LPGA Pro of the Week - Week of 1/25/2010

32 year old Floridian Cristie Kerr has been one of the few consistant American staples on the LPGA Tour. When she was 18 years old in 1996 she turned pro and like many women after her successfully jumped on and made a splash with a win on the Future’s Tour. After only one year there Kerr joined the LPGA Tour and now starts the 2010 season with 12 career LPGA Tour wins and as a four-time Solheim Cup member.

Kerrs’s first win came in 2002 and she has had one win in every season since 2004. She has also made over one million dollars each of the last six Tour season’s. In 2007 she realized a dream by winning her first, and to this day, only major championship in the US Open at Pine Needles in Southern Pines, NC. She has impressively finished 2nd at least once in every single major!

Kerr had a pretty solid 2009 season scoring her second highest paid season along with a victory in Williamsburg at the Michelob Open at Kingsmill. She was also a member of the winning Solheim Cup team. Although she was not able to take home a second major championship Kerr was still able to capture three top 10’s including a 3rd place effort at the US Open. In fact over the past three seasons Kerr has finished in the top ten in six of the 12 major championship events.

The forecast in 2010 for Kerr looks to be very strong as she seems to be settling into the prime of her career. I expect her to be in contention in every one of her starts, and should be one of the American favorites to take home another major. Her obvious intensity and focus on the golf course will undoubtedly make her a consistant force this season.

'Hope' For Haas

The rains fell in Southern California dashing the chances of the Bob Hope Classic’s normal Sunday finish, but opening up a magical Monday for the Haas family. 22 years ago Tour legend and current Champions Tour competitor Jay Haas jumped into the winner circle at the “The Hope” and on Monday his son Bill did the same thing breaking down the walls on a 140 Tour event winless streak. Haas obviously looked extrememly happy to win, but more importantly looked relieved.

After an impressive five under par 31 outward nine threw Haas into winning contention, he finished strong down the stretch birdieing three of his final five holes including 17 and 18. That followed by surprising par 5’s on the finishing 18th hole from contenders Matt Kucher, Tim Clark, and rookie Alex Prugh; clinched the tournament for Haas. He was a one shot victor over those three and Bubba Watson who was the leader going into the final round.

Like most young PGA pros Haas was an accomplished junior player and was highly decorated as a collegate at Wake Forest, following his family as Demon Deacons. While in Winston Salem Haas was a multiple All American and All ACC performer. He also was a member of the 2003 Walker Cup Team and in 2004 set an NCAA record for lowest scoring average. Haas had a semi successful season on the Nationwide Tour before earning a spot in “The Show” in 2006.

Now, like his father before him, Bill Haas has made an enormous splash as a PGA Tour Champion. I’m sure he would be more than happy with a career mirroring his father (28 wins, 9 PGA Tour wins, 3 Ryder Cups, 3 Champions Tour Majors, etc), but I’m also sure Haas will try to build his own legacy off the momentum of this West Coast win. He can start by making his first ever appearance at Augusta National in April. Congrats Bill…There’s plenty of ‘Hope’ for your future on Tour.

LPGA Pro of the Week - Week of 1/18/10

At age 21 Morgan Pressel has become a very familiar face among successful Americans on the LPGA. Although she is young, she is anything but inexperienced. A much accomplished junior competitor, Pressel splashed onto the scene in 2001 as the youngest player to qualify for the US Open at the age of 12! At the 2005 US Open at Cherry Hills, as a 17 year old ametuer, she made even more of an impact as a co-leader going ino the final round. But that afternoon she stood in the 18th fairway stunned to watch Birdie Kim chip in out of the bunker to dash her hopes of winning a major as an ametuer.

After that season she turned pro at age 17 and only two years later realized her major dream by taking the plunge into the winner’s circle at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco. This title dubbed her as the youngest player to win a major at just under 19 years of age. Since then she has only one other tournament win (2008 Kapalua), but has a bundle of top 10 finishes.

With her petite frame, Pressel is widely known as one of the shorter hitters on Tour, but more than makes up for it with her pinpoint accuracy and excellent short game. She was a very impactful contributor on the 2009 US Solheim Cup team going 2-0-1 in her three matches. Like most people, I expect a better season performance wise out of Pressel in 2010 than a season ago. She has too much talent not to rack up at least one win, and don’t be surprised if a US Open championship is in her future because of her high fairways and greens percentage.

‘Palm’ Trees and Paradise

The island of Hawaii is known for its breath-taking views, crystal clear waters, and just an overall tropical utopia. But for PGA Tour journeyman Ryan Palmer, Hawaii is even more…the paradise for his career. Palmer won his third career PGA Tour event, but more importantly cemented his status on the Tour for another few years with his one stroke win over Aussie Robet Allenby in the Sony Open. As the sun began to go down on the Big Island the two man duel heated up on the back nine.

Palmer and Allenby went shot for shot and birdie for birdie on Sunday’s back nine but on the 18th hole Palmer got the biggest break of the day. His eagle chip from short of the green was struck a little hard but it no doubt had the proper line. It looked like Palmer would face a ten plus footer for birdie when the chip hit his clubface, but instead it struck the pin dead-on and settled just inches from the cup. After Palmer finished out, Allenby missed his ten foot birdie putt giving Palmer the championship by one shot over Allenby and two shots over the consistent Steve Stricker.

All PGA Tour wins are significant, but for a guy who was in the final year of his exemption from 2005, this one was really big. Palmer had a very underwhelming season in 2009 finishing in the mid 100’s in money and Fedex Cup points. The native Texan and former A&M Aggie got it going early in the tournament at Waialae Country Club and really never looked back. He and Allenby both were wire-to-wire the best two players all four days and it showed with their Sunday showdown.

Congrats to Palmer who has made it into his 2nd ever Masters field. In 2005 he made the cut and finished T39 for the week, which is not too bad for a first time effort. He has also extended his exemption on the Tour, which is an enormous deal for a player like Palmer in his early 30’s. When he looks back on things I’m sure he will point to that clutch chip on the 18th green as one of the most significant moments in his career. A career that now has become more like a relaxing paradise, then a nervous struggle. See you in April at Augusta Ryan.

So Here's "The Situation"

Okay, c’mon admit it…you love Jersey Shore. I admitted it within the first five minutes of the first episode when I witnessed Pauley D apply his daily hair gel, and am nowhere near ashamed to say so. It’s just unbelievable! There is so much to love about this cultural phenomenon. The characters are priceless…more specifically, Mike “The Situation” is priceless.

Although he doesn’t have to, “The Situation” could carry the show himself. He gets plenty of help from “Snickers” (aka “Snookie”), Pauley D, Vin Vin, and J-Woww. The same can’t always be said for the power couple Ronnie and Sammie “Sweetheart.” Ron would be a great contributor, but his reality show efforts are seriously tainted by “love.” He has glimpses of greatness, ala when he wanted to go “creep” after he and Sam had a fight, when he blasted that idiot in the face leaving the bar, and pretty much everytime he says the word “bro.” But let’s be perfectly honest no one can beat the efforts of “The Situation.”

These days I think so highly of “The Situation” I have thought about changing my lifestyle to mirror his. For one, I may start up a daily “GTL” regiment. Although my arms and back would be sore as hell, my Irish skin would burn fiery red, and I’d waste my paycheck on Affliction tees and laundry detergent; I feel it would be more than worth it. Secondly, I’m gonna start preparing large meals of sausage and peppers for all of my friends. After they come over and eat and when dinner is over, I will then force my friends to do the dishes as I enjoy my post meal smoke. Lastly, I will escalate my cigarette smoking and liquor drinking and go out to dance clubs every night looking for the loosest and trashiest broads. I have plans to purchase a hot tub as a hookup catalyst.

All joking aside, “The Situation” is right at the top of the list as best person in reality show history and everytime he comes on the screen it is television gold. To me there is no denying it. He has changed my outlook on damn near everything.

Hypocrisy is Fun

I like Dick Vitale, in small doses. I enjoy his enthusiasm and knowledge about the game of college basketball, but most of the time he just gets on my nerves during the call of the game. So last night I caught myself watching part of the Kentucky @ Florida game, and Dick Vitale was on the call. So as I tried to endure even 10 minutes of Vitale’s yelling and superlatives, he and Brad Nessler began to talk about this whole Mark MacGuire steroid thing. Vitale said that everything was tainted in baseball and that the whole race between he and Sosa was just a fraud. And then he had the audacity to say that he is sick of talking about cheating and would rather talk about things like the #2 rated Kentucky Wildcats.

After he said that all I could do was just roll my eyes. When I take a close look at the head man at UK John Calipari the first few words that pop in my head are: cheater, greasy, unethical, slimy, sanctions, slippary, among many other derogatory words. This is the guy that when he left Umass and Memphis, abandoned each program as a piling heap of smoldering rubble. He forfeited a Final Four and many wins at each school because of NCAA violations and broken rules. His wrath has put Umass in a hole the likes of which they have not been able to dig out of in over a decade. As for Memphis...the jury is still out on that program.

So please Mr. Vitale, don’t brag about the sanctity of college basketball; especially when you’re example is a slimeball like Coach Cal. Just wait UK, it may not be soon, but you too will feel the wrath of Calipari. Not even your program is immune from the Calipari plague.

LPGA Pro of the Week - Week of 1/11/10

Currently ranked 7th in the World Paula Creamer has become one of the most notable American woman’s golfers and holds the torch as highest rated US player in the LPGA. Although it seems like Creamer has been on tour forever, she is only 23 years old. She burst onto the LPGA scene in 2005 as a much accomplished ameteur and 11 AJGA championships tied to her. In her first season she became the second youngest player to win an event when she won just outside of NYC at the Sybase Classic. She followed that up later that year with a big win at the Evian Masters, a pretigious tournament in Europe.

In her five years on tour she has jumped into the winner circle eight times, and has risen in popularity amongst fans of woman’s golf. But she, like Sergio Garcia on the men’s tour, holds the unforunate burdon of being known as the ‘best player on tour without a major.” In her case I think it’s a little unfair because the competition has grown emensely on the LPGA and she has only been on tour for five years.

But Creamer is known by another name too…“The Pink Panther.” She got this name for her fondness of wearing the color pink. She has also turned this into a Sunday Pink thing similar to Tiger Wood’s Sunday Red. She has taken it so far that she even uses a pink ball on Sunday. 2009 was not one of Creamer’s best seasons, as she did not win at all. But she was a crucial member of the winning US Solheim Cup team. I, among others, expect big things from Creamer in 2010. I think it will be the year she finally brings home a major title, and think she will even get into double digits in her LPGA win total.

'Lei'ing Back to Back Beatdowns

And the 2010 season is underway…and it has an awfully familiar feeling.

Geoff Ogilvy continued his West Coast assult on the PGA Tour with a one shot victory at the SBS Championship at Kapalua Plantation Course in Maui, Hawaii. Ogilvy was the defending champion of the event, and shot an impressive 22 under par to hold off a hard charging Rory Sabbatini.

Early season success has been nothing new to Ogilvy who has secured an early lead in the Fedex Cup race over the last few years with red hot West Coast play. As I said before he was the defending champion of the season opener and has embraced the tours early season. Six of his seven tour victories have fallen on the calender before the season’s first major. In fact, five of his wins have come on the Tour’s “West Coast Swing.”

The SBS Championship invites only the previous season’s event winners, and although there were only 28 players in the field, this was the who’s who of tour fields...sort of (no Tiger, Phil, or most of the European stars). But reigning US Open Chamipion Lucas Glover really took control of this tournament early as he was 15 under par at the halfway mark. But he faded on Sunday with only two under weekend. Sabbatini was the big threat. He fired a ten under 63 enroute to a runner-up finish, but it just wasn’t enough to catch the smooth swinging Ogilvy.

Kapalua has become a place notorious for multiple winners. Thru the mid-2000’s it was owned by Stuart Applby who won there 3 straight years. So it would be a good bet that Ogilvy may be able to cash in on the hat trick in 2011. As for the Masters, well, Geoff is a shoe in regardless with his World Golf Ranking. He will fall into the top 10-15 favorites to bring home the Green Jacket, so no need to congratulate him on getting into the field. But once again, he takes another early step toward a potential Fedex Cup with his forte, the Accenture World Match Play just a month away

I'm A'Noid' By This Guy

There's a new head man in Ann Arbor, MI. No, Dick Rod is still at the Big House and although they may long for the Steve Fisher cheating days, John Beilein is very secure at Crisler Arena. But there is a new man in charge of both Dick Rod and Beilein in newly named UM Athletic Director David Brandon.

Brandon himself is a "Michigan Man" to the core and played for coach Bo in the early 70's. For the past 10 years he has been banking the "dough" as Chairman and CEO of Ann Arbor based Domino's Pizza. He has been a jester on The Burger King's Court (board) and has even had political aspirations wanting to run for Governor of Michigan.

Instead he'll be in charge of running Dick Rod out of town after another crushing football loss to the Buckeyes in late November or 2010. He'll have the burden of finding the next Bo and try to put the pieces back together of a once strong and proud program. Why would this guy want to do this?

I know I know he is proud to be a "Michigan Man" but this guy seriously bothers me. Why leave $3.2 million and your ivory pizza towers (which in Michigan's strong economy would make him the equivalent of Bill Gates), for around $600,000 and the uprising of thoughtless morons blaming you for things that arn't your fault? Instead of pushing out deals on cheap cardboard pizzas and swimming in your pool of gold coins, you subject yourself to a continual beatdown from an anassuming guy in a sweater vest? Well, I guess the guy is a "Michigan Man" right?

Good luck in Ann Arbor guy...

LPGA Pro of the Week - Week of 1/4 2010

This week's LPGA pro of the week is 2009 McDonalds LPGA Champion Anna Nordqvist. Born and raised in Sweden, Anna was a highly decorated ametuer in Europe and the US until she turned pro for the 2009 LPGA season after finishing 25th at LPGA Q-School. Norqvist was 2007 Pac10 and National Freshman of the year while attending Arizona State, and she was also an All American in both 2007 and 2008.

Her rookie season on the LPGA tour was astoundingly successful. In her 5th start as a pro she won a major at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre De Grace, MD. Nordqvist's 15 under par was the lowest score out of the five years the LPGA Championship was decided at Bulle Rock. Five month's later Nordqvist capped her outstanding rookie season with a win in the inagural LPGA Tour Championship. She outlasted the top 120 players on the Tour to capture this title.

Nordqvist's season was also highlighted with a spot on the European Solheim Cup team, which was defeated by team USA. The outlook for the six foot tall Swede in 2010 looks to be very strong, and even though she's 22, her experience as a young ametuer should be a very big advantage. On top of that, her young age should make her a force on the LPGA for years and years to come. I think she has a bright 2010 and future, and should pocket a few more wins and majors along the way.

250 Ups and 250 Downs

I just took in the quirky love rollar-coaster flick 500 Days of Summer, starring the almost forgotton 3rd Rock adolescent turned adult Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the oddly attractive and off-beat actress Zooey Dechanel. Levitt plays Tom Hansen, a lovestruck greeting card writer want-to-be arcitect, who’s lust for love leads him to fall for his boss’ new assistant Summer Finn, played by Dechanel. As Tom, a romantic, pursues Summer he comes to learn that she doesn’t believe that true love exists.

As the film progresses it is a variatable out of order montage summary of Tom and Summer’s relationship from the perpective of the hopeless protaganist. This bi-polar story of exhilerating highs and excruciating lows, shows Tom’s real emotions of falling for the unattainable. The two continue to share intimate physical and emotional connections as a non-serious but apparent couple situation; shopping at Ikea, shopping at the record store, and Tom even getting punched out for her honor!

They grow closer and closer and you think maybe, just maybe, they are perfect for each other; but you realize their different takes on love and life and you just know, Tom’s gonna think too much. The theme of the story is Tom’s longing for more from Summer, never able to settle on where the relationship is headed. Every little moment presents it’s own moment in Tom’s imagination’s perception of he and Summer and whatever it is they are sharing. Every good moment Tom perceves as being with Summer forever, and every down moment Tom sees the bitter end. In contrast, Summer sees everyday s just a close friendship.

500 Days of Summer is a comedy full of quips, one-liners, and modern day adult rhetoric. It has plenty of laugh out loud moments featuring drunken karaoke, off the wall friends, verbal misperceptions about the word ‘anal’, and even excessive screaming of the word ‘penis.’ But when it all comes down to it, the quirky humor fits well with the story and even better with Levitt and Dechanel. These two’s chemistry was phenominal and made the characters of Tom and Summer the best part of the film.

I was skeptical, to say the least, about Levitt, seeing as he’s been nothing more than a blip on the radar since the end of 3rd Rock. Not only did Levitt exceed my expectations, he made me feel the emotions of Tom Hansen. Dechanel I was less skeptical about. I have enjoyed her work, even in movies in downright loathed (See Failure to Launch. And yes a girlfriend ‘made’ me watch that), and here she played the mysteriously confident woman as well as anyone. She was exactly the kind of girl you could fall for, and think that she would fall for you even when deep down inside you know she never would. The two actors were outstanding.

Rarely (see Summer Catch and She’s All That) does a romantic comedy perk my interest, but 500 Days of Summer did just that, and it delivered. I advise to see this film if you get the chance, it’s a great story and it supplies a boat full of laughs. Queue it up on the Netflix.

Not Like 'Pryor' Performances

The 2010 Rose Bowl game was grand marshaled by The Ohio State Sophomore QB Terrelle Pryor. In his two year career in Columbus Pryor has seen highs and lows and has not been able to play up to the disgustingly high expectations that were placed on him as a Senior coming out of Jeanette, PA two years ago. But as the calender and decade turned, maybe just maybe, the Vince Young type performance in Pasadena yesterday stamped a new arrival for Pryor into the world of college football. On a day that brought the Tim Tebow era to an end, could this brilliant performance usher in the TP era? I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but on that magical Friday afternoon in SoCal, Pryor and the Buckeyes found something to look forward to in 2010.

As frustrated fans in Columbus screamed for 'The Vest' to move TP to WR following the embarrassing loss at Purdue, there was no panic amongst the team as they ran the table despite limited offensive numbers. Coach Tressell is extremely confident in the system and program and as the years go by he knows that although mind-numbingly boring most of the time, success usually follows. In Tressell's words he has seen Terrelle 'progress' and 'grow' as games and snaps add up. And if you watched the Rose Bowl Game that progression and Growth was extremely evident.

With most of the pre-game focus on Jeremiah Masoli and the Oregon Ducks high-powered offense versus the vaunted Ohio State Buckeye defense, Pryor and the Buckeye offensive unit seemed to be a mere sideshow. But when the clock hit zero in darkening orange dusk in Pasadena it was Pryor who looked like the 2009 Masoli leading his Buckeyes to a 26-17 win. Pryor himself had more total yards (336) than the Ducks usually scary but just pedestrian offense (260). Pryor threw for a career high 266 yards with 2 TD's and also added 72 rushing yards. It was an eye opening night, and something all Buckeye fans and national media have been waiting for out of Pryor. And in the end everything came up roses for TP and the Buckeyes in Pasadena. Is the next stop a National Championship? I can't say that will be the case, but this performance will be the talk of CBus until the Spring game...it's gonna be a long Winter.