May 15th, 2009 / No Comments » / by Patrick
Today I volunteered at the Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship in Leawood, KS. I had never volunteered for a tournament before and didn’t know what to expect. I was assigned to the scorers tent and took the scores from the players. This ended up being a pretty cool job as all of the players had to stop by when they were done with their round. The first group to finished around 11:00 and Caroline Larsson from the current of season of the Big Break sat across the table from me. Over the next two hours I got to see players like Jill Frantz (from my old stomping ground, Iowa City), Ashley Prange, Susan Choi, Amber Prange, Dana Bates, Rachel Bailey, and Charlotte Campbell. Very cool. I have to say my favorites were Susan Choi, Charlotte Campbell (though I didn’t recognize her at first) and Stacey Bieber. They seemed the friendliest, though all of them were surprisingly friendly. There was one, Stacey Bieber, who I swear I know from somewhere, but I could never figure it.
After the first wave was done, I wandered and saw Kim Welch, Bri Vega and Brenda McLarnon playing. Unfortunately the Kansas weather got the best of them and they suspended play before the second wave finished. And I got to see Lori Atsedes call for a ruling. How ironic. Ashely Prange had the lead of the players who finished with a 72.
I really enjoyed watching the women play. They all seem to have such smooth and easy swings. They make my swing look like I am chopping wood and missing the tree.
If you are a fan of the Big Break, you’d be a fool to miss a Futures Tour event in your area.
It was a lot of fun and I will volunteer again next year. I might even try to get into the pro-am, but I’d have to see how much humiliation I could take.
Posted in: Golf
March 26th, 2009 / No Comments » / by Patrick
Since I started playing golf a lot of people ask me why I like it so much. Tuesday night was the first night of my league and it provides a good example of why I am hooked. It was a miserable night to play. When we started at 5:30 it was 50 degrees and very windy. It got colder with each hole.
I have been working on my driver swing and don’t have much confidence in it yet. It is improving but the change isn’t natural to me yet. That being said, I step up to the first tee without much confidence and too many first tee jitters. The other team hit theirs right of the fairway leaving some tall trees between them and the green. My partner hit his in the fairway but it ended up running off the left side into a tough lie. My turn to tee it up. I stand behind my ball to take the view of the fairway and aim my shot. I swing and hit a decent shot, a little lower than I’d like, but the ball goes straight down the middle and farther than anyone else’s ball other than my partner. On the first hole there is a creek that divides the fairway into two sections. My second shot would have to clear 185 yards to safely cross the creek. I can hit my 4 iron that distance, but it isn’t a very safe shot, so I layup with a 9 iron. My second shot was perfect and comes to rest right before the creek. My third shot was about 155 yards to the green. I hit a nice shot but the wind pushes it left of the green.
Before this post becomes a shot by shot recounting of my round, I’ll explain. My first three shots were not perfect but very good. Even though I chipped on the green and then three putted for a double bogey, those first three swings had me feeling very good and confident. On the second hole I two putted for a bogey. All my shots were decent. On the third hole I started with a good tee shot in to the fairway. For my approach I hit an 8 iron. I had a nice clean lie and good look at the green. My swing was perfect. It felt like I hardly hit the ball and had that great sound when you hit it pure. The ball looked beautiful as it flew and landed on the green. GIR!! Woo-hoo! My 20′ birdie putt came up short and left me with a three footer for par, which I made. On the 4th, a short par 3, my tee shot was very good, landing on the green. I ended up three putting for a bogey, but it still felt good to start with a good shot. Through four holes I was +4. I felt I was playing about as well as I could (maybe not putting) and that gave me a lot of confidence. The next day I still felt great from my round. Imagine that, a few swings that take only a few seconds can make me feel good a day later.
The reverse is also true. If I had played terrible and struggled the entire round, I’d probably feel down the next day. I do think I’ve grown to handle the lows better. It is easier for me to chalk up poor play to having an off night or my general lack of experience. Which is probably the better way to view it. The highs are so good that it keeps me struggling through the lows. So golf is sort of like crack.
Posted in: Golf
March 14th, 2009 / 1 Comment » / by Patrick
Looks like the spudboys from Ohio are back in the studio:
Devo whipping up first album since 1990
Sweet.
Posted in: Entertainment
March 13th, 2009 / 2 Comments » / by Patrick
I was never happy with the Democrats in Congress during the Bush years. They were too easily cowed into submission by the Republic Party and never seemed to provide much opposition to Bush even later when the public turned sour on his policies.
I have watched the Republic Party since Obama took office and I’ve found their opposition … interesting. Rush Limbaugh, the de facto leader of the Republic Party, has openly declared he hopes Obama fails. I remember under Bush that any criticism of the administration was questioned as being unpatriotic. You are either with us or against us. If you disagree you are providing aid and comfort to the enemy. Isn’t this a case of massive hypocrisy? The Republicans would rather Obama fail and the country fail along with him, just so they can be right? Wow. Maybe they are the Republican’t party. I guess they just hate America.
Posted in: Politics
February 24th, 2009 / 2 Comments » / by Patrick
I heard on the Economist podcast yesterday how experts fear a brain drain from the ranks of banking executives due to the bailout stipulation that caps executive pay. The idea is that cap will cause the banking CEOs and VPs to leave for other industries where there is no cap.
I have two reactions to this. One, I can’t believe the audacity. These are the executives who were in charge while their industry collapsed. Their firms would have failed if the government didn’t bail them out. And they were to blame. Sure, some nutjob conservatives will blame the greedy consumers, but that is foolish. I say feel free to leave. Maybe you can run another industry into the ground. May I suggest the music industry?
Second, I think this shows how short sighted they are. This isn’t a permanent cap. Maybe if they work their asses off their companies will do better and they will earn having the cap lifted. Isn’t that the American ideal? Work hard and get rewarded for it? Earn your keep for a change.
Posted in: General, Politics
February 16th, 2009 / No Comments » / by Patrick
The highlights of the weekend TV were BSG and Dollhouse. I can’t begin to say how much BSG was the suck. The whole episode was like the writers realized that they had only 5 episodes left and a ton of loose ends that they hadn’t left themselves enough time to explain, so they turn one character into a narrator and do a massive answer dump. A what a dump it was. BSG has had so many good episodes, it is a shame that the writers can’t figure out how to pace a series. They should watch some Lost to get an idea of how to do it. BSG is on the verge of Sopranos territory here. For those that didn’t watch the Sopranos, it was an amazing series that was tainted with a bad ending. See also Star Wars and the Matrix.
Dollhouse was amazing. The premiere was great and set up the series so well. Watch it. Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans will love it.
Posted in: Entertainment
January 22nd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Patrick
I have one quibble about last night’s Lost. The episode was excellent except for the part where Faraday insists that in time travel it is impossible to change the past. This is a fairly common sci-fi time travel concept. I think it gets disproven soon after that when Locke gets shot by Ethan. In the past Ethan never sees Locke and never fires his rifle at him. So isn’t Ethan’s past changed? Maybe I am being too focused on the details. Suppose Ethan is there to investigate the smuggler’s plane and he kills the surviving smuggler. His new encounter doesn’t necessarily change the outcome of that. Even if that was his last bullet, it is possible that he could still kill the smuggler in a different way, maybe with butt of his rifle. But hasn’t Locke’s presence changed the past? What about chaos theory and the butterfly effect? Does that not apply to time travel? Not to be a killjoy, but the time travel tropes are challenging.
Posted in: Entertainment
