Golf Tournaments and Events

By on Monday, March 31st, 2008 | No Comments

Golf Tournaments and Events

Golf tournaments are great competitive events where you can both have fun as well as challenge your golf game along with others. There are hundreds and hundreds of golf tournaments held all over the world both for professionals as well as amateurs. Even local organizations have golf tournaments.

For male professionals, there are four major golf tournaments that are held each year. They are:

1. The Masters
2. The U.S. Open
3. The British Open
4. PGA Championship

Female professionals have their own four major golf tournament each year. They are:

1. Kraft Nabisco Championship (formerly the Dinah Shore Tournament)
2. LPGA Championship
3. U.S. Women’s Open
4. Women’s British Open

Of course, amateur golfers will have golf tournaments as well including the U.S. Amateur Championship for men and women as well as juniors. Amateur seniors and amateur professionals also have specific golf tournaments they participate in to gain experience and even notoriety.

Professional golf tournaments are almost all held the same way. There are two days of qualifying rounds after which the bottom players are cut. Then there are two more days of competition. Each round is 18 holes.

Open golf tournaments, such as the U.S. Open, are held to try and give amateurs the chance to break into the field of professional golf. Golfers participate in a series of smaller tournaments to qualify for the Open where they proceed to the big tournament where they compete against professionals. The last amateur to win a U.S. Open was back in 1933.

Amateurs also get the chance to play in the big golf tournaments. The Masters Golf tournament invites the winners of several prestigious events to participate in the big one. That includes the winner of the U.S. and British Amateur Championships.

Most local golf tournaments are held to raise money for specific organizations or for charities. Anyone can participate and they can be quite fun. Most of the local golf tournaments are one, maybe two, day events and consist of one 18 hole round. Prizes maybe awarded for skins, long drive, and long putt, to name a few. A lot of local golf tournaments are flighted – meaning that participants are separated into classes according to ability. Many are also scramble or best ball format.

When you are a regular participant in golf tournaments, you can see why the pros love them so much. Although you won’t be receiving the same big paycheck that they do, you can sure have a lot of fun!

Read More...

Ping Golf Club

By on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 | No Comments

Ping Golf Club

For over forty years, the Ping Company has been manufacturing golf equipment that is both innovative and practical for both the casual and professional golfer. Since 1959, Ping Golf has been dedicated to one idea: innovation and design can produce a set of golf clubs that maximize the enjoyment of the game for all.

Karsten Solheim invented his 1-A putter, manufactured in his garage. He named it Ping for the sound it makes when it hits the ball. Thus, a company was born. Solheim was frustrated with his putting game as the putters of the era didn’t give him what he felt he needed in his short game. Once the 1-A putter hit the general market, they became so popular, Solheim quit his job at General Electric and began Ping Golf.

Solheim decided not to stop at putters and developed a set of irons dubbed “69” which he considered to be a good golf score. Solheim continued to experiment with the effects of good heel-toe weighting in his irons and also milled a cavity into the steel back of the irons for added forgiveness. Ping golf was growing by leaps and bound in the golf industry.

In 1966, Ping golf experienced possibly the greatest even of their company’s history. Solheim had an idea for a new putter. After he finalized the design – originally sketched on the dust cover of a 78 rpm record, he needed a name for the club. His wife suggested “answer” since it would give golfers an answer to their putting problems. It was shortened to “Anser” to fit on the club itself.

The Ping Anser would go on to be the most influential putter in golf while setting the standard for what is considered to be the conventional putter. It has racked up 500 professional golf wins making it the “winningest” putter in golf history. The Anser had a cavity back low center of gravity that provided superior feel for golfers of all abilities.

Ping golf faced a major obstacle at the end of 1966 as the USGA outlawed all Ping putters other than the Answer for tournament and handicapped play. This decision was made because the USGA felt the other Ping models had a special bend in the shaft under the grip that was thought to give players a special advantage in the putting stroke.

Of course, Ping survived and went on to become a premier manufacturer of golf equipment that is widely used on the professional tours as well as by amateurs all over the world. Ping golf has proven to be one of the powerhouses when it comes to golf equipment and it will probably remain so for a long time.

Top-Flite XL 13-Piece Complete Golf Club Set Top-Flite XL 13-Piece Complete Golf Club Set
 
Confidence GOLF Mens POWER Hybrid Club Set & Stand Bag Confidence GOLF Mens POWER Hybrid Club Set & Stand Bag
List Price: $300.00
Sale Price: $99.99
You save: $200.01 (67%)
Read More...

Tiger Woods History

By on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 | No Comments

Tiger Woods History

In August of 1996, the face of golf was forever changed when a very successful amateur player named Tiger Woods officially became a professional golfer. Tiger has been credited with renewing interest in the game of golf. At just twenty-one years old, he brought youth and vitality to the game of golf with his great game and his outgoing attitude.

Woods was a child prodigy who began to play golf at the age of two. In 1978, he putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. At age three, Woods shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy Golf Club in Cypress, California, and at age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible.

At the age of 15 Tiger Woods became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur Open Champion in golf history. He would go on to win the tournament three more times making him the event’s only multiple winner as well as the youngest. Continuing his record breaking career, Woods was the youngest to win the U.S. Amateur Championship which bought him a ticket into the PGA Masters. He tied for 41st making him the only amateur to make the cut.

His professional career has been just as prolific. Immediately upon turn pro, Tiger signed endorsement deals worth $60 million with Nike and Titleist. He played his first round of professional golf at the Greater Milwaukee Open. He tied for 60th place in his pro debut, but would go on to win two events in the next three months, and qualify for the Tour Championship.

Tiger Woods is the only golfer to win the PGA Player of the Year award in the year following his rookie season. The following April, Woods won his first golf major, The Masters, by a record margin of 12 strokes, became the youngest Masters winner, and the first winner of African or Asian descent.

He eventually set a total of 20 Masters records and tied 6 others, and has been the highest-profile golfer in the world ever since. He would go on to win an additional three PGA Tour events that year, and on June 15, 1997, Woods rose to the number one spot in the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time. Tiger Woods achieved this in only his 42nd week as a professional — the fastest ever ascent to the No. 1 ranking.

Currently ranked #1 in the world, there’s no doubt about it that Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers of all time. He has made the game of golf fun again as we all watch to see him continue to break records and win tournaments.

Read More...