3M Championship in Blaine Minnesota

Record low round at the 3M Championship

With the Open going on this week, the Champions tour gets a small amount of press here in Minnesota. The big news today is Dana Quigley’s tournament-record 10-under 62! He leads after the first round.
He got up and down from 78 yards after putting his second shot in the water on the par-5 sixth hole and chipped in for par from heavy rough on No. 8.
“It’s hard to trash nine birdies and an eagle, but that save on eight was the whole turning point for the round,” he said. “A 1-under, 2-under, 3-under round turned into a 10-under because of that good fortune. If I make double there and go back to even, you don’t know what the mind is going to do. You only get a few chances in this game in each round to either make it a good one or a bad one.”

Quigley went 6 under over his next five holes, including holing out from 84 yards on No. 12 for an eagle. Birdies at 15 and 16 got him to 10 under, before he bogeyed No. 17. He knocked a 5-wood to within 12 feet on the 18th, but his eagle putt missed left. He tapped in for birdie.
He attributes his recent success on the green to switching to a belly putter a month ago, and changing to a more traditional right-handed grip, instead of the cross-handed style he’s used throughout his Champions Tour career.

Tom Kite on the practice tee

Shots from Cedar Creek & St Cloud Country Club

160 yard par 3 … all carry with a 9 iron

Wazz Up????

High power draw to sweep the dogleg left

Lob wedge from 74 yards out

Third shot to 560 yard par five with an open blade cut shot

Par 3 at St Cloud Country Club, with the Mississippi River as a water hazard. (behind Green) The tee box is 100 yards higher than the landing area.

9 iron from the rough

Hole 1 @ St Cloud Country Club - 440 yards par 4

Cedar Creek GC at sunset

High cut shot from the rough with 35 mph gusts blowing left

Independence Day Golf Outing to Hollydale Golf Course

Is it really Friday? I put in 70 hours this week, and was off today and Wednesday. The math tells the rest of the story.
I played golf this morning with an old friend, and was paired up with a husband and wife also playing as a twosome. Pictured to the left is the first tee box.
The club had free food (right), and a pull tabs for golf pricing. We both drew great tickets, so the total cost for 2 players was 44 dollars. So cheap - you could twice. 18 was enough though, as “John Doe” there in the black chased the beverage cart as much as the golf ball! I have been sober for 5 years now, so I concentrate more on my shot-making.
It felt so good to be out today, and the weather cooperated nicely. Sunny, 78 degrees, and a gentle breeze. My game was not the best, but I still managed to win some cash and shoot 76. I think the American flag pins threw me off a tad … (smile)
This was the first time I have worn shorts this summer, and my legs are burnt to a cinder! My farmers tan combined with bright pink calves make for quite a visual. Yikes!!!
Tomorrow is a trip out to see the folks … (and more golf). Sunday?? Yep, you guessed it, more golf - this time at my Uncle’s club up North. How lucky can a cat in Hollydale get? Holiday weekends rock. I better go get some after-sun care for my chickenny legs.

To visit the Hollydale Golf Course web site, click Hollydale Golf

Us Womens Open in Edina Minnesota at Interlachen CC

Official Web Site of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open With the US Open Golf Tournament just down the road in Edina Minnesota, the buzz about the professional women players is big news here. Even non golfers are talking about the championship.

This will be the last US Open for Annika Sorenstam, who “plans on retiring” from golf. This is a photo of her signing autographs on Wednesday after a practice round. While she has intentions of winning this week, ultimately she will finish second. How do I know? A little bird told the Cat.

Last years winner was Defending U.S. Open champion Cristie Kerr (left), and she is in Minnesota to defend her title. Will she win? No.

She does feel that Interlachen suits her game … NOT ENOUGH!

Pictured left is Lorena Ochoa. She will be the winner come Sunday afternoon. Her length will be a factor on this long course (with five par 5’s), and her ability to keep herself below the hole with shot making decisions will be key in shooting low scores here on the severely sloped and fast greens. Interlachen is a golf course where greens in regulation is not as important as putting yourself in the right position to get down in two. Lorena will also be able to reach the 18th green in 2 shots, so I expect her to be well under par on this finishing hole … enough to win a US Open? Probably not, but her vast array of ammunition against this course will prove to be enough for the other players to fall behind.

Think women golfers are not feminine? Check out this picture of Pat Anderson, Christy Kerr, Paula Creamer, and Natalie Gulbis. I have a big crush on Natalie Gulbis!! click the link if you are a male, for a hotter picture

I have a signed picture of her on my wall at home. I wonder if she reads my blog?? {no she doesn’t}
Natalie will finish in a tie for 10th place at the Open.

Nervous Golf & Wayne Gretsky Meet President Ford

Many of us have certain times when a nervous moment arises on the golf course. For the most part, I play with a care free attitude, and worry less than I should. Sometimes though, especially after a break, I do feel a few jitters on the first tee box. I place some golf rounds rounds in a “priority” category. These in particular can induce a few butterflies. Do other players feel the same cringe every now and again?

Wayne Gretzky claims he’s not comfortable playing in front of people, and that “there’s nothing worse than having a three-foot putt in front of 100 people.” He is currently promoting the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic that he will host June 26 through 29. Amateurs … including Gretzky, will pair up with a tour pro and try to make the cut as a team.

“At best, I could be about a seven-handicap if I took a year to work on my game - my habits in golf are so erratic and poor that to break that all down would be tough for my mind to do”

Gretzky is famous for an outing in which he hit a U.S. Secret Service agent who was up in a tree looking out for former U.S. president, Gerald Ford. (I wish I had some video of that!)
“We’re creatures of habit,” he said. “My habit is to slice the ball. Five of 10 drives I’ll hit straight and five out of 10 I’ll hit into the water to the right.”

Mike Weir once told Gretzsky that it was every kid’s dream to play in the last group at Pebble Beach. Wayne says that it is more of a nightmare! He dreamed as a kid of being in the seventh game of a Stanley Cup final, not in the final group of a PGA Tour event.
Gretzky will come into the Nationwide tournament as a recent winner.
He and his pro partner, Chris Nallen, won the pro-am at the Nationwide’s BMW Charity Pro-Am May 18. Given the win, Gretzky should be able to fore-go some of his anxiety.

I can’t remember the last time I had 100 people watching me play. The largest group watching me hit a ball? Maybe 70 …. that was nerve-racking enough!

Wedge from 130
Speedcat Hollydale

Farm Golf

Some days are just busy at local golf courses. Sunday was one of them. With this, you get slow play, and way to many people on the links. I like to pace my round to about 3 hours per 18 holes. The “dreaded 5 hour round” is more like a test in my waiting ability. I hate to wait; what to do? Drive North to Isanti!

follow through
made birdie putt

This course is NOT what I would describe as pristine, lush, or championship quality. What it does have is a great layout, some really long 600 yard par 5’s, and a green fee so cheap that you might think the clubhouse attendant rang up your receipt wrong. I payed 24 dollars to play 18 with a cart using my PGA Card. Of course, the best part of playing here is that it’s never busy. We played as a twosome and never waited on a tee box.

• Round Duration: 3 hours
• Birdies: 4
• Longest drive 315
• Closest to the pin: 3 feet
• Score: 69 ( yes, you read that right )

This was a wildly fun round, and well worth the trip. As I am leaving town for work at the end of the week, it will have to do for a while!!

Sanbrook Golf Course 2181 County Road 5 NE, Isanti - (763) 444-9904

1 review, directions, and more »

Golfing with Moneypenny

The “Famous Chicken Road Crossings Meme” was created by the covert blogging mastermind and reporting regent “Miss Money Pennies from Heaven“. Speedy likes Miss Moneypenny
~START COPY HERE~
Here is how this meme works …. copy and paste the list below, then “tag” others by adding their links to one or more of the famous people. You can also add your own “famous person(s)” and quote(s). Add or delete from the list, but keep the cast of players at the bottom intact.
Don’t forget to add your own link!

We all know the answer to “Why did the Chicken cross the Road?,” right?
To get to the other side has been carefully considered by these famous people:

Moses, 1300 BC: Know ye that it is unclean to eat the chicken that has crossed the road, and that the chicken that crosseth the road doth so for its own preservation.

Julius Caesar, 47 BC: veni, vidi, vici (I come, I see, I conquer)

Mrs. Thomas Paine, 1776 AD: Out of common sense.

George Washington, 1776 AD: Actually, the chicken crossed the Delaware with me back in 1776. But most history books don’t reveal this where I created the first chicken soup!

Einstein, 1905 AD: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference and your relative speed!

Mrs. Sigmund Freud, 1926 AD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying secret sexual insecurity.

Mrs. Pablo Picasso, 1938 AD: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken is an Abstract of my Art!

Gilligan, 1964 AD : The traffic started getting rough; the chicken had to cross. If not for the plumage of its peerless tail the chicken would be lost, the chicken would be lost!

Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate -357687.2 (1966): To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

Howard Cosell, 1970 AD: It may very well have been one of the most astonishing events to grace the annals of history. An historic, unprecedented avian biped with the temerity to attempt such an herculean achievement formerly relegated to homo sapiens pedestrians is truly a remarkable occurrence.

Richard M. Nixon, 1973 AD: The chicken never crossed my crooked road and for the record,“I am not a crook!”

Roseanne Barr, 1988 AD: Burrrrrp. What chicken?
George H. W. Bush, 1991 AD: To face a kinder, gentler thousand points of headlights.

Bill Clinton, 1998 AD: I have no recollection of exposing myself to this chicken, although the chicken may have crossed the road to examine my normal grooming techniques after removing my pants!

George W. Bush, 2005 AD: The fact that the chicken has been able to cross the road with impunity despite my UN resolutions, is an affront to Democracy, liberty and justice!

Speedy Buddhacat, 2008 AD: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-nature.

Tiger Woods, 2080 AD: I used to be a golf star, and why do you come in here asking so many questions. Who are you … where am I? Did I win the Masters? I need to lie down.

Players: Miss Moneypenny, Linda, Robin, Kimberly Artimus Barker, Olga the Traveling Bra, Los Lobo, Bobby The Revellian, Roberts Road, Speedcat Hollydale, (add your link here)

Note: Click “HERE” to view the initial creation of a Covert Chicken Meme!
~END COPY~

This could be the Big Bang of Chickens in a new Running Chicken Clucker Nebula!
Since DrowseyMonkey doesn’t eat chicken, there is a rumor floating around the digital high seas that she has been working on a secret Chicken Tofu Silicon Salad Meme during her Blogging Break!

Golf Links: See Golf’s Green movement mostly about getting your money

World Golf Destinations of Grandeure

When you think of the greatest places to play, Pebble Beach, Augusta, St. Andrews and the like often come to mind. Here is a different (and unusual) listing of great places to play. I have only been to one of these destinations.

The Bridges San Fransisco Playing to nearly 7,000 yards from the tips, the Bridges Golf Club reflects a stimulating design precept that distance is one element, and risk / reward ball flight options make this course interesting to play, and a beauty to behold. Many carries over natural canyons allow for strategic course management. Do not play here if you are afraid of heights! More information: Bridges Golf Course

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Eagle Trace Golf Club Minnesota When it comes to dangerous golf, Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know. If you are not hitting the ball on target, you will find disaster is only one errant shot away. I have never played this course without a high score on one or two holes. Unlike any other course I play, the design is full of tight, water laden, tree lined holes with island greens and multi - level fairways. I get a knot in my gut just thinking about it. Think you are playing well? Play this course from the back tees. The last picture is me, playing my second shot to the elevated island green on #11. Hit the green or else. There is also an aerial shot of this hole above.For more information: Eagle Trace

  Mission Hills Golf Club China The world’s largest golf course destination is at Mission Hills Golf Club. 216 holes stretch across thousands of acres. With 12 resort and championship courses - designed by the likes of Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and David Duval, Mission Hills is serious sensory overload for golf fanatics. If you can’t find enough golf here, you have a serious problem. For more information: Mission Hills Golf Club

  Coober Pedy Club Australia Make your way to the small mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, where there’s not a blade of grass or a stitch of greenery in sight at the Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club. Opal mining is the chief business here, and most residents live in a subterranean world of tunnels and caves to escape the Outback’s searing temperatures. The golf course itself is basically one enormous sand trap that must be oiled with grease lest it blow away in the dry desert winds, and golfers tote swatches of faux grass from hole to hole to ease teeing off. For more information: Coober Pedy Golf

  World Ice Golf Championship Greenland Each spring on a tiny island in Northern Greenland, the World Ice Golf Championship lures hardy fanatics for a chance to tee off atop moving ice floes in the High Arctic tundra. The annual event takes place in Santa Claus territory—370 miles north of the Arctic Circle, near the town of Uummannaq, where glaciers groan and icebergs bob around a nine-hole course cut from the snow and ice just before play commences. Since the greens are white, the balls are painted red. For more information: World Ice Golf Championship

  Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout Texas Indulge your cowboy golf fantasies at the deservedly named “Lajitas”. The Ultimate Hideout … this is a 25,000-acre resort isolated in western Texas, some 300 miles from El Paso along the banks of the Rio Grande. The 19-hole course dubbed “the Ambush” features four holes set on an island in the Rio Grande and a bonus hole that involves a shot across the mighty river into Mexico—making Lajitas the world’s only trans-national golf course. Cool! For more information: Lajitas

  Rotorua Golf Club New Zealand The antithesis of Australia’s arid environment awaits across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, where you can slice the Southern Hemisphere skies in the thermal hot spot of Rotorua. The Rotorua Golf Club features an 18 hole, links style, par 69 course, as well as a nine hole course where bubbling mud pools, steam vents, steaming creeks and rushing geysers make for otherworldly obstacles. For more information: Rotorua Golf Club

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Ace in Florida by Legally Blind Man

Legally blind golfer makes a hole in one : adapted from Times Staff Writer RODNEY PAGE’s story

This is Leo E. Fiyalko. He is speaking to the members at Cove Cay Country Club . Fiyalko is 92 and legally blind! This story really touched my heart, and reminded me of my own hole in one experience when I was 13 years old. I thought I had hit a bad shot that went off the back of the green. After looking for the ball, I decided to check the hole … and there it was.
Leo said, “All I was interested in was getting on the green.”
I guess just as I, the surprise was a bit more than just a good day, it was one that was a highlight of my life on the golf course.

The big event happened on the 110-yard, par-3 fifth hole at Cove Cay Country Club in Clearwater Florida. After 60 years of playing golf, the rarest of shots finally occured. “It was my first hole in one, and I never saw it” said Fiyalko

The feat came on Jan. 10 when Fiyalko and his group teed it up for their weekly nine-hole best-ball outing. The group of 20 to 40 golfers, who range in age from 70 to 90-plus, have gathered every Thursday afternoon during the winter for at least 20 years.

In his prime, Fiyalko played to a seven handicap, but now he needs help lining up his shots and finding his golf balls. A seven handicap? Not to bad! I have struggled for years to have a single digit handicap. I plan on playing golf for a long time to come. That is what is so great about golf in my opinion. You can continue to enjoy the sport for such a long time.
Congratulations Leo, I salute you from the frozen tundras of Minnesota. I wish you well, and also wish I could just get “one” round in soon.

Natalie Gulbis

To watch Natalie Gubis swing is so interesting to me because of the way her lower body actually moves forward and upwards, while her head and shoulders remain on plane and at the same height as address. In my own personal swing, the left foot acts as a plant for moving weight and turning into the line. With all certainty, a topped shot would result from using foot action like Natalie’s at impact. She seems to create speed and acuracy with this style of legwork …. it just proves that there is not just “one” correct method of producing solid golf shots.

I found this next video of Gulbis nailing one poor soul with a wedge. So many times while waiting on the tee box, I practice hitting to targets - just not “human” targets!

It looks like this guy has a pretty even temperment … I must admit, I’d love to be hit with a Natalie Gulbis golf shot!

Here is my own impact position “flipped” around.

From Picasa

Speedy