Tiger Woods

Originally uploaded by coombskj

Tiger Woods easily cruised to victory today at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, winning both the Tour Championship and the $10 million Fedex Cup Title. For Tiger it was just another day on the course. Tiger flirted with history by coming within four strokes of shooting the lowest score in PGA history. Tiger finished with a 23-under par 257. Tiger shot a 5-under 65 for the day.

Unlike yesterday, Tiger never had any challengers during the final round. Both Mark Calcavecchia and Zach Johnson finished with a 15-under par 265.

Tiger adds yet another title to his collection with his claim of the inaugural Fedex Cup title. There were 5 golfers in contention going into the tournament, but it was clear after the first couple rounds that it was Tiger who was going to claim the title.

This ends the inaugural Fedex Cup playoff that has had it’s positives and negatives. With such low scores throughout the tournaments, expect harder courses in the future.

checking the oil on the lawnmower

Originally uploaded by idigvb

We’ve all been there. Our car starts making that weird noise and we have to pull over and check everything out. Some of us start panicking. What do I do? Should I use my onstar? Should I call my husband? Should my car be violently shaking?

Often our first reaction in these circumstances is to check our oil, which by the way is the proper first step. However, while still panicking, we sometimes can find ourselves reaching for our seldom used 2-iron or sand wedge to check the oil instead of using the standard dipstick. This should be avoided at all costs!

At this point you may be asking: “Hey Spence, what’s so wrong about using a seldom used golf club to check your oil”? Great question, I’m glad you asked. Well first of all, if a golf club was meant to be used as a dipstick, then they would be standard equipment on all vehichels, being latched underneath the hood. Secondly, using the end of you club as a dipstick could lead to the grip being lacerated and therefore being deemed unusable. Third, residue could build up on the grip of the club which could greatly affect your swing. And lastly, it’s simply unsafe and not proper golf etiquette.

So next time you find yourself broken down on the side of the road or just checking your oil at home, please don’t reach for that sand wedge. Use properly installed devices to check your oil. In the meantime keep your eye on the ball and your head down.

It’s 3:34 a.m. and I have to be up for work in 3 hours. I could’ve waited until I got home from work tomorrow, but with this fresh on my mind what’s another few minutes.

Tonight I had a random occurence and experience, that I won’t go into, that unexpectedly has humbled me and taught me about the reality of life being much bigger than ourselves. One of the aspects that draws me to golf more than other sports that I enjoy is this notion that the game of golf is so much bigger than one individual. One day you can go out on a course and play the best you’ve ever played. The next day you can go out under the same conditions and play the worst you ever have. Because of this aspect to golf, I think there should be a sense of awe when approaching the game.

Now I know some may be calling me a heretic by claiming that golf has god-like properties. I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that in my years of experiencing and particpating in golf, it has helped lead me to realizing that life is so much bigger than ourselves.

I realized this most vividly when I had the awesome privilege of going to the practice round of the Masters a couple years ago. It was like heaven. The sun reflected off the clubhouse just right to make it look like a heavenly mansion. The dogwoods were so perfect and detailed. And the men I followed around that day were like immortals themselves, controlling the ball with such grace and power. Now to many, this is really cheesy and sounds fake and superficial. Yet there was something out of this world that I experienced that day.

So also tonight, I’ve been brought to a place of humility, seeing that all of life points to something much bigger than ourselves, namely God. How grateful I am that I get to be a part of a game that would help teach me that. It’s 3:55a.m. now and I’m going to bed.

I’ve never imagined that in my lifetime I would read under the sports headlines about golf players using steroids. Yet that is where I find myself today. Sure enough right there in the headlines of ESPN reads “Player says he knows of at least one golfer who has used ‘roids”. In the article golf great Gary Player discusses of at least one person that he knows for sure that has used steroids. You can just about bet that with the steroid controversy across the spectrum of sports over the last couple years and now especially with this statement from Player, that professional golf will be moving toward strict drug tests and policies.

This raises an interesting question. Do performance enhancers really help golfers perform better? Well to answer this question, let’s crunch some numbers. In 2006, Jim Furyk was second only to Tiger Woods on the money list and in the Official World Golf Rankings. In driving distance Jim Furyk was tied for 159th place. He was tied with Michael Connell (Following stats were taken from http://majors.golfweb.com/stats/leaders/r/2006/101). You know Michael Connell right? Right, I don’t know him either. Listen, I’ve lifted weights for a grand total of about 8 months throughout my whole life. If you put the right club in my hand I can give it a good whacking right down the middle of the fairway, often further than guys who are better and stronger than me. Now you put that sand wedge and putter in my hand and it’s a totally different ball game. Drives don’t win tournaments, chips and putts do. If you want to take steroids, you might as well just tour the world competing in driving distance contests. Then you’ll really have made it to the big time. But you better hurry, before they start testing too!

Robins Nest 1

Originally uploaded by Mr Gee

Take a moment to ask yourself: “What’s wrong with this picture?”
We’ll come back to that.

I believe most would agree that most things in life are meant to be used in a very certain and purposeful way and therefore not to be used improperly. Let’s take for example, say dollar bills. Dollar bills have a specific purpose to be used in order to buy things. You don’t use dollar bills to start a campfire or to build a house with. You use it to buy things.

Similary, golf clubs have a specific purpose. They are meant to be used to learn and master this beautiful sport we call golf. Now let’s ask the question again: “what’s wrong with this picture”. What’s wrong is that someone’s golf bag is being stored in their garage! You know what I use my garage for?! Well I don’t have a garage but if I did I’d put all my crap in there. Have you ever been in a nice and neat garage? Like you would want to have a candle light dinner in it every night? Right, neither would I.

I recently went over to a friend’s place for lunch and while rummaging through their garage would you believe that there in the corner sitting on the shelf was this huge, beautiful black golf bag fully equipped with Callaway Big Bertha Irons and an Odyssey putter! In the corner of the garage! You can imagine that my knees buckled and almost gave way at such a sight.

I tell you this to remind you what your golf clubs were meant to be used for. It’s a much greater calling then the lure of the junky garage. And now join me in my campaign to have every club removed from garages across America by ‘08. “Freedom ‘08, save the clubs”. “Educate, eliminate, assimilate.”

What up wit ya! Spence here. Man do I wish that I could have some kind of cool nickname that I could introduce myself. Maybe you know of a good nickname for me. I’m sad that Shooter McGavin has already been taken. Hey maybe we could come up with some good nicknames for me and then conduct a poll.

Well anyways I’m glad to welcome you to my golf blog. Feel the freedom to comment on things you’d like to see here, in addition feel the freedom to send any equipment you’d like me to test drive (no pun intended) and review for you. I’ve got some pretty cool things in mind but I certainly can’t let the cat out of the bag. There’s so much more to come…
Spence