Archive | Geeky Golf Stuff RSS feed for this section

Ben Crane pops out another good video

31 Mar

Long time no blog, eh, Internet?

 

The team has me super busy. Poor excuse, indeed, but the only one I got. Recruiting is a pain, especially since I have two teams (men’s and women’s) to handle.

 

The fantastic boyfriend and I also started Crossfit recently. The owner of the gym said it added 30 yards to his dad’s drives. Right now, however, I’m too sore to even think about holding a club.

 

Thankfully, however, Ben Crane has popped out another insta-classic video that makes me love the game. He’s been in a series of videos as a helmet-wearing, wetsuit-donning goober. This one playfully makes fun of his slow play:

Reasons why I want to be like Paula Creamer and why Cristie Kerr is a badass

7 Jan

Morgan Pressel From left to right: Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel and Cristie Kerr (all of the USA) pose for a photograph during the Gala Dinner prior to the start of the HSBC Women's Champions at Tanah Merah Country Club on March 4, 2009 in Singapore. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Paula Creamer;Natalie Gulbis;Morgan Pressel;Cristie Kerr

(Image: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/zn0oFG_OEaW/HSBC+Women+Championship+Previews/IE_DS2gUtb8/Morgan+Pressel)

This photo has three of my favorite LPGA pros: Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel and Cristie Kerr (sorry, Natalie Gulbis).

It was taken at the Red Carpet welcome for the 2009 HSBC Championships in Singapore (I know, how the heck did I find this so late?).

Two reasons why I love this photo:

1) check out Paula’s sassyness! Total envy. Work it, girlfriend.

2) check out Cristie’s golf tan! You go, girl, wear those socklines with pride. Standing next to the leggy blondes probably doesn’t do your ensemble justice, I know from following you since I was a young golfer that you’re a stylish and classy gal. But those socklines should remind everyone that you’re the proven bad-ass who will kick it on the course.

Morgan’s also got a little bit of sock tan going on, but it also looks like she’s properly using sunscreen for the most part. That my friends, makes her my favorite of them all. Plus, I’m loving her partnership with Ralph Lauren, her sporty and classy tournament outfits are making me want to spend all my coach’s salary on polos with ponies.

Morgan Pressel - SBS OPEN at Turtle Bay - Round Three

See what I mean? So cute and classic.

(Image:http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Morgan+Pressel/SBS+OPEN+Turtle+Bay+Round+Three/eWKaz0QqZiS)

2011 Golf Resolutions

3 Jan

Happy New Year from The Forward Tees!

Once again, time to imagine ourselves as limitless beings and decide upon lofty goals for the next 12 months!

In the past, whenever I’ve met my resolutions it’s always because I’ve made clear, exact goals. Nothing like, “I will loose weight,” or “I will save more money.” Instead, my resolutions provide a realistic achievement I could legitimately reach within a few months of January 1. For instance: “I will run two 5k races for charity,” or “I will set up my bank account to automatically save 25% of my paycheck — and then not touch it.” Sometimes I still don’t meet these goals, but I definitely never do whenever my resolution is vague.

So what is my goal this year? To play in my first amateur tournament. I’m itching to return to competitive golf after being out of college for two years, and this year will be the year.

With every resolution, one must make a game plan. Mine is thus:

1) Get my handicap. Can you believe I’ve never officially figured out my handicap? For some reason, we never needed it for college tournaments — they always wanted hard scores, not handicaps, whenever we were placed in groups. And now that I’ve been playing only for fun, I’ve been very lax about my score. To get my handicap I’m going to resolve to play at least once a week and have the pro at the club help me calculate my handicap.

2) Decide if it’s good enough. I’m not trying to play in a pro-am or anything, but even so, the handicap will predict my potential in a tournament. Thus, it needs to be decent. Determining my handicap will also help me know whether I need to sign up for a mid-am instead of a standard amateur event. I am not going to force myself yet to reach a certain number. Instead I’m going to figure out what my current ability is and decide from there.

3) Sign up for a tournament! The area I live in doesn’t have a women’s golf association, so I’ll have to go out of town. But by late spring I will know when I will be playing in either summer or fall.

And there it is, for all the internet to see and keep me accountable! Here we go…

An App to Get in Golf Shape: Nike Training Club

23 Dec

Long ago, I downloaded the old Nike Training Club app for my iPhone. It was completely cheesy, with cartoon avatars and disjointed workouts.

Today, however, Nike released a newer, sleeker, and might I say fantastic version of the app. And thank God. I hardly ever used it before, but tonight I gave it a spin and it is perfect for getting into golf shape.

The concept is circuit training — get your heart rate up and go from one exercise to the next without stopping in between. Then you take a breather, and then repeat the circuit. This is the training I make my college players do, because it’s an efficient way to get in shape fast. The Nike Training Club workouts cue you through it so that things are perfectly timed and you can really push it. Because honestly, when I do a circuit at home, I tend to rest a lot and not really work.

There are also tons of different mixes of the exercises, each titled with a different name. These workouts are further divided into “Get Lean,” “Get Toned,” “Get Strong,” and “Get Focused.” All but the last are pretty self-explanatory, and “Get Focused” is just their alliterative way of saying “target training.”

What I love is that you can either set it to music from your collection on your phone, or you can do the workout without any music (which is what I did tonight in front of the news).

Because I have a tiny cramped apartment, I did the strength training routines so I wouldn’t have to jump around. You can do abs, butt, legs, shoulders, back and quick cardio. Each is 15 minutes long, and you go through the five minute circuit three times. The exercises seemed easy at first, but man did I feel a burn!

This is going to be a great tool for me as I try to get in good golf shape to meet my golfing goals this year. Oh yeah — and it’s FREE. Well done, Nike.

 

Finding the Right Fit

20 Dec

So as mentioned in a previous post, my clubs broke. It’s totally killed my chances of playing in the beautiful South Texas winter temps (75 degrees, in December!!!). But, it’s given me the opportunity to get new clubs — something I was going to treat myself to sometime in the New Year anyway!

And thus, I finally got my first professional club fitting after 11 years of playing the sport. I learned quite a bit about the qualities of a club.

I had long believed that people should focus more on their swing, not on the equipment. However, now I know from hitting balls on a swing board (a black piece of plastic that helps with determining measurements for your swing), that I need a club that lies on the ground at a two degree angle. That angle helps me turn my hands through the ball at impact. Never would I have known that without a club fitting — who knows what angle my current clubs lie, but I guess that since I bought them at a big golf box store, they’re just the standard angle.

I’m now almost a full believer that properly fitted equipment is a must for playing well as an amateur. I say almost because I still need to play with the new set before I profess my love to this school of thought.

Speaking of the new set, I decided upon TaylorMade Burner 2.0 clubs with a Ladies graphite shaft, and of course the two degree angle. I’m only going to get clubs 6-SW, which I’ve decided will complement my 4H and 3/5/7FW.

They should be in soon, and I’ll update on how great they are (or aren’t, as the case might be!)

Broken Golf Clubs

18 Nov

So check this out: yesterday I was at the range and grabbed the 7 iron to warm up.

Something felt weird , though, and I realized that the weight that is usually against the back of the club was missing — it had completely fallen out !

The same was true for my 6 and 8 irons as well. Take a look at these photos:

My pitching wedge, all intact and together.

Club without the weight.

The two clubs side by side.

You can see where the back of the club is missing the weight . When I hit the clubs, they went straight but very short. And, because the weight was now all in the shaft, they felt strange to hit. I went to see if the missing parts were in the trunk of my car, but nope — they’ve completely disappeared. Sometime between when I was at the range Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, they just popped out and ran away.

I’m a golf coach, so I need my clubs!

Therefore, I start my quest for new clubs. A task more daunting to me than buying a car. How do I even begin?

All the articles I’ve ever read about about the new golf technology has always seemed like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to me. Plus, I’ve always been annoyed with those who are obsessed with equipment — in my opinion, a great club can still only do so much for a crappy swing.

So I’ve googled the subject extensively, and one thing seems to be key: get a club with forgiveness. It makes sense, because even a good player will have misfires every now and then. So I want my mis-hits to not be total disasters.

Another thing I want done this time that I’ve been unable to do before is get a professional club fitting. My first set was a starter set from Academy; my second was one that I tried out in a big box golf store but didn’t really know what I needed, and they were just… eh. Now that golf is my job, I want the right tools for me.

I’m a little afraid of the cost, especially since I want to buy the best clubs I can. I’m not ruling out pre-owned clubs, but I also think that since I don’t want to have to buy new clubs for a few years, I need to buy the newest and latest I can get.

So let the shopping begin!

Tiger’s New Home and Golf Compound

16 Nov

Holy. Crap.

Tiger Woods estate home and practice golf course in Jupiter Island Florids

Tiger’s new home, on Jupiter Island in Florida, has a backyard that would be any golf lover’s dream. Long enough to hit full drives from one end of the compound and with several separate greens to make approach shots to, the layout was also designed so he can practice with different types of wind.

Not to mention the palace and lap pool — I’d be happy with a double wide and a sprinkler on the end of a garden hose on that kind of land!

Here’s hoping that I’m correctly spotting a solar panel on his roof as well…

NCAA Women’s Golf Teams On Facebook

15 Nov

Ah, Facebook. I hate how much time it sucks out of my day, but the sad truth is it makes me feel more connected to friends afar…

I can also follow some great NCAA women’s golf teams who run their own pages. As a college coach, it keeps me in the loop on how bigger teams are doing, as well as makes me reminiscent of my former college playing days.

Here are some of my faves:

University of Florida Women’s Golf

University of Georgia Women’s Golf

University of Oregon Women’s Golf

University of Iowa Women’s Golf

University of South Florida Women’s Golf

Not included: my team. Why? We don’t have a Facebook…. If I had one for us, we might never actually get any golfing done!!!

Follow Up: Cigar Guy’s Identity Discovered (ok, like maybe a month ago, but it’s news to me)

3 Nov

Remember that guy from the picture of Tiger Woods hitting the camera of Mark Pain? He was in the background chomping on a cigar and sporting a red wig, which people thought was a turban.

Smile, Tiger: Woods shoots straight at photographer Pain

While the picture spread the Web, Cigar Guy became an overnight cult phenomenon, rising to the number one Google search.  There were even Facebook marriage proposals.

I just read on the Daily Mail that his identity has been discovered: his name is Rupesh Shingadia, an investment analyst in London who lives with his parents. He was trying to dress up like his favorite Spanish golfer, Miguel Angel Jimenez, who is red headed and likes cigars.

Since then, his head has been photoshopped into tons of hilarious pictures.  Keep reading to see a few!

(more…)

Golf gel for your iPhone

3 Nov

I prefer hard cases for my iPhone, but back in the day when I had an iPod classic a gel skin was a great way to protect it from scratches.

If you’re confident you won’t drop your iPhone and shatter it into a million pieces, here’s a cute tongue-and-cheek decal for you. Playing with the popular “Life is Good” brand, this gel skin decal from DecalGirl sums up a poor day on the course:

iPhone 3G Skin - Golf Cart Pond

(Image: http://www.decalgirl.com/item.view/39052)

It’s only $7.99, so it might make for a great Christmas gift for your golf lovin’ (or on certain days, hating), friend. I really like that it comes with a downloadable wallpaper for your homescreen that matches!

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.