I’m a big fan of the Nick Hotchkiss Collection ties. They’ve got a variety of fun designs—including some golf themes—but unlike most novelty ties, these are subtle. The designs are such that you have to take a second look before realizing what it is.

Their latest is the Hedge Fund Tie—patterned with cute little hedgehogs.

As a complete aside, I have a friend who once had a pet hedgehog. Cute little thing. Not at all like the porcupine I expected. His German wife said that the beasts have completely overrun peoples’ gardens in Germany—sort of like squirrels here, I suppose.

Google Earth is a neat application that I had forgotten about until I found the Eye Spy Golf site earlier this week. Here’s a satellite photo of The Gallery At Dove Mountain where the Accenture match Play Championship is being played this week. There are a couple more after the jump.

The SG4 is Sky Golf’s premier version of the Sky Caddie. With the largest display in the lineup , it can hold data on up to ten of the more than eleven thousand courses that Sky Golf has professionally mapped.

On the course, the SkyCaddie will give you accurate distance readings, including the full depth of the green from any angle. It also shows distances for targets and hazards.

If you—like me—play a variety of courses, this could be the thing to save your score. Nothing can kill a round faster than a severe miscalculation on the distance to the other side of a water hazard.

The Golf Patents blog has an interesting post on a couple of new Callaway patents, including stepped grooves and—get this—“covered dimples.”

Sounds like something that needs to be surgically corrected.

The Cobra F Speed LD Driver is designed for players who somehow cannot seem to maximize their fast swing and ball speeds. The Cobra Speed LD/F is designed to help those players achieve maximum carry and accuracy. It does this with a design that creates one of the highest moments of inertia available in a driver head. The tuned clubhead and shaft promote a high launch with a slight draw bias.

Here’s the schedule for the 2007 PGA Tour. The season is divided into three distinct sections: the regular Tour events, the PGA Tour playoffs for the Fedex Cup and the PGA Tour Fall Series. All events are worth 25,000 Fedex Cup Points, with the following exceptions:

Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun: 12,500 Fedex Cup Points
World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship: 26,250 Fedex Cup Points
The Masters: 27,500 Fedex Cup Points
The Players Championship: 27,500 Fedex Cup Points
The US Open: 27,500 Fedex Cup Points
The US Bank Championship in Milwaukee: 12,500 Fedex Cup Points
The British Open: 27,500 Fedex Cup Points
Reno Tahoe Open: 12,500 Fedex Cup Points
World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational: 26,250 Fedex Cup Points
PGA Championship: 27,500 Fedex Cup Points
All Tour Playoff events (beginning with the Barclays) are worth 50,000 points

Continued...

For the casual golfer or fan, match play can be confusing. With terms like All Square, Halve, and Dormie, 1-UP, 5 and 4, Match Play is a whole new ball game.

Most golf tournaments are “stroke play.” In these events, all of the golfers play a certain number of holes, and the player who has the lowest combined total score is the winner.

In Match play, golfers are pitted directly against each other. A player is not concerned with the entire field—only with beating the opposing golfer (or side, in team play).

Scoring in match play is quite different from stroke play. Each hole in Match play is scored as a separate event. The player (or team) who finishes a hole in the fewest strokes is the winner of that hole. At the end of the match (however many holes they are playing), the player who has won the most holes is the winner.

The scoring system leads to some unusual terminology. The results of match events are not reported by strokes, or by the total number of holes won, but by how many MORE (or fewer) holes a player has won, along with the number of holes left in the match. So, if after 10 holes, Tiger Woods has won six holes and Phil Mickelson has won four, the announcers would report that Woods is 2-Up through 10. At the same time, Mickelson is 2-down. If both players have won the same number of holes, the match is “All Square Through 10.”