Wie all know you cheat!

So I know that most people probably have no idea what happened with Michelle Wie on Sunday on the LPGA Tour because god forbid you follow golf, let alone women's golf.....but I do.

So lemme break down what happened very quickly. Wie was 5 shots off the lead entering the back nine when she drove her ball just barely in the water. She opted to attempt to hit the ball out of the water having her right foot in the water with her left up on the bank. She hit the ball out of the water but it rolled back across the hazard line. When your ball is in the hazard you cannot ground your club. Wie clearly grounded her club after the ball rolled back into the hazard right in front of her. She said she was using the club to support her balance and help her from falling back into the water.

In no way during the 20 times I saw the clip did it look like she was using the club to help support her balance. She also said she closed her eyes and thought the ball went out of the hazard, so she then put her club down. In the video you can clearly see that she was looking at the ball as it rolled back into the hazard and then delicately laid her club on the grass, putting hardly any weight on it. Wie whined and whined appealing the rule and sounded like a kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the difference in receiving the penalty and not receiving it was only $100,000 dollars!

Wie also got DQ'd from a tourney years ago for taking a drop that was closer to the hole and also withdrew from a tournament with a "wrist injury" during a round where she was 14 over through 7 holes and on her way to shooting an 88. Well under LPGA rules a non-member(which Wie was at the time) who shoots an 88 or higher has to withdraw from the tournament and is banned from sanctioned events for the rest of the season.

Hmmm...

Mulligan Golf

Now this is just a little pet peeve of mine but I must say, I have been a little guilty of this in the past. Nothing bothers me more than playing with people who shoot an 86 and you know that they reached into their pocket and threw down an extra ball or two after chunking one into the drink. Mulligan Golfers typically take a mulligan off the first tee, then one on the 11th, then one on 15 and they say, "I never took one on the front nine". So all you can do is smile and remember to add about 5 strokes to their score at the end of the round. Especially because it will make your score look a little better.


Now there are also a less offensive breed of Mulligan Golfers out there who are not keeping score, will go through a couple dozen balls and take about 15 mulligans, and this breed is totally acceptable because they don't go home afterward and brag to their wife about how they just broke 90.

So just to clear this up, if you are keeping score and trying to establish a legitimate handicap so you can play in a tourney or two, you should not be using mulligans! Sure it will help you're handicap go down but then when it comes tourney time you'll just be known as a "reverse sandbagger". If your out with you're buddies and the course is wide open and no score is turned in, then by all means, mulligan it up!

Remember the golf gods are watching.....

Falcon Ridge Golf Club - Mesquite Trip

If your looking for a place to lose lots of balls either in the desert or in the water, then look no further. Falcon Ridge Golf Club is located in the remote southern region of Nevada's Virgin Valley. Only an hour drive from "sin city", it is pretty accessible to play and drive back to Vegas, although I would recommend staying in Mesquite.

I had the pleasure of playing here twice last November during an annual tournament (Colorado Hackers) that Adam Ray and I have been going to for the past 4 years. So Adam and I arrived early Thursday morning into Vegas and grabbed our rental car and made the haul to Mesquite. As we pulled into the Falcon Ridge parking lot and checked in it was clear that the course would play tight with a lot of elevation changes. The practice facility could not be any worse so don't really plan on warming up. After a short delay on the first tee-box Adam and I decided to play from the back tees, which measure 6,546 yards compared to 5,976 yards from the next tee-box up. After our tee shots it was clear that we hadn't really warmed up, oh well, we were off and rolling. The course is very challenging if you are not hitting the ball straight. There's not a lot of room for bailing out and if your ball goes into the junk it is extremely tough to find.

The 6th hole is very picturesque but requires a very accurate tee shot from the high elevated tee-boxes. There is water on the right and junk on the left, but it is downhill so if you find the fairway your ball is going to roll, leaving you a short uphill wedge to the green. The front 9 plays a little easier than the back, although the back has a few holes that are a fun challenge. Holes 11, 12, and 13 can either play extremely tough or extremely easy. The signature hole #12 is a par 5 that measures 525 yards and has a huge elevation drop off the tee-box. Followed by either going for the green over water or laying up to the left of the water, both are fairly difficult.

After the 5 hour round we were both exhausted and were very unhappy with our scores but enjoyed what the course had to offer. It is a benefit to play here multiple times and understand how the fairways and greens role. Some of the greens have 3 tiers so knowing where to put the ball sometimes helps. Falcon Ridge is definitely worth playing if you come to Mesquite and for the money is not too bad, especially when compared to nearby Wolf Creek. I booked online through a 3rd party and saved about 50 dollars.

I played this course again two days later from the next tee boxes up and only shaved 3 strokes off my score so don't let the short yardage fool you. It is nice that the course is located so close to the hotel/casino so you can hurry back after a bad round and begin drinking.......or jumping from bed to bed like your 7 years old........or both.

Golfers/Weekend Warriors.....as Manly as they come!

First off, this blog is really targeted towards the men of golf and not the women. I am sure women are just as hardcore, I just have never seen them this same way.

So in my opinion weekend warrior golfers (WWG's) are as hardcore a sportsman as any other, possibly the most hardcore. After my round this last weekend I was convinced that WWG's must have something in their DNA that allow them to withstand any sort of weather and intake any sort of substance no matter the time of day.

So I got to the course at about 7:15am and with daylight savings time the night before, let me assure you it was just pass dawn. I assumed I would be one of the first few at the course and have no problem getting out as a single, especially since the temperature inside the car read 36 degrees, which by my standards is too cold. I thought it would be in the mid 40's but hey I was up, so screw it. As I pulled in though, to my surprise there were about 8 guys on the putting green warming up, two of the guys were in shorts, unreal! So I parked and looked to my right and saw two guys stretching like they were getting ready for an Olympic swim. I also stretch a little at home to help the back, so maybe they have really bad backs and I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but they looked too young to be stretching like that. Anyways, I was able to get out with a couple of guys named Steve and Al. Both were very nice guys but Al was my favorite, wearing his blue jeans, torn hoody, camo ball cap and cussing like a sailor. They were both in their mid-50's and Al made it a point to tell me his yearly salary and how he manages storage units without me asking. I was also caught by surprise when on about the 3rd hole Al and I hit our shots pretty close together and while we were waiting to hit, I looked to my left and Al was watering the tree literally 5 feet from me, it was pretty tough to not laugh out loud. Steve was also smoking a fat cigar and drinking a beer by 8:30, which maybe just helped him warm up a little.

We made the turn at about 10a.m. and Steve and Al had to stop for burgers and chips, which was no problem I just couldn't afford anything. As I was waiting though, I saw a table outside with two guys smoking fat cigars and had a pitcher of beer between the two of them. All I thought to myself was "man thats awesome".

All in all it was a good day (even though my score didn't reflect it) but it really made me think
about WWG's and their sheer dedication for the game of golf. I can't think of other sports that average joe's go out and play and express their masculinity as much as they do on weekends at your local muni-course. It also reminds me that golf is great because so many guys are out there for the same reason, no matter what they are wearing, drinking, or smoking. We all love to just get out there in any type of weather and hit good and bad shots and then talk about what we did wrong after the round is over, while drinking a cold brewsky. To me it doesn't get much better than that.

Course of the Week

This week's golf course is located in the same city where the best tasting beer in the world is brewed....Golden, Colorado. The track is Fossil Trace Golf Club and claims to have been 64 million years in the making. I had the privilege of working here just after they first opened in July of 2003. The course will come off as a short 18 holes but don't let the 6,831 yards from the tips fool you, it plays much longer than that, especially on a windy day. This Jim Engh design has some of the most undulating fairways and greens I have ever played. Not to mention the deep bunkers and 'island like' white sand that are on nearly every fairway and surrounding almost every green.

The signature #12 hole is one you will definitely remember. This is a par 5 measuring 545 yards from the blues (which is where I would be playing from) and demands an accurate tee shot if you drive the ball about 240 yards as the fairway bottlenecks and runs downhill. Your lay-up shot demands accuracy because of the huge rock pillars in the middle of the fairway. The green is tucked back and surrounded by huge rock walls, which requires a nice smooth wedge into the green. Don't forget to check out the fossil's near the cart path as you head to the next hole.

Awards for Fossil Trace include:

• Top 10 new golf courses to play in the country in 2003 by Golf Digest and Golf Magazine.
• 4.5 stars best places to play from 2006-2009 awarded by Golf Digest.
• Named one of the top public courses in Colorado by Golfweek in 2006,2007 & 2008 and voted best golf course in Denver by ESPN.com in 2009.

If you are ever in the Denver area you need to get out and play this course. It's only 15 minutes from downtown and it is nestled up against the foothills of the Rockies. Just as their slogan states, after playing here you truly will have, "Escaped the Ordinary, and Experienced the Extraordinary".

Tiger Woods Prediction.....

With the #1 player in the world not having swung a club in the publics eye for nearly 5 months, the question on everyone's mind, including non-golfers, is when he will return. Nobody has an exact answer for this, other than Tiger and probably his wife. So the rest of us are left to guess and pretend that we know what we are talking about.

So here is my prediction: Tiger has officially taken care of all his business, as far as off the turf priorities are concerned. Attending "sex rehab" and family counseling sessions were his #1 priority in the first step of healing the wounds. Now most people should have known that he would not spend an entire year or so going through sessions and sessions of counseling. So now that he is back home with his family, it is only fitting that he is going to start interacting with his other love....the game of golf. Tiger Woods said it himself that, "As she (Elin) pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time." So after being spotted at the range, practicing alongside Charles Howell III and rumors of Hank Haney in town, it does not surprise me that his behavior away from home will begin sooner than later. What better time to come back then at the Tavistock Cup on March 22nd. This is a tournament between 2 elite clubs, Isleworth Coutnry club vs. Lake Nona. The amount of golfers participating is limited to those who only belong to either of these clubs, so the field is dismal in comparison to a regular tournament. Also the amount of public granted access into the tournament as well as media are much less then a regular PGA sanctioned event.

This will be a good warm-up event for Tiger before defending his title at the Bay Hill Invitational that same week. Then its off to the Masters two weeks later! Myself and other true golf fans out there should be overwhelmed with joy to see the man who has changed the game for so many thousands of people back out there swinging the sticks and proving yet again, that he will overcome any adversities he faces in life and still be successful at golf.