SONY rankings a waste?

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?

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?

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?