Reciprocal Golf

TIRED OF HIGH GAS PRICES?

2011-06-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

The 2011 summer season is promising gas prices in the $7.00 per gallon range by the end of August. On top of that, Americans are still facing an economy that is not recovering as we had all hoped. Home foreclosures are still high, and college students are graduating only to find no jobs available for them!

Having been self-employed since graduating college in 1970, and not being one to simply sit around and complain, I have looked for ways for all Americans to get together and start doing something about our nation's future.

Last year I faced a personal tragedy, and was severely depressed. So I started writing a book, based on that tragedy, more as a form of therapy than anything else. As I completed that story in LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH last summer, I decided to do something to help bring hope and promise to all Americans!

I ended LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH with the decision to give Americans a new way to voice their dissatisfaction with our current leadership, and give them more voter options in the future. I ended my book with the argument that America needs experienced businessmen in the White House, in the U.S. Senate, and in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Why? During my personal experiences starting and running six small businesses over 40 years, I learned at an early age that attorneys make the second-worst businessmen, behind doctors. Yet every President of the United States since and including Abe Lincoln, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, was an attorney!

In any business, the owner/ Manager / President relies on his different specialized departments to advise him, including the Marketing Department, the Accounting Department, the Finance Department, the Production Department, the Sales Department, and, yes, the Legal Department. No department head makes the final decisions; they simply give the President of the corporation their "expert" opinion regarding their own specialty department.

Yet Senators, Congressmen, and Presidents in Washington, all legal experts with no experience seeing and understanding the whole picture, have been leading our country since the early 1850's! America has allowed the "legal" experts, who should have been stopped at drafting our laws, period, to gain the management position. That was a mistake, a big mistake, a huge mistake!

Donald Trump recognized this mistake long ago and announced he might run for President this coming election. He had done that before. Unfortunately he is more interested in making money than in pursuing his goal of seeing America return to its former greatness. After all, how many $100 million jets does he need? Therefore, America needs to begin looking for experienced businessmen who can put their personal desires behind their community service desires to see America return to its previous greatness.

In LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, I discuss the idea of holding a golf tournament between Presidential candidates, not to determine which candidate is the best golfer, but to show the American voter, the spectators, the true character of each candidate. I talked in my book of how I used the game of golf to conduct business over the 40 years I owned businesses. I could learn more about a potential partner and business associate during four hours playing 18 holes with them than I could ever learn over a conference table over a six month period. Play 18 holes with someone and you will learn right away if they are honest, if they can handle adversity, if they have a temper, if they have integrity, if they can be persistent and persevere over adversity.

My oldest son, Pete (professional Hollywood name, Rio Veradonir) and I are spending our own time and money in our busy schedules to find worthy experienced businessmen who will make the commitment to turn this country around by running for office. Pete and I started the FREE AMERICA PARTY, www.freeamericaparty.org, to begin our quest to line up the type of experienced businessmen our country needs to return America to its former greatness.

Please visit our website and learn what you can do to help us 1) lower gas prices immediately, this summer, and 2) register the FREE AMERICA PARTY in your state. Together we can and will make a difference in the upcoming elections and beyond!

SONY rankings a waste?

2011-04-16T10:58:00.001-07:00

Do you wish that the SONY world rankings for professional golf had never been invented? For ten years it was simple; Tiger was Number One, Phil was Number Two, and the rest of the world didn't matter!

With Tiger's misstep with his personal life in late 2009, it has become a joke with too many TV commentators introducing this guy as "world number one", this guy as "world number three", and the next guy as "world number two". The following week they are all mixed around again anyway.

When Tiger was Number One, he had around 17 points to 8.64 points for Phil, then 8.53 points for number three, 8.51 points for number four, and so on down the line.

Today, whoever is Number One for the next day has 8.67 points, Number Two has 8.64 points, etc.

To listen to some commentators on the European Tour, if one player is about to putt a 20 footer, he announces within the next twenty seconds which five players will change position at the top if that player makes the putt! It's turning into a joke!

Johnny Miller hit the nail on the head when he announced during one recent tournament how embarrassed Lee Westwood looked when he was Number One. I agree with Johnny. Westwood, in my opinion, never should have made it to the Number One position. Whenever he even got within two stokes of leading a major, he'd fold like a cheap tent.

This morning I was watching the "European Tour" event in Kuala Lumpur (I know; it's not in Europe!). The commentator was talking about one player about to putt on one hole, and then saw a crowd of people running to another hole. He commented, "Look at all those viewers running over to hole number 5. Maybe Martin Kaymer is playing that hole. Wouldn't we all want to watch the World Number One play if we had the chance?"

Come on, really? The day to day, no I should say the hole to hole, change in who's Number One, Two, Three, Four, Five, etc. is getting ridiculous.

I suggest that whoever runs the SONY rankings change its policy and only make changes to their scoreboard every three months, or every six months. Once a year would be just fine with me.

But this daily update between players whose points are decimal points apart is ruining the major reason they set up the system in the first place. Once a player is out of the top five, or top ten, it doesn't amount to a pile of beans what position he is in.

I suggest they only list, or announce, who the top five players are once every six months or so. One tournament's outcome does not change anything, so why pretend it does?

WHAT PRICE OUR FREEDOMS?

2011-03-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

I was driving my son's car down from Oregon to Los Angeles to deliver boxes of his college textbooks and his car to him at USC last Fall. Interstate-5 allows the traffic to move along around 80 to 85 MPH from Stockton to the Grapevine without the California Highway Patrol getting into action, so I was making good time.

As the traffic lanes went from two lanes to five lanes near Newhall, I noticed that local drivers had joined traffic from northern California, and that the left lane was moving at 90 MPH. My car was heavy, being loaded with all those books, and I knew I could not stop as quickly if necessary, so I turned on my right turn signal, looked in my right mirror to see if my blind spot was clear (which it was), and then started to move one lane to the right. A small white sport car came out of nowhere and whipped past me on the right, so I returned to my lane!

I looked again in my rear view mirror, where an orange Honda Element was riding close to my rear bumper, and to my right, where there was no vehicle in sight, made sure my right signal was still on, then moved toward the lane on my right. The orange Honda Element flew past me on my right, so I stayed in the left lane once more.

It appeared to me that I was holding up traffic even though I was already moving with traffic at 90+ MPH! My third attempt to move to a lane on my right and slow down finally paid off. From the second lane I again looked to my right and was able to again move right and slow down.

As I drew a big breath to relax I noticed a CPH cruiser moving out from the right side of the road. Then he pulled in behind me and turned on his red light! I slowed down, then stopped on the right shoulder and started thinking how I was going to tell the officer why I had been holding up traffic.

The officer came up to my right window, so I lowered the window. Imagine my surprise when he said he had stopped me for speeding! I started to explain to him my predicament of trying to get out of speeding traffic in the fast lane when he barked, "License and Registration!"

I handed him my license and Registration while continuing to try to explain to him what had happened. He wasn't interested, and walked back to his cruiser. Five minutes later he returned with a speeding ticket made out for me to sign. I was shocked that he was more interested in writing the ticket than in listening to my explanation of how and why I tried to make my trip more safe! I decided then and there that I would "fight" the ticket.

A week later I mailed the ticket to the L.A. Court with my letter of explanation asking to contest the speeding charge. I had also learned that I could file a complaint against the officer online, so I did so. A week later I received a phone call from a CHP sergeant asking me to tell him my side of the story, and why I wanted to file a complaint against the officer, which I did. A few days after that I received a letter from the same sergeant asking me to put my explanation of my complaint in writing and return it to him in the mail. I did so.

A few days later I received another phone call from the sergeant. When he asked me to explain one more time why I was filing a complaint against the officer, the sergeant stated, "The video and the recording of your conversation with the officer do not agree with your statement!"

I asked, "You video tape and record traffic stops? Is that legal?"

"It is."

"And the officer does not have to tell me he is videotaping and recording at the time?"

"No, he does not."

"What did he videotape? Our conversation?"

"No, he videotaped your car with your Oregon license plate in the second lane clocked at 90 MPH."

I said, "that makes sense if he caught me while I was changing lanes to get out of the faster traffic."

Then I said, "I'd like to see that tape, and listen to the recording of our conversation."

He replied, "You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"It requires a court order."

"So, now our law enforcement officers may videotape and record traffic stops without telling the driver he is doing so, take a spot video segment that does not tell the whole story but takes a moment out of context, and the driver can't see the video?"

"Correct."

"When did this come about, with the Patriot Act?"

He replied that he did not know exactly when the rules changed. Then he asked if I still wanted my complaint to proceed, or if I wanted to cancel the procedure.

"I want to file the complaint against the officer, and now I will file a complaint with your new procedures that allow officers to videotape and record a standard traffic stop on an honest American citizen! This isn't Nazi Germany in 1939, it is the United States of America in 2010! I don't know how much longer our freedoms will last in this country at this rate."

I thanked him for his calm demeanor during the phone call, told him I did not blame him for the apparent current rules under which law enforcement may act, and then hung up.

I was reminded of my section on Americans losing their freedoms in my book, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, to be published in a few weeks. In the book I explain that dishonest law enforcement officers in this country are one of the two cancers that will move our nation into the category of a Third World nation. I explain why I feel this country needs an experienced businessman in the White House, not another attorney and politician.

I go on to suggest that during our next Presidential race that we have all of the contestants compete in a golf tournament against each other instead of holding more debates, because the game of golf brings out the best and the worst in all those competing. In one day we can learn more about which contestants are honest, who has a temper, who can handle adversity with calm and who cannot!

Most importantly I explain why we do not want more attorneys in Washington, because attorneys are, next to doctors, the worst businessmen in the country.

I close with my explanation as to why I hope Donald Trump runs for the Presidency, and why I encourage all Americans to vote for him if he decides to run.

Our nation can no longer tolerate attorneys in the White House if we are to survive as a nation, and if our freedoms are to survive for our children!

DO YOU PLAY GOLF FOR FUN OR FOR BUSINESS?

2011-03-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

I played my first round of golf when I was 13 years old and my dad, U.S. Navy Commander Edward W. Baumann, took me out to the Barber's Point Naval Air Station near our house in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, to the base's new nine hole course in 1963.

Dad first stopped at the Base Exchange and checked out (rented) a half set of clubs in a canvas carry bag. Those mixed five irons, driver, three-wood, and putter would be my first set of golf clubs for the next four months. Dad bought me two sleeves of Jato golf balls to use. I would tee off on the first tee, then walk along the right side of the fairway, mostly an old airplane runway covered with weeds, and look for lost golf balls until I reached my drive. I'd hit my second shot toward the green, then return to the rough to look for more balls.

I didn't take a golf lesson right away, using an interlocking grip at first. After two months I could shoot 48 for nine holes, twelve over par, and had filled six gallon buckets with used golf balls I had found. Dad would drop me off at the course on a Saturday at 6:00 A.M. and then pick me up at 7:00 P.M. after I had walked 72 holes, and had found another two dozen balls or so. After four months Dad bought me a series of six golf lessons, and I changed to an overlapping grip. Then I asked Dad if he'd buy me my own set of clubs, a full set with 14 clubs. He replied, "I'll buy you a set when you break 90 for 18 holes!"

A week later I shot 88, playing the Barber's Point nine-hole course twice. And, Yes, it was an honest 88. If Dad taught me one thing, it was to always be honest, in sports and in life.

Dad took me to the base Exchange and bought me a full set of Sam Snead Blue Ridge irons and woods. I think my first putter of my own was an Acushnet blade.

Three years later Dad was given orders to move to San Diego, and my younger brother, Bruce, and I joined the San Diego Junior Golf Association. Being residents of San Diego County, we could play unlimited rounds of golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course, owned by the city, for $33 per month, each! Today it costs over $200 to play one round at Torrey!

In 1966 I attended the University of California, San Diego campus, and was the #2 man on their golf team as a scratch golfer. UCSD being a two year campus at that time, I transferred to San Diego State College to finish my education in business Management in 1971. Two weeks out of college, I met two potato farmers from Boise, Idaho on the first tee at Stardust Country Club and played 18 holes with them, during which I corrected their slices! I was immediately their best friend for life!

Over lunch I told them I was starting a company called Intertel, Inc. where I intended to manufacture and sell the world's first cordless telephone. I asked them if they would like to invest in my company, $25,000 each in stock. Both men said, "Yes." The next day they called me and said they had two other potato farmers in Boise who wanted to invest the same amount.

Over the next four years we made and sold the world's first cordless telephone, as well as inventing the world's first "touch pad dialer" that allowed users to push buttons to dial regular telephones and our cordless phone on rotary-dial telephone lines.

Over the next 40 years every small business I started was with someone I had met and played golf with on a golf course! Golf, I had learned, was better than a Lie Detector when it came to judging the character of a man.

When I started Probe Golf in 1986 and was looking for nationwide distributors to market my custom fit golf sets, I would have interested individuals fly into the Medford, OR airport and drive to the Lake Shastina Golf Resort where my Probe assembly facility was in my garage.

The next morning I would play 18 holes with each applicant, and from one round of golf, or less, I could tell if I wanted that individual as a Probe distributor. I learned in less than four hours how honest a person was. I learned if he had a temper, and if he could handle pressure.

In my new book, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, 2nd Edition, to be published next month, I even suggest that during our next Presidential primaries, we hold a golf tournament between all of those in the running, instead of holding debates.

Golf is the greatest game ever played, and I believe it should play a bigger part in our national and international politics. What do you think?

BIRDS OF A FEATHER!!!

2011-02-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for being away for so long.....it's been about four months since my last blog. But I was in an unfortunate accident on the golf course on October 19, 2010!

I was playing the Quail Point Golf Course in Medford, Oregon, with my son, Bobby, and his friend, Sione, who was walking. We played nine holes, when Bobby said he had to go to work at the Sports Authority store nearby. Sione and I proceeded to the tenth tee to play another nine holes. The two assistant pros, Brent Santoni and Anthony Ulloa, drove up in another cart and asked if they could join us for nine holes. Brent was also a good friend of my son's.

During the back nine, we all teed off at the short, downhill par-3 thirteenth hole, and I started off down the hill on the cart path in my cart. Brent and Anthony followed in their cart, and Sione walked down the hill carrying his bag. At the bottom of the hill I stopped my cart opposite the green. Suddenly I heard a loud screeching of tires and a loud thud as my cart lurched forward as Brent and Anthony's cart hit the back of my cart!

I looked to my left as Sione ran down the hill, asking if I was all right! I replied, "I think so," as I got out of the cart. Brent came up to me and also asked if I was OK. I didn't notice any real pain at the time, so I said I was fine and we proceeded to finish the hole, and the rest of the nine holes. I was among friends, and did not make a big deal about it at the time.

The next morning my neck and shoulders were sore, but not bad enough to mention, other than telling Bobby I hoped I could play that coming weekend when our club's two-man scramble was being played. Bobby and I were entered as partners.

I was able to play that weekend with Bobby, and played a few more times during the next three weeks. But on November 26 I woke up in the middle of the night with pain and numbness in my left arm, the right side of my face and head were numb, and my right eye socket hurt like crazy!

I called my doctor's office to see him, but his office manager said he was out of town for a week, so I made an appointment for the 9th of December.

I drove to the Quail Point Golf Course where Brent was working, told him I had some neck problems, and asked him if he would give me a written accident report about the day we played. He said he would talk to his boss, Vince Domensain, the Director of Golf. I learned they all worked for O.B. Sports Management out of Scottsdale, AZ. O. B. Sports evidently managed about 36 golf courses around the U.S., including Quail Point and Centennial in Medford, OR.

Over the next six weeks I lived through what I can only refer to now as a nightmare! I tried to see doctors at two Emergency Rooms the next few days since my doctor was out of town, and my injuries were becoming more and more serious, but they were both full with ambulance patients who had serious injuries.

I called the Medford Police and asked for help completing an accident report. They told me to go and see the Security Office at the Rogue Valley Manor that rose above the Quail Point Golf Course because the cart collision occurred on private property, and the Manor and the golf course were both owned by Pacific Retirement Services, Inc.

I did as they instructed and went to the Security Office. I met Gary Elkinton, the Chief of Security, and told him my story. He said, "Brent ran into you? I know Brent. You have nothing to worry about. I'll get his written accident report for you by this afternoon."

I thanked Gary, and then drove home. When I got there I emailed Gary at the email address on his business card and thanked him again. He replied back, thanking me for the email.

I felt that I was getting somewhere, finally. But an hour later I received an email from a Beth Lori stating she was the attorney for Pacific Retirement Services, Inc., further stating I was not to talk to Gary Elkinton any more, that Brent Santoni was an employee of O.B. Sports, and that the Pacific Retirement Services, Inc. and Rogue Valley Manor were not responsible for my "alleged" golf cart collision, nor were they responsible for my "alleged" injuries!

I tried to get back in touch with Mr. Elkinton again, but he never replied to me again.

I tried to see Brent about my requested accident report, but he said he had been told not to talk to me. I tried to talk to Vince Domenzain, but he did not reply to my requests. A few days later I received a phone message from Vince stating that Brent's accident report had been sent up to O.B. sports, and that it was in Brent's permanent employee file, but was not available to anyone else to see.

For the next two months I was unable to get anyone to cooperate with my request for an accident report. At the same time my neck and head were getting worse. I was dizzy, my eyesight was getting blurry, and I was afraid to drive anywhere. My son quit his job so he would be home in the event I needed him to drive me to and from my doctor's office. I suffered from major headaches, and I experienced for the first time in my life a problem with my short-term memory. I could not take care of business!

I was contacted by a Jennifer Drake from Travelers Insurance, stating she was authorized to offer me up to $5,000 in insurance money to pay for medical expenses related to my neck injury, "without any admission of liability on the part of O.B. Sports."

My doctor ordered an x-ray and an MRI of my neck, which showed "an acute injury" at my C7-T1 vertebra, among other problems. By the end of January, 2011, the medical tests used up about $4,500 of the $5,000 authorized by Travelers. I was getting licensed massage therapy on my neck, which helped reduce the pain, until the therapist told me he had never been paid by Travelers. I inquired about payment, received an email from Travelers stating they had paid $4,500 in bills, yet no one had received payment, and stopped treating me. I had asked Travelers to cover a visit to a Dr. Altstadt in Medford, but they never complied, and Dr. Altstadt's office told me they could not see me without Travelers agreeing to cover the visit. I was out of options, so I had to start paying for medical help out of my own pocket.

On February 3, I received an email from Travelers stating they had nothing to show that my injuries were a result of the cart collision, so they would not help me any further.

As many of my readers know, I have used golf to meet and befriend business associates for over 40 years. As a result I have started and run six successful small businesses with friends I met on the golf course. Playing 18 holes with a total stranger has helped me know who is honest, who I can trust in business.

All I have learned in the last four months is that just because someone is in the golf management business does not guarantee they are honest, or that they will do the right thing when it comes to integrity!

I have had to seek a personal injury attorney to try to get help with my neck and head injuries as a result of two assistant golf pros not being able to drive a golf cart responsibly. And to learn that a golf management company like O.B. Sports did not step up and do the right thing to correct their employees' mistakes has shocked my senses of right and wrong!

I am now going through the process of trying to create the particulars of one golf cart running into another golf cart, and compute the resulting injury to a human occupant. No wonder we read about personal injury lawsuits in the newspaper all the time. Even with the advent of liability insurance to take care of people injured in accidents, our lives still depend upon people doing the right thing when accidents occur in order to reach a happy and just ending!

The game of golf may teach us all honesty and integrity, but it does not mean that people in the golf management industry are honest! And for a medical facility, Rogue Valley Manor, and a golf management business, O. B. Sports, to both create a cover-up to hide from their responsibilities is appalling to me!

2010-10-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

The Ryder Cup matches were exciting this week, and ended up about as I had predicted; Europe beat America due to better putting, again as I had predicted. But the overall scoring was closer than I thought it would be.

This was my first Ryder Cup where I heard commentators at the Golf Channel discuss how Europe set up the course to give the European team the advantage. How did Europe do that? For example, the greens were slower than the PGA was used to putting. European Tour players are used to putting slower greens than are our American PGA Tour players, so the European team members had the advantage.

Also, the longer rough at the Ryder Cup matches penalized the American team more because the European team members are more accurate off the tee. The Golf channel commentators then asked each other why the United States doesn't do the same thing when the Ryder Cup is played in the United States every other year, and no one seemed to have an answer.

Are we just too nice, too fair, or too stupid to let Europe get away with such "gamesmanship"? Earlier last week I predicted that Europe would win simply because about half of their team members used oversize putter grips, where virtually all members of the American team used standard size putter grips. It has been proven that oversize grips help keep the wristiness out of the putting stroke, making each golfer more efficient at making putts.

Time after time the Americans rolled their putts toward the hole, only to come up two or three rolls short of the hole, while most European putts at least reached the hole and had a chance of falling in.

How close were the matches? The U.S. only needed 14 points out of the total 28 points to retain the cup, since it was last won BY THE United States. They fell short by 1/2 point!

How many additional putts did the U.S. team need to roll another two or three inches to the hole to have changed the outcome, and have the U.S. win this week's Ryder Cup matches over Europe? Just one!

Ryder Cup Matches

2010-09-15T10:06:00.000-07:00

With the Ryder Cup matches coming up in a few weeks. I thought I'd investigate the potential use of "performance enhancing golf equipment" by either side. What I learned is worth mentioning, although most golfers will not recognize it as an advantage by the European side.

As far as the use of drivers, fairway metals, irons, and wedges is concerned, both teams seem to be using similar equipment. However, it is in the area of putters that the European team seems to have the advantage over the American team.

At least half of the European team members are using putters that have larger than average grips. That's right, their grips are fatter than usual.

How is that an advantage? As a manufacturer of one of the most performance enhancing golf putters of all time, the PROBE 2020, I know what can improve a golfer's putting stroke. My 2020 was inverted-shafted, where the thin end of the shaft was in the grip, and the fatter, heavier end of the shaft was in the center of the brass putter head.

This guaranteed a pure pendulum stroke instead of the usual jerky stroke encouraged by virtually all other golf putters. The well-known "yips" were virtually impossible to imitate with a PROBE 2020 putter.

We also made the 2020 with larger than usual putter grips, which encourages each golfer's hands and wrists to remain calm during the stroke. It was virtually impossible to "strangle" the fatter grip with too much grip pressure, which can cause the hands to push or pull the putter off-line.

I have noticed that European tour players use fatter putter grips then do most American tour players. When I tried to search for different putter grips online this past week, I was surprised at what I found, or should I say what I did not find.

I could not find any manufacturers of fatter putter grips listed on the Internet. I could find article after article about name tour players using a righthand low grip, or a lefthand low grip, or a claw grip, or whatever. That described how they all held the putter grip, but there was no mention about the thickness of the grips preferred by each player.

Could it be possible that the Europeans understand how the thickness of a putter grip can give a player an advantage, and that the Americans have no clue about the subject?

That alone could determine the outcome of the Ryder Cup matches this fall.

America vs. Europe!

2010-09-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

What is the state of American professional golf at this time? The Ryder Cup matches are coming up in a few weeks, and the Europeans seem to be stronger than the Americans at this point in time.

As a manufacturer and inventor of revolutionary new golf equipment from 1987 through 1994, I noticed something I have never noticed before when I was watching the European tour event this morning on The Golf Channel. Two European golfers I was watching on one green were putting, back to back, with putter grips I had never seen before!

At that moment I asked myself whether European pros could be using golf equipment that was completely different from the equipment being used by American pros! That would seem to be almost impossible considering how small the globe is with the internet in this day and age.

But the thought lingered most of the day while I ran errands around Ashland, Oregon today. I remembered last year when K. J. Choi was seen using a fat, round, white putter grip at the Memorial. I had never seen that grip before.

So for the next week or so I am going to do some investigating to see what I can learn about the golf equipment European Ryder Cup team members are using, and whether it may differ from the equipment American Ryder Cup team members may be using in the upcoming Ryder Cup matches.

Golf equipment may seem to be the same, but subtle differences can make a huge difference in performance. For example, members on both teams may use Taylor Made drivers, but the shafts used can be different, and grips can make a huge difference. The putting grips I saw on TV this morning had flat sections running from the top of the grip to the bottom of the grip, and there were many flat sections. I would guess the grip, each one, had at least eight, possibly ten flat sections. I had never before seen such a putter grip.

The two putting grips I saw this morning were similar, but one was orange and one was white. They could be the same grip, except for the color. Then again, they could be entirely different.

Stay tuned for the next few days and I'll report what I am able to learn about the differences in golf equipment used by both the American Ryder Cup team and the European team members. This should be interesting!

PGA Tour back to normal!

2010-09-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

The PGA Tour is finally getting back to normal. No more "Oost-who's" winning majors, no more Tiger Woods's missing cuts. Tiger is in the Ryder Cup and Phil once again misses out on his (many) opportunities to move into the Number One Golfer In The World position by missing two-foot putts because he has to play a Callaway putter! Will Phil ever put winning tournaments ahead of his endorsement of poor golf equipment?

Tiger's game is coming around just in time for the Ryder Cup in a few weeks, now that he is putting his personal problems behind him.

This weekend in the Fed Ex playoffs Phil Mickelson was contending until he missed a bunch of putts down the stretch on Monday's final round, including one from under two feet. Phil just doesn't have the mental strength to move into the Number One position every time he has the opportunity to do so.

This morning, Corey Pavin announced his choices to complete America's Ryder Cup team, naming Tiger, Ricky Fowler, Stewart Cink, and Jach Johnson to the team. Ricky fowler seemed to be the questionable pick to some in the golf media, but I think Ricky will bring youth and excitement to the team.

The American team needs to start building an experienced young team for the future as well as for this year's competition, and Ricky Fowler is a good place to start. The Ryder Cup is always exciting, if not too exciting when Johnny Miller's announcing style comes into play. If we listen to Johnny during the very first match on day one, each putt in his mind will decide the outcome of the entire matches on day three!

I hope Johnny relaxes a little this year and lets the television viewers relax as well. We don't need Johnny causing millions of viewers rushing to the medicine cabinet for their Valium thirty minutes into the first day's matches.

Don't worry about Tiger!

2010-09-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods got off to a terrible start in this week's Deutsche Bank Championship, being four over par after the first 7 holes before returning to finish at one over par for 18 holes. But that is understandable for a man who is making major changes in his swing at this time.

He followed up that round with a six-under 65 on day two. Tiger will recover from his poor golf at the beginning of this year now that his personal problems are more or less behind him. In addition to his new swing changes, his personal life is now making major changes as well, moving from Florida to New York to live, for example.

Give him a few weeks to settle down in his new environment, and the old Tiger will be back in stride. And now that he is a single man again, his game will return to its best once he can settle on a new, steady girlfriend.

I can't stress enough the importance of a man having a good relationship with a woman and a happy home life in order to play good competitive golf. Tiger must have many women practically throwing themselves at him since his divorce, so the sooner he can settle down with just one woman the sooner his game will be back with a vengeance.

Yes, Tiger is back!

2010-09-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

For months, many months, eight to be exact, avid golf fans have asked, "What is wrong with Tiger's game, and when, or will, he ever be back?"

The answer is, "He has had personal marriage problems on his mind, and he will not be back until he can put them behind him."

Last week his divorce from Elin was finalized, and although he will still think about it often, his focus can now be directed back to his golf game. And, "Yes, he will be back to his winning self very shortly."

He will go on to pass Jack's record of eighteen majors, even though competition is getting tougher every year with the new young talent that is emerging on the PGA and European tours.

Last week in the first of four FedEx playoff tournaments Tiger finished seven under par, five shots behind the leaders. He is working on a new swing, and just one swing on Saturday, where his old swing got in the way, cost him three of those five strokes.

As time passes Tiger will think less and less about his personal problems and more about his golf game. He will stand up to each shot and visualize the shot, where it will fly and where it will land. He will not stand up to many shots and wonder where his kids are, or what is Elin doing at that moment.

Tiger is confident his game will be back very soon, as evidenced by the $54 million mortgage he took out last week on a new home for the future in Jupiter, Florida. In the meantime he has moved into a bachelor pad in New York where he can start a new life with new friends and get away from his memories of the last ten months.

Yes, Tiger is back, and back to stay.

Is Tiger back?

2010-08-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

When Tiger Woods shot 65 the first day of the Barklays at Ridgewood Country Club on Thursday, he was leading the tournament. Surprised? Many spectators were, while some were not.

It was no surprise to me at all. Tiger and Elin were in court on Monday, ending their marriage for good, and all the emotions that have plagued Tiger since last November should have finally ended for the better.

On Wednesday a People Magazine article and interview with Elin hit the newsstands and caused a little stir among the golf media, but the emotions finally took a new turn. Tiger could now concentrate on playing golf as a single man for the first time in six years, and his old winning attitude took over.

We all know how golf is a mental game first and foremost, and the last eight months has been mental torture for Tiger. Let's hope he can put it all behind him now.

If he completes this week's tournament well he would be a good Captain's pick for the American Ryder Cup team next month, and the American team can use all the help it can get.

New PROBE 2010 putter.

2010-08-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

I have been deluged with emails from PROBE 2020 putter users asking me when PROBE GOLF, www.probegolf.com, will be releasing its new PROBE 2010 inverted-shafted, center shafted putter.

From 1992, when PROBE GOLF first introduced its patented PROBE 2020 putter, through 1996, when we ended its production, over 120,000 golfers purchased a 2020.

Today we still receive emails from former customers telling us that no matter what new putter they may try, they end up going back to the 2020 for its superior feel and control.

Former PROBE 2020 customers will be glad to learn that PROBE GOLF has just signed a manufacturing contract with a foundry to produce its new 2010 putter head. Just as 2010 vision is superior to 2020 vision, the new 2010 PROBE putter head will be wider than the original 2020 head to incorporate longer alignment lines so it will be easier to line up at the target.

Alignment was the ONLY negative comment we ever received from 2020 customers since its introduction in 1992. The original 2020 head was too narrow to accommodate longer lines.

The 2010 will retain its heavier weight that virtually all customers liked in the 2020, as well as the inverted shaft to insure its true pendulum stroke with no opportunity for the "yips" to enter the stroke.

Finally, the 2010 will include the center shafting just like the 2020, to allow each player to intentionally put side spin on short breaking putts to reduce or eliminate the break, thus making it easier to make those putts.

The PROBE 2010 will be introduced this fall to the golf industry. Inquiries may be emailed to contact@reciprocalgolf.com.

Who is at fault at the PGA?

2010-08-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

If you are an avid golf fan, you already know about the fiasco that took place on the final hole at the PGA Championship yesterday! The question that is on everyone's mind is, "Who is at fault?"

Dustin Johnson waded through thousands of spectators to the right of the 18th fairway to find his tee shot. He had a one-shot lead over two players in the clubhouse, and all he needed was a par to win his first major. Virtually everyone was rooting for him after what happened to him two months ago at the last major, the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Dustin found his ball when the crowd opened up and he saw some rough ground about six feet by six feet in size. The crowd covered the ground around that spot, thousands of them.

It took about ten minutes before enough of the crowd toward the green could move and give Dustin a target to shoot for. He looked over his shot, then hit a thundering five iron 237 yards to a heavy lie 20 yards over the green. He lofted a wedge to six feet of the pin. One six-foot putt to win his first major. He didn't quite hit the putt firmly enough, and it fell short to the right. He tapped in for bogie, then headed to the scoring trailer to sign his score card, and then he would be going to the tenth tee for the three-way, three hole playoff for the championship. WRONG!

A PGA official walked up to Dustin at greenside and informed him that there might be a problem with a penalty being incurred during his second shot on the 18th hole.

After the smoke cleared about fifteen minutes later it was decided that Dustin was in a sand trap on the right of 18 and he had grounded his club, which is a two-stroke penalty. He thus took a triple-bogie, and was not in the playoff!

The reigning PGA official walked in front of the cameras with a "rules sheet" they had handed out to each player on Monday listing the special rule that applied for the week regarding the bunkers. When he read the rule, it seemed to appease everyone, including myself.

Then the media interviewed several tour players, who said, "They hand out such a rules sheet every tournament, and nobody reads them."

Then the regular tour commentators asked the PGA official about that rules sheet, and such questions as, "What about the fact that the spectators were standing in your so-called bunker? How can it be a sand trap when 25 spectators are standing in it?"

The official again stood by his rules sheet, which technically is the final say in that situation.
Then he was asked about the PGA official who was walking with Dustin's twosome. "Why didn't he step forward when Dustin found his ball and tell Dustin he was in a sand trap?"

The head official then said, "We don't want our officials hovering over every player during a round; we just want them nearby if a player has a question about the rules."

The whole situation is frustrating to everyone, players and spectators. Please allow me to give you my take on it all.

Back during the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, I predicted on Tuesday, two days before the tournament started, that Dustin Johnson would win the Open. He had a three-shot lead after Saturday's round. I told my son who was sitting beside me that if I was Dustin's caddy, I would tell him to leave the premises and go to dinner with some friends and relax, and get away from any press. He had been relaxed all week, and led the tournament as a result.

Instead, Dustin responded affirmatively to all media requests for an interview, which was a huge mistake on his part. The media told him that his being relaxed was all wrong, that his leading the U.S. Open required that he be nervous beyond belief! The result was nervousness on Dustin's part starting Sunday morning, and he blew up to an 82 in the final round!

Yesterday, when Dustin and his caddy walked up to his drive among all those spectators, the first thing that should have happened was Dustin's caddy letting him know he might be in a bunker, and then they should have called over the PGA official that was walking with them.

Yes, that's right. I blame the caddy. These guys carrying the bags on tour are not simply bag carriers, they are their player's manager and adviser as well. Their job is to do the thinking for their player, so all he has to do is swing the clubs that are handed to him by his caddy.

Dustin is a nice guy, a "country bumpkin" in my opinion. Thinking is not his strong point. Golf, as I have stressed for months, is played between the ears, and is 90% mental, and 10% mental. That is the reason Tiger is playing poorly this year, his mind is on his personal problems, his divorce, his children.

Tour players have to think about one thing, hitting their golf ball. Whatever their caddy can do to keep them from thinking about or worrying about anything else is tantamount to their winning tournaments.

Dustin's caddy needs to learn that, and learn it quickly. If he does not, he should learn another profession.

PGA Championship week!

2010-08-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today the PGA Championship starts, the last major of the year, and I hope we see a continuation of last week with a tour star winning the championship and not another unknown!

I'm amazed at some of the names that writers are picking to win the PGA this week, such as Vijay Singh. Singh has had a tough year, but this writer picked him simply because he won at the same course, Whistling Straits, the last time the PGA was played there. But that was the year Vijay was the leading money winner on tour.

Then there is the writer who has picked Y.E. Yang to repeat his PGA victory from last year when he held off Tiger Woods for the win. Yang is a scrapper, and it will take a scrapper to conquer the tough conditions expected this year.

There is also the writer who has picked Phil Mickelson to win the PGA, even though Phil announced this week that he has Psoriatic Arthritis! Phil told the media on Wednesday that the symptoms came on right before this year's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and plagued him during the tournament and then got worse during a family trip to Hawaii. At one point Phil said he couldn't even get out of bed!

And there are writers who are betting that now that Tiger has hit rock bottom after his worst tournament as a pro last week at Firestone, he will rebound if just from pride if nothing else and play well at the PGA.

Let's watch today's opening round and see what we can learn about Tiger's play.

Congratulations to Hunter Mahan!

2010-08-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

The PGA Tour returned to some semblance of normalcy yesterday with Hunter Mahan's victory at the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club, and it didn't come any too soon!

For months now professional golf has had one relatively unknown player after another win tournaments, including two majors, with the television ratings dropping as a result. Not only did a name player, and an American, win at Firestone, but the next six place finishers included five recognizable American players and one two-time U.S. Open winner.

Now things are getting better on tour. With the PGA this week, the last of the four majors of the year, I hope this trend continues.

And what happened to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson this last week? Tiger understandably is still fighting his mental demons from his private life even though he is blaming it on something else, lack of practice. When your mind is troubled in golf, it is even hard to concentrate on practicing.

Phil played fairly well for the first three days, but then his having to play Callaway equipment caught up with him one more time, and he ballooned to a 78 on Sunday, one higher than Tiger's 77! And these are the two best golfers in the world?

With Phil, it is just one more example of golf equipment companies trying to pull the wool over the golfing public's eyes, paying tour stars millions of dollars to tell the world that Callaway golf equipment is the best, while each player's game suffers from having to play Callaway.

It reminds me of the days when I worked the Senior Tour back in 1991 through 1994, when Callaway first introduced its Big Bertha driver on tour. I watched the likes of Chi Chi Rodriguez, Jim Dent, Bob Murphy and Jim Colbert try the Bertha on the driving range, and one after another had its face cave in! The Callaway tour reps said, "No problem, here's another one!"

The same was true of the Callaway irons at the time. The players complained that they could not work the ball left to right, or right to left. Callaway rushed to solve the problems the tour players had with the irons while at the same time they were advertising to the public in golf magazines and on television how many tour players were playing those irons!

For a game that advertises how golf teaches us honesty and integrity, I wish there was some honesty and integrity among the equipment manufacturers.

Then, and only then, will golf truly become the greatest game ever played.

Will a tour star win at Firestone?

2010-08-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

The other day we discussed the fact that the PGA Tour needs its stars to play well to keep spectators interested in watching golf week after week. No spectator wants to see "Oost-Who" come out of obscurity to beat all the tour's stars, and then disappear, only to have another "Oost-Who" win the next week.

I mentioned that maybe, just maybe Tiger Woods would come back to life at the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone this week since he has won the tournament seven times in the last ten years. If he did, it would do the tour a world of good. Unfortunately, it is not to be.

After three rounds at Firestone. Tiger is ahead of just two players. If there had been a cut after two rounds, Tiger would not have been playing on Saturday. Fortunately, there was only one player on the leaderboard after two rounds who is not readily recognized, and that is Peter Hansen. So the odds that some name player will win the tournament are pretty good, and that is what the tour needs right now.

A Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker or even an Adam Scott winning this week is what the tour needs to bring some reality back to professional golf, and all four are on the front page of the leaderboard after two rounds. The leader by one shot, Retief Goosen, is a name player who has won two United States Opens.

With the year's final major, the PGA, just one week away, spectators need to get excited again about watching professional golf. Ernie Els is also near the top after a 64 on Saturday, and he still leads the tour this year in the chase for the Fed Ex Cup.

Unless another nobody comes out of nowhere tomorrow to capture the title, this week should go a long way to bring some semblance of normalcy back to the tour, and the Tour needs that more than ever right now.

There is also the very good chance that Phil Mickelson will become the Number One golfer in the world after this week. He has to finish at least fourth this week and Tiger has to finish around 34th or worse for that to happen. Tiger is doing his part in that equation, since he is around 78th out of 80 players after three of the four rounds. Phil is tied for tenth after three rounds, so he has his job cut out for himself on Sunday.

But if he does not become Number One after this week, it will probably happen next week. I am confident Tiger will not play well at next week's PGA, and Phil should play well enough to gain the points he needs to finally break into the Number One position.

Tiger has been asked by a multitude of reporters if he will accept a captain's pick for the
Ryder Cup if it is offered to him by U.S. Captain Corey Pavin. Tiger's reply has been the same week after week, "I plan to play my way onto the team."

That might have been believable up until this past Wednesday, but not any longer. His play this week at Firestone leaves one to wonder if he will even be offered such a spot. I for one think it would be a major mistake by Pavin to take up a spot on the team with Tiger.

No stars on the PGA Tour!

2010-08-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

A month ago I asked the question "Who is the best golfer in the world?" The Sony rankings showed that Tiger Woods is the best, but that is only because he had such a large lead in points, no one could catch him for a while no matter how poorly he played, and how well everyone else played.

Let's face reality; no one individual has played well enough to be considered number one, or number two, or number three in the last few months. And that, in the long run, will ruin professional golf!

Yesterday I started reading some of the other golf blogs on the internet, and was pleased to see many others agree that without its stars, golf fans will not watch televised golf, and without viewers the ratings for pro golf will dwindle away, and without ratings professional golf tours will cease to exist.

Tiger recently stated to the press that he is playing poorly because he is not practicing as much as he should, and he went on to say that he will never practice in the future as much as he should practice because he is spending time with his kids. That statement surprises me simply because he is now divorced from Elin, and their kids are with her most of the time, which means that Tiger's time with his kids has to be limited.

I think a more correct statement would be that Tiger's mind is on his kids, and therefore his mind is not on golf, and we have mentioned for months that "golf is 90% mental, and 10% mental." Until his mind can forget his personal problems, he will not continue to be the best golfer in the world.

Then there is Phil Mickelson, the supposed Number Two golfer in the world. I don't know about you, but I am tired of hearing every week the TV announcers stating the same identical thing as that week's tournament is about to start, "Phil is threatening to pass Tiger and take over the Number One spot in golf!" I'm sorry, but Phil is not threatening to do anything!

I have mentioned for months now that Phil Mickelson should be the Number One player in golf even if Tiger's mind were clear and concentrating on his golf 100%. Phil has more talent than Tiger. His problem is the people around him, his ambulance-chasing attorney who threatens any golf manufacturer who attempts to get better golf equipment in Phil's hands, and his endorsement contract to play Callaway golf equipment.

As long as Mickelson puts endorsement money ahead of winning majors he will never play to his potential, and I am afraid that will be Phil's legacy to the game when he retires.

So, what tour player is going to step up to the plate and excite the spectators like Tiger used to excite them, and keep professional golf from dying a slow death? Women's professional golf was near death ten years ago when they had no American golfers to excite the viewers. Then a few young American women who had game and were pretty showed up on the LPGA Tour, and women's golf got a shot of adrenalin.

The PGA Tour has a chance this week to gain new life itself due to the playing of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, where Tiger has owned the tournament for years. If Tiger can take advantage of his past domination at Firestone and do it once again this week, he has the chance to revive the PGA Tour and save what will otherwise be a very boring season.

You would not believe what goes on!

2010-08-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Based on the kind of comments I receive from readers when I write about life on the PGA and Senior PGA Tours, I have come to believe that most golfers among the general public have no idea what professional golf is all about!

For example, I was in the contestants' locker room one week at a Senior PGA Tour event, working with one of the players while fitting his PROBE driver to exactly what he wanted in the way of performance. A network reporter came into the locker room and asked the player for an interview. It was that player's second event on tour since he turned 50 years old, so the reporter wanted to know about the player's initial experiences on the Senior Tour.

I sat on a bench next to the player during the interview. The reporter asked the player, "How do you like being out here on the Senior Tour, playing once again with players with whom you once played on the regular tour?"

The player looked at the reporter and answered, "Don't think these guys were friendly to me just because they shook my hand when they saw me again, and the cameras were on them. Most of these guys would not throw water on me if I were on fire!"

The reporter was shocked, and looked at his cameraman with a bewildered look in his eye, not knowing what to say. I sat there and watched the reporter, wondering what he would do next. I was not surprised at the player's comment, because I had seen it all before.

Most of the players on tour, both the regular tour and he Senior Tour, renamed the Champion's Tour a few years ago, put on one face when in front of the cameras, and are completely different when off camera!

If you don't believe me, pick up a copy of my new novel, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, and learn for yourself what your own idols are like when off camera. The book is based on my true experiences while promoting my PROBE golf equipment on tour for many years during the 1990's.

In addition to learning about what goes on at PGA Tour events, you will learn other valuable lessons about life, such as how to make a marriage work when the husband is self-employed and motivated to be a successful entrepreneur, and his wife wants him to put her ahead of his career.

You will learn how to raise your children so you are proud of them in this age of peer pressure among teenage young men and women. What I learned under those circumstances is simple to recognize and put into practice, and it is true for all couples. It does not take years of education and a ton of psychological mumbo-jumbo to write about what makes a marriage work.

If you like a good read that teaches you important lessons about life, pick up a copy today. You will be glad you did.

No top players anymore on the PGA Tour!

2010-07-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

My last blog asked who was the Number One golfer in the world. One reader answered by asking who could beat Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship, the next major on tour. My answer, "Any one of the top 50 players in the world can beat him."

Not a single golfer can claim to be Number One on today's tour. Not a single golfer can claim to be in the top three! No one single golfer has shown in the past six weeks that he stands out from the rest of the pack. When was the last time that was the case on the PGA Tour, or the European Tour?

Every week a new face shows up on tour, and makes himself noticed. The days of one or two players dominating the headlines has ended, at least for the foreseeable future. The question is, does the professional tour need stars, someone that we can call the best in the world, or is it all right to have a crap shoot at every event, with a different winner holding the trophy every Sunday?

Do you remember the last time Tiger Woods was not technically the Number One player in the world according to the Sony rankings? Wasn't it about five years ago that the commentators told us that if Vijay won the tournament that Sunday, and Tiger did not finish in the top five, Vijay would move into the Number One spot? Vijay won, and Tiger shook his hand, and it was announced at that moment that Tiger was no longer the world's best.

There was no official ceremony or exchanging of any crown, just the commentator's mention of the fact.

Then about six weeks later it was announced that Tiger was once again the world's Number One.
And Phil was Number two, which Phil will always be as long as he puts endorsement money from Callaway ahead of playing the better equipment that would take him to the world's Number One position.

Technically the press still lists Tiger as Number One because the Sony point system still shows him ahead of anyone else, but bet on Tiger to win the PGA? Not with my money!

Who's the world's best player?

2010-07-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

For a decade we golfers knew that Tiger Woods was the Number one golfer in the world. For a few weeks Vigay Singh had more points than Tiger in the Sony World rankings, but we knew the truth, didn't we?

We knew that Phil Mickelson was the #2 in the world, and that Steve Stricker was #3. Paul Casey was 4th, etc. But who is #1 now? Sure, the Sony rankings claim that Tiger is still Number One, but come on! He hasn't played like the best golfer in the world since last fall.

Yes, I know his mind has been in turmoil due to his marriage problems, and I know as well as anyone how the mind can upset the golf swing, but really? With such an opening, I would think Phil would have come on strong and overtaken Tiger during his time of weakness. But has that happened? NO!

And it won't happen as long as Callaway owns Phil Mickelson. It seems Phil can't think for himself without consulting with Callaway or his ambulance chasing attorney, Glenn Cohen in Jacksonville, FL. As long as Phil plays Callaway drivers and the Callaway (Odyssey) putter, he will not come close to the golfer he should be. All just to con the public into believing that Callaway golf equipment is the best in the business!

I can read Phil Mickelson's head stone right now: "Phil Mickelson. He should, and would have been the best, but for Callaway Golf."

The fourth major championship of 2010, the PGA, is approaching, and is anyone favored to win it? I wouldn't be surprised if another nobody European wins the PGA. There is no American player who has stood up this year and claimed he is Number one.

But I am willing to make a prediction. Lee Westwood will finish runner-up at the PGA! That seems to be his mission in his life.

Oosthuizen holds on in Sweden after Open.

2010-07-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Last week at the Open Championship I was surprised to see Louis Oosthuizen win it, especially by such a wide margin. I attributed the win to his lucky round on Friday when he was able to miss the 50 to 60 MPH winds that hit most of the field that day.

I predicted that he was just a "flash in the pan" winner, and that we would not hear much more from Oosthuizen in the weeks to come. I may have been wrong!

Instead of taking a week off to celebrate his victory at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Oosthuizen entered the Nordea Scandinavian Masters in Sweden this last week, and was tied for the lead after the first round. I was especially impressed with his reason for playing. "It is good for the European Tour."

Oosthuizen continued to stay close to the lead through three rounds. In following the tournament, I was surprised to see that no Americans were entered in the field. KJ Choi from Korea was entered, which surprised me, because he has played so well for years on the PGA Tour.

The ultimate winner was Sweden's own Richard Johnson at 11 under par, and Oosthuizen finished a respectable three shots back.

The Senior British Open

2010-07-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

This week the Senior British Open is being played at Carnoustie in Scotland, and Tom Watson who also played in the Open Championship last week at St. Andrews is in the field. One American who was scheduled to play this week is Mark O'Meara, but he canceled the trip after his Dad passed away. He decided that his place was with his family instead. It should be an interesting week watching the seniors play Carnoustie.

I also noticed that last week's Open Champion, Louis Oosthuizen, is playing at the European Tour event in Sweden this week. I would have expected him to take a week off after his first major victory, but according to the commentators he chose to play because, "It will be good for the European Tour."

That's commendable, and Louis made the most of the first round by shooting five under par and was tied for first when they went off the air. A few days ago the Golf channel commentators were taking bets as to whether Oosthuizen's win at the Open championship is a "flash in the pan" victory, never to happen again, or if he is the real deal, and will go forward and continue to win on tour. I personally think he got tremendously lucky when he missed most of the high winds that hit St. Andrews last Friday, and that lucky day led to his victory.

Time will tell if his swing and his mental game take him to new wins in the near future.

Oosthuizen's major victory also started an argument among the Golf Channel commentators about the status of American tour pros, and whether anyone would once again dominate professional golf in the near future like Tiger dominated prior to last year's indiscretions.

The consensus seemed to be, "No, no one player will dominate the tour for some time." Phil Mickelson's game is hurting, due in my opinion to his endorsement contract with Callaway. Phil is forced to play golf equipment that is in my opinion second-rate, especially his driver and his putter. I explained two months ago why I am no longer a Phil Mickelson fan, because tour players owe it to themselves and to their fans to play the best they can play, and not put endorsement money ahead of performance.

Steve Stricker is supposed to be the Number 3 player in the world, but his game varies tremendously depending upon the course he happens to be playing at any one time. Then look at the European players who have won recently. Justin Rose won twice on the PGA Tour, then McDowell won the U.S. Open, to be followed by Oosthuizen's win at the Open championship.

Lee Westwood finished as the runner-up for the umpteenth time, and in my opinion will do so for the rest of time. He just doesn't have the mental strength to see himself as the best, only the second best!

The upcoming PGA Championship may bring out a player who separates himself from the pack, but I doubt it. I wouldn't be surprised if another "nobody" takes that major as well.

Does the PGA Tour control players?

2010-07-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

I remember the first time I saw a PGA Tour player on TV during a tour event with a significant growth on his face. That's right, a beard! I thought to myself, "Wow, this guy is going to get in trouble with the PGA Tour."

For some reason I thought there must be a rule on tour that no one could grow a beard, that all players had to be clean shaven. After all, what would happen to professional tour golf if a bunch of hippies showed up to play?

Then, when I didn't hear any comments from TV commentators about the beard, I saw a player with long hair on tour. I thought to myself, "Now this guy has done it! He's going to catch it for sure." But then nothing seemed to happen to him either.

More recently I learned that the PGA Tour pretty much keeps its tour players from being approachable by equipment manufacturers that want to show tour players new equipment that is intended to make each player a better driver of the ball, or a better wedge player, or a better putter. The tour's rules do not allow any equipment manufacturer from approaching any tour player unless that manufacturer already has a contract to play that manufacturer's equipment!

And when those kinds of rules apply to tour players, you know what happens, right? That's right, lawyers then run the tour. Lawyers that "represent" each tour player then dictate who can talk to their "client" on tour.

But what about each player's thoughts? Can the tour control what players are thinking? Can the tour control what each player says in front of a camera? Unfortunately, I believe the tour (PGA, European, Nationwide, etc.) not only can control what players think and say, they do control what they think and say.

Last week's British Open is an example. I watched virtually 100% of the telecast of the 2010 Open Championship, and have taken the position that Louis Oosthuizen was given a gift, and the victory, on Friday morning, when he finished the first two days with a huge lead over the rest of the field because the wind did not blow during the hours that Oosthuizen was on the course on Thursday and Friday.

Was that lucky for him? Yes. Does the PGA or the Royal and Ancient try to control the starting times to make the first two days' tee times as fair as they can each week for the entire field? Yes. But does that mean the weather will be the same both days? No.

It was obvious to me that Oosthuizen received the ultimate gift in a professional golf major championship, almost perfect weather for himself while most of the field suffered through tremendous winds that made the Old Course at St. Andrews virtually impossible to play for 95% of the field.

But did we hear any of the commentators speak up and tell the world of that gift? No. Nada. The professional tours have control over those commentators, as well as the players that tee it up every week. And telling the world that the winner was lucky is not in the cards. They MUST praise the winner as the one player who conquered the course in all kinds of conditions when the rest of the field, including the best players in the world, simply failed to measure up that week!

I was watching the Golf Channel's tape delayed interviews on Monday morning, many of which I had already seen Sunday evening after the Open had ended hours before, and I witnessed one interview where the actual truth almost came out about Oosthuizen seven-shot victory.

The media asked Rory McIlroy about the 80 he shot on Friday during the hurricane that blew most players off the course, when he had shot his record-breaking 63 on Thursday, and followed the 80 with two more rounds in the 60's on the weekend.

I could tell Rory was picking his words very carefully, trying not to mention the fact that Oosthuizen missed the 60+ miles per hour winds that almost canceled Friday's round because the tour considered the course unplayable. But he did, for one second, almost make the statement about Oosthuizen's amazing luck, but then changed his chain of thought and said Oosthuizen "held on like a champion over the weekend, and did not choke coming down the stretch" (with his seven shot lead).

Granted, the tour officials don't want a lot of name calling and sore losers on tour, but what about honest feelings and emotion on the part of players? Is the tour justified in trying to make tour stars appear dishonest, void of emotion, when the truth is so apparent?

I for one would like to see tour players tell it like it is for once, and not have the fear of suspension hanging over them every time they answer a question posed to them by the media.

Weather determined British Open Champion!

2010-07-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

In my 50 years watching 200 major golf championships, this is the first time I have ever seen the weather determine the winner! During a week when almost hurricane winds blew virtually 99.9% of the players off the Old Course at St. Andrews at one time or another, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa played early Thursday in no winds, and then got lucky by playing during a lull in the weather on Friday.

To give you an idea how tough the conditions were for most players on Friday, the first round leader, Rory McIlroy, followed his opening 63 on Thursday with an 80 in the wind on Friday. He then shot in the 60's again on Saturday and Sunday.

Oosthuizen built up such a lead over the rest of the field the first two days that no one could mount a charge over the weekend to catch him!

And looking at the rest of the field on Saturday and Sunday, no one even seemed interested in trying to catch Louis since his lead was so large! Tiger Woods on the front nine on Sunday hit two very stupid tee shots with driver that he should have known would put him in two of the dangerous bunkers that cannot be played forward toward the hole.

Tiger had to play sideways out of both of those bunkers, wasting two shots when he needed to put up a charge to try to catch the players in front of him. He started birdie, par, birdie, then drove into one of those bunkers and made double bogey. Then he made two pars, only to make another double bogey from driving into another bunker! Tiger, Phil Mickelson, and the rest of those chasing Oosthuizen seemed to lose all common sense on Sunday, making one bad mental decision after another!

Here I am on Sunday morning watching the Open Championship, and with nine holes still to go I am giving the victory to Louis Oosthuizen.

Congratulations to Louis Oosthuizen! Take this gift and make the most of it with the rest of your career!

I'm heading to the golf course.

The weather may determine the winner at the Open!

2010-07-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I talked about the importance of today's weather conditions in determining who will have the advantage going into the weekend at the Open Championship. Friday's weather was not even close to being the same as Thursday! Very early players on Friday did get a tremendous break from the weather, as did the early players on Thursday.

Louis Oosthuizen, for example, received the gift of a lifetime Friday morning when he was able to play in no wind and light rain, so the greens actually held shots. The wind then picked up so quickly after he finished that the officials suspended play for an hour and six minutes. If the wind had not died down a little so play could continue, officials would have canceled the entire second round for Friday, canceling Louis's round of 67! As things stand as of this writing, Louis will have a tremendous lead over the field starting Saturday's round because players are fighting just to make pars Friday afternoon.

After play continued, the average scores increased by three shots per player over the players who finished before the suspension! Scoring difficulty increased tremendously after play resumed. Rory McIlroy, for example, had shot 63 on Thursday, 9 under par, but then hit the windy conditions Friday and was +8 through 16 holes for the day when I discontinued following Friday's round!

After all players finish their rounds Friday evening, it will be interesting to see what score is required to make the cut for the weekend.

First round of the Open Championship.

2010-07-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

The first round of the Open championship ended about as I had predicted, with most of the leaders playing early, before the wind picked up. Friday's forecast shows the weather will not be the same as Thursday, however, so conditions will probably not be equal for everyone after the first two days.

Phil Mickelson showed why he can't score at the British Open when it is windy, because he can't hit the ball low when necessary.

Two of the players I mentioned yesterday that we should watch out for are Ernie Els and Justin Rose. Both players shot under par today.

Tiger shot well as he always does at St. Andrews, and a nice surprise for American viewers was John Daly's six under par start.

The leader after the first day, Rory McIlroy, represents one of the young players in the field this year.

Six of the players on the first page of the leaderboard are Europeans with whom I am unfamiliar, but unknown Europeans near the lead on day-one of the Open Championship is nothing new. They usually fade after the first day, so it will be interesting to see if any of them remain near the top after Friday.

One reader commented to me that Edoardo Molinari should be among the top picks to win after his performance last week at the Scottish Open, and I agree. Edoardo shot three under on Thursday.

After Friday's round, and we get to see if the same weather holds as Thursday, we will have a better look at the leaderboard and the potential outcome.

The Open Championship!

2010-07-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

The 150th British Open starts tomorrow, and predicting the winner at this time is impossible, obviously! The day before the U.S. Open started, I picked Dustin Johnson to win, and after three rounds, he had a three stroke lead. But then the press scared the *&#$ out of him Saturday night, telling him he was not human if he was not scared to death as the leader of the Open!

But the British Open is not so obvious to me. Experience versus youth, the weather, and who is hot right now all have to be figured into the mix.

The weather, to start with, often helps break winners away from the rest of the field. There are specific players who simply hit the ball too high to play in the wind. Others can't play in the cold, or the rain. So until tomorrow, and we get an idea of what the playing conditions will be, we will just have to wait and see.

I'd prefer to look at the list of players who are hot going into the event to try to pick a winner this early. Among hot players this year we have Ernie Els, and he is experienced at St. Andrews. This week is his fourth trip to St. Andrews.

Steve Stricker is hot right now, coming off a record-setting win at the John Deere Classic last week. He is ranked Number 4 in the world right now.

Many odds-makers give Phil Mickelson a good chance to win, but I think he hits the ball too high to win if the wind blows at all.

I think Justin Rose will have a good chance to win this week. He already has two wins in his last three PGA tour events, and this will be his ninth British Open. Although this is his first trip to St. Andrews, he knows how to play British coastal links courses.

Congratulations to Paula Creamer!

2010-07-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Paula Creamer for her victory at the Women's United States Open! If you will recall, Paula is one of the women that I mentioned months ago who has an unusual quirk in her neck when she makes contact. The other two are Lorena Ochoa and Natalie Gulbis. Paula has always tilted her head to the right and dropped it toward the ground at impact.

Commentators talked this past week about how Paula was holding her head more upright at impact this last week, making her more consistent. That must have been something she has been working to correct if the change was that apparent to the course commentators.

I remember mentioning about three weeks ago that it is good that Lorena Ochoa was retiring at the young age of 28, because she might break her neck if she continues tournament golf much longer!

No matter who the golfer is, holding the head still during the golf swing is probably the most important thing you can do to be a consistent golfer. Everything else in the swing revolves around the head.

Now back to the Men's PGA Tour, and the upcoming Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

I finally learned where Tiger woods is. He is at St. Andrews. How long he has been there is the question I asked last week. Tiger won the last two Open championships that were held at St. Andrews, by eight strokes and by five strokes respectively. No one has ever won three consecutive Open championships held at St. Andrews, so Tiger has the chance to be the first.

Yes, he is still recovering from his personal problems and his divorce from Elin, which will make concentrating on golf difficult still. But maybe the Open at St. Andrews is important enough to him to be able to put that behind him and let him concentrate.

St. Andrews has been lengthened since the last Open there, and the key to winning the Open will be the ability of the players to stay away from the deep bunkers on their tee shots.

I for one am looking forward to watching the Open this year due to the number of new young players that have invaded the tour in the last three years. Weather will be a factor as well as it always is at the Open. I have not heard what the weather is forecasted to be this coming week, so it will be interesting to see the results of round one on Thursday.

That should tell us a lot about what we can expect for the rest of the week.

No One Knows Where Tiger Is This Week?

2010-07-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

I asked earlier this week what Tiger woods was doing to prepare for the Open Championship at St. Andrews next week. No one seems to know!

I haven't been able to find any article online all week long that mentions where Tiger has been this week, or what he is doing to prepare for the next major championship.

There has been talk about his divorce from Elin, and that she may only be awarded $100 million from their divorce instead of the $500 million that the golf media was ready to give her six months ago. But judges usually know more about after-tax income and expenses than the typical reporter knows about that kind of thing.

If I were Tiger, I would be quietly playing the Old Course at St. Andrews this past week, in preparation for the Open Championship that begins Thursday, July 15.

So, assuming Tiger shows up on the first tee on Thursday, what are his chances of winning? He has won the Open Championship twice on the Old Course already.

I have already answered that question before, and I'll say it again; "It depends if he has put his personal problems behind him."

He already showed signs that he had done just that with several spurts of magic on the course in the last month; he just hasn't won yet this year. This will be a tough week to show his on course magic due to the publicity surrounding his divorce settlement that has been in the news.

I personally think he will play well this coming week, but not well enough to win his 15th major championship. I don't think he will be able to put his divorce out of his mind that soon.

Does it Pay to Prepare for the Open in the UK?

2010-07-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

How many PGA Tour stars flew over to the United Kingdom early to prepare for the Open Championship this year, and did it pay off?

In the last few years quite a few American PGA Tour players have flown over to the UK a week before the Open Championship (British Open) to play in the Scottish Open, to prepare for the next week's Open Championship. In the past, several Americans have done very well in the Scottish Open.

This year, however, most Americans and other PGA Tour stars fared poorly in the Scottish Open, with most of them missing the cut! Some notables who missed the cut after Friday's round included Phil Mickelson, J.B. Holmes, Steve Marino, Lucas Glover, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, and Camilo Villegas.

One American who surprised everyone by making the cut was John Daly, along with Tom Lehman.

But does a player have to do well in the Scottish Open to do well in the Open Championship? Not necessarily. Keep in mind that by flying over a week early, players get the chance to get used to the time change and the weather a week ahead of time, so there are no last minute surprises.

Even if they don't make the cut at the Scottish Open, they get two additional days to visit the Open Championship site, which is the Old Course at St. Andrews this year, and become familiar with the course and the playing conditions a week early.

The question of the week seems to be, "Where is Tiger Woods this week?"

He did not enter the Scottish Open, and he is not playing in any tournament in America this week. My guess is that Tiger has gone directly to St. Andrews to prepare for the Open Championship. What is strange is that I can't find any mention online about what Tiger is doing this week to prepare, if anything.

I have personally been recovering from foot surgery lately, and have not been able to follow the golf news much in the last three weeks. St. Andrews is one of Tiger's favorite courses in the world, and if he is going to put his marriage troubles behind him and start once again making it his goal to surpass Jack Nicklaus' 18 major wins, next week at the Open Championship would be the perfect time for him to do so.

If anyone can enlighten me as to what Tiger is doing to get ready for the Open Championship this past week, I would be very interested in finding out.

Congratulations to Justin Rose!

2010-07-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

My previous blog on Saturday mentioned that Justin Rose had a four-stroke lead going into the final round at the AT&T National, and asked whether or not he could win while leading after three rounds, as opposed to coming from behind to win.

A week ago Rose had a three shot lead going into the final round at the Travelers Championship, and shot 75 on Sunday, losing the tournament by three shots.

Rose started off poorly on Sunday, but after nine holes he still had a five shot lead going into the back nine. The bad news is that he did not make a single birdie on the back nine. The good news is that he still won the tournament, by one shot!

Rose did not answer the question as to whether he can win going away, when entering the final round with the lead. He held on to win, but that is all we can say.

The mental side of professional golf once again showed us what "holding on", or "protecting the lead" can do to the leader. Golf is played between the ears, not just by tour professionals but also by everyday amateurs.

While Rose was "holding on", players like Ryan Moore, Jeff Overton, and J.B. Holmes were shooting five under, three under, and four under respectively on Sunday in an attempt to catch Rose.

That is the amazing thing about the mental side of golf. When a player is chasing the leader, he thinks about making birdies and eagles. If a player is in the lead, he usually thinks about making pars. Very few tour players who are in the lead have the mental strength to think about making birdies and expanding the lead.

Tiger Woods is one of those players who thinks about setting a new scoring record when he is in the lead, and not merely playing well enough to win. At the AT&T National, Tiger finished 14 shots behind Rose, because Tiger's head is still not over his personal problems yet.

But he will get his act together, and soon, possibly at the British Open coming up at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Will Justin Rose hold on tomorrow to win?

2010-07-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Last week Justin Rose held a three-stroke lead going into the final round on Sunday at the Travelers Championship, only to shoot 75 in the last round and lose the tournament. Missing a two-foot putt on the 9th green put a negative slant on the final round, and Rose followed it up with a terrible back nine!

This week Justin has a four-stroke lead going into Sunday. Will he hold on to win, or fall apart the final day like he did last week?

The mental side of professional golf is a mystery to many golfers, and to most of the viewers at PGA events. The crowd expects to see the greatest golfers in the world make one great shot after another, and can't seem to grasp the fact that these guys are only human.

A month ago Rose won Jack's tournament, The Memorial, charging from behind to take the trophy on Sunday. At the Travelers, he took the lead into Sunday. Is that the difference? He can charge from behind, but don't let him get in the lead, or he can't handle the pressure of being in the lead?

Believe it or not, most professional golfers do not feel comfortable leading a tournament. Look at what happened to Dustin Johnson when he took the lead into the final round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He shot 82 on Sunday, the second highest final round by a leader in the Open since 1911!

I remember when I was young and was first learning the game. I could not put two good nines together. If I shot 36 on the front nine, I would shoot 42 on the back. If I started with 43, I'd shoot 35 on the back. It took me about four years of playing golf, from 12 to 16 years of age, before I could put two good nines together.

Why was that the case with my game?

When I got older, I would enter amateur tournaments, usually one-day junior tournaments, and if I shot a good first nine, my back was not very good. Then I would enter my golf course's Men's Club Championship, which was usually a two-day event. If I shot well the first day, and was near the lead or leading, I would fall back the second day. It wasn't until I was around 25 years of age before I could put two good rounds together, and start winning.

By the time I was 30 until I was 40, I won our Men's Club championship nine times out of 12 consecutive years. What made the difference? I learned to play the course, not the other competitors.

When I stopped paying attention to what others were shooting, and set my own goal of shooting under par, I started winning.

I have seen PGA tour stars interviewed many times, and a common question they are asked is, "Do you look at the leaderboard when you are in contention, or not?" Some professionals watch the leaderboard, like Tiger Woods, when many others do not look at the leaderboard at all. Tiger likes to know where he stands at all times, and he loves to go face to face with someone who is contending for the lead.

Many players do not want to know where they stand. That is probably because they do not handle the lead very well, so they don't want to know when they are in the lead. Believe it or not, most of the 156 tour players that tee it up every Thursday are very similar in their ability to strike a golf ball.

What separates the Number one player in the world and the Number 100 player in the world is what lies between the ears. In other words, it is all mental.

So, where do you think Justin Rose lies in that mental game? Will he hang on to win on Sunday, or will he fall to his mental weaknesses like he did at the Travelers?

Let's watch him on Sunday and see if he appears to pay attention to the leaderboard, or if he seems to be playing his own game without wondering where he stands toward the final holes.

Dustin Johnson after the U.S. Open

2010-07-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

If you remember, I picked Dustin Johnson to win the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach two days before the tournament started, and Dustin had a three-shot lead over the field after three rounds. Then the press and the tournament commentators took him aside and told Dustin that he was not human if he was not shaking in his boots under those circumstances!

They convinced him on Saturday night that his calm, composed attitude was not natural, and that he was some kind of freak if he continued with that attitude. So, Dustin hit a wedge next to the second green into an unfair lie, thanks to the USGA, took a triple-bogey 7 on the hole, and Dustin could then relax and become human.

Dustin shot a closing 82, the worst finish by a leader in a U.S. Open since some unknown player shot an 83 in the final round in 1911.

How has Dustin handled "being human" since his disastrous final round at the Open?

From what I hear, he celebrated his 26th birthday on a boat, and then talked to Greg Norman about how to learn from a major disappointment. Greg has had a few major disappointments of his own, you will recall.

Then Dustin showed up at the next tournament site and ran into another recent failure on tour, Justin Rose. Justin had just choked his way from a three-shot lead at the Travelers Championship after the first three rounds to self-imploding on Sunday!

Dustin has taken the attitude, "You're not going to win every time." His final round 82 was sandwiched between two other collapses on tour. The week before the Open, Robert Garrigus had a three-shot lead going into the 18th hole, then hit his tee shot into the water, then into the trees. He made a triple-bogey and fell into a three-way tie after 72 holes. Then he was eliminated in a playoff.

Then there was Rose's collapse at the Travelers the week after the Open. Mental pressure on the PGA Tour can be hard to overcome, especially when a player is leading the Open and the press starts telling him how to think!

My advice to Dustin? The next time you are leading a major on Saturday night, go hide some place away from the tournament, and do not give interviews. Get in your own trance, think about shooting 65 on Sunday, which you should consider just another Sunday on the links.

I'm glad to see Dustin does not put all of his thoughts on golf these days. He just announced that he is getting together with a number of other tour players and buying a thoroughbred race horse that is in training at Hollywood Park! Dustin and his partners are trying to decide what to name the horse, since they don't like the horse's present name, "Bling Boy".

Dustin hopes to return from the British Open next month so he can watch his horse run at Del Mar.

How his horse performs down the stretch will be of particular interest!

Back from "Vacation"!

2010-06-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

I can't really call my absence from writing my blog a vacation, but things have been hectic for the last six days. My oldest son, Pete, (Rio Veradonir in the networking websites) got married last Saturday at the Nunan Estate in Jacksonville, OR, and I had family from all over the country in town for the festivities.

He and his wife, Talia, are now on their Honeymoon, and my youngest son, Bob, and I are moving out of the house in Ashland and into an apartment for him in Talent, OR. By the middle of July I expect to be moving back to Palm Springs, CA with Reciprocal Golf and Probe Golf opening offices there once again.

What has been happening in the world of golf? I see that Bubba Watson won his first PGA event after winning a playoff with Corey Pavin and Scott Verplank, after the leaders at the start of the day, Justin Rose and Ben Curtis, choked their way down the back nine. Congratulations, Bubba!

I read where Donald Trump's development company has been given the go-ahead to build what he claims will be "the world's greatest golf course" in the north-east part of Scotland. Trump called the land where he will build the course "the finest piece of land I have ever seen" in a recent news release.

The course is scheduled to be completed in 2012, and Trump stated he hopes to host the British Open there in the future. This year's British Open is being played at the "home of golf" in St. Andrews in about two weeks, and will be the 150th anniversary of the Open.

My son is getting married tomorrow!

2010-06-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

My oldest son is getting married tomorrow, Saturday, so I won't have another blog until Sunday. We have family visiting from all over the country for three days.

My son's "Professional name" is Rio Veradonir at Twitter, Facebook, and My Space, so anyone who'd like to wish him well may do so at those networking sites.

Pete

The PGA Tour has changed in 18 years!

2010-06-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

I learned something about the PGA Tour this week that is somewhat disturbing to me. I mentioned a few weeks ago here at my blog that I invented two new improvements to two of the most important clubs in your golf bag in 1991 and 1992, the putter and the driver.

At that time all I had to do to introduce my golf equipment to the tour players was to request a manufacturers' representative badge from the PGA Tour, and they sent me one. I could then show up at tour events, on all three tours at the time (PGA, Senior, and LPGA) and set up my golf bag on the range or the putting green, and let the tour players try them.

Johnny Miller in 1991 used my Probe driver, and knew it was better than any other driver in existence. He advised me, "Pete, just walk up to any tour player on the driving range and ask him if he would be interested in trying a new driver that would keep the ball in the air for 2 and 1/2 seconds longer and carry 30 yards farther than any other driver. They will try the Probe, and they will like it, but after that it is up to you if they end up playing it. Most of them will ask you how much money you will pay them to play your driver. If they are more interested in performance, they will play the Probe, but most of these guys are spoiled by the big companies, who pay millions of dollars to name players to get them to play their clubs!"

Johnny was absolutely correct, so I spent most of my time on the Senior Tour in 1991 and 1992, because most of those guys were more interested in performance than in endorsement money.

As you may remember, two weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to let Phil Mickelson try my center-shafted, inverted-shafted Probe 20/20 putter, so he would make more short breaking putts, which has been his weakness for years. So I emailed the PGA Tour and asked for a manufacturer's rep tour badge. Their response to me was a shocker!

They said they no longer allow manufacturer's reps to introduce new equipment to tour players, on any of the tours. A manufacturer must already have one or more tour players signed to an endorsement contract, and playing your product, before they can get a tour badge to get access to his player(s)!

What a shock that was to me, because it is now apparent the PGA Tour itself is behind the dishonesty that exists in the golf equipment industry and its endorsement money paid to tour pros in this day and age.

I wonder what percentage of the public, the avid golf fans who pay the entry fees at tour events and make those events possible, believes that their favorite tour pro plays his golf equipment because it is the best equipment available? Most viewers probably believe their favorite tour players uses equipment that he feels is the best equipment! The public is obviously dead wrong!

That reminds me of the movie ROLLERBALL that came out in the late 1960s. Remember that movie? Athletic competition was no longer between countries, but corporations. Professional golfers no longer play for themselves, but for the golf equipment companies that have prostitutionalized the sport! Whoever has the most money to pay the top named tour pros to play their equipment will convince the public to buy their golf equipment!

Is there any honesty and integrity in golf anymore? It is a game that is supposed to teach us those qualities, supplied by equipment manufacturers that do not know the meaning of those words!

I, for one, choose the remember better times.

Glad you agree!

2010-06-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

I was glad to see so many readers agree with me that when the USGA makes a golf course unplayable, and brings a lot of luck into the equation, it spoils the event for the players, for the spectators, and the final results!

Growing the rough long in a U.S. Open has been done before, and penalizes the players if they don't hit the fairway. That is a justified move on the part of the USGA. But for a ball to roll away from the hole on the greens, and roll, and roll, and roll, and roll, and roll some more, is not the correct goal on the part of the tournament organizers!

The same holds true for the fringe around a green. The side of the green at hole #14 at Pebble Beach is not a green, it is rough, and should be grown the same length as the rest of the rough on the course. For a ball to roll ten feet past the hole to the fringe, and then continue rolling, and rolling, and rolling, until it comes to rest in thick grass forty feet away from the green, is no way to decide the best golfer in the event.

Golf is a game of skill, not a roll of the dice, and it is unfortunate that the USGA has not figured that out after all this time! Several times during the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last week, commentators interviewed the USGA official on-hand, and asked him if he thought the conditions at #14 green were fair. Each time the official ansewered, "Yes, we feel it is fair."

That official should find another job, because he is a masochist ( and I do not mean in the usual sexual connotation)! I guess it would be more appropriate to call him a sadist. In any event, the USGA needs to reevaluate its definition of "fair".

I would like to hear what other readers have to say about this subject, so please reply to me if you have the time, and an opinion one way or the other. Thanks.

What a final round at the U.S. Open!

2010-06-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Is there anyone else out there in Golf land who was as shocked and disappointed with the final round of the U.S. Open as I was? The final round at the U.S. Open was anything but expected, to say the least. The first subject I'd like to discuss is the unfair condition of the course as set up by the USGA.

Do you remember the Open where Payne Stewart came to the final hole and had a three-foot birdie putt? I think it was to win the Open, around 1997 or 98. He putted up the hill to the hole, and then the ball did a 300 degree turn to the left and rolled backwards 25 feet!

The conditions yesterday on the 14th hole were almost as bad, and the USGA should be ashamed of themselves. When you take skill out of the equation, and add blind luck, it is no longer a tournament. It is a joke!

The first hole where the unfair conditions became apparent to me on Sunday was hole #2, when the leader at the time, Dustin Johnson, was ten feet from the green in two and had an unplayable lie. He had to turn a sand wedge upside down and swing it left-handed, because the weeds he was in made it impossible to swing right-handed! He took a triple-bogey seven on the hole, and was no longer leading. In fact, the shock of the situation led to Dustin's total dismantling of his mind, and he was a zombie for the rest of the day!

In all fairness to the course conditions, Dustin had already been brainwashed by the media and the major tournament commentators from the time he finished his third round of 66 on Saturday and the time he teed off for the final round on Sunday!

Here was a young man who was playing better than anyone else in the tournament after 54 holes, who was ready to play just another round of golf on Sunday, when the media learned he was calm and collected on Saturday night. That was not normal U.S. Open emotions, so they had to bang on him for hours, mentally, one after another, until they made sure that he knew he was supposed to be a blubbering idiot with the shakes in every extremity because he was leading the United States Open going into the final round!

How dare he consider Sunday's round just another 18 holes of golf? He wasn't human, according to the media, so they had to do something about it. They all had to tell him he had to be nervous, shaking in his boots, before teeing off on Sunday!

All anyone had to do was look into the kid's eyes to tell he was totally bewildered from the first tee onward on Sunday, and for the rest of the day.

So, getting back to the unfair course conditions. The most apparent hole where the conditions were not fair all week was hole # 14, where the surface of the green was like putting on a rock hard table top, with nothing to keep any ball from almost stopping within ten feet of the hole, then picking up speed, and then rolling another forty to eighty feet from the hole!

If we could look at a video of every player who was within five shots of the lead, on any day of the tournament, we could see how many players lost the tournament on #14 due to the unfair conditions. That's not golf, that's a roll of the dice!

And forget the surface of the green for a moment. Consider the fringe and what is supposed to be the rough outside of the fringe. The grass outside the fringe is supposed to be longer rough, not cut so close that every ball continued to roll down the steep hillside until it stopped in thick rough to the point where the player could not get a club on the ball to loft it back onto the green so he could run up the hillside to the green and then watch his ball roll another 100 feet down to another impossible lie on the other side of the green!

The best ball strikers in the game were reduced to rolling the dice, and bringing themselves down to the level of the lessor players. As a result, lessor players finished first and second. A perfect example of the unfairness of it all were the finishing putts on 18 on Sunday.

Tom Watson walked up to a one-foot putt on 18 and didn't even tough the hole with it. Tom has so much class that he blamed his missed putt on a mental lapse in his comment to the press, but it is obvious the ball bounced straight right when he tapped it.

And McDowell's tap-in par putt to win jumped dead right when he tapped it, and luckily it caught the right side of the hole and went in. Can you imagine what the comments would have been if it had missed from one foot, and went six feet past the hole, and then he missed the return putt?

Maybe that is what it will take to get the USGA to wake up and smell the rotten roses in the future!

Dustin Johnson right on track to win!

2010-06-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I predicted Dustin Johnson would win this week's U.S, Open. I also mentioned why Phil Mickelson would not win, and why Tiger Woods would come close, but not quite win!

Tiger's back nine on Saturday gave us a sampling of what is to come right around the corner. When he tasted on the back nine at Pebble yesterday what it was like to be contending once again, he got that old competitive look in his eye that is the look of Tiger Woods.

Look out Open Championship at St. Andrews; Tiger is back. But not quite in time for the U.S. Open.

Johnny Miller would like to see some nervousness in Dustin's eyes Sunday morning, because "no one can remain calm at the U.S, Open." I hope Dustin does not begin to believe what the media will be trying to tell him overnight, that he should not remain calm when he is leading the U.S. Open. I hope Johnny isn't trying to jinx Dustin deliberately.

Even if Tiger makes a charge early on Sunday, playing in front of Dustin, I do not expect Dustin Johnson to give in to any pressure and fall back.

You Tiger fans, don't be stupid, expecting your man to rattle the heads of the rest of the field. Tiger is five shots behind Dustin, and that is too much for Tiger to overcome unless Dustin gets rattled, and I do not think that will happen.

I'm looking forward to watching today's round, because I expect most of the Tiger fans to think Tiger can rattle Dustin, and pass him. I do not think that will happen. I picked Dustin from the start, when most others picked Phil or Tiger to win.

I'm sticking with Dustin, and expect he will not only survive the lead, but will add to it!

Mickelson good or lucky?

2010-06-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

"Phil Mickelson, would you prefer to be good or lucky?"

I stated yesterday that Phil Mickelson was going to be in trouble during Friday's round at Pebble Beach, because he teed off early on Thursday, when everyone who teed off late on Thursday faced windy, dry, bumpy greens, with many three-putt greens.

He teed off late on Friday, so he was going to face those same windy, dry, bumpy greens on Friday, and score worst than he did on Thursday, right? Wrong!

Pebble's winds died down on Friday, and the USGA decided to water the greens on Friday so they would not be criticized once again about the terrible greens by the likes of Tiger Woods! But when the USGA decides to do just that, they change the odds in favor of some players, in this case Mickelson, and against others.

The result? Phil putted on good greens, and shot the round of the tournament for the first two days. Lucky? Definitely!

Now they go into the weekend, where the low 60 players and ties, all within ten shots of each other, will battle it out in fairly the same weather conditions. No one should benefit from better playing conditions than any of the others, period.

So who is favored from here on in? Pebble is playing tough, and the USGA will no doubt place the pins in tougher spots, and let the greens dry out even more. The rough is growing longer every day, so overall conditions will be tougher for the weekend.

Now the game will move from physical skill to the mental side of the game, and I have stated before who has the mental toughness on tour, and who does not have it.

Just look at the players who have made the cut for the weekend, and pick the ones who have been there before, and stayed the course to reach the winner's circle.

That will decide who wins this year's U.S. Open.

U.S. Open first round results

2010-06-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday's first round at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach went about as I predicted it would! Dustin Johnson was in the mix at even par, two behind the leaders, even though he didn't putt well.

Phil Mickelson putted "horribly" (in his own words), also as I predicted. The worst club in his bag is the Odyssey (Callaway) blade putter that he HAS to play according to his contract with Callaway!

About two weeks ago I mentioned here in my blog how Mickelson's attorney threatened me if I even thought about getting a better putter in Phil's hands, so he could finally become the Number One player in the world. I'm sorry, but I was a big Phil Mickelson fan until I learned how he has let Callaway run, or should I say ruin, his life as a professional.

Lee Westwood struggled, also as predicted, but made a few putts coming down the stretch to finish two over par.

And finally, also as I predicted, Tiger would be in the mix this week, but will not win because he would not be over the mental demons he has struggled with for the last seven months. Time heals all wounds, and eventually he will put his personal marriage problems behind him and get back to business.

Pebble Beach is playing tough with its fast greens and long rough. The wind also came up a little yesterday afternoon, making the greens dry and bumpy.

Mickelson yesterday played in the morning, so he will have it tougher today when he plays in the afternoon. Tiger played late yesterday, so he should putt better today.

I'm looking forward to watching today to see if the USGA does anything to try to make the greens a little smoother by applying some water during the round.

After today's cut, when (hopefully) the course conditions balance out for the entire field, the final two rounds should be more fair over the weekend.

The U.S. Open

2010-06-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Today the golf media is giving Lee Westwood the nod as being favored to win the Open at Pebble Beach this week. But I stand by my guns when it comes to Westwood; he does not have what it takes mentally to close the deal when he is contending down the stretch!

Sure, he won last week, but he finished his round three strokes behind the leader at the time, Robert Garrigus. Westwood was heading to the airport when he heard Garrigus triple-bogied the last hole to fall back into a tie with Westwood and Robert Karlsson.

It takes a killer instinct to win on the PGA Tour, and only a small percentage of the tour players have it. Lee Westwood has never had it and it would take a massive intentional move on his part to go through some kind of hypnosis or positive thinking training classes before he might be able to change his thinking process for the better.

Don't believe me? Just look at the gaze in his eyes the next time a TV camera zooms in on his facial expression and you will see what I am talking about. I usually see confusion in his eyes. What do you see?

A few days ago I mentioned that my choice for a winner this early in the week, before the tournament actually started, was Justin Johnson for a number of reasons. There is so much talent on the PGA Tour that we have to look at the body language and facial expressions of each player to see who is "up" for the tournament, and who has other things on their mind that may be non-golf related.

I remember last July at the Open Championship on Thursday and Friday, when I saw Tiger Woods slamming clubs, cussing, and throwing clubs. I was watching the TV and talking to my brother on the phone from 800 miles apart. I told him Tiger's mind was not on golf, but on other non-golf related subjects.

That was four months before the public learned about his fight with Elin that night in November. Who knows? He might have been arguing with one of his mistresses through texting messages at the time he was playing at The Open, and could not even think about golf. He went on to miss the cut due to something outside of golf bothering him.

Watch the U.S. Open this Thursday and Friday and look for signs in each player's body language to see if he is showing positive or negative vibes early in the tournament.

Whoever wins, it will be the player who is the most positive in his mental function that will be holding the trophy after 72 holes.

U.S.Open at Pebble Beach

2010-06-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Before I get back to the subject of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach taking place this week, I want to thank all the readers who have asked me about buying my new novel, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH.

In the last week I gave my readers a small sample of the stories in the book about the Professional Golf Tour stars with whom I have worked when demonstrating my new golf products over the last 25 years or so. I explained why I wrote the book, to share my experiences with running a golf business while finding a losing my best friend and soul mate five times in 16 years, the final time to a heart attack! I hope the lessons I learned about marriage, and raising kids will help all readers do the right things in the future in their own search for happiness.

Now, back to the Open. The golf media loves to talk about which player is favored to win, but they seldom take into account the mental side of the game when listing the favorites in the field. They are practically always listing Tiger and Phil as the favorites, just because they are the two best players in the world.

I'd like to state right now the reasons why I do not think Tiger or Phil will win this week. Tiger is on his way back from having all the demons in his head caused by his personal life and his marriage tormenting him, but I don't think he is completely back mentally. He'll have his moments this week, and will be in the mix on Sunday, but I predict someone else will hold the trophy when it is all over.

Phil will not handle the longer grass in the rough this week, which he will hit often because he has to play a Callaway driver. The USGA always grows the rough longer at the Open, so Phil's previous wins at Pebble are discounted this week. At the same time the greens should be hard and fast, again eliminating Phil due to his having to play the Odyssey (Callaway) blade putter.

As long as Phil Mickelson allows Callaway to own him contractually, instead of putting major wins ahead of endorsement money, Phil Mickelson will be the one of the biggest disappointments on tour to his fans over his career!

I'd keep my eye on Dustin Johnson this week if I had to pick a favorite to win. Dustin has won the last two AT&T National Pro-Ams, and has displayed his talents at Pebble in a variety of weather conditions the last two years. I have not yet checked on the weather forecast for this week at Pebble, so I thought it would be fun to make my predictions before researching how the weather might affect the outcome.

Before I meet with my metallurgist today about how we might make the new Probe 20/10 putter more different and beneficial to our customers, I think I'll research what the weather is projected to be starting this Thursday at the Open. It may change my predictions for the Open in tomorrow's blog.

Westwood backs into win on tour.

2010-06-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

I have said for months that Lee Westwood does not have what it takes mentally to win on the PGA Tour, or in a major championship for that matter. Every time he has come down the stretch in the final 18 holes, either leading or close to the lead, he fails to close the deal!

I cannot stress enough the impact that a player's mental game has on his scoring, and winning. Some golfers are simply not comfortable with the lead, or in the winner's circle.

Sunday at the St. Jude Classic, he had finished at ten under par, with the leader Robert Garrigus still out on the 18th tee, at thirteen under, with one hole to go. Westwood was about to head for the airport when PGA officials told him to stick around for a few minutes. Why?

Garrigus had led the tournament when the final round began, but he is another tour player who has never won on tour, and leading the tournament made him green around the gills. So he promptly played poorly until he was no longer in the lead.

Once he was back in his comfort zone, he relaxed and started playing good golf again. Standing on the 18th tee, Garrigus was once again hit with the reality of the fact that he had a three-stroke lead going into the last hole.

What did he do? He panicked and hit his tee shot left into the water. He then dropped back of the water and chunk-pulled his next shot on the other side of the water to the left. From there he managed to punch out over the water and back in the fairway. He was lying four, hitting five onto the green. He managed to two-putt for a triple bogey seven, and found himself in a playoff with Westwood and Robert Karlsson.

Garrigus promptly stood up on the 18th tee again, to begin a sudden death playoff with Karlsson and Westwood, and drove it through the fairway, up against a tree. He was SOL, with no shot to the green at all. He punched out into the fairway, then hit the green, two-putted for bogey, and his tournament was over. Westwood found himself remaining in the playoff with Karlsson, and managed to beat Karlsson for the win!

What will this win do for Westwood's mental side of his game? I don't think his backing into a win this last weekend will do anything for his mental toughness at all. But who knows? Maybe he'll start thinking he is the luckiest golfer on tour, and even thinking you are lucky can have its rewards.

But it will be interesting to watch his play in this week's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. I'm looking forward to this week's tournament.

My Golf Equipment Business Background

2010-06-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

Some of my readers have asked me to tell some stories here at my blog about my experiences in the golf equipment industry. I think the best way for me to do that is to copy some excerpts from my new novel, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, into this blog.

The very first hardback copies of my book were just released last week, and one of the first people to whom I mailed a copy was to Arnold Palmer. Please see the photos, one with the inscription to Mr. Palmer:

October, 1992

I drove to Seattle, Washington by myself on Wednesday to the GTE Western Classic. I brought a total of ten of the Probe 20/20 putters with me, several each of the three different weights we made it in. On Thursday, a practice day for the Senior Tour pros, the first pro I saw on the putting green was Arnold Palmer. I walked through the ropes surrounding the green, holding back over 500 viewers, and went to Arnie.

"Hey, Arnie, mind if I show you something new?"

"What do you have, Pete?"

"We invented a new putter that has the thin end of the shaft in the grip, and the fatter, heavier end in the head. It gives you a pure pendulum stroke each and every time and keeps the putter head moving toward the hole."

"Let me try it."

I handed the #3 Probe putter to Arnie, explaining it was the lightest one.

"It's pretty heavy!"

"It's made that way to keep any jerkiness out of the stroke"

Arnie stroked a ten foot putt uphill and it went right in the center of the hole.

"It feels pretty nice."

"Now try this one. It is 50 grams heavier."

"It feels even better."

"We found the heavier putters give you more control on faster greens. Now try this one. It's the heaviest model at 450 grams in the head."

"I think I like this one the best."

"Let me show you something I incorporated into the putter."

I placed the ball about three feet from the hole, with a slope from left to right.

"Arnie, this putt normally breaks from left to right about three inches. With any other putter, you'd have to aim outside the hole to the left and hope you hit it the proper speed so it breaks three inches and you make the putt. But with this putter, you can hit the ball with the mark at the heel, and it will put left-hand spin on the ball, reducing the break to the right so you can aim the ball at the inside of the left side of the hole and it will only break about an inch. The putter actually straightens out the putt and you make it without aiming outside the hole."

Arnie tried it and the ball went into the center of the hole. "That's amazing!"

Now put the ball on the other side of the hole, so the putt will normally break about three inches from right to left. Then aim the putt inside the right side of the hole and hit the ball off the mark on the toe of the putter. The putter will put right-hand spin on the ball and the putt will only break about an inch, into the center of the hole."

Arnie tried the putt, placing the ball off the toe of the putter and the ball went into the center of the hole.

"Whoa, that is nice. So I can hit short breaking putts off the toe or heel when appropriate, and take the break out of the putt?"

"Exactly. You can take the guesswork out of making short breaking putts."

"OK, may I take this putter out for a practice round right now?"

"Of course, but let me show you one more thing you can do with this putter."

"There's more?"

"Yep."

To be continued.......

The weather affects PGA tour pros differently!

2010-06-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I asked the question, "Who will win the U.S.Open at Pebble Beach in two weeks?"

I made the argument that weather may very well determine the outcome of the tournament, because tour players differ in their strengths and weaknesses in their games. Someone who can drive it longer than most of the field will excel if the course is wet, for example. The ball won't roll, so shorter players will not prevail by getting their usual roll, while the longer hitters will fly the ball to their target without the ball rolling into trouble.

Today I tried to learn what the weather is expected to be starting June 14. Not an easy thing to do when very few weather forecasters get the next day's weather forecast correct!

I found a golf blog that talked about Pebble Beach and the Open, and it said the weather was wet, but it was talking about the Open being this week, not next week. I tried to check the date, and it only showed the time of the day, not the date or the year!

Then I went to Yahoo Weather, and it showed fairly clear and dry for the next ten days, so I assume that is the correct information.

If the weather is windy, lower hitters will have the advantage. Mickelson hits the ball high, so wind will hurt him. Tiger and a number of the new, young players can drive it low when they have to, so windy conditions will give them an advantage.

As you probably know, the PGA tour flip-flops the tee times on Thursday and Friday, to try to make it fair for all players, before they cut to the low 70 and ties for the weekend. If a player tees off early on Thursday, he will tee off late on Friday, for example. That supposedly balances out for all players, but it won't be fair if the weather changes from one day to the next.

Wet conditions also give an early tee time the advantage, because those players can putt on smoother greens compared to the afternoon players putting on greens with 1) raised cups from the weight of the early players pushing down on the green surface from six inches to several feet away from the cups, and 2) spike marks from the early players.

I have gone out on a limb by already predicting that Phil Mickelson will not win the Open, ten days before the first tee time, but that is because of the driver and putter he has to play due to his contract with Callaway.

Trying to predict who will win any particular tournament weeks in advance is something the tour media tries to do, but not knowing what the weather will be at tee time makes it impossible in my opinion. Believe it or not, most tour players do not have the ability to change their swing and ball flight when the weather dictates it is necessary.

The players who are most hurt when the weather changes are the players who are under the more stringent contracts to play particular clubs, or a particular ball, and are not fee to change with the conditions. One ball, for example, flies lower than other balls, so it is better to play the low flying ball in the wind.

How will Justin Rose, last week's winner at the Memorial, play at the Open? I have heard rumors he is not even entered!

The United States Open at Pebble Beach

2010-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

OK, everyone, what are your thoughts about who will contend at this year's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach? I believe Tiger has gotten enough demons regarding his past personal life out of his mind to start playing well again. And every golf commentator on the PGA Tour seems to favor Phil Mickelson as the winner this year. Phil has won how many times at Pebble Beach?

And now the tour has a new group of young players, as demonstrated by last week's Memorial. Justin Rose won at age 29 last week, and the runner-up, Ricky Fowler, is 21 years of age. In addition to those two, there is Dustin Johnson at 25 years who has won tournaments at Pebble Beach already in his short professional career so far. Another eight to ten young players are all capable of winning at Pebble Beach.

I have already predicted that Phil will not win the Open, because I do not believe he will win in two weeks as long as he is hitting his driver crooked, and as long as he continues using the Callaway blade putter. Only if the weather conditions are wet, and therefore the greens are soft and slow, will Phil have a chance.

That is why Phil threatened on Sunday at the Memorial; an early tee time on Thursday in wet conditions. If it is dry and windy, Phil won't have a chance.

So let's see what weather they expect to have for the Open in another week or so.

The golf equipment industry has changed!

2010-06-07T09:32:00.001-07:00

I started PROBE GOLF, my golf equipment company, in my garage on the Lake Shastina Golf Resort's fifteen hole during the winter of 1986-87. The space shuttle had just exploded during launch the day my first golf components showed up at my house.

I had studied the differences between all of the iron shafts on the market at the time, and learned why PING "custom fit" iron sets really fit no one because they used the same shaft for every customer. Changing the Lie, Length, and Grip size means nothing if the shaft's flex and flex point (low, medium or high) is not properly addressed.

I made myself a custom fit set of Probe irons, and dropped from a 6-handicap to a "+2" handicap. I won that year's Lake Shastina Men's Amateur by shooting 70-70-140, four under par. The three guys who finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th all played PING irons. Over drinks the afternoon I won, all three ordered custom fit sets of Probe irons from me. The next year one of them came back and won the same tournament by six strokes!

I had played golf for 22 years, and had never had a hole-in-one. After making my first set of Probe irons for myself, I holed a 5-iron on #8, 195 yards over a lake. A month later I holed a 2-iron on #11, at 222 yards. The shaft I chose for my set made all the difference in my scoring. No other golf equipment manufacturer was custom fitting shafts in those days.

By 1991, I learned that the most important two clubs in the golf bag were the driver and the putter. The driver sets up every par-4 and par 5 hole. If you drive it long and straight, the rest of the hole can be attacked, for a birdie or better. But drive it crooked, and you end up scrambling for a bogie or worse.

That's what I have been talking about with Phil Mickelson for the last two weeks. He has removed his ability to play a better driver than his Callaway driver, all for endorsement money paid to him by Callaway. When I learned the details of his contract, and learned what kind of man manages Phil, I no longer remained as a fan of Phil Mickelson. I want to respect the golfers for whom I cheer, and Phil would be the best golfer in the world, better than Tiger, if Phil would put performance ahead of endorsement money.

The same holds true of his putter, the Odyssey (Callaway-owned) blade he uses. A heel-shafted putter is the worst kind of putter for a tour player to use. It is the farthest thing imaginable from a center-shafted, face-balanced putter.

I mentioned over a week ago what happened when I got the idea of helping Phil make more short, fast, breaking putts by showing him how to improve his chances of doing so by using my Probe 20/20 putter. When I tried to contact Phil online with that "noble" goal, I ran into his lawyer, who threatened me if I so much as tried to say, "Hi." to Phil.

When I worked the Senior PGA Tour from 1991 through 1993, I introduced the seniors to my superior Probe driver. I figured the Senior Tour players would be more likely to use what worked for them, and won more tournaments for them, than simply play certain equipment for endorsement money. I was right, up to a point. In two years we had 23 victories by seniors who were using the Probe driver! And we did not pay any of them to play it.

The best example I want to mention to make my point was Chi Chi Rodriguez, who played the Probe driver starting in February of 1991. He won four tournament in three months, and was the leading money winner on the Senior Tour by June of 1991. Then his agent demanded we pay him $150,000 to continue using the Probe for the rest of the year, or he was going to change to Callaway's Big Bertha, at the "suggestion" of his attorney. I faxed his attorney and wished Chi Chi well with his new Bertha. He changed, and did not win another tournament for 15 months, and dropped to eleventh on the money list for 1991.

But the story does not end there. In September of 1992, Chi Chi learned that Arnold Palmer had changed to using the Probe 20/20 putter, and called my office in Yreka, CA, and asked if he could try the putter. We sent him one just before he flew to the Ko Olina tournament in Hawaii, and he WON THE TOURNAMENT, his fist win since quitting my driver!

What is your opinion of tour players who would put endorsement money ahead of performance and victories on the professional tour? I have very little respect for them. But that is what the golf equipment industry has become; prostituting tour stars to fool the public into thinking their golf equipment is the best.

Please let me know your opinion of this major change in advertising in the golf industry. I would really like to know.

After the Memorial tournament, I'm still shocked at Mickelson.

2010-06-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoyed the Memorial over the weekend as much as I did. The two players I hoped would win finished first and second.

I knew Tiger would struggle, and he did, but he seems to be getting the demons relating to his personal life out of his head. Tiger should contend at the U.S. Open in two weeks.

And Phil Mickelson struggled at the Memorial as I predicted he would with his putter, and somewhat with his driver, the two most important clubs in the bag, and more importantly the clubs he is not free to change due to his contract with Callaway.

I mentioned a week ago that I had the idea of offering Phil the chance to try my PROBE 20/20 putter, which is the only putter I know of that is designed to allow the player to plan how the tough, short breaking putts will break, instead of guessing how they will break.

Then I learned what an ass Phil's lawyer (agent) is, and of his threatening emails to me if I even think of introducing myself to Phil, and letting him try my putter!

The good news from that experience is that I have decided to start up PROBE GOLF once again, and reintroduce the PROBE 20/20 to the golf industry, and the new PROBE 20/10. After selling all of the 120,000 PROBE 20/20 putters we manufactured, and then retiring, it will be exciting to show tour players once again how my putter will make them better putters on the fast greens on tour.

I'd like to make a prediction for the upcoming U.S. Open at Pebble Beach at this time. I seems that every TV commentator this last week has said Phil will be impossible to beat in two weeks. How many times has he won at Pebble?

I'm going to predict that if he stays with his Odyssey (Callaway) putter, and his Callaway driver, he will not win the Open. There is no reason he would change either, because he can't. Callaway owns Phil Mickelson.

I also predict that Phil's legacy to the game of golf will be that he allowed endorsement money to interfere with his goal of winning more majors. He will be the greatest player not to win a decent number of majors because he put endorsement money ahead of tour prize money and major wins!

I have limited time today to expand this topic, but I will address it more thoroughly tomorrow, including my own personal experience with past tour players putting endorsement money ahead of victories, to their dismay.

Second round as predicted at the Memorial!

2010-06-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

This is getting boring, predicting successfully most of the time when the golf media is wrong!

This week they said Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were favored to win the Memorial. I predicted Tiger would still struggle like he did the last few weeks, because he still has his demons in his head from his personal life. But he is showing signs of improvement with each round played. Today I did not hear anyone in the crowd yell anything nasty at him, and the crowd seemed more cordial than yesterday or last week. Eventually he will put those demons behind him, and then win again.

The golf media surprisingly does not seem to recognize how much the mental side of golf effects its tour stars. As far as Phil Mickelson is concerned, I predicted Phil would not putt well on the faster greens that are usually found in the majors and the bigger tournaments, like the Players and the Memorial.

If you have read my last week's blogs, you also know I am no longer a Phil Mickelson fan after learning last week that his lawyer (agent), a personal injury lawyer, is an ass! To threaten any manufacturer of a non-Callaway golf club to stay away from his client is a new low in the corruption that has taken over the golf equipment industry in the last ten to twelve years.

As I predicted, Phil struggled on Friday because of his later tee time, and having to putt the rougher greens due to spike marks later in the day.

Phil shot four shots worse on Friday than on Thursday when he got lucky with the earlier tee time and wetter conditions. If he hadn't made a 65-foot eagle putt that was going at least fifteen feet past the hole if it had not hit the hole dead center, it would have been five or six shots worse than on Thursday.

I have to admit that watching Phil putt now is much more relaxing than it was when I was a fan of his for so many years. We all know how he can self-destruct over a three-foot putt due to his having to play the Odyssey (Callaway) blade putter. I don't care how much Callaway pays him to play that putter, he would own a dozen majors by now if he didn't have to play it.

I used to hold my breath when Phil was putting a three-foot putt, waiting to see if he hit it five feet past the hole, and then missed it coming back!

Now I don't care if he makes it, and am more pleased if he misses such a putt. I am rejuvenated with the idea of returning to manufacturing my PROBE putters, especially our new PROBE 20/10 model, also center-shafted and inverted-shafted like the original 20/20 model. Knowing Phil's lawyer will make less money when I get other tour players to use my putter, I am newly energized to get into production!

Have you noticed how the headlines have changed from last year's Memorial, when Tiger won, to Friday's headline this week, which exalts the fact that Tiger made the cut!

Good luck to Ricky Fowler and Justin Rose this weekend. It would be great to see either of them win on Sunday!

Mickelson had a lucky day at the Memorial!

2010-06-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

As I predicted, Tiger Woods struggled the first day of the Memorial, and Phil Mickelson was lucky with the weather, and his early tee time!

The rain that fell before and during Mickelson's round softened the greens, helping to hold shots and giving the early players the chance to make putts. The afternoon players suffered through spike marks left by the earlier players due to the soft, wet greens. Raised cups due to the softened greens also plagued afternoon players.

I personally hope the course dries out later in the week, since I am no longer a Mickelson fan, and putts will become faster with more break in them.

Phil never putts well with his Odyssey (Callaway) putter on hard, fast greens. If you missed my explanation of why I no longer cheer for Mickelson, please read my blogs of four to five days ago.

Overall, scores were low due to the soft, calm conditions.

The weather on Friday can determine who will be leading after the first two days. Tiger plays fairly early on Friday, and should have a chance to move up the leaderboard, while Mickelson will play later and face bumpier greens.

If it stays wet, the greens will hold shots as they did on Thursday.

Enjoy the round on Friday.

Who will win the Memorial this week?

2010-06-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

After all the discussion about Phil Mickelson over the last week, and what kind of a lawyer represents Phil in his equipment contracts, I want to turn to this week's Memorial Tournament, and who is favored to win.

I mentioned earlier that the media favors Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, but I don't have a very favorable opinion of the golf media. When I hear some of the questions they ask the tour players in the media tent, I wonder of any of them even play golf! Very few of them seem to have an inkling of common sense when it comes to their understanding of the mental aspect of the game.

As far as the Memorial's ultimate winner on Sunday is concerned, Mickelson took most of the skins in yesterday's Memorial Skins Game. Since I am no longer a Phil Mickelson fan after I learned last week what kind of lawyer represents Phil, I was not pleased to see Phil score so well in the skins game. What I did not see yesterday was a good round of putting by Phil, because he knocked the flag down all day, and had three-foot putts for eagle and birdie, or he blasted out of a sand trap and holed the shot for birdie! In other words, he didn't have to putt well yesterday.

I have not had the time this week to research how the course is playing, so today's first round should give us all some kind of idea as to how much putting will determine the ultimate winner.

I want to thank all of the golf fans who emailed me the last few days with their opinions about the golf equipment companies, and how they have taken a healthy competitive industry and corrupted it the last fifteen years.

You all know my opinion after the last few blogs. I love a good fight, and all of the discussion about Callaway and its dishonest lawyers has given me the inclination to reopen Probe Golf and to compete with the big equipment companies once again. It is my intention to show the world's golf fans how a better product can catch on with tour players as well as the general public when it is obviously superior in performance to the equipment that is mass-produced by the big companies. I am looking forward to proving that the big companies can only sell their product by trying to trick the public into thinking tour stars use their equipment because it is the best, when I know they buy off tour players to play their equipment!

Look forward to seeing Probe's new PROBE 20/10 inverted-shafted putter on the market, for a guaranteed pure pendulum stroke (no more yips!). In addition, its center-shafted head will allow the player to make each short side-hill putt break as he wants it to break instead of guessing how it will break. The new 20/10 will be slightly wider than the original 20/20 to make it easier to line up than the 20/20, eliminating the only negative comment we ever heard from 20/20 owners!

Enjoy the first round of the Memorial.

Thank you for your support!

2010-06-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

I want to thank all of my readers for their emails the past twenty-four hours on the subject of yesterday's blog, the apparent dishonesty within the golf equipment industry. I was glad to see that over 80% of the emails I received were from readers who agreed with me that money paid by equipment manufacturers to tour players has ruined the game!

What the golf equipment manufacturers have done in the last fifteen years is force each tour player to decide if his goals are to win more tournaments and leave a legacy of being a great champion, or to make more non-prize money by signing to play a specific company's equipment for millions of dollars per year. Seldom do the two goals reach the same desired result.

When each of our PGA Tour stars retires and leaves their legacy for the future to remember, what will that legacy be?

Will Jack Nicklaus be remembered as winning the most major championships in a single career, with even more second place finishes than his victories?

Will Tiger Woods overcome his recent mistakes he has made in his personal life over the last few years and return to focusing on his golf, and winning more majors? If he can clear his mind of non-golf related problems, and concentrate on winning again, he will pass Jack's eighteen majors and be the all-time major winner.

And what will Phil Mickelson's legacy be twenty years from now. For years he was the best player in the world to not win a major. Then he finally won the Masters, and now he has three majors. In my opinion he should have eight to ten major victories by now, minimum, but Phil lacks the determination to win in my opinion that Tiger has shown for years.

For example, golf is a unique game in that each player may choose from a wide variety of equipment to use as his arsenal on the course. In most other sports like football, baseball, basketball, hockey and most other team sports, every player uses the same equipment. Managers and coaches of each professional team look for the very best of the best who are coming up from the college ranks to play for their team. The best players get the biggest contracts as far as money is concerned.

In golf, as in tennis, each player has to choose what he wants to play as far as his equipment is concerned. Does he play what is best for him, with the goal of winning tournaments, winning majors, and winning the most prize money? Or does he choose to take the most money that is offered to him by equipment manufacturers, regardless of whether that equipment is going to give him the best chance to win?

In golf, that kind of decision in my opinion will define the player, define the man, and determine what his legacy will be to the great game of golf!

There are 156 players that tee it up most every week on the PGA Tour, but only a few are usually involved in discussions by the media each week as to the outcome of that week's tournament. This week it appears that the media is giving Tiger and Phil the best odds to win the Memorial.

I disagree. I think it is far too soon for Tiger to put his personal problems behind him for him to win this week. Tiger does have one thing in his favor, though. Tiger has always chosen to play the very best golf equipment he can find to suit his game. When he negotiated his equipment contract with Nike, he insisted he be able to play the putter of his choice, which right now happens to be a non-Nike putter.

When I was active making golf equipment in the late 1980's and early 1990's, most tour players could choose to play the most important clubs regardless of who's name was on the bag, whether they played Spalding irons, Titleist irons, or whatever. The player was usually free to choose which driver, wedges, and putter he wanted to play, because those were the most important scoring clubs.

That is why we at Probe Golf designed a driver face with more curvature on it, to keep the ball in the air 2 1/2 seconds longer than any other driver. The Probe out-distanced all of the competition by thirty yards due to its increased curvature. It took the rest of the golf industry three years to copy the Probe design, which was superior to the flatter faces of all the major manufacturers.

The driver set up the rest of the hole, so a small equipment company like Probe could specialize in making a superior driver and own a niche in the market. Many tour players used a Probe driver because it was longer than any of the competition, especially on the Senior tour where the players were more interested in performance than in manufacturer's money to play a certain driver that would cost them victories and prize money.

We did the same thing in designing a superior putter, for the same reason. A player might sign for a lot of money to play Titleist irons, for example, but they could use the putter that made the most putts for them, despite whether or not they had a contract to play the irons for some other manufacturer. So, we designed a putter that was unlike any other putter in the world, to do things on the green that no other putter could do, such as making the ball break or not break a certain predictable way, instead of guessing how it would break.

As my blog yesterday proves, Phil Mickelson is playing certain golf equipment that he is paid a lot of money to play, and it is apparent to me that his decision to do so has cost him major championships. If that is the legacy Mickelson wants to leave, then he has made the right choice. But if he wants to be remembered as playing the best he could play, and win majors, he will have to start looking for a better driver, to hit more fairways, and he will have to find the best putter he can use to make more putts.

As demonstrated yesterday in my blog, his having an attorney who threatens other manufacturers' reps if they try to show Phil what it will take in the form of a new putter to make more putts is not going to leave a positive legacy in the minds of knowledgeable viewers.

Is the Golf Equipment Industry an Honest One?

2010-05-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Before you read my blog today, which I deliberately delayed for two days (as you will understand after reading today's blog) please see my previous blog on Saturday about my attempts to contact Phil Mickelson about his trying my PROBE 20/20 putter. Then please read the COMMENTS from Saturday's blog. My question to you: "Do you believe the 25 million golfers in this country are ready to learn the truth about the golf equipment industry?"...........................................

I started playing golf when I was twelve years old. My Dad taught me the game to teach me honesty, integrity, perseverance, courtesy, and the other good qualities most of us cherish in a person.

Growing up, my heroes were Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Watson. In my capacity as founder and President of Probe Golf, I have had the privilege of meeting all four of these great golfers. I detail some of these experiences in my new novel, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH (www.lovewasnotenough.com).

I was glad to help Mr. Palmer improve his putting in 1992 by showing him how my PROBE 20/20 center-shafted and inverted-shafted putter could control the break in short breaking putts, and eliminate the guesswork as to how his ball would break.

Tom Watson tried my putter and then confessed to me that the problem "was with the archer, not the bow".

Jack Nicklaus commented on how far my Probe driver carried the ball in the air in the dry air at Desert Mountain north of Scottsdale, AZ.

And Gary Player agreed to be the host in my PROBE 20/20 infomercial, wherein we sold 82,000 putters on TV in 1993. I spent three days with Mr. Player in 1993 while filming our infomercial at his Alaqua C.C. in Orlando, and learned what a true gentlemen he is.

I have always been proud that I was a golfer, and a good one. In 1986 I started researching what makes a set of irons great, and from that knowledge made myself my first set of PROBE irons. Although I had played golf for 22 years, I had never made a hole-in-one, until 1986. I made two in two months after playing my own irons, holing a 5-iron at 195 yards, and a 2-iron at 222 yards.

I have always bragged to friends that the game of golf taught us great life lessons, until Saturday, May 29, 2010. Saturday I learned that the game of golf, at least as far as equipment manufacturers in their contracts with tour stars are concerned, is tainted by dishonesty and corruption!

Last Friday and Saturday, I indicated I was going to try to help one of my favorite tour stars, Phil Mickelson, with his putting, especially on short, breaking putts. Phil has had problems with them. As Arnie knows, my PROBE 20/20 puts intentional side spin on breaking putts to reduce the break in a putt, and make them easier to make.

I thought I could help Phil make those putts, and help him pass Tiger Woods as the best player in the world! A great goal, right?

WRONG!

Saturday, after my blog, I was contacted by email by a Mr. Glenn Cohen, an attorney from Jacksonville, Florida, claiming to be Phil's attorney and agent. In no uncertain terms Mr. Cohen warned me never to try to get close to Phil Mickelson, period. He warned me that I would never be given the opportunity to talk to Phil, about his putter, about using my putter, nor about any subject at all! He warned me not to even try to get Phil Mickelson's attention, at all, period!

Additionally, in his email he told me, "you have no chance period in having a relationship with my client (Mickelson) - leave us alone and refrain from contacting people who have no intention of doing business with you - I hope I have made myself clear." Glenn Cohen.

I was shocked!

Could the equivalent of the Mafia be present within the golf equipment industry? Before Saturday I never would have believed it. Today, I am sure of it.

Four days ago I was Phil Mickelson's biggest fan. Today I am no longer his fan.

I have learned over the decades that you can usually judge someone by the company they keep. Yesterday I did some investigating of my own, and then instructed my attorney to continue with a more detailed investigation of Mr. Cohen.

I leaned that Phil Mickelson's agent is a personal injury lawyer, what some people would consider an ambulance chaser, the "bottom feeders" among lawyers.

The name of his law firm is Barnes and Cohen, located at 2747 Art Museum Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32207. (www.barnesandcohen.com)

Interestingly, Mr. Cohen identified himself in his email to me as "G COHEN", but used the email:
"bbcohen@bellsouth,net". When most legitimate businesses use a "name"@(their own website), such as gcohen@barnesandcohen.com, Mr. Cohen does not do so. Again, very interesting.

Secondly, when I researched their website at www.networksolutions.com, and emailed the owner of the website, the email came back as "not a valid email". Network Solutions also showed that the website, www.barnesandcohen.com, was started in October of 2007, LESS THAN THREE YEARS AGO, yet they claim they have been in business since 1974! Emails, and the internet have been around much longer than three years, since the early 1990's!

Thirdly, there is another company behind Barnes and Cohen, Injury Lawyers, and it is BBC JUSTICE , which is located in Drums, PA, at a P.O. Box! If you have any business experience within the United States, you know that Florida is a favorite state for "dishonest" businessmen in the northeastern states to do business, because Florida allows anyone living there to hide all of their assets in their home, where no one can get their hands on their assets if you win a lawsuit (judgment) against them. Most states limit how much you can protect your assets in your home, such as the $185,000 limit in California. A dishonest person may hide millions in his own home in Florida, and no one can touch it.

Further investigation of Mr. Cohen on Saturday disclosed his involvement in actions (lawsuits) against organizations such as the PGA of America on behalf of PGA tour stars. Mickelson and many other tour stars are managed by Gaylord Sports Management! And who is the attorney that represents Gaylord Sports Management? That's right, Glenn Cohen!

How would an attorney like Glenn Cohen become Phil Mickelson's attorney? Does Phil Mickelson know what kind of person his attorney is, and what he is (or may be) capable of doing?

I have heard mixed opinions of Mickelson by golf fans, both good and bad. In the past I have chosen not to believe the bad. Now I am not so sure.

QUESTIONS:

Are you a Phil Mickelson fan? If so, 1) would you like to see Phil putt better by using a putter that will allow him to make more putts and win more majors and more prize money, or 2) do you not care if he plays a less productive putter because he is paid a lot of money to play it?

Do you believe the golf equipment industry is an honest one?

Do you believe that Callaway's management team is willing to test its equipment against any other company's equipment, and let its signed tour stars like Mickelson play the competition's equipment if that equipment proves to be superior?

Assuming I could get close enough to Mickelson so he could try my putter, I'm willing to bet I could talk him into using it on tour, and that he would then become the world's Number One player.

The question is, would Callaway allow him to even give my putter a try? Do you believe they would?

Do you?

Do you really?

Do you believe Callaway's management team is aware of Mr. Cohen's threatening tactics?

Do you think Callaway's management condones his tactics?

Do you think the world's golfers deserve to know what the golf equipment industry is really all about?

Do you believe most PGA Tour golfers really use the equipment they think is the best equipment for them?

Or, do you believe any tour player will play any equipment if they are paid enough money?

A letter to Arnold Palmer

2010-05-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote about trying to get Phil Mickelson's attention so he could make twice as many five-foot putts or shorter and move into the world's Number One spot. Today I want you to read a letter I just mailed to Arnold Palmer at his home on a similar subject:

Arnie,

I hope you and your family are all healthy and doing well.

Do you remember in September of 1992 at the GTE Western Classic in Seattle, WA when I showed you how to use my PROBE 20/20 inverted-shafted putter to take the break out of short breaking putts? You used it that week and finished seventh, your best finish of the year! You used it the next Monday and Tuesday when you teamed up with Peter Jacobson in the Fred Meyer in Portland.

Could I ask a favor of you? I'd like to convince Phil Mickelson to let me make a PROBE 20/20 putter for him, and teach him how to use the toe and heel marks to control the break. I think I can make a much better putter out of Phil if he would try my putter.

We sold over 120,000 PROBES until I retired from making them in 1996, but I'm getting the itch to reintroduce a new model, the PROBE 2010.

Arnie, what I like about the game of golf is that it teaches us honesty, integrity, patience, perseverance, courtesy, and other fine qualities. Unfortunately, I have found the golf equipment industry anything but honest.

I tried to find out on the internet how to contact Phil, and offer to make him a PROBE putter. I sent such a message to one website, and three hours later a T.R. Reinman replied. He did not identify himself, so I have no idea if "T.R." is Phil's agent, attorney, boyfriend, or what! He said in his email to me, "Peter, Thanks for your interest in helping Phil. I'll tell him about your offer tomorrow but I can tell you he's happy with Dave Stockton and will be working with him in the run-up to the Open."

I replied, and asked "T.R." if he knew what length putter Phil preferred, so I could make a demo for Phil. But then the truth came out. T.R. replied to my question about putter length with this, "Pete, Again, thanks, but Phil's working with Stockton and has a contract with Callaway. The Probe will not fit in his bag." T.R.

Fans of Phil Mickelson, what does that mean, "The Probe will not fit in his bag?"

To me, that means that Phil can't play anything but Callaway. Is that what it means to you? Obviously it does not mean that the Probe is too big to physically "fit" in Phil's bag, right?

In this day of competitive golf, every player has to have his head clear of other problems to play well. Tiger can't play well right now because his head is on his soon-to-be-ex wife, and his mistresses, what the fans think of him, and........!

Phil has had to suffer through Amy's breast cancer. He has struggled with is putting, and has seen Dave Stockton for how many months now, with little improvement?

I think I can spend one hour with Phil and make him the best putter from inside five feet on tour by showing him how my Probe 20/20 putter can "take out the break" on short breaking putts.

So I tried to offer to do just that for Phil, and what does "T.R." Reinman do? He just sent me an email threatening me if I do not retract what I said about Phil having to play Callaway in his bag! That's just great, T.R. Give Phil one more thing to worry about, his agent, or attorney, or whatever you are! Now his fans may think Phil's own agent is interfering with his ability to make a tricky, breaking, four-footer!

A NOTE TO PHIL MICKELSON FANS: CONTACT GAYLORD SPORTS MANAGEMENT, ATTENTION: T.R. REINMAN (treinman@gaylordssports.com) and ask him if he'd like to see Phil putt better and become Number One in the world, or ask him if his commission from Phil's contract with Callaway means more to him.

Arnie, when I was a tour rep in the 1990's, the players under contract usually had to play the set of irons, but the more important clubs such as the wedges, the driver, and the putter could be anything the player wanted to play.

What has happened to honesty in advertising golf equipment, Arnie? You played my PROBE 20/20 putter, and had all three weights we made, but then signed with Callaway and you had to change to a Callaway putter.

Chi Chi won four tournaments in three months in 1991 after adding 30 yards to his drives with my PROBE driver, and was the leading money-winner in June, 1991, on the Senior Tour. Then his agent, Eddie Elias, faxed me and demanded that I pay Chi Chi $150,000 to play the driver for the rest of the year. I refused, so he switched to Callaway's Big Bertha, lost 30 yards in distance, and dropped to eleventh on the money list!

Larry Laoretti won the 1992 Senior United States Open Championship using a PROBE driver I had just made for him the week before. He also played the PROBE 20/20 putter. Then another manufacturer paid him a lot of money to switch drivers, and he never won another tournament!

Do you know T.R. Reinman? I wonder what T.R. stands for. Is he hiding something by using T.R. instead of a first name? I can't find anything about him online. Does anyone know for sure if the blade Phil uses is a Callaway?

Maybe I'm just too naive to be in the golf equipment business, because honesty does not seem to be the norm. I'm now in the golf services business, making it easier for golfers to play private country clubs when they travel than ever before.

I'd love to hear your comments on this subject, Arnie. And if you have any influence with Phil Mickelson, and can get him to try my PROBE 20/20 putter, that would be great for Phil, and it would be great for the game of golf. This weekend would be perfect for him to try it out. After all, he missed the cut with his present putter!

Personally, I'd like to see Phil take over the Number One player in the world position, and keep it. After all, how many private jets does he need? But being the Number One golfer in the world?.....Priceless!

Phil Mickelson Fans! Want Phil to putt better?

2010-05-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Do you believe PGA Tour stars play the best equipment they can play? Or do you believe they play what their agents tell them to play, because their agents and the player are paid a lot of money to play a certain manufacturer's equipment?

The latter is true, unfortunately. When I was making PROBE golf equipment, I convinced hundreds of tour stars that my PROBE drivers, irons, or putter were better than what they were playing, but then they would ask, "What will you pay me to play it?"

Are PGA Tour players just prostitutes for the major golf equipment manufacturers? Unfortunately, yes, they are!

For example, are you a Phil Mickelson fan? If Phil could make twice as many putts inside five feet, is there any question he would be the world's Number One player? How many times have we watched Phil stroke a slippery five footer? Then he lips it out and it goes five feet past the hole, right? I remember watching him five putt from four feet once. Remember that?

I retired from making PROBE golf equipment in 1996. I had some PROBE 20/20 putters in inventory (storage) for another six or seven years, so I sold them all over the internet the next few years to former PROBE putter customers who had owned a PROBE 20/20, and wanted to find another one.

Last night I had an image in my mind of Phil passing Tiger by a bunch of points by becoming a much better putter by using my PROBE 20/20. Phil moved so far ahead of Tiger in points that Tiger would never catch up, and play the rest of his life as the Number two or three player in the world!

I got so excited about the possibility that I got online and typed in "how to contact Phil Mickelson" at a search engine. I was taken to a website, so I sent Phil a message about his putting. Three hours later I received an email from Phil's agent/friend, T.R. Reinman.

"T.R." thanked me for the message, and "promised" he would ask Phil if he'd give the PROBE 20/20 putter a try. I felt encouraged, so I replied back to "T.R.", asking if he could tell me what length putter Phil preferred, so I could make up a demo for Phil.

Then the honesty finally came out. T.R. replied that Phil is signed with Callaway, so he can only play Callaway clubs in his bag.

I love the game of golf because it teaches us honesty and integrity. Why then is the golf equipment industry so dishonest? Why do they lie to us when they tell us their driver, or their putter, is the best product around, and then we find out that money is the reason people play their equipment? Would you play a Callaway putter if Callaway paid you $5 million a year to play it? Of course you would!

Does anyone know who this "T.R." Reinman is, really? I researched him online, and I can't even find out what the T.R. stands for. What is he hiding?

Phil, who is T.R.? Your best friend? Your agent? What percentage of your annual Callaway income does he get?

Phil, if you want to be the Number One player in the world, email me at contact@reciprocalgolf.com. My golf service company, Reciprocal Golf, owns PROBE Golf, and I will make you a better putter, by far.

But I won't pay you to play it. You will play it because it will give you much more than just more money. After all, how many private jets do you need? But being the Number One player in the world! - Priceless!

Laughter is the best policy!

2010-05-27T08:04:00.001-07:00

One of the things I like about the game of golf is the chance to meet and befriend new acquaintances. There is nothing like a good joke to relax a stranger, and telling a joke on the golf course is usually a good way to start 18 holes of golf. Here is one of my favorites:

Sam and Becky are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

Sam says to Becky, "Becky, I was wondering...have you ever cheated on me?"
Becky replies, "Oh, Sam, why would you ask such a question now? You don't want to ask that question."

"Yes, Becky, I really want to know. Please..."

"Well, all right. Yes, 3 times..."

"Three? Well, when were they?" he asked.

"Well, Sam, Remember when your were 35 years old and you really wanted to start your own business and no bank would give you a loan? Remember, then one day the bank president himself came over to the house and signed the loan papers, no questions asked?"

"Oh, Becky, you did that for me! I respect you even more than ever, to do such a thing for me. So, when was number 2?"

"Well, Sam, remember when you had that last heart attack and you were needing that very tricky operation, and no surgeon would touch you? Then remember how Dr. DeBakey came all the way up here, to do the surgery himself, and then you were in good shape again?"

"I can't believe it! Becky, you should do such a thing for me, to save my life. I couldn't have a more wonderful wife. To do such a thing, you must really love me, Darling. I couldn't be more moved. So, all right then, when was number 3?"

"Well, Sam, remember a few years ago, when you really wanted to be president of the golf club and you were 17 votes short...?"

HEARD ANY GOOD ONES LATELY?

Have you played private country clubs?

2010-05-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

I received a great email from one of my members at Reciprocal Golf the other day after he had played a round at a private country club that we had arranged for him. Garrett Garland has to be the best golfer among our members. A few months ago I had set him up to play a private club where he played with three of the club's members.

The three members played from the white tees, and Garrett played from the blues, and played the ball down. Garrett shot a 63 and beat the course record of 64 by one stroke! The members took him into the clubhouse after the round and had a party for him, acknowledging that he was the new course record-holder. Garrett is 65 years old.

Here is his email he sent to me after he played the TPC Course at Piper Glen last week:

Pete, I played the TPC Course at Piper Glen today that you set up for me. They used to host a Senior Tour event there until Quail Hollow got a PGA Tour event and then they canceled it. Arnold Palmer ran it.

I came down alone as my buddy had to work. It is expensive but very nice and in terrific condition. The pro even gave me two bags of Tour Only Pro V's to hit at the range.

I talked to the head pro for about five minutes, thanking him for letting me play his course. I talked to the assistant pro for about fifteen minutes and the starter for another ten minutes. I then hit balls and chatted with the members on the range.

I got paired up with the President and Senior Vice President of Fluor, one of the largest builders in the world; both great guys and the VP was a 3-handicap. The President doesn't play all that much and he was pretty erratic early on. I gave him a tip on the 6th hole and he started hitting it much better. We played the tips and I shot a few under, 68 or 69. We had a lot of laughs.

After the round we went in for a beer and talked for about half an hour. They asked if I would play with them again, and of course I said, Yes. I know we both harp on this but let your members know to be especially nice to everyone they meet at a course where they are a guest. They will not remember what you shot but they will remember what you were like as a person. It always pays off.

Take care Pete.

Garrett

It is golfers like Garrett Garland that prompted me to start Reciprocal Golf in February of 2003. Even members of private country clubs have trouble getting onto other private golf courses because their head pros are too busy to set it up for them. And many non-members of a private club wish they could play many private golf courses when they travel, rather than spend a small fortune to join one club and only play that one club!

I enjoy receiving emails like Garrett's above from our members. They remind me why I do what I do.

Feeling Sick? Go win a golf tournament!

2010-05-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

Why do so many PGA Tour players win a tournament when they feel like they want to die?

It's not an accident that players who are feeling under the weather end up playing well, and often win. When the body is hurting, the player just tries to swing within himself, not overdoing it. If he has a shot that temps him to carry a lake and get home in two, his body tells him not to try it, just swing easy, lay up, and play safe.

Often that decision leads to a safe birdie, rather than a bogie due to a risky shot going awry.

I've teed it up myself with friends when I'd rather be home in bed, and played (scored) well.

Look at Phil Mickelson. How many times has he, in his own words, "awakened in a pool of my own vomit?" Then he went on to win.

This weekend, Australian Jason Day started the Byron Nelson Championship feeling terrible. He had seen several doctors to try to find out what was ailing him. He thought he had the flu, or possibly food poisoning. He almost withdrew from the tournament before it began.

Instead, he just played one shot at a time, and kept his swing within himself.

How do you play when you're not feeling very well?

The next time you tee it up, even if you feel well, try an experiment. Pretend you don't feel very well, and hit each shot as if you are just trying to conserve energy. Don't try to swing too hard

You just might play your best round ever!

RULES OF GOLF

2010-05-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm traveling today, with little time for a blog, but thought I'd put up these Rules Of Golf I found online years ago:

* Golfers who claim they don't cheat, also lie.

* If you're afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead is still putting out, you have two options: you may immediately shank a lay-up or you may wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.

* The less skilled a player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing.

* The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all your errors.

* If it ain't broke, try changing your grip.

* It's not a gimme if you're still away.

* Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.

* A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponent's luck.

It's surprisingly easy to hole a 50-foot putt when you lie 10.

* Counting on your opponent to inform you when he breaks a rule is like expecting him to make fun of his own haircut.

HEARD ANY GOOD ONES LATELY?

What is your favorite thing about the game of golf?

2010-05-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

I have played golf since I was twelve years old. I told a story the other day here at my blog about the lesson I learned when I was sixteen years old, watching Arnold Palmer play in the San Diego Open in 1964. It was the lesson about temper having no place on the golf course.

I have discussed how golf has helped me in business for forty years, meeting and befriending people who remained my friends and quite often, business partners and investors for life.

In what other game can you take the time to sit in a golf cart, or under a tree or on a bench if you are walking and waiting for the group ahead of you, and talk to your partner or your competitor?

And one of my favorite things I like to discuss at those times is telling jokes, and very often golf jokes.

Here is one of my favorites:

Four married guys went golfing together one Saturday morning. While playing the fourth hole this conversation took place:

1st guy: "You have no idea what I had to go through to be able to come out and play golf today with you three. I had to promise my wife that I will paint every room in the house next weekend."

2nd guy: "That's nothing. I had to promise my wife I will build a new deck around the pool next weekend."

3rd guy: "Man, you both have it easy! I had to promise my wife I will remodel the kitchen next weekend for her.

They continued playing the hole when they realized the fourth guy had not said a word. So they asked him, "You haven't said anything about what you had to do to be able to come golfing with us this weekend. What's the deal?"

4th guy: "I just set my alarm for 5:30 A.M. last night, and when it went off, I shut the alarm off, gave my wife a nudge while I moved close up against her behind, and asked, 'golf course or intercourse?'

Then she said, "Wear a sweater".

Favorite Quotes!

2010-05-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

We all have our own favorite quotes. One of my favorites appeared at the end of the movie, TEARS OF THE SUN, with Bruce Willis:

"The only thing necessary for Evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing!"
Sir Edmond Burke

When I was sixteen years old, my younger brother and I went to the San Diego Open that was played in northern San Diego County in 1964. I'm not sure which course was used that year for the tournament, but Arnold Palmer was in his prime that year.

I'll never forget watching Arnie top his tee shot about 75 yards through the rough off the ninth tee. It was a par-5, so he obviously was not going to get home in two shots, maybe even three. Right after topping the tee shot, everyone in the crowd went quiet, probably astonished at what Arnie had done, and expecting some kind of outburst from Arnie.

Then we heard Arnie's voice, "That's going to make it hard to birdie the hole!"

Everyone laughed, as did I. I'll never forget that moment, and have remembered all my life that there is no place for a temper on the golf course.

That week a writer for Sports Illustrated was at the San Diego Open, and was doing a special on Junior Golf. My brother and I got together with about 25 other junior golfers and surrounded Mr. Palmer in a photo shoot for the cover of Sports Illustrated that afternoon.

Inside the issue was a quote by Arnold Palmer that I have had framed in my house for over 45 years. It goes like this:

"GOOD GOLF IS A STATE OF MIND!"
"Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated. A child can play it well and a grown man can never master it. Any single round of it is full of unexpected triumphs and seemingly perfect shots that end in disaster. It is almost a science, yet it is a puzzle without an answer. It is gratifying and tantalizing, precise and unpredictable. It requires complete concentration and total relaxation. It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening. And it is without doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented." ......................... Arnold Palmer 1964

Little did I know that twenty-eight years later, I would be showing Arnold Palmer at a Senior PGA Tour event how my patented PROBE 20/20 inverted-shafted putter was superior to any other golf putter on the market. That day in September, 1992, I convinced Mr. Palmer of that fact, and he went on to play his best tournament of 1992. He played my PROBE putter for a full year on tour until he was paid a lot of money to switch to playing Callaway clubs.

Do you have a favorite quote? Why is it your favorite? What were the circumstances surrounding the first time you ever heard it or read it?

How to Buy a set of Golf Clubs - Part Two

2010-05-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Two days ago we at PROBE GOLF had "Tom" fill out a Custom-Fitting questionnaire so we could fit him to a set of custom fit irons, to improve his shot making. After receiving the information about what he was currently playing, the Nike Slingshot 4D irons, I also asked him how far he hits his 5-iron in the air at sea level.

He said he hit it 180 yards in the air.

Here is my analysis of his current equipment: His irons are too short. At 6'2", he needs an added 3/4 of an inch in length. The shafts in his set are too flexible, and his grips are too small. His strength has to be matched to a stiffer flex so he does not overpower his irons, leading to inconsistent direction. His grip must be larger, so he has "comfortable control" of them, without having to grip his clubs too hard to keep them under control. Adding the 3/4 of an inch to the length will also eliminate his occasionally topping he ball.

The flex point in his irons as too low, causing more flex near the club head, and a ball flight that is too high. That leads to loss of control, especially in the wind. By using shafts with a higher flex point, his consistency will improve dramatically.

We'll make Tom his new set for about $300, less than half what he paid for his Nikes off the shelf, and within three months his handicap should drop to 12 or better, ten shots better than his current 22-handicap!

Do you want to lower your handicap? Answer these questions for me:

1. Name, Age, Height, Weight, your Glove size.

2. Right handed or Left handed? Handicap?

3. Current irons: Brand name, shaft name, flex (look at the iron label), Grip size.

4. What is your current flight pattern (slice, hook, high, low, typical miss hits)?

5. What would you like to change about your flight pattern?

Just Email your information to contact@reciprocalgolf.com. We will deliver your information to our PROBE GOLF office and give you our opinion about what you need to improve your handicap.

Do you have an opinion about your own experiences with custom filling?

2010-05-17T00:40:00.001-07:00

Is it just me, or does the PGA Tour seem to be getting more and more boring these days? I have to admit that I don't watch every professional golf tournament like I used to.

Tiger has his mental distractions, and we don't know when we will see him play again. Phil picks and chooses his events, mostly majors, and Steve Stricker is out with injuries.

I didn't even watch half an hour's worth of professional golf this past week. Sunday night I couldn't even search the internet quickly to find out who won the Valero Texas Open! Do I have to wait for the next major, the United States Open in June, to see some name players again?

I guess Adam Scott won the Texas Open Sunday, shooting a combined 11-under 133 in a 36-hole finale Sunday to beat Fredrik Jacobson by a stroke.

Ernie Els, Aaron Baddeley and Jimmy Walker tied for third at 12 under.

Jimmy Walker? Isn't he a comedian?

Tim Petrovic and someone named Garth Mulroy were 11 under.

I guess I'll have to spend more time watching the Champions Tour from now on! At least I should recognize most of their names.

HOW TO BUY A SET OF GOLF CLUBS

2010-05-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I discussed what we used to make at PROBE GOLF in the way of custom fit irons to improve the iron shots of any and all individual customers. Since that blog my associates and I have discussed reopening Probe Golf's custom-fit iron program. We approved reopening that portion of the company on Friday night, May 14, 2010.

We also approved manufacturing the new PROBE 20/10 inverted-shafted putter, similar to but superior to our previous PROBE 20/20. I believe, and have been told by thousands of our customers, that the PROBE 20/20 is the best performing golf putter ever made!

My blog yesterday discussed what the 20/20 could do for golfers that no other putter in the world can match.

Today I'd like to discuss what makes up a great performing custom-fit iron set. Please read my previous blog about why the choice of a specific steel shaft in your irons can make all the difference in your ability to score low.

At PROBE GOLF, the first thing we did when a customer wanted a buy a better performing set of irons was to have the customer fill out our Custom Fitting Questionnaire.

Let's say that you are our customer, and you fill out our questionnaire. This is your information:

1. Your name is "TOM", and you are 6'2" tall, and weigh 220 pounds, and are right-handed.

2. You are playing a standard set of Nike Golf Slingshot 4D irons, 5 iron through PW, Regular.

3. Your comments state you are hitting your shots very high when you make good contact, and erratically to the left and to the right of target, and every once in a while you top your shots.

4. You play to a 22 - handicap.

5. Under GOALS, you indicate you want to hit your irons more consistently straight, and lower than you hit your Nikes.

After reading what I wrote last week about custom-fitting irons, you tell me what we should make for "Tom".

Please make your suggestions in "Comments". I will reply to your suggestions in my next blog.

What is the best putter in the world?

2010-05-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I wrote about the fact that one of my readers needed to buy a set of golf clubs for himself, and he had asked me what to buy. I was flattered because it had been over ten years since I had retired from making custom fit iron sets at PROBE GOLF.

The next day I received quite a few emails from former PROBE customers asking if and when we would make custom iron sets again. I also received emails from former customers who owned one or more PROBE 20/20 putters. They said they thought the PROBE 20/20 putter was the best putter they had ever owned, and wanted another one if we had any.

Officially we discontinued making golf equipment in 1996, and sold our last PROBE putter in 2006 when we ran out of the custom milled brass putter heads in our storage unit. I was busy providing our Reciprocal Golf services of getting golfers onto private country clubs starting in 2003, and didn't want to go back to operating a manufacturing facility with employees, inventory, assembly, shipping, etc., so we discontinued making golf equipment.

Now, due to popular demand, we will start making and selling the new PROBE 20/10 this year.

What makes a great performing putter? If you could describe the perfect putter, what benefits would you include? Here is what I would want in my putter:

1) A built-in pendulum stroke. I used to add lead tape to every putter I ever bought when I was young, because a light putter is too easy to turn off line. So I wanted a HEAVY PUTTER.

2) CONTROL of the ball, making it roll where I wanted it to roll, instead of guessing what the slope and grain in the green would do to the ball. Sound impossible?

Not at all! When I invented the PROBE 20/20 in September of 1992, the first opportunity for me to demonstrate how it worked to a name player was at the Senior Tour event in Seattle. The first tour pro?... Arnold Palmer.

Arnie tried the 20/20 on the putting green about half an hour before his practice round on Thursday. The inverted shaft gave Arnie the feeling that he could not turn the putter off line when he stroked a ball, due to the heavier head compared to the shaft and grip.

After I demonstrated for Arnie how to play the ball off the line at the toe or the heel depending upon how much he wanted to put side spin on the ball to decrease the amount of break in each putt, he was astounded and pleased at the same time. Our patented inverted shaft and center-shafted head design made it all possible.

He headed for the first tee, then birdied the first three holes. The rest is history. Arnie played his best tournament of 1992 that week with his PROBE putter, and then teamed up with Peter Jacobson in Portland the following Monday and Tuesday at Pete's Fred Meyer best-ball event.

Jim Kelley at ESPN mentioned Arnie and his PROBE inverted-shafted putter 19 times during their telecast over the two days. By Friday that week my office had received calls from 48 of the 50 states asking "is this the company that makes Arnold Palmer's new putter!"

Think about it. A putter that is head balanced so it guarantees a perfect pendulum stroke that cannot be moved off line by any nervousness in your hands! NO MORE YIPS!

And he ability to make short breaking putts do what you want them to do, instead of guessing what they will do!

Conclusion? We must make once again the best performing putter in the world, but BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL PROBE PUTTER!

The only negative comment we ever received from our 120,000 + original PROBE 20/20 customers was this:

"I wish the direction lines were a little longer, so I could better line up putts. The putter head is narrow."

Voila! I designed the PROBE 20/10 a little wider, but not quite as tall, so the direction lines are easier to see, while keeping the weight the same. And of course the putter will be center-shafted and with the inverted shaft, so the same benefits remain.

PROBE GOLF ( www.probegolf.com ) will be gearing up to manufacture the PROBE 20/10 (just like eye sight, 20/10 vision is better than 20/20 vision) as soon as I find an entrepreneur who'd like to purchase a controlling interest in PROBE GOLF and take the responsibility of running the manufacturing end of the business. I'm too close to retirement, and only want to be responsible for design of the product, and consult in marketing.

Anyone out there interested in a bright future in the golf equipment industry?

A NEW ERA ON THE PGA TOUR!

2010-05-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Today marks the beginning of a new era on the PGA Tour. With Tiger Woods surprising everyone last week by withdrawing from the Players Championship, including the "insiders" on tour, the golf media and tournament commentators, the tour takes on a new aura this week at the Valero Texas Open. Tiger Who?

The world now knows the extent of Tiger's problems, mostly mental, surrounding his failure to play well since his five month sabbatical from the Tour. I have been saying for weeks that Tiger's mental attitude sucks due to his marriage problems and his worries about what the world's opinion is of him. Now that no one seems to know what is in his mind, everyone connected with the Tour is confused, and wondering what will happen next.

The Valero Texas Open starts today on a new course designed by Greg Norman. I haven't had a chance to look at the field yet for this week's tournament, but I'm sure Phil Mickelson won't be playing. Phil will take some time off and train for the U.S.Open at Pebble Beach in June. He may play once before the Open.

I don't know, nor do I care, if Lee Westwood is playing this week. When I was young, and just learning the game, I learned never to watch anyone swing because I would immediately mimic the swing that I watched. That usually applies to amateurs with obviously poor swings. If I watched them swing, I would copy their swing myself. That's how strong of an influence the mind has on the body in golf, and that is why my favorite training aid is Al Geiberger's Sybervision training DVD.

Lee Westwood's swing is one of the swings on tour that I can't stand watching. When I first noticed how jerky his shoulders seemed to be at impact, I couldn't put my finger on the problem. I remember hearing Johnny Miller talking during last year's Open Championship how he liked Westwood's swing. But there was something there that bothered me. Then I noticed it.

Westwood has the same quirk in his neck and head on the downswing that Lorena Ochoa has had for years, or for her entire career for that matter. My neck hurts just watching either of them swing. No wonder Ochoa is retiring in her twenties; she'd spend the rest of her life in traction if she continued playing another year or two.

Don't believe me? Just watch her swing, then try to hit a ball yourself.

Who knows, maybe Tiger watched Westwood swing too much last week, and developed his own sore neck as a result!

You Can Believe Johnny Miller!

2010-05-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

In 1991, when I created the new PROBE GOLF driver head with a tighter curvature on its face, I looked around for someone who could help me convince PGA Tour players to try it. The first Tour player I gave a PROBE driver to was Johnny Miller at the AT&T at Pebble Beach.

Johnny hit it at the driving range, and he was sold on its performance. Our ten inches of radius on the bulge and ten inches of radius on the roll imparted an additional 30 yards of carry to every drive. Johnny recognized it immediately, and the PROBE driver was in his bag. Then he told me, "Pete, hand your driver to any tour player who is warming up on the range, and ask him if he'd like to try a new driver that will give him an added 30 yards of carry and 2.5 seconds longer in the air than the driver he is playing now. They will hit it, and they will put it in their bag, unless some contract to play another driver won't let them switch."

I followed Johny's advice, and we had a lot of tour players playing The PROBE on tour in no time. But he was right about tour players using equipment for the money they are paid, and not for the performance!

In February of 1991, my tour rep. called me in our office in Yreka, CA and told me that Chi Chi had just broken his favorite driver that he had used for years. Tom gave me Chi Chi's specs, and we built him a PROBE driver overnight. Chi Chi used a Callaway driver that Friday, the first day of the tournament that week, and he shot 78, and was in last place. Tom received Chi Chi's PROBE on Saturday morning, and took it to Chi Chi on the practice tee. Chich hit it five times, turned to Tom and said, "It's in my bag!

Chi Chi shot 66-66 on Saturday and Sunday, and almost went from last to first that week. I decided to have my shop manager make Chi Chi a matching 3-wood and 5-wood, then drove to the next tournament in Ojai, CA. I arrived on Thursday, and looked for Chi Chi. When I saw him, he looked like death warmed over! I introduced myself to Chich, when I learned he was suffering from the flu. If the Ojai tournament had not been rained out on Friday, Chi Chi would have had to withdraw, but he got over the flu and was able to play on Saturday. He shot 66-66 and beat Gary Player the last two holes Sunday for the win!

Chi Chi told me his PROBE driver out drove Gary off the 17th tee by 60 yards. Gary hit 3-iron to the green, 60 feet from the pin, then three-putted. Chi Chi hit 9-iron close, and the tournament was over.

The next three months Chi Chi won four times, and was leading money winner, UNTIL he received an offer from Callaway to play their Big Bertha "for a lot of money". His attorney, Eddie Elias, faxed my office and told me he wanted $125,000 for Chi Chi to stay with his PROBE, or Chi Chi was switching to Big Bertha. I faxed Eddie back and told him, "Good luck to Chi Chi and his Big Bertha."

Chi Chi switched, and did not win again that year. He dropped from first to eleventh on the money list. My friends, that is not unusual on tour. I am proud to say that PROBE GOLF made the best performing golf equipment in the world at that time. That is why I am excited about returning PROBE to making custom fit golf equipment once again. There is nothing out there that can compete with us, because true custom fitting is vastly superior to mass produced equipment.

Because of Johnny Miller's help in introducing our golf equipment to the tour players, I sent Johnny a dozen PROBE driver heads every month for over a year, so he and his sons could experiment with various shafts, but only on a PROBE head. I remember the day I was playing Lake Shastina Country Club and my cell phone rang. It was Johnny calling, telling me that the PROBE stayed in the air about five seconds longer in Denver! He was playing a corporate outing at the Mile High city that day.

This last weekend Johnny made the comment that Tiger Woods needs to change swing instructors, take the driver out of his bag, and take some time off to "get his head on straight." If Johnny says it, listen and follow that advice, Tiger.

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

2010-05-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon, right after The Players ended, I asked the question at this blog about Tiger's withdrawal from the tournament Sunday on the 7th hole. Did readers think he was really hurt?

Here are the results: Tiger is in trouble with his fans. They all agree his head is all messed up. He has no confidence, and may never get it back again. And, HE MAY NEVER WIN ANOTHER MAJOR! Did Tiger have an injury too severe to continue playing? NO!

Regarding my predictions starting the week:

I predicted Tiger would play poorly; he did, then withdrew.

I predicted Phil Mickelson would become the world's No. 1 player; he did not, but he's closer than he was.

I predicted on Friday when Lee Westwood took the lead that he would not win; he did not win.

Coming down the stretch on Sunday afternoon:

Westwood - Failed to close the deal; the story of his life. He would have finished more than four shots back if he hadn't made two long putts for par on the back nine, one of them from off the world! I've never liked Westwood's swing. The way he jerks his neck and head to the right when starting his downswing isn't as bad as Lorena Ochoa's on the LPGA, but it is close. No wonder Ochoa is retiring. My neck couldn't take that abuse past the age of 30!

Allenby finished second, again, for his hundredth time! - Nothing new. Never up, never in! "Who was it that said that 98% of all putts that come up short don't go in?" If his eagle putt on 16 had reached the hole, and his birdie putt had reached the hole on 17, he would have made both of those putts, and he would have won!

Did Tim Clark come up short on any makeable putts on Sunday? When you are thinking of winning, you don't leave putts inside 20 feet short. When you don't think about winning, you lag those putts, as Allenby did, back to back.

I've seen Allenby's yacht. If all you care about on the PGA Tour is making enough money to make the payment on your yacht, you lag putts! If you're a winner, you reach the hole with those putts.

Congratulations to Tim Clark! He is a big man at 5'7".

Tiger Injured?

2010-05-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

OK. I would like your opinion.

1) Who thinks Tiger Woods could have finished his final round at The Players Sunday if he really wanted to finish, instead of withdrawing after six or seven holes? Did he take the attitude, "I'm not contending, so why take a chance on hurting myself.?

2) Who thinks he quit because his neck really was hurting, and he physically could not finish?

One or two?

To set the stage for those who did not watch the finish to The Players Championship on Sunday:

A. Lee Westwood led going into the final round, and I predicted that he would not finish as the winner. He did not win.

B. The odds makers gave Tiger a 7/1 chance of winning the day before the tournament started; I gave Tiger a 25/1 chance of winning, since Wednesday. He dropped out on Sunday, did not finish, and (obviously) did not win.

Tiger quit playing on the front nine on Sunday, had not played well all week, and withdrew.

Before I say any more, I would like to hear your opinion. Please reply with #1 or #2, then add your comments if you like.

We'll continue this discussion tomorrow.

The Sunday Final Round at The Players

2010-05-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to continue going against the grain and say that Lee Westwood, although he is leading the Players Championship, will not win on Sunday afternoon. I have yet to see the look in his eyes that tells me he knows he is going to win. By the same token, Tiger's attitude this week is the worst I have ever seen in his professional career. It seems that every question he is asked, he replies with one excuse or another excuse as to why he is not preforming.

Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, can win, even though he is starting Sunday's final round from five shots back, and he has ten players in front of him. Mental attitude is everything in professional golf. In fact, I can't remember the last time I heard so many comments by the tour commentators about the mental attitude of those in contention.

Look at Rory McIlroy at Quail Hollow last week. He ran away with the tournament on Saturday and Sunday, setting a new course record by two shots on Sunday. Then he celebrated his 21st birthday Tuesday night, then missed the cut this week. Too much partying Tuesday night? I don't think Rory even drinks, does he?

The ultimate winner on Sunday will be the player who makes the most putts, and as the greens dry out from the wind, putting will be difficult. The player who puts his approach shots below the hole consistently, and then putts uphill will be the winner.

The winner at The Players has never hit his tee shot in the lake at 17, so watch to see if the wind is gusting on 17 on Sunday afternoon.

Same problems for Tiger at The Players!

2010-05-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods had the same problems at The Players on Friday that he had on Thursday, hitting it everywhere and scrambling to save pars! He finished -3 to par after the second round, which at least should make the cut as compared to last week.

Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson teed off late on Friday. He also finished -3 after Friday's round. But unlike Tiger's current mental state, Phil has what it will take to come from nine shots back to win on Sunday, just like Rory McIlroy did last week at the Quail Hollow Championship. McIlroy celebrated his 21st birthday last Tuesday, after winning last week, only to miss the cut Friday at The Players.

What has changed from last week to this week? Mental attitude. Professional golf, just like amateur golf every Saturday morning, is all about attitude, not talent.

Lee Westwood was in the lead after Friday's round. I'm sorry, but Westwood doesn't have what it takes between the ears to win a major US tournament. He will remain close to the lead through Saturday, then on Sunday, but he will blow the lead on Sunday afternoon.

When I give a golf lesson to my students, I stress basic weight shift, and mental attitude. With those two thoughts, any amateur can play great!

ALLENBY AND HOLMES LEAD AT THE PLAYERS

2010-05-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

The first round of The Players Championship was interesting Thursday. I have predicted that Phil Mickelson will move into the World's Number One position this week, and that Tiger Woods will not play well. They both shot 70 yesterday, two under par.

Tiger said he was happy with his 70, because he hit it crooked, but scrambled great. Johnny Miller watched Tiger practice before the tournament , and then said Tiger needs a new swing coach, and needs to take some time off!"

Phil was not happy with his 70, because "I wasted too many shots out there today. I hit six iron on two par-5's for my second shot, and only made pars."

But it is a long time until Sunday afternoon.

Both No. 1 and No. 2 are only four shots behind the leaders. In fact, if they cut to the top 60 players and ties after Thursday's first round, which is what the PGA Tour will do on Friday afternoon, Tiger and Phil would just barely make the cut right on the number!

And no one has pulled ahead of the field. All 60 players in the top 60 are only four shots apart. Which means it is anyone's tournament at this point in time.

According to the weatherman, the weather will be the same the first three days, with mild winds blowing in the same direction. Sunday the wind is supposed to turn in the opposite direction. That might make things interesting if it happens, but since when has any weatherman correctly predicted the weather three days in advance?

Calm weather at The Players makes for a dull tee shot at 17, the island green. Perhaps that is good, because a single last second gust of wind on 17 can make or break a round, or can make or break the winner! I think I watched about two hours of golf on Thursday, and I only saw two tee shots go into the lake on 17.

That is compared to two years ago when Sergio Garcia won, including his one and only tee shot in his sudden death playoff with Paul Goydos, which started on 17. A gust of wind caught Goydos' tee shot at 17, and the playoff was over before it began! I wish the Tour would start any sudden death playoff on either 18 or 16 at The Players, so a single gust of wind doesn't determine the champion.

Most tour events start on the 18th for any sudden death playoff, and they should do so at The Players as well.

It will be interesting to see if anyone pulls away from the field in today's (Friday's) round.

TIGER FAVORED AT THE PLAYERS? WHY?

2010-05-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was watching the Golf Channel yesterday (Wednesday) morning, and the tournament commentators were discussing the upcoming Players Championship that starts today. They were talking about the tournament entrants, their recent poll of viewers, and who the viewers favored to win. They chose Tiger Woods to win, with odds of 7/1. WHY?

Phil Mickelson is ranked second right now at the Players, with odds of his winning at 8/1. In my opinion, Phil should be favored to win, and not just slightly over Tiger.

If Mickelson wins this week’s tournament, which starts on Thursday, and Woods finishes outside the top five, Mickelson will become the No. 1 golfer in the world rankings, ending a five year reign for Woods.

The odds are a little closer this week than usual, but Woods is still favored to win the tournament this week. I do not understand why that is.

Woods has been given 7/1 odds to win. Other short odds to win are Mickelson (8/1), Jim Furyk (20/1), Ernie Els (22/1), and Rory McIlroy (22/1), who won last week's Quail Hollow Championship by finishing with a 62, and recording a new course record by two strokes!

Woods won this event in 2001 and finished eighth a year ago, but he finished outside the top 20 the previous two times he competed in the tournament. Woods is coming off one of the worst outings he has had as a pro, as he missed the cut in the Quail Hollow Championship.

If it was up to me, I'd give Woods odds of winning this week closer to 25/1. Like I mentioned a few days ago, I don't think Woods is over his problems with the crowds yet. I think he is still worried about his image at this time, and wants to please the crowds after what he did to his wife, Elin, more than he thinks about winning.

Late yesterday the Golf channel commentators were still talking about Tiger's chances this week. After beating around the bush all day, Nick Faldo finally answered the question about Tiger's chances of winning the Players.

"Tiger is going to have problems this week."

I agree.

WHERE TO BUY THE BEST GOLF CLUBS!

2010-05-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

Dennis Grahovic in Germany sent me a message two days ago stating he needs to buy himself a set of golf clubs, and asked me where he should go. I am flattered, because it has been at least ten years since I quit making custom golf club sets at PROBE GOLF, www.probegolf.com.

At the time we started making the best performing golf clubs in the world at PROBE GOLF, in 1986, virtually no other golf company in the world made true custom fit, and custom performing golf equipment!

Read that sentence again, because it is the absolute truth. The closest other golf company that advertised custom fitting was PING. Remember their custom lie, custom length, custom grip promotion? Would it shock you to know that PING used the same shaft for all customers, and it was a shaft that fit no one?

In golf, the harder you swing, the stiffer the shaft has to be, and the higher the Flex Point has to be. PING did not wish to inventory a dozen different shaft types, so they compromised by using their PING ZING shaft, with a low flex point. A low flex point leads to a high, less controlled shot. By tipping (cutting more off the thin end of the shaft) the shaft more, they made a stiff shafted club for hard swingers, but with a high, less-controlled shot due to the low flex point. Easier swingers, and women, need the low flex point, but not a stiff shaft, because they can't swing it hard enough!

At PROBE GOLF, we stocked over eight different steel shafts for iron sets, and the same for woods. To prove my point, here are two examples of why PROBE irons were the best performing irons in the world, "for each individual golfer's needs":

1) When I started PROBE GOLF, I was a six handicap golfer. I had played for twenty-two years, and had never had a hole-in-one. When I made myself the first PROBE iron set, with the shaft best suited to my swing, I made a hole-in-one within one month, holing a five iron on the 195-yard hole # eight at the Lake Shastina Golf Resort near Mt. Shasta, CA.

I made my second hole-in-one a month later, holing my PROBE 2-iron on #11 from 222 yards. Not exactly short par-3's.

My handicap dropped within four months to a "plus 2", two strokes better than "0". I won the Men's Club Championship nine times in twelve years, and shot as low as 65 on the par-72 Championship course.

2) In 1987 I won the Lake Shastina Amateur Championship, with 200 of northern California's top amateurs competing, by shooting 70-70, four under par. The three men who finished right behind me were playing PING Eye 2 irons. Tom, who finished second, three shots behind me, told me that hole #16 that day made all the difference. I had hit my PROBE 2-iron into the wind 209 yards to one foot from the hole for birdie. Tom had hit his PING 1-iron twice as high as my 2-iron into the front bunker (due to his low flex point shafts) and made bogey! Tom asked me over a beer in the clubhouse that afternoon to make him a set of PROBE irons. I did so, using a high flex point shaft in his set, and Tom came back the next year to win the same tournament by SIX SHOTS!

Choosing the right shaft for each customer's needs is the key to turning a so-so golfer into a great golfer! In the last ten years I have had a personal friend of mine, Joe Roland, who knows the secrets of proper fitting each customer to the proper shaft, make all custom-fit golf sets for people who come to me for a better choice of golf equipment.

Therefore, to answer Dennis Grahovic's question, for him to buy the best performing golf clubs (for his swing) he should fill out my PROBE GOLF Custom Fitting Questionnaire, and then I will confer with my friend, Joe Roland, who will build the set for Dennis. And, Dennis' cost will be about 60% of what he would spend with Nike, Taylor Made, PING, Titleist, Cobra, or any of the other name brands!

I have decided to "restart" PROBE GOLF once again, to introduce our new PROBE 20/10 inverted-shafted putter, which will outperform our PROBE 20/20 putter we introduced to the golfing world through our Gary Player infomercial in 1993, and sold over 120,000 putters at $120 each.

(Pictured above - Larry Laoretti, winner of the 1992 Senior United States Open Championship, using his PROBE Driver and PROBE 20/20 inverted-shafted putter.)

It will be fun to once again make the best performing golf equipment in the world, and the best performing putter ever designed.

Phil to Pass Tiger as No. One!

2010-05-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Last November, before the world learned about Tiger Woods' extra dozen or so women, I predicted that Phil Mickelson would pass Tiger in 2010 as the world's No. One golfer. With Tiger missing the cut at Quail Hollow last Friday, and Phil's second-place finish, Phil is now close to passing Tiger.

This week's Players' Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach may just do the trick. Neither Tiger nor Phil are hitting a lot of fairways off the tee these days. But Phil has the better short game of the two, recovering from bad tee shots better than Tiger.

And as I pointed out last week, Tiger has to overcome his temper, and his concern about what the crowd thinks of him, and his temper, before he will win again.

I'll make the same comment about tempers on tour as I made last week. The PGA Tour has occasionally fined players money for cursing, or for throwing clubs, but that has never had any effect on such behavior. What is $5,000 to a multimillionaire? But tell a player he just incurred a one-stroke penalty for slamming his driver into the ground and watch his reaction!

I have played golf for 48 years, and have taught golf to kids since they were three years old. I tell them there is no room for temper on the golf course. When I consider doing business with someone new, the first thing I do is play 18 holes with them. I'll learn more about their honesty, integrity, or ability to handle adversity (temper) in thirty minutes than I'd learn in five days over a conference table.

I once entertained a golfer from Cincinnati who wanted to be my PROBE GOLF distributor in Ohio, on the Lake Shastina Golf Resort near Mt. Shasta, CA. On the seventh hole he missed a two-foot putt for par, and he threw his putter that clipped my right ear, and flew another fifty feet into the nearby water hazard! One inch closer and he might have killed me.

I told him to fly back to Ohio, that there was no room at PROBE GOLF for him.

For Tiger to get back in the graces of most attendees at this week's Players Championship. Tiger will have to concentrate on his behavior. If his behavior is on his mind, concentrating on each shot will not be on his mind. And that is all it will take for him to finish far behind the ultimate winner.

Congatulations Phil Mickelson, the Number One golfer in the world.

Tomorrow I am going to show you how to buy the best performing golf equipment you can acquire to best support your own, individual golf swing, and at about 50% off what you would pay anywhere else. I hope you catch the conversation.

Why Can't Everyone Play Golf?

2010-05-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I was getting ready to sleep for the eighth night in a row on my living room couch, because it was easier to sleep there with my right foot elevated after foot surgery, and having three pins running through my foot!

Forty-four years ago I had broken the joint on my big toe playing football barefoot, and had never found a convenient time for the repairing surgery, and the five weeks of recovery that would be necessary after such surgery.

As I settled down on the couch with my Vicodin, water, and laptop next to me, I turned on the TV and was pleased to see that The Legend of Bagger Vance was just starting. As I watched, I was reminded of how great the game of golf really is (as if I needed a reminder).

Think of all the problems in the world, with hunger, economic troubles, etc. Then remind yourself how golf teaches all of us tolerance, honesty, integrity, patience, understanding, and other virtues.

Then imagine if there were 300 million golfers in the United States, instead of only 25 million. What a better country we would have. What if the billions of people in the world all played golf? Wouldn't this be a much better world?

Imagine a Catholic, a Muslim, and Protestant, and a Jew teeing it up for a friendly $10 Nassau, and an Agnostic is keeping the official scores for the foursome!

What a world it would be.

Tiger's Mental Attitude Responsible for Missing the Cut?

2010-05-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods missed his first PGA Tour cut in what, five years? He missed the cut at the Open Championship in England last July, and I already commented that I think it was his "female problems" that were responsible. I told my brother at the time that something was bothering Tiger. It was just four months before the rest of the world learned about Tiger's dozen or so extra women!

This week at Quail Hollow I think Tiger was thinking too much about how to win back the crowd by not throwing clubs or cussing too much, and not thinking enough about picturing each shot in his mind before swinging.

After he had missed the cut, the commentators were mentioning the fact that Tiger had "behaved himself" this week despite missing the cut, cussing very little and not throwing a single club. I have a feeling that his concern about his behavior and what the crowd thought/thinks of him is what was foremost on his mind, instead of concentrating on his swing.

I saw Tiger hit several poor shots on Thursday and Friday this week, and his facial expression looked like he was steaming on he inside as he smiled outwardly.

Tiger has two things he must overcome before he will appear in the winner's circle again. First and foremost is controlling his temper. I don't care how many women are on his mind, there is no room on the golf course for a temper tantrum. It is childish, and it will not allow any golfer to relax and hit a smooth shot. I would like to see the Tour impose penalty strokes to any tour player who cusses or throws or slams down a club during play.

I remember watching last Summer's Big Break on the Golf channel. I wish Pat Perez's brother had not won, because his childish behavior of slamming and throwing clubs is not something we need to see on television. It is a poor example for our children.

The second thing Tiger has to accomplish is concentration. You can't play good golf when you are worried about outside influences, such as the crowd. When he conquers the first, temper, he won't have to worry about the second, what the crowd thinks of him.

Tiger won't win again until he learns to laugh off a bad shot, and concentrate on the next shot, and not about what the guy outside the ropes is thinking.

Do you agree?

Phil Mickelson Continues to Battle Illness!

2010-04-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning Phil Mickelson woke up in a pool of his own vomit, and said it was a good omen! Why would he say such a thing? Because the last two times Mickelson woke up in his own vomit, he won that week's tournament.

While many of us simply don't go to the golf course when we are feeling under the weather, there is a lesson to be learned here. Why is it that many tour pros end up winning a tournament when they are not feeling well? For one thing, they simply go through the motions of envisioning fundamentals in their golf swing, and don't try to overpower the ball. What happens when you picture something happening in sports, and then let it happen? It happens the way we envision it if our power of positive thinking is strong enough.

Golf is played in the five inch wide spot between the ears. When properly played, golf is 90% mental, and 10% mental.

When I was 18 years old, I was playing in a Father Son Tournament with my Dad at the Lake Shastina Golf Resort at the foot of Mt. Shasta in northern California. At that time in my life I had never broken 70 on the Par-72 championship course, at 6,859 yards. I was one under par standing on the 18th tee, a par 5.

I drove it well off the tee, then hit my 5-wood on the right side of the green, sixty feet from the pin. After my Dad and the other father/son team chipped onto the green, I was away, and asked my Dad to tend the pin.

I announced that I was going to make the eagle putt to shoot under 70 for the first time in my life, and then reminded my Dad that he had to take out the pin after I stroked the putt.

"I know, I know," Dad said as he took the pin in his right hand.

I looked over my 60-footer for eagle, read a right to left break of ten feet, pictured the ball going in the hole, then stroked the putt. I walked toward the hole as I watched the ball follow the path that I had pictured in my mind. Ten feet right of the hole, then the ball rolling left toward the hole. As the ball approached the hole and was about five feet from going in, I noticed my Dad was so excited, he was standing there with his hand still on the pin, frozen!

"Dad, pull the pin!" I shouted. Just as the ball was about to hit the pin, where I would incur a two-stroke penalty, Dad got the pin out of the hole. Dad jumped up and down and yelled, "Pete eagled the final hole!"

I walked up to my Dad and told him that I knew the putt was in the hole before I stroked it. I could have made a $1,000 bet before stroking the putt that it was going in the hole; that's how positive I was about making the putt.

When I was in my teens, I had read all 82 volumes of The Destroyer paperback series. It was about a Newark, NJ police officer who was taught the secret of the ultimate martial art by a 90-pound North Korean by the name of Chiun. Remo Williams was the country's secret weapon against evil in the world, and only the President knew how to reach him and how to give him his orders to take out the bad guys. In his spare time, Remo would play golf, scoring eagles and birdies on every hole, because his training taught him to picture something happening, then make it happen.

I shot my first 69 that day, and I love telling that story of mind over matter. It reminds me of Star Wars, and The Force. Remember the phrase, "Use the Force, Luke."?

The next day I was playing Lake Shastina again, this time with a buddy. It was a windy day, and scoring was tougher than the day before. On the 18th green I had a two-foot putt for a par, and the ball was vibrating from the wind.

I knew I was going to miss it!

Phil Woke Up in a Pool of his Own Vomit?

2010-04-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very strange day for me. I agreed to give one company an option to buy PROBE GOLF (www.probegolf.com) from me, I received an email from my publisher regarding my final option to make changes to my first novel, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, before they went to print, and I heard Phil Michelson on the television tell the press that it was a good omen when he woke up in a pool of his own vomit that morning!

Where to start!

OK, I retired from making the world's best custom fit irons at PROBE GOLF in 1996. And we had sold 120,000 of the world's best putter (the world's only inverted-shafted putter), the PROBE 20/20, by 1996.

And after I had lost my best friend and soul mate five times in sixteen years while running PROBE GOLF, I decided to write a book about it, LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, for the therapeutic help which I desperately needed at the time?

But Phil waking up in a puddle of his own vomit? And that was a good omen to him?

In his own words, "I'm not feeling well, but when I woke up in a pool of my own vomit this morning, it was a good omen. The last two times that happened to me, I won both tournaments!"

Like I said, it was a strange day to say the least.

Let's concentrate on Phil. How many times yesterday during the first round of the Quail Hollow Championship did we see Phil hit a shot, then head for the forest to lean over a bush?

Tournament golf must be much harder than it was in my day. Both Phil and Tiger only hit four fairways each yesterday. Phil bogied the last two holes to shoot two under par, while Tiger shot two over par.

Let us all watch round two today, and hope the day is more conventional. At least for my purposes I hope the day is closer to normal.

My emotions are having enough of a problem recovering from foot surgery last week, with three pins in my right foot. An unemotional day watching regular golf will be a welcome change.

And who will shoot the lowest score for 72 holes this week, Phil or Tiger? Do you think one of them will win at Quail Hollow?

The Third and Final Swing Pose!

2010-04-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

During the previous two days, I posted my first two weight-shifting golf lessons. 96% of all new golfers never learn how to properly shift their weight during the golf swing, and play all their lives with an improper golf swing as the result!

We have all seen tour pros pose at the end of their swings. After watching my first two weight shift lessons, the third and final lesson has to do with your pose at the end of your swing. Look at the photo.

All of my weight is on my left leg, right toe in the ground for balance, with no weight on the toe. My belly button is facing the target, as is my face. The left leg is straight, with all of my weight on the left leg. My left arm is bent at a right angle, and my left arm from the shoulder to the elbow is parallel to the ground, and the club is right behind the small of my neck, and parallel to the ground.

Memorize the following sentence: "If your pose looks just like the photo at the end of your swing, you have swung 99% correctly!" Otherwise, your pose will not look like this. You cannot reach this pose without swinging 99% correctly.

Whether you are a beginning golfer, or have been playing for years, and you want to be a good, consistent golfer the rest of your life, follow my three weight-shift lessons at this site. One of the major mistakes amateur golfers make is a reverse-weight-shift!

Do not take a shortcut and pick up a club too soon. Have your golfing buddy watch your swing, and let you know if and when your weight is incorrect. Do the same for your golfing buddy, and together you will both enjoy a consistent golf swing for the rest of your life!

Today is the first round of the Quail Hollow Championship. Watch the tournament on TV today if you have the time, and watch the pose after each swing that you watch. Ask yourself if the pose looks good and proper, and then look at the result of that shot. After a while you will be able to see a swing, and the pose at the finish, and then you will know how a shot ends up depending upon the pose at the end of the swing. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE GOLF SWING! WELCOME TO GOLF HEAVEN! DO YOU NOW FEEL EMPOWERED?

You may NEVER watch a golf tournament the same way again! Imagine, you are sitting in your house watching a PGA event with your brother. A tour player hits his drive, and you comment to your brother as you walk to the kitchen that the drive is going left, into the rough; and that's where the next camera shot shows the ball going, left into the rough! Your brother exclaims, "How did you know that?"

You answer, "Because of his pose at the end of the swing."

Watch as many swings as you can, study the pose at the finish, and then compare that pose to the result of the shot. After a while you will become an expert, and will be able to match every pose to the correct result!

You are now on your way to having THE POWER, HAVING THE FORCE! (Remember Star Wars?)

Second of Three Weight-shift Lessons!

2010-04-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's golf swing lesson covered the importance of your proper weight shift. Your "Muscle Memory" practice should precede any swinging of a club! Before you go to today's continuing lesson, practice once again what you did yesterday. Over 96% of all new golfers never shift their weight properly from the start, and never shift properly all of their golfing life! Their weight is more on their left foot when shifting right (Wrong!) during the backswing, and then leave their weight on their right foot (Wrong!) when shifting to the left as they hit the ball. They play golf WRONG all their life, and wonder why they can't play.

So, go through the first weight-shift (yesterday's) lesson before proceeding with today's lesson.

Now, in Step Two of that weight shift practice lesson you may pick up a 5-iron, and go through the weight shift motions all over again.

In the first picture, you are at address, with your weight evenly distributed on the inside of both feet.

On the back swing, picture 2, put 60% of your weight on the inside of the right foot, and 40% on the inside of the left foot. The club should be moving toward the small of your neck, so it is on plane.

In picture 3, your weight is moving to the left, and the club is on plane to finish at the small of your neck, just as in the backswing!

In picture 4, all of your weight is on the left foot, with your right toe in the ground just for balance, your belly button is at the target.

As in the first lesson, without a club in your hand, everything stresses the weight shift. If you have any weight remaining on your right foot after the swing, you are not shifting properly. Your weight shift is all-important!

Have your playing partner check your position at the finish. Your left leg is straight, with all of your weight on it, right toe in the ground helping you balance, belly button pointed at the target, chest at the target, left arm from shoulder to elbow horizontal, and parallel to the ground, as is the shaft of your club.

You cannot reach this correct finish position without doing 99% of the swing correctly!

Spring Is The Time to Brush Up on Golf Swing Basics

2010-04-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

With Spring weather arriving, I'd like to remind all golfers to get back to basics with your golf swing, so you may jump ahead of the competition before the summer weather arrives.

Golf lessons do not have to be as complicated as many instructors make them sound. If you will practice my three simple "muscle memory" swing tips, I guarantee you will become a much better golfer, and you will enjoy the game more than ever.

What are my credentials for giving golf lessons? I have played golf for 48 years, have been as low as a "Plus 2" handicap, won our club's Men's Club Championship nine times in twelve years, shot as low as a 65 on a Par-72 championship course, and have taught the golf swing for over 22 years. Best of all, I can give you three basic golf lessons at no cost to you, and save you thousands of dollars in the process. Today's lesson is the first of those three basic lessons.

The secret to a good, consistent golf swing is "weight shift". Most new players want to swing a club immediately, and hit balls, so most instructors let them do just that. In my opinion, you should never pick up a club until you learn the proper weight shift.

MUSCLE MEMORY is the secret in Al Geiberger's training video, Psycho Cybernetics, remember?

LESSON ONE OF THREE:

Place a club across your back, held in place by your elbows. Memorize the three pictures at the top, as you go through each step yourself. Ask your playing partner if you are in the correct position for each of the five steps: (Pictures are for right-handers; left-handers are just the opposite)

(1) Weight equal on the inside of both feet, and starting to sit. (2) Shift right until 60% of weight is on the inside of the right foot, and 40% of weight is on the inside of left foot. (3) Shift and turn to the left until all weight is on the left foot, belly button facing the target, left leg straight, right toe down (FINISH POSITION).

Ask your playing partner if your weight is as depicted in each photo, especially in the finish position. If ANY of your weight is still on your right foot, practice this exercise until you have moved all of your weight to the left! DO NOT PICK UP A CLUB UNTIL THIS IS PERFECT!

Golf lessons do not have to be as complicated as many instructors make them sound. If you will practice my three simple "muscle memory" swing tips, I guarantee you will become a much better golfer, and you will enjoy the game more than ever.

Security Is Tight At Quail Hollow Championship!

2010-04-26T13:04:00.002-07:00

Today marks the beginning of the Quail Hollow Championship golf tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina . Players took to the course today for the beginning of the pro-am tournament.

Security is tight at the tournament. Police officers and independent security personnel patrol the course, and stand at the front gate, checking bags and purses and using metal detecting wands on visitors.

The tournament must provide security for more than 150 players. Most of us golfers who will watch the tournament on TV, or even attend the tournament in person, seldom realize all the work that is involved with operating a professional golf tournament.

The Quail Hollow Championship, like any PGA Tour event, cannot operate without volunteers. The Quail Hollow Championship is one of the premier stops on the PGA Tour, placing a national and international spotlight on Charlotte, NC.

Probably the most exciting fact about the tournament this year is the presence of both Tiger Woods and Phil Michelson in the competition. Many TV golf commentators did not think that Tiger would compete again so soon after the Masters, especially when Tiger ducked the question when he was asked the final day of the Masters when he would compete again on tour. His comment? "I'm going to take some more time off...."

I believe another very popular player, Fred Couples, is also planning to play at Quail Hollow, instead of playing in this week's Champions' Tour event.

Overall, this tournament should make for good entertainment, but it will be hard to surpass last week's Zurich Classic winner's story in New Orleans. I was touched by the story of Jason Bohn winning the $1 million + first place prize, 18 years after he entered a charity Hole-In-One event as a freshman in college and won $50,000 per year for twenty years. He has two payments left to go. Now he is over $1 million richer, and has a two-year exemption on tour, and an invitation to next year's Masters.

His birdeying three of the last four holes yesterday was the finishing touch to a great story all week long.

A Troubled Sergio Garcia?

2010-04-24T16:37:00.001-07:00

I was watching the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on TV today, and the commentators were talking about why Sergio Garcia went from the #2 golfer in the world to #29 in the last three years. They agreed it was his attitude.

Sergio no longer enjoys playing golf. His temper shows on almost every shot. He rarely smiles when playing in a tournament. One commentator mentioned that Sergio looks like he has troubles off the course, which will effect his play on the course.

I immediately wondered if Sergio had woman troubles. Then I was reminded of last July when I was watching Tiger's play in the Open Championship on Friday, the day he missed the cut. He was cussing more than usual, and throwing clubs. I jokingly told my brother that Tiger must be having woman troubles. Little did any of us know that by November his world of women troubles would come down around his ears.

Sergio isn't married, is he? But he could be having trouble with someone he is dating, right? I don't know who he has been dating lately, but it would not surprise me if he is having girl problems.

Does anyone know what his personal life is all about these days?

"We Need More People Like You in Sports, Brian Davis."

2010-04-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Last week Englishman Brian Davis called a penalty on himself on the first hole of his sudden death playoff with Jim Furyk, losing the playoff as a result. Davis is still trying to win his first PGA tournament in the United States.

Davis contemplated taking a drop out of the junk beside the green in the playoff, but decided his best chance of winning the tournament was if he could pull off the shot out of the sand and weeds beside the green.

"You're not playing for second, but playing to win," Davis said.

After five months without Tiger Woods, due to his time off to regroup from the story of his infidelities, golf needed Brian Davis worse than Davis needed to win his first tournament on the PGA Tour. Brian Davis is a golfer, and golfers don't cheat, at least not on the golf course.

The golf community understood. They patted Davis on the back, and two prominent players on the senior tour called and thanked him for restoring some sense of integrity to the game. But what shocked Davis more was the reaction from people who don't play golf. The e-mails and phone calls came in on Monday from around the country. Said Davis, "It was mostly people wanting to say that we need more people like you in sports."

To be honest, I don't know what the hullabaloo is all about. Maybe that's because I've played golf for over 50 years, and golf teaches honesty and integrity, so I always expect golfers to do the right thing. It has been my policy to never hire an employee without first playing 18 holes with him or her. And a PGA Tour player calling a penalty on himself is nothing new. I happens all the time on tour.

If you have the time, watch the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on TV this weekend. Davis is tied for the lead, and it would be a wonderful conclusion to a great story if he were to finally win his first PGA Tour event in six years the week after he called a penalty on himself.

Tiger and Phil in the Limelight Again

2010-04-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

After Phil Michelson won The Masters this year, Tiger Woods, who finished fourth, complained about how poorly he had played in his first tournament since leaving the PGA Tour last November. When asked when he would play again, Tiger indicated he was going to take some more time off from the tour.

It was speculated that he might not play again until the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June. But Tiger has evidently reported that he will play in next week's Quail Hollow Championship, where Phil Michelson is supposed to be playing as well.

The world's number one and number two will once again be favored to win at Quail Hollow. Which one has the better chance to win? I believe it will be the player who has the best attitude about himself at the time of the tournament, since we all know that golf is played in a five inch wide area, the space between the ears.

I commented right after The Masters that I witnessed quite a few spectators whose body language indicated they were not in Tiger's corner. Those viewers probably thought Tiger had returned to competition too early, and that he should have taken care of his marital problems first.

The crowds at Quail Hollow will be more spontaneous than the attendees at The Masters, and may show more animosity toward Tiger than did the usually subdued crowds at The Masters.

Remember how poorly Tiger played at last year's Open Championship, when he didn't even make the cut. I commented to my brother at the time that Tiger must have had some problems on his mind during that poor play, possibly women problems that preceded the public learning about all of his women later on in November.

If Tiger has his marriage on his mind in two weeks, Phil may have an edge in the competition between the two. I suggest we all watch Tiger closely, to see if his head is clear, or if he seems still troubled. I assure you it will make a difference in his performance.

What Separates Golf From Most Professional Sports?

2010-04-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

At a time when many professional athletes find themselves in trouble with the law, PGA Tour players continue to show why golf is indeed a gentleman's game.

Brian Davis was on the first hole of his sudden death playoff with Jim Furyk yesterday when he called a penalty on himself, and lost the playoff due to the two-stroke penalty that was imposed on him as a result. Brian couldn’t deny what he saw and felt during his backswing and knew he was honor-bound to tell the world.

He had ticked a loose reed during his backswing Sunday on the first playoff hole, and then called the official over to tell the official what had happened during the playoff at the Verizon Heritage.

The two-stroke penalty gave Furyk the victory.

“It’s just awkward to see it happen at such a key moment in the golf tournament,” Furyk said. “Awkward for him to lose that way, and a little awkward for me to win.”

Professional golf has a long history of players calling penalties on themselves, usually costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money for doing so.

Can you imagine a football game where a center raises his hand after a play and tells the officials he held the rushing linebacker on the previous play, and that his team's ten yard gain should be called back?

Never happen, right?

Over the last 40 years, I have always interviewed prospective new employees or potential business associates over 18 holes of golf. I can learn more about an individual during 18 holes of golf than I can over a conference table.

That is one reason I started Reciprocal Golf in 2003, to allow businessmen to entertain guests, clients, or other businessmen while playing private country clubs.

Have you used golf to help promote your business?

Will Tiger and Elin remain married?

2010-04-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

The rumors surrounding Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, seem to imply that their marriage is over. When Tiger returned to the PGA Tour last week and the Masters, the year's first major, Elin was not present.

Since last November, when reports of his infidelity became public knowledge, Tiger has been busy trying to show his wife that he has changed, and is seeking help. But in my opinion, many viewers at the Masters showed me body language that indicated they felt Tiger did not deserve to be there.

Many in the crowd seemed to indicate from their reactions to some of Tiger's shots that he should have taken care of his marriage before returning to competition.

So what does the future hold for Tiger's and Elin's marriage? It has been reported over the internet that Elin has been talking to her attorney about filing for divorce, and is just calculating when will be the best time to announce her decision to file.

Do you think she will file, or do you think they have a chance to stay together?

Tiger Woods's Return To The PGA Tour

2010-04-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods returned to competitive golf at the Masters last week in a carefully orchestrated plan to minimize media involvement.

The Masters only allowed 96 entrants, compared to the usual 156 players at regular tour events. And the size of the crowd is always limited at the Masters compared to most PGA tournaments, with weekly badges sold out many months in advance.

Although the press announced that Tiger was welcomed with open arms by the media and the viewers, that was not completely accurate. While most television viewers watched Tiger hit shot after shot, I was busy watching the crowd reaction to many of his shots. I was surprised how many viewers showed body language that did not indicate they favored Tiger's appearance back on tour since his infidelities became public knowledge last November.

When Tiger hit his second shot on one par-4 on Sunday, and his ball rolled sideways over 30 feet on the green into the hole for an eagle, I watched one man behind the ropes with his arms folded across his chest and shaking his head side to side. I could read his mind; he did not think Tiger deserved to score an eagle on the hole.

After Tiger finished fourth in the tournament, I felt his comments smelled of sour grapes. All he did was talk about how badly he played, instead of complimenting Phil Michelson for his win. When he was asked when he would play again on tour, he said he was still going to take time off from playing, as if he sensed that many viewers felt that he came back too soon, without taking care of his marriage first and foremost.

Did Tiger come back too soon, and will his marriage survive? Let me know what you think.

Jerry Rice To Try Professional Golf?

2010-04-14T10:21:00.001-07:00

Have you heard that former football star Jerry Rice is planning to give the PGA Tour a try?

I'm sorry, but this is not the first time a former star from a sport outside of golf has thought he can play professional golf competitively. I remember when basketball star Michael Jordan thought he could compete in the United States Amateur Championship a few years ago.

Amateurs have to be a "2" handicap or better to enter the U.S. Amateur. Jordan signed up to play, and I don't believe he broke 80 at the first level of competition.

I would like to hear from anyone who thinks Jerry Rice has a snowball's chance in "H*$#" of making the cut in any Nationwide tournament.

Michelson Wins Third Masters!

2010-04-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Phil Michelson won his third Masters Sunday with some of the most amazing shots in Masters history!

The defining moment of his final round came on the 13th hole Sunday, when his tee shot ended up on the pine straw behind a tree to the right of the fairway. Lee Westwood, playing with Phil, was also in the pine straw and laid up with his second shot.

I thought Phil would lay up also after seeing the tree directly in front of his ball, but not "Phil the Thrill".

He lined up his iron to the left of the tree and hooked his ball around the tree, onto the very front of the green behind Ray's Creek, coming to rest three feet from the hole. It was the most miraculous shot I have ever witnessed at the Masters in the 40+ years I've watched the Masters.

Westwood made the tournament interesting when he birdied the 17th, puting pressure on Phil to make his six-foot par putt. If Phil missed it, he would have only had a one-shot lead going into the 18th. But he made his par, then birdied the 18th to win by three shots.

The 2010 Masters

2010-04-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

The opening round at this year's Masters was exciting, to say the least. Tiger showed that his game is as good as it ever was, even though he took five months off from competitive golf. In fact, Tiger's 68 yesterday was three shots better than his best Masters start ever!

Tom Watson's round was as magical as his leading last year's Open Championship after three rounds, at the age of 59. Tom is now sixty year's old. Another pleasant surprise was Fred Couples' 66 to top the leaderboard after 18 holes, at the age of 50.

Today's round should balance out the field, since early players yesterday will play late today. As long as the weather today is similar to yesterday's, the course conditions should balance out for every player.

Once the weekend arrives, and players at the same score will play together, the course conditions will be fair for the entire field.

Tom Watson is not as long off the tee as he was when he was younger, so it will be interesting to see if he can hang in there against the younger, longer hitters as the tournament committee toughens up the course going into Saturday and again on Sunday.

Let's all watch the play today to see who makes the cut for the weekend.

Phil Mickelson in the News Again

2010-01-31T10:03:00.000-08:00

PHIL MICKELSON is in the news again, as he should be when the subject is professional golf. He is opening his 2010 season at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA, and with Tiger on the sidelines for who knows how long, Phil is the Number One active player in the world.

Unfortunately, who wins at Torrey Pines this week is second to the controversy surrounding Phil's use of a Pre-1990 PING wedge. As we discussed in December, the rules of golf have made a huge change backwards regarding what golf equipment is legal on the PGA Tour in 2010. Golf equipment has been improved upon over the decades, but this year the USGA decided they were going to eliminate the benefit of square grooves, and go back to what was legal almost twenty years ago!

Phil, as well as several other tour players, is using a PING wedge that has square grooves, and it is legal to do so as far as the Tour is concerned due to a lawsuit brought against the PGA Tour by PING back in the 1990s. But several tour players have publicly slandered Phil for using the wedge, most notably Scott McCarron. McCarron publicly accused Phil of cheating! Those are strong words on the PGA Tour, especially when they are directed at Mickelson. He is not only one of the most squeaky clean players on tour, his entire eighteen-year history has been just that; and at a time when the Tour needs its stars after the Tiger Woods fiasco, it does not need its best player referred to as a cheater!

I for one support Phil's decision to play the PING wedge, and support every player who chooses to do so, as long as the Tour states it is legal. If that governing body decides to change that status, then obviously Phil will go along with that decision.

Let me know what you think.

What Will Phil Mickelson Do Next?

2009-12-17T19:03:00.000-08:00

What will Phil do next? Wasn't that the opening question in a TV commercial?

Do you remember when Phil first put two drivers in his bag? I believe it was at the 2006 Bellsouth Classic.

As a custom golf set fitting expert at Probe Golf from 1987 through 2002, I know what is involved with making a driver that will hook or fade. I can understand what Phil was attempting to do with the two drivers. And it worked! He not only won the 2006 Bellsouth Classic going away, but he also won the Masters the next week!

My question to Phil is, "Why did you stop playing the two drivers?"

One driver was 46 inches, the other was 45 inches. With the 46-inch driver, Mickelson said he hit a 305-yard draw; with the 45-incher, he hit a 290-yard cut.

That made sense to me. There are many ways to change how the ball flies off a driver; the loft, the lie, the stiffness (flex), the flex point (low, mid, or high), the torque, the length, the grip size, etc.

So, if anyone knows why Phil stopped using the two drivers, I would like to know. I haven't been able to find the answer on the Internet. And if anyone has another example of a well-known golfer doing something similar, please share it with us.

Steve Stricker moving to No. 1?

2009-12-17T09:01:00.001-08:00

Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly won Greg Norman's Shark Shootout on Sunday, closing with a 13-under 59 in the final-round scramble for a one-stroke victory over three teams.

Stricker made an eagle on the par-5 17th - hitting the second shot and the putt - to give the team the lead. Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes, three strokes ahead of Kelly and Stricker with five holes to play, both missed birdie putts on No. 18 that would have forced a playoff.

You may recall that a month ago I predicted Phil Mickelson would pass Tiger as the best player in the world in 2010. That was before Tiger took himself out of the race due to his marriage problems. I also predicted that Steve Stricker would give Phil a run for his money for the Number One spot. Steve is not only one of the best putters on tour, his short backswing, with minimal twist break make him one of the most consistent players on tour.

Most amateurs make the mistake of taking a long backswing, which causes them to transfer too much weight onto their left foot at the top. This results in a reverse weight shift. Try keeping your right elbow tight to your right side on the backswing. If your right elbow moves away from your right side, you have gone too far back. You may have heard Johnny Miller comment about Stricker's short backswing with very little wrist break. Try it yourself, and you will be a more consistent, and more accurate player.

What other top golfer do you think will contend in for the top spot on tour in 2010?

Phil Mickselson has the Upper Hand Now!

2009-12-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

I came across this article yesterday, and wanted to share it with you. It was written by Jack McCallum:

When it comes to Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson, it's clear who has the upper hand now.

The world's two best golfers stare out at me from two quite different places. Over here, a tabloid newspaper carries an action shot of Tiger Woods splashed next to a photo of — if I'm not mistaken — Bimbo No. 4, though it could be Bimbo No. 2, unless it's Bimbo No. 7. And over here, from a full-page ad in the New Yorker, Phil Mickelson gazes squarely into the camera with a CEO's self-assuredness, arms folded, hair coiffed, left sleeve casually rolled up to display a Rolex. "The People's Champion" reads the ad copy.

Mickelson is indeed that, though it is an encomium I never quite understood. The fact that Lunch Bucket Larry related to Lefty, a multi-millionaire who seemed a little whiny, a little smug and a lot prone to collapse whenever a Tiger prowled nearby, (and even when he didn't), was, as far as I was concerned, one of the mysteries of sport.

What is easy to understand, though, is that — with the exception of the tabloids, the artificially-enhanced, show-me-the-money mistresses and the phalanx of attorneys — no one stands to gain more from Tiger's fall than Lefty, his eternal foil. Indeed, despite Woods's constancy (we're talking about on the course) and Mickelson's roller-coaster inconsistency over the years, they remain 1 and 1-A, the one rivalry that has outlasted Woods v. Els, Woods v. Garcia, Woods v. Harrington and Mickelson v. his own foolish shot selection. Woods v. Mickelson truly mattered, not just because of their primacy as players but also because they were, like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird once were, the archetypes of record. Woods the steely-eyed master of his domain, Mickelson the gambling, smiling, club-twirling man of the people.

As a fan, you were to some extent either a Phil Guy or a Tiger Guy. If you were the former, you liked that Lefty signed more autographs, made more eye contact and was willing to try more high-risk shots than Tiger. In other words, you liked that a human heart apparently beat under that famously un-sculpted chest. But Phil Guys had to accept the limits of their man. Mickelson has had his moments against Tiger — two of them came last season when he overtook Woods for victories at the Tour Championship and the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, a World Golf Championship event — but you knew which one had the eternal edge, which one was Mozart and which was Salieri.

Tiger never let anyone forget it either. Their feelings toward each other have warmed over the years; witness their bonding at the President's Cup. (Witness, too, that they were not paired together.) But the most enduring snapshot of their relationship remains the dagger look that Eldrick flashed Lefty at the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills in Michigan. Mickelson had just deposited his drive at the 18th hole somewhere near the Canadian border, thereby ensuring that their afternoon alternate-shot pairing would be as disastrous as their morning four-ball pairing had been. I knew this guy would choke, Woods's look seemed to say.

To the extent that I was either, I was a Tiger Guy, solely out of respect for his talent because I don't know the man. My resistance to Mickelson was not based on outside observation, though. I understood the guy's-guy part of him. We tossed around a baseball (he pitched, I caught), did card tricks (they were his), rode around at high speed in his rented sports car (he drove), and thankfully we never reached the point where he took me for everything I was worth in high-stakes NFL bets. But what prevailed, as far as I was concerned, was the I'm-smarter-than-you part of Mickelson's personality, the self-satisfied smugness. This was before he had won a major, too, and his air of bravado rang hollow.

My feelings have evolved over the years, though. Say what you want about him, but Lefty has remained Lefty. He has won majors (three of them), just like he said he would. He might have a plastic smile crazy-glued on his face, but, dammit, he signs every post-round autograph and meets every post-round gaze, just like he said he would. He loves his wife and children and makes sacrifices to his golf game to spend time with them, just like he said he would. Contrast that with what Woods said about himself. Make that, with what Woods seemed to be saying about himself.

Clearly, we have reached a new intersection in golf's most fascinating pas de deux. The contrast in their respective images stands in clear relief, the one a serial womanizer starring in a soap-opera domestic tragedy, the other a dedicated family man helping his wife, Amy, and his mother, Mary, fight brave battles against cancer.

Even before all the Tiger Tales came to light, one of the story lines going into the 2010 season was whether this was the year that Lefty could challenge him for the top spot. Maybe it will happen and maybe it won't, but, to a degree, Mickelson doesn't have to reach No. 1 — there were a lot of Phil Guys even when he was looking up at Woods. We're five years removed from their disastrous Ryder Cup in Michigan, and look whose lie is unplayable now.

More on the New Golf Equipment Rules for 2010

2009-12-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

The new golf equipment rules for January 1, 2010, have to do with the width, depth, and sharpness of the grooves on irons. Basically, square grooves are out next year; but it does not apply to over 99% of casual golfers until the year 2024.

Only professional tournament golfers must comply next year. That's why I started the discussion about which tour players will move up in the world rankings starting this coming January, due to their ability to hit more fairways off the tee.

Amateur golfers who play in most USGA tournaments will have to comply by 2014. So don't worry about rushing out and buying yourself a new set of irons! The ones you are playing right now are good for at least another four years, and that is only if you are a top amateur.

Will the New Equipment Rules affect who Becomes the Number One Golfer in 2010?

2009-12-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I mentioned the new rules change for golf equipment in 2010. I have also addressed the question of which player, if any, will overtake Tiger Woods as the number one player in the world. Before Tiger defaulted due to the recent marriage problems, I predicted Phil Mickelson would be number one by the end of 2010.

The rules change and who will excel in 2010 are intertwined topics, because hitting the fairway off the tee will be much more important in 2010. In 2009, big hitters could drive it 300 to 350 yards, into the rough, but still hit it close to the pin out of the rough due to square grooves.

If square grooves can't be used in 2010, it is obvious that hitting the ball close to the pin from out of the rough will be more difficult.

Tournament commentators this year have suggested shorter hitters will be moving up in the tour rankings next year, because they hit more fairways off the tee. I have heard Tim Clark's name mentioned as a likely candidate to move closer to the top of the rankings.

How do you think the rules change will effect who will move up in the world rankings next year?