Hate to say this, but there is nothing exciting going on in the golf world right now here in Indiana.
The PGA Tour is in Florida, Tiger is not playing, Ernie Els finished off a victory last week, and Brickyard Crossing’s opening day of play has been pushed back due to weather.
A couple of weeks ago, the Professional Bowlers Tour was in town, along with my good friend Randy Pedersen. He is a 13-time winner on the PBA Tour and is now a broadcaster for PBA Tour telecasts on ESPN.
Weather seems to be the winner these days when it comes to planning a trip.
I just returned from Sea Island, Ga., where we had three days of good weather and then the bottom fell out Wednesday, Feb. 27. We arrived on Sunday, Feb. 24 and had the privilege of playing one of the resort’s ultra-private courses, Ocean Forest.
Ocean Forest is a great course and hosted the Walker Cup a few years back. We basically had the course to ourselves in the morning due to the club having a member event in the afternoon. The weather was perfect. It was sunny and 70 degrees, with light winds. The course is somewhat tree-lined, with smaller greens. So the shot value into the green was at a premium.
The World Golf Championships Match Play tournament is underway, and there were some interesting matchups in the first round.
This tournament is comprised of the top 64 players on the world rankings list. Tiger Woods is No. 1 and Phil Mickelson is No. 2, but the rest of the players of the world are the ones to watch. These are players who are not household names, and you rarely get to see them. If you watch The Golf Channel at all, you might recognize some of them.
A few of the players to watch are guys like Martin Kaymer, Henrik Stenson, Richard Sterne and Niclas Fasth. These players are stalwarts on the European Tour and have a lot of game.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is blogging from the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He is playing in the tournament with friend and former Champions Tour standout Larry Ziegler.
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The first two rounds of the tournament are done, and we have successfully made the cut. The field started with 144 two-man teams and has been cut to the low 65 teams and ties. Our scores for the two rounds were 68-67, for a 9-under total of 135. The leading team is at 128, which is 16-under par. So we need to do some making up to get in the hunt for the championship.
Our first round on Tuesday, Jan. 22 was somewhat uneventful. We started out with eight straight pars, and then I happened to chip in on our ninth hole for our first birdie.
I have to thank my partner, Larry Ziegler, for the great chipping lesson he gave me before we played. He noticed something as we were warming up for our round, and it has made a huge difference in my short game. He basically got me to stop trying to help the ball up and had me somewhat “pop it” to get the ball to come off the club face faster, but with control.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is blogging from the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He is playing in the tournament with friend and former Champions Tour standout Larry Ziegler.
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Now that the PGA Merchandise Show is over, one of the nice things that the PGA does is to offer a series of winter tournaments for us to play. They are called the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas. The tournaments are held at the PGA Village complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
I am fortunate enough that the Brickyard allows me to stay down and play in one of these events this week. The event I am playing in is the Senior Junior Team Championship. I am playing this year with my good friend Larry Ziegler. Larry is a past Champions Tour member and a huge racing fan. Larry played all the Senior Tour events at Brickyard Crossing and now only plays in a few events during the year.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder attended the 55th PGA Merchandise Show from Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, Fla., a huge gathering of PGA Golf Professionals to preview new merchandise for the upcoming season. This is the final installment of Schroeder’s blogs sharing his impressions of “The Show.”
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The 2008 Show is in its last day, and, as usual, a lot of the attendees come early and then try and sneak out and play some golf if their schedules allow. Today the aisles are not as crowded, so moving around is a lot easier. I’m going to head down to the new product display area and see what’s new.
The new product section is always kind of fun because you see some good new products, and you also see some products that make you wonder, “What are they thinking?”
In the new product area, you see everything from teaching devices to facial masks for skin care. Some of the more innovative products come from the teaching aid area.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is attending the 55th PGA Merchandise Show from Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, Fla., a huge gathering of PGA Golf Professionals to preview new merchandise for the upcoming season. Schroeder will share his impressions through this series of blogs.
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Day 2 (Friday, Jan. 18) here at the show is a little more subdued and quiet, which is normal after the opening day. Today we are going to spend some time just walking around and looking at some different items.
The big buzz in equipment is adjustable shafts. Club manufacturers now make woods so that shafts are interchangeable. It has been approved by the USGA and is conforming to the Rules of Golf. This will allow golfers to have multiple shafts and be able to remove them and put in a different one to fit their game without having to send it away to be reshafted. Most of the major companies offer this, including Callaway, Nike and Taylor Made.
At the show, the busiest place seems to be the Equipment Test Center. This is a 180-foot deep indoor hitting area that allows the show attendees to try the new clubs being offered this year. There are 45 hitting bays, and more than 400,000 golf balls have been hit into the nets.