Golfgal’s getting busy!

Well, when I started blogging last year, I did it because I love golf and I love writing.  Little did I know it would lead to so many great new friends and new opportunities.  I can’t seem to stop…I’ve got three blogs going and going and going…

In February, Golfgirl, Golfchick and I all started blogging for Golf for Women and it’s been a real blast! 
I hope you’ll visit me on GFW from time to time and my other Golfgal-Blog.  I try to blog daily, but it’s getting challenging to find unique topics to rant and rave about.  If you have any ideas…send them along. 

Always love to hear from you.

Golfgal

Golfgal has moved to www.golfgal-blog.com

Check out my new home…

www.golfgal-blog.com

golfgal

I’m moving…

Hello fellow golf fanatics

I’ve decided to try out a new hosting service, so I’m moving to golfgal on blogger.  Hope you will continue to visit me there and share your comments and stories. 

Congrats to Zack this weekend, eh?  Too bad about two-gloves, however.  It would have been nice to see Tommy at least get into the top ten to ensure he gets into the next event.  But I can’t imagine how nervous he must have been. 

I took another lesson with my swing doctor this weekend - Sandra, you are a wonder!  “shank-no-more” is now my middle name and it wasn’t about my grip or stance or backswing…it was all about my follow-through.  Hmmph…who would have thunk it!  Thanks Sandra.

Now…time to work on those 3 putts

Cheers!

See you on the short grass…

golfgal

WOMEN DISSATISFIED ON LINKS (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 27 Apr 2007, Page F4)

Hmm…this is sad news. How can golf courses still live in the dark ages! The good news is, however, that not all golf courses are created equal.  I play most of my golf in Vancouver and the surrounding area.  As I mentioned before, my favorite is UBC and it treats me and my friends very well.  In fact, UBC hosts the woman’s “Chix with Stix” networking club and provides discounts and preferred tee times on Monday and Wed evenings.  McCleery is also very friendly and so is Langara - both municiple courses.

I feel sorry for these women struggling with acceptance.    I guess I should feel lucky.   I used to feel naked on the first tee until I started playing with more men and watched their pathetic tee shots.   Now I feel just fine - more than fine - I feel good teeing off with the guys. 

The starters at UBC are great.  One even shared with me when Ichiro Suzuki was playing at the course (a secret he shared with me when he saw me wearing my Seattle Mariners Sweatshirt).  That sweatshirt now has a very prominent autograph on it and it wouldn’t have happened if the starter wasn’t so friendly and open to women on his course (and he’s no youngster either).

I’m sorry ladies that this still a problem in your area. Come up to Vancouver - they’ll treat you right up here!

Golfgal

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WOMEN DISSATISFIED ON LINKS
BY JIM MOORE P- I columnist
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
27 Apr 2007

A survey released last August is the latest available and offers interesting comments from women about how they’re treated at state golf courses. The survey, conducted by golfmarketingteam.com, reported that one-third of respondents rated overall… read more…

Tech Tags: Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper 2007 Golf Guide

Women Playing Important Roles in Golf

It’s great to see golf get so much attention by the Irish Times - a full 2 page spread on the subject and one side all about women! woohoo!

You go girls!

Funny, when I was reading it, it brought back memories of my past. I remember we continually watched golf on TV at home (we’re talking 70’s here).  Jack was our favorite.  My dad and brother played a lot, but I really didn’t get the chance.  I remember going out to “caddie”, but that’s about all I was permitted to do. It was still thought of as a man’s sport in my family - sigh…my dad is a little old fashion.  Or at least he was until my brother moved away from home and he had no one to golf with…THEN I got a whole set of clubs, bag and shoes for my birthday :)  I didn’t really enjoy the game then as I didn’t take lessons and so I got frustrated too quickly, so I gave it up.

Of course, as you all know…I was re-introduced to the game 4 years ago and I can’t get enough.

Anyway…enjoy the article.

Cheers

Golfgal

Anyway…

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Playing important roles in their sport

The Irish Times
24 Apr 2007

I Next week the 25-year-old from Dublin will take her first, fledgling steps on the Women’s Ladies European Tour when she tees it up in the Tenerife Open, some 14 years after she was encouraged to pick up a club for the first time. Her introduction… read more…

Tech Tags: The Irish Times newspaper Total Golf

Must I play golf to get ahead?

A friend of mine sent me this posting on the “Ask Annie” blog at Fortune.com.  It always amazes me that this topic comes up so often with women.  As you know, I love golf, but I never had to play golf to get ahead at work.  Golf provides an opportunity to socialize over business and to build relationships,  but so does lunch, drinks after work, a hockey game…lots of things.  Golf always gets a bad rap, however, from non-golfers. 

I hate hockey, but if I knew a client loved hockey, I’d get us tickets and take him/her to the game.  It’s about connecting with your clients/partners/associates.   No one HAS to play golf to get ahead, but it does help because it is such a social game. 

Oh well…I guess I’m preaching to the converted, but it bugs me when people whine about business and golf. 

Enough said

FORE!

golfgal

http://askannie.blogs.fortune.com/2007/04/20/must-i-play-golf-to-get-ahead/

My favorite golf course in Vancouver

Hi everyone

A friend of mine suggested I tell you about the courses I play in Vancouver, just in case any of you are looking to visit our beautiful city and enjoy some of our great public golf courses.  Have you ever seen Vancouver?  Ohhh…you just have to visit here in the summer - it’s the most beautiful city on earth!  Don’t believe me?  Here’s the view from my balcony…

 

 I play a bunch of different courses (which I will share with you in later posts), but my favorite is the University Golf Course.  I play there at least once a week and there are so many things I like about it:

1.  The starter and pro shop folks are so friendly.   They remember the regulars and are always accommodating. 

2.  The clubhouse is great - a lovely restaurant that appeals not only to golfers but many Vancouver-ites who choose it for breakfast, brunches, lunch and dinner. It looks like a club house for a private course, but it’s 100% public.

3.  The course is just long enough, just tough enough and just fair enough to appeal to all levels of play.

4,  They also have a good driving range (although I wish they would let us hit off the grass - NOT!). Okay, so they aren’t perfect.

Here’s what they say about themselves:

Carved out of the pristine forests of the University Endowment Lands, the 18-hole par-72 course is a favourite among casual golfers and regulars alike.

First played in 1929, the course at the University Golf Club presents today’s golfers with a mature landscape that can be challenging at times and forgiving at others. Tall, majestic trees and well established foliage line the spectacular fairways; it’s easy for golfers to forget that they’re just minutes from downtown Vancouver.

The relatively level terrain from hole to hole makes power carts optional and many opt to enjoy the tradition of the game by walking. However you choose to get around, your time on our course will be time well spent.

Back to my opinion…

I really enjoy the “back to nature” aspect of this course.  There are only a couple of holes where houses are even visible.  Mostly you are in the woods and I love that.  Of course, you hear FORE from time to time as some fairways are a bit narrow, but overall, it’s a very fair course with minimal water.  The hardest holes are 1, 2 and 12 IMHO.  1 is a par 5 with a grove of trees in front of the green that are a real challenge.  #2 is long and very uphill.  If you bogey that hole, you feel like you parred it.  12 is one of those holes which slopes severly left to right.  The pain of that course is that you get to the green and you forget the slope. You don’t really see it on the green, but it’s there - I guarantee, you’ll be surprised the breaks you’ll see around whatever hole placement they decide to inflict on you

Tee Time Bookings
Bookings can be made up to 7 days in advance through their website or by calling 604.224.1818. In season, it’s usually around $70 - $80 a round.  Advanced bookings beyond 7 days are available for a non-refundable fee of $15.00 per player and will be charged at time of booking. Book online (2-4 players only) for any date up until September 30th. For groups of more than 4 please call 604.224.1818.

How to get there?  Here’s a link to their directions.

I hope you enjoy this course.  It really is fun to play and open to all!  If you do play, please tell me and let me know what you think.

FORE!!!

Golfgal

An oldie, but a goodie

Halleluiah!!!  There is hope for me!  This is the best news of the weekend I think (and yes, I watched almost the entire Masters).

 

Can you imagine…shooting your first hole in one at 102!!!  And it was a woman too.  Woohoo, you go girl!

 

I often wonder if I’m getting too old for this game.  I started in my mid forties and it is such a hard game.  First, you really do need to be in decent shape to walk that 18 holes (or 5 miles) dragging a big heavy bag around.  I played 45 holes this weekend and I’m feeling it big time.  My “army golf” style probably means I walked 20 miles this weekend - not just 12

 

And Friday  I had such a bad round, that I was frustrated and wanted to quit big time. But my partner was patient and just said…”You just need the swing doctor”.  So I did….and my “swing doctor” cured me.  My shanking irons were all but gone in 1/2 hr and I really enjoyed my game later that day (my partner enjoyed it even more :)). 

 

Golf is a lifetime sport, a lifetime teacher, a lifetime social experience and a lifetime of thinking “I can’t wait until tomorrow to play again!”. 

 

I love this game and I love the people I meet playing it (for the most part).  I hope I’m still swinging when I’m Elsie’s age - if not here, then definitely in the big tee box in the sky!

 

Oh yeah…the Masters - nothing against Zach, but I sure was pulling for that cute Aussie (hopefully next time Stuart!) or the strong silent Goosie…and my heart broke when Ernie missed the cut…

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An oldie, but a goodie

Leader-Post
09 Apr 2007

CHICO, Calif. (AP) — Elsie McLean thought she might have lost her ball on the par-3, 100-yard fourth hole at Bidwell Park. Instead, the 102-year-old Chico woman became the oldest golfer ever to make a hole-in-one on a regulation course. Because of… read more…

Related:
Golfer makes first ace at age of 102

Tech Tags: Leader-Post newspaper Sports

WHY RUDE, BITTER VIJAY GETS A BAD PRESS (Daily Mail)

I was looking online for some reference to a comment Gary Koch made about Phil Mickelson last week when I came across this rather blunt article about Vijay in the Daily Mail.  I had no idea he was percevied as “rude” by the media (I guess I just watch too much of the golf channel where they seem to be so gracious to everyone). 

Certainly I was NOT impressed with what he said about Annika when she played in her first PGA tournament.  But this story about his car really bugged me.  I hate arrogance almost as much as I hate cheating.  Golf is a gentleman’s game and it would appear that Vijay was not being a gentleman when he (or his companion) wouldn’t move the car to a player’s spot. How petty! 

Now back to why I was searching for something on Koch and Michelson…I was watching Bay Hill and Gary and Kelly were talking about Phil’s honesty about how he couldn’t really ever achieve what Tiger has (or will) achieve in his lifetime.  I can’t remember the exact quote, but I do remember how they were saying how honest that was of Phil and “good for him”. 

Ok…But then, Gary Koch said that he was surprised because Phil is known for not being completely honest with the media about how he feels.  THAT surprised me - NOT because I don’t believe it, but because Gary actually said it on the air.  Everyone else (Kelly, Mark R, etc) said nothing…almost dead air…I think they just wanted the comment to go away. 

We used to hear a lot about how Phil wasn’t liked by other players.   I am not his biggest fan, but I was shocked that Gary called him “dishonest”.  Then I found this quote by Gary after Phil’s loss at the Nissan Open: “I kind of liken watching Phil Mickelson to why fans watch NASCAR. You’re always waiting for the wreck to happen. It seems like with Phil, good or bad, he seems to provide some of those thrills for you, from some of the decisions he makes or even with the shots that he hits at the wrong time. But I certainly think there are a core group of people out there that love to watch him just for that reason.”

It would appear that Gary Koch is also not a big Phil fan.  I wonder what’s he’s doing on the golf channel.  I thought you had to be a die-hard Phil fan to work there

golfgal

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WHY RUDE, BITTER VIJAY GETS A BAD PRESS
DEREK LAWRENSON Golf Correspondent
Daily Mail
21 Mar 2007

THE two sides of Vijay Singh were on show at Bay Hill on Sunday when he held off a world- class field to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. On the one hand, the consummate skill and determination that has enabled him to forge one of the most… read more…

Tech Tags: Daily Mail newspaper Sport

Tiger Woods Is Building A Washington Foundation

First his own tournament - next the white house?  Hmmm…interesting location don’t you think?  Who would have expected Washington DC for a Tiger tournament?

And interesting timing too since I believe he is going to become a papa around the same time.  I wonder if he’ll even play.  Chances are NOT!

It seems like we spend more time hearing about Tiger’s other adventures than those on the course. 

I think it’s rather sad, but we all have to live our own lives I guess.  Sniff…

golfgal

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Tiger Woods Is Building A Washington Foundation
By Sally Jenkins Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post
08 Mar 2007

At what exact moment did Tiger Woods officially become a Washingtonian? Was it when Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter raised their heads from a murmured conversation outside the Senate chamber to watch him stride through the halls of the Capitol? Was it… read more…

Tech Tags: The Washington Post newspaper Front Page