I picked myself up off the floor following Tiger’s chip in on 16. What an incredible shot. I watched replay after replay of that Nike logo slowly rolling into the hole. I said to myself “What a Nike ad. They’ll be all over this like a cheap suit.”

I just saw the ad tonight for the first time. Nike talks about “control.” I’m as big of a Tiger fan as the next but I’m not quite sure they want to be bragging about “control” quite yet. Wouldn’t having “control” mean you hit more than 57% of your fairways on the season and rank higher than 156th in driving accuracy?

But then again these days driving accuracy doesn’t matter much any more. This is true especially at Augusta where the rough….er, a… I mean “first cut” is only about 1/2″ and is probably nicer than most fairways on any other course.

Let’s just see who has the most “control” at the US Open. If Tiger wins there, then Nike can brag about “control.”

One of the coolest new golf blogs is The Reluctant Jam Boy. The view of a day in the life of a caddy with his flare is great. I just had to post this quote:

“And the other player–a member–whipped the club around so fast I think he was trying to open some kind of hole in the space-time continuum. So in addition to taking huge divots, he created little time-rifts all over the course. I should’ve walked through one of them to see if the Redskins are ever going to go back to the Super Bowl.”

Pure genius.

I’m beginning to wonder if there are any bad golf balls out there. As a religious ProV1 user for years I thought there was only one ball. But having this fun blog is forcing me to have to try some new equipment. Most of the balls I’ve tested are excellent, even the budget ones. Ain’t technology great? Sorry Hootie.

I’ve seen Precept balls before. Never really hit them or bought a box at the pro shop. I’m still trying to figure out what the differences between Bridgestone, Precept and Brigestone Precept are. Are they not the same? (Actually Bridgestone is the Japanese side and Precept the American side).

So the local Bridgestone rep gave me some of these new Precept Laddie Extreme balls to try out. Since the balls were free I decided to try them on a very windy day at the tightest, most hazard ridden course I play.

The first thing I noticed was that the ball didn’t seem to be a “hard” ball. I just assumed these were distance balls because of their 2 piece construction. These balls, (like just about every ball on the market) are long off the driver. The Extreme also feels very nice off the irons. For me the key is the irons. Around the greens the Extreme has the right amount of spin, but not too much. And putting was equally nice.

These balls have 372 dimples which is a little less than the standard ball (a V1 has 392 and a V1X 332). The durability of the ball is excellent. These are much more durable than the HX Hour, One Black, ProV1 or the Hogan balls. Bridgestone says the Extremes don’t “shear” but I did have one crack.

If you find it hard to rationalize paying $40-50-60 a dozen for golf balls the Laddie Extreme would be a good choice for you. For $20 you can get performance that will be comparable with balls that can cost 2-3x more.

My rating: 7.5/10
MSRP: $29 STREET: $20
Web site: http://www.preceptgolf.com/

My NEW best friend Bob talked to me in the parking lot after our men’s league yesterday and brought up the idea of me going to The Masters. “If I was interested.”

To say I was interested would have been the understatement of the century. Would the world’s biggest golf addict pass up a chance to see heaven before he dies? I told him he’d be on the Christmas list, the buy him a beer every time I see him list, and the I’ll mow your lawn and pull your weeds list. “Can I get that door for you Bob? Oh, I’ll pick up lunch today Bob! Bob, can I shine up those irons for you? Oh Bob, I’ll rake that trap for you. And Bob, don’t worry about that big divot you made. I’ll fix it for you…”

I told him that thanks to him, I may not sleep FOR A YEAR.

I’ll be saving up my dough so I can buy pimento & cheese sandwiches….oh and perhaps a few HUNDRED Masters souvenirs. And no I won’t be selling them on eBay.

The pundits decisively chose Pam to be victorious over Danielle in the Big Break III final. The pundits were wrong. (I’m not a pundit)

I did pick Danielle to win based on her supposed “experience” and Pam being fairly new to the game. I had figured Pam would make some mental errors and Danielle would walk away with it easy. Pam did hang in there much better than I thought, and she had a way of making clutch shots when she needed to. Pam kept saying she didn’t want to putt aggressively. Hello? When it’s match play and you need to make a putt to halve the hole don’t leave it short!

So now Danielle has a new car, $5000 in spending money at Golf Galaxy and two real exemptions into the LPGA Tour. She also won a spot in a celebrity tourney. I’m going to go on the record and predict that, as pretty as she is she’s not going to make the cut in either LPGA event. She wants it bad enough, but wanting it alone won’t bring her skill set to the level of LPGA pro. I’d love to be proven wrong but that’s my take.

By the way I don’t think $5000 is going to last too long at Golf Galaxy. But at least she can buy a new sand wedge.

The polls on Big Break III are now closed. It’s Pam at 61% and Danielle at 38%. I don’t know where the other 1% went.

Let’s see if the pundits are right.

Christmas has come early for me this year! Here are the goodies Santa (aka Bob Weaver) brought me from Augusta.

One and a half days to go and Pam has taken a lead with 58% of the vote. If you haven’t voted on your pick for the Big Break III finale, the poll is in the lower left column.