Q&A with Ken Green: Less than a year later – His comeback, well underway

In June of 2009 Ken Green’s life was turned upside down. While travelling to a Champions Tour event in his RV, the right front tire blew, causing the vehicle to veer down a steep embankment and hit a tree. The crash killed his brother, girlfriend, and precious dog, all who were travelling with Green. Green sustained multiple injuries from the crash, most notably having to have the lower portion of his right leg amputated. Seven months later, fate dealt Green another heartache when he was informed that his 21 year-old son Hunter, was found dead in his SMU dorm room from a cause that is still unknown. Throughout it all Ken Green has shown a determination and positive attitude that not many could muster if put in a similar situation. I recently had an opportunity to catch up with Ken on a range of topics including how he is able to stay so positive to his earlier “bad boy” reputation on Tour.

Heeeee’s Baaaack! Tiger Woods returning to professional golf

Earlier today it was reported that Tiger Woods hired former presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer as his new PR guy, in an attempt to help him craft his strategy for returning to professional golf. Immediately rumors started swirling around as to which tournament will be the lucky winners. Many people have been speculating Arnold Palmer’s tournament at Bay Hill, a tournament in which Woods has won six times. Others are saying the Tavistock Cup, a somewhat “friendly” competition between two high-profile golf clubs in the Orlando area, which have many elite PGA players as members. It’s also being reported by a couple sources who are close to Woods that he’ll in fact be skipping both of those tune-ups and going full-tilt-boogie right to The Masters. The strategy of that makes sense. Augusta is an extremely controlled environment from a press and crowd perspective. You aren’t going to get the beer-helmet wearing, “GET IN THE HOLE!!” type of golf fan there. Ones that would most likely serve as potential hecklers to Woods. This, I imagine would make Stevie Williams job a lot easier then. At least for now.

I know I said I was giving up writing about Tiger for Lent, but I seriously wasn’t expecting him to be back for The Masters. So here I sit with some yolky substance on my face yet again.

Whether Tiger is back for Bayhill, Tavistock, or The Masters, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that he’s back, and let the wild ride begin. Everybody is waiting to see how he’ll be welcomed. By the press, by the fans, and fellow players. One thing is for certain, the landscape has changed for Tiger. Lets see how he handles it.

Reader Golf Course Review: Rustic Canyon Golf Course – Moorpark, CA

Thanks to Janky Tilter for the great review of Rustic Canyon in Moorpark, CA. You can also follow him on Twitter at @jankytilter.

Rustic Canyon Golf Course 
Moorpark, California

Rustic Canyon is the hidden gem of Los Angeles area golf. Located in Moorpark, northwest of the city in the hills, Rustic Canyon offers not only spectacular views but also an unbelievable golf experience at very reasonable rates. Choosing to walk it, you can play for less than $50 dollars, which is an impressive deal considering this course made the Golf Magazine’s list of the top 100 courses you can play.

Acushnet Company sells Cobra Golf to Puma – Keeps Titleist brand

No kidding on “keeps Titleist” huh? I saw that headline on PGATour.com earlier today and thought to myself, “duh?”. If Acushnet was putting Titleist up on the chopping block, first I’d think they were absolutely out of their minds, second I’d pool every cent I had and harass every venture capitalist firm in town to try and grab that up.

But anyways, yes Fairhaven Massachusetts based Acushnet Company earlier today announced the sale of it’s Cobra Golf line to Puma.

“With the sale of Cobra, we have the opportunity to devote all of our resources to the global growth of our industry-leading Titleist and FootJoy brands,” said Wally Uihlein, Chairman and CEO of Acushnet Company. “At the same time, Cobra is a strong brand with a heritage of innovation, and we wish the quality associates guiding the brand future success. Golfers and our valued partners will remain the key focus throughout the impending sale and we are confident that our customers will continue to be serviced to our high standards.” [On a slight sidenote, keep an eye out for Uihlein's son Peter to someday soon potentially be on the PGA Tour. He's currently a Sophmore standout on the Oklahoma St. squad.]

The sale of Cobra to Puma has generated many questions around the golfing world. With it’s sale, Acushnet also sold along it’s endorsement contracts. So technically guys like JB Holmes and Camilo Villegas are now “Puma guys”. Another speculation involved rookie of the year candidate Rickie Fowler. Since Rickie is endorsed by Puma for apparel some people are speculating. But as Rickie stated via Twitter earlier today, “I’m a Titleist guy.” He plays Titleist clubs and ball. I can’t imagine because of his apparel contract he’d be forced or even want to switch his equipment. I would think that would go the other way if possible. So in my opinion, don’t look for Rickie Fowler to be switching his equipment company anytime soon. But you may see JB Holmes sporting some bright orange pants and a big goofy Puma hat.

“Dr. Linus” – Lost episode recap and discussion

Hurley looking a little bit like Craig Stadler

Last night’s episode focused mostly on Ben…excuse me DR. Linus and both of his parallel worlds. Which I guess would explain why the episode was titled “Dr. Linus”. Genius huh? Anyways, as we’ve seen in previous episodes Bizarro World Ben is a high school history teacher, which is all too perfect because I TOTALLY would buy him as a high school teacher in real life.

The overall theme of this episode seemed to involve Power. The quest for power and the loss there of it. At the beginning of the episode Dr. Linus was giving a lecture on Napolean, his loss of power and his exile to the island of Elba, an island off the coast of Italy. I found this very interesting… being exiled to an island? hmmm… also was wondering if Elba has any significance. It spells “Able” backwards. No clue if it means anything but worth noting. During Linus’ rant in the lunch room about Principal Reynolds we see John Locke join in on the conversation and tell Dr. Linus, “You care about this place and if the man in charge doesn’t, maybe it’s time for a change.” Sound familiar?

We also see that Ben is taking care of his sick father in bizarro world. His dad is on oxygen and we also hear the first reference in this parallel universe of the Dharma Initiative. Ben and his dad still did go to the island and partake in the Dharma Initiative and somehow it had an effect on why Ben is “only a high school teacher”. Which I didn’t really get because he still got his doctorate. I’m sure we’ll learn more about this though.

Those who don’t golf nor follow golf, shouldn’t write about golf

I normally would never use this blog to go out of my way to bash a journalist or another blogger, and that’s not my intent here. Because I won’t say the “journalist’s” name, nor directly point you to the article. Many of you may be able to figure it out from my description below, but that’s just because you may be wicked smaaaht.

Earlier today I came across an article that was retweeted on Twitter. It’s title read:

“Ruling on Banned Ping-Eye 2 Wedge Strikes Fear Into ‘Cheating’ Phil Mickelson”

I came to find out that the ”article” (I use that term loosely) was on the website of a very popular sports cable news station here in Boston. Being one of the biggest sports cities in the country, you’d like to THINK  the station/website would be somewhat reputable. Below is the entire entry in it’s extreme brevity:

Lefty” has been battling many problems since arriving on the Tour: thick roughs, steep bunkers and Tiger Woods, to name a few.

But this summer, Phil Mickelson is facing more adversity as he is no longer allowed to play with his Ping-Eye 2 Wedge because of its square-shaped grooves.

Tour veteran Scott McCarron was “appalled” and accused Mickelson of “cheating” earlier this year for using wedges that are allowed under a legal technicality.

So how will Lefty react to the recent ruling that states the wedges are no longer to be allowed on the PGA Tour starting March 29? Judging by this photo, terrified. What should the caption be for this photo? Leave your suggestion in the comments section below.

Are you kidding me? I just can’t get over any editor allowing this dribble to make it to their website. I mean this isn’t the website of just some blogger who can post his opinions at will. The writer of this article obviously does not follow golf very closely at all, and also performed absolutely NO research before writing this. I of course am guilty of writing some pretty stupid posts in my day, but I can honestly say that this one takes the cake.

Fantasy Golf picks for the WGC-CA Championship

This week the PGA Tour’s “elite” head down the coast to Miami with the hopes of some better Florida weather than they experienced last week. There’s also an alternate tournament this week for those players not playing in the WGC, down in Puerto Rico, but thankfully Yahoo! Fantasy Golf is using the WGC this week.

I’m sticking to my guns and NOT picking Phil Mickelson this week as my “A” player. I just have to wait to see some better golf out of him before I pull the trigger again. I’m already down to 7 starts left for him and would like him around for the four majors. So even though he is the returning champion this week, I had to pass.

With the way Camilo Villegas has been playing, I don’t know how you can not put him on your squad. I know he may start to burn out a bit at some point, but I don’t want to be kicking myself for not picking him this week (as I didn’t pick him LAST week!). I’d also look for Anthony Kim and Vijay Singh to conintue their good momentum from the Honda Classic last week.

My Thursday starting squad is:

Anthony Kim

Sean O’Hair

Camilo Villegas

Ian Poulter

Riding the pine at least until Friday is: Vijay Singh, Rory McIlroy, Robert Allenby, and Tim Clark.

Good luck this week to everyone who has too much time on their hands to be playing Fantasy Golf, like me!

Poll of the week: Who’s the Best Dressed on Tour?

Camilo Villegas won the Honda Classic this weekend in style. In more ways than one. Winning by 5 strokes and complimenting that dominance with some seriously good golf attire. This prompted me to send this out for this week’s Poll of the Week: Who do you think is the Best Dressed on Tour? If I didn’t include them in the poll, choose “other” and let me know in the comments section.