracuse. Paul is trying to set up a teaching facility in the indoor soccer / lacrosse facility off highway 481. And of course there is always the dome at the Turning Stone, which I happen to drive by on my way to and from Troy every week.

Grow-A-Head

Updates will be provided as they become available...

Asterisk

This story really makes my day.

Background: The baseball that Barry Bonds hit into the stands for his 756th career home run (all time record) was caught by a fan named Matt Murphy and subsequently auctioned off for $752,467. Although other famous baseballs have sold for more, 700K was considered high considering that his record was clearly steroid fueled and that Bonds is a royal ass.

Zinger: It turns out that the ball was purchased by gazillionaire fashion designer Marc Ecko. He put up a web site to let fans decide the fate of the ball: a) donate it to the Hall of Fame, b) donate it to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk, or c) shoot it into space. The votes were tallied, and Marc Ecko will literally brand an asterisk to the baseball and donate it to the Hall! How great is that?

Turning Stone Resort Championship

The PGA tour came to town this weekend for the first annual Turning Stone Resort Championship! I went for the day on Sunday and was downright inspired.

The tournament was held at the Turning Stone's Atunyote course, which I am told means eagle in the Oneida language. It was the first event in the tour's Fall Finish. PGA golf is effectively finished for the year now that the FedEx Cup is over, but there are still a few more events on the calendar. The Fall Finish tends to draw tour players who still need to make some money so that they can keep their tour cards for next year (only the top 125 get to come back, the rest need to re-qualify). This means either youngsters (Andrew Buckle) or the slightly over the hill (Corey Pavin, Fred Funk). I did get to follow Stewart Appleby, who is a genuine superstar, as well as fan favorites like Tim "Lumpy" Herron. Steve Flesch ended up winning, and he's not exactly a slouch either.

The big highlights for me were hanging out at the driving range and being dumbfounded by how far these guys hit their drives off the tenth tee. The range was great, because I was able to sit no more than twenty feet behind the pros and soak in all their swinging greatness. I look at a lot of swings on YouTube, but the real thing is something else. It looks like they're swinging at half speed, but then the ball rockets off the club face and you say damn. The tenth and eleventh holes made a nice little loop, so I followed a few groups there. No big-name players means no big crowds, which was great. Walking from the tee down to where they hit their shots rattled my brain, because the hole is 420+ yards long and every one of them was within 100 yards of the green in the center of the fairway. That's 320 off the tee, and is much more impressive in person than on t.v.

Race Day: Ithaca 5 & 10

Sunday was my first ever road race! Rae and I ran the 5-mile part of the Ithaca 5 & 10. We ran the whole way without stopping, hurray for us! Our time was 45:56, which works out to be 9:12 per mile.

I can report that running five miles in Ithaca was significantly less arduous than running four and a quarter miles in Syracuse (my longest run prior to the race). Having 150 people running with you helps motivate you along, and also the weather in Ithaca was cool and the course was flat.

I don't think running will jump to the top of my priority list, but I'm up for the Turkey Trot, which Rae and I are going to run Thanksgiving morning in Rochester. It's a bit shorter, and I think we can break nine-minute miles!

Mill Creek Golf Club

I played in my fourth and final Golf Channel Amateur Tour event last weekend at the Mill Creek Golf Club outside of Rochester. This was a combined event for the Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse tours. Forty-five players entered, which is a great improvement over the previous events I played in this year.

The results are posted here. I am happy to say that once again I finished at the top of my flight (so what if there were only three people in it)! Even better, my 83 would have tied me for first in the next flight up (the Sarazen flight) and would have put me in solo second in the Hogan flight.

My overall experience with the Golf Channel's tour was definitely positive, but I'm not sure if I would do it again. The best part was that I got to play in bona fide tournaments, which I had never done before and hope to do more of. This was a great place to get my feet wet since there was a wide variety of skill levels and everyone was serious about golf but not ultra competitive.

Going in, I wasn't sure how I'd do in an actual tournament where everyone follows all the rules and there are strangers watching you play. It was a bit daunting, and indeed some players folded under the pressure (I have lots of theories on this, perhaps another post is in order). It turns out that I do pretty well and have fun doing it. The way I see it, I follow all the rules and put pressure on myself whenever I play, so this really wasn't any different.

The downside of the Golf Channel's tour is that it's too expensive. Even after winning three events, I was still out about $350. That's a lot for four round of golf, particularly in upstate New York. Next year I might enter some different local amateur events, like the Post Standard Amateur. Heck, if I knock another four strokes off my handicap, I'll be eligible for the US Amateur Public Links.

Photo credits: Mill Creek Golf Club web site

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!

In an episode of sudden productivity loss yesterday, I did a web search for Christopher Walken. For the life of me I can't remember the sequence of thoughts that led me to do this. Here's the best thing I found, and old SNL skit with Will Ferrell:

2007 Golf League Recap

Last week was the final match of the season for the No Name Golf League. We played nine holes every Tuesday evening at Frear Park for 18 weeks straight. No rainouts! I missed the first week, but made every week after that, due largely to Frear Park's liberal make-up policy.

This was my first time in a league, and I am definitely glad I joined. It made for a great Tuesday ritual: leave work early in the evening, play nine holes, and then get dinner at the Park Pub. I lucked out with the No Name league in that it's full of nice guys and the drinking is pretty limited. I was a bit worried that I would end up in a league full of middle-aged drunks storming around like a bunch of gorillas. As far as I can tell, that's the Thursday night league, so we're good to go on Tuesdays.

I'm not sure where I finished in terms of league standings. I know that Don M. won the first half, and Bob W. won the second half. Our league is handicapped, so to win what you really need to do is get progressively better so that you play at or below your handicap. Bob put in a lot of practice time, and it paid off. I did achieve a moral victory in that I ended the year with the lowest league handicap.

Here's my recap:

• scoring average: 41.8 (6.3 over par for nine holes)
• fairways hit: 43%
• greens hit: 45%
• putts: 17.6 per nine holes

Photo credits: Philip Kamrass/Times Union

The Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University

My win streak came to an end this weekend at the Golf Channel Amateur Tour event at The Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University. The field was pretty thin, with only nine people playing, but I struggled early with some rather frustrating double bogeys and ended up shooting 89. Not a bad score for me, all things considered, but it left me in the middle of the leader board.

Robert Trent Jones was a student at Cornell, and he designed the course. Hence the rather unimaginative course name.

Revenge Is Sweet

I played Burden Lake Country Club this morning and shot an 81. I'd played this course once before, last September. Yes, it's true, I kept the score in my golf files. But even without looking I remember the day because I struggled mightily and carded a 107. That means I improved my score by 26 strokes. Take that Chuck Baltzel, mister golf course architect.

The big highlight came on the 16th hole. There were a number of junior golf groups out on the course. Each group was comprised of four kids and an instructor. It looked like they were starting each hole at the 100-yard marker and playing putting games once they reached the green. They were up at the green on 16, and the instructor waved at me to play through, so I promptly pulled my approach shot into the green-side rough. Then, in front of the gallery of eight-year-olds, my chip shot landed softly on the green, tracked to the hole, and rolled right in the heart of the cup for a birdie! Naturally, I received an instructor-prompted round of applause.

34 Years Young

As of August 3rd, I'm twice as old as a high school senior! My birthday was full of old-guy fun: 9 holes of golf in the morning with the lovely wife, a big ol' brunch at the Brewster Inn, and then 18 holes of golf in the afternoon at Green Lakes State Park (a great Robert Trent Jones course).

I got lots of good old-guy gifts, like new reading classes and also some prescription lenses for my Smith sunglasses (did you know you could do that? You can!). I also got a digital picture frame and the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth DVD set, both of which I absolutely needed but didn't even know existed.

I loaded a bunch of pictures onto the digital picture frame and set it up in my office at work. No more having to decide who gets to be on display, everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame!

Foxfire

I played in my second Golf Channel Amateur Tour event on July 14th at Foxfire in Baldwinsville. Once again, I came out on top! This time there were 16 players in the field. As in the first event, we used a quota system where everyone is assigned an initial negative score based on their flight. I shot an 85; highlights included my first-ever left-handed shot and a gold star for mental fortitude for following up a snowman 8 with three straight pars.

Here's a stock photo of Foxfire. My next event is August 18th at Cornell. Wish me luck!

Photo credits: Foxfire web site, Golf Courses 365

4th of July Vacation Part II: Fenton

I'm all set to catch up on a month of blogging! I have the 4th of July pictures and lots of other stuff to write about. I'll start with the last half of our trip to Michigan, which was spent at the family compound in Fenton. Festivities included Wimbledon watching, lounging, eating, and golf. We didn't get a lot of good pictures from the first three activities, but here's a shot of me, Jamie, Ray, and Tom after our round at the spectacular Shephard's Hollow course.

They have 27 holes at Shepherd's Hollow, we played 1-18. If you look closely, you might be able to guess our scores by the expressions on our faces.

4th of July Vacation Part I: Charlevoix

Rae and I paid a visit to her family in Michigan for the 4th of July. My official word for the week was decadent. We zoomed around on a boat, played golf, and ate lots of food.

The first part of the trip was spent up north in Charlevoix (top of the mitten). Thursday was spent with John, Robbin, and Co. on their new boat, the JD Won One II. It's rather deluxe, and even has a dingy on the back. Their boat has a boat.

On day two, Rae, Ray, Irene and I played golf at Dunmaglas. This was the first of three rounds that my father-in-law Ray and I played over a three-day period (thanks, Ray). What I remember most about Dunmaglas is that there is a big hill in the middle of the course and they set it up with a bunch of tee boxes on top. The result is that you get to hit soaring drives that hang up in the air and then drop down to earth at ten thousand miles an hour. Pretty cool. The downside is that, to facilitate the layout, they needed lots of long winding cart paths that seemed longer than the holes themselves. Not exactly a walker's course.

Here's Rae on the 14th tee. You can see the big drop to the fairway behind her.

Seven Oaks Golf Club

I played in a Golf Channel Amateur Tour event last weekend at the Seven Oaks Golf Club. It was my first time playing in one of these tournaments, and I'm psyched to say that I finished first in a field of eight. Normally they divide players into six flights based on handicaps, but because only eight people showed up, they instead used a quota system in which you get one point for a bogey, two points for a par, four points for a birdie, and six points for an eagle. Players are assigned a negative starting score based on their flight. I finished at plus three, thanks to a stellar back-nine 40. My total score for the round was 89; highlights included four of the best bunker shots of my life and a great bounce off a tree after I jacked a tee shot straight toward someone's house out of bounds.

Seven Oaks was a great place for the tournament. It is the golf course of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and was designed by Robert Trent Jones. It has hosted a NCAA Division I Championship and two New York State Men's Amateur Championships. The course is definitely challenging, but not so penal that folks were loosing balls all over the place. The greens were something else, definitely the fastest putting surfaces I've ever played on. I saw more than one two-footer turn into a twelve-footer coming back the other way.

The next event is on the 14th at Foxfire in Baldwinsville, New York. Wish me luck!

Photo credits: Seven Oaks web site

Rainbow

There is some very sad news in my world this week. My sister-in-law's cat, Delmonte, was senselessly killed on Sunday. I've been praying to my Higher Power for some help in coming to terms with this. I got a response in the form of a spectacular rainbow that greeted me tonight at Frear Park.

UCRBF

I played nine holes this morning and was matched up with some uptight cart-riding ball fluffers (UCRBF). Allow me to explain.

Golf is a walking game, and although I am not anti-cart, I feel that walking is the best way around the course. It's better exercise, it keeps you loose, and you can better enjoy the surroundings. Admittedly, there are resort-style courses where riding is a necessity, but this is not the case at most places I play.

Secondly, I like to follow the rules of golf. Improving your lie (ball fluffing) is cheating. Improving your lie when you have a good lie to begin with is ridiculous.

Finally, being uptight, particularly about the pace of play, is annoying at best and can in extreme cases poison the universe.

There are, in fact, two distinct flavors of CRBFs: the uptight cart-riding ball fluffer (UCRBF), and the laid-back cart-riding ball fluffer (LBCRBF). I have no beef with the later, those who just want to ride around the course with their buddies and don't really care about their score. In a sense, I envy the LBCRBF's indifference toward an impending triple bogey. Ball under a tree? Just kick it out! Put me down for a five.

If you are a cart-riding ball fluffer, the following questions can help you determine which class of CRBF you fall into.

1) Must you point out every group of walkers on the course and exclaim (with a sigh) "We're behind a foursome of walkers, looks like a six hour round."

2) When you reach the green, do you simply knock the ball in the general vicinity of the hole, then walk over and pick it up for a self-conceded two putt? (Bonus points if you do so with a putter that cost more than $150.) When others are putting, do you instinctively stand two feet from the hole with the flag stick in hand and stare them down until they're finished?

3) Are you incapable of writing a number larger than six on your scorecard? After the round, do you ceremoniously declare your score as if it's legitimate, failing to mention the mulligans and gimmes?

If you answered yes to the above questions, you may have a problem with UCRBF-iness.

It's A Girl!

One other big piece of golf news this week--it's a girl! Tiger's wife Elin gave birth to their first child, Sam Alexis Woods, on Monday. Thankfully Tiger couldn't make a birdie coming down the stretch Sunday. Had he pulled into a tie, he would have been in an 18-hole playoff Monday morning just after the baby was born.

Angel Wins US Open

Angel Cabrera of Argentina won the US Open on Sunday, beating Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by a single stroke. Congrats Angel!

He's looking pretty relaxed with the trophy, but earlier he was stressin'. Bob Verdi of Golf World nailed it when he said Cabrera could make coffee nervous. Here's Angel in the home stretch:

The US Open is put on by the USGA (as opposed to the PGA) and is known for its brutal setups. For the second year in a row, the winning score was five over par. If that doesn't mean anything to you, check out this picture of one of Oakmont's "church pew" bunkers. Those are golfers out there, not ants.

Photo credits: Simon Bruty/SI, J.D. Cuban, Fred Vuich/SI

Lake Placid Club - Mountain Course

I finished off the long weekend by playing 18 holes at the Lake Placid Club's Mountain Course. The Mountain Course was built in 1910 by Alexander Findlay, and then remodeled in 1931 by Alister MacKenzie. Golf nerds will recognize Mr. MacKenzie as a co-designer of Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament. The round cost me only $30 and there was barely anyone on the course. Perfect. I ended up playing with a friendly chap named Stewart who teaches cooking at a chef school. He played lacrosse for Syracuse University, and believe it or not, this is not the first time I've been paired up with an ex-Syracuse lacrosse player. Small world.

Here's a stock photo of the first hole. Notice the Olympic ski jumps in the background. They're so tall they look like TV towers.

I was happy to shoot an 89, although my card was rife with penalty strokes due to a few humdingers that I launched into trouble. The one piece of local knowledge that I was sorely lacking is the fact that there are no water fountains on the course. To make matters worse, the first nine holes take you away from the clubhouse, and then the back nine bring you back. In other words, after nine holes you are really far from anywhere to get a beverage. I ended up buying a bottle of water from some construction guys who where working across the street at a motel.

Car Pod

I figured out who makes these...a company called T@B. I also found out that Airstream make a competing model called the Basecamp. Gear is neat.

Big Purchase

We men have few accessories. Wee men have small accessories. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Anyway, as I was saying, we men have few accessories, so when we upgrade it's a big deal. I think it took me six months to pick out a watch. I have my watch, glasses, wedding ring, earrings, and my wallet. I've had them all for years. That is, until this weekend, when I sprung spontaneously for a new Timbuk2 bifold wallet! Crazy! It even has a little band to hold it shut, you know, for when I'm mountain climbing and such.

Rae and Kate Run Half Marathon!

Rae and Kate ran the Lake Placid Half Marathon! That's 13 miles. Holy smokes. Their times were 2:29. Impressive stuff! Ruth/Mom and I helped out by handing out water and directing traffic at the mile-twelve water station. Here's the chronology:






Congrats Rae and Kate!

Long Weekend In Lake Placid

Rae, Kate, Ruth/Mom and I just got back from our four-day weekend in Lake Placid. After living in New York for five years, this is the first time I've been anywhere nice in the state. Well, New York City is nice, but in a big-expensive-city sort of way.

Here's the lowdown: we ate the good food, hung out in town and by the lakes, spent some money at EMS, Rae and Kate ran a half marathon, and I played some golf. Not bad! I'll spread things out over a few posts. Here we are down by Mirror Lake, and canoing on Lake Placid.


By the way, Rae and I are going steady. Here's our senior picture.

Rae Completes The AIDS Run!

This post is a bit of a placeholder. I'm trying to keep up with all the summer events around here, and I've already fallen two races behind Rae's running schedule.

Rae completed the AIDS run, and thanks to all the folks who donnated, she raised $525! That put her in the 500 Club which, in addition to being a great help to charity, earned her a crown and VIP parking at the race.

There are pictures from the race, and also from the barbecue we had afterwards, but they're all on the camera at home. Also, I'll let you know how fast she ran once I get it figured out. Check back soon!

Gardening Phase II: The Front Of The House

We got the flowers planted in front of the house! My favorite is the yellow banana flower. We need to keep an eye on the grass-looking plant in the lower right corner; last year it grew humongously out of control and tried to take over the yard.

Gardening Phase I: The Side Of The House

Rae and I got up early on Saturday and went to the farmers market with some friends. Nothing says farmers market like a homemade donut. They serve them up right as they plop out of the machine. Once we were on a sugar high, we waded through the massive number of vendors and picked out flowers. We also got some cheese, and I picked up a mini banana cream pie baked by an Amish guy.

We got plants for the front, side, and back of the house. We got the ones for the side of the house in the ground on Sunday. I should have taken a before picture, it was all overgrown with weeds and there was no little rock wall. We put down some grass seed outside the rocks, hopefully the lawn will grow in!

By the way, this is post number 100!

Career Day On The Links: 9.6

Big day for me on the golf course, I shot an 81 at Arrowhead! I drove the ball like a champ, and my putting was otherworldly. No three-putts, and I made at least three from over fifteen feet. Two birdies. And we saw some goslings on the course (bonus!).

I keep track of my progress using the USGA Handicap System. Its main purpose is to provide a pseudo-fair way for players of different abilities to compete against each other. It also provides a way of comparing scores shot at different courses or from different sets of tees. For each round, you do a little math and come up with a handicap differential. Prior to today, my best round was an 84 I shot in Michigan, which came out to a differential of 14.1. I shattered the record today with a differential of 9.6. Sweet.

Rae Runs The Mountain Goat

In case you haven't heard, Rae ran the Mountain Goat on May 6th. Hurray for Rae!! The Mountain Goat is a ten-mile race that includes a few monster hills. Here she is pre-race, with her running partner Sarah. Congratulations Rae and Sarah!

Her official time was 1:44:19, which corresponds to a pace of 10:26 per mile. Very impressive!

The overall winner of the race was Alene Reta, who finished in 49:42, which corresponds to a shockingly fast pace of 4:58. As far as I know, that's like a full-out sprint for ten miles. The winner in Rae's division (women age 25-29) finished in 1:00:51. I think I could run that fast for about a quarter mile, maybe a half mile.

Book Review: Every Shot Must Have A Purpose

I just finished reading Every Shot Must Have A Purpose, by Pia Nilsson, Lynn Marriott, and Ron Sirak. It took me a while, because, well, it's not that great of a book.

Here's my review:

This book is focused on the mental and emotional approach to golf, as opposed to swing mechanics. I think that's great. You can pick up some useful insight, and hopefully you can get advice on your swing mechanics in person from a qualified instructor (definitely the best way to go).

The authors give some good advice on how to approach the game. They talk about a "think box" and "play box," which are useful concepts. I picked up a good slogan, "achieve and leave," which I now say to myself when I start getting compulsive on the practice range.

The bad news is that I found the writing to be full of gimmicks and advertisements. They use a lot of UPPERCASE LETTERING for emphasis which drives me crazy because I feel like they're shouting at me (okay, I may have some personal issues here...). They went so far as to trademark the name GOLF54, and they shamelessly promote their schools and some pseudo-science nonsense called HEARTMATH.

If you're looking for a good book on the mental game, check out Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect (Bob Rotella), Fearless Golf (Gio Valiante), or Extraordinary Golf (Fred Shoemaker).

Rock Zach, Rock!

My second consecutive charity-related post goes out to Callum Robbins. I learned about Callum from my rock-star cousin Zach. Zach played in the band Jawbox with, among others, J. Robbins. J. and his wife Janet Morgan have a son Callum who suffers from Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Callum's friends and supporters have put together a compilation album to help raise funds for his care. It is available here from Catlick records. Alternatively, direct contributions may be made here.

Run Rae, Run!

My lovely and inspiring wife is participating in The AIDS Run on June 3rd. Follow the links below to support her and AIDS Community Resources.

Golf League

Tonight was my first time out with the "No Name" golf league. I jumped blindly into the whole league thing--I just happened to meet a guy on the practice green a few weeks ago who knew of a guy who had open spots in his league. First impressions: I'm the youngest guy by twenty years, and the skill levels vary wildly among players. I'm cool with that. Tonight I put a woopin' on the other guys in my foursome.

Rae thought I might feel bad about beating guys my dad's age, but I don't feel bad at all. First off, age doesn't really mean so much in golf. Just a few weeks ago, I got crushed by a guy who is well into his seventies. Old guys tend to have wack swings due to a lack of flexibility and balance, but some of them can keep it in play off the tee and then kill you inside a hundred yards. Secondly, I've paid some dues in golf. I'm no natural, I spent years as a frustrated hacker and am just now getting into the respectable range.

By the way, here's Dave's golf scale:

100+   Hacker
90s     Reasonable
80s     Respectable
70s     Player

Also, as you can see I've added a permanent Golf Tracker section over there on the right (partially inspired by Rae and Kate's crazy computerized running logs). Wish me luck!

Words Of The Day

The words of the day for April 23rd are:

Sardonic: Disdainfully or skeptically humorous, derisively mocking.

Brouhaha: Hubbub, uproar.

Rae said that I should change the picture for my profile because the current one is sardonic. I said I didn't think it was sardonic, and then she said I didn't know what sardonic meant. So there you go. I say there's no way my picture is disdainfully humorous or derisively mocking. I think it's rather fetching, in fact.

Brouhaha is a word for the day because it's cool that brouhaha is actually a word.

Podcasts

I've added a list of podcast links to my blog over there on the right. These are real winners. I listened to the Nature podcast this morning. This afternoon I'm planning to cure cancer and discover a few distant habitable planets.

If you're not familiar, Nature is "the international weekly journal of science." It's kind of a big deal. Rich mahogany, the whole nine yards.

One ranking system for journals is the impact factor, which is a measure of how often papers from a given journal have been cited. Most of the journals in my field have impact factors in the range of 0.5 to 3.0. The impact factor for Nature is 31.2 (and will certainly go up now that their podcast is on my blog.)

A word of warning--the NPR podcast list is overwhelmingly long and may lead to a loss of productivity, or in extreme cases, a total work shutdown.

April Showers

Rejection Letter Rejection Letter

Should I start sending these?

Know Your PGA Tour Professional Nicknames

Here's a game for everyone. See if you can match the PGA Tour Professional with his nickname. Correct or partially-correct entries (submitted as comments) will receive a variety of praises from yours truly. Google is not allowed--honor system in effect.

Nicknames:
a. Lefty
b. The Black Night
c. The King
d. The Golden Bear
e. Tiger*
f. Lumpy
g. The Walrus
h. The Shark
i. Chi Chi

PGA Tour Professional:
1. Craig Stadler
2. Greg Norman
3. Tim Herron
4. Gary Player
5. Juan Rodriguez
6. Phil Mickelson
7. Jack Nicklaus
8. Eldrick Woods
9. Arnold Palmer

* Tiger is no longer a nickname, he legally changed his name. So for this entry, the game is "Know Your PGA Tour Professional Original Legal Names."

Zach Johnson Wins Masters

Zach Johnson was the man this weekend, shooting a 69 on Sunday to win the Masters by two strokes over Tiger Woods, Rory Sabbatini, and Ratief Goosen. The media like to refer to Zach as "The Unheralded Zach Johnson." Back in 2002, he was playing the Hooters Tour, and now he has a lifetime ticket to Augusta.

Zach gave much of the credit for his victory to Jesus. Here he is holding hands with playing competitor Vaughn Taylor as they walk up the 18th fairway.

Photo credits: AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Eagle

Thursday was a big golf day--my first ever eagle! I was playing at Evergreen golf course in Castleton, New York. The ninth hole is a short par four that was playing downwind. The scorecard says 311 yards, but I think realistically it was more like 270. I drove to the fringe and chipped in with a nine iron. Sweet.

As you can see, I went out in 39. Unfortunately, I shot 49 on the back (u-g-l-y). My first ever round in the seventies will have to wait until another post. I'm going to play an easy course this afternoon, maybe today's the day!

Backyard Visit

I Think It's Finally Spring II

Here's some cell-phone time-lapse photography from my office on Friday. Makes a fellow want to run out there and kick a field goal.

Rating Scale

Okay, I need help figuring out my rating scale for golf books. I had settled on the four-star system (★), but apparently the required font is not installed on everyone's computer and some people are getting a question mark. I'm assuming that everyone can see the one-half symbol, ½ (holler if you can't). Let me know which of these you like best. Suggestions for alternative scales will also be accepted!

Stars:   ★ ★ ★ ★

Dots:   ● ● ● ●

Asterisks:   ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

Golf scores:   albatross-eagle-birdie-par-bogey

Made-up scale:   inspirational-admirable-mediocre-dud

Academic scale:   A-B-C-D-F

I Think It's Finally Spring

Health Food

And the award for best oxymoronic snack food goes to...

Seriously, there is such a thing as Natural Cheetos. Pretty tasty. Picked fresh off the tree, no doubt.