Waggle Room: FanPosts

I found another mistake in the golf record books

2009-11-20T16:09:28Z

It involves one of the LPGA's all-time greats. Lets begin with a little background. According to the LPGA Media Guide book and online records, Only 3 golfers have won the same tournament on five different occasions. They are-

Se Ri Pak Jame Farr Toledo

Annika Sorenstam Mizuno Classic

Annika Sorenstam Samsung World Championship

Mickey Wright Sea Island Open

While looking up some information on Amy Alcott today, I did a google search for her first tournament win, the Orange Blossom Classic. The OBC, which was aka USX Golf Classic and S&H Golf Classic, was played in St. Petersburg Florida from 1963 to 1989. My google search found this 1971 Boca Raton News article.

It said only that Kathy Whitworth was a four time winner(1965, 1968-1970) of the OBC. When I checked the tournament's history, I discovered she also won the tournament in 1974. Taking it one step further, I checked the list of Whitworth's 88 tour victories. The tournament is listed all five times. Whitworth therefore belongs on the list I cited up above.

A major record involving none other than a Hall of Famer and the Tour's most prolific winner in its history, has slipped through the cracks. I will say it again, both the PGA and LPGA have many holes in their record keeping. Golf's history is getting lost in the process.

Jill Painter whines that LA doesn't have LPGA event in 2010 or the golf media's new meme

2009-11-19T14:27:17Z

I can't ever recall a non-major championship week where there has been so much half baked golf writing. From the LA Times-

The LPGA Tour held a news conference in February in Beverly Hills to announce it would host a tournament in the Los Angeles area in 2010.

The tour also announced a lucrative partnership with J Golf.

It made good on only one of those announcements.

Wednesday, the LPGA released its schedule for 2010 and there was no tournament in Los Angeles. The LPGA instead added the J Golf Classic, March 25-28 at La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad.

"It's the same event," acting LPGA commissioner Marty Evans said in a phone interview. "We're working with J Golf and it was a great opportunity at La Costa.

"We're hoping some people from L.A. will drive to north San Diego County."

That's an 85-mile drive, or about an hour-and-a-half - without traffic.

Fast someone get Steve Elling to call Jill Painter and explain to her how Carlsbad is just outside Los Angeles. I was a Southern California resident from March 1985 to July 87.

The LPGA has had to scramble to get even a 24-tournament schedule. Mostly thanks to Carolyn Bivens mismanagement and the poor economy. I'm willing to cut the LPGA some slack when it comes to their broken promise to LA. However note that Painter admits when Bivens gave that press conference that very little of the local media was in attendance. So really how many Southern Californians are upset about this?

Since an American won a golf tournament last weekend, the golf media needs a new meme and it didn't take long for them to settle on one. The lack of American golf tournaments on the 2010 LPGA schedule. Gene Yosuda at Golfweek chimed in on it yesterday and since then Steve Elling, Mick Elliot, and Peter Dixon at least have chimed in saying similar things.

Anyone who has been following the LPGA's woes for the last year should have seen this coming for six months at least. Why are the media fixated on this feature of the LPGA schedule. Because again, the golf media shows itself to be mostly a group of unimaginative lemmings.

Steve Elling is jealous

2009-11-19T13:03:08Z

That is the only conclusion I can draw from this diatribe of his.

The LPGA, in yet another sideways bit of marketing savvy, elected to stage Evans' press conference on Wednesday at the Sugar Land City Hall, off-campus from the site of its season finale. Maybe they hoped players wouldn't notice the details of the schedule if they handed it out elsewhere.

Unless you're dumb or a non-jealous LPGA fan living in a cave, you would know already that the LPGA schedule was given to players at a meeting on Tuesday night. That's why it was reported by the likes of Ron Sirak, Beth Ann Baldry, and Associated Press on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Some LPGA players leaked the new schedule out to certain members of the media.

It sounds to me as if Elling wasn't one of them and that's why he wrote what he did.

I got a couple of other problems with what Elling wrote.

Setting aside the bombast and bluster, the LPGA season next year will likely consist of 24 tournaments, the fewest since 21 were staged in both 1970 and '71, a rollback spanning nearly four decades as the tour prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

More alarmingly, only 13 of the tournaments will be staged in the United States, the smallest number ever. If it wasn't the LPGA, with that kind of minimalist American presence, they'd be calling it a mini-tour. A mini-tour with major underpinning issues.

*****

Out of sight, out of mind? Playing abroad means even less media attention in the States and mostly tape-delayed TV coverage as the Golf Channel becomes the tour's primary broadcaster in 2010.

Before a golf writer complains about the tape delay coverage of the LPGA or its foreign based schedule, they out have something drummed into their heads. Firstly GC's contract with the PGA Tour which includes Nationwide events. They get first placement on the broadcast schedule over the LPGA.

Secondly, and more pertinently to Elling's remarks, of the 11 foreign LPGA tournaments four of them are still played in North American time zones. Yes Virginia, Canada and Mexico are on the same clock as the United States of America.

As for the other 7, the Women's British Open is broadcast by ABC who puts it on tape delayed. Which I have repeatedly complained about in the past.What's your solution Steve? Play the British Open in Newport RI or Portsmouth NH?

Of the last six events, if they aren't on tape delay, look at the hours they would be broadcast. Three, Four a.m. in the morning. How many golf fans are going to rise for that? The 2003 Solheim Cup went on the air at 4 a.m. in the morning but since it was without Michelle Wie almost nobody in the golf media noticed.

The tour instead created a season-ending LPGA Championship, signed Stanford Financial as the title sponsor, made it a full-field event and moved it to Houston, where it will be played for the first time this week. Now the radioactive part.

Allen Stanford, who wanted the tournament played in Houston, where his company has a large corporate presence, was tossed in jail. No replacement has been found to foot the title sponsorship bill, the format of the tournament has been criticized, and the event is running opposite the European Tour's big-money Race to Dubai finale. Nice timing.

The ADT has been played the same weekend in November going back to 2003.(At least. I didn't check 2001 and 2002 because I'm in a hurry.) Which is the same weekend the 2009 Tour Championship is played. When do you suggest they play the tournament? Next weekend is Thanksgiving.

One last bit of Elling derangement.

Twelve months ago, Bivens announced that the popular ADT event outside Miami,

Steve, you're from Florida. The City of West Palm Beach where the ADT was played is not considered outside of Miami. When you were working at the Orlando Sentinel, were your offices outside Daytona Beach or Ocala? Those are Florida cities closer to Orlando than West Palm Beach is to Miami.

Collision Course: LPGA and Champions Tour in Oregon on Same Week!

2009-11-18T18:01:43Z

Did anyone at LPGA HQ notice that the Champions Tour’s fifth major – the Jeld-Wen Tradition, played in Oregon – is being played the same weekend as the LPGA’s Safeway Classic at Pumpkin Ridge?

The Jeld-Wen Tradition is being played in Bend, Oregon.

Just up the road (or 186 miles away according to Mapquest), the Safeway Classic is being played in North Plains, Oregon.

Two tournaments in the same state that close together? Anyone think was a scheduling foul up? One problem I see right off the top of my head is finding pro-am partners sufficient for both tournaments.

Ok, Now I'm on the Fence About Doug Barron...

2009-11-18T17:58:52Z

Today the PGA Tour finally broke their silence regarding the case against Doug Barron and his alleged violation of the Tour's anti-doping laws, and I have to admit... I am now leaning more towards Barron for this one. Apparently, Barron suffers from mitral valve prolapse, a condition that can be treated via the use of specific therapeutic drugs.

According to Rex Hoggard, a senior writer for GolfChannel.com:

The PGA Tour’s silence regarding the ongoing challenge to its first anti-doping violation ended on Tuesday when Rich Young publicly addressed Monday’s ruling by a U.S. magistrate regarding Doug Barron.

Young, a Colorado-based lawyer who argued on behalf of the Tour the first challenge to the circuit’s anti-doping policy on Friday in Memphis, said U.S. magistrate Tu Pham’s rejection of Barron’s request for a restraining order to play Q-School was “encouraging,” and called the one-year suspension “fair."

”“If a player wants a (therapeutic use exemption for a banned substance) he’s given every chance to submit his medical records to a committee and ask for one,” Young said. “The question is if he didn’t get a TUE would he suffer and, in Doug’s case, the recommendation from the committee was no, he would not and that didn’t justify a TUE request.”

Unfortunately for this argument, Barron DID file for a TUE twice (once in 2008 and again in 2009), both of which were denied, and was told to no longer take the drugs in question. Furthermore, let's take a moment to educate ourselves on what a patient with mitral valve prolapse could go through:

According to the Mayo Clinic, mitral valave prolapse is a condition in which "the valve between your heart's left upper chamber (left atrium) and the left lower chamber (left ventricle) doesn't close properly. When the left ventricle contracts, the valve's flaps bulge (prolapse) upward or back into the atrium. Mitral (MIE-truhl) valve prolapse sometimes leads to blood leaking backward into the left atrium, a condition called mitral valve regurgitation" (MayoClinic.com).

To be fair, people with the same condition as Barron can typically lead long, happy lives without the need for drug treatement. However, have we gotten to the point in professinal sports when we can dictate what an individual can or cannot take for his or her own well-being because the treatment in question is "banned?"

Will Golf World's John Stege please pick up the white courtesy phone

2009-11-18T16:46:12Z

He writes at GW's Local knowledge blog-

There have been some miserable years in professional golf. Recall Ian Baker-Finch in 1995, when he made 18 starts, missed the cut in 14 of them, withdrew from three of them and was disqualified from one. He was 0 for 18.

In 1997, Chip Beck played in 32 tournaments and made only three cuts and $10,653. The following year, he made two cuts in 29 starts. In 2005, David Duval made 20 starts, missed the cut in 18 of them and withdrew from one. He made one cut and $7,630.

But can any of these can top Doug Barron's year this year? Barron played four Nationwide Tour events, missed the cut in three of them and was disqualified in the fourth.

How about Dorothy Delasin? A four-time winner on the LPGA Tour and still short of her 30th birthday. She was 0 for 16 missing cuts this year. She has a 18 tournament streak of missing cuts going back to October 2008.

Four tournaments of missing the cut isn't a whole lot of anything. Try getting some perspective John. Would you be writing this if Barron hadn't failed a drug test?

I suggest Stege stay in bed(Like he suggested Barron should) after answering my call. He is clearly deficient in golfwriting ability at this time.

2010 LPGA Schedule is out

2009-11-18T15:15:31Z

Here it is-

Feb. 18-21 -- Honda LPGA Championship (Thailand)

Feb. 25-28 -- HSBC Women's Champions (Singapore)

March 25-28 -- J Golf Classic (La Costa, Calif.)

April 1-4 -- Kraft Nabisco Championship

April 29-May 3 -- Corona Championship (Mexico)

May 10-16 -- Bell Micro LPGA Classic (Alabama)

June 10-13 -- State Farrm Classic (Illinois)

June 17-20 -- ShopRite Classic (Atlantic City)

June 24-27 -- Wegman's LPGA Championship

July 1-4 -- Jamie Farr Owens Corning (Toledo)

July 8-11 -- U.S. Women's Open (Oakmont)

July 22-25 -- Evian Masters (France)

July 29-Aug. 1 -- Ricoh Women's British Open (Royal Birkdale)

Aug. 20-22 -- Safeway Classic (Pumpkin Ridge, Ore)

Aug. 26-29 -- CN Canadian Women's Open

Sept. 10-12 -- P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship

Sept. 30-Oct. 3 -- Acapulco LPGA Classic (Mexico)

Oct. 7-10 -- Navistar LPGA Classic (Alabama)

Oct. 14-17 -- CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge (California)

Oct. 28-31 -- China

Nov. 4-7 -- Japan

Nov. 11-14 -- Lorena Ochoa Invitational (Mexico)

Nov. 18-21 -- LPGA Tour Championship

South Korea TBD

Some quick comments-

China is back

South Korea takes place Oct 21-25 or it flips places with China

Wegman's(In Rochester NY) is now the LPGA Championship. No chance it will be played at Oak Hill? We can dream, can't we.

Tour Championship has no determined home for next year. Could we see it come back to Florida?

No Florida tournament for the second straight year

Phoenix isn't on the schedule. Could a sponsor step forward at the last minute like happened a year ago?

That new tournament that may have sprung up in South Carolina must be dead or still on the drawing board.

Loss Aversion - Another Golf Problem To Deal With

2009-11-18T01:41:42Z

Tiger Woods systematically misses birdie putts in order to avoid making bogeys.

Two professors from the University of Pennsylvania studied data from 230 PGA tournaments to come up with their data. According to them, the results showed them. "the agony of a bogey seems to outweigh the thrill of a birdie".

From Reuters:

"The researchers found that golfers avoid the possibility of loss by playing conservatively when they could do better than par, but will try harder if they are at risk of coming in above par. Pope said "loss aversion" is part of a growing field of behavioral economics, which explores how human psychology impacts markets and business".

I thought it was because of clicking cameras..!!

Fast get me some dramamine- Ron Sirak is at it again.

2009-11-17T19:20:47Z

The golf writer I love to take aim at has given me fresh material.

On Jan. 22, the LPGA will mark the 60th anniversary of its first tournament winner: amateur Polly Riley, whose 295 beat Louise Suggs by five strokes in the Tampa Open.

First I'll be nice to Sirak. He knows how to count unlike LPGA Tournament Directors who like to celebrate tournament anniversaries in the wrong year. If that Tampa Open had still existed in 2009, I lay you odds it would have celebrated its 60th anniversary this year.

Just like the 50th anniversary of the AFL, started in 1960, is being celebrated this year.

After 60 years of scratching and clawing -- but always surviving -- the LPGA now must redefine its business model if there is to be a year 61.

Actually next year is year 61. Start counting 1950 is year one, 1951 is year two, etc etc. Apparently Ron can only count sometimes.

The single most important thing the LPGA needs to increase its popularity is better TV exposure. When people see the product they love it, but they have to see it. One problem is no one knows what channel has the LPGA -- a problem solved by the 10-year cable-exclusive Golf Channel deal that goes into effect in 2010. Another problem is too much delayed tape -- and that is not helped by the Golf Channel deal.

This paragraph is all over the road. Nobody knows what channel the LPGA is on, but GC will be it next year. Then he says there is too much tape delay but that's because of Golf Channel.

All true but I got dizzy reading about it.

Michelle Wie's landmark win on Sunday in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational aired in prime time, but that broadcast was also on tape delay, shown while news of Wie's victory was already available online.

Maybe Ron read about it here at Waggleroom. I couldn't possibly be his favorite contributor, could I? Only if he is a bigger masochist than I am.

For fans, a perfect Sunday would be to have the men's European Tour on Golf Channel from 9 to Noon, the LPGA on from Noon to 3 and the PGA Tour on 3 to 6 -- nine straight hours of live golf. Now that's entertainment.

Ron, here's a memo for you. The PGA Tour deal with GC, which was done in 2007, obligates that channel to put on PGA Tour events it televises before LPGA. The LPGA, in a act of masochism surpassing anything Ron or I could do, inked a contract with a network that will always give it the short end of the stick. Look at last weekend's golf, do you think if not for contract obligations, that GC would have shown the Orlando tournament over Michelle Wie? They had no choice!

5. GET THE ADT CHAMPIONSHIP BACK

The most innovative idea in years was the ADT Championship, in which 32 players qualified for a season-ending event with multiple cuts and a $1 million first prize with only $100,000 going to second. The ADT format, Trump International golf course and Mar-a-Lago mansion for the year-end awards dinner combined to make for a perfect conclusion to the season.

Neither ADT nor Trump wanted to leave the LPGA but were forced out when former commissioner Carolyn Bivens decided to give the season-ending date to Stanford Financial for the Tour Championship.

Once again I don't know which alternate universe Sirak is in, but it isn't the one I exist in. Here Juli Inkster didn't play in the 2008 LPGA Championship, Kim Saiki was born in the United States, and Mr. Lu finished second at the 1971 British Open. If Sirak doesn't change professions or I die first, I wonder how much more history this guy will re-write before he's through.

Bivens didn't give the Tour Championship to Stanford. She tried squeezing the company for more money and ADT wouldn't budge. If you don't believe me, here's what Randall Mell wrote a year ago-

It's a reluctant farewell for the Boca Raton-based home security corporation, whose officials say would have been interested in staying on as title sponsor of the LPGA-owned event given a more favorable sponsorship renewal offer.

"The explanation ADT gave us for not renewing was that its marketing objectives and means of going about attracting customers was changing and the ADT Championship didn't fit into its future plans," said Mike Nichols, LPGA vice president of tournament business affairs.

ADT President John Koch said there was more to the decision.

"Basically, the change in the renewal pricing caused us to re-evaluate the value proposition of the overall program," Koch said. "You will hear various takes on that, but it is inaccurate for anyone to state that our decision was based on any form of cost cutting by our company. In fact, we have increased our marketing budget."

"At the end of the day, there wasn't any reason other than value proposition," Koch said. "They have the right to think what the value of their tournament is. We respect them for that."

Nichols said the increased pricing was due to "new elements" ADT specifically asked the LPGA to consider. "Everything built into the price was justified," Nichols said.

Or better yet what Donald Trump said last July-

According to Trump, ADT paid $3.8 million for sponsorship rights in 2008 and Bivens wanted the company to spend $12 million in 2009. “The commissioner said, ‘Take it or leave it,’ ” Trump says, and ADT President John Koch “couldn’t believe it.”

“He’s too polite to say 'go screw yourself,'” Trump said. “So what he did is he bought time with the NBA and he took the Skills Challenge and did some other things. And then the LPGA came back to him and said, ‘Listen, we’ll take the number that you gave us [originally] and even less.’ But by that time John had spent his advertising money.

Ron Sirak should seriously take up fiction writing.

PS- I do think bringing back the ADT format is a good idea and not just I'd like there to be a tournament close to home either.

Blogging and golfwriting under pressure or will someone please stir the Penne for me

2009-11-16T16:04:23Z

Yesterday I had a blog post up minutes after Michelle Wie won in Mexico. In that post I said

The next few days are sure to see a deluge of articles about how big the win was for both Wie and the LPGA.

I should have said the next few hours. If I wanted to make excuses for my poor prognostication, I could explain it away as a result of my having to cook Chicken Parmesan as I raced to put up the news about Wie at three blogs, Waggleroom, ROK Drop, and OTB Sports.

At least my wife's friend was impressed with dinner. She said the Chicken Parmesan was delicious.

Back to golf blogging. Alan Shipnuck wrote to say welcome to the Wie era and Beth Ann Baldry said for Michelle to now do it again. Both of these articles or posts were up within less than two hours of Wie's triumph. How did Alan and Beth Ann do it? Maybe they too were preparing dinner around 6 p.m. last evening.

That or someone had a Michelle Wie gets her first win column on the shelf* as The Constructivist suggests. Maybe Alan did, but in Beth Ann's case I think the answer is no. I am slightly puzzled by Beth Ann not knowing the Lorena Ochoa was on tape delay. She even wrote-

Fans waited nearly a decade to see Wie win an LPGA event, and they can’t even watch it live. Thanks, Golf Channel.

She also said she might as well hit the record and get to packing for this weekend's Tour Championship

Beth, you are being unfair to GC.(I've talked to Beth in person so I can call her by name. She might have a few colorful names for me after she reads this) GC is contractually obligated to show a PGA event before it gets to an LPGA broadcast. Then yesterday's Children's Miracle Network tournament went to sudden death. It doesn't take a degree in rocket science or the words of a smartass golf blogger to know that if GC could have shown Wie's win live instead of two journeyman golfers few people care about, that GC would have chosen to go with Wie.

Tape Delay is pardon the pun, almost par for the course when it comes to LPGA tournaments being broadcast on GC. That's one reason I didn't think it was a smart idea for the tour to sign with that network and I even recall a member of the golf media asking the LPGA when their new television deal was announced, if that meant tape delay would be a thing of the past. Whoever it was at Daytona Beach who replied, danced around the question. Tape delay isn't going away.

Beth Ann's outrage is a joke and puts her in a poor light. Is she taking a page out of Stina Sternberg's playbook now?

*- I began writing the Wie victory post while she was playing 18 and as I followed the tournament with LPGA's live scoring. Also no wine was served with the Chicken parmesan. The wife and I don't drink.

Michelle Wie: LPGA Savior?

2009-11-16T04:33:12Z

via www.aroundhawaii.com

With her first career victory on the LPGA Tour this past weekend, Michelle Wie may have very well sealed her title as the best thing new LPGA Commish Michael Whan has under his belt. Or, at least one major contributor to the golf blogosphere believes.

Earlier yesterday, ESPN's Jason Sobel had this little tidbit to say over Twitter:

@jasonsobel: Better with age? In her first start as a twenty-something, Michelle Wie is contending for her first win. Nice storyline for the new commish.

While pointing out that neither Wie nor Whan directly impact one or the other and both are mutually exclusive, Sobel responded to me stating that while he agreed, he still believes Wie's first win on Tour is a good headline for Whan's first season. Now, at the time I was pretty confused as to why this connection was even the little bit relevant (hard to believe from me, I know), but after taking some time to consider the possibilities of a more-confident Wie for the LPGA, things began to make much more sense.

Consider the following:

When a little man named Tiger broke onto the PGA Tour, fandom was possibly at an all-time low for the sport... especially among the youth of the world. Baseball was still considered America's Pasttime (despite football quickly closing in), basketball had a few shining stars, and golf was an afterthought on the weekend for television viewers. However, once Tiger started winning... and winning... and winning, the professional golfing world was never the same again.

Now imagine if the same thing can happen for the females of the sport via the possibility of an LPGA shake-up at the hands of Michelle Wie (who, coincidentally is also sponsored by Nike).

Sure, Americans are selfish. We always want to be the center of attention, and we almost always want to lay claim to the greatest athletes on the planet (even if another young lady has been making quite some noise on the LPGA for years now... and even hosted the tournament Wie won). Does American women's golf need a new sweetheart from Hawaii?

Or, does Mikey Whan just need a superstar of his own?

She Did It! Michelle Wie Wins Lorena Ochoa Invitational

2009-11-15T22:51:51Z

She edged Paula Creamer by two shots. Wie opened the final round tied for the lead with Cristie Kerr.

Wie birdied two of the first three holes and was never out of the lead. At some point during the final round both Creamer and Kerr tied Wie for the lead, but fell back. Creamer's bogey at 17 was particularly critical. Wie closed out her win with a birdie on 18.

After entering the weekend with a 3-shot lead, Jiyai Shin finished 74-71 and ended the tournament in a 3-way tie for 3rd with Kerr and Morgan Pressel.

Lorena Ochoa finished sixth. While Shin widened her lead for POY, it is still a very much open race. Ochoa can still take the title and doesn't necessarily need a win. Kerr can do it with a win if Ochoa and Shin both finish out of the top 10 in next week's Tour Championship.

I won't mention what Wie's victory ended. The golf media has only been hammering it over our heads for the last six months. Then some members of the media and the American public look at Wie or Asians as lesser Americans. I won't get into that stupid subject unless one of those culprits then make hay of Wie's win as a American triumph.

The next few days are sure to see a deluge of articles about how big the win was for both Wie and the LPGA. Wie's critics can't separate the fact that the LPGA's future success or even survival may be riding on this woman's back. What other female golfer excites fans and brings them to tournaments? It ain't Ochoa, Shin, or even Kerr and Creamer.

Courtgolf, are you standing by for your IV yet?

If You Care About Golf, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet, You'll Be Watching the LPGA Today

2009-11-15T15:50:19Z

Hey there, golfoblogosphere! How's it going? Glad to see all the focus on the globetrotting guys of the golfing world lately amid the dawning recognition that the Asian Pacific is where it's at. Oh, sorry, where are my manners? Please bow your heads and shout out 3 w00ts in honor of Tiger's big win down under. Think he's remembering how to close again? Tiger v. Phil in 2010 is ON!

OK, now that the formalities have been dispensed with, let me hasten to assure you that this post is not about Sakura Yokomine's wire-to-wire win on the JLPGA that just about pulled her even with Shinobu Moromizato in the money-list race on the 2nd-best women's tour on the planet. Seriously, if Rory had pulled his hair into a ponytail, worn knee-highs and a short skirt, and snuck into the field, maybe a few golf writers in Europe would have cared. But everyone knows the cardinal rule of golf: only care about what goes on in the biggest tour in your own country, and only to the top 2 or 3 players on it.

But let's face it, you can only drum up so much interest in the names and the nameless ones trying to avoid PGA purgatory today at the Magic Kingdom. No worries for Golf Channel, though. As it turns out, the U.S. hosts the #1 women's tour on the planet, the LPGA. (You may have heard of it.) Well, it just so happens that Lorena Ochoa, who is finally showing signs of being merely human since overtaking Annika Sorenstam as the world #1 in 2006, is in danger of having her 3-year streaks of winning both the Player of the Year and Vare Trophy (for lowest scoring average) come crashing to an end at the very tournament she's hosting this week. No, no, not to Michelle Wie, although she does happen to be tied for the lead with Cristie Kerr, who actually does have an outside chance of winning both year-end awards. Actually, the favorite to win both those awards is the same player who can clinch the money-list title this week. Ji-Yai Shin, the Final Round Queen of the KLPGA and 2009 LPGA Rookie of the Year, who's gunning for her 7th LPGA win in the last year and a half, is only a shot back after an unfortunate series of events over her final 7 holes yesterday opened the door to 1/3 of the elite field to play spoiler. She's still got a big lead on Ai Miyazato and Suzanne Pettersen, and...

No, wait, I'm doing this all wrong. Forget those f-ing furriners! It's time to think like GC and party like it's 2016!

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! MICHELLE WIE, CRISTIE KERR, and PAULA CREAMER are duelling for AMERICA'S HONOR today at 4. They're concerned for Steve Elling's health as he cries us a river every week another American fails to win on OUR OWN TOUR. Now they MEAN BUSINESS. And they're IN IT TO WIN IT. USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Hey, who cares that Yu Na Kim is going to win Skate America at Lake Placid today? It's back to the future today on the LPGA. Guadalajara is the new Lake Placid. You heard it here first--here's what the final leaderboard will look like at the end of the day:

1. Michelle Wie

2. Paula Creamer

3. Cristie Kerr

4. Brittany Lang

5. Morgan Pressel

6. Kristy McPherson

7. who cares? she won't be American!

But if you don't watch it live on Golf Channel at 4 today, it'll be your fault it doesn't happen. On behalf of the nation, let me be the first to say, "Shame on you! And you call yourself an American?"

[Note: I'm concerned that SBN's editing program not allowing strikethroughs in titles is diminishing the ultra-nationalism of this super-patriotic post. For the record, I tried crossing out "golf," so people can tell that I put country before sport. Under god.]

Bring Some Money, Mr. Scratch Golfer. You Will Need It.

2009-11-14T23:42:48Z

My club has its share of scratch and plus-index golfers. Those guys have won the state team championship a few times and they do well in other events. One just won the Maryland Open in which over one hundred regional professionals were entered. We are nothing special, just about every club has great golfers.

I follow amateur golf on a national level. The amateur rankings, the 'major' amateur events - like the North & South, the Western and the Public Links. Also, those who qualify for pro events and also how sponsored amateurs play who are entered in Tour events. It is amazing how pathetic the scores are from these guys. Very few post 2-3 good scores and most have at least round near 80. And, many of them think they could compete and WIN on the LPGA tour. Sorry, guys. NFW!

(Above) John Riegger

I will put a disclaimer on that last sentence. If I recognize your name, you MAY have a chance, but probably not. The young man at my club who won the Maryland Open went to college on a golf scholarship, has been our club champ and has qualified for the U.S. Amateur. He admits there are a half-dozen (if not more) players every bit as good as him in the state. There are fifty states and Florida and California probably have 20,000 plus-handicap amateurs.

So, here is my recommendation, Mr. Big Shot. Take a handful of marbles and put them in your mouth. Every time you shoot a 65 or better on your home course, spit one out. After the last one, go to Q-School because you have lost all your marbles. And do not be foolish enough to donate 'the farm' to practically any LPGA professional.

Reminds me of that jerk, John Riegger, a Nationwide tour journeyman, who challenged Annika Sorenstam to a match for $1,000,000. Not one dime of it his. This year, he has made only nine of twenty cuts. AND, three W/D's - what is that all about? John qualified for the Nationwide Tour this year by finishing 181st on last years money list. And, you want to be my latex salesman. I don't think so...

These girls can flat out play...

Today, Rickie Fowler, You Are a Professional Golfer

2009-11-13T21:28:20Z

No, he didn't clinch his PGA Tour card on the money list, don't be silly, it's just Friday. What he DID do, however, was call an official for one of the simplest rules violations in the game of golf.

On the 4th hole, his 12th of the day, Fowler missed the green with his second shot, then set up to pitch onto the green. As he was setting up, his club touched he grass, causing his ball to sink down into the grass - a one stroke penalty, and the ball must be replaced as near as possible to the ball's original position.

18-2. By Player, Partner, Caddie or Equipment
a. General

When a player's ball is in play, if:

(i) the player, his partner or either of their caddies lifts or moves it, touches it purposely (except with a club in the act of addressing it) or causes it to move except as permitted by a Rule, or

(ii)equipment of the player or his partner causes the ball to move,the player incurs a penalty of one stroke. If the ball is moved, it must be replaced, unless the movement of the ball occurs after the player has begun the stroke or the backward movement of the club for the stroke and the stroke is made.

Rickie then achieves professional status by calling for an official, who was nowhere near the green and had to drive all the way to the 4th green to tell 2.0 the obvious - that he had to add a shot to his scorecard - something I'm sure he already knew, since he called an official. The official had no way to know if Fowler was right about the ball moving...which is why golfers are expected to police themselves for the rules, so all he was doing was slowing down play for the groups behind him.

Adding to the embarrassment were former players Curt Byrum and Jerry Foltz, who announced that Fowler was "given" a one shot penalty by the official. Wrong. Fowler gave himself the penalty, the official just confirmed it.

So welcome to the big time, Rickie, when/if you get your card this week, we'll know that you have the rules game down.

Day one in Mexico...we need a power outage in the booth

2009-11-12T22:58:04Z

Good lord - the first day isn't finished and I'm already regurgitating every time Val Skinner and Dottie Pepper open their mouths. Will SOMEone tell these two that there is no such thing as a "grip...." (whatever iron the player is hitting) They just went back to back to back holes with Ochoa talking about how she will "grip a 7-iron", or "she's hitting a grip 8." AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG !!!!!

Personally, I can figure out what they are talking about because I understand gripping up and down on a shaft - but please, stop talking jargon that not only doesn't exist, it makes no sense. Of COURSE she's going to GRIP A 7-iron...how the hell else do you keep the damn club in your hands ???

I hate jargon - especially when nobody else in their right mind uses it.

Oh Ryan or how I lost my mind and make a defense of Mark Debord

2009-11-12T21:34:50Z

You took the guy to the cleaners but……

Consider Michelle Wie. Now 20-years-old, the phenom from Hawaii burst onto the professional golf scene in the period between 2003-2005. By her sixteenth birthday, she had already played an event on the men’s PGA Tour twice. She then turned pro, signed with Nike, and promptly almost won a women’s professional major, the LPGA Championship.

You replied-

Wrong again. Michelle Wie didn’t even turn pro until 2005. In 2003, she finished T9 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. In ’04, finished 4th. She had already almost won a major by the time she finished runner-up at the LPGA Championship in 2005 – and even then, she was still an amateur.

I don’t get where DeBord is wrong.

Wie did come on the professional golf scene in 2003-05 as an amateur

She did play in two PGA events by age 16

She did turn pro, sign with Nike, and nearly win the 2006 LPGA Championship. While she did finish 2nd at 2005 LPGA she was never a real factor. Annika ran away. Go take a look, she won by 3 over Wie and shot a final round 73. Wie shot 69 in the final round. That means Michelle started the final round 7 shots back.

Wie didn’t finish 2nd at the 2006 LPGA but as I’ve written at least a half dozen times, including at least once at WR , Wie was one of the 6-10 golfers in the mix on Sunday’s back nine. Wie finished two shots out of the Pak-Webb playoff but she bogied 18. She 3-putted from 50 feet

Yes DeBord wrote a filler space article but Ryan you jumped him for something he didn’t do wrong. Hard to imagine I’m defending a golf writer, eh?

Rory McIlroy to Play in USA in 2010

2009-11-11T11:04:05Z

The Associated Press reports Rory McIlroy has decided to not play the European Tour in 2010 in favor of coming to America and trying the PGA circuit full time. Points gained for Official World Golf Ranking positions in tournaments here in the States accumulate more quickly than Europe. McIlroy can use the points to better qualify for all four majors and the lucrative WGC events.

McIlroy is one of the 'bumper crop' of young golfers to appear on the scene in the past 12-18 months or so. They have not only shown promising skills, they have actually won tournaments on world tours. Shane Lowry, Ryo Ishikawa and Rickie Fowler represent an immense wealth of talent for the American audiences to see and appreciate. This is a blow to the Euro Tour, but Monty will have Rory back (and maybe Shane) at the Ryder Cup next fall to be held at the Celtic Manor Resort in the city of Newport, South Wales.

Equipment advice please.

2009-11-11T01:18:45Z

Hola, Wagglers.

As I believe I've mentioned in the pages before, I am a rank novice where this game is concerned. But I've recently begun to take things a little more seriously. As such, I've started mildly upgrading my clubs from the super-econo sticks the have occupied my bag for the past several seasons. (Picked up an old demo 975J that looked to have been hit maybe 20 times off eBay for $40 including shipping - Score!)

As part of this process, I've learned a few things that are critical when seeking out equipment that I had somehow never learned before - like the difference between forged and cast irons. And thus my dilemma.

I am not in a position to spend much. And I still need cavity-backed irons. But I would very much like the softness of a forged iron.

I've been scouting around for a second-hand set (I've nothing against used clubs) and I've hit a few I liked - Adams, older Mizuno, etc.

But today I stumbled across this listing on overstock.com. Now, I know Maxfli clubs have long been considered second-class at best. But then I found these reviews and began to consider them. I can tell that they are not an identical set of sticks, but still-and-all - they're forged and hyper-econo. The thing is that I have no idea as to the date of manufacture, and with Maxfli having gone through several ownership changes over the past several years, it's hard to know what I'm getting.

So, my question for y'all is as follows: anyone here no anything about the above clubs? And if they are unsatisfactory, anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

Tiffany Joh

2009-11-10T00:42:30Z

Tif Joh, past frequent poster here at Waggle Room and a two-time U. S. Women's Public Links Champion, won the five-round Duramed Futures Qualifying Tournament on Friday, November sixth. Joh earned a full exemption for the 2010 Duramed Tour season. Joh, who graduated in May, had a spectacular four years on the UCLA Golf team where she was UCLA's first four-time All-American in women's golf. Also, she was voted the 2007 PAC-10 Golfer of the year and in 2008 she took the PAC-10 title..