Ottawa Golf Blog

Puma Golf, has some of the best looking golf clothing on the market. Cool colors and very functional. It's working for Geoff Ogilvy this week as he's made it to the finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship for the third time in 4 years. Ottawa Golf Blog will be doing some Puma Golf product reviews in the near future so stay tuned.

Here's a look at some of the Spring/Summer 2009 Collection from Puma Golf

Watching today's Accenture WGC Match Play unfortunately got me thinking about when will this damn snow leave so we can get out there and hit balls. Rory McIlroy and Geoff Ogilvy with short sleeves on hitting 8 irons 180 yds. Damn desert golf. Some really great matches good to see Ogilvy and Cink get through as they're in my Fantasy Pool so at least I'll have one guy in the finals. Who do you think will advance to the finals?

Talking to one of my buddies the other day about golf because of course all we can do now still here in Canada is talk about it. We got to talking about if we've ever played a course where we definitely felt out of element. I'm talking a course that has all the bells and whistles on and off the course and might make a simple hacker like ourselves a bit intimidated or have feelings of being less of a golfer. We racked our brains and couldn't come up with any, so we kind of figured it's not possible even hackers can be comfortable with all the fancy amenities. Now some goals this year are to find a course with fancy Sferra towels in the washroom and for your golf bag or maybe a course with Starbucks lattes for your power cart on those cool mornings.

Nice to see Mississauga-based apparel company Sligo Wear sign American Justin Hicks to a deal. Justin was 33rd on the Nationwide Tour last year and has come out well so far this season with a T13 at the Panama Digicel Championship. This week he's Down Under at the Moonah Classic where he's T37 after rounds of 70,72,74.

“Justin is a solid player with a tremendous future,” said Shawn Aucoin, Sligo’s director of sales. “He’s another example of a player who knows what he likes in apparel and knows what looks good and feels good for him.”

Hicks joins PGA Tour players Brian Gay and Ben Crane, and fellow Nationwide Tour players Steve LeBrun and Bubba Dickerson who have signed endorsement agreements with Sligo. Soon Ottawa Golf Blog will be doing a review of some of the 2009 line that Sligo Wear will be offering this season so stay tuned.

Tiger made the shots he needed and closed out Brendan Jones 3 and 2. A bigger test should be today when he faces Tim Clark.

Tiger Woods Day 1 Highlights Holes 1 to 8 2009 World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play


Tiger Woods Day 1 Highlights Holes 9 to 16 2009 World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play

This is the time of the year I love the temperature is getting milder, Spring is hopefully around the corner and those golf clubs in the bag in the basement are asking to be played. Of course with all the golf club companies touting their new new drivers, irons, wedges to make us hackers a better player. This of course weights on my psyche as well. Whether your a hacker like me or a player you want the best right. Tiger wants to play the best clubs right sure any of those guys in the match play this week want the best. If your a painter you want the best brushes and paints。If your trying to lose weight you want the best weight loss pills.This is a dilemma for the golf hacker in the Spring with the barrage of new shiny clubs. Can I resist the R9 driver？

Some funny stuff by Nike's Marketing Department. AK, Cink, Leonard, Immelman living it up while Tiger's out.

As I was checking the Northern Trust leaderboard yesterday on my phone at my girls Irish dance competition, I was amazed to see that Phil had relinquished the lead and was +3 for the day and Steve Stricker was leading the tournament. I returned home later in the day and saw the highlights on TV where he managed to get a couple of birdies down the stretch and pulled out a win. Can you image a player to shoot rounds of 62 and 63 and still lose a tournament. It almost happen to Phil and I'm sure has happened before to him and others. It just goes to show you, there's sometimes a fine line between shooting 62 one day to shooting 72 the next. You definitely can't take off a round on the PGA Tour.

Highlights From Phil's Round Of 62 on Saturday

The good folks at Nickent sent me over their 4DX Evolver Driver for a review. Now I've always wanted to test out one of these type of drivers with interchangeable shafts so I jumped at the chance when they sent one out to me. The specs on the one I'll be testing out is as follows:
10.5 degree head with a UST V2 High Launch Regular shaft.

Enjoy some unboxing photos below and stay tuned for the review.

It's crazy how when you have a little boy so many just figure he's going into hockey when he gets big enough. Now don't get me wrong if that's what my little guy wants to do I'm OK with that but I will definitely not push and I'll want him to try a variety of sports and activities. I sometimes think people just push the hockey thing so much. I realize that living in Canada and the Ottawa area hockey is the #1 thing to do for kids both boys and girls. Why not expose them to other sports like golf for instance that needs more young people to get involved. Yes the season is shorter here and there's not as much amateur dollars dolled out for the sport but why not. Really I don't care what my kids go into as long as they love doing it because no matter if they have softball trophies, golf trophies, hockey trophies or Irish dance trophies on their mantels I'll be proud regardless.

Tiger Woods is officially back
See you at the Match Play Tiger.

Dustin Johnson had 3 amazing rounds and that was all it took as the weather made headlines this past Sunday and Monday so the tournament was shortened and Johnson was declared the winner, all PGA Tour legal. Here's some highlights from his round Saturday at Poppy Hills.

The nice people over at Titleist sent me over a box each of Pro V1s and Pro V1x to review. Looking forward to see how they perform compared to old ProV1s. Each PGA Tour pro that has won this year has used a Titleist Pro V1 ball. Who will win tomorrow at Pebble Beach?

Watching the AT & T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a treat watching amateur celebrity golfers alongside PGA Tour pros. All amateurs are amazed at the tempo the pros swing at and of course how long they can hit it. I think for me I like seeing how other amateurs play and when they have there swing vision it's even better. Enjoy this video of Peyton Manning golf swing along with Justin Timberlake's, Chris O'Donnell, Thomas Gibson, and Dennis Haysbert.

For those of you with kids if your like me Valentine's Day is always a very fun time with kids. I always look forward to my two girls and what they will create for me for Valentine's Day. Yesterday was no exception I arrived home and was immediately greeted with smiles and some interesting gadgets. My oldest made a puzzle for me and I of course immediately tried to do finish it although it was pretty tough I managed and it was priceless to see the look on her face. My 5 year old daughter made me a little box decorated with hearts and what not I got to choose between two of course can't forget Mom. When I told her I'd put golf things it in she immediately smiled. Who needs big grand things (although my Birthday is coming up and golf gift cards are always good) when it's these kind of things that really matter.

If you sure watched any of the coverage of the Buick Invitational they were really focused on Villegas and Rollins most of the last day. Nick Watney just seemed to be steady and steal the win with birdies instead of Rollins and Villegas who were destined for bogeys down the stretch. Watney sure hit his Titleist 909H hybrid nice into the 18th with a nice two putt he got his second victory. In case you missed it see video below.

Lately I've been reading a few articles on how PGA Tour players are becoming more and more fixated on exercise routines using personal trainers/gurus to become more fit in the highly competitive world of the PGA Tour. It only makes sense right, exercise will lead to better golf.

Look at guys like VJ he's a exercise animal at his age and his fitness level, amazing. It will be interesting to see how he does after his surgery and his first tournament back. Gone are the days of staying out late the night before tournament eating and drinking whatever, like the old days some old veterans would say.

Players like Pat Perez have seen the rewards and benefits as he won a few weeks ago at the Bob Hope tournament. Perez a player that initiated a more healthier lifestyle realized the benefits. If a player packs on a few pounds while in the off season he's not just going to take some diet pills or some other quick fix. He's going to hit the gym because we all know exercise will lead to better golf.

Well winter continues here in the Ottawa area with some cold weather lately followed by some nasty freezing rains tomorrow. For those of us that get these long winters we only hope for any sign of spring. For the golf addicted that includes seeing patches of grass that start to break through our front and back lawns. Just enough to be able to start chipping the all. Will it come soon God knows but I've had the pleasure of trying out a new beanie the last few weeks and anyone who lives in Canada or for that matter any place cold knows the importance of a good reliable beanie or toque (that's what we like to call it up here in the Great White North eh!).

A nice little video of some of the new offerings from Callaway, Titleist, Cleveland, Graphite Design.

Ok I was trying to put the hex on Kenny Perry during the playoff with Charley Hoffman yesterday. I was cheering for Charley to win his 2nd PGA tournament but it wasn't meant to be as Perry's putter came through and Charley's failed him. I like what's going on with Charley's game right now, look at his stats for the start of the year, a victory will come soon.

Driving Distance	303.2	18th
Driving Accuracy Percentage	67.74%	44th
Greens in Regulation Percentage	78.40%	7th
Putting Average	1.717	72nd
Eagles (Holes per)	81.0	45th
Birdie Average	5.22	8th
Scoring Average	69.36	16th
Sand Save Percentage	77.78%	7th
Total Driving	62	6th
All-Around Ranking	217	1st
Regular Season FedExCup Points	350	6th
Money Leaders	$707,670	6th
Par Breakers	30.25%	8th
Putts Per Round	28.56	78th
GIR Pct. - Fairway Bunker	83.3%	18th

It was great to see Rory McIlroy come through and win and get his first professional win. It's hard to believe he's just nineteen sometimes. It wasn't the prettiest with a few bogeys down the stretch but he managed a par on the last to beat Justin Rose by one shot.

“This is my first win and it was really hard,” said McIlroy.

“It has taken a monkey off my back having lost in the play-offs.

“I got myself into a great position at the middle of the back nine, let a few shots slip when Justin birdied a couple of them.

“I fought back and it is nice to hold it together on the last with a great up-and-down for the victory.”