Campbell Wins U.S. Open

It was good to see Michael Campbell win one of the big ones yesterday. Obviously he played better than anyone else all week, but I thought in particular he had the best round of any of the leaders yesterday. On a day when everyone else was having trainwrecks, Campbell held it together and managed to play steady golf for 18 holes.

I know I've stated before that I don't like it when a 'nobody' wins a big event like a Major, but Michael Campbell is far from a nobody to me, and I'm sure the same goes for anybody who has been following the game for a while. Campbell is a superstar on the world stage who has just had some bad luck in his life. It's nice to see all his hard work and perseverence has finally paid off.

A New Obsession

Ok, I'm going to admit it. I have a new obsession, and it's called podcasting. No, I don't have a podcast. I have become obsessed with listening to podcasts. I have always liked to listen to talk radio, and also to bring some tunes, talk, or whatever with me when I'm playing alone on the golf course. And before anyone asks... no, I don't have a boombox strapped to the back of my cart. I have headphones.

Anyway, podcasts seem to fit well with me. Mainstream music is not all that great to me right now, and TechTV is gone, so I can't get any good tech content on TV. But I can download some good tech-related audio and maybe find some good independent tunes (not really found any good music podcasts yet, but I won't get into that right now) via podcasts.

Now, from the searching I've done, there seems to be a very small percentage of podcasts out there that are actually good, but there also seems to be something out there for almost anyone. I say 'almost' because I have yet to find a podcast relating to golf. It would seem that there is a lot to talk about with the sport. There's always tournament news, instruction, or maybe even dedicate each show to one specific golfer. I don't know. I'm not a producer or anything. I'd just like to be able to listen to golf while I'm playing golf.

For anyone interested in podcasting, there are several sites out there where you can find out what you need to know. My current favorite is Podcast Alley.

Site Update

The 'Sites I Visit' section has been updated with a new site I have found called The Sand Trap. I'm always looking for good golf blogs, and this one seems to fit the bill. It has a nice, clean look to it, and appears to have a good-sized staff to help keep the site updated often. Anyway, check it out... The Sand Trap. It's my new favorite.

This Is Sort Of Ridiculous

Watching the Golf Channel last night, they showed a package of Payne Stewart and Phil Mickelson's play coming down the stretch at Pinehurst in 1999. Then they went to an excerpt of Phil's press conference from Tuesday, I guess. Anyway, during the press conference, the Golf Channel was showing little graphics at the bottom of the screen such as "Lost to Payne Stewart at Pinehurst in 1999"... relevant to the situation, right? I mean, the event this week is at the same location, and Phil came in second in that particular event.

But the one that really got me was "Lost by 3 strokes to Tiger Woods in 2002 U.S. Open"... huh? What does that have to do with anything? If they want to show something of that nature that might have some relevance, why not say "Lost to Retief Goosen in 2004 U.S. Open"? At least that was the most recent U.S. Open.

Why pull 2002 out of a hat? Maybe because that was the last time Tiger won. Why not just put a graphic at the bottom of the screen and leave it on there 24 hours a day that says "Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open in 2002"? You really just want Tiger's name to show up somewhere on the screen anyway. Why try to disguise it by pretending it has some relevance to anything to do with this week?

I know one thing. The next time I see Tiger interviewed, I fully expect to see a graphic that says "Lost by 10 strokes to Jim Furyk in 2003 U.S. Open". Think I will? Me neither.

This Game Drives Me Nuts!!

Just when I'm ready to give up this stupid game, something happens to pull me back in. I played Sunday morning, had to play the back nine first, and had a horrible 9 holes... probably my worst of the year. I almost quit, but decided I'd go ahead and play the front nine. And of course, I had my BEST nine of the year.

How many times does this happen? Most of the time for me, it's reversed. A good front and bad back. I must say, if it has to happen, I much prefer to go home remembering a good nine. What I have to take from it is that, with the good nine, I know I'm capable of good things. No, it's not that I was just playing above my talent level. That's not possible. It's not that I was getting lucky bounces. I simply played a solid nine holes. The problem is that most of the time I'm playing below my talent level.

I've been working on improving my short game, as I've mentioned in earlier posts. While I've not made any major progress, I have been able to work on improving my technique, which has improved my ball contact. I'm still going to have to work on distance control, but with the improved fundamentals, I at least have more confidence in my ability to get the ball on the green from inside 50 yards. Naturally, that takes a little pressure off the other parts of my game and I think that's what directly lead to my improved scoring on the front nine Sunday.

What about the bad back nine? Well, I think I was just concentrating too much on technique and not enough on scoring. "Stick with the swing that brung ya" is what Harvey Penick says, and leave the practice for the practice range.

U.S. Open Coverage

With the U.S. Open starting this Thursday, I'd say I'll be spending most of my time at home this week on The Golf Channel. I think the "Live From..." coverage begins tonight, with Kraig Kann and the krew telling every story worth telling this week, and probably making up a few along the way. They're all very knowledgable, and I love hearing them go back and forth with pretty much every scenario that could play out this week.

You can bet the Big 4 will be a big topic of conversation, with Tiger getting most of the attention as always. Heck, they might even talk about Retief Goosen, what with him being the defending champ and all.

Dave Pelz will show his face at some point I'm sure, with his expert advice on how the "finesse game" will play into the final outcome. And he's right. From what everyone has been saying, the short game will play an important roll in determining the winner. But I've also heard that the rough is going to be pretty... rough. For that reason, I can't predict winners such as Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, neither of them being the straightest of drivers. I would probably pick Tiger over Phil, though, just because Tiger would have enough sense to hit a fairway wood or long iron off the tee, where Phil will probably take out the driver every chance he gets. "New Phil" or not, he still likes to come out of his shoes more than most.

Annika Dominating Again

Say what you will about the Big 4, or 5, or whatever you want to call them, Annika Sorenstam is currently the best golfer on the planet. It's unbelievable how she's dominating the LPGA Tour right now. She won 5 in a row, lost one, and now is on another streak. She's won the first major of the year, and is currently leading the second by two strokes with two rounds to play.

I read somewhere that someone suggested that Annika should be invited to join Augusta National. While that probably wouldn't make Vijay very happy, if it's going to happen at some point (and Hootie Johnson indicated that a woman would probably be invited to join sooner or later), I think Annika has definitely proven her worth.

Hall Of Fame aside, what kind of honor would it be to be the first woman invited to join the most exclusive Country Club in history? And how funny would it be if she declined the invitation? Oh well, I'm not holding my breath for either to happen any time soon.

Tiger A Nerd?

Heh. This is funny. Tiger Woods is #2 on the 50 Biggest Nerds Of All Time list. Other highlights include Dana Scully (#30) of X-Files fame (she's hot), Queen Amadala herself, Natalie Portman (#21, and also hot) and former Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy (#48, and not so hot).

The Pelz Method

I've just recently purchased, and am now reading Dave Pelz' Short Game Bible. While I to try to stay away from the technical aspects of the golf swing (it tends to ruin my game even more, if that's even possible), I decided to get this book because I'm at the point where I'll try just about anything. I would have to say, having read only the first 3 or 4 chapters, I'm really impressed with the physics and statistics that Pelz puts into his method.

One example that I particularly like: tour pros, in Dave's research, tend to have a 7% variance on any full swing shot. That is, if the average pro hits a full wedge from 100 yards, he's going to be (on average) within 7 yards, or 21 feet of his target (keeping in mind, of course, the true target is not necessarily always the hole). Now, if that same pro hits a full 5 iron from 200 yards, using the same 7% variance, he would be (on average) within 14 yards, or 42 feet. So, 42 feet away from the target, maybe this particular pro lands in a bunker. Maybe he finishes the hole with a 5 instead of the 3 or 4 he would have gotten had he landed on the green. He goes to the next tee disgusted with the "bad" 5 iron he hit to get himself in the bunker. But statistically he was within the 7% average of tour pros. Had he had a stronger short game, he might have still been able to get that par.

It's a very interesting read. I would definitely recommend it. I would even go so far as to say I have seen some improvement in my short game already, without even having had the chance to practice too much yet.

The Return Of Push

Does anyone remember push technology from a few years back? It didn't go over too well back then, because it was a little before it's time I guess. If you think about it, it's the same thing that we're basically all after now, what with rss news aggregators, podcasts, Tivo, and now this new Akimbo IPTV-based set-top box on the horizon. We're all wanting to find new and better ways to get content "pushed" to us without having to go get it. It's just funny for me to think about something that basically flopped (as far as I know) a few years ago, is now the "in" thing.

OS Quiz

Here's a nice little quiz I found via Digg to tell you which OS you would be if you were an OS. They've got some other quizzes too. Check them out.

I'm Slackware Linux.

A Few Links Of Note

Just doing my part to get the word out that there is still some tech programming out there... even after the sad and unnecessary demise of TechTV.

First, some of the former personalities on what must be called the "flagship" show of TechTV, The Screen Savers, have begun getting together on Sundays to create a podcast called This Week in Tech (TWiT for short).

Next we have the leader of the crew himself, Leo Laporte. He's pretty much everywhere, on TWiT, on the radio, on podcasts and on Call For Help Canada.

Patrick Norton has a blog that he never updates, but has been posting to his blog on the TWiT website. He also has an RSS Feed that pretty much posts everything he writes for ExtremeTech.com and ExtremeiPod.

Kevin Rose, who went on to be a personality on the new (and now former) Screen Savers and it's evil twin Attack Of The Show, just announced on his blog that he will be leaving G4 and devoting all of his time to his new show Systm and his first video project, thebroken, with hopefully even more to come.

I say great work, guys. It's nice to know that you are all still out doing your best to bring the tech to the masses.

Audit My PC

Just found this website, AuditMyPC.com, via Digg.com. Looks like a decent little site for checking various things about your PC, including a spyware scan and a test to see if your popup blocker is working as well as it should. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I work on PC's a little bit in my spare time. I'll be using this site in the near future to see if it lives up to my expectations.

Gaming Bits

Check out this pic of the controller for the new Playstation 3. Is this butt ugly or what?

I myself just purchased an original Xbox about a month back. I find if I stay about a generation behind with gaming consoles, it's just as much fun and a whole lot cheaper. Now I can get most of the games that everyone was raving about 6 months ago for about half the price. And by the time I'm finished with them, the games that are hot now will be $20... maybe even less with the Xbox 360 just over the horizon.

Speaking of games, I can't wait for the release of the new game, Destroy All Humans. I've been waiting for this thing since I read about it last fall in a gaming mag. It looks to be a nice twist on the old alien invasion movies of the 50's. This time you get to play the alien. I think it's due to be released sometime next month. I probably won't wait for this one to make it to the bargain bin.

How Did It Go In?

Ok, this is crazy. Now we've got this website dedicated to trying to figure out how Tiger's ball dropped on the 16th hole in the final round at the 2005 Masters. And I thought I had too much time on my hands. I have to admit, though, it's pretty funny.

Tin Cup Revisited

Here's a nice post on Snopes.com that will remind everyone who has seen the movie of a famous scene from Tin Cup.

Spyware: Out Of Control

This spyware stuff is out of control.  I would even go so far as to say that it's currently a bigger problem than viruses.  I make a few extra bucks every now and then by doing the odd computer repair, and in the past 6 months to a year, the bulk of my repairs have been concentrated on the removal of spyware.

The problem is that, while a lot of people out there have probably heard of spyware, they don't worry about it as much as they worry about viruses.  We've all heard for years about the dangers of viruses and what they can do to your system, and most of the PC's I work on have some type of antivirus program installed (even if it's not updated).  But with spyware, people seem to look at it as more of an annoyance than a danger.

This may be true for the most part, but it will be nice when the word finally gets out about the adverse effect spyware can have on general PC performance.  When people finally realize that spyware is a big part of why their PC is "slowing down", maybe they will be more willing to be proactive about stopping it.  One thing I would welcome would be to see the Dell's of the world start to include anti-spyware programs on new PC's with 3 or 6 month trials, the same way they do with anti-virus programs now.

I just purchased Spy Sweeper for my own system, and so far, I'm pretty impressed.  I didn't have a big presence of spyware on my system.  I purchased it mostly for testing purposes, to be able to recommend it to some of my clients.  But I did have a few pieces on my system that the program was able to find and clean.

Let's Go Kipper!!

Looks like Kip Henley, the winner of the Golf Channel's Big Break II, is set to play his first Nationwide Tour event this week in the Henrico County Open. For those who don't know, Big Break is the Golf Channel's reality game show where 10 men (or women) compete for a few exemptions on their respective tours.

I always liked Kip on the show, but didn't really respect his game until the final episode when he edged out one of the favorites, Don Donatello. He showed he has gained a lot of knowledge about the game in his 40+ years. I hope he does well. If he makes the cut it will be one more step towards his goal of making it on the PGA Tour.

New Direction

Starting today, I'm planning on moving this blog in a somewhat different direction. No, that's probably not entirely accurate. I still plan on talking a lot about golf here. It's just that I would like to be able to incorporate some of my other interests, as well as the occasional post about my life in general. In short, I'm going to be talking about whatever the heck floats my boat at any given time.

That was actually the intention when I started this thing a little less than a year ago, but before I knew it, I was focusing mostly on golf. I guess I was taken in by the title "Rub Of The Green", but in fact, as I alluded to in my first post ever, just because it's a golf term, doesn't mean it has to be ONLY a golf term.

I'm working right now on an acceptable way to implement categories into this blog, to give it a little bit of organization when I do start talking about anything and everything. I've been working on a couple of methods over the past couple of weeks, but nothing satisfies me so far. So I guess for the time being I'll be throwing everything together in a big hodgepodge of tech, golf, life and... golf.

Stay tuned...

Tournament Results

Well, my big tournament has come and gone. We all had a pretty good day. We shot 9 under, which for four high handicappers isn't too bad. Our previous best had been 7 under. We had gotten to 7 under with 5 holes to play. We figured then we would easily be able to beat our previous best, since 4 of our final five were birdie holes. Things didn't work out exactly as planned. We parred the next 4, but managed to eagle the final hole to get it to 9 under, which is a nice way to finish up. We did bogey one hole, which left us a little bitter in the end.

When we first came in, we had heard we were tied for the lead. But our shot at glory was brief. The next team to finish posted 10 or 11 under, I don't know for sure which. We left after finding out we had been beaten, so I'm not sure of the final winning score.

Oh, yeah, and my cart broke down 6 holes into the round.