Great Cartoon Located

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.