Every now and again something happens that makes me thing I have yet to achieve what I am truly supposed to be on this earth to do, and today I opened my email to receive a mail from a good friend of mine who is a caddy.
I have attached the photo below so you can see why I am completely jealous of her this week and think she truly does have the worlds best job sometimes:
Yes she is at the Masters this week, not only is she there but she gets to see all the action close up as you can see she is caddying this week as well.
Now having spent some of the week with Janet during the Andalucia Open two weeks ago I can tell you that being a caddy is not a glamorous position and that a great deal of it is standing around while your golfer practices before you have to carry their clubs around the course that you would rather be playing. It does however have other advantages as you will see from the photographs on Janet’s Caddie Travel website where she sells and promotes her photography from around the globe.
Thanks for making me jealous bloke stuck in rainy Spain this week Jan! )
We are back and back with a vengeance! As we said in our first March posting we have been working on a number of ideas for the website during the months past but it is only in the past few weeks that we have taken time to look at the direction we need to move in to provide you all with the information and service that you demand.
So this has seen me off on a course to learn a little about video and how to point a camera, its still not perfect but it is much better than it was. I have also managed to get a few more demo days lined up which I will be attending with the camera by my side to ask as many questions as I possibly can.
Easter Sunday just around the corner and some important events coming up in the golfing world. To follow this that week we will be taking a spin around Club de Golf Aloha which will see the European Tour take to its fairways once more this year. We will be chatting with members who play the course week in and week out as well as some of the top players in the game and will be asking if it is possible to stop Tiger Woods this season.
So even though it has been a little quiet here at Online Golfer this month so far there is plenty to come and it is going to be a busy summer I can promise you that.
Over the past 3 months I have been reviewing golf clubs like there was no tomorrow, and spending an awful lot of time writing reviews and hints and tips. I have seen visitors grow from about 300 a month to well over 300 a day (close to 14,000 unique visitors in Feb alone) and many of you seem to be coming back so I thought as today was the first day of a brand new month I would take a look at the month ahead and give you a heads up of what is coming.
A slightly new approach this month as reviews will be looking at some of the more outrageous products on the market such as some of the strange putter designs that Nike have been producing.
I will also be interviewing some of the Caddy’s on the European tour, they are the ones that really know what is happening and we will be introducing a photo blog and possibly some videos shot from the inside of the tour. The best bit of all is that it would seem that the Caddy (who for now shall remain a secret) has the full support of the European Tour to do all of this.
On the subject of the European Tour, we will be heading up to the Marbella event at Club de Golf Aloha to give you a slightly different view this year, we are going to give you a video tour so you know what it is all about.
While we are at the event we will be bringing you updates direct from the course onto the blog as well as, all being well and video camera permitting, interviews with players. The event this year even though the entry list is still open should pull a very exciting field this year as the event is two weeks before The Masters at Augusta so all the major players will be using this event and that in Portugal the week after as a warm up.
We will also be introducing some guest writers and bringing you a whole bunch of new hints and tips. There is also news of a shop on the horizon with discounts and great deals. The aim is to really celebrate the month of our first birthday in style and we are looking forward to sharing all of this with you. Make sure you grab our RSS feed and keep up to date with what is going on.
It is easy to get confused when out on the golf course there is a number of terms that get bantered around that just don’t make sense to a normal person. So I thought I would take the opportunity to explain just a few of the basic golf terms.
Par: Each hole is given a number of shots that it should be completed in. This is where you get Par 3, Par 4 and Par 5 holes. The longer the hole the higher the Par score. For example if a hole is between 95 yards and 225 yards it is likely a par 3, up to about 460 yards is likely a par 4 and above is par 5. There are a few par 6 holes world wide but very few.
If you finish a hole in the said number of shots alloted for that hole then you would have finished the hole in par. Getting under par is explained below but where as in a number of cases the phrase under par is a bad thing, in golf it is actually a good thing!
Birdie: A birdie is where you finish any hole one shot below the par rating for that hole. So if you are on a par 4 and you only take 3 shots to get your ball in the hole then you have scored a birdie on that hole. Getting birdies helps you to get a score that is under par.
Eagle: As with a birdie this is an under par phrase but it is two shots under par. An Eagle is fairly rare among amateur golfers and on a par three it means you would have completed the hole in just one shot. Which brings me to the next phrase.
Hole in One: Fairly straight forward but a hole in one is where the ball is in the hole after just one shot. We showed Miguel Angel Jiminez at the Dubai Classic a few posts ago where his ball went straight into the hole on the par 3 seventh hole. It is a lot less common to score a hole in one on a par 4 but if you do then that is the next phrase.
Albatross: An albatross is basically a hole in one on a par 4 but the true definition is three under par on any hole. So if you get the ball into the hole in 2 shots on a par 5 this is also an Albatross. This is mainly a UK term and in America is known as a Double Eagle.
Bogey: No not the things that come out of your nose but when you go over the allotted par score for a hole you score a bogey for one shot over the par and double bogey for two shots over par.
Draw: This is used to describe the flight of the ball when it is moved from the right to left for right handers and left to right for the left handers. This term is used to describe the shot when the ball has been intentionally pushed out to the left of the target to “draw” it back on line.
Fade: This is pretty much the opposite of the draw where the ball is moved from left to right instead of the right to left (left handers please reverse). Again the shot should be intentional, a more severe fade is a slice and is not played intentionally.
GUR: Nothing as interesting as a tiger hiding in the bushes, GUR stands for Ground Under Repair and will be marked by stakes in the ground. Should your ball come to rest in the GUR area or rest up against it then you may take relief from the position.
OB: We all dread this one it stands for Out of Bounds. This will be marked by white stakes or a fence line. The ball is out of bounds when it is outside of the boundaries of the hole and should not be played.
There are thousands of phrases used in the game of golf, many of them completely unique to the game. Some to do with equipment, some to do with the course, the swing and basically any area of the game that can be broken down into an individual area.
A month ago I made some predictions on the players to watch this year. So far Ross Fisher has come a solid runner up in China, Adam Scott has won in Qatar, Tiger Woods started like a tornado last week at the Buick Invitational winning by a massive 8 shots and today Miguel Angel Jiminez did this on the seventh hole at the Dubai Classic:
An amazing hole in one not even touching the sides on its way into the hole and can you believe there wasn’t a hole in one prize available!
A short message for Justin Rose though who is the only one of the five names to watch of 2008. Come on Justin sort it out your letting the side down!
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