St. Andrews Castle Course Image Gallery Added

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Categories: Golf • Golf Courses • HOG World Tour • Site News
Tags: St. Andrews

I’ve just uploaded about 120 photos from the Castle Course in St. Andrews, Scotland to the Hooked On Golf Blog Castle Course Image Gallery.

Bandon Dunes in Scotland? Click for more images of the St. Andrews Castle Course

The Castle Course is stunning with its links dunes, holes by the North Sea and views of the old town of St. Andrews in the background. Playing this course the two times I did last week was truly a golf life changing experience. I strongly recommend playing the Castle Course if you make the pilgrimage to St. Andrews some day.

2011 Fantasy Golf – Week 22 Winner

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, July 11th, 2011
Categories: Fantasy Golf • Miscellaneous • Site News
Tags: Fantasy Golf

Fantasy Golf

Week #22 (John Deere) Winner

Congratulations to “Gutta Percha II” for the win this week!

Contact me to claim your weekly prize!

FREE FANTASY GOLF SIGN UP INFORMATION:

1. Point your browser to Kerplookee.com.
2. Create an account if you don’t have one.
3. Click on Join a private league.
4. Enter league ID 145
5. Password is: Masters

HOG SPACE Fantasy Golf is presented by Hooked On Golf Blog and The Golf Space.

Talk all about fantasy golf in The Golf Space Fantasy Golf Discussion Thread.

Sponsors

Nike Golf (VR Pro driver)
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Thanks to all the great sponsors who are providing prizes this year. Do them a favor and click through to their web sites via the logos to the right and give them some love.

*Pre paid additional shipping charges applied for winners outside of the continental USA! Prizes unclaimed by November 15, 2011 will be forfeited.

“Mouth watering” pairings for Open Championship

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, July 11th, 2011
Categories: Golf

Thursday’s “mouth watering” pairings for the 2011 (British) Open Championship:

Group	Time	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3
1	06:30	Jerry KELLY	Nathan GREEN	Danny WILLETT
2	06:41	Thongchai JAIDEE	Mark CALCAVECCHIA	Graeme STORM
3	06:52	Gregory HAVRET	Charley HOFFMAN	Markus BRIER
4	07:03	Todd HAMILTON	Simon KHAN	Prayad MARKSAENG
5	07:14	Rhys DAVIES	Fredrik JACOBSON	Mark O’MEARA
6	07:25	Vijay SINGH	Simon DYSON	Gary WOODLAND
7	07:36	KT KIM	Ryan MOORE	Alvaro QUIROS
8	07:47	Bo VAN PELT	KJ CHOI	Martin LAIRD
9	07:58	Stephen GALLACHER	Bill HAAS	Hiroyuki FUJITA
10	08:09	Geoff OGILVY	Peter UIHLEIN	Miguel Angel JIMENEZ
11	08:20	Francesco MOLINARI	Tetsuji HIRATSUKA	Stewart CINK
12	08:31	Nick WATNEY	Matteo MANASSERO	Angel CABRERA
13	08:42	Yuta IKEDA	Ian POULTER	Dustin JOHNSON
14	08:58	Ben CURTIS	Paul CASEY	Aaron BADDELEY
15	09:09	Ernie ELS	Rory McILROY	Rickie FOWLER
16	09:20	Luke DONALD	Ryo ISHIKAWA	Sergio GARCIA
17	09:31	Retief GOOSEN	Hunter MAHAN	Anders HANSEN
18	09:42	Brian DAVIS	Camilo VILLEGAS	David DUVAL
19	09:53	John DALY	Ross FISHER	Peter HANSON
20	10:04	Gregory BOURDY	Jason DUFNER	Craig HINTON
21	10:15	Alexander NOREN	Paul LAWRIE	Kevin NA
22	10:26	Sean O’HAIR	Seung-Yul NOH	Thorbjorn OLESEN
23	10:37	Simon EDWARDS	Bob ESTES	Richard McEVOY
24	10:48	Francis McGUIRK	Matthew MILLAR	Kevin STREELMAN
25	10:59	Mark LASKEY	Thomas SHADBOLT	Rick KULACZ
26	11:10	Simon LILLY	Chris TIDLAND	Neil SCHIETEKAT
27	11:31	Peter WHITEFORD	Spencer LEVIN	Thomas AIKEN
28	11:42	Prom MEESAWAT	Martin MARITZ	Harrison FRAZAR
29	11:53	Chad CAMPBELL	Kenneth FERRIE	Scott JAMIESON
30	12:04	Raphael JACQUELIN	Mark WILSON	Kyle STANLEY
31	12:15	Steve MARINO	Richard GREEN	Pablo LARRAZABAL
32	12:26	Rory SABBATINI	Sandy LYLE	Anthony KIM
33	12:37	Edoardo MOLINARI	Charles HOWELL III	Joost LUITEN
34	12:48	Brandt SNEDEKER	Lucas BJERREGAARD	Trevor IMMELMAN
35	12:59	Darren CLARKE	Jonathan BYRD	YE YANG
36	13:10	Lucas GLOVER	Hiroo KAWAI	Robert KARLSSON
37	13:21	Bryden MACPHERSON	Matt KUCHAR	Padraig HARRINGTON
38	13:32	Zach JOHNSON	Adam SCOTT	Justin ROSE
39	13:43	Graeme McDOWELL	Jason DAY	Bubba WATSON
40	13:59	Jim FURYK	Bernhard LANGER	Tadahiro TAKAYAMA
41	14:10	Lee WESTWOOD	Steve STRICKER	Charl SCHWARTZEL
42	14:21	Louis OOSTHUIZEN	Martin KAYMER	Phil MICKELSON
43	14:32	Henrik STENSON	Tom LEWIS	Tom WATSON
44	14:43	Robert ALLENBY	Davis LOVE III	Fredrik ANDERSSON HED
45	14:54	Nicolas COLSAERTS	JB HOLMES	SM BAE
46	15:05	Webb SIMPSON	Robert ROCK	Alejandro CANIZARES
47	15:16	Kurt BARNES	Justin LEONARD	Jeff OVERTON
48	15:27	Lee CORFIELD	Ben CRANE	Floris DE VRIES
49	15:38	Ryan PALMER	Tom LEHMAN	Adam WOOTTON
50	15:49	Jung-Gon HWANG	Gary BOYD	Robert GARRIGUS
51	16:00	George COETZEE	Andy SMITH	Brad KENNEDY
52	16:11	Jason KNUTZON	Andrew JOHNSTON	Chih-Bing LAM

Comparing American golf to golf in St. Andrews, Scotland

Written by: Tony Korologos | Saturday, July 9th, 2011
Categories: European Tour • Golf • PGA Tour • Pro Golf

18th Hole, Castle Course in St. Andrews - Site of my 50 yard approach putt!

With the Scottish Open this week and the Open Championship (I don’t call it the British Open) next week, there isn’t a better time than now to cover for the first time my experience of playing actual Scottish golf at the home of golf, St. Andrews. There are some major differences between St. Andrews golf and American golf, and knowing many of those now highlight in my mind why some PGA Tour players tend to play well in the UK and some don’t.

High Versus Low – Hard Versus Soft

We always hear about how American golf is played in the air while Scottish links golf is played on the ground, but why? The primary reason most Americans think Scottish golf is played on the ground is the course designs, with the humps and bumps. The courses are set up to receive shots which are running versus flying. Sure that is part of it. But the primary reason it is better to approach greens in Scotland from ground level is the hardness of the ground itself. Plenty of St. Andrews green complexes have exactly the same sorts of mounding and shaping, but the hardness makes the shot types required to approach them completely different.

As far as ground hardness goes, I’m not just talking about the greens themselves either. The fairways on all of the seven courses I played on my recent trip to St. Andrews were very hard. Even lob wedges which land 10-20 yards short of the green will bounce and release perhaps even dozens of yards.

The fairways can be so hard and fast that sometimes they may actually be faster than the greens. Case in point was a comment I recently read in George Peper’s book St. Andrews Sojourn: Two Years at Home on the Old Course. During the 2005 Open Championship, Jack Nicklaus’ last major, the stimp meter read an 11.5 on the fairways and a 10.5 on the greens. The fairways were faster than the greens!

A typical American course has much softer ground than St. Andrews courses. When playing courses here in the USA it is not uncommon for me to hit long irons into greens which stick within a few feet of where they land, leaving a large ball mark. I’ll aim to carry the ball within perhaps five yards of the pin distance and expect the ball to stop quickly. But if I were to play that same long iron to a green in Scotland, the ball would hit the green around pin high and bounce off like it landed on a paved road, ending up a good 15-25 yards long or longer. By the 2nd round I played on my recent trip to St. Andrews, I started leaving my green repair tool in my golf bag. None of my approach shots, even high wedges, were leaving any kind of visible mark in the greens.

Many courses in Scotland have marked sprinklers and yardage markers in the fairway just like the USA. Most of those markers however, show a yardage to the front of the green, not the middle. Logically one would think that since there are many double greens in Scotland that this is the reason and it certainly is logical explanation. I personally think that the number to the front of the green in Scotland is a much better number to concentrate on than the middle yardage. Approach shots will end up much closer to the hole on the courses in St. Andrews which hit the front of the green than those which hit the middle.

Tour Players

Let’s talk Phil Mickelson for a minute. There’s no doubt that Phil’s short game is perhaps the best there ever was, or at least in the top 2-3. With such a great short game, one would think Phil would eat up courses with the hard links style setup. But Phil has typically struggled in Open Championships with an occasional decent finish like the 3rd back in 2004. Why does Phil struggle? He’s a high ball hitter and loves to use a 64 degree wedge. He’ll fly the ball past the pin and spin it back, amazing the American fans. But that shot doesn’t work on hard links courses and that is the primary reason I believe Phil struggles, and likely will never win an Open Championship.

The lies around Scottish greens are extremely tight, making it very difficult to slip lofted wedges under them. The ground is so hard that if a player were able to slip a highly lofted wedge under the ball, the club would likely bounce too much and create a bad, thin shot. Another downer for Phil. The play is a lower loft shot with more of a punch or putting type stroke. Even better to putt it.

Tom Watson on the other hand is one of the best low trajectory short game players in the history of golf, if not the very best. That short game and his ability to adjust from American golf to Open style golf is one of the biggest reasons he holds five Open championships.

Amateurs

I watched many American amateur players on my recent trip trying to hit lob wedges around the greens and I tried it two. All it took was a shot or two to realize that wasn’t the best play. Putting is the #1 choice around the greens if possible, and I even putted a ball for my 3rd shot on a par-5 on the 18th at the Castle Course from over 50 yards away. The result was a green in regulation and a five foot birdie putt. In the states I would have simply grabbed my 60 degree wedge and put a half swing on it, carrying the ball to pin high with a check-stop on the 2nd bounce. In the states the fairways and fringes are soft, moist and the grass is long. You can’t play the 50 yard putt.

Of course there are some exceptions to my last statement, as more true links style courses are being built here in the states. I’ve played a few with hard fairways and Scottish style green setups, and I’ve loved them. I welcome these designs and I think perhaps my own game is more suited for this style of play.

Scottish Open

I’ve been watching a bit of the Scottish Open over the last couple of days. It does look like Castle Stuart Golf Links is a bit softer than the courses I played in St. Andrews last week, but it is still harder than American style courses. This tournament is getting pounded with rain as well, which is also contributing to the softness of the course.

I hope next week’s Open Championship plays hard and fast. I want to see the PGA Tour pros’ going low, with their short game!

2011 Fantasy Golf – Week 21 Winner

Written by: Tony Korologos | Saturday, July 9th, 2011
Categories: Fantasy Golf • Miscellaneous • Site News
Tags: Fantasy Golf

Fantasy Golf

Week #21 (AT&T Championship) Winner

Congratulations to “Grass On The Green” for the win this week!