Weekend Golf - Too Good to be True

You know the old adage, "if it looks too good to be true it probably is" ? Mmmm. Well just when it seemed the planets were perfectly aligned to enjoy Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie all playing in the same weekend, Phil and Michelle withdrew from their respective tournaments...almost simultaneously. Due to wrist injuries... or something.

Cleveland HiBore XL Driver Rocks (*updated)

...I played with my EWGA league at Vail's Grove last night and everyone was in awe of it. My drives were so consistently straight and long, that by the end of our nine holes there was mass driver lust going on. I don't normally inspire lust on the golf course. Not for my golf game anyway.

It seems the HiBore has a sweet spot that perfectly lines up with the center of gravity. At least that's the explanation in ClevelandSpeak, and supposedly that makes it very forgiving. Yes, it was definitely forgiving me last night.

Venerable golf blog, The Sand Trap, posted an excellent review of the men's version last year. I'm going to play with mine a bit more and write a full review from a lady's perspective. Who knows I might change my mind about it over time. Don't think so though, in fact, I can't wait to wrap my hands around it again. MmmHmm.

* Update - Check out today's post from Sean over at the The Deep Rough. It seems there's some indication that "...a limited number of Men's HiBORE XL 10.5 degree drivers may not conform to the Characteristic Time test standard established by the USGA." The good news is that my W-Series HiBORE XL, has been tested and determined to conform to USGA standards. I still say it has magical powers though.

Buffalo Golf Guy to Play 100 Holes in a Day

You may know him as the syndicated golf blogger, Ron Mon, but Ronald Montesano's got lots of other golf stuff going on too. For example, he coaches a girls golf team... runs a golf camp too. And now he's set to play 100 holes of golf in a single day!

Ron's taking on this golf marathon to raise money for Carly's Club, an awesome western NY organization that supports pediatric cancer research and offers programs for kids and families facing cancer.

The endeavor will take place on June 18th at Westwood Country Club, a charming, historical venue, right up near Niagra Falls in Williamsville, NY...just outside of Buffalo. When I suggested to Ron that he must be in amazing shape to attempt such a challenge, the intrepid golf guy let on that he was counting on "lots of water and power bars" to get him through.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it up there to watch him toil and sweat breeze through his 100 holes, but I was able to support Ronald in his efforts on behalf of Carly's Club...and you can too! Click here to find out how.

Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

As demonstrated in the chart above we had a pretty awesome Memorial Day weekend. The weather was fabulous and I played enough golf to be somewhat quite satisfied. In addition, we ate and drank lots of good stuff. Then there was golf on TV, reading blogs and golf stories, writing a bit, and sleeping/relaxing/vegetating. (Just so you know, athletic and energetic as I am, I still love to sleep/relax/vegetate and find it very therapeutic). Finally there were the misc. other pleasures which I won't describe in detail for fear of a "too much information" situation.

On Saturday, I hit the driving range fairly early, to get a feel for my new driver. I clicked with it immediately, as I suspected I would, then I headed over to my favorite little par three for some much needed work on my putting and short game. I played the nine holes twice by myself, because it wasn't too crowded. The really exciting thing is that I developed a new putting technique that seems to work like a charm for me. If it proves to be "the answer" to my putting woes I'll definitely make it known to everyone. Don't want to reveal too much yet though, for fear of seeming ridiculous if it proves to be nothing (like Nick insisted it was). Saturday evening Nick and I had dinner on our porch. King crab, and one of our favorite white wines.








Nick and I played Candlewood on Sunday. That was fine as far as my drives and putting but there's lots of deep rough at CVCC and I was no match for it. I think I've got to learn to handle that stuff. Somehow.

Monday we had Cat and her posse over for a Memorial Day lunch. Middle Eastern sandwiches...Sharwarma... which we LOVE, Tzadziki Salad and lots of fresh fruit. And we drank a special lemonade punch. Cat & I invented it, in addition to fresh lemonade it contains a touch of orange blossom water and a bigger touch of Vodka. It was the perfect end to the perfect weekend...and I hope the perfect beginning to an awesome summer.

First Golf Weekend of Summer

It's finally here: Memorial Day weekend... the beginning of summer... Yay!

I just spent a couple of hours catching up with all the golf blogs I missed during that crazy week in NYC. There were lots of good posts all over the glogosphere. Now that the golf season is officially in full swing, it seems golf blogging is on fire again too. And I Love that. It's soooo entertaining...and educational.

After a week of meetings and trade show activities, Business Golf was my logical first stop and Scot's post on the perils of talking business during golf was spot on. In another corner of cyberspace, the obviously metrosexual Traveling Golfer, gloated wrote about spa treatments created especially for Golf Guys, while over at A Walk in the Park, Jay Flemma has a sexy new avatar to admire. The world's best golf photo blogger Patrick Micheletti, of OneDayOneShot fame, featured a beautifully fierce photo of Anna Rawson in action, and over at Golf Babes we were treated to Michelle Wie in a fun, Girls Gone Wild ish photo shoot. Speaking of girls, Golfchick inspired some serious bag lust with a post on Birdie Girl and Ogio golf bags. She also introduced us to a an uber-cute, new female golf blogger who's aspiring to join the LPGA tour. Her blog is full of useful tips for those of us who um ...don't play so well. Sexy Siciclian golf blogger Lulu, has been posting prolifically, in her highly entertaining style, on Chicks with Sticks. She's included some awesome photos too. And, there was lots more, and I've bookmarked tons of links for future stories. There's so much to write about all of a sudden!

Anyway, this weekend I hope to be writing and playing like crazy. I'll also be working on my game with renewed urgency, because I just found out I'll be going to France at the end of the month ...where I've a date to play with the guys who first introduced me to golf, just over a year ago. I sort of um...indicated to them that I had gotten really good. Gulp. Yeah, I better get working.

One More Day of Meetings... Then Golf

We're back in CT. The National Stationery Show finished yesterday afternoon. We won the Best New Product Award, made some good contacts and took piles of orders, so I'm happy... happy to finally have time to read the golf blogs again...and to think about playing this weekend.

To me, Memorial Day Weekend IS the beginning of summer... and I love summer. I've got a few more meetings with my French colleagues, before they head back to Paris tomorrow afternoon ...then, at least for a few days, my life's going to be about playing golf, reading golf blogs, watching golf on TV...and just generally chilling. Mmmmm, I like the sound of that.




Mobile blogging was OK, but it definitely has its limitations...particularly given my lack of patience for texting...so I'm glad to get back to normal blogging. I hope to have my long promised swimsuit blog up by next week... I'm also planning on starting bi-weekly video blog. Soon. So...let's get this summer started.

NYC

A m ERicaN FoLk aRt

NY nights...

...lights in midtown.

NY Sky

View from our hotel...we always stay @ the Times Square Hilton.

Our winning product ...

Whimsical cards with stickers - for children of all ages. Excuse the mobile phone photo quality...or lack thereof.

We won!

Best new product @ the national stationery show. Yay!

Blogger Mobile Works - Sends Photo of Golf Shirts

Check out these cute polos! Only $20.00 at marshal's. I'm posting this via cell phone . Let's see if it works.

~~~~~~~

This is great. On my way home today I stopped at Marshall's to do a bit of shopping, found these cute Tommy Hilfiger polos for only $19.99. They had adorable RL polos for $29.99. Unique and beautiful colors. I bought a couple ... few. Before I left I snapped a photo with my cell phone (first time I ever used that camera phone) and uploaded it to Blogger Mobile. As you can see from the brief post above, it worked fine.

That's how I'll be posting to this blog for the next few days. I'll be in Manhattan till the end of next week at a trade show...the one I've been getting ready for for what seems like months. We're at the show all day and entertaining French colleagues each evening so won't have time for conventional blogging...enter Mobile blogging. Of course there won't be much text - I can't stand texting - but I'm going to try to get a photo or two up each day. Should be an interesting experiment.

Jr. Golf Girls Get Their Own Magazine

How awesome is that? A new golf magazine is coming out this summer and this one's for young... O.K. very young... lady golfers! The target market is girls from 5 to 17 who play (or who intend to play) golf. It's estimated that there are 2 million such golf girls out there, and the magazine, called Golfer Girl, plans to reach lots of them this summer - through distribution at golf academies, golf camps and junior golf tournaments.

Of course there'll be cute golf fashions galore, but Golfer Girl will also feature golf instruction and tips for girls, as well as stories on exceptional girl golfers and junior tour players. And lots more.

The entire venture is the brain child of a San Diego Dad and his three golf girl daughters. They also have golf trend and marketing consultant Nancy Berkley on board, as well as other perfectly suited golf professionals.

The bottom line is Golfer Girl is going to rock! And what could be better for the advancement of women's golf than a fun, fascinating, fashionable magazine for young girl golfers? They've got a website in the works too. Check it out for a complimentary copy of their first issue.

Supermodel, Rockstar Wife, Disco Diva...Recreational Golfer?

Believe it or not, Jerry Hall, the statuesque, blonde icon of 70s excess would now prefer to play golf than sparkle on the cocktail party circut or dance the night away in NY or London.

The ex-Mrs.Jagger is 50 now, and seems content with a suburban life outside of London; playing golf, writing poetry and spending time with her children. She's still a provocative interview though, as evidenced by this recent chat she had with Allison Roberts of the Evening Standard. "We're all getting old", the tall Texan muses ..."it's no big deal".

Next thing you know, we'll be reading that Mick has taken up croquet.

Women - Business - Golf {Updated}

EWGA member Laura Posey, a founding member of the EWGA Richmond Chapter, will be interviewed by Business Weekly magazine for a podcast Friday May 25 at 3:00 PM EDT.

Michelle Nicols, the Savvy Selling Guru from Business Weekly magazine is interviewing Laura about how women can use golf in selling. Laura and Michelle will talk extensively about EWGA and how it can be a terrific tool for women in business.

Listen to the Podcast here.

It'll be available for a week, starting on May 25. And BTW, I'm pretty sure there might be some good tips for guys in there as well.

There's a New Girl Golf Blogger on the Scene

...and she's definitely speaking her mind. Big time. Her name is LuLu and her new blog, Chicks With Sticks, already has a very definite voice...that of a golf obsessed, hot chick... who's also a world traveler, a fashionista and a ultra enthusiastic soccer fan. In addition, she's open and opinionated and liberated. Today she posted about the controversial situation with the golf coach and the Paris Hilton tape. Check it out, it's quite a read.

I have a feeling LuLu will be adding quite a bit of much needed spice to the golf blogging world...just in time for the summer season.

The Blonde & The Brunette - This Weekend's Winning Golf Girls

These two golf girls are emerging as legitimate forces-to-be-reckoned-with on the LPGA and Ladies European Tours.

The Blonde: Norwegian, Suzanne Pettersen - She almost took the Kraft Nabisco a couple of weeks ago, but finished second after an inopportune late round meltdown. No such break down occurred yesterday at the Michelob Ultra Open though, and Suzanne Pettersen won a 3-hole playoff over Jee Young Lee to claim her first career LPGA Tour victory.

The Brunette: Australian, Nikki Garrett - Yes that Nikki Garrett, she of the lavender sweater and recent GGW. The beauty who clinched the Tenerife Open just over a week ago, yesterday captured the Ladies Spanish Open with a closing 70 to finish at 13-under. Nikki is definitely on a hot streak. (and she's definitely hot, obvs.)

I'm pretty sure these two appealing young golf girls will probably be making waves for the remainder of the season and beyond. Now we just need a winning redhead.

Celebrity Golf Couple's Marriage on the Rocks?

That's what some are saying, but it didn't look that way a couple of weeks ago when Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones hosted a glittery celebrity golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club.

Ever astute golferette blogger, Fairway Flapper, posted about the Michael Douglas & Friends Event back then and I've been wanting to do a bit of research ever since...just to see if there's any truth to...those nasty rumors of Catherine cavorting with a young co-star...among other things.

Well, perhaps the May-September marriage did go through a rough patch, but if the photos from the recent tournament are any indication things are now back on course for the Movie Mogul turned house husband and his gorgeous multi-talented wife. And after watching the video montage below, I don't blame Mr. Douglas for wanting to keep it that way.

Naughty Nick Gets the Golf he Deserves

...for sneaking out to play while I toiled at work!

Do you believe that? Just as the weather here in CT has gotten really, really nice ... we've gotten really, really busy at work getting ready for a trade show. I know. It sucks, but you do what you've got to do, right? Well yes, unless your name is Nick, then you sneak out the back exit to "just play nine holes" while everyone else is struggling to get ready for the aforementioned show.

Well, the rascal returned a few minutes ago looking somewhat frazzeled. Seems the course was completely overloaded...with a high school PE class, a couple of bus loads of senior citizens and myriad work-skipping slackers executives and businessmen like himself.
Apparently it was ultra slow, very unruly and quite dangerous.

Yes, (I thought cheerily) he totally got what he deserved.

* cartoon by Steve Greenberg.

HT GUYS PLYNG GLF IN ROCK CTR

That's the text I got a few hours ago from my BFF, Ashley. She's one of those girls who lives in a hip Brooklyn neighborhood, and has a fabulous media job in Manhattan. She's single too. And really pretty. She'll text me these one sentence hyper-abbreviated messages from clubs and parties and restaurants all over the city. Often accompanied by blurry camera phone pics of her lascivious adventures. Nick calls her "La Texteuse Terrible" for obvious reasons. He hates text messages and finds Ashley very annoying. Anyway, though I'm quite familiar with her shorthand it took me a minute to decipher, HoT GUYS PLaYiNG GoLF IN ROCKefeller CenTeR. You see she's never had any interest in golf, so it seemed out of context. But then I remembered seeing Cameron Diaz this morning on the Today Show hitting golf balls with David Gregory on a Rock Ctr replica of the 17th hole at Sawgrass...and it came to me. She knows I love golf and share understand her appreciation for hot guys, so it was perfectly appropriate.

Anyway, this event, sponsored by the PGA and UBS to promote next week's Players Championship, sound like lots of fun. Of course Murphy's Law has it taking place when I'm to busy to enjoy it. I'm pretty sure Ashley will though, and who knows she might even find someone who can get her onto a golf course.

Sex and Golf ... in Dubai?

I'm ultra busy these days at my *IGFTJ...preparing for our big trade show next weekend... but not so busy that I've neglected my daily blogsploration duties, and today I was richly rewarded by the discovery of this engaging blog. The post in question features a group of Dubai golf girls playing at Jebel Ali Golf Resort, and what happens when they meet up with a group of Dubai golf guys. Think... Sex and the City meets Lawrence of Arabia. It's pretty steamy.

Dubai is a place I've been dreaming about for a while now, not only for the golf/spa/luxury thing, which is by all accounts stellar, and evolving at an uber-intense pace, but because it seems like a truly fascinating place; full of surprising juxtapositions, unlikely contradictions and really awesome shopping malls.

The fact is, Dubai is a contemporary boomtown, and one of the hottest places on the planet today ...and after reading Sex and Dubai I would venture to say the hotness extends way beyond its rapid commercialization and sizzling desert location.















The Burj Al Arab Hotel (Tiger's been know to practice tee shots off the helipad on top)

Golf Girl of the Week - Nikki Garrett

I haven't featured a Golf Girl of the Week in a while...not for lack of Golf Girls... au contraire, there are SO many, but there's been lots going on, and I can only manage one post a day due to my income generating full time job.

But, I couldn't resist Nicole Maree Garrett for this week's Golf Girl... and the post practically wrote itself. You see, over the weekend this smoking hot Aussie rocketed to the top of the Ladies European Tour money list by winning the Tenerife Ladies Open. 2006 Rookie of the year on the Ladies European Tour, Nikki Garrett obviously has talent and skill to match her way above par physical attributes. Those attributes are on display in THAT calendar...the one that got so much buzz earlier this year.

Nikki also has numerous fans among golf bloggers. My friends at Golf Babes have featured Nikki on a number of occasions and whether she's glamed up for a calendar shoot or in one of her cute golf outfits or just chilling in jeans she always looks great.

I just want to know where she got that lavender sweater.

Does Golf + Poker = Goker or Polf?

Either way the two worlds seem to be merging lately (or at least collaborating)... to the delight of some and the chagrin of others. Golf bloggers have begun covering this trend as have some other sports bloggers, who don't normally focus on golf.

Last month the ruggedly handsome (gratuitous, I know) golf blogger William K. Wolfrum wrote a perceptive post that highlighted the upcoming World Series of Golf, a new tournament to air on NBC that incorporates elements golf and poker in a formula so unique it's patented! Then, a few days ago, the prolific penmen at Oobgolf posted on "The Ultimate Game" another new "high stakes" tournament to take place at the Wynn Las Vegas in June.This one's being produced and televised by FOX. Snarky sports blog Deadspin covered both events, albiet briefly, so did uber hip-hop bball blog, You Been Blinded. Yeah, I think this qualifies as a trend...or maybe just a fad, we'll see how the shows do.

In any case, I'm all for it, you want to know why? Because...little known fact...Nick, though not a great golfer is an amazing poker player. Really. And he's promised to teach me. Soon. Next year were hoping to be in France for the Golf Poker Tour. The 2007 event is taking place right now and it sounds awesome. So before long I might be starting a new blog, I think I'll call it, Poker Girl's Diary, and one thing's for sure, I won't be the first girl to combine golf and poker...

















...Cristie Kerr raised $140,000 for the Breast Cancer Research at her "Birdies for Breast Cancer Charity Poker Night."

Spiderman 3 vs Golf

As my misfortune would have it, Spiderman 3 opens all over the place on Friday. I say misfortune because a few weeks ago I promised my cute but psycho little nephew that I'd take him to see it as soon as it came to town. So, long lines and crowds of unruly, popcorn munching, soda slurping brats youngsters are my agenda for this weekend. I think it's going to be inescapable. You see this boy is obsessed with Spiderman. Overly obsessed. He was the one I bought the Spiderman club cover for last year...when I got him a nice set of clubs. I don't think he's ever used the clubs but I know he's played with the stupid club cover extensively. in fact, he promptly turned it into an evil, annoying hand puppet. The thing is, this is a kid who spends most of his time playing FPS games so I guess his parents consider the Spiderman obsession a comparatively wholesome pursuit.

To add to my frustration, I'm swamped with work projects this weekend, and ...cruel irony... it's meant to be beautiful in CT! So, I'm just thinking... maybe I can get the kid to the golf course if I manage to procure a Spidey golf cart.

A Golf Blogger Among theTop Sexiest Bloggers of 2007 !?!

Yes, it's true, and I have no idea how I got on this list, but I've got to admit I was pretty delighted when I discovered it. I'm at number 6, just behind the two lovely blonde bloggers pictured at left. And that's fine with me, it just made me want to bleach my hair, so you might be seeing a blonde Golf Girl soon.

To be honest, the list is very (very, very) eclectic. It includes both guys and girls from all over the blogosphere, and appears to be based not on conventional notions of sexiness, but rather on a combination of humor, intellect and presence...as captured in one's blogging style. At least that's how I explained it to Nick when he reacted to to said list with a characteristic, "WTF is that all about???". And no...he didn't quite buy my explanaiton, but then again, Nick takes everything way too seriously and is rarely inclined to humor me.
















Frankly, I think what got me on was golf. Because I don't know if you've noticed but golf has gotten way sexy lately. From sizzeling golf professionals to the studly clebs and rugged royals now clamoring to play...not to mention the hot golf clothes and comely Caddy Chicks. Yes, regarding my position as the 6th sexiest blogger of 2007, I think I owe it all to golf.

Here's the full list with their blogs:

1. Jeremy Shoemaker
2. Darren Rowse
3. Guy Kawasaki
4. Jane May
5. Becky C.
6. Patricia Hannigan
7. Jennifer Slegg
8. Tyler Cruz
9. John Chow
10. Jason Calacanis