Jackson My Shot

This Golf Digest My Shot with Samuel Jackson gets off to a rough start ("If Darth Vader played golf, he'd for sure wear Nike"), but recovers quickly and there's some fun stuff worth reading.

Plays Often at MountainGate in L.A.

First there was the ranking of best golfing Washington thie...politicians, now the ranking world does Hollywood golfers. Golf Digest offers up a list with comments next to each celeb. You get an insight from the people you've heard of, or a description of the names that draw a blank (plenty of those).

My favorite: Sly Stallone, a beloved Riviera member gets, "Plays often at MountainGate in L.A."

Now that's a line Sly might want on his tombstone!

New Orleans Aftermath

A comprehensive story on Katrina's effect on golf courses in the New Orleans area.

The Onion Fun

From The Onion.

Ranking Rock Bottom

It's official. They've run out of rankings. Golf Digest ranks the best golfers in Washington D.C. Warning to small children or those with a low tolerance for &*%^$##@: way too many photos of politicians in shorts, straw hats and anklet socks talking about how politics would be more efficient if our fine Congressmen and women were able to play more golf.

Fo shizzle, I-ka-zizzle

For those watching the various golf events of late, you might be wondering after the 3 millionth airing of the Snoop Dogg-Lee Iaccoca Chrysler ad, that the course they are playing is Woodland Hills Country Club in (where else) Woodland Hills, California.

You know the ad by now. It's sandwiched between those 60 second Greatest Piano Solo spots that remind Tim Finchem he has a lot of work to do on the new TV deal. The punchline of the ad:

You know, I'm not too sure what you just said. Now everybody gets a great deal," Iacocca says in the spot.

"Fo shizzle, I-ka-zizzle," Snoop Dog replies.

Were you like me, thinking Iacocca couldn’t possibly need the money and yet Snoops to this level?

Well, don't I feel like a jerk after reading an article about it:

Iacocca is donating the money Chrysler is paying him to do these spots to a foundation he set up to battle diabetes, the disease which killed his wife. USA Today reports that Snoop Dogg told Iacocca during the filming that he has a brother with diabetes, and said he admired what Iacocca is doing.

"He's just a good kid," Iacocca told USA Today about his co-star. "I didn't understand half the things he was telling me, but it was fun."

Rational Exuberance

Lorne Rubenstein looks at some of the recent reactions to heroic shots and feels they're great for a game that has recently seen less emotion from players. Or perhaps, where we've seen more hostility from players when their fellow players (over?)react to shots. 

Knockdown Shots

The Orlando Sentinel's Steve Elling offers (Tribune paper reg.required) his always entertaining "Knockdown Shots" column. A few favorites:

News item: Residents of The Villages, a growing retirement golf community located northwest of Orlando, will attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Record mark for longest golf cart parade in a charity fundraiser on Sept. 4. The record is 1,138 carts.

Knockdown shot: Noting the average age of the residents and the heat this time of year, we're betting there will be a few dozen ambulances padding the back end of the procession, too.

News item: There was good news on the Appleby front, though. His peers, in a Sports Illustrated poll, voted him as the owner of the coolest car on tour. Appleby owns a yellow Lamborghini.

Knockdown shot: In the spirit of full disclosure, Appleby reports that he not only didn't own the best car on tour, but didn't have the hottest ride at Isleworth. That honor clearly goes to Woods, who recently bought a $450,000 Porsche Carrera GT, which he has since sold. "Made mine look like a Datsun," Appleby cracked.

News item: On the 16th hole, Appleby uncorks a drive of at least 400 yards in each of the first three rounds last week, an astounding feat.

Knockdown shot: A dizzying total of 40 players are averaging more than 295 yards per drive in 2005 - and so are three geezers on the Champions Tour, players who didn't hit it that far in their prime. As for the asleep-at-the-wheel governing body of golf, it is technology-driven stats like this that make me ashamed to be a USGA member.

Catching Up...Golf World

Still awaiting for the post-British Open Golfweek issue. My postman must really, really love golf. And work for the Pony Express.

SI arrives reliably on Wednesdays, with Golf Plus returning (for now). Golf World has been arriving fairly close to the intended publication dates for a change. They've even put some of the content up on GolfDigest.com and a few things stood out in recent issues.

The August 12 Golf World "bunker" has the amazing news of a lost Claude Harmon instruction book being found. They report that the book comes with Anthony Ravielli drawings and a Ben Hogan "forward."

The August 5 Golf World has this ShotLink note:

Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods proved once again at the Buick that going for the green when the opportunity arises often leads to success. At Warwick Hills Singh went for the green (defined as going for a par 5 in two or a par 4 on the tee shot) 19 times and played those holes in 10 under par. Woods went for it 18 times, going 13 under on those holes. ... Speaking of going for it, the field attacked the 322-yard, par-4 14th hole with a vengeance as 226 players had a go at the putting surface off the tee. And while only 25 were successful (11.1 percent), those going for it produced a scoring average of 3.46 on the hole while those laying up averaged 3.79. ... Singh hit every green in regulation on the front nine the last three days. ... Amateur Ryan Brehm was second in the field in driving distance for all drives, averaging 307.5 yards. His 358-yard poke on the 13th hole Friday was the second-longest drive of the week. Tiger Woods outdrove him by one yard on the 16th hole Sunday.

In the same issue, Tim Rosaforte writes:

Instead of concern and even dread over the South Korean "invasion" ruining the excitement generated by teenage rivals Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, there should be a reality check--and ultimately an acceptance--of the power the country has in women's golf. The victories of Birdie Kim and Jeong Jang--or "JJ" as players call her--should teach us that beyond the cultural and language barriers are stories and personalities we need to explore and embrace.

Oh?  And here I thought they were just fluke winners we could write off.

And as Jang alluded in broken English Sunday at Royal Birkdale, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the back-to-back LPGA major-championship winners, several USGA and AJGA champs also hold Korean passports. The danger lies in some of the stories being told of overbearing fathers, but as Sean O'Hair could tell you, they exist in all countries. Kim and Jang: Like the saying goes, these girls rock, too.

Nice synergy there, using the new LPGA ad slogan. Super, just super.

New Look, New Features

Yes, I've officially entered the blogosphere.

Please bear with me as I try to adjust to the new look and figure out how to publish the archive of past posts (if possible). This should allow for posting more often and for those wired into the whole RSS thing to be notified of posts.

You'll notice now that there's a comments section after posts. This could prove useful and interesting assuming the comments will be posted to add insights to stories posted, or to offer additional links, or to correct my mistakes. Or it could require registration, monitoring, etc... Hopefully not.

Thanks for your patience and thanks for checking in. And feel free to comment below on the new format.

Saturday Shorts

Everyone is excited about Baltusrol. Well, not yet anyway. Tiger tells Mark Soltau that Baltusrol was "brutal." And not much more. Jason Gore shook off the rust from his week off to shoot a 59 in Nebraska. One more win and his dilemma of playing Nationwide or PGA Tour events the rest of the year becomes a non-issue.

Peter Blais in Golf Business looks at the not-particularly-sexy but important issue of handicap access to golf courses and the ramifications of a Department of Justice inquiry. Rick Arnett at SI.com is the latest to take on the sensitive subject better known as Marc O'Hair and offers a unique perspective. Tom Spousta in the USA Today writes about a player debate on spike marks. And finally, David Feherty's mailbag is fun as always, though he's a bit tough on Rory Sabbatini.