Archive | July, 2007

The wait for a European Major Winner is Over!

by Swinger on 22. Jul, 2007 in Basically Golf

Padraig Harrington won a nail biting play off against Sergio Garcia to become the first European Winner of a Major Golf Competition since 1999 and the first Irish winner since 1947.

The competition as a whole went right to the wire as it became obvious early on into the defending champion Tiger Woods round that he wasn’t going to be able to mount a serious challenge.

Harrington had a formidable lead going onto the unforgiving 18th and found the water not only once but twice as the nerves and the pressure started to show, but going into the playoff the Irishman held his nerve going down the first and as Garcia dropped a shot Harrington picked up a birdie.

The drama did not end there as going up the 18th Garcia needed to hole his put to force Harrington to a single putt but the ball ran around the edge. The Spaniard held firm and putted out for his par which left Harrington a 3 footer to claim his first Major. He confidently stroked the ball into the center of the cup for a convincing victory.

A worthy champion who I am sure has not won his last major, and a heroic runner up who is also very much due a major title but I don’t think after the the display that he put on over this weeks tough course and demanding conditions it is only a matter of time before the name of Sergio Garcia is on one of the big trophies.

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Carnoustie Open Begins

by Swinger on 19. Jul, 2007 in Basically Golf

With the unpredictable weather conditions and one of the most unforgiving courses in Europe Tiger Woods starts his defense of his British Open Title and to become one of very few that have managed to win the converted Claret Jug three times in a row and none since Peter Thomson between 1954 and 1956 has the magic three in a row been achieved.

It is not going to be an easy ride for Tiger this year, there are some top quality players who are beginning to shine through and players like, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia and Paul Broadhurst will be bidding to win their first major. There is also the hope that finally a British player will become the first since Paul Lawrie back in 1999 to win the Open and keep the title in the British Isles.

There are without doubt 4 days of excellent golf ahead.

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Has Technology in Golf gone too far?

by Swinger on 12. Jul, 2007 in Golf Equipment

Today I was looking into ways I could build my own little idea to help the less able golfer to improve on their game by thinking less about what is going on around them and more on what they are doing!
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In an interesting conversation last night I came up with the idea that there was a gap for something to keep track of the score as a golfer takes shot after shot. Yes I know there are thousands of score trackers out there but they all require human input! With technology the way it is today can there not be something that picks up if a ball has been struck or if it is a practice swing?

So what I am thinking and forgive me for throwing a few ideas around, a wrist band much like the plastic ones you can get that offer a way of pointing out what charity you support, well if motion sensors are that clever these days and microchips are able to put a man into space then they must be able to create a chip small enough to go in a wrist bracelet that can pick up motion and contact!

With this in mind I have a few more ideas on how to progress it forward including being able to link it to a computer in order to download the scores directly to a handicap program giving you an accurate handicap calculation in minutes of walking off of the course! (getting better all the time isn’t it?)

There are handicap programs available but none that will measure the score you have as you go around the course!

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