Random Things

Another reason why Arnold Palmer is cooler than you

Today, The King flew his plane for the final time. His pilot's license expired on January 31, and he has no plans to renew it. Palmer has been flying since 1956. Today he flew from Palm Springs to Orlando, his last time flying as a pilot. Being able to fly a plane is one thing, but to have a world record doing it???

 In 1976 Palmer set the world record for circumnavigation of the globe. He flew from Denver to Denver in 57 hours, 36 minutes and 42 seconds. His record still stands. There is no way you've ever done anything that cool... or as cool as winning 4 Masters.

Did Tiger give up?
Brendan Steele sure thinks so. The rookie played with Tiger on Sunday at Torrey Pines and says that he was pretty uninterested in his round. Tiger has always prided himself on giving it 100% all the time. This comment is sure to irk him. The fact that a rookie didn't seem to mind saying this points to the lessening of Tiger's "intimidation factor."

Why do we all still believe in Tiger?
Joe Posnanski, who writes for Sports Illustrated, and is one of the best sports writers around, wrote about Tiger Woods and why we all still think he'll become the Tiger of old again. Posnanski usually writes about baseball, sometimes football and less about golf. However, his insights are great. If you only read one other thing online today make it my post about the importance of swing mechanics. But if you read two more things, read Joe's article. It's pretty convincing.

That's about it for now. Let's here your comments! About Arnie, about Brendan Steele, about Joe's article or about anything!

-A.

Are Swing Mechanics Overrated?

As young kids, most people learned the game of golf from their father, an older brother or someone else who showed them the basic fundamentals of the game. Hold it like this, stand like this, don't over-swing and knock it out there. Those that play golf regularly tend to work on their swings, perhaps by taking lessons, or simply by heading to the range to work on what they know. This type of practice is consistent from the worst weekend hacker all the way up to the best players in the world. That's the thing about golf, no matter how good (or bad) you are, you always strive to get better.

The golfing public has been obsessed with swing mechanics ever since Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf". As Hogan is widely considered the greatest ball striker of all time, this book was, and still is, gospel.

What'd I miss?

Nicer than Canada

I just returned from a week in Cabo and let me tell you, real life sucks. Ok, not really. But waking up in Mexico every morning to a cloudless sky and a cup of coffee with Bailey's is a whole lot better than waking up to an annoying alarm clock and -30 degree weather. Anyway, the week off was great, but now it's back to cold weather, my job and, of course, entertaining the world by writing about golf.

Jhonny Vegas and the Germanator!

It was quite the weekend in golf. A former Nationwide Tour stand-out named Johnny  Jhonny Vegas won in his 5th career start and I learned that people in Europe supposedly call Martin Kaymer the "Germanator".

Kaymer definitely has been totally dominant in the last 12 months, (more on that in a bit) but a nickname like that for a guy that looks like this is hilarious (and awesome).

The Germanator and the Iron Sheik

Now onto the recap...

Jamie Sadlowski is the best athlete in the universe

Believe it.

I have never, ever seen anything in my life as cool as Jamie Sadlowski hitting a golf ball.

Back story: On 18 at Kapalua, the day of the pro-am, they hosted a long-drive competition between Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Robert Garrigus and Jamie Sadlowski.

Guess who was there??

You're still talking about Kapalua?

Andy is away on vacation this week spending some of his hard-earned Loopin' dollars, and he threatened me with violence if I didn't pump out a few pieces of blogging gold while he was away, so here we go.

Here is a quick story about Ryan Palmer and Ben Crane...

Ryan Palmer

This one is for avid impersonator and frequent golf partner of both Loopin' writers, TM...

Not surprisingly the mood on the course during a pro-am is very relaxed, particularly in a "winners only" tournament where no one is really grinding for a cheque. Well anyways, Ryan Palmer is on the tee shooting the shit with his playing partners. (NOTE: For those that haven't heard Ryan speak before he does so with a very heavy Texas drawl.)

Well the 18th tee at Kapalua gives you a wonderful view of the ocean...and out in the water the waves were crashing and the whales were playing and what does Ryan say in his slow Texas drawl...

"Man...I wish I could be out there on ma boat right now"

Dustin Johnson would be proud.



Ben Crane

Up until now some of you probably know Ben Crane as that super slow player on tour that was once played-through by a guy in his own group (Rory Sabbatini) Well...do I have news for you guys...Ben Crane is totally awesome!

As mentioned above, the mood during the pro-am is extremely laid-back. So much so that as I was explaining to the Loopin' photographer how slow a player Ben was he proceeded to putt out of turn while his amateur playing partners were lining up their putts. It was like watching a group of old men practice the age old art of "continuous putting". It was great to see.

Here's another reason why Ben Crane and Ryan Palmer are awesome...

Palmer had a chuckle when he heard I had already seen the video

Do you think me relaying those two quick stories will be enough to appease Master Andrew?

No?

Ok...well I got one about the long-drive competition coming up in 2 minutes...so be patient.

-T.

Weekly wrap-up

Mark Wilson:Kowabunga dude!
(photo from espn.com)

The Sony Open actually got in all 72 holes after a complete washout on Thursday forced the guys to go 36 holes on Sunday. The winner, Mark Wilson, thanked his trainer for the off-season work which helped him with his stamina on such a long day. Closing with a 67 Wilson held off Steve Marino and Tim Clark for the win. Stuart Appleby shot a disappointing 72 on Sunday to fall off the leader board. This week's event was heavy on Americans, but not so much on big names, with many of the top players sitting this one out.

Many of the big names will emerge next week. The problem for the PGA Tour? They're all emerging in Dubai for the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. Four of the top five in the world will be teeing it up there next week. Guess who's not.

Your (belated) 2011 Season Preview!

Jonathan Byrd got us started, so what else can we expect?

The 2010 golf season was one of the most interesting in a long time, in my opinion (this is a blog after all). The Tiger Woods "comeback" never really turned into much of anything and it left the door open for all kinds of interesting players with interesting stories. The Associated Press voted the Tiger Woods "saga" the most interesting sports story of the year. To me, this is a bit bizarre given that the Tiger Woods saga was more of a non-story because he never did much of note on the golf course. I would much rather read about Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, The Ryder Cup or any of the other intriguing stories of 2010.

So that was 2010. The year of the 20-somethings, the year of the Europeans, the year of the sub-60 round, the year of the weird rulings, the year of the unexpected. On that note, what can we expect in 2011.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your LFTL 2011 preview post!

SPECULATION: I CAUSED CAMILO'S DQ

Before I get to the meat of the issue...I first want to talk about my latest hetero man-crush and potentially my new BFF...

I was happy to pose with young Jason

Don't adjust your computer screen settings. That really is me posing with Australian phenom Jason Day. You see about 20 seconds prior to this picture I approached Jason for his autograph and we instantly clicked. So much so that when our Loopin' photographer was taking a picture of him signing autographs he suggested that the two of us pose for the Kodak moment above. That single act catapulted him into the Thomas' Mount Rushmore of Hetero Man-crushes alongside McIlroy, GMAC and Bubba. Welcome to the party Jason.

Now what about Camilo's DQ you ask? Well here is my theory...

Family Fun Day...Live at Kapalua!

For those of you who wonder just how seriously we take this blogging thing...those of you that aren't convinced that we are legit even though our 2011 revenues are projected to exceed the cost of a single sleeve of PROV1's...well try this on for size...

For the very first time at Loopin' this blog is based on events that were seen live in person...and the pictures below were taken by Loopin's very own photographer. That is correct, Loopin' sent yours truly out on a wonderful vacation to Maui to report on the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Over the next few days we will be featuring some stories on what life is like on the big tour up close and personal.

Y'all ready?

Poults is...

So here we go.

Chicks Dig The Long Ball, and Sideburns

 There's a golf tournament going on this week in Maui, but you wouldn't know it the way all the golf scribes are swooning. Yes, love is in the air. Natalie Gulbis and long-hitting Dustin Johnson are officially dating. In October, DJ was dating someone else seriously enough to bring her to Wales for the Ryder Cup. It appears that relationship is over and that Dustin has now teed it up with Gulbis, who is a fellow Taylor Made sponsored player and student of instructor Butch Harmon. This proves that you don't need time to heal all wounds, just a hot new girlfriend.

Natalie Gulbis has long been an object of affection for many golfs fans, but it would be really hard to get over the fact that she once dated this mutant:

Big Ben is tied with Mike Vick for
my most hated athlete of all time

On the other hand it would be comforting to know that you could do pretty much anything and be an improvement over her ex who has an equal number of Super Bowl rings and sexual assault accusations.

Is DJ and Natalie a match made in heaven? Who knows, I just wanted to make that "match" pun.

-A.

Happy Birthday! Take the weekend off!

Camilo Villegas

How does he expect to not get made
fun of on tour for this?

This morning, the nude male model and professional golfer Camilo Villegas woke up another year older as he turned 29 today. He also was told that he had been disqualified from the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. I assume that his being DQ'd had something to do with the above picture.

Aaaaaaand We're Back!

Hopefully you were all able to grab a bite to eat during the lunch break that was golf's off-season. Including, the fall series and the non-events like the Chevron and the Shark Shootout, we've been without actual golf in North America for almost a month. Throw in the European Tour which starts the 2011 in December 2010, and the golf world really never has an off-season. The last real PGA Tour Event hasn't been played for months, however.

What a bad way to start 2011

The PGA Tour gets going again tomorrow in Hawaii and the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. This event used to be called the Mercedes Championship. It's changed names once in between and will probably change names again, so let's just call it Kapalua. This is the event that only the previous year's champions are invited to play in. However, not everyone makes the trip. Graeme McDowell is 2010's only Major Champion that could be bothered to make the trek to dreary old Hawaii. No Phil, no Louis and no Marty. Throw in no Rory and no Westy for good measure and half the big names (that qualified, sorry Tiger) are missing this week.

This has long been a problem with this event ever since Tiger decided to stop showing up a decade ago. Even though golf has no off-season, players can of course pick and choose where and when they'd like to play. The Kapalua event is often a casualty of this and therefore has a fairly weak field.

The most obvious solution is to extend golf's off-season and push the event back a few weeks. This could allow players to spend more time with their families and get their kids off to school in early January (personally, golf sounds even more appealing after that sentence).

Pro golf is without a doubt a cushy life compared to those of us that work in office buildings, fly coach and drive compact cars, but it does require a lot of time commitment, often away from one's family. Thus I can understand those wanting to skip the Hawaii circuit and spend a couple more weeks at home.

Nevertheless, there are still some top-end players in Hawaii this week including defending champion Geoff Ogilvy. However, ESPN is reporting that Ogilvy may be unable to play this week after he cut his finger swimming in the ocean and getting 12 stitches. Maybe this is why players skip Hawaii.

With Ogilvy out of the mix, I'll take Dustin Johnson as my favourite and Ryan Palmer as my mid-range guy and Matt Bettencourt as my long shot.

Tee it up
-A.

Hello Friends, welcome to a tradition unlike any other

That's a screen-cap, not an actual photo

You know you're a golf nerd when you get chills when anticipating playing Augusta National in three months... on a video game.

EA Sports announced today that the new installment of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012 will feature Augusta National and The Masters. This information was first sent to me by a loyal reader and all-around good guy. When I read the headline on espn.com/golf my jaw literally dropped. Is that weird?