The Golfer's Wife

And so it begins....

Today marks the start of the 2010 golf season. The first PGA tournament of the year, The SBS Championship, had it’s first round in Kapalua, Hawaii. The first LPGA tournament isn’t until next month.

I know it’s a little difficult to think about hitting a little white ball around on green grass when the ground is covered in white, and the high for the day didn’t get above 0. But this is a golf blog, so I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it.

It should be an interesting year. Golf’s biggest star is absent from the field and no one knows, probably least of all him, when he will return. Or what kind of reception he will receive when/if he does. The last time he was absent TV viewing fell by half. There are 10 tournament sponsorships up for renewal this year, and four have already said they are leaving. Fewer viewers and fewer sponsors means less prize money for everyone.

Over at the LPGA things aren’t any better. It starts its year in shaky financial shape, and with a new commissioner. There is a small ray of hope named Michelle Wie. Michelle won her first tournament last year. If she can finish in the top ten on a regular basis, and even win once or twice, interest in the Ladies tour would pick up and the LPGA could breathe a little easier. 

So we shall see what happens this year. Meanwhile we are putting on more sweaters and shoveling the snow in shifts to avoid frostbite. It’s a little hard to be too concerned about the fate of people who spend their time hitting a little white ball around in the sunshine for a living. And now if you’ll excuse me, there is a hot buttered rummmmm calling my name.

Weekend Update

As mentioned previously things are slooooow in the world of professional golf right now. But a few things worth noting did happen this weekend.

First off, huge congratulations to Michelle Wie on her first LPGA Tour win. She won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara Mexico. Hopefully this is the first of many. And as an aside can I just say ‘very nice’ to Lorena Ochoa on her choice for the trophy? Its not often you actually notice the trophy. It’s usually something tasteful, but bland, in silver or crystal. But Lorena chose something different enough that I actually noticed it. And I have to say I think it’s quite striking.

Next, Tiger won the Australian Masters down under. No big surprise there I know. But still worth noting. Great golf is still being played in some parts of the world.

And now a somewhat sad note. David Duval missed the cut at The Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney this weekend. The missed cut means he doesn’t automatically get his tour card for next year and has to go through qualifying school. He has paid his entry fee to Q School, but when asked about it said ‘Don’t expect to see me there’. He could show up anyway. Or he could play next year on sponsor’s exemptions. But the general feeling here at The Household is that he will hang up the putter for good. David has always been a particular favorite here at The Household, so if he is done we will miss him. David lives out here in The Wild West, and seems very happy just being a dad, and not spending most of the year away from home. So we can hardly blame him if he doesn’t think it’s worth it.

And last, linked to without comment, the story of Doug Barron. No opinion one way or the other on this one at the moment. However, I imagine there will be more such stories over the next few years, so just thought it was worth pointing out. 

Not A Golfer

The LPGA has picked their new commissioner. And they didn’t listen to Jigger. His name is Michael Whan, and he is a marketing guy. He is slightly more qualified than Carolyn Bivens, in that he actually plays golf, and has done so since he was a kid. He has also worked for TaylorMade and Wilson Sporting Goods. So he has a modicum of experience in the world of sports. Whether or not this will help him as commissioner remains to be seen. The first thing he did as commissioner was fly to a meeting of tournament sponsors and hand out his cell phone number and e-mail. Which impressed the sponsors, since one of the big complaints about Bivens was her total unresponsiveness to sponsors.

Here is Ron Sirak on the selection. And here is Jim McCabe from GolfWeek.

Right now it seems that everyone is cautiously optimistic. I dunno. I tend to agree with Jigger. And it’s not like they didn’t have some Golfers to choose from. But here’s hoping Jigger and I are wrong and he turns out to be the best thing to hit the LPGA since Annika.

Checking in with the Pros

It’s been awhile since we’ve checked in with the goings on, on the pro tours. Here is an attempt to get you up to date, with lots of linky goodness( which means it’s a good work time waster post. Just sayin. )

Ladies first.

Since the Solheim Cup the women have had 4 tournaments.

1. The Safeway Classic. Which was won by M.J. Hur. I admit, until she won I had never heard of her either. If you are interested here is her bio.

2. The Canadian Open. Which was won by Suzann Petterson

3. P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship. That’s a mouthful hunh? This was won by Jiyai Shin. Ms. Shin is on track to win both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year. The first time any one has done that since Nancy Lopez in 1978. Here is a very nice write up on her by Stina Stenberg at Golf Digest.

4. The Samsung World Championship. This is an invite only event, which only had 16 competitors this year. It was won by Na Yeon Choi.

And while things are looking better for the LPGA since they removed Carolyn Bivens, they aren’t out of the woods yet. But it’s not for lack of a quality product and fan support. Here is a good write up on the state of things.

Next up for the Ladies is the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge in Danville, CA.

And now the men.

The men have been in the throes of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Here is what Jigger had to say about the FedEx Cup. Here is what I had to say about the FedEx Cup. Since it was pretty much a dud last year, as predicted the awarding of points underwent yet another revision for this year. Here is a nice explanation of how points were awarded this year. And here is an explanation of the whole ‘reset’ thingy.

Got all that?

The first playoff tournament was The Barclays, which Heath Slocum won. The second playoff tournament was the Deutche Bank Championship, won by Steve Stricker. The third playoff tournament was the BMW Championship, which Tiger won. So at the end of 3 here are the current standings. If you go to this page and look there where it says 2009 Playoffs and has a picture of Tiger holding a trophy, you will see wrap-ups of the 3 tournaments. If you are interested these wrap-ups give a nice summary of moved-up, moved-down, and was-eliminated.

Here at The Household we are still reserving judgment on this whole Playoffs thing. As has been noted before, we watch a lot of sports here at the household, which means we watch a lot of playoffs. And we have been watching golf for years. And we have never felt golf needed playoffs. But we could be wrong. We’ll see.

Anyway. Here is Jeff Rude on the FedEx Cup. And here is a write up from The New York Times.

This week is the final tournament, THE TOUR Championship ( and yes, for some reason THE TOUR is all caps ), which will be played at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

And now, if you followed all those links, you should be fully caught up with both tours, and have wasted at least ½ hour besides. A quick check on the EPSN and People web sites, and it will be time to go home.

Thats quite enough of that young ladies

I had a ‘Berry before most of you had cell phones. I have an iPhone now. I know all about Facebook. I don’t Tweet (  blogging is all I think you people can probably stand of me ) but I do follow a few Twitterers. All my music comes from iTunes. I live with two teenagers, and am in regular contact with a 21 year old. When IDK, WRU, WTF, and L8TR show up on my iPhone I know what they mean. I know who The Fray, The Flo-Bots, and Cage The Elephant are. I can do several of Dane Cook’s routines from memory( not that I’m proud of that or anything, but you hear them enough and they kind of sink in ). My point here is that, in spite of being a mom, I have managed to keep up with the world in general. I am not stuck back in the ‘80’s or something. And I don’t think the game of golf should be stuck there either.

I am on record as stating I have no problem with the emotions shown on the golf course by the younger players. That in fact I think it’s a good thing. And I don’t mind a cheering gallery either. Golf needs a little more ‘umph’, as it were.

But ( and you knew there was a but ).

Golf does not need cheerleaders or face paint.

We watched the Solheim Cup this weekend. All of it. Or at least all of it that was on The Golf Channel. Which was basically all of it. It was good golf. No, it was GREAT golf. The Americans’ were favored to win, and they did. But it was all tied up going into the singles matches on Sunday. The Europeans gave them a real run for the money. Or the Cup, as it were.

Anyway. I know that most of the team members were young. 7 of them were under 30. And I know it was exciting, and a team format, which they are decidedly not used to. I imagine it was a lot of fun to be playing With the same women they normally play Against. And I know there was the whole ‘representing your country’ thing. And apparently they all stayed in the same house, and there was music and dancing and much camaraderie. I get all that.

But that is no excuse for the putting of hands together and cheering, or inciting the crowd to cheer “Let’s go Morgan, Let’s go’ with their ribbonned pony tails bouncing. Or the flag waving parade that resembled nothing so much as a Color Guard presentation. And the face paint. Don’t even get me started on the face paint. Thank the golfing gods that Julie Inskter refrained from face paint. I would have lost most of the considerable respect I have for Julie if she had shown up with a design painted on her cheek. All in all it resembled nothing so much as a bunch of high school cheerleaders that just happen to be able to play golf.

I didn’t mind the fist pumps, or the dancing off the greens, or the high fives, or the cheering crowd. And Christina Kim should bottle that personality and that smile and sell it as an anti-depressant. I love her joi-de-vivre.

But they got carried away and took things over the top. And it wasn’t just me. If you watched, there were several points over the 3 days where the younger girls were busy doing the cheerleader thing and Julie Inkster and Christie Kerr were in the background looking distinctly uncomfortable. Even during the opening ceremonies.

I’m not a grouch or an old fuddy duddy. Really. But it is Golf, not volley ball, or field hockey, or soccer. And there is tradition, and decorum, especially with something like the Solheim Cup. That is part of what makes Golf golf, and not field hockey or soccer. And they are professionals, not high school students.

In two years the cup will be played in Europe. I imagine just being out of the US will have a bit of a dampening effect. I hope so. And I hope that more mature heads prevail the next time it is in the US. Because in 4 years it will be held practically in my back yard. So we will of course have tickets. And I’m afraid if cheerleading ensues the mom in me might just have to pull a couple of them over and explain about proper behavior on a golf course, and use spit on a napkin to wipe the paint off their cheeks. And we really don’t want that to happen, do we girls?  Hmmmm?  Didn’t think so.

[ Jigger: So this couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your overall feelings of intense dislike for    
             high school cheerleaders, could it?

TGW: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Jigger: You know. The fact that you despise cheerleaders because they never came to cheer at your
           swim meets, but always showed up to cheer for the boys swim meets.

TGW: Well they should have cheered for us instead. We were WAY better than the boys. We took the
         All-City meet 3 years in a row. They didn’t even get close. They should have come cheer for the 
         winners.

Jigger:  So the woman who thinks Sergio Garcia is hot and refers to Mr. Villegas as Cammmmilo, is
            questioning the dedication of a group of high school girls who would rather go cheer for a
            bunch of totally ripped high school boys wearing Speedos.

TGW:  Look, over by the shed, isn’t that a squirrel? ]

The Solheim Cup

The oldest and most famous team event in golf is, of course, The Ryder Cup. But it only happens every other year and only involves players from the US and Europe. In recent times there have been a lot of very good golfers from parts of the world that aren’t the US and Europe. South Africa, Australia and Fiji, just to name a few. So in 1994, in order to fill in the every other year gap, The Presidents Cup was established. This is a team event between the US and golfers from everywhere that is not Europe.  You’ll notice that in each case it is the US against someone else. That is because, let’s face it, the US is where the money is. Last year was a Ryder Cup year. This is a Presidents Cup year. One thing both of these events have in common is that they are for the men.

In order to even things out a bit Karsten Solheim made big push for a women’s team event, and in 1990 the Solheim Cup was born. Karsten Solheim was the founder of Karsten Manufacturing, which is the maker of PING brand golf equipment. And that story is a blog post or two in itself, and we aren’t going there today. Just know that Mr. Solheim knew a thing or two about golf, and had enough clout in the golf world to get a womens team event off the ground. Hence said event is called The Solheim Cup.

Like The Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup is contested by teams representing the US and Europe. And like the Ryder Cup, The Solheim Cup is match play. Each team has 12 players, and is made up of the top players for each side and a couple of Captain’s picks. And like the Ryder Cup, The Solheim Cup is played every other year, and the venue alternates between US and Europe. Sensing a theme here?  The Solheim Cup is the women’s Ryder Cup.

So instead of repeating myself I will point you to this post I did on The Ryder Cup as far as format and strategy goes. Just substitute Solheim Cup and LPGA in your head each time you read Ryder Cup and PGA and that pretty much covers it. Of course there are a few differences, lots more legs showing for one thing, and the point system for determining team members is a little different, but overall they are pretty much the same. Which was Mr. Solheims point, after all.

There are a lot of good non-US and non-European golfers on the LPGA. But given it’s current financial straights, I doubt there is a women’s version of The President’s Cup anywhere on the horizon.

The Solheim Cup is this week, the 17th – 23rd, with the actual match’s starting tomorrow and going through Sunday. It is being played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The US team leads in overall Solheim Cup wins 7 – 3, and has never lost the cup when it’s been contested on American soil. They are heavily favored to win this year as well. Which doesn’t mean it won’t be fun to watch. And we will watch a lot of it here at The Household. The Golf Channel will have the exclusive coverage, starting tomorrow. And of course you subscribe to The Golf Channel. Doesn’t everybody?

Here is Ron Sirak on this years teams, and their slightly different attitudes. And here is an interesting take on the future of the cup itself from a British news paper. And because I know you will want to, here is the page so you can keep up with real time updates on the scoring.

Young Ladies

The Wegman’s LPGA Tournament is being played in Rochester New York this weekend. And just to prove that they don’t play favorites, the Golfing Gods arranged for the second round to get rained out today. Last weekend Bethpage, this weekend Rochester. New York must have done something to really piss off the GG’s.

Player of note in the Wegman’s tournament is Cheyenne Woods. Cheyenne is an 18 year old student at Wake Forest. She also happens to be an outstanding golfer. Oh, and she has a famous uncle. You’ve probably heard of him. Cheyenne is playing as an amateur in her first LPGA tournament on a sponsors exemption. Here are two pictures of Cheyenne.

Remarkable family resemblance wouldn’t you say? If her game resembles his anywhere near as much she is going to be force to be reckoned with on the LPGA. Her uncle didn’t make the cut in his first PGA event. Hopefully the rain lets up tomorrow so they can play the second round and we’ll see if Cheyenne can do better her first time out.

***

Remember Elizabeth Wang? Who I wrote about here? She is 9 now. A couple of weekends ago she played in the Colorado Junior Golf Associations annual tournament. She played up a division, with the 11-13 year olds. She won by 9 strokes. Remember her name. In 8 years or so, when she is the phenom on the cover of all the golf magazines, you can impress them at the water cooler by saying ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been following her for years’.

And in other news.....

So besides the unfortunate appearance of white, what else is going on in the world of professional golf?  Lessseeeee….The final round of the Clambake got rained out, so Dustin Johnson, who held a 4 shot lead, was declared the winner.

Tim Finchem insists that the Stanford St. Jude Championship will take place in June. In spite of the fact that R. Allen Stanford was served with legal papers in a multibillion dollar fraud case and his entire financial empire is crashing. 

Hank Haney is going to try to fix Charles Barkley’s notoriously bad swing. And he’s going to do it on television. So every one will know the results. Good luck with that.

Michelle Wie was 2nd in the SBS open at Turtle Bay in Hawaii last weekend. Her first tournament as a bona-fide card carrying member of the LPGA and she came in 2nd. It is looking increasingly likely I will be wrong. This is a good thing.

What else….what else.  Seems like there was something……

Oh.  Mr. Woods has announced he will be returning to the world of professional golf next week at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Not that any one cares or anything.

It's Started

The 2009 season has begun.  The first tournament on the PGA tour is the Mercedez-Benz Championship which is being played this week in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii. The first tournament on the LPGA is the HSBC Brasil Cup, Jan. 24-25, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Just thought I'd mention it. In case you were tired of BCS bowl games and NFL playoffs. 

First Step

Were you paying any attention to Q-school this weekend?  Both the men and women had their finals this weekend ( well, actually the men’s final was today. ). Here at The Household we were keeping our eye on Michelle Wie.

Michelle tied for 7th, and thus made the top 20, and earned her LPGA Tour card for 2009. As mentioned previously, in spite of the number of tournaments she has played in, this is the first time she has actually had a card.

There were several things to notice about her win. Standard Wie procedure has been to do well the first 3 rounds then fall apart on Sunday. And true to form she started out Sunday with 3 bogeys. But then she steadied herself and played a good round. And at the press conference afterwards she did the talking. Not her father. Here is a quote from that conference:

"It's a good feeling, I really earned it. I took my medicine and really gutted it out. I went to local qualifying and finals. It's like high school graduation." 

Sounds like she might actually be proud of herself for earning that card. Up until now she may have been good enough to play on the LPGA, but she hadn’t earned the right, it had all been given to her. It had to feel a little funny to be in the clubhouse with a group of women players who all had to earn the right to play, when all you had to do was show up. As mentioned previously, it left some bad feelings. But based on the above, she knows that. She ‘took her medicine’.  And she did indeed ‘gut it out’, which she has not been known to do before.

From the sound of things Michelle has matured quite a bit. And is at least speaking for herself. How much her father is still pulling the strings remains to be seen. And just because she earned her card doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing from here. Remember, she tied for 7th. Phenom or not, she didn’t exactly dominate. And one gutted out Sunday doesn’t mean she has put all her final round chokes behind her. And there are still going to be some hard feelings left over in the clubhouse. And there is also this:

She also says her days of playing against the men are not over. "I want to do it," she said. "I always have. It's as simple as that."

So whether or not she will live up to her potential is still a big question. But she has taken a big step in the right direction. Lets hope she keeps going in that same direction and has a good year. It would be good for her, and for the LPGA.

And in all the coverage of Michelle the first place finisher has kind of gotten lost. So here is a big TGW Congratulations! to Stacy Lewis. Stacy came in third in the US Women’s Open this year, which earned her enough money to place high enough on the money list to earn her card for next year. But because there is so much money involved with the Open as compared to the other LPGA tournaments, the LPGA has decreed that any money won at the Open doesn’t count on the money list. So although she may have earned a lot of money in 2008, she still had to earn her card. Which she did in a very convincing fashion. Here at The Household we will be watching her and hoping her success on the tour continues in 2009.