It has been great, but I’m looking forward to the end of the holiday season and the beginning of 2011!
The year is ending and the chaos of all the holiday parties and running around from function to function is finally coming to a close. January 2nd will mark the first non-chaotic day in my household since mid November. Lack of sleep, too much food, too many adult beverages over the last month have compromised my cerebral cortex and caused me to not be able to deduce that 50 divided by 52 is not 2.1….
Can’t see too good (Ah the Jerky Boys. What memories)
On one of my recent trips to some golf travel destination I think I left my glasses in the seat pocket in front of me on the plane. I used to rely on glasses for reading now and then, or when I got tired they’d help me focus. But over the last few months or so my vision has declined to the point where I find that I can’t read the letters on the signs over the isles in the grocery store, or see the golf ball in the air or on the ground beyond about 150 yards.
I went to the eye doc and had a new exam. It was quite funny, or at least I thought it was:
Eye doctor: “So why are you here?”
Me: “Rectal exam?”
Eye doctor: “Haha.”
Me: (In the voice of the Jerky Boys’ Sol Rosenberg, a whining sounding New York Jew with a high pitched voice) “I can’t see too good.”
So I have a new prescription coming and two new pairs of hip RayBan specs on the way. They were supposed to be done Monday and it is now Wednesday. So until then I will only take partial credit for any typos or mathematical calculations which go awry.
I wonder how or if my golf game will change when I can see better. My putting is pretty damn good, so I hope it doesn’t make that worse. Being able to see certainly won’t make my iron game any worse than it already is.
Can’t do contacts
I’m very sensitive with my eyes or I would have tried contacts. I can’t touch my eyes or have anything in them. I can barely watch when someone else puts in contacts or takes them out without getting the creeps.
"I golf more than you now TW."
In my endless googling and wondering around golf cyberspace I saw an article on Obama golfing in Hawaii today. I’m sure his gig is pretty stressful, so blowing off some steam and chasing a little white ball around is probably good for him, and thus the rest of us.
It is a bit hypocritical though that he’s playing golf, enjoying the lifestyle and hanging around at the same country clubs which are owned and patronized by those evil rich people he villainizes and wants to bump up their taxes. I digress. That discussion is for another day, or for my other site Hooked On Politics (HOP).
Some media outlets are criticizing Obama for playing somewhere between 41-52 rounds of golf since becoming President. By my calculations that is 2.1 rounds per week month. I’m sure any critic of Obama will find some negative in that. I’m not saying it is right or wrong, just interesting.
So is 2.1 rounds of golf per week month a lot for a President? Who holds the record?
Obama beats Bush
Bush played 24 times during his Presidency. Obama eclipsed that mark in his 2nd year.
Ike Eisenhower is perhaps the most famous “golfing President” with his ties to Augusta National and the many rounds of golf he played there (45) with the likes of Bobby Jones. In fact, on #17 at Augusta there’s a large tree called the “Eisenhower Tree.” I spent some time under that tree last April.
As the story I heard goes, Ike asked the Augusta board to remove the tree and Chairman Clifford Roberts declared the president “out of order.”
But Ike isn’t the record holder for most presidential rounds of golf. The highest number for a president I found was 1,200 by Woodrow Wilson.
Call me Mr. President
So if I play about 100x per year, that is two times per week. That puts me right up there with Obama and Ike. Now if I could only log 45 rounds of golf at Augusta somehow. Something tells me I don’t quite have the pull Ike did. But hey, I run a golf blog. You never know.
Filed under “boneheads.”
You’ve probably seen the ad with Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez high-fiving on the putting green, while in the background the cheesy music plays “The Villages… America’s friendliest home town.” Then it cuts to senior citizens line dancing and so on.
The big story coming out of The Villages today, is that a group of employees and members of a Villages golf shop are fighting over just who gets any dough from a winning lottery ticket. On a weekly basis about eight people would chip in on the lottery tickets and agreed to split any winnings. If a member was missing one day, the others would pick up the slack and chip in the missing person’s dollar, and that missing person would reimburse them the next day.
That plan worked until they actually won $16 million. Then the one person who didn’t chip in her dollar, Jeanette French, was left out as the others tried to cash in without her. Now the whole thing is caught up in court and now the biggest winner will end up being some attorney.
Golf is supposed to be an honorable game, but I guess that goes out the door when you win the lottery.
I heard a very odd quote from my buddy Brad, co-creator of the Annual Christmas Classic golf tournament, when I called him two days ago on Christmas day:
“This year’s Annual Christmas Classic has been canceled due to favorable weather conditions.”
Yes, the tournament which takes place in the deep snow of the Olympic venue and ski town of Salt Lake on Christmas day was canceled because the golf course was open!
Retaining the championship for another year
The good news is that I get to retain the championship trophy which I won last year, and all the accompanying privileges of being the champion for the next year. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to convince the powers that be at Augusta National Golf Club to award an invitation to the Masters Tournament for the current CCC (Christmas Classic Champ). Perhaps next year.
It is time for the end of year top stories in the world of golf, both public and personal. Help me out and post what you think the top stories of the year were in pro golf, equipment, your game etc.
Here are a few for the list.
Tiger Woods (divorce, bad play, public apology, first tweet, loses #1 ranking, losing sponsors)
Phil Mickelson wins Masters.
Young guns on tour, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson etc
Dustin Johnson (Pebble meltdown, PGA bunkergate)
Furyk wins FedEx Cup
Lorena Ochoa retires
All black drivers and all white putters are the gear rage
Europe wins Ryder Cup
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Let’s hear your input on this folks! What are your biggest stories in your personal golf world? Comment in.