Friday, December 31, 2010

My New Year's Resolution

Well it's New Year's Eve and time for me to post my New Year's resolutions.  The first one is to be in at least one golf tournament over the summer.  I have a few I have picked out depending on how good I get over the summer, how much money I have, and where I am over the summer.  The resolution is to enter at least one golf tournament over the summer.  My first and probably hardest to achieve new years resolution is to enter a WSGA golf tournament.  The most likely one being a qualifier tournament in Eau Claire for the end of year WSGA tournament.  The second choice is to do one easier to get into and probably much cheaper in the end Twin Cities Golf Tour tournament.  This tournament doesn't need you to have a USGA handicap and really has almost no requirements to enter.  If I'm in North Dakota over the summer I will have to hope the NDGA has a tournament or two in the Grand Forks area.

I also have one more slightly odd New Years resolution, and that is to golf in a kilt.  Kind of a way to go back to how golf started.  I have a Sport Kilt and rarely wear it because none of my friends really approve of it and refuse to hang out with me if I am wearing it.  I hope to find a few more excuses or people not being so critical of it over the summer, and I believe golfing in it at least once would be a good excuse to wear it.  Especially on those 90 degree days.  I also encourage other men to have this be their new years resolution too.  Remember the movie Braveheart?  Remember how manly that was?  Yeah go ahead try out a kilt.  Why should men be stuck to pants and shorts when there is a more comfortable man garment out there?  Anyway, before this becomes me standing on a soapbox (which I'm sure will come many times later) I'm going to get back on track of the main point of this blog post.
Picture from www.sportkilt.com


In conclusion these are my two new years resolutions.  I hope you enjoy them and find them interesting, and don't forget to make up some golfing related New Year's resolutions of your own.

Update:  One of my New Year's resolutions made it onto PGA.com go check it out everyone!!!  I'm actually the first one on the list at #9

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Off-Beat golfer endorsements, sponsorships

Off-Beat golfer endorsements, sponsorships

This is a slideshow of offbeat endorsements from Golf.com.  It has some interesting stuff I didn't know golfers had for endorsements.  My favorite ones are Boo Weekly's and Arnold Palmer's.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays and the Remax Long Drive Championship

First of all Happy Holidays everyone and I hope you got all the gifts you wished for.

Now, on to the Remax Long Drive.  In case you guys missed it today it is on ESPN Tomorrow at 1:30 Central time.  I think it is a must watch because of the amazing story in it this year.  There is a 16 year old kid in it.  His name is Domenic Mazza.  This kid is crazy good in long drive.  Here is a video of some of his drives, but I won't give away how well he does except saying that this year's Long Drive has a great story to it.



There were two things almost all the long driver's were using mostly because of sponsorship, but this doesn't mean they may not be good products.  The first one is Slazenger Raw Distance Golf Balls, which from what I understand can only be found at Dick's Sporting Goods.  It only has 14 reviews so far, and most of them are good.  The ball does seem to be a more for the average golfer, and seems to be priced to be in that category. This summer I am going to order some though and try them out.  There is one reason because of this.  That is because if any of you are James Bond fans, Slazenger is the golf ball he uses so I want it to be a decent ball badly just because of how much of a James Bond fan I am.  Slazenger doesn't really sell much in the United States though except some apparel from what I can find.  If you do search Slazenger on Dick's Sporting Good's website it claims they have a set of men's clubs but when you click on them it says 0 items so maybe they will have the set on there someday.  I think having everyone use a single ball for the Long Drive is a good idea to help negate the difference in golf balls and make the tournament pointed more towards the person not their equipment.

Many players were using Krank Drivers.  I know from looking around online a lot of long driver's consider them or Geek Golf Drivers.  These of course are way out of my price range and aren't recommended by many who play golf to play the game and not just long drive, but it would be fun to try them out once.  I don't know how many players were sponsored by these companies though.

The third and final thing almost ever long driver used were Zero Friction Tees.  I choose to show the Fighting Sioux ones to help represent my school haha.  Anyway these tees seem to not have many reviews on them and are a little pricey for golf tees, and I think I might purchase some as well to try out for the Summer.  There aren't many reviews to base the purchase on so who knows if they are good or bad yet.

Anyway again to everyone Happy Holidays and don't forget to watch the Remax Long Drive Championship tomorrow.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Last Minute Gift Ideas Before The Holidays

Here is my list of a few last minute gift ideas for you to get your golfer or yourself for the holidays.

1.  Wisconsin Birdie Book $20

This is a book full of coupons for tons of golf courses in Wisconsin.  Its deals range from buy 2 get 1 free green fees, to free cart rental, to two golfers for the price of one.  The book claims over $4000 in savings.

2.  ProActive Par Three Putting Green $37.31
ProActive Par Three Putting Green (3x9 Feet)
This is the top selling putting green on Amazon.  It also has very high customer reviews.

3.  Club Champ Putter Pool $23.99
Club Champ Putter Pool
This game looks like a fun indoor game that everyone can enjoy even non golfers.  I know my girlfriend even thinks I should get one, because she thinks it even looks fun and she hates golf (I'm trying to change her).

4.  SKLZ Rick Smith Smash Bag $14.99
SKLZ Rick Smith Smash Bag - Impact Training Product
This is a top 100 selling item in Sports & Outdoors on Amazon.  It is supposed to help you from hitting fat or thin shots, and I'm sure it also helps build a little muscle too.

5.  Chromax Metallic Golf Balls $16.95 per 6
Chromax M1 Metallic Golf Balls-Six PackChromax M1 Brilliant Metallic SILVER Golf Balls - 3 Ball TubeGolf Chromax M1 Golf Ball Green Shiny 3 Balls Sleeve
These balls seem a bit expensive for a golf ball, but they are very unique.  The weird thing is people are claiming this ball is actually worth the price in playability as well as looks.  All online reviews I've found people are claiming it performs on par of mid to high end golf balls.  This would be a great gift for anyone but especially for someone who collects interesting golf balls.

You can find most of these items and a few more on my recommended golf items in my Amazon Golf Store, of course these links take you to the product as well.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

My Pick For Golf's Picture Of The Year 2010

The golf picture of the year has to be for me this picture by Mark Pain.  It's a fitting last name considering he got hit with Tiger's shanked shot.  The picture is amazing but what makes it humorous is Cigar Guy off to the right of the picture.  Just search him on YouTube and you'll see how he somehow got popular.  So this picture has the amazingness of a great shot by the photographer and the comedy of Cigar Guy.  Thanks for taking the picture Mark Pain.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Golf Lesson Of The Week dec 15

Here's my weekly golf lesson for everyone.  This one is from the PGA by PGA Instructor Peter S. Krause.  It is called coiled for power and is about an issue I had and still have from time to time which is the reverse pivot.  It has an exercise to use to keep yourself from continuing that bad habit.  It is a great, short, and sweet video, and it has an exercise you can do indoors for the winter time.  As I learned old bad habits die hard, so remember even after you stop the reverse pivot, still do the exercise from time to time.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Inside video of the Metrodome roof collapse!!!!

Fox News 9 in the Twin Cities has exclusive inside video of the Metrodome roof collapse!!!!  It is crazy it seems like something from a high budget movie everyone should see it



Here is another video from inside the Metrodome not as good as the Fox one, but at least it's another video

10 Best Golf States: Golfdigest.com

So This week Golf Digest put out what they thought to be the 10 Best Golf States: Golfdigest.com. There was one surprise to me, and one that was not. Both Wisconsin and North Dakota were named. Wisconsin didn't surprise me. It has tons of courses that are 4 star rated or above by Golf Digest. In fact I found quite a few 4 star and above courses by where I stay during the Summer. Which I may have to try out since it looks like their prices are decent during off peak times. Also Wisconsin has tons of mid-level courses for someone that is looking to golf on the real cheap. Also there are even courses in Wisconsin that are pretty much fields behind a bar, if you want to go real cheap. Overall I completely agree with Golf Digest's pick there and think maybe they should have even put it up higher on the list.

The surprising choice was for me of course though was North Dakota. Coming here after being in Wisconsin all summer it seemed like they had hardly any courses compared to Wisconsin. Which even according to Golf Digest, North Dakota only has 6 four star and above golf courses. But, after reading their reasoning, and how the decisions were made I completely agree with their decision. North Dakota has less than 700,000 people in their population, and Golf Digest used 4 star and above courses over the state's population. Considering those things North Dakota should be in the top 10. I have a few other reasons as well. First, of all is price. North Dakotan's are cheap compared to many other states, also price of living here is cheap. These things combined keep the price down more than most on golf courses. Especially comparing prices vs states like Florida. Bardmoor Golf & Tennis Club a 4 and a half star course as rated by Golf Digest has a $90 green fee whereas The Links of North Dakota a course considered by many to be the best course in North Dakota only has a green fee of $60. Remember this course also has a 4 and a half star rating in Golf Digest just like The Bardmoor Golf & Tennis Club in Florida.

This comes to my suggestion of two budget golf vacations in North Dakota. The first one is golfing in Grand Forks. Grand Forks has 3 public golf courses you can golf at, one owned by the University of North Dakota and two owned by the city of Grand Forks. They also have one private course the Grand Forks Country Club, but I nor no one I know around here knows much about that. Grand Forks has one 4 star rating course by Golf Digest. That course is Kings Walk which is a Arnold Palmer signature course. It is the only 18 hole course I'm going to talk about for Grand Forks. The other two courses are Lincoln Park Golf Course which is owned by the city and Ray Richards Golf Course which is owned by the University of North Dakota. These two courses are fair, but when checking out green fees for them the price seems reasonable especially if you are making this a golf vacation. All the prices seem fair for the courses in Grand Forks, but what makes it a good cheap vacation is the cost of hotels and everything else you plan to do in Grand Forks is very reasonable to make your golf trip a budget one.

The second North Dakota city I suggest for your budget golf vacation is Bismark. Bismark has 4 courses that are 3 star or above rated by Golf Digest. One of the courses Hawktree Golf Club is 4 and a half stars rated. The price is a higher than Kings Walk, but it is also higher rated.  I am sure the lodging prices are the same as the rest of North Dakota, which is reasonably priced.

So in closing I completely agree with Golf Digest's pick of Wisconsin and North Dakota for top 10 golfing states. I also hope you consider my budget golf vacations.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Winter time golf for me

So I've spent most of my spare time up here in North Dakota playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 for GameCube off my girlfriend's Wii.  It's actually a pretty good game for it's age.  I enjoy it and have spent way to many hours playing it.  Of course I can't say much for it compared to new games especially of the golf variety.  Either way I've enjoyed making my own player and bringing his stats up.  I suggest anyone who can find it for a super cheap deal to pick it up if their on the poor side and want to play some what I would like to call couch golf.  Anyway, this game is making me want to go golfing bad.  Of course it's winter so I can't.  I keep finding myself going into the local golf store and wandering around for a few minutes then leaving just to attempt get my golf fix.  I'm spending hours a day looking on websites like Golf Digest for reviews on things such as clubs and courses.
This brings me to suggest to you guys what to do during the winter time to keep you from chomping at the bit for golfing in the summer.  I suggest you find a place with an indoor driving range or one of those indoor golf simulators.  I do not have much knowledge of either of these, but I do know where some are in my area.  The Golf Center in Grand Forks, ND has an indoor golf simulator, but I do not know anything about the price of using it or what it offers.  In the golf store though they have signs up for a doubles indoor golf league at if I remember right $40 per team.  Also in town at the Play it Again Sports they have a few driving nets you can rent out for use hourly although I am unsure of the price of them.  My plan is when I get my clubs from home up here after the winter break see if I can use the indoor driving nets and mat that the university golf team has. I assume it can be used by university students as well when not in use by the team.  That is my cheap idea for me on how to keep up the golfing during the cold times.
Here's something everyone can do though to help their golf obsession.  Get out your putter a cup and a ball and just putt around literally.  If you have shorter carpeting like I have it works pretty decently.  This although not like a green at least keeps your putting motion and accuracy in check.  If you want to spend a little money and upgrade you can get a putting mat although I doubt I will get myself one of those unless I get it as a gift. One like this one seems decently priced Wilson Golf Auto Put.  Those are the cheap things I have so far on winter indoor golf.

On a note to anyone reading this I'm debating to post reviews and experiences of golfing for me last Summer or not.  Let me know if you think I should in the comments.

Start of my new blog

So this if my first blog.  So lets start it off with about me.  I'm a 23 year old UND college student that just after not golfing since I was 12 picked up golfing again last summer.  Since I picked it up I am now like most men who are now obsessed with things involving golf.  I spend my summers in Wisconsin which is an amazing golf state and my end of summer to spring in North Dakota another state I have found to have some excellent golf opportunities as well.  I plan on putting up opinions and reviews with anything I've experienced involving golf and tips if a young (according to some), inexperienced golfer tries to improve his game and enjoy his experiences in golf.  Since I am of course a poor college student my reviews and opinions will be based towards the budget side of things on how to save money or do things cheaper involving the sport of golf.