My backyard is prepared for this years Open Championship!

Wednesday, 13.07.2010
21:15 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 – John Deere Classic in Silvis, IL (USA)
22:15 Eurosport, Golf Club

Businesswise I have a lot of traveling to do these days. I don’t have to tell you that my golf game suffers tremendously due to this. But that’s not the point here.

Usually on a flight I reserve an aisle seat because I prefer to have at least one side where I am not crammed in between another person or the plane hull. This week, I chose different and had a window seat to my flight from Berlin to Stuttgart and back. And I left all the papers I took with me to read and review in my bag and just looked out the window during the whole flight. We had a perfectly sunny day, little clouds and it was a feast for the eyes to watch Germany from above.

The most fun was to spot golf courses from above. Or layouting a golf course in my mind once I saw a nice piece of land down there. Very entertaining and relaxing.

On the return flight I had a chance to take a picture of the Golf Resort Berlin Pankow as we approached Berlin Tegel airport from the east. This is where I usually go for practice, as the course is a mere 10 minutes from my house.

19:05 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 – AT&T National in Newton Square, PA (USA)
20:05 Eurosport, European Tour 2010 – Open de France in Paris
20:35 Eurosport, Ladies European Tour – Tenerife Open in Santa Cruz (ESP)
20:45 Eurosport, Golf Club

Medium: www.youtube.com
Link: www.youtube.com

Just look close and repeat!

Ich habe gerade die Startliste für mein Turnier am kommenden Samstag bekommen. Sage und schreibe einundertacht (in Zahlen: 108) Personen werden sich auf der St. Pauli Kiez Tour im GC Prenden bei Berlin über den Platz schieben. Neun Tees werden doppelt besetzt, um überhaupt alle auf den Platz zu bekommen. Und das beste kommt noch: es werden bis zu 38° C erwartet. Und wer Prenden kennt, weiss, daß der Platz so ungefähr 2,5 qm Schatten hat. Bitte definieren Sie WTF?!? neu.

Daß die Golfberichterstattung in den “klassischen” Medien in Deutschland meistens einem Armutszeugnis gleich kommt, muss ich keinem erzählen. Trotzdem könnte ich mich jedesmal aufregen, wenn ich derlei stumpfes Copy-und-Paste von Agenturmeldungen sehe wie hier:

Und diese Geunke wegen Rydercup-Nominierung hin oder her: letzte Woche schreiben alle noch brav die SID-Meldung ab, daß Kaymer angeblich seine Platzierung sicher hätte und diese Woche tröten Sie alle gemeinsam ins Rohr, daß selbige in Gefahr sei, obwohl die Nominierungen noch garnicht zur Diskussion stehen und die dicke Frau auch noch garnicht gesungen hat.

Echtjetzma!

We just had the US Open and in just three weeks time, the home of golf will host The Open Championship. Hop on over to their Facebook page, the guys are really excited!

The first round is underway at the 2010 BMW International Open in München Nord Eichenried. Sadly, it is the only remaining European Tour tournament in Germany, but that doesn’t keep the stars from coming as the list of participating players reads like the who is who on the European Tour.

Martin Kaymer hopes to follow up rather to his 2008 results (he won) than to his 2009 results (he missed the cut). He sounds quite confident in the pre-tournament interview on teeoff24.de. Despite fighting the jetlag after his return from California – where he finished T8 at the 2010 US Open alongside Alex Cejka – he feels confident in his game and hopes to keep last weeks momentum going. He currently is even par after 11 holes.

As usual, a whole bunch of german players participate in the tournament, there are the better known like Bernhard Langer, Alex Cejka, Sven Strüver, Marcel Siem and Tino Schuster (whom I followed at the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship) but also hopeful talents like Stephan Gross, Arwed Fischer, Florian Fritsch, Max Kiefer, Nicolas Meitinger, Alexander Knappe, Jochen Lupprian and Christopher Trunzer. Let’s hope many of them make it into the weekend.

20:40 Eurosport, European Tour 2010 – St. Omer Open (FRA)
21:10 Eurosport, Evian Ladies European Tour – Swiss Open in Ticino (SUI)
21:20 Eurosport, Golf Club

“Ein hungriger Tiger und zwei Deutsche” – so macht Focus-Online seine Geschichte über die heute beginnenden U.S. Open auf. Laut Leaderbord ist aber nur ein Deutscher am Start. Und ein Tscheche. Hat Alex Cejka etwa tatsächlich die Fahne verlassen? Unerhört!

By the way: Beide unter den Top 15. Und Lee Westwood auf der 1. Meine Ansage….

I ran into this simple, yet effective putting practice idea the other day at the Golfclub Gross Kienitz. They just drilled two smaller putting holes into their putting green, both barely wider than a golfball. Now, if you practice on these holes and you manage to sink your putts after a while, you surely will hit it dead center on the regular-sized holes.

One other thing that finally sunk in is the revolutionary insight that when I swing slower, I am able to hit the ball more precisely. Wow! The people that have played golf with me know what I am talking about. For the last years I used to thrash at the ball as if I wanted to kill it. It worked for a while, but then resulted in loss of accuracy.

The proof that swinging slowly works came on the Par 4 seventh hole of the Vodafone course. You have to manouver your tee shot through the constriciton guarded by high grass on the left and the pond on the right and then face a narrow fairway to the green. My seven wood off the tee landed perfectly on the left side of the fairway, leaving me 155 meters to the green. The following six iron made it to the fringe of the green on a perfect straight line down the fairway. And I didn’t even try to hit it hard, I just let the club do the work. So that was what my pro was telling me all the years. It just needed some time to sink in.

Despite the start of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, golf is still being played around the globe. In a dramatic playoff, Lee Westwood finally won again on the US PGA Tour after a playoff against Rober Garrigus and Robert Karlsson. Robert Garrigus eliminated himself from his possible first win on the PGA Tour with an epic meltdown on the 72nd hole of the tournament, blowing his three shot lead.

On the European Tour, our props go out to Stephan Gross, who played his best tournament so far on the European Tour, finishing T15 at the Estoril Open de Portugal. We hope this is the kickstart for more good results. All the best to you, Stephan.

Here’s whats on TV this week:

Wednesday, 16. June 2010
20:40 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 – St. Jude Classic in Memphis, TN (USA)
21:40 Eurosport, European Tour 2010 – Open de Portugal in Estoril (POR)
22:10 Eurosport, Golf Club

Friday, 18. June 2010
23:00 Sport1, Golf Journal, Highlights of the US Open, Day 1

Saturday, 19. June 2010
10:15 Sport1, Golf Journal, Highlights of the US Open, Day 1 (repetition)

Monday, 21. June 2010
23:00 Sport1, Golf Journal, Highlights US Open

Medium: www.youtube.com
Link: www.youtube.com

Nice chipping and putting, check out Bernhard Langers lucky shot (#3).

Von wegen “Tiger Woods trifft nicht mehr”. Den “Ehesorgen” zum Trotz hat der Weltranglistenerste beim Memorial in Dublin/Ohio gleich drei Zuschauer mit dem Abschlag getroffen: Am ersten, zweiten und 15. Tee. Es ist Tiger Woods allerdings nicht gelungen, auch nur einen der Zuschauer schwerwiegend zu verletzen.

Wednesday, 9. June 2010
21:55 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 – The Memorial Tournament in Dublin, OH
22:55 Eurosport, Evian Ladies European Tour – ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam
23:05 Eurosport, Golf Club

Apparently the Celtic Manor Wales Open will not be shown. So I will not find out what exactly Martin Kaymer did at hole #3 (a 177m Par 3) where he produced an 8. Marcel Siem tried to replicate it with a 7 in his final round, the hole that cost him a probable victory or a better result.

Wednesday, 2. June 2010
22:20 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 – Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth, TX (USA)
23:15 Eurosport, European Tour 2010 – Madrid Masters (ESP)
23:45 Eurosport, Golf Club

Before starting your round of golf, make sure that you’ve checked your equipment.

Make sure you pack enough tees and balls for the round.

Mark your balls to be able to identify them properly on the course.

But in the end, selecting the right club will be the key to low scores.

Der Kai Pahl der deutschen Golfbloggerszene hat heute Geburtstag: herzlichen Glückwunsch und alles Gute dem Linksgolfer. Fürs neue Lebensjahr viele Birdies und hoffentlich schaffen wir dieses Jahr mal die erste gemeinsame Runde.

Nicht allzu schwer: John Daly beim aktuell laufenden “Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial”. Welcher der drei Abschläge ist von Big D?