Mike Gundy

Jim Mora

Allen Iverson

Bobby Knight - Parental discretion strongly advised, because Bobby is really, really not happy about losing to #^&*@* Purdue.

Ken Griffey Jr. paid up a debt to former Sox hurler and current Reds teammate Josh Fogg in a great way - in change! Which got me thinking of Seinfeld, naturally, and how many times change was used in the name of hilarity!

Pennies can also be used for "jacking" - which creates the need for reverse peepholes...

But that's not the type of speed you need. You need this kind of speed...

To maximize speed, read on for more tips from Jeff Schmidt of Phillips Park G.C. & Fox Valley Golf Club, as well as Lou Solarte.

Also included is the commercial that inspired this week's golf page, as well as some videos of your favorite player's swings on the tee.

Here are some extra snippets of advice from this week's pro's - Jeff Schmidt out at Phillips Park/Fox Valley and Lou Solarte, who teaches out of Cantigny Golf in Wheaton and Links & Tees in Addison.

Jeff Schmidt
"Everybody wants that extra five to 10 yards. Number one, I focus on the balance in your swing. You've got to have balance. You can have clubhead speed all you want, but its the combination of ball speed coming off the face of the golf club. And the squarer the head, the more ball speed. The combination of ball speed plus clubhead speed, you'll see an increase in distance."

"If they're looking for more clubhead speed, I'm looking at their equipment as well. Their equipment may not be adequate for them and their golf swing."

"You also have to look at body type. Some people's body type may inhibit them from generating that club head speed. They may have some back problems, they may have flexibility issues. That's when you go back to the equipment - can we correct it with an equipment change in a reasonable manner."

"Everybody wants to swing harder, but harder is definitley not the answer. If you're not hitting the ball square, you're not hitting it."

"I like to make them aware of the smaller muscles of their swing. The large muscles are your legs, your back, but a lot of players will pick up a lot of increased power with how fast they can release the club through the ball (from behind the ball to the ball) For me, I don' thave a large physique - that's where I pick up my distance. I maintain my balance but I get my hands through very, very quickly. I'm not trying to exert any type of force on the ball by swinging harder, but I swing it hard at the bottom of my swing through the release.

"A lot of players hit it square but don't really finish the swing. They have more a check swing with it. When you release that clubface and get that right hand over left and release it through the ball, it's like hitting that home run swing in baseball."

"The extension of the golf swing is the last piece of the puzzle that helps produce the power through the shot because you're sending everything out to the target, you're swinging your club down the target line to the target."

Lou Solarte helps us break down the differences between raw speed and angular speed..
"The old vector launch monitors used to measure club head speed, so you've got linear speed, which is just raw speed - how fast something's moving. Then there's an angular contribution - the club moving away from the arms. The single biggest difference between tour players and amateurs is tour players retain that angle closer to impact and they have a much high angular contribution, or momentum transfer. So most amateurs, they move the club away from their arms at transition up at the top, so then what you have is just a straight lever - it takes more effort to move a straight lever. ... Amateurs cast the club at the top - that's the club moving away from the arms - tour pro's retain that angle further into the downswing. So that's what happens is that the golf club turns into like a whip, so the club snaps at the bottom.

Her'es a good visual for you from Solarte:

"Think of a top - when a top is going its fastest it actually looks like its standing still. But when you're standing and looking down on the top of it, you can actually see the speed. And then when the top slows down, then it starts making these long drifty circles."

so how important is a solid base and proper shoulder turn to increasing angular speed?
"If I give a hundred lessons, my next hundred beginners, I guarantee that with 95 of them I'll start with teaching lower body engagement - what is the proper way that the lower body is used in the golf swing.

The lower body is more of a bracing apparatus, like a tripod with a camera - it allows the camera to turn 360 degrees but in an even line. In the golf swing, it's how you push the feet into the ground and how the ground kind of pushes back. It sets up the proper sequence or proper movement.

In golf (there is) a lot of the over turning. I think a lot of the problems lies with how golf has been taught over the generations. We teach a lot of over twisting, get your back to the target, get your left shoulder under your chin, you're not turning enough...when players get their feet grounded, or rooted, they're not able to turn as much, but they turn their body into a more lactic band, like a rubber band, that you're stretching it efficiently and you can now snap it."

Here's that video again of Tiger hitting driver from his knees, and an explanation from Solarte on why that drill can benefit you...

"If you get on your knees, and you make a back swing, what you'll notice almost immediately is that you simply can't turn back as far. You've eliminated four major joints in the knees and ankles. And now the hips can't turn as much and you've got a dynamic pull through the core. That's what you're trying to achieve in your backswing. That'll give you a pretty good idea as to how far back you should be turning back. For most people it's not very far at all. Not very far at all. But that's what you're trying to achieve in the backswing, you're trying to stretch the midsection. That's your rubber band for the backswing."

Here is a version of the commercial I saw that started this Front Nine discussion - as well as a comment from Solarte, with a great lead in to some great Tour swing videos...

"It's going to make people worse. They'll get out there and think 'So I'm at 80' and they'll sit there and work on getting it to 90. And then what? The shaft...the biggest difference between pro's and amateurs is that pro's can get the equipment to work for them. They're actually getting the shaft to snap at the right time, down at the bottom of the ball. You literally see the shaft kick forward five or six inches (on a tour swing).

Here's a Camilo Villegas tee shot...

"When you do that and the club is going 100 miles per hour, think of how much energy transfer you'll get, when that shaft kicks forward just prior to its maximum point and then it makes contact with the ball."

Sergio...

"That's why these guys don't look like they're doing anything when they're playing. They're out on the range hitting balls and you're like 'My God, if I could swing at it like that, I could stand out there for 10 hours.' That's absolutely right because the manner that they're swinging in allows the golf club to actually help."

and Phil..

and finally, here's Tiger in real time and slo-mo...

at the bottom of each story is an advertisement for ring tones about that particular subject, whether it be "Tampa Bay Devil Rays Ringtones" (yes, that's what it says) .. no word on if the ringtone is actually crickets with an echo...

i'm sure someone is dying for "NASCAR Ringtones" ... I wonder how many rings it would take for one of those guys to run through all their sponsors...

I was saddened to see that there were no "Golf Ringtones" - how fun would it be to get Verne Lundquist's "Yes sir!" on Jack's putt in '86 or his "Oh Wow, In your life have you seen anything like that" on Tiger's chip, or even a Rory Sabbatini soundbite saying "Tiger is more beatable than ever!"...or a snippet of John Daly singing in a Hooters Tent...

There's no "Horse Racing Ringtone", which presumably means no "Secretariat has opened a 22-length lead!" or the occasional shotgun blast...

Sorry - no "New England Patriot Ringtones", though there is a webcam/video option available in which Bill Belichick can only see you...when you're not looking...

anyway...curiosity finally got to me and I clicked on "Chicago Cubs Ringtones" which is provided by Celly Tonez. but that's as far as I got because I really don't trust companies that take a word, pluralize it, and then add a "Z" at the end to make it sound cool.

Sorry.

Aurora University is still in the hunt and would be a good choice for the 6-foot-2 shooting guard who had a banner senior season for coach Nate Drye.

Intriguing, though, is speculation that new Western Illinois University coach Jim Molinari wants Adams to walk on to the team in Macomb. The bet here is, he'd then earn that D-1 scholarship.

Unfortunately, this won't get as much play as it should, but I was shocked to hear that Annika Sorenstam is going to retire from competitive golf after this year.

Golf is a sport that can be played a high level until a player is in their early 40's - for both men and women - so to hear her want to pack up the clubs at 37 was surprising.

What's also interesting is that she's exiting like Michael Jordan (the first and second times) - at the top of her sport, as arguably the greatest player ever in her sport, but holding few key records.
(click the following to see where MJ ranks in career points, ppg average, field goals and free throws. )

Annika made women's golf watchable. She inspired many of the young players you see now. But she's not the all time leader in major championships or career victories on the LPGA Tour...which may be more surprising to most observers than the fact that she's retiring.

She's third in all-time wins including three wins this year) with 72 - 16 behind Kathy Witworth - and tied for fourth in career majors with 10 - five behind Patty Berg.

What makes this announcement so interesting is that this is the way the game of golf is going to go for those at the very top of the LPGA and PGA Tours in the coming years.
Current women's world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa has said she's going to call it quits after 10 years in the game.

And don't think that Tiger Woods won't hang it up well before he's eligible for the Champions Tour (which is only 18 years away). The guy is already coming off his 3rd knee surgery...

Same goes with guys like Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia.

The money is too great now - and golfers seem to spend (and more importantly, save) it better than their counterparts in other pro sports. They won't need to keep teeing it up in their late 40's or their 50's.

...
or this one to Omar Infante

Now, this one is really, really disturbing. There are several tributes to The Fire and The Passion, Aaron Rowand, but none from Sox fans. (which is refreshing, actually)
Now, tell me how in the world this person mixed in some Willie Mays with The Fire and The Passion....well, I actually know how and why...and methinks that posting another pic of Snoop Dogg would fit right in...

Unfortunately, TV sucks that way. So thanks to this guy for making the connection in print, and thanks to me for throwing up these photos of the S-N-double O- P hitting the links.

what are the chances?

I also caught the very end of a movie called "Beyond the Law" starring Charlie Sheen in a bad beard. (doesn't this trailer just get you all fired up?)
I turned it on just in time for The Slow Clap scene, initiated by a balding, mulleted man in one of those Party City-brand FBI jackets.

I wonder if in the scripts of those movies the writer's put it like this
Charlie Sheen walks in
Cut to bald, mulleted man in Party City-brand FBI jacket.
Bald, mulleted man in Party City-brand FBI jacket slowly rises.
Cut to Sheen, looking out quizzically at the dead silent room.
Cut back to bald, mulleted man in Party City-brand FBI jacket.
Begin slow clap
Cut to Sheen, looking out quizzically at the dead silent room, save one slow clapper
Cut back to bald, mulleted and now clapping man in Party City-brand FBI jacket
Every other extra rises and joins in the slow clap
Clap gets fast and crazy
Cut to Sheen, looking out quizzically at the now clapping room

Anyone else loving The Slow Clap? Got any favorites? This one was pretty good, I must say. I mean, I totally didn't see it coming - especially not from the balding, mulleted man in the Party-City brand FBI jacket. Wow.

Here's a montage of some great Slow Claps

One of the best stats you can keep for yourself is your Greens In Regulation, and what it means is pretty simple: the more you hit, the lower your scores. (Or, if you hit a ton of greens in regulation but you're still making bogey or worse, then your putting is your foil.)

Read on for more tips from Aurora Country Club head pro Pete Latkiewicz and Mistwood Golf Club and useful links on Mistwood, Bolingbrook Golf Club, Whitetail Ridge and more!

"Tour players are good because a guy knows that if he takes out his pitching wedge and he swings to half a back swing, he knows how far that ball's going to go," said Pete Latkiewicz, head pro at Aurora Country Club. "If he takes out his 52-degree or his gap wedge and he swings to half a swing, he knows how far that goes. If he breaks out a sand wedge with half a swing, he knows how far that's going, along with making the three-quarter length swing. So a tour player can take three golf clubs and have a lot of variables, and they also control trajectory in the same manner."

Here's another interesting stat the PGA Tour tracks - proximity to the hole. If you notice, these guys aren't always hitting it to 3 feet. Many times, it's about just getting it on the green, taking your par and moving on. And sometimes, they'll make the bomb for that birdie. It's about being smart, and picking and choosing how to attack in that scoring zone.

Now, to some great tips from this week's pro's - Pete Latkiewicz at Aurora Country Club and Dan Phillips from Mistwood Golf Club.

Pete on how to find the right wedges for you"It's difficult if you've got a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. How do you fill those gaps in your swing? You need to learn how to either choke down on a pitching wedge so you can hit it 110 yards, or you've got jump all over your sand wedge, which is not something you want to do. So, it's which one of those fits your set best as far as all those options. You can pretty much find wedges from 48 to 64, every degree."

Dan Phillips on a common mistake inside the scoring zone.
"I see people trying to hit their wedges too hard. There's a fine line there, but a lot of times they'll take a 60-degree wedge and try and hit it 10 yards past where the length of the wedge should go. The harder you hit them, the higher they go. Not necessarily the further. A lot of them go higher and higher."

This is a good visual aid from Latkiewicz when you get to the range to practice your wedges:
If I was looking directly at you, and behind you I put a clock.
Your head's at 12 o'lock
The ball is at 6 o'clock.
Go out there with your sand wedge and swing your arms back to 9 o'clock (creating a 90-degree angle between your left arm and club)
Swing through to full finish.
Hit 10-20 balls. That is your average distance.

Now, on that same clock, take your hands back to 10 o'lock.
Hit 10-20.

Now take the hands back to 11 o'clock (which is pretty much your full swing)
Hit 10-20

"If you go out there and you control the length of your backswing, swing through to a full finish, and you hit enough of 'em, now you're starting to get an understanding that 'If my hands are at 9 o'clock, my average distance is 65 yards.' If I'm facing a 65-yard shot on the golf course, hopefully by now you've developed the confidence to say 'That's my 9 o'clock swing' and there's no more fear."

Phillps added to that with another nice visual...
"Make sure you do have impact, that your not slowing the club down as you're going throw. What you're trying to do is feel like you're going to throw a ball underhand to someone. You would just change the amount that your arm swing would be going backwards.

People have an innate ability to be able to judge distance - just like they can throw a ball to someone - they can also do it with a club. You can feel it. You just have to practice it.

Finally, we've all seen stories like this, touting how we should try to hit clubs with more and more loft - just like the pro's do! - but we're not pro's are we?
"A 60-degree wedge may be the hardest club to hit in your golf bag," Phillips said. "There are so many things that can go wrong when hitting it: the club can slide under it, you can hit it thin, there's a myriad of things that can go wrong. When I got my first 60-degree wedge I practiced with it for three months before I even thought about putting it in my golf bag for a tournament."

"It's overused by a lot of people. And the thing is, when you're playing a round of golf, go with the shots you know best, that you practiced, that you're confident in as opposed to one that you're not confident in. So if you're more confident in the bump and run, go with that if you can. Until you practice. If you want flop shots, you need to work on that flop shots before you use it in a round of golf."

Golf Thoughts
Whitetail Ridge Golf Club in Yorkville is hosting a grand opening event all day tomorrow - visit the link above to view the course, see all of the wonderful programs and tournaments they'll be holding this year and give 'em a ring!

Bolingbrook Golf Club (one of my personal favorites and without question of the best layouts in the Chicago area and a must play for any golfer - and make sure to get there early and stay late in that clubhouse)

The club will be hosting the Bank of America Open Qualifier on May 27th, and the World Youth Team Challenge (June 7-11), and the Golf Channel's Drive, Chip and Putt (July 15th).

Finally, Erin Hills in Wisconsin is continuing its spring rates for an additional two weeks. From May 20th through June 1st you can book a round of golf for only $110.
Erin Hills is also offering a Stay and Play package during this special period, which includes: A round of golf , A room in our Irish Country Inn style clubhouse - This special package is being offered for $250 per person.
Room and golf reservations are now being accepted.
Click here or call 866-724-8822

Erin Hills will host the 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship on June 16-21 and the 2011 US Amateur.

Trust me folks, this course is one of a kind. If you've been overseas, you may recognize the layout. If you haven't, you'll get a real good feel of what its like. And, this course will host a US Open shortly after that US Am...so get out there now and take advantage of those rates!

Here is a great video from over there!

I usually like to link to these types of things, but you need to see it here - this is from the Associated Press' Doug Ferguson, one of the best in the business: Make sure to read the whole thing...

NO CADDIES ALLOWED

A half-dozen players not eligible for the pro-am last week on the LPGA Tour were on the putting green, with their caddies standing on the fringe. That's courtesy of a daft new policy that bans caddies from being on the practice green between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Turns out a couple of players were having a putting contest when a caddie was standing in their line. They asked him to move, he did, but that wasn't enough. They went to the commissioner to complain about crowded conditions on the green, and a new policy was enacted.

The fine for a caddie being on the green--to work with his player's mechanics or retrieve balls from the cup--is $500.

The policy even applies to the chipping area, and it's peculiar to see players hit three or four chips, then shag their own golf balls.

Count Juli Inkster among those who think the policy is bordering on ridiculous.

"You know what? It's women," she said when asked for a comment. "If you just put that down, everyone will know what you mean. Just capitalize 'women' and you don't need to explain anything else."

What? Helllooooo all you ladies in the media!!!?? Where are you going to be on that one? To me, that's more disrespectful towards women than anything the White Sox did with an inflatable doll because, well, Inkster is talking about real, living, breathing people!

I saw this on Yahoo! Three hours and 37 minutes ago, which is long enough for people to pick up on it. And I'll be honest - I'll be more than a little disappointed if this gets no play from the same media types that bashed the White Sox...