GolfStinks

A Golf Blog for the Rest of Us!

Happy Holidays To Our Fellow Stinky Golfers!

| By | 1 Comment

The holidays are great. But the holidays are exhausting as well. Everyone agree? The running around. The hustle and bustle. The last minute everything! Sometimes you can feel like you need a vacation from being on vacation! Like you need to get back to work in order to get some rest!

Well honestly, it’s no different for us here at golfstinks either. Stinky golfers Greg, Pete and myself all work to consistently put up whatever content we can. Be it informative, comical, sarcastic or just plain off-the-wall…we’re doing the best we can to keep it comin’ year round.

Obviously, we do things a little different around here. As you all know by now, we’re not really covering/following the tours. We’re not reviewing equipment. And we’re certainly not trying to give you any swing advice! Lord knows none of us are qualified to do any of these things! But that also doesn’t keep us from going on about the game we love. We just do it from the standpoint of your average, everyday hack. And believe it or not…that’s not as easy as it sounds! Especially when all of us are working regular full-time jobs, raising kids, maintaining a relationship, family, home, etc. Or, all of the above!

Hence the need for a break/vacation. And friends, that’s exactly what we’re doing right now. We’ve been running around like chickens with our heads cut off for the past few days. So much so that we’re among those people who need to get back to work in order to get some rest! So until Friday, we’re not going to say a thing about golf except to say…

Happy holidays to all of our fellow golfers…stinky and non-stinky! We thank you for your continued support! And don’t forget…

Swing ’til you’re happy!

The Road To The PGA Championship

| By | 1 Comment

It’s Sunday afternoon and me and a couple buddies are watching my Patriots finish off the Jets, their biggest and most hated rival. During the game, we’re talking about some other teams (one of the guys is a Cowboys fan and the other is a Vikings fan) and some other sports – namely the MLB playoffs.

It’s during these discussions that I start to consider the regular season schedules and playoff scenarios of the major sports in the U.S. For some reason, I compare this to golf, particularly, the PGA Tour.

Back in February I wrote a post about the need for a real PGA Championship. The question remaining though was, how do you get there? Is the final tournament based on the world golf rankings? Is it based on the money leaders? Hopefully not. But if not either of these, what then? Well, I’ve added another idea to the mix, but it would require a radical change.

Currently, we play Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday tournaments. At the end of the tournament we emerge with one winner. But what if we used those days to play a series of one-on-one matches? What if a player could emerge from a weekend with a record, say 3-1, rather than finish “16th, nine shots back.” What if, rather than a money list or a ranking system that no one understands, there were actual golf “standings” with a win-loss-tie record?

I’m sorry but, whether you are a golf purist or not, I feel like I’m onto something here. Imagine opening up the sports page of your local newspaper or checking the standing on your favorite sports/golf website, and instead of seeing Luke Donald is #1 on the money list at $5,837,214.50 with Webb Simpson in second trailing by $68,971, you this:

PGA Tour Standings

Luke Donald 52-35-4

Webb Simpson 48-36-7

Nick Watney 47-36-8

Etc….

I gotta tell ya, this is a hell of a lot more interesting than looking at a money list. It’s a hell of a lot more interesting than looking at a ranking list. And it sure makes each match mean a lot more when you are working your way toward an actual PGA Championship. Plus on Sundays, when many players are out of reach of the tournament win, this format would give each player a shot at still playing for an individual win rather than an additional $500 or $1000.

Each player becomes, for lack of a better term, a one-man-team. An individual rather than a nameless face in the crowd. Players will have a chance to pull away from the pack to give themselves better playoff seedings. And guys who are lower in the standings have the opportunity to play spoiler.

OK, so it’s still a work in progress. But it’s also a refreshing change to a stale sport. I’ve still got a few kinks to work out, but I’m sure I’m onto something. I know there are going to be plenty who hate this idea. But I also know there will be many who may see some potential. But in the end, all I’m trying to do is come up with some ideas to pump some new life into a great but fading game. And hey, whether you agree with me or not, you sure can’t fault me for that.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

Golfers Dressing the Part

| By | 2 Comments

This weekend, the PGA Tour passed through Connecticut with a stop at TPC River Highlands for the Travelers Championship. Through a connection at my job (not my wife’s for a change!) I was able to grab a couple of passes. So I took one of my boys and gave him his first taste of professional golf.

We spent a few hours wandering the course on Sunday, stopped at some greens, sat at a few tees and watched from the fairway sidelines. But all along, I couldn’t help but notice something other than the golfers and their shots.

I noticed, and found it strange, that it seemed like so many of the people there to watch the tournament looked like they were about to step out on the course at any second! I mean, I don’t think I’ve seen so many shorts (yes, I know the pros don’t wear shorts) and polo’s since the last time I walked into Golfsmith! Now I understand that a golf outfit, for many, is no different than their everyday wears. But I still found it to be almost comical. I swear I even heard the clicking of spikes a few times!

I began to try and equate it to other sports. I thought of the last time I went to a baseball game. I don’t recall anyone dressed in full baseball garb. Of course you see team jerseys spread throughout the crowd, but that’s about as close as it comes. I also stopped to remember the last basketball game I attended. Same thing…a few jerseys sprinkled throughout the crowd, but nothing more. But at a golf tournament, any one of these guys could have walked down the fairway, and no one would have known the difference! But thinking even further, I begin to recall my trip to the CT Golf Expo where I witnessed the same thing!

But anyway, what I also found to be quite interesting was the difference in the dress of these golf fans. Looking at the older crowd, I noticed more of the classic golf look – plain, khaki shorts and classic, or old-school, polo shirts. But looking at the younger guys, I see more of a casual style – cargo or plaid shorts with an untucked polo. Of course, there’s always that group of the younger guys who look like mannequins that just stepped out of some combination of GQ Magazine and a pro shop. Those guys kill me. They look like they couldn’t possibly be more uncomfortable…and they’re just watching!

So what is it about golfers? Why do golfers dress the part when they’re just there to watch other golfers? Worse yet, why do golfers do this when they are just wandering through countless demos and product booths? Are they just trying to show everyone that they are golfers? Is that like doctors wearing their white coats to to a conference about the latest advances in brain tumor treatments? Or carpenters dressing like they’re on the job each time they walk into Home Depot?

I don’t know, maybe these things do happen and I’ve just never paid attention before. But, I guess as long as people are playing the game and paying some attention to it, then what does it matter how they’re dressed?

Swing ’til you’re happy!

Fueling A Passion For Golf

| By | 1 Comment

I’m a pretty big sports fan. Always have been. Although I was too young to remember, my mother tells me how my father would keep me up at night as a toddler to watch Monday Night Football. It probably dates back to those days, but ever since, I’ve been a huge football fan.

It was my father who really introduced me to sports. My first pro football game was with my dad and two of my friends. The first pro baseball game I attended was a Mets-Cardinals game, also with my dad, as well as my uncle and a neighbor of his. Even my first pro basketball experience, a Knicks playoff game, was with my dad and two of his work buddies.

I’ve tried to do the same with my boys. I’ve taken them to their first pro baseball game as well as their first pro basketball game. We’re still working on football and a PGA Tour event is also on the horizon. I’ve found that a father-son connection helps create a love, or passion, for sports in general. But along the way, I’ve also discovered something else that has fueled my passion for sports…memorabilia.

Sports memorabilia helps keep me connected with my youth. When I first started collecting memorabilia, I did it strictly for monetary reasons. All I could think of was how, years from now, I’d be able to cash in on my acquisitions. However, as time went on, I started to realize my collection meant more to me than dollar signs. I began to realize how the thousands of sports cards, hundreds of autographs and various pieces of sports history brought me back to a time when I didn’t see sports as a business. It brings me back to the days when I would come home from work at night to find my father in front of the TV watching a ball game, waiting for me to join him. It reminds me of those games I attended with my dad.

I wonder if this is a reason I don’t have this same passion for golf or golf memorabilia. My father played golf a few times…found he didn’t care for the game…and promptly retired his clubs. Therefore, I wasn’t introduced to the game until my fellow stinky golfers lured me in roughly twelve or thirteen years ago. Had I been introduced at a younger age, I may view the game differently than I do.

Now, years later, I’ve gotten my boys interested in football, basketball, baseball…and somewhat, golf. I’ve seen this done by having me pass along my passion for the sports. However, they have seen my collection of memorabilia and have begun to show interest just as I did, and right around the same age. Maybe that’s the secret.

So maybe it’s time I start looking into some golf memorabilia for the boys. Then again, maybe it’s time I start looking into it for myself as well. After all, I haven’t completely ruled out financial gain…

Swing ’til you’re happy!

Why I’m Happy Tiger Didn’t Win The Masters

| By | 3 Comments

Before anyone gets the wrong idea about the title of this post, I’ll explain. It has nothing to do with Tiger as a person. Tiger as a person will forever be viewed as, lets say, not the nicest guy you’ve ever heard of. But that has no bearing on this particular post.

It also has nothing to do with Tiger’s ego. You know, that ego that never just comes out and says, “He played better than me.” Rather, the ego just makes excuses for why he lost. That also has no bearing on this post. Nope, it’s none of those things.

What makes me happy about it is the fact that, for a few days anyway, the younger and/or lesser known players on the tour got a good amount of attention at a major! Whether the PGA knows it or not, this is just what they needed! Tiger made his charge, but Charl Schwartzel played out of his mind down the stretch! Despite his Sunday meltdown, Rory Mcilroy was the biggest news for the first three days of the tournament. Some nice performances by Adam Scott, Jason Day, Luke Donald and a good Sunday from Justin Rose may have helped the PGA out by helping to improve its deficiency in the player recognition department.

As we here at Golfstinks have said previously, too many golf fans have no idea who some of these great players on the tour are. So to see some of them withstand the Tiger Woods charge, and play right along side him, if not better, the PGA couldn’t ask for anything more! Some of these players are the tour’s future. These players are the guys people need to know about when a tour stop comes along that Tiger doesn’t think he can win (i.e. he’s not participating).

We all know viewership drops when Tiger isn’t there. And turnout at the tour stop itself is considerably lower. But it would probably be different if these other players were promoted properly, or even half as much as Tiger. So maybe the PGA will take this opportunity and use these performance that are fresh in the minds of golf fans.

At some point, the PGA is going to have to realize that Tiger is not going to be around forever. Better yet they should realize, for one or two reasons, the landscape of golf is changing. Either Tiger is not the player he once was, or the other players have simply caught up and no longer fear him. Either way, it’s time for the PGA to take advantage.

I’m tired of having to see where Tiger finished in every update. I see that Charl Schwartzel won, but immediately after that – Tiger Woods finishes fourth (-10). What about 2nd and 3rd? What about the two guys who tied for fourth with Tiger? This is exactly what I’m talking about above. It’s time for the PGA, and the media, to jump on the bandwagon of some players other than Tiger.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

Questions / Advertise

info@golfstinks.com

Disclaimers

See here

Privacy Policy

See here