One of the clubs I play in has a season long match play tournament to determine the club champion. I’ve made it a few rounds in, in the last few years. Each time I’ve lost to the eventual club champ. Last year I shot even par and lost 5 & 4. That dude dropped a 67 on me and apologized.

So my first match of the year is tomorrow. The opponent I drew is none other than my best golfing friend who I play with 2-4 times per week. So the mood for tomorrow’s normal “fun” golf outing will be slightly different. It will be game-face city and the intensity will be off the charts compared to our normal game. We both agree that having to play each other for the first match sucks because one of us will be done for the year.

As much as I’m my friend’s pal, that goes out the window tomorrow…

A fly on the wall…

Well well well. I received an email from someone at travelgolf.com a week or two ago asking if I would join their ranks as a contributor. They have quite a large staff of golf bloggers there and I’m trying to make my on deal here fly, so I graciously thanked them and passed on the offer.

Travelgolf has had some major pissing matches with Walters Golf (proprietor of many Vegas golf destinations). I don’t really know what the history is there, but you can read dozens of posts at travelgolf.com slamming Walters Golf. I get their point: Yes, there are many a rip-off golf courses in Vegas. But hey, it’s a tourist town. There are courses here in my town that I can play for $20 that would cost $300 in Vegas. I think there are some behind the scenes issues at work as well here, other than some of the overpriced dog tracks in Vegas.

I’ve just looked at travelgolf as a collection of golf bloggers, some of which like to mix it up a little. Some of travelgolf’s bloggers have waged wars against each other as well.

Now we have some blog bombs being lobbed between travelgolf, Jay and now Robert Thompson. Could we be on the way to a bloggonuclear war? THIS is entertainment!

Augusta National is going to be lengthened…..again. I guess the “One ball, that’s all” idea is not going to fly (pun intended). The new length of 7,445 yards will make it the 2nd longest course that has hosted a major to Whistling Straits (7,514). Back in 2001 Augusta measured only 6,985 yards.

I have a scorecard from the 2005 Masters. I guess that will be out of date now….and worth even more!

BBC Article
LA Times article, courtesy of BogeyMan
Fox Article
USA Today’s version

What do Bruce Fleisher, David Feherty, Billy Andrade, Scott McCarron, The Reluctant Jamboy and mediaguru (yours truly) have in common? We all wear Peak Vision Sports Sunglasses.

Peak Vision Sports makes many different sunglasses for golf, skiing, baseball and other sports. Peak Vision’s glasses not only look cool, they employ some interesting technology to help you with your game. Let’s check it out.

The technology

Standard sunglasses (like the kind you see on people’s hats and not their eyes) are manufactured with injection molded polycarbonate. These lenses do help cut out glare and protect your eyes from UV light, but also filter out much of the color needed to judge the contour of the terrain. Lenses manufactured this way can have poor optical clarity and distortion. The distortion also interferes with your ability to judge distances and read course contours.

Peak Vision’s glasses use a material called NXT (no, not the material used in NXT golf balls!) which provides the same clarity as optical glass. The material is also very light and scratch resistant.

The Peak Vision lenses have two noticeable “zones.” The gray upper zone is darker and eliminates glare from the sun while enhancing your distance perception. The amber lower zone is lighter and allows you to see the contours of the green better. It is basically like having a set of bifocals that are built for different lighting from top to bottom. The two zones blend or dither together. The combination of these two zones into one lens results in a more even optical response curve across the board. Other glasses typically only cover one of these two issues.

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Played some golf in Park City, Utah this weekend. Park City is Utah’s version of Aspen, complete with the millionaires and overpriced tourist shops and restaurants. Tiger and Mark O’Meara even have homes there. Park City is most well known as a ski town and for the Sundance Film Festival. Park City also hosted many events in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. I attended the long jump and the bobsled events.

But when the snow melts Park City is quite a nice place to visit as well. There are tons of mountains and trails for hiking and mountain biking. There are also a couple of golf courses right in town.

The top picture is of the 17th green at the Park City Municipal course. You can see the bottom of the chair lifts and ski runs which are part of the Park City Mountain Resort. The lighter colored line down the mountain is a slide you can ride called the “Alpine Slide.”

The Park City Municipal is a fairly short, traditional tree lined course. Tee accuracy is crucial. You could shoot a low number if you keep it in the fairway. Their range is terrible though. They have rubber mats and only allow shots of 215 yards or less.

The pic below is a shot from Park Meadows.

Park Meadows was once public but is now a private country club. PM was designed be the man himself, Jack Nicklaus. PM is a typical Jack design with lots of long holes, sand and fades off the tee. PM also hosted the then called Senior Tour and had the likes of Jack, Arnie, Gary, Lee, Chi Chi and more play there.

You can still see some snow atop the mountain in the background at the top of the ski resort.

It’s gotta be the shoes!

I’ve had a bit of US Open withdrawal since last week. I found it a bit taxing to try to watch the PGA Tour. But today’s final round was quite entertaining.

Jim Furyk and Padraig Harrington duked it out. Furyk missed some easy putts and opened the door for Harrington. On the 18th hole Padraig sunk a 65 foot eagle putt to claim his 2nd PGA Tour victory. (see pic)

Padraig’s secret weapon must have been his Hi-Tec Golf Shoes. Check out my review on them here.

Tonight before dinner my kids and I went on a little walk for our evening ball search. We followed the river which is left of the 17th hole here. Then we hit the hazard right of the 16th green and fairway.

The take: 62 balls

“Birdie” Kim knocked an improbable green side bunker shot in the hole to make birdie and capture the US Women’s Open. What an incredible shot. One of the best, if not THE best shot of the year.

Michelle Wie was tied for the lead going into today, but faded from the spotlight with an 82. Welcome to “Open” pressure Michelle. Put that in your memory banks for future use.

No history making for Annika this time… I would have liked to seen it happen.