Monday, July 28, 2014

Bow down to the crown

Team Spain, the reigning queens of matchplay [photo by Keith Allison, flickr]


The LPGA debuted a new event over the weekend, the International Crown. For those who missed it, this was a team tournament with the US, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Sweden, Spain and Australia each fielding a team of their four highest-ranked players.

I wasn't particularly interested prior to the event, but it dammit if this didn't out to be some compelling TV golf. The big "2 Teams, 1 Cup" matches might be great in theory but in 2014 they might be a little too exclusionary, too 20th century, too old-world and bloodless to really fan any of the flames of rivalry, xenophobia, ugly pride and deep grudge-bearing that make inter-national team competitions in any sport so appealing.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Chafed



Rough going out there today. The summer temperatures have been moderate lately, but swamp-ass humidity persists. Gad, do I hate summer golf in the city. DBGC is looking as rough as I've ever seen it. The greens are pretty much hybrids of grass and sand at this point.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Flashback: '14 Brooklyn Open Highlights



Well as far as I was concerned, the whole thing had been consigned to history. But no, not quite yet. Not for me at least. You see, some ne'er do well with a camera thought it would be fun or funny to put together a highlight reel of that whole sweaty day.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Progress



The tee-time deals have cooled off a bit now that the weather's gone all hot and nasty, but I'm still surprised at what we're getting away with over here. The cost-of-everything is going up all the time isn't it? But I'm glad to report that my golf expenses lately are down to circa-2006 levels. I pushed my way through some massive tourist-herds on the ferry and made it across the water to Silver Lake.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Ghettogolf: Cup Fever


Okay, so normally I try to avoid weekend golf in the city. But this afternoon somehow boded well. I just had a feeling. A conjunction of some iffy weather and the big soccer final maybe. I called up the Dyker pro shop to make sure I could walk on as a single. He said I could. I asked if it was busy and he said it wasn't. I strained to hear any deception in his voice and decided it was worth a try.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Reflections



Now that my big summer tournament has come and gone, I am a little bit aimless. Although I'm a little relieved now that I can resume my summer "off-season"--you know, take a break from all the sweat and sunscreen and slow-ass foursomes and what not.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

'14 Brooklyn Open Recap


Ms. L drove me to the course and hung around while I warmed up, taking in the scene. On the range we overheard a couple of nervous-sounding guys trying to pep talk each other, and even she had to scoff at their foggy platitudes about "staying in the moment" and "don't project".

I warmed up for about a half hour longer than I'd planned to. Like a typical busy day at an NYC muni, tee-times were hopelessly late.

Monday, July 7, 2014

The '14 Brooklyn Open is in the books

The home hole.

I shot an 86 (+14), good for T2. I took home solo second place money though--they used back nine score as a tiebreaker and I shot an incendiary 42 (+5). Minus the entry fee, that's a profit--five bucks! I can dig it.

But phew. I am really beat. It hurts to think about golf right now. Check back for a followup post tomorrow, or something. By the way, thanks for all the support!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

'14 Brooklyn Open Preview, part 1



We are within a few days of the big tourney and I am pretty excited for it. Like rip roaring, let me at em, chest punching, forehead vein popping, gratuitous foul language spewing, ready to tee off right this goddamn instant excited. So naturally I was pumped to get in this one last practice round.