Buy a Little History

If you've got an extra couple of hundred dollars laying around, tomorrow at 11:00 Freeman's Auction House will be auctioning the Tom McNamara golf collection. Some items are very cool and within the price range of most duffers.

Here's a few items The Bad Golfer will not be bidding on:



A Pietzcker coloured photo, depicting Walter Hagen,inscribed Walter Hagen, and further inscribed PGA - 1921-24-25-26-27; USGA Open, 1914-19; Western Open, 1916-21-26-27; French Open, 1920; British Open, 1922-24-28-29,50.3cm x 40.4cm
Estimate $5,600-7,700

A black and white group photograph, depicting Tom McNamara, Francis Ouimet and two other golfers, seated on the ground with golf clubs, 11.8cm x 17.1cm; and another depicting Tom McNamara standing with three other golfers, 19.5cm x 24.6cm (2)
Estimate $750-1,300

A black and white photograph depicting Gene Sarazen, holding the claret jug and the US Open trophies and inscribed, 'To Leo McNamara from his friend Gene Sarazen', and signed, image size 28.3cm x 22.2cm
Estimate $940-1,700

But here's a couple I might try to lowball:


The Professional Golfers Association of America, 1973 Club Professional Championship Contestant money clip

Estimate: $200 -$ 300

A Hyde Imperial, 'Woodley Flier 27 1/2' mesh pattern gutty ball
Estimate $370-760

You can see the entire collection by visiting the Freeman's Auctioneers Website.

Cheers!

Rob

Blog of the Week

Last week I touted the merits of the blog written by TC the Terrible. This is a well written, very funny blog that’s definitely worth a look. However, the blog has little to do with golf. This week I'd like to tell you of a blog that is just fantastic and is totally about golf. In fact, right now I'd say it is my favorite blog on the web.

The blog is called The Reluctant Jam Boy. It's written by a professional caddie named Tom. Rock Hudson putt: looks straight, but isn't. - The Reluctant Jam BoyThe stories he tells are laugh-out-loud funny and crafted in a way that will keep you coming back for more. You'll read stories about how he played a practical joke on his customers, how he tries to handicap his customers by the clubs they have, caddie lingo that's hilarious, and the recent entry, worthy of a spot in Sports Illustrated, is a great piece about a tournament he caddied in and his insecurities about reading the greens.

My favorite posts on Bad Golf are about my game on the green. If I'm lucky I play once a week. Now that the weather's turned that will be much less. But Tom's out there every day. He has a variety of loops to write about. And boy does he picks good ones.

Cheers!

Rob

World's Greatest Golfer

Take a look folks. If you think that picture looks like Kim Jong II, the leader of North Korea, well, you're right, it is. But he also happens to be the world's greatest golfer. Here's the proof:

• Rounds Played: One
• Hole-In-Ones: Five
• Score for 18 holes: 38
• Score relative to par: -34

With all the news about North Korea this week, I was all set to do some serious reading on the net when I came across this gem. Then I was all set to write a great post about it, but someone beat me to it. I can't write it any better than the folks at Duffer's Golf Club did, so you might as well read their article. If you want to read a more serious article that mentions the golf game check out the article Gulag Nation by William C. Triplett.

Cheers!

Rob

This is Kind of Cool

I really appreciate all of you who read my blog. You're obviously smart and discriminating. Therefore, I thought I share with you this little tidbit. Here is a map of the last 100 readers on this blog. If you're a regular reader, you might even find your home highlighted.

Cheers!

Rob

An Honest Response

The other day I was golfing with my boss. I was shooting great and, as I’ve mentioned in about three other posts this month, I shot a 45. We were sitting on the tee-box for the ninth-hole (a 150-yard uphill par-three) waiting for the foursome ahead of us to clear the green. Adding up the scores we noted that I was at 42 and would definitely break 50 for the front nine. Breaking fifty is always my goal.

Anyway, as we sat there discussing our scores and what club we were going to use on this hole, we were vaguely watching a kid who was about twelve years old hitting his approach shot on eight. He must have had a pretty good tee shot because he was smack in the middle of the fairway looking at about 130 yards to the green. He was standing above his ball, preparing to make the shot with a gray-haired old lady sitting in a cart behind him. The kid took his swing and just totally chunked it. “Fuck!” he yelled. My boss and I started cracking up as the kid stormed after his ball.

We weren’t laughing at him for chunking it. It was his response – so raw, authentic, and unexpected. It was one of the highlights of the round.

Cheers!

Rob

Lost: My Golf Game

Lost: My Golf Game

If Found, please email IGolfBad@Gmail.com..."I've learned that an Executive Course is a course that has mostly par threes, a few par fours, and is over priced" -- Bad Golfer

So a few days ago I made a post titled A Snowman's Not So Bad After All. Turns out I was right.

Today I got to leave work a little earily, so I thought I'd play a quick nine at the "Executive Course" down the street from my house. The last three times I've played this course I've scored a 37 (par is 29). Today I was bound and determined to score lower than 37. Dare I think I could actually score a 35?


I got paired up with a couple of other golfers and started off terrible. I shot a six on the par-three first, and then went bogey-bogey on the second and third. So coming up to the 125 yard par-three forth, I figured I was in pretty good shape if I could just get it on the green.

But something happened. First, the excuse. As I mentioned I rushed to the course from work, I still had my work shirt on and it was tucked in, tight. I could feel it pull on my back swing. But hell, this was just a little 125 yard nine-iron. That shouldn't bother me. Now, the shot: forty five degrees to the right. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't on the next fairway, it was on the fairway beyond the next fairway. But still, it should have been an easy chip shot to the green. Wrong! The chip shot when over the green. Then two more chip shots over the green and I finally found the soft stuff laying five. At this point I was so flustered, I four putted. That's right, I took a nine and a par-three 125 yard hole.

The guys I was playing with felt so sorry for me they marked it down as a seven. At the end of the round when we were adding up our score, they had me a 44. "But you only gave me a seven on the fourth," I said.

"Ok," said the old guy, "You can have two more strokes if you want them."

I took 'em.

So, my last four nine-hole rounds have been: 37, 37, 37 (on the par 29 course), 45 on a difficult par 36 "real" course, and then a 46 on this par 29 course. How's that for consistancy?!?

Cheers!

Rob

Colin Montgomerie Golf Course Management

It was announced yesterday that Colin Montgomerie has been chosen to design an 18-hole Tournament golf course for the Riffa Golf and Residential Development Company in The Kingdom of Bahrain.

My prediction -- he'll choked on the 18th hole and it will end up looking like this:

Unplayable Lie

In case you don't read the comments on this site...

First, I suggest you do. I appreciate anyone who leaves a comment and they are all worth reading.

Secondly, in the comments on my post regarding Mitsuhiro Tateyama, Greg from New2Golf mentioned that Tateyama should have declared an unplayable lie. Well, I am a bad golfer and don't know all the rules. If it seems unplayable kick it out and then lie about it. Now that I'm getting better I'm starting to count all my strokes, including out of bounds. So I guess "unplayable lie" will no longer mean If it seems unplayable kick it out and then lie about it.

By the way, if you want to read more about golf, check my blog roll and the sites I mention. They have some great stuff on them. The New2Golf site has an excellant article on beginner's tips, and Golf Nomad has some great videos of Michelle Wei on a Korean TV show that are very funny.

Cheers!

Rob

A Snowman's Not So Bad After All

Since this is a blog about bad golf, I'd be remiss to ignore this gem.

Next time you're on the course marking that snowman on your scorecard, think of Mitsuhiro Tateyama. A couple of weeks ago Tateyama, who's ranked 72 on the Japanese tour, was playing in the Acorm International at the at the Ishioka Golf Club. Here's how his hole went in the opening round, on the 225-yard par-three eighth:




Tee shot: ???
2nd shot: Hits the rough on the front of the green.
3rd shot: Opps. Over the green into some bushes. Ouch the ball is stuck in the roots.
4th - 17th: Hacking the ball out of the roots.
Eighteen shot: On the green.
Ninteenth shot: In the hole.

That's right, a 19.


"My mind went completely blank. I just wanted to get the ball out of there."

- Mitsuhiro Tateyama

(I know the feeling Mitsuhiro)







On the bright side, at least he didn't break the JGTO record. That belongs to Norio Suzuki who, at the 1987 Tokai Classic, accidently recorded his ninth hole score as 42 -- now that sounds like something I'd do.

Cheers!

Rob