What's Going On?

There are some big changes in the works at Houston Links, and we're all excited about the next few months.

Currently we're in the process of looking at an overhaul of our website, www.houstonlinksmagazine.com. Up until now it has been a skeleton job who's basic function is to host our media kit and allow people to sign up for free home delivery. We stopped updating it back in September once we knew we were going to revamp it.

I, for one, am bouncing off the walls with ideas for our new page. Kevin has had to reign me in a bit, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that he would be willing to host this blog on the parent site. We're also knocking around a bunch of other neat ideas.

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I covered the AJGA's season kickoff at Redstone two weeks ago. The Houston Boys Invitational was won by New Jersey's Morgan Hoffman. Dallas' Cody Gribble (No Relation) finished bogey-quad after holding the lead after 16. He showed real class though afterwards in talking to the media and warmly congratulating Hoffman. AJGA Invitationals are loaded with the top junior golfers in the country. The Tournament Course was set up less than 200 yards shorter than it will play for the PGA Tour pros. Looks like we're in for a good show.

In other junior news, Cory Whitsett has leap-frogged good friend Peter Uihlein for the No. 1 spot in the AJGA's Polo Junior Golf Rankings. Cory's response?

"It only matters if you're No. 1 at the end of the year."

True dat.

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The TGA season kicked off last weekend with the South Four-Ball. Houston Links' 2007 Mid-Am of the Year John Dowdall and his partner Jonathan Shipley (who we almost picked) shot a blistering final-round 62 for the win. Both of them are great guys and two of the best mid-ams Houston has. Glad to here they started off 2008 the right way, with a win.

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Look, I like Tiger as much as anyone, but after reading the stuff people are writing you think he invented the game. No doubt Tiger will shatter Jack and the Slammer's respective records, but is he golf's greatest champion? Don't think so. I still say it's Bob Jones, who won 62 percent of the majors he played in, won 13 championships in 7 years, and retired at 28. This was a time when he had to play against amateurs like Francis Ouimet, Jerry Travers, Lawson Little, Chick Evans, and Johnny Goodman, who all won U.S. Opens. He also had to beat World Golf Hall of Fame professionals Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Leo Diegel, Mac Smith, and Tommy Armour. Oh yeah, and also did it while earning degrees from Georgia Tech, Harvard, attending law school and passing the bar.

I would say that Tiger Woods is the best mental player ever. That's why I like to watch him. In contrast, it was Jones' nerves and the strains of championship golf that made him decide to retire early.

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Glad someone decided to crack down on this

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Troubling report: More Americans are giving up golf than ever before. From my perspective, I would say that golf is one of the least accessible sports to take up. Unless you can afford to join a private club, the most sensible option for beginning golfers are public courses, where there is a greater fear of embarrassment because of larger crowds. Cost really is a factor. I would bet that most beginning golfers are like me: just entering the workplace. After college, cost is a factor. One way to alleviate this? Walk. I'm of the Robert McKinney School. I enjoy the game better walking. It's better for you, you see more of the course, and you can go straight to your ball. I think carts should only used for people who can't comfortably walk. Hey, if that sounds codgery, I yam what I yam. As my friend and journalism teacher Melanie Hauser once said:

"You're a throwback, so you don't count."

Epic Post to Come

I realize I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks, but things have been pretty busy. Look for an epic post later on this evening, inclusing my thoughts about the best junior golfers in the world playing at Redstone last weekend.

USGA Annual Meeting, Part I

This week everyone who's anyone in American golf administration will be in Houston. The USGA is hosting its annual meeting at the Hilton Post Oak. People such as PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, LPGA commish Carolyn Bivens, and former prez George H.W. Bush (who's recieving the Bob Jones Award) are attending. Obviously, USGA Executive Director David B. Fay, the entire Executive Committee, and members of all the other (zillion) committees are here. I've been here since 8 a.m., it's now 2:15. The joint isn't exactly jumping, there are a lot of committee meetings (not open to public). But that doesn't mean there hasn't been any news.

Many of the USGA committee members have been here since Tuesday. During that span of times several decisions of the championship variety were handed down. Two extremely new but spectacular courses were just called up to the show. Notably Tacoma's Chambers Bay (built by Houston-based construction firm Heritage Links) was awarded the 2010 U.S. Amateur AND the 2015 U.S. OPEN! Whoa. The course opened only last year! Likewise Erin Hills
just outside Millwaukee was awarded the 2011 U.S. Amateur. That course is also a year old, and will be hosting the U.S. Women's APL this year.

Think the USGA is loving links?

There was a rules seminar this morning. Some interesting things I gleaned:

• A golfer may now lift their ball from a hazard to identify it. Consequently, there is now a penalty for playing the wrong ball from a hazard. Before 2008, if two golfers were in the same bunker but couldn’t identify their balls, they would have to pick one. Then whichever of the two golfers played first would have to go investigate the ball they just hit and figure out if that was indeed his original ball. If it wasn’t, they would’ve had to replace it and replay their original ball. The USGA hopes this change will help improve place of play.

• The definition of advice has been changed. From now on two golfers in competition -or their caddies- may give each other distances without penalty. In the old rule, if you gave an opponent yardage you would lose the hole in match play or be penalized two strokes in stroke play. Professional golf fans may recall that during the 2007 Honda Classic Mark Wilson was penalized two shots when his caddie gave his playing partner. Those two lost shots put Wilson was in a four-way playoff.

• There is also a lesser penalty for a player carrying –but not playing- a non-conforming club. In the 2004 rules the penalty was disqualification. At the 2007 (Las Vegas PGA Tour) Kevin Stadler realized that the shaft on his 7-iron was bent. He hadn’t played a shot with the 7-iron, but he was disqualified because the club didn’t conform. In 2008, Stadler would be penalized two shots for each hole the club was in his bag, but he could not be penalized more than four strokes.

• In the old 2004 rules, if a golfer’s ball is accidentally deflected by themselves, their opponent, either of the caddies or the players’ equipment the player would be penalized two strokes or the loss of a hole in match play. The USGA felt that the punishment didn’t fit the crime, especially when it came to match play. From now on the golfer will just add one stroke to their score for that hole.

• Rangefinders and GPS course-measuring devices are growing more and more popular. The USGA allows local competitive committees to make up their own mind about the use of rangefinders. However in 2008 the USGA has declared that all rangefinders that measure anything other than distance (such as gradient, wind direction, etc.) illegal.
  

FYI.

Vote for Stacy Lewis

Currently there's a facebook campaign going on to get The Woodlands native Stacy Lewis voted the Greatest Razorback of all time. I case you haven't been paying attention, Lewis is defending NCAA Champion, finished in the Top 10 at last year's Kraft Nabisco, and will represent the USA in the upcoming Curtis Cup at St. Andrews.

A TV station has nominated her as a canidate for the title in a bracket vote-off. Clearly she was given much too high of a seed, as she's up against legendary former football coach Frank Broyles.

http://www.4029tv.com/sports/15149025/detail.html?treets=fts&tid=2658735#

Despite the formidable first round draw, Stacy is holding her own and is only trailing by 40 measley votes! Anyone reading this, stack the vote and pull the upset.

By the way, as a Longhorn I feel the need to mention this and this.

See Anything Good Yesterday?

Two things happened yesterday: Tiger Woods won and there was some football game. Because the Dubai Desert Classic is in....Dubai, the tournament's final-round tap delay. I knew the outcome when I sat down to watch, but am glad I did. Tiger made a 25-foot breaking putt for birdie on the 72nd hole to win by one. See his reaction? That's why he's the best. He just won a tournament six days before, and immediately hopped on a 20-hour flight to play another 72 holes against the best in the world. He could be forgiven for mailing it in, but no. He's so fired up when he makes that putt that he looks like he's about to turn green and start busting heads.

I tried in vain to find video of the putt, I guess you'll have to settle for the 40-foot monster breaker birdie he made at the Buick that dropped in the back of the hole.

Meanwhile, Ernie Els' heart promptly jumped out of his chest and staggered away just like in that Super Bowl ad. Seriously, what was with all the gross ads? Between that one and the puking baby I could barely hold down my queso and chicken. But I managed.

By the way, did you hear that Ian Poulter declared himself as Tiger's main rival? To paraphrase the interview he gave to UK's Golf World magazine, he said that when he finally plays how he's capable of playing, "it'll just be me and Tiger." B'Okay. I appreciate Poulter's moxie, and Woods didn't sound too ticked about. But that didn't stop Woods from zinging him.

A final word about Woods. The Super Bowl got me thinking about how everyone in the media is practically giving Tiger the Grand Slam. Kind of like how everyone was giving the Patriots 19-0 a week ago, isn't it? Bobby Jones was the greatest golfer of all time. He played in 21 major championships, won 13 of them, and retired at age 28. Yet even he had to get pretty lucky to pull off his 1930 Grand Slam. Trivia time: during the 1930 British Amateur at St. Andrews Jones' approach to the 17th bounced off the green and was heading out of bounds before it hit a spectator. His match was all square, and because of the lucky break, Jones was able to halve the hole and eventually won on the 19th.

Woods' so-so play during the second and third round showed that he's not perfect, which is what you need to be to win the Grand Slam. That, or lucky.

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My Dad and I finally booked our trips to San Diego for the U.S. Open. Here's a photo of our hotel on Google Maps Streetview.

See that white sign on the street in front of the hotel? ZOOM IN!!!

I love technology.