I got this email from a producer at ABC and thought I’d pass it on:

ABC TV SEEKS FAMILIES WHO GOLF ENTHUSIASTS

Casting Producers for ABC TV’s Wife Swap currently seek families who are passionate about the culture, etiquette, and sport of golf for current season.

Ideal candidates would be families with school aged children (6-17) who have vibrant personalities and genuinely love who golf instruction, attends golfing events, take vacations centered around golf, as well as enjoy the benefits that playing golf can bring to the work environments!  All interested families are encouraged to apply.

All families featured on the show receive a generous monetary honorarium.  Referrals for families are extremely welcome; the more the better! The show
offers a finder’s fee to individuals recommending families who are then featured on the show. 

Potential families can live anywhere in the continental United States and should consist of two parents who have at least one child, age 6 or older, living at home.

The premise of Wife Swap is that one parent from each household swaps places for a week to experience how another family lives.  It is an incredible family opportunity to both learn and teach different family values. The New York Post says, “It should be called “Life Swap” because it’s not just the wives who learn something here. It’s the families.”

Thank you,

Rachelle Mendez
Casting Associate Producer
ABC Television’s “Wife Swap”/RDF Media
440 Ninth Avenue, 11th floor
New York, NY 10001
Phone :(212)404-2442
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

More information is available at: http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap

The GolfBlogger and his family are hopelessly mundane and don’t have any issues (I can’t remember the last time Mrs. Golfblogger and I disagreed on something.), so we would be terrible candidates. But I’m sure they’re looking for a more interesting family.

But one of YOU just might be the ones they’re looking for. Especially interesting is the “generous honorarium.”

And no, I don’t expect a referral fee for this one. You don’t even have to tell them where you saw the notice.

Lorena Ochoa—who quite possibly had the best season of any professional golfer last year—has said that her goals are to get to number one; to play ten years; and then to quit.

“There are things that make me a little sad, but I accept them because I have to make a sacrifice to go far,” Ochoa said in an interview with The Associated Press. “For that reason, I don’t want to play for more than 10 years in the LPGA, I would like to be a more normal person, to have a family, that God gives me the opportunity to have kids.”

That’s quite a statement. She’s been on the Tour since 2002, so if we take her literally, that means that she has just five years of playing time left.

I wonder, however, if it’s not just a little fatigue speaking. The twenty five year old won six times last year to capture the money title, the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average and LPGA Tour player of the year. She also was voted AP Female Athlete of the Year, and was awarded a national medal from the government of Mexico, her home country.

That’s enough to wear practically anyone down. If she really decides to quit in a couple of years, then more power to her. But with someone as obviously competitive as she is, I have a hard time believing she’ll quit. On the other hand, I would much rather see an athlete quit at the peak of his or her powers than soldier on thorugh one embarassing performance after another.  (i.e. Barry Sanders and Jim Brown v Emmit Smith).

The exception, of course, is Arnold Palmer. I’d pay to see him shoot 100.

Bob Zahn is a talented cartoonist who has turned his humorist’s eye toward golf. I have looked through his website and absolutely love his work. He has forty five golf related cartoons on his site right now, and I hope he does a lot more. He’s got a gentle sense of humor and I love the classic style.

Now living in Florida, Bob’s cartoons have appeared in Playboy, Harvard Business Review and in the products of various national greeting card companies such as NobleWorks, Comstock Cards and American Greetings. They’ll also be in the upcoming Chicken Soup For The Golfer’s Soul book.

Bob was kind enough to let me publish one of his ‘toons here, but he of course makes his living by licensing them for use in books, PowerPoint, greeting cards, calendars and so forth.

I never paid attention to what, exactly, constitutes a rookie on the PGA Tour. I had assumed that, like other sports, a rookie is a guy in his first year on the big tour. But that’s not the case. The PGA Tour has some strange notions about what constitutes a rookie. Here’s the official explanation from the PGA Tour.:

... its really quite simple. If a professional plays in his 10th official money event as a PGA TOUR member this season, he is a rookie. If this year he finishes in the top 125 on the Official PGA TOUR Money List for the first time, he is a rookie. If he earns money equal to or greater than 125th place on the TOUR money list, he is a rookie.

So that means that, out of 40 cards granted at q-school, only 17 were for true newbies in 2007, including 2006 q-school medalist George McNeill. Nine Nationwide Tour graduates will be joining their q-school comrades in the rookie ranks. That doesn’t mean some of the players haven’t played in many TOUR events before, as evidenced by Jim Rutledge. The oldest rookie on TOUR in 2006 and second oldest to debut in TOUR history, the 47-year-old has made 31 career starts and eight cuts, but not as an official TOUR member.

Now maybe I’m being a little dense here, but that’s not exactly “quite simple.” It seems that, unlike in other sports, where you’re a rookie UNTIL you’ve gained a modicrum of experience, on the TOUR, you’re a rookie after you’ve done so.  For example, in Major League Baseball, you’re a rookie if, prior to the current season, you have accumulated LESS than:  130 at bats or fewer than 50 innings pitched or spent fewer than 45 days on the active roster.

I’m sure I’m reading this all wrong. Maybe someone can make it more clear.

I’ve recently discovered the joys of podcasts. I have not owned an mp3 player, but I recently replaced a dead palmpilot, and the new one has mp3 capabilities. (It’s a Palm T/X). I use Itunes to subscribe and then sync the files to a 2 gigabyte sd card using a terrific bit of free software called GoodSync.

I just finished listening to a podcast interview with club designer Tom Wishon and then what should arrive in my email box but a note about USA Protour Podcasts. It’s pure serendipity. The USA Pro Tour podcasts offer audio tours of various golf resorts. I’ve listened to a couple and found that they’re well done.

A Hawaiian teenager made the cut at the Sony, and no, it wasn’t Michelle Wie. The kid’s name is Tadd Fujikawa and he’s just sixteen. Moreover, he’s five foot one and a hundred thirty pounds.

I wonder if this will make Team Wie reassess their strategy of playing in men’s events.

I’ve been reading a lot of snide comments by Tour players about Michelle Wie’s appearance at the Sony. (No Vijay is not among them). It seems mean, but I think there’s a lot of economic self interest in those comments.

One of the reasons that so many Tour players are upset with the tournament slot given to Michelle Wie is that—unless you are among the top players on Tour—it’s not always easy to actually get into an event. Each player on the Tour is ranked according to their accomplishments, and spots in a tournament are awarded on the basis of that ranking. You can find the current exemption system here.

It’s an interesting system, in that it appears specifically designed to protect the incumbents. The established players are given every opportunity to stay in, and never have to worry about being able to get into enough tournaments to stay on the money list. The flip side of this is that it is sometimes difficult for new faces to break in. The next great player may be out there, but just doesn’t get enough opportunities to settle in and get established.

I don’t think it’s a particularly great system for two reasons. The first is that Tiger won’t play forever, and they’re going to need new blood. New blood needs to be encouraged, but the system really doesn’t do that. Again, I’ll point you toward a book on the struggles of new players called Rookie on Tour. Your library may have it.

The other is a little more subtle: I think it reduces the competitive spirit. Davis Love doesn’t have to put forth his best effort each week (not picking on Davis. It’s just the first name that popped into my head), because he knows that he can always get a slot at whatever future tournament he wants. A player toward the bottom of the list, on the other hand, can’t afford to have an off week, because he doesn’t know how many opportunities he’ll really have.

Now given all of that, the slot Wie has is a “Sponsors Exemption”—one of the slots reserved for the tournament organizers, who can give it to anyone they want. The spots typically go to a local player, or someone else that the tournament thinks will be good for the event’s bottom line. And ultimately, if Wie is good for the Sony’s bottom line, that’s all good.

But I am sure that some of the players who didn’t get in are wondering if she didn’t take a spot that might—- possibly—have gone to them.