Geoff Ogilvy

Geoff Ogilvy made a big splash in the world of golf this year by winning the prestigious US Open. Suddenly, he was on everyone's lips and they were all asking the same questions: Who is Geoff Ogilvy and where did he come from?

Ogilvy is an Australian golfer who currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. This may come as a surprise to many but the US Open was actually Ogilvy's third championship on the PGA Tour. He previously won the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Tucson and the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship last February before bagging the 2006 U.S. Open title in June. By virtue of this string of victories, Ogilvy barged into golf's elite World Top 10 for the first time, rising to as high as number eight.

Ogilvy was simply electric in the US Open, finishing his round with a champion's flourish and making improbable pars on the last two holes, a 30-foot chip shot at the 17th and a downhill six-footer on the 18th. He was lucky, too, as American Phil Mickelson gave up a two shot lead with three holes to play.

As the first Australian player to win a major golf tournament in 11 years (since Steve Elkington at the 1995 PGA Championship), the 29-year-old Ogilvy has been hailed as a hero in his homeland.

Tony Hallam, CEO of Golf Australia, stated, "The reaction of the Australian public and the Australian golf community to Geoff's achievement has been phenomenal. Geoff's victory is particularly significant for golf in Australia and for golfing fans who were willing an Australian to win a Major after an 11 year drought. No doubt this will inspire more young Australians to be successful on the international sporting field."

Ogilvy turned professional in May of 1998 and won a European Tour card at that year's Qualifying school. He played on the European Tour in 1999 and 2000, finishing 65th in his first season and improving to 48th in his second. He joined the U.S. based PGA Tour in 2001, and finished in the top 100 in each of his first five seasons. His first professional tournament win came in 2005 at the PGA Tour's Chrysler Classic of Tucson. In February 2006 he beat Davis Love III in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Shoes

The right golf shoe will save you strokes.
An army marches on its stomach so the saying goes. A golfer marches on his feet. You only have one pair of feet and they have to last a lifetime so look after them. A carefully chosen pair of golf shoes are a very wise investment on a par with a well chosen club.
A game of golf will involve walking around three and half miles and probably more once you take into account the trek from tee to green and the odd foray into the long stuff for a miss hit so it makes sense to select a shoe which will support your feet and cushion them on your round. Believe me you do not want to be nursing a sore heel or turned ankle for the last six holes, not only is it desperately uncomfortable but more importantly you will mess up your score card.
A good golf shoe will support your foot as you walk and also give you a firm foundation for your swing. A sliding foot whilst in the middle of your down swing is less than desirable and certainly can cause an injury, not only to your foot but to your knees, your groin or your back, which is a sore spot for a lot of golfers anyway
How to select a golf shoe
Shoes are made from a lot of different materials nowadays from textiles such as the trainer style to good old leather. The internals of the shoe are important too and this part known as the sock can play a large part in the overall comfort factor. Materials which incorporate breathability help to keep your foot cool in summer and warm in winter by wicking away the moisture that your foot produces
The shoe should fit without pinching straight away , don't think that you will "wear it in" you may do but if it is uncomfortable to start it is not the right shoe for your foot. It should support your instep and be firm in the sole whilst the heel must fit your heel and not be slack allowing your foot to slide around, this will be uncomfortable and indeed may lead to blisters. The front of the shoe is also very important, it should follow the contour of your foot .There should be room to wiggle your toes without feeling that your toe is pushed up to the top of the shoe.
The best tip a scout master gave me many years ago was wear two pairs of socks. They should preferably be natural fiber cotton or wool although modern micro fiber materials are available now and the can incorporate an anti fungal and anti-odor element. The layers will help keep your foot cool and dry and will prevent most blisters.
Now we know what to look for in the shoe we should consider the externals. A golf shoe will have studs, metal or plastic which are removable and replaceable. In winter or even in summer after a lot of rain metal studs or spikes will give you the most grip whether when walking or when playing, as said before a slip at either time can cause you a lot of grief. Do you want to risk it?.In summer and indeed on a few courses ,especially those in the drier areas, and for me that means Spain and Portugal "soft" spikes ,i.e. the plastic ,flatter variety are the only ones allowed due to the lower risk of damage to the greens. Give the green keepers a thought ,without them you would be teeing off in a field

Chip Shot

The chip shot can save your score card in what is an otherwise bad round. The ability to fire in a shot from fifty or sixty yards to within a few feet of the hole is what separates the good from the ugly. This ability is not something that any one is born with but something that even Tiger had to spend hours, even years developing. You can develop it too although you may not spend as much time as Tiger.
The chip is a feel shot, you have to practice it, the more you practice the better your feel. The premise behind the shot is this: to make the ball airborne, say over an obstacle or even a patch of rough fairway and to land it as soon as possible and let it roll. These two conditions are known as airtime and release. How do you know what air time and what release you need for a particular shot?. That my friend is the easy part. You look at the shot and decide where is the nearest place you can land the ball, lets say ten yards over a bit of rough, then how far away is the hole? Lets imagine it's fifteen yards further on from your landing spot, now you need the ball to release that fifteen yards so you pick a seven iron and chip to your chosen spot and the ball lands rolls out fifteen yards and you have a tap in. Let me be clear here, accuracy is very important here, if you miss the landing zone the ball will still release that one and a half times (approximately) but if you are two yards over on the airtime you will be three yards past the hole. Not a simple putt back.
I'll be honest here, there is no way you are going to pull this shot off time after time unless you put the hours in. It's not hard to practice this anyway unlike say a drive where you need hundreds of yards, Tiger used to practice this shot in the family room, chipping over the coffee table, much, it has to said to the annoyance of his mother. So, there is no excuse, you don't even need any fancy training gear just the motivation to get off your butt and practice.
Ok, so what do we do? I'll give you three simple practice tips
1. Grab a tea towel or a small towel and chip from ten feet onto it. This will improve your accuracy and remember airtime should be kept to a minimum, let the ball roll to the hole.
2. Lay a ladder on the ground and starting from one end attempt to chip between each set of rungs in turn. Don't cheat if you miss one go back to the beginning. This will improve your tempo, a longer shot requires not a harder hit but a longer swing. Let the club do the work.
3. Lay a club shaft or even another ball behind your target ball and then swing without hitting the club/ball behind. This will develop a downward strike on the ball, effectively pinching it off the turf. This is especially important on those tight lies.
Do me a favour and practice these three simple tips and next time you hole out from forty yards say a little prayer for me. If you hole out from a hundred yards you better thank him upstairs. Happy thoughts

For Beginners

Golf is a great game but can be a little intimidating for the novice, especially when you are amongst those who have played for much longer than you. Fear not, because in a short time you too can look like a pro and I'll tell you how in this article.
The basics of golf are just that - not tough to learn or use, so with these tips you'll soon get up to speed.
The Basic Golf Swing
Don't worry about perfecting your golf swing at this stage. Most golf players, even the pros, are continuously working on developing and perfecting their swing and you just need to do a basic swing, no more.
One of the best ways is to look at a golf video of a swing. Just type "golf swing" into YouTube and you can find tons of them. The most important part is the first half of the swing. Don't worry about whether you will connect with the ball because if you practice the first part then it will strike the ball exactly every time.
Look at the videos and see how the arm flexes and when it remains straight. Now try the same thing in the safety of your own home and think about your own arm position and that in the video.
Play Golf Video Games
Seriously, this will really help you out. You can get a feel for loads of things such as experience of where to place the ball when driving, accounting for wind speed and direction, momentum when playing hole after hole and much more. In particular, there is a great game on the Wii or DS which rewards steady controller or stylus play which is very similar to a golf swing.
Practice and Practice
Just get as much practice as you can. Many golf players think that if they read enough then they can play better - they end up reading more than actually playing! Even crazy golf or putting in your office or living room is good enough. It all counts in terms of experience and you'll get better at your game.

History

Being a Scotsman myself, I would have to concur that the great game of golf began in Scotland. It is true that many countries and cultures throughout history have hit a ball or stone with a stick curved at the end but it was the Scots that "invented" the most important element of all - the golf hole.
The game of golf had its beginnings on the east coast of Scotland on the flat sandy land between the towns and the coast in the 15th century. These lands, called links, were generally well trampled by people and horses coming and going to the coast which made for smooth areas among the vegetation. As I have mentioned, other countries, like Holland, were also hitting pebbles with sticks along the seashore, but it was in Scotland that someone had the bright idea of making a rabbit hole the destination for the pebble or stone which brought about the whole point of golf - victory to the person who got his pebble into the hole first.
With a target to play towards, golf developed into a game played by gentlemen that became so popular that King James banned the game for a while in the 15th century because it took time away from the practice of archery. Eventually, though, royalty took to the game as well; even King James started to play and Mary Queen of Scots enjoyed the game as well. The first recorded purchase of custom made golf clubs was made by King James in 1502.
In the early 18th century, The Gentleman Golfers of Leith laid out the first formal golf course and wrote the first set of golf rules in 1744.They were also the first to create a trophy for a club championship. Ten years later, the St. Andrews Society of Golfers was established and St. Andrews later became the home of golf. It is interesting that most of these rules from 250 years ago are still in effect today.
At this time, golf equipment started to improve greatly. Golf clubs were hand made from hardwoods like oak and hickory by skilled craftsmen. Pebbles and stones were replaced by the greatly improved leather ball which was tightly stuffed with feathers. Golf courses were planned and designed to include sand traps and greens instead of just playing the land as it was. Still, most of the links courses in Scotland today, still retain the original feel of the original links where golf was first played.
In the early years, there were many "golf courses" used by local players. The original courses had a varying number of holes, depending on the location and on local ground conditions. Reference to golf in Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Leith, indicates the game being played as early as 1461 on courses ranging from 8 holes to 22 holes. But the 18-hole course (The Old Course) constructed at St. Andrews in 1764 may have set the standard for modern golf. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, is one of the two organizations that control golf worldwide today.

Swing Improvment

"Counterintuitive" is an understatement when the issue is tension/looseness in the golf swing.
We're trying to hit the ball with a 1-inch-square sweet spot on the clubface. And, that clubface is moving quickly many feet from the ball and then many feet back to the ball. The intuitive response to this challenge is to try to be in control of the club. Control means using muscles which means tension.
However, just the opposite is true. Jim McLean, in his book The Eight-Step Swing, has a sentence that all golfers should burn into their minds:
To gain control of your shots, you must give up control of your swing.
At no point in the full swing should you feel as if you are in control of your club. You should have at best a vague idea where the clubhead is. The clubhead should feel as if it's a rock on the end of a string. Your entire body, above your waist, should feel utterly loose, relaxed, throughout the entire motion of hitting the ball. Your "grip" should be as soft as it can be and still enable you to start the backswing.
Find some movies of the swings of Bobby Jones and Julius Boros. Here's how soft their "grips" were. You'll see them start their backswings by beginning to move their hands, but their clubheads don't start to move until their hands have moved around six inches.
At address, above your waist, get as relaxed as you can. Maintain this feeling throughout your attempt to hit the ball. Many muscles above your waist will indeed fire, but you shouldn't feel them do so.
If you can keep your abdominal muscles loose, then your hips will be able to fire ahead of your shoulders. You'll no longer be bothered by golf's most frequent fault: coming over the top.
Get out of control!! The wilder your whirl, the faster your clubhead will move, and the more consistent will be the pathway on which your clubhead is whirling. To gain both accuracy and distance, get out of control. Get utterly loose above the waist, out to the tips of your fingers, and let it rip!!

Vacations

Heading out for a golf vacation might sound like something that isn't easily affordable, but thanks to the availability of increasingly popular discount golf vacations, almost anyone can now pretend they are Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach - at least once.
The popularity of golf has exploded during the last few years, especially as the post World War II generation ages and begins to retire. And thanks to relatively inexpensive options, there are now more "must play" golf courses than available even five years ago. There are even resorts dedicated entirely to the vacationing golfer.
Discount Golf Tours: Worldwide Discounted Golf Vacations
Discount Golf Tours promise discount golf vacations at golf courses all over the world. They offer them to the UK, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Australia and even to China. These fantastic discount golf tours range in price, but the golf enthusiasts will still be able to take these vacations for just a fraction of what they "should" be paying for golf-centric getaways.
Golf Zoo: A Discount Golf Vacation Package Finder
Golf Zoo is a web-based golf travel portal that is put together to find the best golf vacation packages possible. This site has a hot deals section designed just for those who are looking for fabulous low-cost golf trips that, for half the price, deliver the same golfing experience that the more expensive resorts promise. The travel planner is simple - you can enter the location at which you want to play golf and preferred dates. Golf Zoo will find the best rates available.
Myrtle Beach: A Golfer's Paradise
Myrtle Beach is one of the most popular golf courses in the country, one that given the expense, many golfers only dream about playing through. The resort, though, does offer several great deals that include Internet specials, senior discounts and even vacations on which people can bid. An inexpensive vacation to Myrtle Beach is a dream come true for almost every golf fan.
There are a number of other locations on the Internet that help golfing fans uncover inexpensive golf trip options. These are fully packaged vacations with hotel stays, course fees and even transportation included. Many who love golf long to take a vacation but cannot afford to put down the money for such a specific getaway. Thanks to various outlets like Golf Zoo and Discount Golf Tours, however, enjoying an inexpensive golf excursion is becoming increasingly common.

Winter Game

In winter it can be quite a challenge to keep your golf game ticking over. Many of us just pack the clubs away into the garage and wait until spring to get them out again. Then we are faced with a month or so of very "rusty" golf until we start to click and get in the golfing groove again.
Some golfers are lucky. They live in mild climates where they and can play comfortably all winter. However a great percentage of us live in areas where the weather conditions are against us. Rain, frost or snow can make it very uncomfortable to play or even close the courses. In very cold climates it is not uncommon for the driving ranges to close too.
So what are your options to keep practicing or playing?
Firstly, there are an ever growing number of indoor golf facilities. The majority of these now use excellent simulators aided by the huge leap in computing power that is now available. The simulators are excellent for either playing real (virtual) courses, or training on simulated golf ranges. However, indoor facilities are still relatively few and far between.
If you don't have access to an indoor golf facility, then you should at least try and find a covered driving range. That way you can keep practicing your swing while keeping dry, if not always that warm!
Whenever playing outside in winter (on course or on range) always remember to warm up properly.
In winter you will take a lot longer to warm up. Make sure you warm up properly so your muscles can work effectively. Remember you should never stretch a cold muscle - that will lead to injury. Warm up with light calisthenics, and then do some light stretching to gently get the muscles ready. Start your practice session with short shots, working up to the bigger more powerful swings. The last thing you want to do is overdo it and put yourself out of action!
If you can get out onto the course, remember to go through the proper warm up session, and then take it easy out there! Take an extra club and play easy. Winter is not always the best time to push for lower scores. You have extra clothes on restricting your swing. The course is wet or cold. The ball does not fly or roll as far as in summer. So make sensible adjustments for the conditions.
So what if the conditions are so bad that the courses and ranges are all closed and you cannot get outside at all? Well in this situation there are three things that you can still do to keep some part of your game in shape:
1. Work on your strength and flexibility.
If you are a member of a gym, ask the instructors to give you a custom workout geared to improving your flexibility. Work on basic muscle strength of the large muscle groups. Strength and flexibility are what generate power with ease. Witness Tiger!
2. Take imaginary golf swings.
It may sound daft, but going through gentle swing motions on a regular basis can help in maintaining "muscle" memory. It keeps the golf swing muscles working so that you don't "suffer" first time out. Do not swing fast, swing with 'form'. Make it look good. Imagine you are on the course, visualize the shot, and try and make a perfect swing. It is amazing how much this can help.
3. Work on your putting. ?
Yes, get your putter out, and putt up and down the carpet! This is one part of the game you can actually do indoors to ingrain your technique. Putt to a cup on its side. Try and 'hole' the ball without turning the cup. It gives you great touch and teaches you to see and putt along a straight line.
Whatever conditions the weather throws at you, just keeping yourself ticking over through the winter. It will give you a big advantage at the start of the season proper over those that packed up for winter.