Michelle Wie officially became the newest face for the Omega Swiss watch company. Wie joins an impressive list of "ambassadors" as the company calls their "star" power representatives including Nicole Kidman, Cindy Crawford, Michael Schumacher, Alexander Popoy, Ernie Els, Ian Thorpe, and Sergio Garcia.
Michelle Wie with Cindy Crawford at Omega on Rodeo Drive in California.
Wie is back in action the beginning of this month. It's the first LPGA major, the Kraft Nabisco in California. Last year Wie was the top amateur for the third consecutive year, after Morgan Pressel came close to taking that until Pressel faltered on Sunday. Wie roared past the competition on the back nine. Throughout the tournament, Pressel criticized the media for its overexposure of Wie and said, "She's been given everything and left the rest of us (amateurs) with nothing."
Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel at the Kraft Nabisco 2005
This year, both Wie and Pressel are competing as professionals.
We'll see action at the beginning of the month with the new Rolex Women's World Ranking. The Rolex committee expected to begin tweaking the controversial new women golf ranking system. Golfweek magazine, in its March 25th issue with Natalie Gulbis on the cover, reports it has learned the change with mean increasing the number of events used over the two year span to determine the ranking. The Rolex World Ranking will reportedly follow the lead of the men's official World Ranking and get rid of the minimum altogether using a divisor instead, expected to be somewhere between 25 and 35 when a golfer has played fewer events than the magic minimum. Rolex World Ranking officials said they expected to be "tweaking" the system when it first came out. Wie, who hasn't won an event, is in her first year as a professional and is not a member of the LPGA, was still up at the top of the list, at number 3 in the world. Only Player of the Year Annika Sorenstam and Rookie of the Year Paula Creamer were ranked ahead of Wie. Following the Fields Open in Hawaii, Wie went up a notch to number 2. If this new calculation goes into effect as reported in Golfweek, Wie will probably drop down to number 6 or 8 but she'll still be in the top 10.
Fields Open Media Director Al Abrams and Ko Olina Director of Instruction Sean Lanyi with Danielle Tucker during the Saturday morning "Fields Open" broadcast. You can hear the show, with the "wild life" on the course sounds, i.e. the Sugar Cane Train, at radiogolfclub.com
Ko Olina Train
Frankly I found the beginning of this LPGA season one mess up after another.
You'd think they'd have done all the "tweaking" of the "official female golfer ranking" before it went into effect just like you'd think the new LPGA media coverage requirements would have been announced before the season started. It was embarrassing for a lot of people in Hawaii when all of a sudden the media coverage of the Fields Open came to an abrupt halt. On more than one television station, the coverage of the Fields Open looked more like tabloid coverage of a secret celebrity wedding. The camera man forced to stand somewhere off the golf course property with his lens zoomed in as much as possible just to get a glimpse of Michelle Wie playing in her first LPGA event of the year in her home state.
If that wasn't bad enough, the new credential requirements were sprung on the media during a new event with a new corporation, Fields, spending millions of dollars for the privilege of being the sponsor only to be boycotted until the Associated Press of America came to a tentative agreement two days into the event. I'd have thought the LPGA, with it's new crop of young talented athletes bringing so much media attention to the table before the season even started, would have done everything possible to take advantage of the hype. At last report, the AP's assistant general counsel was still discussing the new language in the media package.
For Michelle Wie, you've got to wonder when a girl is going to get a break. During her first tournament as a professional golfer, Wie was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard and now, in her first LPGA event as a professional, the media boycotts the first two days of the event.
THIEVES STEAL WAIAKEA GOLF BAGS IN WAIKELE!!!!
The Waiakea Warriors, the defending state girls golf team champions, would really like the thief, or thieves, to return their golf bags. The team was on Oahu during spring break practicing at Turtle Bay Resorts Palmer Course. After practice, the team got into their van on Thursday, March 23rd, and drove to Waikele for dinner. When they returned to their van, they found the lock on the van door punched out and ten bags with ten sets of clubs and all the important treasures a golfer keeps inside their golf bag stolen. If you see a golf bag, they are navy blue with huge white letters reading "Waiakea" on the side, call the police. Now the Waiakea Warriors are out buying replacement clubs so they can defend their title at the 2006 David S. Ishii Foundation Hawaii High School State Golf championship.
If you see one of these stolen bags or hear about them or know something, call the police or Crime Stoppers 955 8300 or *CRIME on your cell phone.
Two of the Brothers Castillo are featured in the April Issue of Golf Tips magazine. What's even better is the way they promote all of the golf courses on Kauai and not just their own in this article. I have a link for you to go to get the tips from Ron Castillo, Director of Golf at Kiahuna and Michael Castillo, Director of Golf at Princeville Resort. When you click on this link, you'll see "Iron Play" on the right. Click there after this:
golftipsmag.com/content/index_instruction.html. The whole article is great with the five fundamentals: setup, takeaway, backswing/downswing, impact and finish and then there is this in their conclusion:
Balance 101: Here's one of our all time favorite tips: Hit an iron shot and purposely hold your finish. Then, retrace your swing in reverse, all the way through the downswing, to the top position. Even in reverse, the sequence should lead to a steady address position. If there is a flaw in the process, it's easy to see if you try this technique. Once you've worked these five fundamentals into your iron play arsenal, forget them and concentrate on shooting lower scores! You should have ingrained them into your swing, allowing you the opportunity to concentrate on the shot at hand and not the fundamentals you already know.
We had a great Sonic golf clinic on March 11th. Sonic golf is a device Dr. Robert Grober, physics professor at Yale, developed. The device fits inside your golf club and you can hear your swing. It's difficult to describe the feeling of hearing your tempo but it sure does work. You can hear it for yourself by listening to the March 11th "The Golf Club" show.
www.radiogolfclub.com/listen.html
Go to the March 11th show
You'll hear the sound the sonic instrument makes in the first segments of the show. You can actually hear the sound it makes and listen to some of the guys who used it during the clinic and their reaction.
We also took a trip to Ireland with our intrepid golf writer traveler Michael Patrick Shiels.
Michael Patrick Shiels aka Bond, James Bond
We went all the way up to Ballyliffin, the Northern part of Ireland where there are beautiful courses to be played and at a reasonable rate. Seems the currency exchange rate in Ireland is much more gentle to the U.S. dollar than the Euro is!
www.ballyliffinlodge.com
Here are some of the photo's Shiels took from his Ballyliffin Lodge window.
And then there is this shot he took of the "local" scenery, a bit of a difference from the Ballyliffin Lodge, wouldn't you say!
The 2006 U.S Open quaifiers are set for Hawaii. the success of this years qualifying will determine whether Hawaii continues to have the opportunity.
All locals are in May... Wailea on the 13th, Turtle Bay on the 15th, Poipu on the 19th, and Waikoloa on the 22nd. Your entry must be in to the U.S.G.A by April 26th at 5 pm. The Sectional will be on June 5th on Kauai at Poipu Golf Course.
The U.S. Women's Open local is May 18th at Ko Olina and the Sectional on June 13th also at Ko Olina. and the U.S. Senior Open is June 19th at Waialae. get your application at www.usga.org and send it in ASAP.
Our local PGA Tour"ing" professionals are in the money this far into the year. PGA Tour Dean Wilson is ranked 32nd with $526,397 in earnings so far. On the Nationwide Park McLaughlin is 8th with $52,706. During a three week break between the Nationwide Australia/New Zealand Swing and the Louisiana trip, Parker took some time out to talk with us in "The Golf Club".
Parker McLaughlin
Wilson and McLaughlin did not make the cut their past tournaments but McLaughlin did take the time to tell us what it was like in Louisiana.
"This past week we were in Lafayette, Louisiana. On the map, it is right in between where hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit. Katrina hit about 2 hours to the east, and Rita hit an hour and a half west of Lafayette. So they have not had much damage and have actually had a big increase in their economy because of the hurricanes.
I tried to get into the "southern" spirit and try some Cajun cooking. The first three nights I was there, I ate at some local restaurants. I tried things like Crawfish Etouffee and Boiled Crawfish. It was very tasty... and spicy.
The golf didn't go quite as well as I would have liked. I missed the cut by 1 shot. I had a rough first round where I shot 76. It was very cold and windy, but I did not play well. The second round was much improved as I shot 68 and nearly birdied the last two holes to make the cut (I parred the 18th). But even though I missed the cut, it gave me some good energy for the tournament this next week."
That's the spirit Parker!
Sure enough, during the Players Championship, Owen came on strong and finished tied for 22nd.
Tiger Woods was featured on CBS's "60 Minutes" during the month of March. He talked about overcoming his problems with stuttering, his incredibly close relationship he has with his father and his family and his coming schedule. It was interesting to hear that he only spends his tournament winnings. That money he considers his "allowance" and he can spend it. His income from the endorsement contracts, he says, is put in an entirely different account. That's the money he uses to give back to the community, like the new Tiger Woods Learning Center he just opened in California.
Next year, The Bay Hill Invitational will have a new name. It'll be named The Arnold Palmer Invitational.
PGA Tour broadcaster Bob Bubka had a chance to talk with someone who knows what hosting a golf event is all about. Bing Crosby's' wife Katherine.
And thank you for your Mana. May you hit the sweet spot every time.
Danielle
Turtle Bay Palmer Course home of the SBS Open (Thought you'd like to see a sunny picture for a change).
