I just got off the phone with a friend of mine named John, who runs shall we say “the mother ship” of golf sites. He called to tell me how great it was to play Pebble Beach, Half Moon Bay, Spyglass and Monterey CC. He was extremely excited to let me know he shot even par on the front at Pebble.

Non golf equivalent to playing golf at Pebble Beach

For non golfers it would be hard to explain the equivalent to what John just did. These analogies may come close:

1. For a redneck it would be like getting a lifetime supply of Coors delivered to you in a shiny new pickup truck.

2. For guy, it would be like managing to get a date with Tyra Banks and getting “lucky.”

3. It would be like a 14 year old boy beating the latest version of Grand Theft Auto.

4. For the oil companies, it would be like fuel costs reaching $4.00 per gallon. Oops, too late.

5. It would be like a Microsoft user having his software actually work.

6. For President Bush, it would be like really knowing what the mission is and actually accomplishing it.

My congrats to you buddy. And next time remember your pal Tony!

John Daly’s rehab (for the surgery, not the booze) is going well apparently. He’s playing in levis, no shoes and no shirt in this video below. I couldn’t help noticing how the guy interviewing John couldn’t seem to keep his hands off him. Down boy!

The golf marathon continues

Yesterday the weather was the best of the year.  My home course is usually extremely windy, but it was completely calm.  I played 27 holes for the 5th day of my 7 day golf marathon.  My friend "GolfUtah" kicked everyone's butt with some long putting bombs.

Today the marathon will continue with my Tuesday men's club tournament.  It should be very interesting today, because we're only allowed to play with THREE clubs. 

Short game work 

I spent some very needed practice time on the chipping green yesterday before my round.  I didn't necessarily fix anything yet, but I'm working on it.  My short game has been so bad lately that missing a green for me right now is almost a guaranteed bogey.

The PGA Tour average for scrambling (getting up and down when missing a green) is 58.06%  and Tiger Woods' scrambling percentate is an amazing 74.03%.  Mine?  On my last good round, a 70, I had 1/4 saves or 25%.  My scores could be WAY lower if my short game improved.  That is the goal.

New putter in the bag

I consider putting to be the best part of my game.  I don't switch putters very often but recently I've put the new MacGregor Face-Off putter  in my bag.  I'm in the midst of evaluating it for a product review.  I'll be posing my FaceOff review in the next 2-3 weeks.

Not sure if this putter switch is permanent because I really love my Elite Sport Dead On putter.

The scene: My regular grudge match against the local PGA pro. I’ve beaten him two rounds in a row and won the front nine convincingly. He’s got a putt on #16 to save par, possibly win $2.00 and have some bragging rights. This putt is about a 3-4 footer. I’m closer for par.

They say that golf brings out a person’s inner personality… He somehow misses and throws a fit, throwing his putter up in the air and slamming his hat on the ground. He didn’t realize his $200 Maui Jims sunglasses were on his hat. His putter hits the ground, his hat bounces toward the hole, and his Maui Jims split in two.

Being the opportunist I am, I always carry my camera. I snapped the picture below, which couldn’t have been set up better intentionally. I wait for him to clean up his mess, then I calmly walk up and drain my dagger-in-the-heart putt.

Pictured below from top to bottom: The ball, the hole, his hat, my ball marker, his putter, the right half of his sunglasses, the left half of his sunglasses.

After moving the last 4-5 days I’m exhausted. My round today was a disaster. But on the #8 hole (our 17th since we played the back first), my pal Dave Shields got an ACE! He was 174 out. Funny thing was that our other buddy Dan hit one in to about three feet. We thought that was Dave’s shot.

I’ll have a picture of Dave and my free Corona I drank posted shortly!

Congratulations to my friend Tyson. He was in the group in front of me yesterday and knocked his 2nd shot in the hole on the #13 par-5! On #14, a short par-4, he drove the green and lipped out an eagle putt. He birdied #15 as well.

Final score on the back nine: 29.

Congrats Tyson. I need shots.

I’m now riding in the back of my buddy’s SUV, on the way back home from the big Winter golf trip. It’s raining now, but as we get higher in altitude toward home that rain will turn to snow. It’s snowing at home now.

The game improved again today, especially with only 29 putts after I switched back to my regular putter. I hit the range and pounded a bunch of wedges, getting the feel of hitting down on the ball since I either bladed them or hit them fat the day before.

I shot one over on the front nine with a couple of birdies. My four man team for the day shot the best Chicago score thanks to my birdies and the great play of one other guy. On top of the Chicago money, I won some individual bets finally. It was nice to collect a few bucks to make up for all the losses I had the previous days and head home with a smile on my face.

I tested out some new gear for the first time on this trip, which may not have been a great idea. If my game isn’t crisp it’s hard to evaluate gear or write an accurate article on it. That being said I’m pretty impressed with the new MacGregor MT 3-wood and the MT Irons.

I look forward to getting back home, especially for tomorrow. I’m taking a “VIP” tour of the Ogio world headquarters.

The game improved a bit today. I tried a new putter, which is not a usual thing for me. I don’t play the revolving putter door game. Though this is a great putter, it’s so light compared to my other one that I gagged hard on a lot of short putts.

Bizarre par three

Imagine this… You hit a par three in regulation and you get a six! I did that today. Addressing my third putt (yes, the putter thing I just mentioned), I accidentally moved my ball when I addressed it. Had I realized I could put it back I’d only have one penalty stroke, but I didn’t and had two shots. Net result is a six on a par three which I hit in regulation.

I shaved off five strokes from yesterday’s round and hit many more solid iron shots. The short game is, well, a disaster. I eventually gave up on chipping off the tight lies and started putting off the greens. The short game needs a ton of work.

Almost aced a par four

The course we played today has a driveable par four. It’s about 320 or so. I was very mad after chunking two chips so I put a little extra into my drive. It was solid and flew right at the green. The ball ended up about 2-3 feet behind the pin. I don’t know how it didn’t go in. My putting troubles with short putts continued and I missed a 2-3 foot eagle putt. It was at that point that I told my pals the only way I could get a birde was by having a two foot eagle putt…

Washington county drug task force pulls me and my buddy over

We ate dinner in Mesquite Nevada. On the way back to St. George my very good friend Arnie (great golf name) talked about speeding, getting pulled over, driver’s licenses etc. About 10 seconds after we had that discussion we saw the flashing lights. We’d been pulled over.

Arnie didn’t think he was speeding and we didn’t know why we’d been pulled over. As it turns out, he had a burned out license plate light. The cop who pulled us over was on the “Washington county drug task force” and was pulling over suspicious vehicles. That burned out light qualified us.

He checked us out and was obviously casing out the interior of Arnie’s car with his cop flashlight. It quickly became obvious to him that we weren’t drug runners or druggies, so he said “have a nice evening” and we went on our way.

Tomorrow is the last day and then I head back home to the frozen tundra. The weather report for home is…. drum roll please… snow. Big surprise.