Topic: Ask Bruce / The Open

Hi Bruce, just trying to get my bets together for the Open and am looking forward to your preview as usual. Of particular interest to me is the condition and the weather forecast. Is it hard and fast with high winds forecast like last time it was at Birkdale, or slow with light winds. If the latter, which I suspect, it could be a matter of finding value amoungst the yanks at around the 50/1 mark.

Liz

Topic: Ask Bruce / Ochoa - Total Dominance?

Get on board again this week Bruce. $2.50

What price the Grand slam? She’d have to be a massive chance.

Topic: Ask Bruce / Webb

Bruce – what’s the scoop on Karrie? She can’t break 75 at the moment. Maybe she should retire as I doubt she can get back to the level she once played at. It can’t be satisfying for a Hall of Famer to be missing cuts or finishing 60th each week.

Liz

Topic: ISG Feedback / feedback thingie

Admin – “Hi Ditty – We’re not going to go down the road of adding more forums.”

Why not remove one – the Cashmore forum is a joke. They have spat the dummy yet your website is still giving them publicity. Just call it Golf Course Architecture and let the members talk about it, or remove it totally and users will channel through ‘Your Favourite Golf Course’.

I’m sorry but I have lost patience with people that take 3 months to respond to legit postings and then come out swinging.

Topic: Ask Bruce / Ochoa - Total Dominance?

Bruce – maybe if we got her out to Australia next year she’d win the Oz public over – there’s precious little publicity of the women’s tour outside of the Australian events (which make us think Karrie is a gun, when in actual fact…)

Anika – smiles occassionally, nice girl but that’s it.
Karrie – smiles never, zero on the personality scale.

Ochoa hasn’t got much to beat but gets no media here (besides the ones that look good, but can’t play at all).

Next week no Ochoa – should we load up on Petterson?

Topic: Ask Bruce / Ochoa - Total Dominance?

What do you think she’d shoot at the Masters?

I think she would do something like 78 77 and beat a lot of blokes home (although not make the cut becasue the course is so long)

She’d beat Michael Campbell.

Topic: Ask Bruce / Masters Form Guide

Thx Bruce, great summary. Also a terrifc interview with Steve Williams – I loved the Ray Floyd memoirs.

Liz

Topic: Ask Bruce / Ochoa - Total Dominance?

Bruce,

It was an amazing first round in Mexico – maybe she was on the Tequila’s the night before! If the Mexican event had been 4 rounds, as Safeway is, she would have caught them and won a tournament with a 78! Quite remarkable – get on board this week, she’ll pump them.

Topic: Ask Bruce / Ochoa - Total Dominance?

Bruce,

How do you survey the lay of the land, so to speak, in regard to womens golf at the moment. Annika seems a bit off, Webb OK, some good Asian girls, and the rest are struggling to break par – apart from Ochoa, who IMO is totally dominant. Would you agree?

Lorena only has to beat 20 genuine golfers each week, while Tiger has to beat around 100. Where is the depth?

Big fan of Ochoa and really can’t see her losing that often. She may win 75% of the things she enters this year – would you agree?

Topic: Golf Architecture / Why are they stuffing up 13th Beach?

I thought China had the internet. They keep sending me Spam….

Topic: Your Favourite Golf Courses / St Andrews Beach

Interesting Article in today’s Fin review. 400 nervous members I’d say. Hopefully its stays afloat or the course stays in its current format, no matter who owns it in 10 years – it would be a tragedy to lose totally.

Liz

Topic: Golf Talk / Markers should be poles not discs

“There are lots of very real perceptual issues involved in accurate distance estimation, i.e. judging distance uphill vs downhill. There is geometry involved that can fool the mind.”

Muntz – I bet there are people on this forum that want that info on the sprinkler heads as well. eg 150m, 10 meter rise

I love golf in its purest form.
Dave_1 loves McDonalds.

It’s not aggressive

Topic: Golf Talk / Markers should be poles not discs

“using eyes…baloney sorry thats just not practical”

You lot sound like kids that have had TV all their life and don’t understand why kids would play in the park. Tipping Moe Norman didn’t need distance markers.

It’s pure laziness, and this transfers into your speed of play. Lazy in the mind, lazy on the course.

Dave_1 – The thing that is worse than the concept of distance markers, is spoiling a beautiful natural scene with a crap pole of some description. Using your eyes is not practical… go and get some take away pal, why would you cook.

Liz

Topic: Golf Talk / Markers should be poles not discs

I’ve been playing 25 years from chopper to single figures and back. Played without markers, played with markers. They slow down play.

Topic: Ask Bruce / A Punt on the Matchplay

:)

Maybe that’s why I’ll get good odds – you agreed with 1 out of 8!!

If you have a crack at a few games, you can disperse your risk. It’s ridiculous in a 2 horse race over 18 holes that some of these guys will start at $1.40. I figure that if I can get 3 of my guys up I’ll still be ahead. If I fluke half I’ll be well ahead, and anything above that is a great result, and probably a fluke.

I’ll watch with interest.

(I might ‘chop’ Chopra though – I put him in because I thought he was a great putter but agree that he seems to be ‘off’ lately)

One last thing – Scott. Surely one of the finest swings in golf and probably hits more greens than anyone (ex-Tiger) in the top 10, but his putting will be under pressure on every hole in this format and if the greens are quick, its hard for me to see him holeing enough 5 to 15 footers to threaten.

Remember how Ogilvy won in 06 (basically with the flat stick) – just no way Scott could have done that.

Thanks for the reply

Liz

Topic: Golf Talk / Markers should be poles not discs

Distance markers are a blight on the game.

Judging distance with the eye is a skill and IMO, a part of the game that has been taken away. It would be difficult to quantify, but statistically I’d be surprised if people played materially better for their existence – I certainly don’t.

Add to this the delay in play – how often do we stand on a tee waiting while a golfer walks around the fairway trying to find a sprinkler head nearby to give him the yardage. Then he has to pace it out to his ball, do the sums for where the pin is. 2 minutes later he shanks it straight right.

Liz

Topic: Ask Bruce / A Punt on the Matchplay

Bruce,

This weeks matchplay brings one of the unique punting opportunities of the year. The yanks seem to have a dislike for the format and you can get some value backing solid Europeans/Aussies against highly ranked Americans. As an appertsier, can you let me know what you think about the following

Brendan Jones to beat Adam Scott (can’t putt)
Kaymer to beat Weekly
Westwood to beat Snedeker
OHern to beat Verplank
Chopra to beat Stricker
Stern to beat Mahan
Montgopmerie to beat Furyk (whistle stop special)
Jiminez to beat Cink

Let me know if you feel I have named someone that has no chance.

Liz

Topic: The Lounge / PM Howard, you ain't not that bad!

Hopsing – I can’t recall who your picture is? Very familiar. Let me know.

Also – couldn’t you throw a few more spelling errors in to make it more convincing eg ‘No need for dat wacist wite here’.

Topic: The Lounge / PM Howard, you ain't not that bad!

At least its had more replies than the entire Cashmore forum in 3 months….......

Topic: The Lounge / PM Howard, you ain't not that bad!

Is that considered racist, or (semi) factual? (I wouldn’t have a clue if the facts are right)

McLovin, I think you should have just posted that sucker and said it was yours. Its more fun watching the bleeding hearts fire up that way.

Anyway, it made me laugh, good stuff.

Liz

Topic: The Lounge / PM Howard, you ain't not that bad!

Andrew,

If I am standing in a supermarket queue and there is an aboriginal in front of me, I do not think I am better than he is. I do not think I have any superiority or greater rights than he does. To me, that is racism.

However, I recognise that as a race, they have a significant problem with alcohol and sexual abuse. Some might say white man caused that – personally, I think as a race, they need to take responsibility for their actions as I take responsibility for my actions. So I challenge that use of the term ‘drunk aboriginal’ is racist, or merely a statement of facts that if denied, will never fix the problem. Sure, you can say there are drunk whites, but lets look at the percentages.

Rudd’s opening dialogue said that he hoped that his apology would be taken as intended. I stand by that it won’t be, and that Aboriginal movement for compensation will now consume this topic for years to come.

Liz

Topic: The Lounge / PM Howard, you ain't not that bad!

Sarg/Hopsing,

Why are my views not welcome? Do you control the Lounge forum and what can be said? Is Arthur Tunstall not allowed to post here?

I gave a viewpoint – time will tell If I was correct. If you think I’m racist, then that’s Ok – that’s your opinion.

Its the internet boys, opinions are free.

I see Noel Pearson has already fired up looking for some cash.

Topic: The Lounge / PM Howard, you ain't not that bad!

Happy to apologise for ripping children from their mums arms – probably gave them a better life than the sexually abused and drunken state of aboriginal life as it is now, but that is besides the point. We should apologise for taking children away from their mothers/homes – good on Rudd for doing that.

Will the aboriginal community take it as an apology for these actions and move on? I think not. In the coming weeks every drunk aboriginal in the country that has never even been subjected to ‘stolen’ practices will have his hand out asking for money/compo for the attrocities he has had to endure.

The apology will be lost over time, and the topic will simply be how much money they can get. It is their culture of laziness and free handouts to do so.

Sounds harsh, but in 6 months we will see if it was reality.

Liz

Topic: Your Favourite Golf Courses / 13th Beach - Creek course

I find it hard to believe that they didn’t collaborate more. Its a mess.

Topic: Your Favourite Golf Courses / 13th Beach - Creek course

All, its been a while since I ducked in but having played 13th beach creek recently, I was curious about comments made.

For about $60 (Sun), it represents horrible value – it plays like a $30 course. The condition of the fairways would best be described as ‘preferred lies’.

However, the hole which I most wanted to comment about seems to have attracted very little attention from other reviewers – the 5th.

Tony, in the vain hope you still frequent this forum,

Why did you place a bunker on the right of the fairway? It’s a long hole and your drive is pushed right by the slope. There is virtually no shot to the green from the right, because the green is guarded by a large tree on its right edge. It’s simply overkill and not necessary. I have no problem with the bunker on the left, guarding the ideal line in.

The green – it could be the best on the course, but your design has rendered it a joke. Additionally, the pin was cut back right the day I played it – unless you fancied holing a 40 meter putt, birdie was out of the question – I never like holes where birdie is just a blatant impossibility, no matter how well you play. Why would you put a green with so much suqare yardage guarded by a very ugly tree – maybe you couldn’t move the tree for environmental reasons. You essentially have a green where only 20% is in use to the approach. It’s a pity, the sloping on the green and mounding around it was foundation for a really good result.

I don’t want to be seen as negative, as the concept of a using a tree as a virtual hazard is unique, and I like it, but its design here was poor, and the tree unspectacular to the eye.

Let me know your thoughts on the strategy of this hole.

Lizzie