Annika Sorenstam has officially begun to chip away at Lorena Ochoa’s top Rolex Ranking. A win at the season-opening SBS Open led a “Tiger-esque” charge that has remained strong through her latest victory at the Michelob Ultra Opening this past weekend.

Sorenstam is back in the “feared-zone” once again!

Challengers are falling by the wayside. Even Lorena Ochoa could not keep up on Saturday, pushing herself out of a chance for a Sunday duel with a disappointing 74. It was the first time Ochoa has been out of a visible top-ten spot on the leaderboard since 2007.

Did Sorenstam’s charge give Ochoa the jitters?

With a wedding plan in the works and her increasing reliance in other golf interests, are we seeing Annika’s final push for glory or the beginning of a new commitment towards “untouchable” status?

I also found Michelle Wie’s name on the leaderboard. She was in her usual “cut” position, a spot which seems to be more comfortable a fit as times goes on. “I just feel really rusty” claimed Wie who needs to borrow more than an oil can from the Tin Man in order to elevate her game…maybe an infusion of Annika’s blood?

Where Wie’s game is stagnating, other LPGA rookies seem to be coming on strong. Na Yeon Choi is eyeing the Rolex Rookie of the Year Award loading up on points over her nearest competitor. Oh, I’m sorry…I thought Michelle Wie was in the race too but…that’s right…she never went to Q-School to qualify like the rest of the Tour!

This week Golf for Beginners discusses the challenges that Michelle Wie faces and wonders whether or not her constant disappointments as a professional golfer have helped her grow as a person.

We also offer up a few easy golf tips. One simple visual we offer is where to focus your eyes when hitting the ball for best contact. Another is the role a golf companion has on your game. Is it better for you to play with better golfers or those who play more on your level?

Click here for more easy golf drills.

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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“Spider-Man", “Trendsetter” and even “Rock-Star” are some the monikers which come to mind when branding 26-year-old Camilo Villegas. Magazines are targeting him, with People voting Villegas one of its hottest bachelors and Golf Digest naming him one of the most ripped golfers on tour.

His flexible signature maneuver on the green is memorable. And ladies are attracted to his retro look from international clothier J. Lindeberg, who has been hailed as the most influential fashion designer in Sweden, claiming to have “reinvented the wheel” when creating golf fashion.

Villegas seems a bit overwhelmed by the attention thrust upon him and prefers to talk about golf, not girls.

“If people like the way you play, the way you dress, the way you look, that’s all good. But the bottom line is my goal is to play good golf,” Camilo stated in a Golfweek interview.

Take a tip from Natalie Gulbis, Camilo, and expand your horizons. Calendars and reality shows make plenty of money too and can turn Camilo Villegas the golfer into Camilo Villegas “business entrepreneur".

Camilo’s ability to stay focused on his golf game is one reason why we have chosen a putting tip from the up-and-coming Columbian player. Another reason for our selection is that Villegas’ positive putting stats on the PGA Tour don’t lie.

Golf for Beginners also takes a look at the mental game, honing in on how to outthink and outplay the competition. This week’s putting drill uses quarters as an incentive to make your view of the golf hole bigger and easier to hit. Click for more golf drills…

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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It may be quite presumptive of me to claim that Phil Mickelson’s chances have vastly improved (as has the rest of the field at the upcoming Wachovia Championship) now that Tiger Woods has withdrawn due to arthroscopic knee surgery.

Woods is the defending champion and for him to be rehabilitating puts the players on the PGA Tour at ease. But seeing Phil’s face smattered across the television screen as the big draw makes you really wonder if the Golf Channel and CBS Sports are doing enough to create excitement. Perhaps the secret ingredient might be more face-time for Adam Scott, sudden-death victor at the Byron Nelson Classic!

There is no doubt, however, that because Lorena Ochoa took a siesta the roadblock was cleared to escalate Annika Sorenstam to victory at the Stanford International. Still, Annika required a sudden-death playoff with Paula Creamer in order to cinch the deal claiming, “It could have gone really any way. I’m just fortunate that this time it was my turn.”

Our Golf for Beginners podcast this week contains a great number of easy golf tips and drills. One exercise comes from David Leadbetter who suggests a way to gain power in your golf swing through weight shift. Try this technique on the range and you will surely feel a difference on the golf course!

Another drill from Hank Haney offers the benefits of weighted clubs to help warm up, gain feel and build clubhead speed before a round.

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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Yesterday the Pope pre-empted golf, proving that religion trumps sport, at least on network television. Whether or not you were interested in Sunday Sermon, broadcasters forced you to watch Pope Benedict XVI at Yankee Stadium, bringing about the PGA Tour’s decision to stream live coverage on the internet.

For those without an internet connection, flipping the remote yesterday provided little in the way of diversity.

If Tiger Woods was heavily in the mix, would CBS-TV interpose both Pope Benedict and golf? Or, would Tiger be relegated to a spot in the sports section of Monday’s newspaper?

I wonder who would have received the higher share?

We also discuss the two swings each golfer must bring to the course and how to integrate these two different movements into your weekly practice session. The pursuit of putting nirvana is also one of our topics. Incorporating these drills into your training plan should help lower your scores so you can confidently “putt for dough"!

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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The hype surrounding the possibility of two drivers in his bag didn’t help Phil Mickelson’s bid to win a third Masters Tournament. Both Els and Mickelson fumbled around to get “the perfect fit” this week, combining Callaway I-Mix heads and shafts depending on their particular “game plan". Mickelson claimed that the course length urged him to carry two drivers but my belief is that Callaway needed Phil to promote these clubs which seem to work more for a professional than the average “Joe".

It didn’t work. Mickelson should have toyed with an extra wedge in his golf bag as he intended to on Tuesday and Els should have probably flown out to Las Vegas to visit with his newest instructor, Butch Harmon, directly after being cut on Friday.

Complaining of bad posture, a collapse at the top of his swing and too much hip and shoulder turn, Els should have realized before the Masters that it’s not a change in golf equipment that was needed but rather a parting of the ways between he and David Leadbetter.

Moral of the story for all golfers; it’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian…

I guess the next question should be, “When will Callaway Golf debut a putter with adjustable head and shaft technology for conditions like “blade-drag” or help with overspin? Tiger Woods may be just the buyer for it!

As for this week’s Golf for Beginners podcast, we discuss Mickelson’s use of the Callaway I-Mix technology. Our show also contains a few easy tips from Phil Mickelson, one of which deals with how to hit your golf ball in different types of lie. Our other “Lefty” golf tip describes what setup to the ball determines its trajectory.

Finally, a hearty congratulations to the UNBEATABLE Lorena Ochoa who is now officially “one-up” on Tiger Woods this season!

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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Lorena Ochoa’s impressive victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship have golf bloggers scurrying to find comparisons between her elevated game and that of the incomparable Tiger Woods. After all, both Woods and Ochoa won their respective last major event of 2007 and both are rolling through a green light towards achieving the exalted Grand Slam.

Even Lorena feels that 2008 might be the one where she tops Tiger, jokingly(?) stating just before her 26th birthday, “Maybe next year (2008) I improve (on) his year, but this year has been pretty similar, and I enjoy the that they talk about it. He won seven times - a major, too. Me, too. So we’re the same.”

Tiger Woods seeks his fifth Masters win and has racked up a total of thirteen major trophies since he turned professional over eleven years ago with a greeting of “hello world” to clicking cameras.

Tiger, in fact, has already achieved a Grand Slam, but has not yet won all four majors in a single year.

Statistics show Woods on a win streak from September 2007 all the way through his fifth place “blip” in March of this year, garnering up an amazing six wins and about four million dollars in official prize money through that period alone!

Ochoa is not far off of the mark finishing 2007 with a $1 million win at the ADT Championship. For 2008, she has already won three events out of four entered, same as Tiger, and has taken the first major of the year.

But, even so, Lorena Ochoa is going to have to work five times as hard as Tiger Woods for golf fans to believe that the two are on parallel ground, although Ochoa is the “best of the best” on the LPGA Tour for now. Remember the chatter about Annika Sorenstam when she was in her heyday?

Sorenstam seems to be resigned to passing the torch and is becoming more of a fossil of a bygone day. Annika has reconciled and is relieved with her second-place Rolex ranking. As Annika has mentioned, “I’m not the best player out here, but I’ve achieved a lot.” There is no denying that!

But, could you imagine for one minute what Tiger Woods would do if their positions were reversed? Would he be tolerant of his slip in status or be more fired up than ever to regain the top spot?

This week on Golf for Beginners, we offer some interesting facts about the Masters Tournament. Did you know, for example, that Tiger Woods is the youngest golfer to ever win at Augusta? Can you name the oldest winner?

We also offer an easy golf tip from Jim McLean, perfect for driving range practice (I used it myself this weekend!) I am in agreement that this paintbrush technique might just be the least expensive and unlikely training aid!

Barry and I also talk about the best time to remove your golf glove to enhance feel around the golf course.

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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After the sheer devastation Lorena Ochoa inflicted upon her LPGA cohorts as well as upon Superstition Mountain, it’s unlikely that she will need much more of a tune-up for the upcoming Kraft Nabisco Championship. I’m betting along with the odds that Ochoa wins a major trophy this week.

I’ll even up the ante to say that Lorena Ochoa will sweep the majors this year, saddling alongside of Tiger Woods for an LPGA/PGA Tour tandem Grand Slam!

Michelle Wie’s wrist forced her to pull out of the Safeway, opting instead for a May exemption at the Michelob Ultra Open.

Wasn’t it better anyway that Wie stayed home? If Annika Sorenstam couldn’t get within ten strokes of Ochoa, how well do you think Wie could have done?

Every year (and this one is no exception) I also feel it is my duty to alert all fans of the Kraft Nabisco event that the DinahShore Weekend 2008 will be taking place in Palm Springs as well. This weekend it’s not just about women’s golf! Catch Pat Benatar, the GoGos, Tila Tequila and others live for “the greatest women’s week on earth!”

Babes in bikinis are yet another topic of discussion on this week’s Golf for Beginners podcast as a new season of the Big Break airs on the Golf Channel. Will men be drawn to this show because of the sheer talent of the ladies vying for an exemption into an LPGA Tour event or for the more feminine attributes of its stars?

We also offer up a few easy, practical golf tips to help you through the course. A simple sand trap “trick” will get you positioned correctly over the ball every time. A pressure-proof tip is also featured.

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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PGA of America President Brian Whitcomb joins forces with Golf for Beginners this week to spread the word about an exciting tournament designed especially for us, the amateur golfer!

The McGladrey Team Championship is the opportunity for golfers with a verifiable USGA handicap to compete on a national level promoting teamwork and cameraderie as two of its goals.

Teams of three golfers each will first qualify locally through August. Then, a PGA Professional golfer will join the group for the Sectional Qualifiers which begin in September culminating in a National Championship to be played October 20-22 at the famed Pinehurst Resort in N.C.

Approximately fourteen thousand golfers signed up for the inaugural Championship and attendance is expected to double. Women, who only made up about 4.5% of last year’s total entrants (650), are expected to easily top 15% of the total number of competitors!

Brian’s personal take on the McGladrey Team Championship is that it “blends the competitive spirit and bridges the relationship between the PGA professional and their members and guests that they’re playing with as well as the fraternal and social side of this great game.”

The sponsors slogan, “With the right team, anything’s possible” along with the PGA of America’s ideology to increase the public’s desire to “play more golf, and ensure accessibility to the game for everyone, everywhere,” are also dominant principles behind this successful recurring event.

Team McGladrey asked LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis, Masters Champion Zach Johnson and PGA Tour fan favorite and XM radio show host Chris DiMarco to also join forces with this event “because they capture the very same qualities we strive to achieve with all of our client engagements – integrity, excellence and passion.”

Listen to this week’s show to find out more about this exciting best-ball team tournament.

Choose your teammates today and sign up at: pga.com/teamchampionship.

The best of luck to all who enter!

Barry said he’s got a “trick up his sleeve” to win the McGladrey Team Championship. Find out what that is and hear Brian’s response on our podcast!

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

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The new ruling handed down by the USGA allowing golfers to interchange shafts and clubheads prior to a game depending on course (and human) conditions have clubmakers Callaway and TaylorMade quickly putting out new technology.

Callaway’s I-MIX adjustable FT-5 driver and TaylorMade’s Tour Van in a Box interchange shafts and clubheads with the golfer optimizing the driver to his or her own comfort level. For example, as Jeff Colton, Sr. VP of Research and Design for Callaway states, “if they’re feeling a little weak that morning, play a lighter shaft, or if it’s been raining that week, drop some loft on a clubhead using your normal shaft.”

I say, “Huh?”

Am I the type of person who will constantly adjust shafts and heads depending on if I’m hitting a fade or draw that day? I can’t even hit a fade or draw on purpose most days and am extremely happy when my drive propels 200 yards straight down the fairway.

Callaway I-MIX Interchangeable golf clubs

Adding or subtracting weights or switching out heads with Callaway’s “revolutionary system” doesn’t suit the average amateur golfer but would be an innovation for club fitters and for those low handicappers who wish to “tweak” their club.

Unfortunately, the average golfer needs more tweaking with their swing and should send a message to these clubmakers that, for $350 for a driver head and yet another $350 to be shelled out for the interchangeable driver shaft, this marketing strategy will be a dud.

TaylorMade Tour Van in a Box

Manufacturers at the PGA Show forum lauded the new club innovation stating that the next step are the ability to change grip, loft, lie and bounce. Golf Channel’s Chief Technical Advisor, Frank Thomas advises that, “the USGA is opening a can of worms that will soon get out of hand and be difficult to monitor.”

This week, Golf for Beginners discusses the pros and cons of this new convertible technology and it’s impact on the masses.

We also offer up a few easy drills and golf tips designed to improve ball striking. Jim Flick’s discussion about “risk-reward” taken from Golf Digest Magazine is also analyzed. Sam Snead shaved strokes off of his game by using this technique and we show you how in our weekly golf podcast!

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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The last straw for Harmon was pulled as Daly was seen carousing behind a Hooters tent during a rain delay. John started his round 3 over-par and ended with a 77. Drinking beer and autographing the derrieres of women obviously fare better during corporate events than when big money and position are on the line.

This isn’t the first time that Daly has made a spectacle of himself. Previous escapades that made headlines included throwing thousands of dollars into slot machines and affirmations of losses upwards of $50 million dollars during a gambling spree lasting twelve years.

Harmon must have known when he accepted Daly into his inner circle that it would be an uphill climb, that a leopard never changes his spots and that it would be up to Harmon, not Daly, to improve upon someone who really doesn’t want help. But, at least “Butchie” (as Tiger Woods calls him) realized his mistake before it further smudged his own reputation.

With big names like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott among his list of credits, Harmon can now pick and choose which golfers he instructs and who is a representation of his skill. Of course, Harmon’s brothers have kidded him in the past saying, “he really isn’t a good instructor, he just knows how to pick clients,” but it’s also evident he also knows how to dump them!

Photo Credit:Thesportsbean.com

When Tiger Woods first tied, then surpassed, Arnold “the King” Palmer’s PGA Tour win record, the press was quick to gobble it all up and regurgitate it incessantly. Buzz regarding when Woods will gain ground on Jack Nicklaus’ record and finally achieve top-dog status by pushing past Sam Snead’s long held eighty-two win feat are now mentioned in almost every golf fanatics conversation.

As Tiger and company head over to Bay Hill this week to try to conquer this tough course once again (Woods is seeking his fifth victory), another record is in fear of being trounced, but with much less fanfare.

Defending champion Vijay Singh will be looking to climb to the very top of another “most wins” column, that is, the all-time win list internationally. Currently tied with Harry Cooper (31), success at Bay Hill would secure Singh his own bragging rights.

But we all know how Singh is about bragging. When Vijay was told he beat Sam Snead’s record, he snubbed it complaining, “there’s no trophies for doing it.” Conquest for Singh this week would bring his “over-forty” streak to twenty possibly agitating him as the press recognizes this achievement in tandem with the more influential international one.

This week on our Golf for Beginners podcast we discuss Tiger’s winning streak at Bay Hill and Palmer’s needling Woods with an “earful” after his slip of position on the PGA Tour’s all-time win list.

We also offer up a few easy-to-picture golf tips from both Hank Haney and Tiger Woods regarding proper pre-shot routine and hitting the ball straighter.

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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It was kind of comical (in a purely charming and farfetched way) watching Lorena Ochoa handily defeat her closest opponents wire-to-wire by eleven strokes at the HSBC. Annika Sorenstam could not muscle up the cojones to take her on. Paula Creamer hadn’t enough reserves in her tank. And according to Ochoa, “on the weekend I wasn’t as good with the putter but I managed to shoot under par every day.”

Could Lorena Ochoa be the next “Tiger Woods” of the LPGA Tour?

Woods/Ochoa being groomed for greatness

Perhaps Annika’s record prior to 2007 is strong like Tiger’s but, if Lorena continues her winning ways, Sorenstam may be just a golf memory, making babies instead of birdies by next season.

Annika Sorenstam had a successful run a few years back, with accolades that included numerous majors, Vare Trophies, mulitple wins in the same event, etc. When one looks at her career, it is worthy of a place in history. But, after an injury sidelined her last year, Sorenstam is now struggling to place second instead of clearing the field like the stallion of yore. Still, some players never even achieve six top-ten finishes in a single season with a healthy back.

But it was Ochoa who compared best with Woods last year. Lorena took home eight trophies; Tiger garnered seven wins including the coveted FedEx Cup.

So hats off to Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa whose quick and easy work made the rest of the field look like amateurs in her presence!

As for this week’s Golf for Beginners podcast, Barry compared Ping G10 irons to Mizuno’s MP-30 Forged irons at the driving range. Find out which golf clubs suited him “to a tee” and which of these two sets might improve your distance and feel!

Also, we offer a golf tip from Hank Haney straight out of Golf Digest Magazine. Find out how you can make your waggle work for you.

And Barry wonders if, after my “audience” with the Ryder Cup, it now has my named etched upon it?

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on “sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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It was with great pride that I held the Ryder Cup at the Wales on Wall Street luncheon. The Ryder Cup was, perhaps, being “used” to introduce the 2010 Celtic Manor Resort course, but with all of the attention it received, I’m sure it didn’t mind. People lined up for the opportunity to share a piece of history and most were awed by its presence.

The Celtic Manor Resort Twenty Ten Course was built specifically for Ryder Cup action and is ready and open for play (only 12 tee times are issued per day!) It is a links course and, from what Ian Woosnam claims, “The closing stretch is fantastic…you’ve got two great match-play par 4s at the 14th and the 15th,” he noted. “Then the 18th is a really cracking par 5 to finish. You are going to be standing there, thinking shall I or shan’t I go for it?”

There are two additional golf courses at this compound, one of which was designed by Colin Montgomerie (par-69) and has been described as “a short course, one you can go around very quickly". Montgomerie’s course obviously cannot compete with the challenge of the championship 2010 course but variety is the spice of life so Monty’s course will get plenty of play.

Celtic Manor is a five-star luxury resort which features two spas (for the non-golfers in your group) and boasts an exceptional array of activities. Aside from admiring the undiscovered countryside and playing way too much golf, mountain biking, hiking and something that I’m really interested in trying, “kite-buggying”, will keep your party hopping.

With 200 golf courses and the country only a 45-minute “hop, skip and a jump” from London, Wales is quickly becoming a tourist hotspot.

The staff at Wales on Wall Street really put on a terrific show. There were Penderyn whisky tastings, Watkins ales pouring freely and Welsh dishes designed with Americans in mind. In other words, no Laverbread, crempog or faggots. The mood was made more festive with a choir onstage singing in their native tongue.

The golf simulator on hand told me that my swing had a slight out-to-inward path but not bad for the wintry season. Interfering structures had to be repositioned for my lefty swing but I still smacked one shot 200 yards…I’ll take that coming from a simulator using a taped-up Golden Bear driver!

The Spherical Blade putter was introduced to us Yanks. After testing it at the “putting challenge” I noticed that the face was created of, what appeared to be, smoothened steel curved both horizontally and vertically, not like the soft, urethane insert of my Odyssey Two-Ball putter, forcing me to lighten my swing to a bare touch. Some golfers may like this feel but I would need to test it further.

The Wales on Wall Street luncheon drew attention to the 2010 Ryder Cup competition and to all of the culture and activities Wales has to offer. It also “teased” golf fans with the Ryder Cup in plain view.

With a “fast start” being devised by 2008 U.S.A. Ryder Cup Team Captain Azinger, one plan to claim victory is “freedom to set the course up however it fits his team.” Other ideas to secure victory include “taking only the top eight players and basing the points entirely on money".

So…alert to the U.K….

The next time the Ryder Cup enters the United States on “official business” will probably be in Kentucky and this time it won’t just be on a visa…it’s staying!

During last year’s Honda Classic one caddie remarked to another, entirely off-the-cuff, that his player used a certain golf club off of the tee. PGA Tour golfer Mark Wilson wound up calling a two-stroke penalty on himself after finding out about this infraction, thus proving to viewers the importance of playing by the rules. In spite of losing the two strokes he still won the tournament (in a sudden-death playoff), and with his integrity intact!

Wilson continued, “The rules should be held in high regard by every player.”

With the honor of the game at stake, some people may find Rule 8-1 to be a bit illogical noting that you must still hit the shot no matter what help you receive in selecting a club. Other common rules infractions I regularly behold on the publinks include improper ball marking on the green as well as failing to hole out.

Do golfers really want to abide by the rules or simply use whatever guidelines they remember hoping they don’t get caught? Everyone remembers the Wie/Bamberger incident forcing a DQ on Michelle?

The fact that the enforcement of the game lies predominantly from calling penalties on yourself, I have noticed that golf is one sport where players really want to keep the competition above-board!!!

As the great Bobby Jones once said, “When you cheat in golf, the only person you’re cheating is yourself.”

Greens at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship are an average of 90 feet which means long putting was the order of the week. Although Tiger Woods’ putting was dynamic throughout the contest, David Leadbetter helps us get closer to the hole (and even sink a few) with an easy reminder on this week’s Golf for Beginners podcast.

We also offer a few simple mental game tips to instill a positive mindset!

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@worldgolf.com.

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1. Her injured wrists will never heal properly. Wie was recently quoted as saying, “I just accepted the fact that it’s never going to be 100% ever again.”

2. If Michelle doesn’t believe her wrists will ever be 100%, her confidence will never be 100% and she will always have a handy excuse for not playing well.

3. MW doesn’t learn from her mistakes. Taking a hip-hop class at Stanford after fracturing both of her wrists is just plain stupid.

4. Laura Davies says her depressed mental state will take a minimum of one year to overcome.

5. Wie can’t shake her embarrassment over her previous performance and repeatedly tells the press that she is putting the past behind her thus not letting it go. Her comment? “if somebody invented a time machine, I would go back and try to change a couple of things.”

6. B.J. and Bo Wie are standing in her corner.

7. You can’t be number one without first making a cut.

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