Young Guns Heating Up

It looks like Phil Mickelson is poised to replace the suddenly struggling and oh so human Tiger Woods as the World #1.  Phil is coming off of his 3rd Green Jacket win and Tiger is a shell of his former self who, for the first time ever, seems to lack confidence and game.  

Tiger limps to a worst ever 153rd finish at the Quail Hollow Championship after shooting rounds of 74-79 to miss the cut for only the 6th time in 241 professional starts.  Compare and contrast that to Phil.  Sitting comfortably in second place only 2 strokes behind Billy Mayfair after 3 rounds.  Billy who?  Exactly!!  Mayfair has been as relevant as an 8-track player for the past number of years so Phil should have an easy road to his second win in as many starts.  Right?  Wrong!!

Somebody for to tell Rory McIlroy that this was Phil's party and he proceeded to drop a tidy little 62 on the field to end at 15 under and a very comfortable 4 stroke win.........oh yeah, did I mention that Rory was only 20 years old at the time.  That is some pretty good playing for a young pup like him!

While Rory was busy beating the best at Quail Hollow on the other side of the world 18 year old Ryo Ishikawa was busy carding a stunning 12 birdies (including 9 of his first 11 holes) for a 58 en rout to winning The Crowns tournament in Nagoya, Japan.  Ryo's 58 was the lowest score ever on a major tour anywhere in the World.

18 and 20 year olds are supposed to be passed out in a ditch somewhere after a drunken toga party or chasing the girls during spring break in Florida, they are supposed to be destroying PGA tour fields and setting all time scoring records.  But one thing is certain, if this past weekend is any indication, the young guns in World Golf are heating up and they're hunting Tiger, Phil and whoever else gets in their way.  

I say bring  it on!  It is time for some youthful exuberance and cockiness in Golf.  Thing is, these kids just don't know any better, they don't realize that they aren't supposed to be this good, this soon.  I for one am wishing them the best of luck!  Until next time, hit em straight, and may all your gimmies be for birdies!

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Witnessing Perfection

Today I had the honour of witnessing perfection!  While playing the 150 yard 12th hole at The marshes, my golf buddy Alex hit a majestic 6 iron into a slight head wind which landed 10 feet or so to the left of the hole before catching the slope and gently feeding down hill into the hole for his first career Ace!!  The funny thing was that we didn't see it go in the hole from the tee.  When we got up to the green, we didn't see the ball.  Alex was looking around before I asked him if he had checked the hole.....when he did he got the surprize of a life time when he saw his ball tucked snugly in the cup. 

This was not only Alex's first Ace, but it was also the first hole-in-one that I have personally witnessed.  needless to say, the after round beer tasted very good!

Well done and Congratulations Alex!!

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Putting Woes

I have 3 rounds under my belt so far this season and my putting is KILLING me!!

Check out my putts per hole stats and you'll see what I mean.






It just isn't very pretty.  The maddening thing is that putting is one of the few things that we can work on over the cold winter months, but oh no, not me :-(

So now I have to buckle down and try to get my stroke back before my index creeps back up and I lose all of the progress that I made last summer. They say that it is always best to start at the beginning and for putting that means grip, posture and alignment.  I found a series of great videos dealing with the grip, alignment and reading breaks over at ehow.com - check them out here.

Now that I have something to go and work on, I should really decide which putter is going to be my gamer for the year.  Those who know me know that I LOVE my putter.  I have blades, mallets, short putters, belly putters and even a broom putter.  It is a little too early on in the process to commit to a decision now, but since I have the Taylor Made Rossa Monza Spider putter in three different lengths, I will definitely start there.

I have another round scheduled at The Marshes this coming Saturday and if I hope to break 90 again, the putter is going to have to cooperate.

Wish me luck and until next time, hit em straight, and may all you gimmies be for birdies!

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