Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Tiger's Unfair Advantage

The average kid growing up in the U.S. doesn't get to play golf that often, unless they've got parents with moolah. Even then, it's a pretty costly hobby. (And getting more expensive all the time.)

Tiger's dad, Earl, though, was in the U.S. military. One thing about the military: they enjoy a lot of golf courses, and they get to play at a much lower rate than you and I. There may not be as many courses available now, with all the recent base closings, but for a while they had some premiere ones.

So, Tiger got to play...and play...and play. I'm sure he had the natural skills already, but it certainly didn't hurt to get a lot of time on the course.

Take a look at this article by David Holland to read about some of these military courses. One is listed in its top ten by Golf Digest, for heaven's sake.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Golf in the Midwest

90 degree days may be common in California and the West, but they certainly aren't in Minnesota. Thank goodness! Because all the humidity from 11,000+ lakes gets sucked into the air.
So far this year, we've had almost 20 such scorchers. The rainfall was an inch below normal last month, and now we're heading into "high summer." Things could become a bit parched around here.
I plan to join Bob Koczor, Golf Today's editor/publisher, at the Carson City gettogether in October. I hope to meet some of you there.
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Now for some Golf news:

Jim Lucius, The Olympic Club's PGA director of golf, died July 27 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Lucius, 69, is survived by his wife, Judie and their children.

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Juli Hilton, a former LPGA tour player, is the newest Total Golf Adventures licensee, having bought the rights to Placer County, Calif. Total Golf Adventures (www.totalgolfadventures.com) of Santa Monica, Calif., has 22 national programs in 18 states. Since its launch in 2004, TGA instructors have taught more than 20,000 children in over 400 K-8 schools.

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Total rounds of golf nationally are down 1.1% from last year, according to the National Golf Foundation. Central and south Florida appear to be hardest-hit because of heavy rains in the region, with rounds down 12% in June. www.ngf.org

Sunday, July 31, 2005

All the News that Fits

As webmaster at WWW.golftodaymagazine.com, I receive a lot of press releases. So I thought this might be a good place to start listing some of the ones that don't make it into the magazine. Or to list them again. Let me know whether you like this information.

RVGolfer

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Don't forget the Golf Today Magazine tournament in Carson City, Nevada, beginning Oct. 7.

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Central Coast Invitational, October 11-15th, Cypress Ridge golf course in Arroyo Grande, Calif. A pro-am tournament format.

A Peter Jacobsen/Jim Hardy signature design 18 hole golf course will play host to a newly created event modeled after the Pebble Beach pro-am.

Professionals play 72 holes, 'no cut', for prize money and amateurs play the first two rounds to qualify for the central coast invitational trophy tournament during round three on Friday October 14, 2005. The top 20 teams qualify.

Tournament information at www.cypressridge.com.

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Author Dr. Bee Epstein-Shepherd has written "Building Champions: A Guide for Parents of Junior Golfers" (Becoming Press, 2005) that is being released this week.

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Tour Golf Products, Inc., Columbus OH, continues its weekly newsletters directed toward customers, clubmakers and golfers around the world. Each features a section related to a specific Tour Golf product and a weekly sale section with substantial discounts on current products. Plus a weekly technical information section written by Jeff Jackson. The newsletters are archived at www.tourgolfproducts.com.

Power Performance Rankings rate the performance of Champions Tour players over the last 12 months. A player can move up by dropping a bad finish from 2004 and/or move up by having a good finish in 2005. Tom Watson moved up from 8th to 2nd position in the Rankings after his victory at the Senior British Open. Jay Haas moved ahead on pointsand retook the #1 slot as many others lost ground.

Peter Jacobsen dropped to 3rd, and Craig Stadler climbed from 7th to 4th with his British Open performance.

Biggest moves: Andy Bean, down from 24th to 36th; Jim Ahern up from 46th to 39th; David Eger up from 21st to 15th; Bob Gilder up from 37th to 32nd.

For more information on the Power Performance Rankings, contact Kathy Bissell. Email golfshow@bellsouth.net or call 904-273-8078. This system is not compiled by the PGA Tour.