Friday Fringe: Post-turkey edition

Friday Fringe: Post-turkey edition

*** Is David Hearn becoming Mr. October? The Brantford, Ont., native has won roughly $280,000 in the last two weeks and, after a fine 65 on Thursday, heading towards another good payday this week at the McGladrey Classic. But that doesn't mean he has forgotten his roots. Here's the poignant story of Ed O'Leary, the ailing golf writer in Hearn's hometown, and how the golfer has stayed in touch. Nice work by Lorne Rubenstein.

*** One, two, three, four, I declare a blogger war. Ian Hutchinson and Robert Thompson go back and forth over the value of golf course rankings and whether Cabot Links will be a success in the comments section at the end of Hutch's blog here. Hutch wades in again with another blog on the topic here. Hope Thompson will respond. I need something to read at lunchtime.

*** I guess you can sort of understand why Golf Canada would punt leading golf instructor and coach Ralph Bauer after only one year. Derek Ingram was brought over from the women's team to coach the men's team and he wanted his own assistant. It's like a general manager in hockey wanting his own coach. However, I think the Team Canada will miss Bauer, who is probably about the best coach currently working in Canada. All he's done is help David Hearn become the most successful golfer of the year in Canada. In my mind, it's short-sighted. Rubenstein has the details.

*** The top college golfers from across Canada will tee off next week for bragging rights. Players from 18 Canadian institutions will compete in the championship, being held at Brudenell River Golf Course in Roseneath, P.E.I., starting Tuesday. PING is the gracious sponsor of the tournament.

*** It was a good week to be Wong. Eugene and Christine Wong, had a first and second respectively in collegiate play. Eugene, a highly touted senior at the University of Oregon, hopes his play has righted his ship after a year of mediocre play. Brad Zeimer reports on the West Coast duo.

*** Richard Zokol sent me a thoughtful email after yesterday's blog when I mentioned the difference between having a card, a term used loosely by the press, and having exempt status. Having a card means being a member of the PGA Tour. Zokol has a card, for example. But he does not have any status. Matt McQuillan and David Hearn are PGA Tour members and therefore have a card. Adam Hadwin is not a member and therefore doesn't have a card. Where I erred yesterday was in saying that McQuillan needed to move into the top 125 to have playing privileges. He will have that if he stays inside the top 150, but if he wants exempt status, he'll need to get inside the top 125. Everyone clear?

*** Reduce, recycle and reuse. . . that's the business plan for Golf Ball Planet which is making a name for itself in recycling golf balls. It claims to have brought back more than a million in the past two decades. I wonder how many of those were mine?

*** In a surprise to no one, the ratings for the Fall Series are waaaay up. Thank you Tiger Woods.

*** And just in case you missed it, here is my attempt to hit the 102-yard 14th hole at Cabot Links, the soon-to-be-completely opened golf course in Inverness, N.S., in 110 km/hr winds that hammered the East Coast last week. For the record, I ended up on the front edge of the green. And perhaps more importantly, two days later, folks were out playing the course in shorts as 19-degree weather rolled in. I have great timing.

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Friday Fringe: trick or treat edition

**** Lost in the announcement of changes to the Rules of Golf was an alteration that would prevent golf from getting another Disco Dick. That was the nickname given to Richard Zokol back in the day when he used a Walkman between shots to help him relax and focus (even though he swears he wasn’t listening to disco music!). Geoff Shackelford has the details on the new Rule 14-3/17.

**** Spent a long weekend in the Bahamas a few weeks back, the first time I’d been to that particular Caribbean nation and really fell in love with the Ocean Course, a Tom Weiskopf design. Oh and the resort we stayed at, the One and Only Ocean Club, was truly amazing. Here’s my video report:

**** Looks like the Canadian Tour may be headed to the Kingston area, Gananoque to be exact. Nothing official from the Tour office but  this story in the Whig says the groundwork has been set for a new event in the Ontario city. 

**** In case you missed it, here’s a story by Brad Zeimer from the Vancouver Sun on Brent Franklin turning down an opportunity to be feted for induction to the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Not that he doesn’t love the honour, just that he’s no interested in the party that traditionally goes with these inductions. It’s hard to believe that Franklin hasn’t played competitive golf for about 15 years now. Lots of Canadians may not realize just how talented he was, but he was definitely something special. For the record, he went six straight years winning a Canadian championship and was the first Canadian golfer to win $1 million in a year, long before purses were Tiger-boosted. 

**** A nice crop of B.C. golfers was honoured Thursday night at the Golf Hall of Fame of B.C. induction ceremony this week. Jim Rutledge, Dawn Coe-Jones, Cec Ferguson, the late Bob Kidd and the late Walter McElroy. All are deserving and it brings to 25 the number of honoured members. You can read more about each of the individuals here. 

**** Speaking of halls of fame, Henry Brunton, teacher extrordinaire, got the nod into the North Grenville Hall of Fame (that’s kind of Ottawa Valley, Ontario, for folks not in the know). Bet you didn't know there was a North Grenville Hall of Fame. Wonder if he has a chance at the South Grenville Hall of Fame? The report. 

**** I had a chance to chat with Mike Weir this week. He’s already chipping and putting and this week, hit half shots with a sand wedge. No pain, progress is good but still no timetable for a return to competitive play. 

**** Don’t forget you can follow the progress of Canadians in the first stage of Q-School with our tracker here. 

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Friday Fringe: Fall back edition

Friday Fringe: Extra hour of sleep edition

*** Marty McSorley, 95. Ozzie Smith, 89. Mark Bellhorn, 87. Jermaine Dye, 86. Those are the first-round scores of contestants in the Canadian Tour’s Desert Dunes Classic. Lots of folks have a tough time with allowing these celebrities to play in an official event. I don’t. If you’re going to sell a developmental circuit based in the frozen North in California, I’m afraid the Canadian Tour players won’t do it for most folks. Watching old athletes shoot high scores will and so that’s why you bring them out. This is a business folks and as unfortunate as all that is, it’s necessary. By the way, Stuart Anderson leads at eight under. 

*** In any case, it appears the Canadian Tour may have bigger things to worry about than whether celebs are teeing it up in its tournaments. According to Robert Thompson, the Tour is in financial troubles and is talking to the PGA Tour as its saviour. 

*** Lost amid the news that former amateur stars Nick Taylor and Matt Hill failed to make it past first stage at the PGA Tour’s Q-School, is the fact that they are among six Canadians who made it through first stage at the European Tour’s Qualifying School. They join Andrew Parr, Matt Johnston, Mike Mezei and Lindsay Reynolds at second stage, which will be held Dec. 2-5 at four locations in Spain. It’s hard to remember the last time a Canadian played the Euro Tour full time but I’m thinking it was Jim Rutledge who last played there in 1992.

*** Sales of belly putters are way, way up say the manufacturers I’ve met with over the last month. They might not be so excited to see this, an invention that turns your regular putter into a belly putter. 

*** Got it wrong? Hmmmm. . . quite a sensational headline and deck on this story. I don’t think you can get anything like this right or wrong, just a different opinion. 

*** Apparently Brendan Steele isn't happy that the PGA Tour gave Adam Hadwin a pass to final stage of the Qualifying School. Here's a Tweet from earlier this week: 

"Interesting that the PGA tour changed the Q School exemption category for one player. I hope they are ready to deal with that in the future."*** Tiger Woods was in Singapore this week and announced that he’s healthy, swinging well and ready for the Presidents Cup. But my eyes caught this line of the story that described what he did while in Singapore. 

Woods visited nightspots and held a private clinic during his brief stopover, and stunned recreational players after turning up unannounced at a Singapore golf course.

 Not golfed and then visited nightspots, but visited nightspots, then golfed. Hmmm. . . 

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Friday Fringe: last event edition

Friday Fringe

*** Spent a day in New York City this week getting a sneak preview of the new Nike clubs and apparel for 2012 (full blog coming next week). They have some big winners in their lineup but I love the Nike Dunk, golf version, which looks like a retro basketball shoe, except it has spikes and waterproof leather. Not surprising since it's based on a 26-year-old basketball shoe design. It's very cool, in my humble opinion.

*** Matt McQuillan's hope of getting into the top 125 comes down to today's round. He needs to make the cut to have a shot at moving up the money list. His hometown bugle, the Whig-Standard, spells it all out.

*** The new PGA Tour Latinoamerica looks promising, especially since it will reportedly award spots onto the Nationwide Tour. For Canadian Tour players, it also looks enticing as it will start just as the CanTour season ends. However it's primarily targeted at players from Latin America and we wonder how it will affect the co-sanctioned tournaments the CanTour presently runs with the Tour de las Americas, which will be folded into this new circuit once it finishes up the present season.

*** Lots of people in these parts take up golf to help improve their chances at business, seeing as how so many executives like to tee it up. But not so in Vietnam. Transport Minister Dinh La Than said "Over the last years, some leaders of agencies and companies have showed their inattentive attitude at work, which has affected the progress of public projects and developments," Thang's directive said.

"One of the reasons for their loose management is that they had spent too much time playing golf, even during weekends."

Even on weekends! Imagine!

Well not so fast says one of the bureaucrat's affected by the request.

*** I'm surprised no one thought of this before, but they've come out with an alcoholized version of the famous Arnold Palmer, that's half iced tea and half lemonade. I know guys at my club have been mixing it with booze for a long time. (and yes, the teenager in me snickered at the name).

*** Come one, admit it. We've all secretly wanted to do what Roger Deadman did to this "crapping maching."

*** In case you were wondering, here's how the top Canadians fare in the Official World Golf Ranking: Adam Hadwin, 222; David Hearn, 237; Stephen Ames, 261; Matt McQuillan, 330; Graham Delaet, 485; Jon Mills, 521; Roger Sloan, 530; Dustin Risdon, 580; Stuart Anderson, 629; Danny Sahl, 634; Mike Weir, 709.

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Friday Fringe: jolly old England edition

The Friday Fringe: Off to Jolly Old England Edition

* Nice to see Matt McQuillan break out in the opening round of the John Deere Classic. The Kingston, Ont., golfer had a stellar round of 64 and is in position to make just the second cut of his career. Was there anything different swing-wise or technically that he did that produced this round? Nope. He said he basically just free-wheeled it: "I got here on Monday and played the Pro Am, and practice round on Tuesday, and yeah, the course sets up very well for me. It's not an overly long course if you can drive it well, and there's a lot of wedges, and my wedges were really sharp today."

* Also in McQuillan's presser yesterday, this question about the golf season in Canada and remember this is coming from a reporter from Milwaukee, which isn't exactly Palm Springs:
Q. How long is golf played up there actually?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, we usually get started about May, and if we're lucky, we could play into November, early November.

So in other words, about a month longer than you play in Wisconsin.

* If you're in the GTA and looking for an innovative golf day, SCOREGolf has a great men's day planned out at the exclusive Coppinwood GC on July 18. You get instruction from a CPGA professional featuring the latest and greatest technology from the Golf Lab; test out some of the newest golf gear, play a round at the course with instruction during the round, scotch tasting and dinner after golf. If you're interested, go here for more information.

* One Canadian you won't see at the RBC Canadian Open this year is Jon Mills who will take a pass in order to concentrate on his position on the Nationwide Tour money list. Mills currently holds down the 25th spot and the event opposite the Open, the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational, has the second largest purse of the year. Mills also missed a number of weeks already due to the birth of his son and also to play in the US Open.

* Speaking of the Open, you have to think this is going to be the best field the tournament has seen since it got dumped into the week-after-the-British-Open spot on the calendar. And this comes during a year when the travel from the British Open is about as long as you can get, something many top pros try to avoid.

* The Canadian PGA. . oops, PGA of Canada . . . is celebrating a wonderful milestone this weekend - 100 years of existence. The association has a great history and will pay tribute to that with a gala dinner event at the Royal Ottawa GC, site of its founding, on Saturday.

* I know a lot of the field has yet to tee off, but Sue Kim's 17 holes at one-over par at the US Women's Open is pretty impressive. She also hit 15 of 17 greens, which is almost unheard of at a tournament with the set up such as this one.

* Stop me if you've heard this before but Phil Mickelson says he has a new plan heading into the British Open, a tournament in which he has a horrid record, relatively speaking: "The biggest reason is the greens. I have not putted well. The grass is a little bit more coarse, a little thicker, has a little bit more effect, and you need to putt with less break and more aggression is what I've come to find. I'm going to try to do that this week and next week and see if that doesn't combat some of the issues that I've had putting here."

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Fringe Fridays: happiness old England edition

Fringe Fridays: Off the Elegant old England Edition

* Nice to see Matt McQuillan broke in the opening round of the John Deere Classic. The Kingston, Ont. Iraq had a stellar round 64 and is able to make only his second cut in his career. Was there something different swing-wise or technically that did that produced this round? Nope. He said that he essentially only free wheels: "got here on Monday and the Pro am and played a practice round on Tuesday, and Yes, the course sets up well for me. It is not an overly long path if you can direct this well, and there is a lot of wedges and wedges to me was really sharp today. "

* Also in yesterday's presser McQuillan, the question concerning the golf season in Canada and remember this is from a journalist from Milwaukee, which is not exactly the Palm Springs:

Q. how long Golf is played there in reality?

MATT McQUILLAN: well, usually start about may, and if we are lucky, we could play in November, beginning of November.
So in other words, about a month longer than that played in Wisconsin.

* If you're the GTA and looking for an innovative golf day, SCOREGolf has a big men day studied in exclusive GC Coppinwood on 18 July. You can get directions from a CPGA Professional with the latest and greatest technology from the Lab Golf; testing some new gear Golf, play a round on the course with instructions during the round, Scotch Tasting and dinner after golf. If you're interested, go here for more information.

* A Canada you won't see at the RBC Canadian open this year are Jon Mills who will take a pass, in order to concentrate on his position in the list of money tour. Mills currently holds down 25th place, opposite the Open event, national children's Hospital Invitational, has the second largest purse of the year. Mills also missed a few weeks already due to the birth of his son and also play the US Open.

* Speaking of light, we should think this is going to be the best field that has seen the tournament, since you're dumping week-after-the-British Open-place in the calendar. And this comes during a year in travel from the British open is about as much as you can get, something which many top professionals try to avoid.

* The Canadian PGA. . Oh, the Canadian PGA. celebrating a wonderful milestone this weekend-100 years of existence. The Union has a long history and we pay tribute with a celebration dinner at the Royal Ottawa GC site since its inception, on Saturday.

* Know the field has yet to tee off, but Sue Kim 17 holes at par in an opening of OUR women are quite impressive. This also hit 15 of 18 Greens, which is almost unheard of in a tournament setting such as this.

* Stop me if you've heard this before, but Phil Mickelson says he has a new header design for the British open, a tournament which has a terrible record, speaking on: "the biggest reason is the Group of the Greens. I have not putted well. The grass is a bit more coarse, slightly thicker, has a little more power, and you have to putt with less interruption and more aggression what have come to find. We will try to do that this week and next week and see if that does not fight some of the issues I've had here. "

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