CLUB GLOVE Personalized Collegiate Last Bag

Display your college loyalties with this Club Glove Collegiate bag.

Go Blue!

The latest issue of PGA Partners has a column by Tom Lehman in which he reminisces about the late, great Byron Nelson. Lehman confirms what most golf fans already knew about Lord Byron: that as great a player as he was, he was a greater human being.

And then Lehman drops a historical bombshell (ok, perhaps it was only a grenade). Once, in a conversation with Lehman, Nelson let it slip that he had actually won 12 in a row in the summer of 1945, not 11. The twelfth, however, was not counted at the time because it was for a purse of less than the $500 minimum.

Nelson, always a modest man, apparently never mentioned it to anyone else.

The fact that in all of the dozens of articles I read on Nelson after his passing, this was not mentioned even once makes me wonder about golf’s historical record keeping. Such a thing would not have gone unnoticed by baseball historians, who pore over old newspapers divining information about even the most obscure of games and players.

Golf apparently doesn’t inspire such meticulous review. The PGA, or the Tour, with all of their millions, should commission a team of researchers to do just what baseball historians have been doing: trying to uncover every stat about every professional and major match ever played. (And if they already have such people then they aren’t doing such a good job if the story on the twelfth win didn’t come up when Nelson died).

And here’s another item for thought: $500 in 1945 translates to about $5600 in today’s currency. And folks, that was the purse, not the first place take.

JGH Golf Balls Photo Pillow

Ridiculous Golf Item of The Week

Plane Truth For Golfers DVD Set

Jim Hardy’s The Plane Truth For Golfers is perhaps the best golf instruction book I’ve ever read. And the new DVD is the perfect companion piece.

Hardy’s basic thesis is that there are there are two separate and distinct types of golf swings: the one plane, and the two plane swing. Both are equally valid and equally effective. The trouble comes, Hardy says, when elements of the one swing are mixed with the elements of the other.

It’s a terrific theory—and everyone that I know who has read the book says that they have benefited from it. Hardy himself says that he expects that if you are able to isolate the elements of just one swing, you will see an immediate improvement. You can read my entire review of the book here.

If I had one criticism of the book when it was first released, it was that some of the concepts were difficult for me to visualize. What it really needed, I wrote in my review, was a DVD. Apparently, someone was listening, because Hardy has now released a three disk set.

On Tuesday Nov. 7, following the announcement of the new Ryder Cup selection process, your friendly neighborhood Golfblogger wrote:

I like the idea—especially in doubling the number of Captain’s picks. In fact, I think that ALL of the picks should be Captain’s picks.

Two days later, having apparently read the post, Tiger Woods offered a resounding second to the motion. In a Nov. 9 interview in China, Woods said:

“In an ideal world, if you want your best team you have 12 picks ... The more picks you can get, the better it is.”

The GolfBlogger is happy to have Woods endorse his concept and welcomes the World’s Greatest Player as a reader to the blog.

Xeon Centre Putter

The Pinemeadow Xeon Center Putter offers many of the features of the popular Yes! Golf C-Groove series at a fraction of the price. Like the Yes!, it’s got the circular grooved face that’s supposed to make the ball start rolling more quickly.

The club has an offset hosel to preposition the hands at address and a nice, rounded look at address. The position of the hosel over the blade is supplsed to force the weight of the club behind the ball at impact.

As with all clubs by Pinemeadow, this one comes with a 30 day guarantee.

It’s been a rough year for John Daly, as he has battled through physical injuries and has recently filed for divorce from his fourth wife four months after she finished serving time on federal charges involving an illegal gambling operation and a drug ring.

2007 is not shaping up to be any better. Finishing 193 on the money list, he will be without full playing privileges for the first time since 1991. That means he’ll have to rely on sponsors exemptions to have any chance of making it back on tour. I can’t imagine him going through Q school.

I have a lot of sympathy for Daly—probably because I know a guy who is a lot like him who has had similar run of bad judgment and bad luck. My friend is a large, friendly, somewhat naive, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He’s got a heart of gold that has led him to become the victim of several rather evil women. And he has suffered through a list of medical problems that you wouldn’t wish on your enemies. He doesn’t have Daly’s gambling addiction, or self destrictive tendencies, but my buddy makes me realize that there are some really good people for whom things just don’t ever seem to work out.

I imagine that Daly is a lot like that. He probably had the best of intentions when marrying his first wife—and his second—and his third—and his fourth. I’m sure he was completely unprepared for the fame and riches that were thrown at him following his bolt-out-of-the-blue victory at the 1991 PGA. His various addictions probably took him somewhat by surprise. And no one can plan for injuries which pop up at exactly the wrong time.

I hope that—for both my friend and for Daly—things finally settle down and the next year is better than the last few.