On the Last day of 2008...

Hope all you golfers out there look back on a good 2008 and are looking forward to an even better 2009. Have a safe and happy New Year's eve and the best of wishes for a very good New Year. Those wishes come to you from each of us at Lakeview Golf Course. That would be Diane, and Eric and Michael (me).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Johnny Miller speakes - worth listening to

Johnny Miller uses espn.com to share some of the wisdom he has gained in a long and successful golfing career. And since we have more time now that the cooler days are here, we might as well pay attention. Heaven knows, come the golfing season something may click and we'll find ourselves hitting irons like Johnny used to. that would be sweet.

Course Opening

Gonna be a nice day today. Will open the golf course at 11am.

Break in the weather

Not much rain out there for our area. We'll open the course for play about 9am. It will be cart paths only for cart users.

Update: Wouldn't you know it: As soon as I showed up, so did the showers. Oh well...

Christmas Eve 2008

Golfers! Be joyful for it is the season of peace.

And may the weather warm and the rains abate so that you can walk the fairways and trod once again on friendly greens.

Peace and Joy for each of you throughout the New Year.

More Tiger and Bob Smiley

espn.com reprints more of Bob Smiley's Follow the Roar. This time it's his resurgence during the second round of the US Open where Tiger goes five under for the day to get back into contention. Would be just jim dandy with me if espn.com serializes the whole book...

Frank's photo, Tiger's best of the year and Yes we played golf today...

Photo: Ready, set and.... Frank Bratton on the tee at #9 back in July.

From espn.com and Bob Smiley, Tiger's best ten shots of the year. That would be in an abbreviated season for TW, what is it, eight tournaments? Six on the PGA tour and two others? Smiley does a good job of picking and describing ten shots that are pretty phenomenal.

And yes we did play some golf this morning when the temperatures roared into the mid fifties, it wasn't raining, and the grounds were relatively dry. A little wind but that was no big deal. Rex, Ken and Rick Hudson and I played nine and enjoyed the chance to get out, stretch our legs, and hit a little ball all over the place. No telling when we'll get to do it again...

POY is Harrington

The players like the fact that he won two majors. Bully, bully. Here's Bob Harig from espn.com commenting. Note that Padraig only played in 15 events on the PGA tour. Impressive.

Update: Here's Jason Sobel's take on the POY. He said months ago that TW would not win if another player won the last two majors - which Harrington did. But he adds another reason for the non Tiger choice, one he picked up from a player: six tournaments does not make a year. So, if Harrington hadn't won one of those majors, somebody other than Tiger would have one? I think not...

Best shots of 2008

espn.com's Jason Sobel's take on the best golf shots of this past season. Best shot of the year? Tiger's 12' putt on the 72nd hole at the US Open for birdie that got him into a playoff with Rocco Mediate. Third best shot of the year? Tiger's run at the same major during the third round where he picked up five strokes, and got back into contention, on holes #13 (70' putt for eagle), #17 (chip in for birdie), and #18 (30'putt for eagle). Impressive and memorable. Go here for the write up by Sobel.

Btw, do you have five memorable shots from the past year? Off the top of my head, I can think of one for me - the hole-in-one on #9 during a Saturday morning Lakeview golf shamble. I can think of two memorable shots by Jim Bateman - daggers to the heart - on a Thursday morning in August that knocked Richard Swayze and me out of the Senior League playoffs. And I can remember three terrible lag putts of mine the following week that lead to bogeys, a loss to Wilma and Diane in our match play event, and on top of that, a drop from the top spot in both the team and individual standings. Oh boy. Oh - this is supposed to be best shots of 2008. Got any?

Bob Smiley's text chat with Michelle Wie

Here's a pretty funny brief peek into the world of a teen's text messaging, the teen being Michelle Wie and the guy she's messaging not up to date on his abbreviation vocabulary. The Wie lassie helps him out. Note: Bob Smiley wrote Follow the Roar.

Sunday opening

Weather might cooperate tomorrow and allow for some golfing. Temperatures in the 50's and maybe some rain. Lets cancel the rain and play a few holes just for the fun of it. Expect to be open by 11 am if at all possible.

PGA POY: Tiger or Padraig

espn.com writes about who it should be and comes up with a draw. My vote: Tiger. For his four wins in six outings - that's about a 66% winning percentage. For his second place in the money race even though he played in only six tournaments as opposed to the twenty-three that the money winner played in - that would be Vijay. For his gritty and super human effort and win in the US Open where he battled not only the course and Rocco but also his own broken body. I think Harrington, winner of the third and fourth majors of the year (sans Tiger) lost his chance to be POY when he failed to do well in the FedEx playoffs.

Tiger vs. Rocco: Sporting Event of the Year

Better than the Giants beating the undefeated and looking-for-immortality Patriots in the Super Bowl and the Kansas defeat of Memphis in overtime at the NCAA Men's basketball championship. At least according to some. Go here for the USGA story of the 2008 US Open where Tiger was triumphant after nineteen extra holes on a Monday in June. Remember? I bet you do. And I agree about it being the sporting event of the year.

Michelle Wie sitting pretty...

...but still has to close the deal with one more round. So, if you were her, would you be thinking about the nine stroke cushion she has over the 20th position (top 20 get their LPGA card and that is what this Q school is all about, right?); or would you be thinking about how to make up that one stroke deficit to get to the top spot and win the event? Guess I would have both in mind but would concentrate on making one good shot at a time and, of course, end the day at least one stroke better than anyone else. The Wie lass goes out with Stacy Lewis and Amy Yang in about forty minutes. The leaderboard here.

Update: Well, looks like she took the safe route, firing a +2 on the day and finishing tied for 7th place six strokes behind the winner, Stacy Lewis. And now it's on to the LPGA. The scoreboard.

Wie shows maturity and steeliness

The Wie lady responded to adversity yesterday, adversity being a couple of yanked drives and a three putt, with three birdies after the first yank and then another birdie following the second yank. She didn't implode as this espn.com writer says, but recovered and played well, finishing with an even par 72. Super. Ten under and two behind the leader and six up on the 21st position - top 20 get their LPGA card.

Welcome to the world Noah Kyle Hager

Just learned that James and Louton Hager had a baby last night: Noah Kyle. Welcome and congratulations. Looking forward to seeing the youngster on the links in a year or two.

Michelle Wie shares lead at Q school!

Second of five rounds and the young lady doing very well at Q school after a round of -7 yesterday. Shares the lead with Shiho Oyama at 10 under. Three more days, three more rounds. Sure sounds like fun - would love to be out hitting the ball around. Wouldn't you? Maybe we need to have our own little Q school here at Lakeview. Think you could handle five or six days with 18 holes each day? Oh yeh...

Fees and Rates for 2009

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Michelle Wie in the news again - hurray!

She's completed her first day of Q school and did well. Four more to go. espn.com also has this story from espn the magazine which talks about the young lady changing the sport and being a big, big thing. High praise. And high expectations. Good luck to the young lady - and yes I want to see more of her on the LPGA tour next year, and in other tournaments.