The latest HOG poll will be closing by the opening round of this year’s Masters Tournament. If you haven’t yet, place your vote now.
The question: How many major tournaments will Tiger Woods win this year?
It’s a dead heat right now between 2, 3 and 4.
What’s your favorite part about the Masters? A particular hole, like #12? The tradition? The style of play required? The snooty way the powers operate at Augusta National?
Here are a few things which stand out for me:
1. The design of the course requires all aspects of the players’ game to be in order. They need to hit long drives, they need to be accurate and hit the greens in the right spots. If they don’t, they have to possess a mad short game and putt very well.
2. One thing which is very cool is that Bobby Jones set up many holes where the lies in the fairway promote one type of shot, like a draw, but the approach shot to the green requires a fade. Most people are not aware of these things and just googoo over the beauty of the course itself.
3. The fact that the tournament is played at the same location every year is another great thing about the Masters. Everyone knows the holes, especially around amen corner. Everyone has memories about shots, like Tiger’s chip-in on #16 and of course all the awesome putts on #18 to win, like my pal Mark O’Meara or Phil Mickelson made to win his first green jacket.
That’s a long way of saying there’s not one particular thing which is my favorite about the Masters. It’s a package deal.
13 green from behind
15 green from the side. Where Tiger Woods knocked it in the water last year on Sunday.
15 from the other side of 16
16 green from the tee box over the water
16 green with 15 back right in this pic
My favorite golf hole, the par three 12th
There are larger, more detailed versions of all of these images in the HOG Masters- Augusta National Photo Gallery.
I don’t know where my pop finds stuff sometimes. Here is another one for the list which he gave me as a gift. This is the Dorson Sports golf themed “Chip ‘n’ Dip” bowl. The main bowl is shaped like a golf ball and the dip/sauce bowl is shaped like a golf tee.
I had my first chance to use my Chip ‘n’ Dip bowl a couple of nights ago as I hosted a birthday party for my daughter Allie. The bowl is huge. I filled it all the way to the top and by the end of the party it was only half way gone. With a standard chip bowl I usually have to fill the thing up 3-4 times. I had to refill the tee dip bowl a couple of times though.
I googled Dorson sports and couldn’t find much of anything. So I have no idea where to get one or how much one is…
Too Many Golf Blogs?
Man I must have around 150 “golf blogs” in my master links section. Just browsing a large percentage of the golf blogs out there and posting a few comments is quite a chore. And I’ve not added several new ones which have popped up lately. Are there too many golf blogs now? How many are there really? 200? 300?
Dead Golf Blogs
I’m sad to say that some of my pals and original golf blogs out there don’t seem to be posting anymore. Life gets in the way I suppose. Bogey Man seems to have just disappeared and for good reason. He’s got his first offspring to worry about. My all time best golf blog pal EatGolf has had a long history of hosting and hack-attack problems. He’s back up now, but posts are very old (use the Way Back Machine my friend!). I was sad to see MJ go, but he’s back.
Soon I’ll do my golf blog spring cleaning, and delete golf blogs which have been inactive for six months. I recommend doing the same, so search engine results are not filled with useless, inactive golf blogs!
Going Strong
I think the golf “blogosphere” is a bit diluted right now. There are still some great ones I stop by and check out regularly though, like Golfblogger, Grouchy, Golf Chick, Golf Girl, Shackelford, The Golf Blog, my really good friend Jay Flemma and a few others.
Deep Rough is doing a great job reviewing gear and I’m still voting for The Green Blazer as the best new (and certainly the most entertaining) golf blog.
Corporate Golf Blogs Usually Suck
Many golf companies and other “corporate” entities have entered the golf blogosphere trying to take advantage of the blog wave. It seems that in some board meeting, they decided they could boost sales by having a blog. But these blogs usually suck, bad. These corporate types have no clue what they’re doing. They think if they just call it a blog it will be cool. NO! Simply posting copied text from a corporate press release isn’t blogging. Posting straight up advertising material in blog posts, in hopes of selling your fitness program or golf widget isn’t blogging. Come on!
To be a true golf blog you first should link to other golf blogs and sites, via blogrolls and by linking to their sites in your posts. Most the big corporate types can’t or won’t do this. Either their lawyers won’t let them, or they won’t because they’re too worried about exclusivity and linking to sites which may promote their competition.
You also need to allow comments to be a true blog in my opinion. There are dozens of “sports blogs” out there which are simply that in name. They have no comments, links or anything of the sort. Memo to golf magazines, newspapers and golf companies: Just having the word “blog” on a page which is clearly the same stuff you’ve been posting “articles” in is not blogging. It’s just a freaking article, like the same stuff you’ve been doing for years.
Starting A Golf Blog?
I get emails almost weekly now about new golf bloggers asking me to check out their awesome new golf blogs. Here’s a checklist of what to do and what NOT to do:
What NOT to do when golf blogging:
1. Don’t use blogger. Get your own damn URL, please. If your site is http://myreallycoolgolfblog.blogspot.com then I’ve lost interest.
2. If you have to use blogger, then PLEASE try to customize or find a “unique” template. If your blog looks exactly like half a zillion other blogger sites, I’m not interested.
3. If you use WordPress (which I recommend), don’t use the default wordpress Kubrick template or once again, your site will look like 50 gazillion other ones.
4. Don’t go telling everyone to check out your “best golf blog” if you have one post and it is about Tiger Woods.
5. 99% advertising, 1% content. Look I get it. My blog is so popular now it takes a lot of work, bandwidth, web space and expense to keep it up and running. So I have ads and I’m glad to have the thing pay for itself. But if your site has 493 google ads and one actual blog post on it, forget it.
What TO do when golf blogging:
1. CONTENT. This is the one word you need to remember. Good content is key. Try to be unique, entertaining and original.
2. Spell check. If “your” using the wrong iterations of words in “you’re” posts, then I lose interest. If you have messpelled werds in your posts, i’m no iterested.
3. Take your own pictures. I like original photos. And please, make sure they’re in focus.
4. Befriend other bloggers and make posts about cool blogs they write. If you link to a fellow blogger about a cool post he writes, he’ll probably do the same for you. Your network will grow.
5. If you have a golf blog, drop me a note and we’ll exchange links. If you’re a spammer or a bot, forget it.
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