You the Man Stanley!! Tiger, not so much...

Okay, I know I'm gonna sound like I am jumping on the Kyle Stanley mini-bandwagon here, but he really has been my favorite rising star for the last two years. I picked him out a couple years ago while he was going through Q-school after I saw how far and straight he drove the ball. Another reason I liked him was his stature is a lot like mine, yet he can still pound the ball out there with the best of them. He ended up finishing in the top 25 in Q-school, so he was good for the 2011 PGA tour season. He ended up with 4 top-10's and a 2nd place finish in 2011, which I thought was very impressive. I knew he would get a win in 2012, I just didn't think it would come as quickly as it did. He not only won the Waste Management Phoenix Open but he should have won the week before when he placed 2nd in the Farmer's Insurance Open after an 8 on the closing hole! After taking Pebble off this last week he'll be back in action the next couple weeks and I expect more big things from him. I really wouldn't be surprised to see him in the top 10 in the world, or possibly the top 5 by the end of this year. I am also predicting 2 more wins from him and a really good showing in the majors, especially Augusta.

How about that meltdown from Tiger on Sunday!! He looked really great over the first 3 days and was #1 in GIR, which just goes to show you, he has his game mostly under control. He was putting way too much though to win the tourney. I still believe he will win this year, who knows when it will come. Every time he plays though, it seems like he's in contention, so you can't say he is "done for". However, he definitely isn't who he used to be. Congrats to Phil on an amazing Sunday run, it's good to see he's still got it after starting the year looking like garbage.

Also wanted to add, I played golf at Westwoods Golf Club in Arvada with my brother and some friends about 2 weeks ago. Man I love that course! This is where I grooved my game into the average golfer I am and it was fun to see all the familiar holes again. We played the Silo/Sleeping Indian 18. The weather was brutal though, at least 20 mph winds and it was pretty darn cold. Can't wait to get back out there in some nice weather!

Colorado Winters, How I Missed thee...

Well, it has been over a year since my last write-up, so I won't have any hurt feelings if I'm the only one who reads this. Hawaii was an amazing ride for a year and a half, but the family and I have since moved back home to Colorado. We will never forget the great memories we made during our stay there, and I will never forget the amazing courses and weather. Lol


Now that winter has officially arrived and my fantasy football season is over, I really dig deep trying to find the best way to make it through the winter till I can swing the sticks on actual grass again. Luckily the PGA tour starts up in a week, so that will help a little, although the fun tournaments don't really begin until Pebble Beach and the WGC Match Play event at the end of February


Something that I am really interested in trying that I have only seen in golf stores, is a golf simulator. I never realized that there are actual bars/places that provide these for the public to reserve a tee time and come in and play 18 holes on. My brother has already played 18 holes at Pebble Beach and he said that it is very realistic, all the way down to hitting bunker shots out of real sand and wearing your golf shoes. Sounds pretty fun and I hope to try this out in the next few weeks. Something like this could really help with the depressing winters here.

So, 2011 was an interesting year and one where I thought we would see 1, maybe 2 victories on the tour from my boy Tiger. Instead we saw guys like Bradley, Haas and Simpson step up and prove that we are seeing more and more dominant golfers who are bringing almost as much talent as Tiger. I'm really not sure where I stand with Tiger. I would love to say he is going to win 3 or 4 tournaments this year, but every time I start to believe in him, he just let's me down. I think we will see Bubba Watson cool off after the year he had and I think Anthony Kim will be the comeback player of the year. I think Luke Donald could go back to back for player of the year. It will also be interesting to see Rory on the tour full-time this year. Last I heard he was going to be on the PGA tour full-time, but that may have changed.

I would like to also mention that I played Broken Tee in Englewood about a month ago, which was not a bad track. I played with my brother (Jason) and a few of his co-workers. We were on a frost delay and by the time we got going, man were the fairways and greens frozen. It was a good reminder of Colorado courses in the fall/winter/spring months. I must say my brother who picked up the game again last spring, played really really well. I'm excited to be back and have a full summer playing some rounds with him.

I'm going to try to do some more blogging about golf related topics and as the season nears, about golf courses I play , or would like to play. Stay tuned...

Tiger Can Finally Win Again!!

Well as I'm sure most of you have heard, Tiger and Elin have officially split up. Not that any of us actually thought that they would try to work things out after Tiger traveled the world for years with his pants down. In my opinion though, I am sad for his children but happy it is all over.

I think that Tiger had a loooong season of distractions and pretending to try and make things work at home when I think he was just sitting on the couch hanging out with his kids. He now has joint custody, so he can still spend quality time with his kids when he has them and lets face it, he can NOW get back to his normal practice regimen. I think that Tiger will win one tourney before the years end, although this may not come until the Target World Challenge. I also feel that he is going to hire a new swing coach but not tweak his swing as much, like he did 3 other times.

As far as my prediction for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, I believe Tiger will make a good run and finish in the top 25, or just outside the top 25. I say he finishes in the top 10 in this first weekend.

I think next year, he will be back to his old ways, winning 5 or 6 tourney's and 1 or 2 majors.....

Hawaii Golf.....

Well it has been waaaay too long since my last post but I have been in a big transition. The wifey got a job in Honolulu, so we have been moving for the last couple of months, but have finally started to settle in.

Now, where to start? The US Open just wrapped up and I must say, I was really pulling for Tiger on Sunday but by the time McDowell was walking up the 18th with a 1 shot lead, I was happy he was going to be the next US Open champ. He seems to be a very well spoken, friendly, fun golfer to watch. His outfits are pretty sweet too, minus the hat. I'm sure that David Feherty is a very happy man right now and I would have loved to hear him do some reporting Sunday afternoon. I really hope to see McDowell have some more success on the tours this year.




Hawaii
So, I have been waiting on my clubs to arrive to the Islands for almost a month now and I'm starting to lose it. They will get here on the 25th, so I hope to have my babies unloaded by the 26th. I have been dying to play the courses out here. Not only are most of them beautiful looking but the Kama'aina (local) rates are unreal. I can play Turtle Bay Resort (Palmer Course), which hosts an LPGA Tour event and used to host a Champions Tour event for $75 on the weekend. Yeah this is a lot but normally for visitors it is $200. A few of the holes go right alongside the ocean and look amazing. Most of the other courses are around $40-$80 for weekday/weekend play and again, the views and weather are amazing. It is a little breezy but its almost never that bad. Luckily, I hit the ball low so it should help to keep it out of the wind. I have also met a few people that golf so I'm pretty pumped to play with them. I need to watch the money though cause I am trying to keep my Mesquite fund going. I only need roughly $800 dollars by November! Haha, sounds easy but for a stay-at-home dad that likes to golf its rough going!! I'll keep you posted on the Hawaii golf and the Mesquite trip!

Trip to Colorado

Well since there really isn't too much going on in the golf world right now(even though Lorena Ochoa retired....weird), I figured I would write about my golf during our visit to Colorado.

Broadlands
My first round was played at Broadlands golf course up north in Broomfield. I met my longtime friend Dan who works for the course, at about 7:15am. He got us out for free, which was very nice, plus we were the first two out, so it was wide open in front of us. I was super nervous about the round after hitting a duck-hook off the first tee, then toeing my second shot about 40 yards short and right of the green. Somehow I was able to get it up and down for par so that was a big confidence booster. The rest of the round was all over the place, hitting really bad shots and really good shots. I was able to pull out an 87, which I was pretty happy about. The weather was pretty cool but there was no wind and no rain so I couldn't ask for much more. Also, playing with Dan who is roughly 74 years old was great. Hopefully I will still be swinging the club as well as him when I'm that age.

Coal Creek
The second round was played at Coal Creek Golf Course, also up north in Louisville. This is one of my favorite courses and I was super excited cause I was playing with my dad, father-in-law(Bernie) and brother-in-law(Jeryd "I think I hit it long"Arellano). The weather again was cool, but there was no wind and no rain, so it was bearable. This was a rematch of teams consisting of my dad and I vs. Bernie and Jeryd. Last time we squeaked a victory out playing at Heritage Todd Creek Golf Course. The first few holes were a little rough for most of us but after a little while we all began to find our groove. I went even par on the last 5 holes on the front so that really helped. Thanks to my dad for giving me the line to help me sink a 20 footer for birdie on #9. Jeryd decided it was time to numb his nerves by indulging in the land of Kahlua on the back nine. Boy did it help, he ended up really turning things around and shot a 45 on the back. My dad, Bernie and Jeryd had almost identical scores and luckily I was able to squeeze out another 87. So for the second year we were able to claim victory! :) It was great to get to spend time with everyone and even though it rained on the last 5 holes, I thought the weather was pretty nice.

I'm looking forward to our next round together.

You The Man Phil!

Wow, what a great Sunday at the Masters. Not even Sunday, almost the entire weekend was action packed and the fans could not have asked for a better person to win.

Now going into the Masters, Phil was not on my list of people who I wanted to win, only because I think he is too flaky for all the talent he has. Although when he is in contention, especially in a major, I find myself having a soft spot for the guy and really pulling for him to win. We all know all the struggles he and his family have been through with his wife Amy having cancer, so that makes him winning that much more special. It was also great to see his wife make the trip there to greet him after he finished on the 18th.

It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if he put that 2nd shot on the par 5, 13th into the creek. In all honesty, when I saw him about to smack his 6-iron, 207 yards out of the pine needles, between two trees, to a green that you can't be short or long on, I thought, "well here goes Phil about to screw things up again". He proved me wrong and I'm ok with that. The man produced zero bogies and shot a 67 on Sunday, the first champ in 12 years to shoot that low of a final round. Good work Phil!




Now Tiger did a little better then expected but really showed his rust on Sunday. I laughed during his post interview because he said people are making too big a deal out of him losing his temper. Well maybe in his press conference he shouldn't have made it sound like he was going to try to control his temper and celebrations. Those are two of his biggest trade-marks so of course the media is going to be all over that when you lose your temper right off the bat on Thursday. You should have just said you are going to work on the swearing and club throwing, that would have made more sense.

Good showing for my boy AK! Keep it up!

New Tiger? / Masters Prediction

New Tiger?

So after reading about Tigers practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday and listening to his press conference, it seems like he has really changed how he will interact with the public and go about his business on the course. It was said by people following him during his practice round with Fred Couples and Jim Furyk that he was acknowledging the crowd when they would say something to him. One guy yelled, "Its good to have you back Tiger" and Tiger looked at him, nodded and said, "Thanks man". Tiger also said during his press conference that he would acknowledge the fans more and said, “I haven't done that in the past few years, and that was wrong of me, I’m just trying to be more respectful of the game". When talking about getting hot on the golf course, Woods also said he is going to try and not be, but that means he will also not be as "exuberant, either".

Now if you ask me, there is a lot of bologna in here and it smells pretty bad. I think it is great that Tiger is talking about interacting with fans and all, cause I would love to get a "fist pump" from him, but I am curious if this is something that he will only do in practice rounds and also if its something that will die down in a year from now. As far as his temper goes, I think he will be cooler off the tee box when he has a bad shot but I don't think that will make him cooler if he sinks a 40 footer for birdie in a big situation. I also think that over time Tiger will start to lose his cool almost as much as he was in years past. Tiger also talked about meditating and practicing his Buddhism like he did a while back. Except for as long as I can remember Tiger has had a bad temper and has thrown clubs, so I'm not sure if practicing Buddhism will help much with that. I'm all for it though if it helps him.

Masters Prediction

So after last weeks Shell Houston Open I thought that Anthony Kim might be the favorite for winning this weekend, but I think if his driver is as bad as last weekend, he is in for a rough week. I also believe that Woods will make the cut by a few strokes, but will probably finish somewhere just outside the top 10. Now I hope that AK or Tiger will win it but my bold prediction is that.....oh man......it kills me to say this.......but I think its.........Ian Poulter' s year.

Who I would like to win:
Tiger Woods
Anthony Kim
Adam Scott
David Duval
Sergio Garcia

Who I would not like to win:
Ian Poulter
Lee Westwood
Ian Woosnam
Robert Allenby
Soren Hansen