Missed Opportunity

Dunlop missed the boat on this one. If they had been able to get a hold of this technology, they could have had the 'High Tech Redneck'.

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The Wie Situation

Reading this article on the Michelle Wie disqualification this weekend got me to thinking about an issue that I've discussed with my golfing buddies several times:

Should spectators be allowed to call players on rules violations?

As far as someone being allowed to call in because they see an infraction on TV, my vote would be no. My reasoning is simple. Every player can not be seen by the cameras. Tiger Woods, for example, has a lot more camera time than any other player on the tour. Phil Mickelson might make the same rules boo boo as Tiger, but since they never show Phil on TV, he would get away with it where Tiger might not. It's not fair to Tiger, and unless every player's every shot could be seen, I think it should not be allowed.

Allowing spectators at the event to call rules violations might be a little different, but you still get back to the fact that the popular players have a lot bigger gallery than the less popular ones, and therefore there are more eyes on them judging their every move. Mr. Bamberger couldn't see whether Natalie Gulbis made the same mistake as Michelle, because his eyes were trained on Michelle Wie. That's not fair to Michelle.

What does concern me about this whole situation is that apparently Mr. Bamberger (who seems to have been made the villian in this story) did approach Michelle about the possible rules violation after Saturday's third round...

"He questioned her about it after the round. He slept on it Saturday night. Still bothered, he brought it to the attention of rules officials on Sunday."

Yet we didn't hear anything about it until after the final round on Sunday. Everything I've read or heard about this incident seems to have glossed over this fact and it disturbs me a little bit. I'm wondering if Michelle had been approached about it, why didn't she mention it to a rules official herself? Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Michelle or her team had bad intentions. She probably just didn't think there was a problem and that this strange reporter was just trying to stir up trouble. It's just something that's not clear to me and I would like to know why she didn't question it more than she apparently did.

In the end, the rules are the rules, and they handled this situation according to them. Should the rules be changed? I don't know, but I do think they need to at least be looked at for the future.

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Long Time Coming

Here's a cool story about the longest ever recorded Hole-In-One... 1 hour, 4 seconds to be exact. Something about the tee and the green being in different time zones. Anyway, I thought it was a cool story, and a nice piece of trivia.

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Rescue Review

Well, as indicated by my In The Bag section to your right, I have recently added a couple of rescue/hybrid clubs to my bag. I figured after a couple of years of hype, I may as well give them a try. I must say, so far I am pleasantly surprised. When the rescue/hybrid fad hit, I looked at it as just that, a fad. I figured, what do these things have that a good fairway wood doesn't? I also bought into the theory that if you couldn't hit a decent long iron, you weren't really a golfer. The last thought might be true, but I don't buy it anymore.

The first thing I noticed about them is that I can absolutely hammer them off the tee. Of course, they're not a driver or 3 wood, but they definitely go longer (for me) than a 3 or 4 iron, which is what they're supposed to be replacing. And while I had some control issues with them the first couple of rounds, they still give me more control than I would have on a day when my driver or 3 wood leaves me, and with acceptable distance too.

Secondly, out of the rough they are a dream. I don't know what it is about them, but they will smoke out of the rough where the same shot with a 4 iron would get you maybe 3/4 of your normal distance. Used to if I found myself in some of the bermuda rough that we have at my home course, I would pull out a 7 iron and not give it a second thought. Now I will be giving it a second thought.

Finally, I messed around a little with some off-the-green "putts" with, again, amazing results. I had previously practiced the same shot with a 7 wood with acceptable results. I don't know what it is about these rescue clubs, but they seem to give me much more control than the 7 wood.

I know some of this can be attributed to the "new club confidence" factor. Obviously, I will have to get some more rounds in before making them a permanent part of my bag. For now, though, I am very pleased with my results.

Texas Golf Made Easy

I've always been a little partial to Texas golf, which is strange because I'm not from anywhere near Texas. But ever since reading Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, I've had an interest in following all of the Texas golfers: Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Roy McAvoy, all of those dudes. Well, imagine my happiness to discover the Texas Golf Blog, a blog about, you guessed it, golf in Texas. I highly recommend checking it out. There's some great insight and news on Texas golf, and just plain old golf in general.

USGA To Allow Rangefinders

I've been meaning to post about this for a few days now, but I've been kind of lazy. Apparently, the USGA has decided to make a huge amendment to one of their rules, allowing electronic rangefinders to be used in tournament play. Rangefinders have been used for years by amateurs, but until now, have never been allowed during tournament play. The new rule doesn't allow rangefinders across the board, but does allow clubs to make rangefinders legal via their own local rule.

I think this is a move in the right direction, and a move into the 21st century for the USGA. As I have stated before, PGA Tour Pros have essentially the same information fed to them from their caddies from week to week, and I think I should be allowed the same information, even though my local club doesn't have caddies.

Tiger Woods On Xbox 360

I just found some screenshots of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 on the Xbox 360. They look pretty good. I just hope they don't get too enthralled with the looks off all these new games on the new systems and remember the gameplay aspect.