December 2010

The Top 50 Earners in 2010

by Derek on December 30, 2010

in International Golf,PGA Tour

Surprise Surprise, even without a win for the first time in his career, Tiger still tops the list of top earners in golf in 2010.  It’s not all roses however.  Even though he earned an estimated $74.2m this year, it was his lowest earnings total over the past decade, and represented a $48m drop from 2009.  Between the divorce settlement, rumored payoffs and the lost income, Tiger was engaged in some very expensive extra-curricular activities.

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Boo Weekly Is Writing a Book. Wait, What?

by Derek on December 28, 2010

in PGA Tour

That’s right.  Boo Weekly is writing an autobiography.  Well I guess technically Boo Weekly isn’t writing it.  Paul Brown is the ghost writer, but the stories are 100% Boo.

In the book you’ll learn all about how Boo was knocked out by an orangutan in a boxing match, how he used to be a hustler in high stakes golf matches, and how he can pitch with both hands because he’s “bothpaw” or “amphibious”.

I know that right now Phil is trembling with anticipation at the thought of reading the next great American novel.  So when will we be able to get our hands on a copy?  True Boo: Gator catchin’, orangutan boxin’, and my Wild Ride to the PGA Tour is due out in March.

The Golf Channel

[Image Flickr/mrnoy9n]

Man Plays 600 Rounds of Golf in ONE YEAR

by Derek on December 27, 2010

in Inspiration

Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis plays his 600th round of golf in 2010

Dallas golfer Richard Lewis really likes golf.  I mean he really really likes golf.  He likes golf so much that he played his 600th round of golf this year today at the TPC Four Seasons in Las Colinas.

600 rounds is a good target number of rounds for a decade.  If you’re a really serious golfer you might play 600 rounds in 4 or 5 years.  600 rounds in one year is completely insane.  That’s playing 2 rounds a day, 6 days a week, 50 weeks a year.

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Merry Christmas

by Derek on December 24, 2010

in Uncategorized

Merry Christmas to all of our readers!  Now get off of the computer and spend some time with your friends and family :-)

Roger Maltbie On Playing Hungover

by Derek on December 24, 2010

in Humor,Inspiration,PGA Tour

Roger Maltbie

Roger Maltbie on playing hungover during his rookie year on tour in 1975:

ROGER MALTBIE, ON PLAYING WITH A HANGOVER
MAY 2003

As far as I was concerned, you had to play hurt. I remember one time, my rookie year in ’75, playing the Greater Jacksonville Open. They had something they called the swingers’ tent. A great big tent, and when the rounds were over, they had bands in there, parties, a pretty lively place. Went in there one night and got hammered, really hammered. I wasn’t playing well in the tournament and was one of the first ones out on Sunday.

A buddy of mine, David Larson — we’d grown up together — was caddieing for me. I got to the practice tee and hit a couple of wedges, and the first one I hit right in the middle of the ball. I’m trying to hit it 25 yards, and I hit it about 100. The next one, I hit about six inches behind it. I said, “This ain’t gonna work.” So I just went over, propped myself under a tree and slept. That was my warmup. “Wake me up when it’s my time to tee off.”

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Inside the Ping Tour Van

by Derek on December 23, 2010

in Equipment,PGA Tour,Video

Rob over at Sandbox8.com put together these 2 awesome videos that give us a glimpse of life on the Ping Tour Van.

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[In case you missed it, here's a link to Part 1]

Thanks to the cold weather here, there haven’t been too many opportunities lately to tee it up.  But here at 72strokes.com, when we aren’t playing golf, we still want to talk golf.  So it’s time for “People I Don’t Want on the Golf Course: Part 2.”

1.  Driving Range Tour Pro. We’ve all seen this guy at the driving range.  This guy looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…but isn’t a duck.  He has the big tour staff bag, the latest and greatest driver and set of irons.  He wears perfectly ironed slacks, a nice polo shirt, and has a cap with the logo of some major golf company.  And then you see him hit a shot…and he sucks!

Unlike the typical poser in other walks of life, this phony golfer is aware of the fact that he is a poser, which is why you never see him on an actual golf course.  In fact, the driving range you saw him on was not the driving range at your local course, it was the driving range at your local par-3 course.  Or even worse, the driving range connected to the local putt-putt course.  In this environment the poser can blend in as a real golfer since most of the people that use these types of driving ranges aren’t real golfers.  And since he has the look of a real golfer, he must be pretty good.  After all, if you sucked at golf, why would you go out and buy all that expensive equipment?

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To hear John Huggan tell it, it’s pretty common:

You may not want to hear this, but golf at every level is rife with cheating. Well, OK, rife may be too strong a word. But it’s out there, at every level of the game up to and including the professional level, where the temptation to transgress is obviously increased by the often huge financial rewards available.

You’ll never read the names of those involved though. Officialdom doesn’t want you to know who they are (and the legal implications of publicly exposing the culprits don’t help either). Some, in fact, are really quite famous. One multiple major champion, by way of example, is a notorious cheat and the subject of any number of head-shaking locker room tales. Ryder Cup players are not immune either. At least one is tainted forever by his serial cheating. And there are others, many of whom have won events through the most dubious of methods.

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Professional Darts Player Phil Taylor

Professional Darts Player Phil Taylor - He came in 2nd in the voting for BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Phil Taylor didn’t have a fancy campaign video, but he apparently has more fans than Graham McDowell because he finished ahead of McDowell in 2nd place for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award.

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Every January, 40k golf industry professionals gather in Orlando to see the latest and greatest golf gear from over 1000 different vendors spread over 10 miles of aisles.  Unfortunately this event is closed to the public.  But fear not, because TMAG is offering  chance to attend the show as a VIP member of their brand team.

If you win, you’ll get free clothing and equipment as well as a free trip to Orlando to attend the show at the end of January.  And even if you don’t win, they’ll send you a discount code just for entering.  Sounds like a pretty cool deal to me.

The contest closes Jan 9, so head on over to their facebook page to enter, and maybe 72strokes will be seeing you at the show next month.