The Golfer's Wife

Working Together

The world’s tough problems can be solved, if we all just work together. If we each solve a little piece of the problem before you know it the problem will cease to exist. Case in point. This.

As I pointed out Golfing Offspring #2 has done her bit and solved one part of the problem.

Via Golf Poet we find that some nuclear scientists turned their minds to the problem and came up with another part of the solution. Nuclear Scientists people! How far off can a complete solution be when nuclear scientists are looking at the problem?

Both of these solutions have one major flaw, they don’t deal with balls that get hit into water. But not to worry, someone else has stepped up to handle that part of the problem. Albus Golf has developed a fish food golf ball. That’s right. A golf ball that, when it gets wet, dissolves into fish food. This may lead to some very overweight fish in certain locations, but I’m sure someone else will come up with a way to slim them down again.

So you see? No problem is too difficult if we all just work together.

Next up lets try for something really useful. Like how to keep the tonic in the gin-and-tonic from going flat after only 4 holes. There never seems to be a beer wench around when you need a refresh, so it’s vitally important that the tonic stay fizzy until the turn, don’t you think? I’ll have GO#2 and her group  work on that as soon as they are finished with their latest project, jousting with a mouse trap car. The rest of you should get started on it right away. 

A Conundrum

First of all, so we are all on the same page, please read ( or re-read if you are a long time reader of this blog ) this.

Done?

You don’t have to agree with me. But at least you know the parameters for the discussion.

As I mentioned, we have been watching a lot of the Olympics here at The Household. Those of us who like Sports upstairs, and those who like Competition downstairs. Which pretty much translates into everything-except-ice-skating upstairs, and ice skating downstairs. Although we did watch the Snowboard Half-pipe competition and the Freestyle Skiing competition upstairs. Shaun White just defies gravity doesn’t he? Anyway. We also watched Nordic Combined. Do you know what that is? It is a combination of ski jumping and cross country skiing.

Here is how it works: first the competitors do one/two ski jumps ( depending on the event ) and their points in the jumping determines the order they start the cross country. 1 point equals 4 sec, 15 points equals 1 minute. For the cross-country race, the winner of the ski jumping starts first followed by the others, at the intervals related to their jumping points. The first competitor across the finish line is the winner.

So it’s obviously based on distance/time which makes it a Sport, right?

Not quite. Because ski jumping isn’t a true sport. Ski jumping is scored based on distance AND style. And guess how you get points for style? Judges of course. Which means it’s subjective, which means it’s a Competition. Or is it?

Here is a nice description of how Ski Jumping is scored. The distance points matter quite a bit more than the style points. Obviously your style could be perfect, but if you have a short jump you aren’t going to win. But still, there is a subjective element here. So, Sport or Competition?

And with Nordic Combined the subjective part is even less. It is a small part of what determines where you start the cross country. But theoretically, if the best jumper is a bad skier, and the worst jumper is a great skier, the worst jumper could win, based on the time of his cross country, which is a Sport.

Thus the conundrum. How do you decide?

We officially declared free style skiing a competition. But here is the way the mogul skiing is scored:

Mogul scoring is based on Turns (50% of score), Air (25% of score), and Speed (25% of score). Certain judges only score turns, while other judges score only the two Air jumps. Speed is electronically certified. The skier's final score is determined by adding the average of the two Air jump scores to the total of Turns and the Speed score.

So 25% of the score is objective. But 75% percent is subjective. And the other event in freestyle skiing, Aerial Skiing, is totally subjective, so it’s definitely a competition.

I don’t know the exact percentage of the Nordic Combined the style points on the jump make up. Lets just say it’s about 10%. Is that enough to it knock out of Sports and into Competition?  Is there some arbitrary percentage we could come up with that would be the dividing line?

Perhaps you have already made up your mind on this. Here at The Household we have decided it will take a bit more discussion, and of course quite a few more cocktails, before a decision can be made.


P.S. Let me just state that all competitors in the Nordic Combined, Freestyle Skiing, and yes, even the ice skating, are, absolutely, athletes.

Loudmouth branches out

What do the Norwegian Men's Curling Team .......

...and John Daly.....

.... have in common?

They both like Loudmouth Golf.

Roundtown Sadie

Scottish Terrier Champion Roundtown Mercedes of Maryscot ( Sadie to her family and friends ) won Best in Show at Westminster last night. If I didn’t have a nasty head cold I’m sure I could come up with several pithy statements about how she is a Scottish Terrier and Scotland is the home of golf, so of course this information belongs on a golf blog. But any pithy statements are lost in the cotton that currently occupies the space where my brain used to be.

I liked this:

Rangel kidded that his relationship with Sadie was like a marriage. "I'm happily married," he said, "as long as I say, 'Yes, honey.'"

If you’ve ever known a Scottie you understand exactly what he was talking about.

In another article there was this:

Frei agreed, saying Sadie is a typical terrier. "It's her world and we're just living in it," he joked.

If you’ve ever own….ah, lived with a terrier you know exactly what HE was talking about.

I’ve lived with many. I live with one now. Scottie’s may be cute, but they are a bundle of sturdy determination and they don’t suffer fools. At All. As long as everything goes their way, life is good. When things don’t go their way you really have your hands full. It’s much easier on everyone if you just go along. The Irish Terrier ( which is what Jigger is ) is just as sure they rule the world, but they are a bit more patient and sneaky. They are very good at letting you think you are doing what you want, while making sure you are actually doing exactly what they want. As long as things are going their way they don’t see the need to actually point out to you that they are in charge. Scottie’s are much more direct in their attitude. They make sure everyone knows they are in charge.

Each terrier handles the I’m-in-charge-here issue a little differently. But the one thing they all have in common is the fact that they are in charge, and the sooner you figure that out, the happier everyone is.

Catching up

Posting has been a little light lately. But some times real life takes over and the extracurricular activities have to take a back seat. I think ( hope ) things have slowed down enough that some sort of regular posting can resume. But I’m not guaranteeing anything.
 
Anyway. To catch up:

Dustin Johnson won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am this weekend. He won last year too. So good for him with the back to back wins. However, the really important thing, as far as The Household was concerned, was that David Duval tied for second. And actually there was a 3 way play off. So David had his chance at winning outright. I have mentioned before that we are very fond of David here in The Household, so we were very happy to see him do so well. We actually watched the entire final round, which we normally wouldn’t have done. But we really like seeing David do good. We hope this is just the start of a wonderful year.

Ping and the USGA met in Dallas on February 10th, and came to no decision. So the groove issue lives on.

New LPGA Commisioner Michael Whan hired PGA Tour executive Jon Podany as the LPGA’s chief marketing officer. Seems like a smart move, although time will tell. But maybe Mr. Whan will work out after all.

In other LPGA news, Michelle Wie signed an endorsement deal with Kia Motors and, perhaps more importantly, Kia has signed on as title sponsor for the tournament previously known as The LPGA Classic, which will be played March 25-28 at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.

The Ladies first tournament of the year is this weekend. In Thailand. Coverage will be on The Golf Channel. 

The Olympics started in Vancouver. We have been watching. The Golfer and I were upstairs, watching skiing and Nordic Combined ( which resulted in a little conundrum, more on that in another post ) and speed skating and Biathlon. Golfing Offspring #2 was downstairs watching the opening ceremonies and pairs figure skating. All I can say is, for the overall peace and well being of The Household at times like this, it’s a darn good thing that we have 2 TV’s hooked up to 2 different Tivo’s.

Unlike Vancouver ( and like the rest of the US ) we have had snow. Which means there hasn’t been any golf around here for awhile. Tempers are growing short. High School Girls Golf supposedly starts for Golfing Offspring #2 next week. I doubt it. Which will fray tempers even more.

And last, but certainly not least, Westminster starts tonight. Actually it started before tonight, but the TV coverage starts tonight. I, of course, checked the standings out in the Canine Chronicle and have been monitoring breed judging all day on the website. I have discussed my absolute fascination with Westminster before. I will be watching every minute. Which of course will cut into the Olympics. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, Thank God for Tivo.

Groovy - Part II

Bit of controversy in the world of professional golf this past week. Having to do with grooves. We’ve discussed the groove issue here. And in that post, you remember, I pointed out that the rule takes effect in January 2010. Which means it is in effect now. I also mentioned that Ping and the USGA had reached a settlement. I didn’t get into the details of said settlement, but as it turns out I should have mentioned one particular part of it. The fact that the Ping Eye2 Irons were grandfathered in. Meaning the rule doesn’t apply to Ping Eye2’s. Which, the clubs are 20 years old now, so who would be using them, so why worry about that little grandfathering clause? Well as it turns out 20 years isn’t such a long time and there are plenty of the Eye2’s still around. And certain members of the PGA tour are using that little loophole, and playing with 20 year old square grooved clubs.

Phil Mickelson is one of those players. And other players have rather strong opinions about playing with the Eye2’s. In particular Scott McCarron. Who called it cheating. Which led Phil to say he had been slandered and threaten legal action. McCarron apologized and Phil accepted so that little crisis appears to be over. But the issue remains.

Here is a try at a brief explanation of the issue, which, as I pointed out in the previous post, really only effects about 10% of the golfers out there, professional or not. The rest of us don’t have the skills to take advantage of the groves, square or not. Anyway.

Ping is a company known for innovation in golf clubs. And, as would be expected, Ping considers any innovation it comes up with as good for the game. Not everyone agrees with Ping. The Eye2 club is not the first time Ping has run afoul of the USGA. In 1966 all of Pings putters except for one ( the Anser, which just happens to have been the most influential putter in golf. But that’s another post ) were banned because they had a certain bend in the shaft under the grip that it was felt gave players a special advantage in their putting stroke. In any case, Ping developed the square grooved Eye2 Irons. Here is a very good summary of the resulting dust up between Ping and the USGA that resulted in the lawsuit and it’s subsequent settlement, which included an exemption for the Eye2’s. But the problem of the advantage of the extra back spin remained, and thus, after much testing and discussion, the ban on square grooves was enacted. But while the USGA et. al. can set a rule, they can’t void a legal settlement. So the Eye2 exemption still stands. And the point Phil and the other players are trying to make is it was silly to put a rule in place when there was a glaring loophole like that. The USGA et. al. should have worked out the issues before enacting the rule. The USGA is saying ‘how could they have known that 20 year old clubs would cause a problem?’ Ping says they warned the USGA this would happen. So what we have now is an equipment company with a history of antagonism with golf’s ruling bodies, and a legal agreement saying their clubs are exempt on one side, and on the other, golf’s ruling bodies trying to implement a rule to bring the need for accuracy back to the game but who only have jurisdiction over the rules of golf, and can’t void a legal agreement that pretty much makes adoption of the rule dependent on the good will and fair mindedness of the players. Which leaves the players rather put out. Either a rule is a rule or it’s not, and if you can’t completely enforce it then you shouldn’t have made it, but it’s really not kosher to put them in the middle like that.

The way things stand as of this post is the players feel they have made their point and will take the Ping clubs out of their bags, for now. Ping and the USGA/PGA will sit down and try to iron out their differences. But the players have put them on notice. If they don’t come to some kind of agreement that leads to a fully enforceable rule, those 20 year old clubs will go right back into the players bags and the whole mess will start up again.

If you are really interested in what has happened in the world of professional golf since the rule went into effect here is a good summary by GolfWeek .

Meanwhile the rest of us plug along wishing our game was good enough that the shape of the grooves mattered, and a certain someone is breathing a small sigh of relief that something came along that managed to push him off the front page of golf news for at least a week or two.