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I just received this press release from the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame:

(Dexter , Mich. ) Sadly the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame notes the passing of Bob Babbish who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989. On January 24, Babbish died in hospice care in Florida with his wife, Del and children Byron and Happy at his side.
“Bob was one of the classiest guys around,” Hall member Glenn Johnson said. “He was an all-around player, long hitting and had all the shots.”
Babbish won many tournaments, including the 1935 Michigan Amateur and his top victory was the Western Amateur. He’s the only Michigan player to ever win perhaps the most rigorous test in amateur golf. He won the year after legendary Michigan amateur Chuck Kocsis was defeated in the Western final.

A hilarious video:

and the “Making of”

I turned on the television at five this morning to see Tiger walking away from a tee box, looking down at the ground, shoulders slumped. Few golfers’ body language tell you as much about how they’re feeling. I just knew that he was disappointed in not meeting whatever standard he had set for himself. A visit to the European Tour website told the tale: Through nine, Tiger was -3 for the tournament, tied for fifteenth and four behind. I would personally say that’s pretty good, all things considering. At this point, he’s in weekend striking distance of the top.

The leader in the clubhouse right now is Thorbjorn Oleson at -7. Hovering within striking distance are Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington and Charl Schwartzel at -4.

McIlroy has two double bogeys on the day and has fallen to a T13. Luke Donald is T32 at -1. His second double was the result of a two shot penalty for moving some sand on the fringe of the trap from which he was taking his stance. There was a bit of official discussion over this.

Morning stationary biking is over. Off to work.

Update: Tiger’s making a charge. Through 15, he’s in a tie for second at -6. Body language has changed, too. He’s happy.

Final Update: Tiger finished his round in a T4 at -5, along with McIlroy, Robert Rock, Robert Karlsson, Paul Lawrie, and Matteo Manassero. He’s doing ok.

Big League Promotions Golf Checkers

Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week

This is the ninth in a series on things to do to feed your golf addiction in the off season:

Make Some New Year’s Resolutions

The New Year is a great time to reflect upon the old, and to make some resolutions for improvement of your golfing life. Get out some of your old score cards and notes (yes, I take notes—don’t you?) and replay those rounds in your mind. In your day dreams, try to identify where things went wrong, and what areas you could stand to improve.

In my own reflections this morning, I’ve determined that I have two primary problems. First, I am too often hitting long irons and woods into par fours. That indicates a lack of distance off the tee. Second, I have an inordinate number of two putts, with a bogey as the result. That tells me that my recovery shots from around the green are not getting close enough to the hole to make a one putt a consistent proposition.

So I’ve come up with a four resolutions for the new year:

1) Improve my distance by losing weight. My theory is that with less weight around my middle, I’ll be more flexible. And more flexibility will result in a longer swing and more speed. My only question is how to go about it. My go-to diet in the past has been the Adkins, but it’s very limiting. I’ve also thought about just keeping track of, and reducing calories. That has more appeal, because it’ll still allow me to have a Coke or other evening drink if I plan it right in cutting calories elsewhere. There’s another benefit to reducing the calories: some studies have shown that reducing calories increases lifespan (quite apart from the weight related problems). That’ll mean more time on this planet for golf.

2) Improve my distance by increasing my strength. I’ve got a GolfGym PowerSwing Trainer , which is essentially a golf grip with a set of those resistance cords attached. My resolution is to use those three times a week to improve strength, particularly in the core.

3) Improve my distance by improving my flexibility. One of the very best things I got to review this year was the G2 Fit Self-Guiding Golf Stretch Fitness Mat . It’s a brilliantly simple idea: a high quality exercise mat with the stretching exercises printed right on the mat. No watching DVDs or flipping pages in a book. It’s all right there. I have been using it daily for a couple of months and will continue into the new year.

4) Finally, I’ll work on my short game some more—in particular, the pitch shot. For my money, that’s the easiest of the short game shots, and the one I should turn to more often. It’s also one of the three basic scoring shots described by Stan Utley in his excellent The Art of Scoring.

New Years resolutions are of course made to be broken, but over the years I’ve had a much better record keeping my golf-oriented ones than with the others.

Here’s the latest from Ben Crane, about his lost love—gymnasics. There’s also a charity element here: For every 100,000 views, Farmers will donate $1000 to charity on behalf of Ben Crane up to $5000.

Thanks to reader Martin for the tip.

Tiger Woods is T7 and three shots back of co-leaders Robert Karlsson and Rory McIlroy, having carded a 70 (-2) in the first round of the Abu Dhabi Championship. As of this writing, though (5:22 am ET), other still could climb up the boards. Graeme McDowell is at -3 after eight. Lots of others still are on the course.

Tiger hit 17 of 18 greens, but needed 34 putts to finish them off. He says he made good putts, but was “fooled on a lot of my reads” thanks to “grainy” greens.

It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Update: Woods finished in a T9, still three shots back.