The Golfer's Wife

In The Pink

As has been noted on this blog several times, I pretty much always disagree with Ian Poulters sartorial choices. At least on the golf course. But I have to give the man credit when it’s due. And it is certainly due for his clothing choice on Saturday. The  Crowne Plaza Invitational was played this weekend in Ft. Worth Texas. Saturday was Pink Out day. The players and their caddies ( and indeed many of the volunteers and spectators ) wore pink, in support of Amy Mickelson.  Among the players there were pink shirts galore. And the occasional pink hat. But Ian Poulter obviously feels that if you are going to do something, you should go all the way. And I have to say that, in this case, I totally approve.

It looks even better in HDTV. The fabric of both the pants and the shirt was some kind of rayon or polyester that had a flow to it. And a sheen. It was really quite impressive when he hit his tee shots. Well done Mr. Poulter. Well done.

The only person who managed to out-pink Mr. Poulter was the always charming, and almost always sartorially correct, Mr. Feherty. He managed to top even Mr. Poutler, with pink shoes, pink, hat, pink sunglasses…

and this:

I hope Amy Mickelson was able to watch at least a little bit of the tournament on Saturday. If not I hope someone e-mails her pictures. It was an incredible show of support and you can’t tell me a pink striped goatee wouldn’t raise her spirits at least a little.

PS. Yes, we are watching golf again. SIGH. But it was a great run. And just wait’ll next year.

Matchmaker

Dear Cutie Pie,

I have noticed that your spirit, your enthusiasm, your joie de vivre, as it were, has been a bit absent lately. I was sorry to hear about your recent heartbreak. I am glad to read that you seem to be on your way to recovery. I find that sometimes it’s good to get right back on the old horse. Don’t you agree? Fill that empty space with something new. To search out new romantic opportunities. Like mountain cabins. Sitting on the porch, drinking a glass of wine, and watching the sun set behind the mountains. That is romantic, don’t you think? I happen to know of some cabins in excellent sunset viewing locations. I would be happy to arrange for you to stay in one. And once you have the place, I’m sure you will be able to find someone to share the sunset with. 

Why I was just saying to my daughter the other day…by the way, did I mention I have a daughter? I do. Two of them in fact. But I was talking to the older one. She is a wonderful girl. Great sense of humor. Very pretty too. She has the biggest blue eyes you’ve ever seen. Auburn hair. Very thin and fit. And did I mention she was the captain of her high school golf team? She was. She is 21. Currently working and going to college. She will graduate in December. Then it is on to grad school. Very smart girl. 

So anyway, I was just saying to her ‘You never when you will find yourself in a romantic spot and fate will step in and there, where you might least expect it, will be someone to share it with.‘

If you are interested, in the cabin and the sunsets and fate stepping in, you just let me know.

Sincerely,

The Golfer’s Wife

Distracted

As has been mentioned before, here at The Household we like sports. Golf tops the list of course, but we like pretty much everything. And while we have been playing golf, I admit we haven't been watching much golf. We, and everyone else here in The Wild West, have been a little distracted lately.

By way of explanation let me just say:

             LET'S GO NUG-GETS!!

                         

Golf watching to resume, well, actually hopefully not for awhile.

Thoughts and Prayers

Our thoughts and prayers are with The Mickelsons. We wish this true Golfers Wife a speedy and complete recovery.

Org Chart

( another in the long a** series of posts )

Besides managing to look good in white on the golf course, and winning TPC last weekend, here is another interesting fact about Henrik Stenson.  He is not a PGA Tour Member.

And does this matter?

Obviously not much to Mr. Stenson or he would be a PGA Tour Member.

At this point I think it would be helpful to go over the Golf Organizations organization chart. I would imagine there are a lot of you reading this who just rolled your eyes and thought ‘Oh please. Not another organization chart’. I understand. Really truly I do. I too am a member of corporate America. Where a new organization chart shows up weekly, and merely involves the re-arranging of some Chiefs, and all us Indians end up doing the same thing, with perhaps a different dotted line here or there.

But with all the money and TV time involved I really think it helps to understand how all the Golf organizations relate to each other.

In the beginning there was The Royal and Ancient. As noted in the previous post the Royal and Ancient established the first 13 official rules of the game. The Royal and Ancient basically ruled over golf, until it came to America. In 1894 ( more or less, some history here not worth going into ) the United States Golf Association (USGA) was formed as the ruling body over golf in America. In 2004 the Royal And Ancient broke into The Royal And Ancient, and The R&A, with The R&A taking over the governance ( ruling ) authority of The Royal and Ancient. So at the moment there are 2 ruling bodies in golf. The USGA over the U.S. and Mexico, and The R&A over most of the rest of the world. Needless to say they tend to consult and collaborate quite a bit. The thing to note about these two groups is that, while you can belong to either ( and most Golfers to one or the other ) they are really governing bodies, not player associations. The USGA stages the U.S. Open each year, which is the 2nd of the 4 majors played ( the first being The Masters ). The R&A administers The Open ( The British Open to non-Golfers ) which is the 3rd major played each year.

Next up is the Professional Golfers Association ( PGA ) which was founded in 1916. PGA members are golf professionals, as opposed to professional golfers. These are the golf pros, assistant pros, and golf instructors at your local golf course. There are various criteria for belonging to the PGA. These involve things like hours spent teaching and time running a pro-shop. Nothing about tournaments or money won. These are the people who make a living at the business of golf. The PGA hosts the PGA Championship, which is the 4th major played each year.

There are actually many PGA’s around the world. The most notable for our purposes being the British PGA.

So to reacap: R&A-ruling body outside of US and Mexico. Administers The Open. USGA-ruling body in US and Mexico. Administers U.S Open. PGA-association of golf professionals in the U.S. Administers the PGA Championship.

And now we move on to The Tours. The PGA Tour is a separate entity from the PGA. A little more history we won’t get into here, but basically in 1968 profession golfers broke away from the PGA and formed their own association. So golf professionals belong to the PGA. Professional golfers belong to the PGA Tour. Got it? The PGA Tour organizes the majority of the week to week tournaments that make up the golf season. It does NOT have anything to do with the 4 majors, or the 4 World Golf Championship ( which we will get to ) tournaments. The PGA Tour is responsible for TPC ( which they would like to be a major, but no one else will go along. Which was discussed in a previous TPC post ), and The FedEx Cup ( the ongoing saga of which has also been discussed in previous posts ).

The PGA Tour is the organization to which Mr. Stenson does NOT belong. He does belong to The PGA European Tour. Which has a history similar to that of the PGA Tour. In the 1970’s the British professional golfers broke from the British PGA and formed their own tour organization, which became the independent PGA European Tour in 1984. The European Tour has similar tournament responsibilities to the PGA Tour. However their responsibilities are world wide. The Dubai and Thailand tournaments that Tiger plays in every year? Part of the European tour. There is also a Japan Golf Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Southern Africa Tour.

You can only belong to one Tour. So you can belong to either the PGA Tour or the European Tour. You can’t belong to both. Being a Swede, Mr. Stenson began his career as a member of the European Tour, and has elected to stay a member of that tour.

And why do you even need to belong to a Tour in the first place? Basically you can’t play in any Tour administered event unless you are a member of that Tour. And most tournaments, here or in Europe/The rest of the World, are administered by one of the two big Tours – the PGA and the European. The glaring exceptions to that of course being all 4 majors. None of those are administered by a Tour. Assuming you qualify for any of the majors, you can play in them without being a member of any Tour. 

How did Mr. Stenson end up playing in TPC, which is the flagship event of the PGA Tour?  He met other qualifying requirements. In particular, when you have a big tournament you want the big players. So TPC invites the top 50 players in the world, and Mr. Stenson happens to be part of that group.

There is a way you can play in a Tour administered event without being a member of the Tour, and that is through a sponsors exemption. Each player can use up to 6 sponsors exemptions to play in tournaments on the PGA Tour. There is a little catch to that. You have to receive permission from your Tour to play in a non-Tour event during a week when there is a Tour event. Which is basically every week except for the weeks of the 4 majors. Considering that America is where the money is, players on the European Tour generally don’t have a problem getting permission to play in PGA Tour events. However PGA Tour players had a heck of a time getting permission to play in non-PGA Tour events. The PGA, somewhat understandably, wanted to keep it’s players in America to boost it’s TV ratings. Then along came Tiger. Who wanted to play in Dubai, and Thailand, and a few other places on the European Tour. And of course Tiger got what Tiger wanted, and in the process made it much easier for everyone else to get permission to play in non-PGA Tour events.

As an aside here, as was noted in a previous post, John Daly has been playing quite a lot on the European Tour. John can do this because he was suspended from the PGA Tour for 50 days. Which means for 50 days he is not bound by their rules, and can play in as many tournaments as he wants ( or qualifies for ) without getting permission.

Now, about the World Golf Championship. This was started in 1999 by the International Federation of PGA Tours. It was initially an attempt to create a sort of World Tour. Which, at least so far, hasn’t materialized. The WGC currently consists of 4 tournaments ( the 4th having been added just this year. ). Any player on any of the Tours that are part of the Federation can play in any of the 4 WGC events.

So to get back to Mr. Stenson. And, incidentally, Sergio Garcia, who is also a member of the European Tour. He can play in all 4 majors, all 4 WGC events, and up to 6 PGA events on sponsors exemptions. And as long as he keeps playing well and stays in the top 50 players world wide, he can play in TPC. That’s 15 tournaments. He can also play in any European Tour event of course. Which makes for a pretty full season of golf. All of which he accomplishes quite nicely without being a member of the PGA Tour.

Why would he maybe want to switch allegiances and join the PGA Tour? Money and fame. There is more money on the PGA, and the PGA is the prestige Tour. There is also the whole FedEx thing. You only get FedEx points if you are a member of the PGA Tour. But realistically speaking, Mr. Stenson and Sergio, have managed to get quite a lot of money and fame without being PGA Tour members. And they can play close to home in European Tour events without having to get permission. And as for the FedEx points, well, the jury is still out on relevance of the whole FedEx thing anyway.

‘Okay’ ( I can hear you say) ‘TGW, but what about the LPGA, the Nationwide Tour, the Futures Tour and, above all of course, the Hooters Tour? Huh? What about those?’

To which I reply, ‘Later. This post is already long a** enough.’

Quick Notes

Working on another in the long a** series of posts. In the meantime 3 quick notes.

Irish amateur Shane Lowry won the Irish Open this weekend. This was quite an accomplishment. First of all he is an amateur. Amateurs don’t win Opens. Second, it was the first European Tour event he had played in. An amateur wins his first time playing on the big stage. And he did it on the third hole of a play off. Talk about your pressure situations. General opinion is he will turn pro this week, in time to play in this weekends BMW PGA Championship, which is the European Tours flagship event. Nothing like jumping right into the big time. Keep an eye on that kid.

Michelle Wie tied for third in this weekends Sybase Classic. That makes 3 top ten finishes so far this year. Her father was fairly obvious there in the background. But still. Perhaps, it’s certainly too soon to tell yet, but perhaps she will become a force to be reckoned with on the LPGA. However, in a recent interview she did comment that she still wanted to compete with the men. So it would appear that she still hasn’t quite wrapped her mind completely around that fact that she needs to beat the women first. Still waiting to be wrong.

Please check out The Khaki Crusader, who I have added to the blog roll over on the right there. Wonderful site on men’s golf fashion. I’m not sure yet how he feels about white, but his site is interesting enough that, even if he approves, I won’t hold it against him. Perhaps in the future he will consider branching out and covering women’s golf fashion as well. 

The begining

On this day in 1754 the Society of St. Andrews Golfers was founded. Twenty-two men adopted 13 official rules for the game. Almost 100 years later, in 1834, King William IV deemed the St. Andrews Golfers "Royal and Ancient", a title that remains today.

Wow.

So it pretty much goes without saying that we watched TPC this weekend. And let me just take this moment to say Very Well Done to the one man who has managed to look good wearing white on a golf course. But back to the watching. This year we at The Household saw TPC as we have never seen it before.

Something happened at The Household this year that has never happened before and, I think I can safely say given current events, will never happen again. Through a series of mis-calculations and being prepared for events that, as it turned out, didn’t happen, The Household had a sizeable tax refund this year. As I said, once in a lifetime kind of thing.

Anyway. When it became clear that all information had, in fact, been entered correctly and that TurboTax was, in fact, correct on the refund amount, thoughts immediately turned to what to do with the money.

We could have socked it away in any one of several different savings accounts, but, in a moment of patriotic fervor, we decided the best thing to do with it was stimulate the old economy. In short, spend it.

It was decided that a major home entertainment upgrade was needed. And we just happen to have a friend whose business is making said major home entertainment upgrades. Granted he makes these upgrades in homes that could hold at least 4 of ours, and with budgets many times larger than our refund. But still. The expertise was at hand. And so equipment was purchased and holes were cut in walls and wires were run, and the existing wireless network was utilized, and viola. 

Several wonderful things were installed, but the one that matters most for golf is HDTV. Installation was completed on Wednesday. And we watched TV and yes the picture was noticeably better. But it wasn’t until we started watching the Tivo’d first round of TPC on Thursday evening that the true wonders of HDTV hit home. Wow. Just…Wow. You could see every divot, every little hill, every swale, every sprinkler head, every blade of grass, every grain of sand. You could see every cut of rough, where things were wet, and where they were dry. And the greens! You know how the commentators will show the green and then draw lines and arrows showing the slope and ridges? And on regular TV you need that. Because the green looks like one flat expanse of grass. But on HD….you can see everything. Every ridge, every slope, every pock mark. You could even tell which way the ball was going to break. Amazing. It was just amazing. And you have no idea how much more interesting all that detail makes watching a tournament. We had everyone over to The Household for Mothers Day. And this is a crowd, all but one of whom, would never voluntarily watch golf. In fact there were a couple of them who didn’t even know what a Birdie is. But they watched TPC. Seriously. They did. When you can see what’s going on with that level of detail it gets interesting even for total non-golfers.

Watching the slow motion hit of a ball off the tee or out of the rough. And especially out of a sand trap. Just unbelievable. In fact the only downside to the whole thing was, that in addition to the course and the players, you also got Johnny Miller in HD.

We are generally pretty up to date, in fact usually ahead of the curve, when it comes to computers and techno gadgets. But we are a little late to the whole flat screen HD party. So you all probably already have it and are saying ‘Well Duh.’ But if not, and if you watch any amount of golf, and especially if you have people around who you are trying to get interested in golf, then GET HDTV. And you don’t have to make a major home entertainment upgrade to get it. Look for sales. Go to Costco. But get it. 

Actually......

I know I am late to the party on this, but I have been out of town, and to a large degree offline, for the past week. But late as I am I just can’t let it go by without saying something.

John Daly is currently playing on the European Tour. This is what he wore in the Pro-Am for the Spanish Open.

Now I know what you are expecting me to say. White belt. White shoes. And….well, other things. But. Actually…… I like it. Really. Now before you go thinking I lost my mind while I was gone, let me make something VERY clear. I like THIS particular combination, on Big John. And ONLY Big John. I am NOT suggesting that I would tolerate, let alone approve, of this on ANYONE ELSE. But for some reason, I think Big John pulls it off.

And just because, for some reason I can’t explain, I happen to like this particular combination, does not mean I approve of everything Big John has been wearing on the European Tour.

This for instance.

Or this.

Did he re-use one of his grandmothers quilts?

And these should just be illegal.

On the extreme off chance that you are thinking to yourself ‘Hmmm. Maybe John can’t pull it off, but I would look great in those’, let me just note that, unfortunately, they are not illegal. You can actually purchase these, and other affronts to the senses, here. If you do, and you actually wear them in public, just be aware that the reason the ladies are staring at you has nothing to do with your blue eyes or your manly square cut jaw.