Hooked On Golf Blog

I’m happy to announce I’ve been confirmed to attend and cover the PGA Tour Puerto Rico Open.   I’ll be down at the Trump International Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico next weekend.

Being that I consider myself a blogger and not a journalist, I’m going to try and cover this in a way other than how the regular, stuffy and predictable golf media would.   Anyone can tell you who birdied #15, and I probably will do some of that.  But I want to find some angles which normal press simply doesn’t cover.  Feel free to comment here if there’s something you’d like to see or hear about.

Stay tuned.  I’m very excited for this opportunity.  I’m going to try and get a round of golf in at one of the Trump courses there too, obviously for the pleasure of playing but for more content as well.

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Media, PGA Tour, Site News Puerto Rico Open

Effective March 1, 2010, Bridgestone Golf will be sponsoring a monthly new member sign up contest at The Golf Space.  From now until further notice, The Golf Space and Bridgestone golf will be picking one lucky new TGS member every month who will win a box of awesome Bridgestone Golf balls!  Tell your pals to sign up now and they may win some killer golf balls!

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Media Bridgestone Golf, The Golf Space

Waste Management Phoenix Open
PGA TOUR
Thursday 2/25 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET GOLF
Friday 2/26 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 2/27 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 2/28 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET GOLF

HSBC Women’s Champions
LPGA Tour
Saturday 2/27 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 2/28 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET GOLF

Maybank Malaysian Open
European Tour
Thursday 3/4 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET GOLF
Friday 3/5 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 3/6 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 3/7 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET GOLF

Toshiba Classic
Champions Tour
Friday 3/5 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 3/6 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 3/7 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM ET GOLF

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Champions Tour, European Tour, Golf Media, LPGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, PGA Tour Champions Tour, LPGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, PGA Tour

My dreams of being a writer for the mother ship, PGA.com, have come true. Nope, they didn’t bring me on as a high paid staff writer unfortunately, but you have to start somewhere.

While reading nauseating Facebook updates about my old high school friends who I haven’t seen in decades, transients doing nutty stuff on the shore by Delinda’s house, another who is writing about his urethral stricture surgery (barf), and all the useless dribble which makes up that sort of social networking, I found something interesting: The PGA.com web site has a story today which poses this question: “What hole would you want to play in front of a crowd?“ and asks their Facebook friends to chime in. I did.

Many of the featured holes in the article are some of the most famous holes in golf like the 17th Road Hole at St. Andrews, the 18th hole at Pebble Beach, 13th at Augusta National and of course the island green 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, where the Players Championship is played. Wow. I think that may be the longest sentence I ever wrote which still made sense. I digress.

TPC 17th

I commented on the experience I had playing the TPC Sawgrass 17th, and pondered how much more humiliating it would be in front of a crowd.  See if you can find it…

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Media, Site News PGA.com

Boy the web will be full of opinions.  Mine will be coming later.  I’m going to watch the apology speech a few times.

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Media, PGA Tour, Tiger Woods Tiger Woods

This is entertaining to say the least.  Tiger’s speech tomorrow is so tightly secured and controlled that the Golf Writers Association of America, a group of 950, has decided to boycott it.  Only three pool writers will be allowed near Tiger during the speech and they had to agree NOT to ask questions.

G.W.A.A. president Vartan Kupelian: “To limit the ability of journalists to attend, listen, see and question Woods goes against the grain of everything we believe.”

The fallout from the speech is going to be huge.  Just imagine how many opinions, dissections, questions and critiques there will be following the speech.  No way I’ll be able to keep my comments to myself so stay tuned here for my incredibly insightful and valuable take on Tiger’s apology.

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Media, PGA Tour, Tiger Woods Tiger Woods

WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship
European Tour
Wednesday 2/17 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET GOLF
Thursday 2/18 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET GOLF
Friday 2/19 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 2/20 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 2/20 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET CBS
Sunday 2/21 10:00 AM – 1:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 2/21 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET CBS

Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun
PGA TOUR
Thursday 2/18 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET GOLF
Friday 2/19 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 2/20 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 2/21 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM ET GOLF

Honda PTT LPGA Thailand
LPGA Tour
Saturday 2/20 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 2/21 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM ET GOLF

Allianz Championship
Champions Tour
Friday 2/19 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 2/20 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 2/21 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET GOLF

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Champions Tour, European Tour, Golf Media, LPGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, PGA Tour

At the PGA Show demo day I walked by a covered booth and saw this guy hitting balls about one per 1-2 seconds via an automated ball dispenser.  He was over three hours into his world record attempt for the most golf balls hit in 12 hours.  He did break the record and ended up with 7721.

Below they’re taking a quick break to tape up the blisters…

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Equipment & Accessories, Golf Balls, Golf Equipment, Golf Media, Golf Videos

Loyal readers of The Golf Space and Hooked On Golf Blog had a long and painful read a few days ago. That piece has been removed. I’m happy to say that all issues between myself and Martini Media Network have been resolved. The wounds are patched and healing, and we’ll all be better off in the end as a result of the experience.

I’m now pals with the CEO of the company Skip Brand. He’ll be taking me to lunch (at the most expensive restaurant in town) in a couple of weeks. I’m a cheap date though so no worries.

Skip and I had a long talk last night and I was able to sense that he is really a good person at heart with good intentions. He may have been a bit insulated to happenings within his company as some execs can be.  I helped expose some of those happenings, bringing Martini the opportunity to address them and improve.

Skip’s company is new and growing fast. This is a good thing, except for the fact that their infrastructure couldn’t keep pace with their growth, causing some problems. The issues I brought up were a surprise to him, and in the end I hope will end up helping his company grow and have better relationships with advertisers and publishers.

A good quote from my new account manager today:

Your reaction is changing the way we do business.

Glad to help.  Perhaps I should go into business consulting…

As a result of this situation, Martini will be implementing monthly meetings with publishers like me to discuss anything and everything.  They also have other policies in place, and have secured the resources necessary to handle their fast growth.  I wonder if I can get a few shares of founder’s stock before they completely blow up.

Maybe I can learn something

At lunch I’ll pick Skip’s brain a bit and get some tips from him on how to make companies grow fast, and he can get some tips from me on putting.

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Golf Life, Golf Media, Miscellaneous, Site News Martini Media Network

I apologize but for the life of my I can’t remember this basher of the ball’s name.  He was a long drive clinician in the Bridgestone Golf tent at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show demo day.  I watched him hit a couple of shots.  The ball goes so far and so fast that I lose track of it.  The ball is still ascending when I lose sight of it about 280 out…

Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru Equipment & Accessories, Golf Clubs, Golf Equipment, Golf Media, Golf Videos Bridgestone Golf