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 Golf Channel now is accepting applications for participants in the Big Break 8. The deadline is March 31, 2007 and filming will take place in the summer of 2007.

I think The Big Break may be one of the most insipid show on television. TGC’s insistence on emphasizing the players’ catty comments makes no sense in the context of the program. It’s a skills challenge, not a social game. Snide comments on Survivor make sense because the players vote each other out based on social connections. On The Big Break, the players can all hate each others’ guts, but it won’t make any difference. The last one to break the pane of glass is out.

Still, if you’re a single digit handicapper and have no shame, you can download an application. You just might be the next Justin Peters or Danielle Amiee. Or you could do something more dignified, like playing a round naked on a Sunday morning.

Hockey is looking enviously at the advances in golf equipment technology. NHL dot Com reports that:

On the golf course, players can hit it further, straighter and more consistently than ever before. What’s happening on the ice isn’t much different.

“Look at how far golf has come using the composite technology,” Ned Goldsmith, Easton’s vice president of hockey told NHL.com. “And they’re 15 years ahead of us. I think there is still more that can be done. It’s funny, when the composite sticks came out, hockey is a pretty traditional sport, and the old school said, ‘What the heck are these things?’ and, ‘Why do we need them? Guys are going to be shooting 300 miles an hour,’ and I think they missed the point. It’s not that guys are shooting harder, it’s that guys can get great shots off without having to take a full slap shot, in less time, sometimes with one hand on the stick. It’s helped them create these highlight reels.

“Same as golf,” Goldsmith says. “Yes, there were some distance improvements, but now a lot of what you get is optimizing so that you don’t have to hit it absolutely perfectly and still get that distance. So I think that’s really what the opportunity is with sticks, which is very much in line, certainly with what we think the NHL wants to do, and that’s put the puck in the net. It’s in its infancy if you think about it. Wood has been around for so long, but composite sticks are really relatively young.”

They should be careful what they wish for.

Bret Melson has hit a hole in one on a 448yd Par 4 at the Ko’olau Golf Club on Oahu. The hole is the toughest on a course rated by the USGA as the toughest in the world. Ko’olau has a slope of 158 anda course rating of 74.4.

Previously, the longest straight shot hole in one in golf history was hit by Robert Mitera on October 7, 1965 at the Miracle Hills Golf Club in Omaha, Nebraska where he used his driver to ace the 10th hole from 444 yards.

His proud teachers at the San Diego Golf Academy have a video on the event. It’s pretty well done.

A Japanese professional golfer recently received the death penalty for cheating on a scorecard.

Not really. But she did get the equivalent of a professional death sentence: a ten year ban from the Japanese LPGA.

Ai Takinami got the ban after admitting that she altered her scores on two holes after her marker had signed her scorecard following the first round of the second qualifying tournament held at the Northshore Country Club in Ibaraki Prefecture on Oct. 31.

I’ve been thinking about this one for a while and can’t come to a conclusion on the appropriateness of the sentence. Clearly golf has to do everything it can to protect the integrity of the game. But this seems to be to be a bit harsh? Does a momentary transgression warrant the ending of a career? I’d say no, unless this was a trend. Would the JLPGA have done the same thing if it had been a name player, instead of a marginal 26-year-old who has never won? I doubt it.

I dislike cheating, but I feel sorry for her.