The Golfblogger is going to be in San Diego in a couple of weeks and would love to get up a game at Torrey Pines with someone. The best day for me would be Thursday the 16th, although Friday the 17th also could be a possibility.

Anyone in San Diego want to play?

Kevin Hall, former Big Ten champion, has won the 2007 Deaf Golf Championship.

Hall currently plays on the Hooters Tour.

I had no idea that there was a US Deaf Golf Association. As longtime readers of this blog know, I have a “profound hearing loss” as a result of the 1964 rubella outbreak. And although I’ve always thought that I should get more involved in deaf issues and programs, I never have. I’ve just been too busy with other things (especially golf).

But here is a serendipitous confluence. I think I’ll get in contact with them.

A couple of months ago, Rory Sabbatini made the comment that Tiger Woods was “more beatable than ever.” Sunday, he’s going to get another crack at it. Sabbatini and Tiger are in the final pairing at the Bridgestone.

Earlier this year, they faced off in the Wachovia, where Tiger won by five strokes.

It should make for some good drama—better, unfortunately, than the Women’s British Open, where Lorena Ochoa leads by six strokes. She’s going to have to work hard to lose that one.

Here’s a story I missed from last weekend’s Canadian Open: player Jay Williamson fired his caddy, Mike Mollet, on the 15th hole of the first round in the Canadian Open.

It gets better.

The disagreement apparently started following the 14th, where Williamson flew the green. The two got into an argument, and Williamson fired Mollet on the spot. Mollet then retaliated by throwing Williamson’s balls into a nearby pond.

Left without someone to tote his bag, Williamson chose from the gallery 69-year-old Don Alexander, who, it turns out, had actually played in the Canadian Open in 1962.

Alexander beat Gary Player that year. Player was DQ’d, and Alexander finished last.

Golf Air Freshener

I’ve joked for years about needing to design a “snow wedge” so I can play year round in Michigan. Someone apparently has had the same thought about playing on sandy beaches.

This prototype from Oakley is mostly hollow, except for the mesh screen at back. The head is adjustable from 12 to 64 degrees so you can use it for a variety of shots.

via: Yanko Design

When playing in casual groups, I’ve found that it’s a matter of good manners to complement your partners’ well played shots: “Nice drive” for particularly long pokes; “Good shot” for well struck irons; “Nice par” whenever appropriate; “Good save”; “Good putt”; And so on.

On a 525 yard par five recently, I uncorked the longest drive I’ve hit in years—a 300-plus yarder. The shot was soaring and long and straight down the middle. The ball bounced a couple of times and rolled for what seemed like ages.

My playing partner, Mike, said “Nice drive.”

For my second, I briefly considered a three wood to get to the green in two, but decided to lay to the 100 mark. Again, I stuck it well and Mike muttered “Nice shot.”

The shot played too well, though, and left me with 60 yards to the green. The flag was set just a couple of yards from the front. That’s a tricky shot: a three-quarter wedge with the potential to either come up short or – catching it thin – fly over the green. Three things could happen, and two of them were bad. To play it safe, I took out a seven iron and played a bump-and-run to a foot from the hole.

“I never would have thought of that,” Mike said. “Now THAT was a golf shot.”

I thought about that line over the next few holes. There is, I think, a discernible difference between a good shot, and a Golf Shot. An average amateur like myself might hit many good shots over the course of a round, but only one or two “golf shots.”

The drive was not a Golf Shot. It was just a long blast down the fairway; no thought there, nor planning. Neither was the second a Golf Shot. It was well struck, but I had intended to get to the 100 yard mark, where I could hit a full gap wedge into the green. Instead, I hit it too hard and left myself with a tricky third.

The bump-and-run was not pretty. Bounding and bouncing up to the green, it had none of the graceful arc of a lob off a sixty degree wedge. But it was a Golf Shot. It got the ball to the hole efficiently, and minimized the risk of error. I had considered all of my options, and successfully executed. It was exactly the play called for at that moment.

So on that shot, Mike had given me the best complement of all: I had made a golf shot.