Posted Mar 10 2011, 06:38 AM by Cathy Erickson
In 2009, the CEO of the PGA of America said this about Minnesota: "... they love their golf, playing about eight million rounds a year. Golf is a big part of the fabric of Minnesotans." In a study by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) a few years back, Minnesota boasted over 650,000 golfers and one of the highest rates of golfers per capita in the US. It's true. We love golf here in Minnesota.
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Posted Mar 03 2011, 02:39 PM by Cathy Erickson
Well, after a dismal Match Play week in my predictions (dang you Steve Stricker!) I thought I needed to at least study the field at the Honda Classic to see if there was any inspiration for getting the right guys in my fantasy squad. (Big Shocker - Go Matt Kuchar!) Making a run through of the field, I was quickly distracted by seeing the name Lee Rinker at the very bottom of the tee time sheet for the Honda. I'm thinking I know that name, but no details come to mind. It's time to turn to my friend Google! But here's the funny part...I put in LARRY Rinker instead of Lee and sure enough, a web site pops up and I'm reading about how Larry was a former PGA Tour Professional who made more than $2 million in his day and is currently an instructor (and guitar player) who would love to make you your best coach! Posted Feb 23 2011, 01:16 PM by Cathy Erickson
Any golf nut you know (which could be you!) has probably filled out at least one bracket for the Accenture Match Play this week. The top 64 players in the world are hoping they can out play and outlast the rest and be the 2011 champion. As I type this, the first matches are already under way and I'm almost afraid to look - will my guys make it past the first round? Will it be like last year when I lost almost 50% of my picks in round 1 and didn't have any one of the final 4? (that makes for a LOOONNNGGG weekend when you have no one to cheer for!) Posted Feb 15 2011, 08:41 AM by Cathy Erickson
You go out and win a golf tournament with some of the world’s best golfers in it and your story is buried behind the Tiger Woods spitting scandal...and behind the will Tiger ever win again saga. Life just isn’t fair sometimes. Well I am happy to dedicate my little blog spot to Alvaro Quiros and to congratulate him on winning the Dubai Desert Classic last weekend. Posted Feb 08 2011, 10:54 PM by Cathy Erickson
It's a little hard to fathom that a mere 48 hours ago I was experiencing 80 degrees warmer weather than it is outside right now in Minnesota. What is even harder to believe is that when I arrived in Arizona a week ago it was less than 10 degrees warmer than when I left the Twin Cities!! My Arizona Adventure got off to a VERY cold start, but that didn't stop me from having a great 6 days in the Phoenix area. My mini-vacation started by arriving in Phoenix, Arizona last Wednesday around noon. The pilot advised us that the winds were gusty but he failed to mention that we were about to experience Phoenix's lowest high temperature in its history on that day! High Temp? 34. Posted Jan 20 2011, 10:42 AM by Cathy Erickson
What started out as an impulse decision to buy tickets to a concert has turned into a 6 day trip to Phoenix, Arizona the first week in February...and I couldn't be more excited! My plans have evolved a few times since buying the concert tickets (I am now going solo), but it's safe to say that I'm going get to wear my brand new Callaway Golf Shoes in a few weeks! This has been an interesting experience...and being the deal shopper that I am, I have been finding moments of triumph and panic as I started making plans. Posted Jan 14 2011, 07:46 AM by Cathy Erickson
With the Sony Open in its soggy state and no real golf news to share ( unless you want to talk about DJ and Natalie Gulbis) I've decided I'd better get out my 2011 prediction list before I miss any opportunities to be right! We always joke about the weather people up here...what other job do you know of where you can get paid to be wrong 50% of the time? While I don't get paid for giving my predictions (but I would accept any salary offered!), guessing on what will happen in the upcoming golf season is a pretty darn fun thing to do...and I'm happy to report that I'm about on par with how with the weather predictions in our neck of the woods in my past few years. I feel like the gates to golf success have flown wide open now that Tiger let the guards take a vacation. Guys are streaming in from all over the world to capture titles and even take their place on the top of the world ranking. A few years ago Tiger won 6 times...now we're wondering if he will win again. We've got veterans still out there trying to capture wins and we've got young guns eager to make a name for themselves and put a little money in their pocket. So many possibilities!! Posted Jan 04 2011, 02:55 PM by Cathy Erickson
For the past 3 years, http://www.pgatour.com/ has done a Top 100 players to watch feature in December. It's a ranking, sort of, and also a listing of players who will garner the most attention in 2011. To me these are 2 very different things, and as I get ready to post my own 2011 predictions I thought I would do a quick review of the PGA Tour's list of their top 20, just to see how annoyed I get. Posted Dec 30 2010, 10:43 AM by Cathy Erickson
I don't know about you, but this last week of December is a time for me to say good-bye to the current year and prepare for the next. My mental photo album gets sketchier every year (this is what happens when you get older), but I still have a pretty good slide show of great golf memories this year. And at the same time I find a part of my brain already getting ready for the season ahead, even though it's at least 5 months away. And it's that "resolution" and "goal setting" time of year, so pondering some golf goals seems appropriate, too. Posted Dec 16 2010, 09:52 AM by Cathy Erickson
Happy Holidays! Well, now that the Tour season is officially over, I guess it's time to dig out my "predictions" post from back in January to see how I did. I was nervous...I couldn't really remember what I said, except for that I was sure Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar were mentioned. Okay...let's see how I did! Posted Dec 06 2010, 10:36 AM by Cathy Erickson
Ah, the holiday season - it's that time where you may be trying to find that special golf gift for that special golf person, or you're a savvy shopper looking for some good deals for yourself! Tees2Greens very own super fitness contributor, Mindi Boysen, shared some great suggestions for some neat gear that can help you improve your game, but sometimes you just want a new pair of shoes!! Posted Nov 30 2010, 08:34 AM by Cathy Erickson
There are 216 players in Florida right now on the verge of 6-day golf marathon...at the finish line are 25 PGA Tour Cards...for the next 50 there are Nationwide Tour Cards, and for the rest, a "conditional" status on the Nationwide Tour that could get them some playing time in 2011. But you know what they all want. They want to say "I'm on the PGA Tour in 2011". Posted Nov 23 2010, 09:58 PM by Cathy Erickson
Snow is officially on the ground in Minnesota so my hopes of going out and hitting a few more balls before the end of the year have been dashed. It's always hard to say good-bye to my golf season but I'm smiling right now thinking of how much fun I had this past year with so many great golf pals. For that I am so very grateful. I'm also truly thankful for the opportunity to have my own little blog place here at Tees2Greens...it's the perfect therapy for my golf addiction! Posted Nov 11 2010, 12:08 PM by Cathy Erickson
You know I love Tees2Greens. But I have to admit that I do visit some other blogs and message boards because we just don't get the golf conversations, debates, and insights on a regular basis here. (of course I wouldn't trade 2Putt's contributions for the world!!) Many of the things I ponder and write about here come from those dialogues from other golfers around the web. What's been on my mind lately is a discussion about which players should be allowed on the PGA Tour. Posted Nov 04 2010, 06:16 PM by Cathy Erickson
I really hate it when Sam Johnson steals my topic ideas! It doesn't happen all that often since I don't eat, sleep, and dream about Tiger Woods (just kidding!), but you have to admit that the whole idea of being #1 in the world has become a realistic goal for any number of guys now that Tiger has relinquished the title after I don't know how long. The criteria to determine the #1 player on the "Official World Golf Ranking" may possibly be one of the most complex and argubly non-relevant calculations to come along in ages. The strangest thing is, it's based on a 2-year running average - which is why Tiger held on to the number one spot for weeks, months, after his game and personal life were on the sidelines. It's crazy, in a way...should it matter what a guy did 2 years ago to deterimine that he's the best as of today? I wrote about this somewhere in the forums, but all that I remember is that a guy can win and be outside of the top 50 and another guy can go a whole year without winning and still hangout in the top 25...heck, he can be #1!! Posted Oct 14 2010, 06:17 PM by Cathy Erickson
My new best friends (Sorry, Sam!) at Titleist dropped a sleeve of "test balls" in the mail to me and they arrived 2 days ago. My mission, if I so chose, was to play one of these golf balls along with the golf ball I usually play and then rate the performance from all parts of the golf course. The golf balls came in a plain white sleeve, they were stamped with the Titliest logo (a #1 ball) and where you usually see the type (Pro-V1, NXT, So/Lo) it just said TEST. The cover seemed similar to a ProV 1x, but the dimple pattern was different. Posted Oct 07 2010, 01:23 PM by Cathy Erickson
It's been nice to have a few good nights' sleep after getting up a 3AM three days in a row to watch the Ryder Cup last weekend. I know, I know, I didn't HAVE to get up, but the Ryder Cup is a golf event that I just don't want to miss, with the instantaneousness of the internet and social media, I knew I'd hear about it before I got a chance to watch if I waited. The weather delays sure put a kink in the schedule, but in the end it seemed like the changes made were what needed to happen. Although, if you read some of the media and bloggers out there, if Pavin had rejected the 6 groups playing in the morning and afternoon on Sunday, team USA may have retained the cup. It's impossible to know, but Europe winning 5 of the 6 afternoon matches makes you wonder if there's something to the theory. Posted Sep 30 2010, 12:42 PM by Cathy Erickson
What in the...? It's already September 30! It seems like just yesterday I was looking forward to my favorite golf month of the year and now, just like that, it's over. I had some fun days golfing this past month, and even though we had a few rainy days, I was able to get out on the course for at least 9 holes whenever I didn't have to work late (which was too often if you asked me!). The sun setting earlier has been a total drag. By 7pm it's very hard to see the golf balls and there is a definite chill in the air by that time, too. How can daylight savings time not be until November 7??? This does not help golfers in Minnesota at all!! If we could get that extra hour NOW, I'd be a lot happier. Posted Sep 23 2010, 05:42 AM by Cathy Erickson
There is really nothing better than having your favorite golfers being in contention coming into a Major or an end of season event like the Tour Championship...or the FedEx Cup finale. I'm thinking back to Greg Norman's hey days...it was like an emotional roller coaster for me - the highs of seeing him winning and crushing blows of seeing a few heart breaking losses. It's sort of hilarious that I am STILL picturing Larry Mize in the purple striped shirt jumping and running after knocking his chip in at the Masters all those years ago. But that is what being a golf fan is all about. Posted Sep 15 2010, 10:03 PM by Cathy Erickson
It's been a hectic few weeks in my little part of the world...just as I am entering my favorite golf month of the year my work world gets very busy. Usually I'm sort of giddy when it comes to talking about school taxes, but this year has been a combination of challenging and maddening...not to mention overwhelming enough that it's elbowing into my golf time! Posted Sep 01 2010, 09:35 AM by Cathy Erickson
Holy cow, it's September 1. How did this happen? I am not ready to head into the downward slide of the golf season yet! It's funny, last night as we were playing in our weekly "Scramble Tuesday" event, it was like Mother Nature decided to let us know September was on the door step. It was hot and muggy as I left my office yesterday afternoon and my house felt like someone had left a heat lamp on all day when I walked in. Posted Aug 17 2010, 12:06 PM by Cathy Erickson
Just when you think golf is going to go all boring on us because we don't have Tiger to swoon over, you get the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. I'm guessing anyone with at least a slight interest in professional golf is still chattering away about how things played out over the past week. Obviously the story of the Championship is Dustin Johnson and the infamous bunker shot on the 18th. Funny thing...I wasn't even watching it! My fantasy team pegged all its hopes on Rory McIlroy and when he missed his birdie putt on 18 I knew I was sunk...already late for a family dinner, I headed to my Aunt's instead of watching the end. I walk in the front door and everyone is leaning forward in their seats staring at the TV...and there I see DJ and Nick Watney in a room and Dustin is not looking like he just won a Major...it's then that I get the full story...wow! Posted Aug 12 2010, 06:59 AM by Cathy Erickson
I read somewhere that what makes a professional golfer better than the rest of the golfers out there is concentration. Somewhere in the depths of our brains we need to find that iron curtain and block out the rest of the world when we decide to tee it up in a match that means something. I recently found out that my curtain is in need of serious repair! But I also found out that if you're not carrying around confidence in your golf bag it's like playing without your "go to" club. Posted Jul 29 2010, 12:39 PM by Cathy Erickson It has been a busy few weeks in my world outside of golf and I feel like I'm going through withdrawals. But a big work presentation is over and now I can think about golf again! Yippee!! But what's been on my mind lately were a couple of great golf days earlier this month... Our annual golf scramble was a huge success! The weather was perfect, the golf course was full, over 100 gift certificates were given out, and my water bottles made it with 15 minutes to spare! (Thank You FedEx!!) There is a lot I love about this day - it's my way of providing a day to give back to our golf course and to have an opportunity for more than 150 golfers to have a fun day. Of course, for some of us, there is a little something about winning that's in the back of our minds, too. For the past 3 years my team of great golf pals and I have not been able to stand on the winner's podium...we've either struggled with our putting or had a hard time getting our approach shots close to the pin. Either way, we were on the outside looking in at our other golf friends who have taken the title since 2007. We were ready to put up a great score this year, but it was a comment by our rival team's guys..."you make a good 2nd place team"...that made us all just a little more determined bring our best game.
Just before teeing off I had a thought...sometimes in scrambles we are our own worst enemy - trying to "make a shot happen" or maybe swinging out of our shoes instead of just playing our game. So I thought that if we had a little competition within our own team we would be able to bring out our best shots...so I proposed to the team that for every approach shot, the person who got the closest got a point, and at the end of the round whoever had the most points won our "wager". Being the competitive types, my boys loved the idea, and before we were ready to hit our first shots, we had already changed up the rules to include putts and cancelling points. This was going to be a fun round! First hole, point for me!! I'm already loving this game. But soon enough we were all throwing darts at the pins and giving ourselves great birdie chances on almost every hole. There were some hilarious moments when someone would get just inside of what we thought was already a great shot - points were hard to come by! We also hit all of the par-5's in 2 and made eagle on 2 of the 3! Our only struggle were the par-3's - we left ourselves with longer putts and the best we could do was burn the edge, so no birdies on our 3 par-3's! Ouch. The 2 eagles made up for it though and we ended up -17 for the day and a 3 shot victory! Our point game was tight to the last hole, too - DY had 5 points and 3 of us had 4 points and one had 3, so there was still a chance to tie...our approach shot to the par-4 9th hole was about 60 yards, and I can't tell you how happy I was that I had hit about 75 60-yard wedge shots just a few days before as practice! I was 2nd to hit and I ended up about 6ft away so I had to wait for 3 other guys before knowing if I could tie! It was close, but it was me! I think our point scores were a testament that we all contributed shots all day long. (And Jason & Casey, I forgive you for cancelling my putts!) It was funny, because of my own internal competitiveness and side game, I didn't even realize how great we shot until the round was over. To me, that was the real success of the day - we played some great golf because we wanted to beat each other! (side bar: I just wanted to once again thank everyone who played that day, my great friends for volunteering, and especially to my team who once again made this my favorite golf day of the year - thanks JJ for keeping track of all my "stuff"! ...virtual hugs!) My other golf highlight in the past few weeks was getting the opportunity to play in a scramble with 3 great women. Deb, Judy, Joan and I played in a Hot Ball scramble with about 12 other teams. The format is, everyone tees off and one person has to be the "hot ball"...that person plays the hole by themselves and other three scramble whichever other drive they want. Handicaps mattered, so there was definitely strategy involved in picking the right hot ball player, because sometimes one of us would get a stroke on certain holes. I really liked that there was thinking involved! For whatever reason, my putter decided to get hot that day - and we were able to card quite a few birdies on our scramble ball and we did quite well on our hot ball, too! Although I'll admit my hot balls STUNK! But thankfully I got strokes on a couple of them. Judy was definitely our Hot Ball VIP! She came through when we needed her. Deb and Joan were solid all day long and Joan's competitive spirit was contagious! It was the BEST day!! I wasn't sure if we would have a chance to win with some teams having a lot of handicap to work with, but in the end we were the winners...and I couldn't have been more thankful to have been asked to play that day. As I'm reflecting on these great 2 days, I'm remembering that Sam Johnson isn't a fan of scrambles...I remember a post of his and I'm recalling that he did have some valid points...but you know what, I still love them!! That's why I started Scramble Tuesdays at our golf course!! I'm looking forward to playing in a few more events this summer, but mostly I just love playing golf with great friends. I hope you get the chance, too. Filed under: competition, scramble, friends, Golf, Cathy Erickson, hot ball Posted Jul 06 2010, 03:07 PM by Cathy Erickson
It's golf scramble week in my little part of the world (my favorite golf day of the year!!), so my brain is going in a hundred different directions trying to make sure I remember everything I need to do before Friday. So I'm going to take a page out of Sam Johnson's repertoire and do some "scatter shooting" this week. |
AuthorWhen I found Tees2Greens website and forum I found a happy place. There were great people there and in 2009 they asked me if I wanted my own blog space. It was a dream come true!! The site is down now, but I was able to get all of my posts to be able to post here. I will always be grateful for all of the Tees2Greens folks!! ArchivesCategories
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