Tournament of Champions: Saturday

It looks like the greens are pretty evil like the video game suggested with many players having the ball just roll way far away from the hole if they misread the green due to the slope.  On Friday Jason Day ended up looking like me off the tee and sending the ball right into the ground but it still ended up traveling 106 yards and he still ended up getting par for the whole and a bogey free round score of 66 which is just crazy.  Robert Garrigus is the leader on Friday shooting a 63.  There was another wonderful (o.k. not so much) issue with the odd rules of golf again with Camilo Villegas getting disqualified for moving some grass with his club as the ball was rolling back down to where he was do to the wonderful slopes of Kapalua.  It actually happened because of a guy watching the tournament on T.V. saw it and decided to twitter it to the PGA.  So this adds another log to the fire of anger towards how the rules and way they are enforced laid out.  The Golf Channel story about it is here.  You can watch it here.  The scoreboard is pretty close so far with plenty of people still in contention.  Today's round just came up on T.V. so time to go watch that.

Things I found of interest at the Tournament of Champions: Day Before Tournament Starts

First off the night before the tournament started I watched Alice Cooper play a par 3 hole of golf.  That was pretty interesting.  Alice plays some good golf, but he sure looks weird doing it.  I can't say to much though because I probably look weird playing golf as well.  The event I watched with Alice Cooper in it was something the golf channel set up and had some other interesting things in it.  I caught it halfway through, but it seemed to be an alternating shot team tournament of all the par 3 holes at Kapalua.  Anthony Kim picked out his playing partner for one hole from the crowd who was quite full of himself but ended up playing decently well for the one hole he played.  Watch now he is getting offers to be sponsored haha.  Also the pro's got teamed up with some of the Golf Channel Staff who proved they played pretty well and were deserving to be staff for the Golf Channel.

Also there was a long drive for charity on the last hole of Kapalua where the final ended up being Bubba Watson vs Jamie Sadlowski who is a professional long driver and of course Sadlowski won by a large margin, and then hit Bubba's left handed driver at the end just for show.  So far it seems like the mood at Kapalua is very fun and laid back.  Now I just have to wait for the tournament to start today.

Hyundai Tournament of Champions

picture from golf365.com
Approach shot on first hole

Well the 2011 PGA Tour is kicking off this week.  You can see it starting tomorrow thru Sunday on  the Golf Channel.  I will be able to see most of this except the last day.  It's sad but for some reason Grand Forks North Dakota does not seem to believe in putting the Golf Channel on basic cable like they do here in Wisconsin.  Nonetheless I plan on watching as much of it as I can.  Now that I have started this golf blog I feel it to be my duty to try to stay as updated as possible on the world of golf.  Also I have my own personal reason to watch the tournament.  Kapalua is probably my most hated real course on the PGA game I play on my Tiger Woods game.  You know it is bad when you are swearing up a storm on the first hole because of how hilly it is.  It seems like the greens on every hole on this course for the game have some crazy hills to them, or on the side of a hill where if you screw up the putt the ball either rolls back past you or is gone down a steep hill.  So I want to watch this tournament to see if really that course is as devilish as it is on the game.  I would also like to thank Tiger Woods game for making me interested in the courses played on the PGA tour which probably will make my golf addiction even less manageable.  I really have no predictions on who is going to win the tournament, so I don't really have any specific golfer I am rooting for for this one.  Either way I am still excited and cannot wait to start watching it.

Things I've noticed in the golf area of sporting goods stores

So recently I have gone to a few sporting goods stores while I have been home over my break from school.  The two stores I have checked out are Dunham's in Rice Lake Wisconsin, and Scheel's in Eau Claire Wisconsin.  What I have noticed is they still have tons of Taylormade Burner Driver's they both have on sale for $149 which they both have had on sale since the end of the Summer.  So if anyone here prefer's a Burner and hasn't gotten one yet look like everyone is trying to get rid of them.  My business senses are telling me almost everyone that wants one already has one so they are just trying to get everyone else to buy it.  Most golfers I know have one and it seems to be the most popular selling driver out there.  One thing I've noticed both stores are getting a lot more of are the Diablo driver's.  They are priced at $199 at both stores so currently they are more expensive than the Burner's.  It seems though now that Golf Digest has voted Callaway's driver as the best driver of 2010 it  is becoming the new popular driver pushing the Burner out of the way.

I have also noticed that there are alot of Odyssey putters out there for sale, and most of them are on sale for around $120.  I don't know if I could ever justify buying a putter that is that expensive even on sale unless I have a large golfing budget, or I'm winning golf tournaments.  I may see if I can try one out next time I go to the Grand Forks golf store and see if the putters are worth the price.  I doubt I would consider them worth the price, but I want to see why they are so popular.

My Amazon Golf Store

I have had this up for a short while, but have not put a blog post about it yet.  I have an Amazon Golf Store that I filled with budget minded training golf tools, clubs I recommend, random gifts, and Fighting Sioux Golf stuff.  Take a look at it.

Vote For me for Top Golf Blog of 2011

I have searched around and found there is an award for the top 40 golf blogs.  Feel free to vote.  I also will keep up a page for it on the right side of the blog where you can vote.  Thanks readers!

Brought to you by: Online MBA

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope no one got in to much trouble last night.  Hope you got a golf related New Year's resolution to try to do for this coming year.  To help nurse everyone's hangovers I have a golf video for you.  This is probably my favorite golf video on YouTube.  It's Phil Mickelson's famous backwards shot.  He kind of explains how to do it so it is sort of a golf lesson but more so something that makes you go "Wow I need to make an excuse to try that shot!"  Take a look at it.



Don't forget to watch the Rose Bowl Game.  Go Badgers!