Due to personal reasons I didn’t get to bed until 4:30am last night. And even then I didn’t sleep. I was going to bail on the tournament but decided to give it a go anyway, despite having no sleep.
No warmup, no putting green… I smack my drive on the par-5 1st hole down the middle. Hit a five iron over the green to the back fringe. I drain my super fast eagle putt from the fringe. Wake me up.
I par 2 & three, then birdie #4. I got lucky because the pin was way right and that was NO pin to go for. Somehow my six iron stayed on the underside there, where most people’s roll off the green.
I get to the 7th and my gag reflex is kicking in. I’m starting to get butterflies and shakes from being so nervous and from no sleep. I yank my drive left and hit a tree on my approach to this short par four. I’m 30 yards from the green in super deep rough. I hit what may be the best chip I’ve ever hit. It went in like a putt.
Holy smokes I’m -4 after seven holes in the biggest tournament of the year. Try to breathe. Breathe.
I pull another drive and end up with bogey on #8. On #9 I had the worst gag of the day, pushing my tee shot into the hazard. I don’t get up and down and end up getting a freaking triple on a par three. The good news though, is I’m even par after a bogey and a triple!
On the back nine I played very steady, despite wanting to either collapse or throw up. I bogeyed one hole and made par on eight. I had some birdie opportunities which were close.
73
So in the toughest, biggest tournament of the year I shoot 73 on day one. Considering I haven’t golfed in close to 1.5 weeks, and that I got no sleep, I’m pretty happy about that.
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Hackers, Life
I’ve got to hand it to my friend Pat from the new Canadian based golf apparel company, “O In One.” She’s a highly motivated, persistent and outgoing lady. You’d have to be to try and compete in the golf apparel industry. With her dedication, persistence and unique products, she just might make it in the tough golf business.
O In One Golf Overview
O In One makes men’s and women’s golf apparel. Their current lineup includes golf shirts, hats and towels. Their web site is fairly new and the product images aren’t great, but that’ll improve with time and budget.
The trademark and unique feature of the O In One line is the “O” which can be found on the shirt collar and on the towel. The O is not just a logo, but an actual hole which goes through the item. The O on the shirt collar is a convenient place to put your sunglasses while at the 19th hole.
Read more…
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Accessories, Golf Apparel, Golf Reviews, Site News
Each week I get dozens of requests to trade links with other golf blogs, sports blogs and blogs you’d never thought would exist. I try to get to all the requests and swap links if I can. Lately however, there’s been a ton of “bot” or “automated” requests which are obviously not personally typed. They’re just robotic web crawlers sending out thousands of requests. I’m adopting a strict policy that I will NOT swap links with someone who uses tactics like that.
If you wish to trade links, you must be human and not a spammer!
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Site News
With site growth comes higher consumption of server resources like bandwidth, hard drive space etc. Yesterday without notice, HOG was shut down and took several hours to get turned back on. It was because HOG was “hogging” the CPU of the server.
I had to make some “under the hood” changes to the site in hopes that performance is increased and CPU drain is decreased. You probably won’t notice any change, except if I happen to put some new images in the gallery you might not see them instantly.
This stuff only happens when my schedule doesn’t have the necessary time to address the problem right away it seems. I apologize for yesterday and hope I’ve fixed the issues.
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Site News
One of the clubs I don’t switch very often in my bag is my 3-wood. It’s difficult to find 3-woods which work well with my “granny over the top jerky off plane epileptic seizure on crack makes Jim Furyk’s swing look on plane and makes Charles Barkley look like a scratch golfer” swing. So I don’t switch unless I find a club which really performs well for me. I switched.
Technology
MacGregor Golf has come out with new technology this season, just about across their entire line. The MacGregor “MacTec” is no longer around and the new “MT” line is the latest and greatest. Many of the MT offerings, the MT 3-wood included, employ the MacGregor “cup face” technology.
The MT Fairway is made of 17-4 stainless steel and the cup shaped front portion of the head is plasma welded to the body. Unlike many fairways, there isn’t a flat insert welded to the front of the head. The whole front of the face is one piece, shaped like a cup or bowl which wraps around the edges of the head on all sides. Using this technology, along with varying material content in different areas of the face, provides greater rebound as you go farther away from the sweet spot. Pure shots in the center of the club will always go well, but with the higher rebound moving outward, off-center shots will be closer to the same response and distance.
Read more…
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Clubs, Golf Equipment, Golf Reviews
Thanks to my friend John Boyne, a caddy at St. Andrews, for submitting this neat article on the 100 year anniversary of the death of Old Tom Morris. ~Tony
Old Tom Morris is attributed with being the founder of modern golf as we know it in this the 21st Century. An extrodinary feat considering he died, at the age of 84, on the 24th May 1908. This year is the 100th annversary of his death in St. Andrews.
An extrodinary man, he was born in June 1817, in St. Andrews. He grew up playing golf and this may have been the overriding decision from his father to apprentice him, as a ball maker, to the most famous golfer of the time and the first ‘professional’ Allan Robertson of St. Andrews. He served with Robertson for a term of nine years at the end of which he was playing the great Robertson on equal terms.
It is said that Alan Robertson never lost a match where a cash prize was at stake. They never had many recorded head to head matches, reputations at stake one suspects, but as a pair/team they were unbeatable. And the stakes could be high. Records show that one famous high staked game was for £400 (pounds) = $800 today, against the Dunn brothers from Musselburgh. For the victors in 1849 this is a fantastic amount of money and would be worth thousands in real terms, good God I would be hard pressed to go any higher than a simple five pound nassau today! Ah….to have some gentlemen benefactors, as these golfing pioneers obviously did, and then go out and produce the golfing goods against the best opponents of the day managed to give them an aura of invincibility when the money matches were played over the original Scottish Links courses of Mussellburgh, North Berwick and St. Andrews.
Read more…
Boynie Golf Courses, Life, Miscellaneous
Boy am I stoked! As part of the media team at the Pro Sports Celebrity Golf Challenge I get to play in the pro-am the day before the tournament, which is two weeks from today. I’ll be playing a round of golf with none other than 2008 Super Bowl Champion Michael Strahan of the New York Giants! This superstar NFL player could crush me with his pinkie toe.
Here’s some info on my soon to be new golf pal:
“One of the finest defensive ends in football during his 15–year career, Strahan holds the NFL record for sacks in a single season with 22.5 and is the all-time sack leader for the NY Giants with 132.5. He was a key member of the 2008 Super Bowl Champion NY Giants. He has received numerous awards, including NFL Defensive Player of the Year by the AP in 2001 and 7 Pro Bowl selections. He also co-wrote his autobiography Inside the Helmet: Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior.”
About the Team Challenge
The Team Challenge is going to be an amazing event, pitting four teams from all the major sports (football, hockey, baseball and basketball) against each other.
I have a previous blog post which covers the concept of the Team Challenge so go check it out.
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Media, Miscellaneous, Site News
HOG has been #1 in Google search results for numerous items, for short periods of time. In 2007 when TaylorMade came out with the new Burner driver, HOG had #1 and #2 slots even above TaylorMade’s own web site. The same has happened with Nike and their square drivers, HOG #1 and Nike #2. Sometimes I’ve got info posted here on golf companies before their larger corporate gears can churn out a web page on their sites.
Today I was googling and typed in “golf blog.” I was happy to find HOG in 1st position. HOG has been #2, so to speak, for a good year or two. So at least for this second, maybe not in five minutes, but for now, “we’re #1!” 
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Site News
OtterBox is a very hip company which makes waterproof cases for iPhones, Blackberries, iPods, PDA’s, GPA’s, ammo, cigars and more. They also make generic cases for general use or storage of miscellaneous items. Today I’m covering the OtterBox 3500 waterproof case, which is in the general category.
3500 Overview
The OtterBox 3500 case is roughly 9×5x4 inches. It is made of super strong plastic which will protect the contents from being crushed, smashed, compromised etc. There are two heavy duty latches which close the case securely. The case is sealed with a rubber gasket and is air tight, providing protection from water, dust, dirt, insects, nuclear blasts etc. OK I threw in the nuclear blast comment as a joke but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case.
Read more…
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Accessories, Golf Reviews
Running a golf blog sometimes calls for some odd activities, like taking pictures of soap. I just took pictures of my soap in my shower. I’m pretty sure that no other golfers out there have taken pictures of their soap.
Hidden Valley Farms All Natural Golf Soap
I get a lot of golf equipment and deliveries for review. One day, my deliveries smelled really good. I tore into the box and discovered my case of Hidden Valley All Natural Golf Soaps, which brought my home up to a new level of smelling good. I put the box and various soap bars on display in my pad and it was like adding the best selling air freshener in the world to every room. Eventually I finally broke down and actually cracked open the unique wrappers and started using it. I’m hooked.
Read more…
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Accessories, Golf Reviews
