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Annika to Step Away from Competitive Golf
One of those rare athletes recognizable by fans, from the fanatical to the casual, by first name only, announced her retirement from golf today.
“I have made a decision to step away from competitive golf after this season,” she said at the Sybase Classic. “Obviously this was a very difficult decision for me to make because I love this game so much. But it’s the right one.” Annika Sorenstam will be leaving the game she has dominated for so many years. Fittingly this announcement comes days after a dominating seven stoke victory at the Michelob Ultra Open.
Ms. Sorenstam has indicated in the past that she would like to raise a family and spend time growing her business. The woman who arguably brought the LPGA tour into the public eye much the way Arnold Palmer did the PGA tour will be getting married in January 2009 to Mike Mcgee. We have the rest of this year to enjoy her clashes with current world number one Lorena Ochoa.
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Players Falls to Garcia
Sergio Garcia faced many questions going into last week - balky putting, diminished ball striking, and a three year winless streak. However, he answered them all in resounding fashion defeating Paul Goydos to win The Players Championship.
The final round presented a unique challenge at TPC Sawgrass. High winds and a firm fast golf course lead to high scores. Although The Players is not an official major, the course showed why it has earned the title "5th Major." Sergio Garcia described the day, "It was one of the hardest days of golf and I was playing well, but it was so difficult. There were so many things you couldn’t control. I mean, I hit so many good shots that I thought were perfect, and I wasn’t even smelling the green."
But the spotlight equally focused on the collapse of Paul Goydos who held the lead for much of the tournament. In the end it was Garcia who capitalized where Goydos couldn’t when on the 18th the one shot lead he held over Garcia was erased with a final bogey.
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Despite regularly being the most common wood shaft at U.S. Tour events, Aldila shafts just don’t seem to have the mystique associated with shafts from competitors like Matrix or Mitsubishi.
The NV, DVS and VS Proto shafts are amongst the most played shafts at todays events but somehow they seem to be ‘blue collar’ shafts rather than the high performance Tour pedigree shafts that they really are. Aldila are looking to change this perception with their upcoming VooDoo shaft.
While not being available to the public until the end of July, the Voodoo has been available on Tour since earlier this year. In this short time, it has already found its way into the winner’s circle twice: in March at the World Golf Championships-CA and last month at the Verizon Heritage. A striking achievement for such a new product and one that has certainly raised a fair amount of interest.
Titleist has done some drastic spring cleaning. They’ve swept out all of their resident iron designs and restocked with four brand-new ones, three forged and one cast. The lone cast model is the AP1.
Technology
What’s New? For Titleist, just about everything. This reminds me of the ad that appeared in the Washington Post in the 1960’s, I think. The ad stated: “President Abraham Lincoln’s axe up for sale. Handle was replaced 40 years ago. Head was replaced 32 years ago. Best offer!”
So are these all-new irons truly Titleists? In my opinion, the AP1 irons represent what a traditional clubmaker can do when it takes advantage of technology to help the largest possible number of golfers enjoy the game even more. This certainly is a big change for Titleist, but the market has changed, as well.
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The nine hole golf course. Never enough, yet at times too much.
More often than not many nine hole golf courses are goat paths and almost not worthy of anyone’s hard earned golfing dollar. Believe me, I have seen my fair share of these types of golf courses.
However, this is not to say that all nine hole golf courses are not worthy of our play, after all, golf is golf. One such nine hole course definitely worthy of mentioning is Wyoming Country Club located in Wyoming, Ohio (near Cincinnati.
Wyoming Country Club is neatly tucked into an older, yet upscale and very well established bedroom community. I was recently afforded the opportunity to play a round here and I jumped at the chance. This course is not long by today’s design standards, but I have always felt that length should never be a defining factor in golf course design.
As a recent winner in the 2008 Golf Magazine club test, the Tour Edge Exotics XCG fairway wood is getting a tremendous amount of buzz. The Exotics line from Tour Edge has been known to produce serious contenders in the arena of the high end club market. They have not disappointed in their latest fairway wood offering, the XCG.
Tour Edge Exotics is a branch of the Tour Edge golf equipment line. There is a clear divide between the two offerings of this company. They have the Tour Edge line which is geared toward the more financially conscious consumer and then the Exotics line which is specifically geared toward the high end market. Their attention to this market has not gone without notice. Some companies that involve themselves in two different ends of a spectrum lose sight of where they are going; it appears that Tour Edge Exotics knows where they are headed and how to get there.
In Defense of Dye
Loathed by those who play it for being unforgiving, No. 17 is loved by those who watch it for that same attribute. Its ability to put professional golfers in a situation we are all far too familiar with, drop two hit three, has created a compelling allure among PGA tour fans. With a hint of irony, the signature hole on a course famed for its strategic layout is penal in design.
Together, Pete and Alice Dye have created the most iconic hole on the PGA Tour. The Stadium Course at Sawgrass, commended by many as one of the best examples of a risk-reward golf course is as strong a statement in strategic design as it is a test of players’ mental will. Yet the 146 yard, born by accident, par three has received its share of criticisms, especially from architects.
17 Quick Questions with Byron Morgan
I recently caught up with Byron Morgan, one of the most talented putter craftsmen on the planet.
If you have already rolled a Byron, you’ll now where I am coming from. If you have never rolled an 006 or an 007, you owe it to yourself to try one out. You’ll be buying one shortly thereafter. I own a few Byron 007 putters and consider them to be top-notch flat sticks.
Byron Morgan himself, to us internet golf forum surfers anyway, may be a sort of enigma. He appears to be more visible in his shop rather than on the net, which is pretty cool, considering three quarters of his current putter sales is via the internet. Many of us will never have the unique opportunity of stopping by his shop in Coastal California to see what he has going.
Shaker Run Golf Course, site of the 2005 US Amateur Public Links, is located North of Cincinnati, Ohio in the small town of Lebanon.
This Public Links Championship was heavily watched; Michelle Wie made it to the final four here before Clay Ogden beat her in a hotly contested match play match. Unfortunately for Michelle Wie, Clay went on to win the championship. Even before Michelle Wie arrived at Shaker Run, this golf course was kown as one of Ohio’s best public golf courses.
In its infancy (1979), Shaker Run was a private club and owned by the ARMCO Steel Company. Eventually ARMCO became AK steel, sold some assets off, the private golf club being one of them (1994). Great for us. Shaker Run actually boasts 27 holes now as there is a third nine designed by Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry in 1997.
2008 GolfWRX Titleist Iron Preview!
Titlest has allowed GolfWRX.com a Special sneak peek into their 2008 Iron lineup. The AP1, AP2, ZB, and ZM irons. See what the general buzz is and full up-close, high resolution pictures can be seen in:
"What's in the bag?"
Who likes the last section of the Golf Digest where a PGA tour players bag is shown? All the clubs and his specs for all of us weekend hackers to drool over.
G.WRXCAST
Over the year we will have many more interviews. In case you missed the audio chat on line in our chat rooms we have made written transcripts of the interview here, and the most recent interviews are available in an MP3 format.
Right now you can read them, listen to them or download the audio file for later. Here is the Latest WRXCAST.
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