Recommended Reading: If You're Wondering Why I've Been Away from Mostly Harmless This Week....

Check out my post on the Neil Gaiman interview/book signing event at Saratoga Springs last night!  For those who come here for the golf writing, there is a little bit on interviewing LPGA players in it....

Solheim Madness

I'm hoping the Solheim Cup acts as a kind of gateway drug this week for people who aren't already fans of the LPGA, but the title of this post doesn't just allude to Reefer Madness; it also refers to a little experiment I'm going to be conducting over the next few days, as well. 

You see, contrary to Steve Elling 's view that the NFL and Fed Ex Cup finale will trump the Solheim Cup for most Americans, it's actually my union's delegate assembly in Albany tomorrow and Saturday that's going to be forcing me to utilize the newfangled technology of the DVR to catch up on the live action that I'll be missing.  So what's the experiment?  Without actively seeking to find out what happened before I fire up the DVR Saturday night--that is, no web surfing or newspaper scanning, no Golf Channel peeking, no highlights-seeking--I'm going to wait and see how much information about it comes to me "on its own," so to speak.  Who, in other words, is not only watching the extensive coverage of the Solheim Cup that Bill Jempty and Ruthless Mike are so excited about, and is not only more passionate about it than other options like Jeff Skinner, but is also willing to talk about it to other people?  What kind and quality of information can I get about the Solheim Cup simply by waiting for word of mouth to make its way to me?

So, farewell, gentle readers, until after I catch up with all the Cup coverage (probably sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning if I'm lucky).  I'll leave you with the links to my own preview as well as those by others such as Hound Dog, Brent Kelley, Ron Sirak, Beth Ann Baldry, Ryan Ballengee, Emily Kay, Shane Bacon.

Oh, and even if I still favor my own idea of getting all 4 major women's golf tours together to play the Solheim (U.S. and Europe) and Pinx/Kyoraku Cups (Japan vs. Korea) in odd-numbered years and have the winners and losers face off in even-numbered years, I wouldn't mind seeing just about any kind of showcasing of a wider range of the best women's players on the planet in a team-golf match-play format, such as:

• the return of the Lexus Cup, which was modelled after the President's Cup format of the US vs. the world;
• the addition to the Solheim Cup of a Team Asia that would play this year's loser next year for the privilege of facing this year's winner in 2013;
• the addition to the Solheim Cup of a Team Asia (Korea, China, Thailand, India, and probably Taiwan for political reasons) and a Team Pacific (Japan, Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Philippines, etc.) that would compete in 2012 to decide who faces this year's Solheim Cup winner and loser in 2013;
• the creation of a totally new international competition modelled after soccer's World Cup, where every nation that can field a 6-member team gets to attempt qualifying in their own region for the privilege of competing in the cup itself.

Feel free to discuss while I'm away from golfoblogaramaville!

Not a Golf Ball

On the Conservation of Matter and Greed

Just checking in with a little eco-commentary from my favorite philosopher scamps.

A Mostly Harmless Putting Tip for the 4th of July

Just got back from fireworks at Orchard Park Middle School--quite the scene!--and was tinkering around with my putting on the actually-pretty-fast carpet in our living room, and I may have figured out something cool. Here it is:

Problem: I tend to be a feel putter, who likes to set up correctly, pick as precise a target as possible, and just trust my body to get the ball to it. (That trust is partly the product of 1000s of putts on The Rail--a metal-yardstick-type training device--during winters in western NY from the late '90s to the early '00s, but that's another story.) Lately, however, I've been overthinking my putts. I'm getting too aware of what different body parts are doing during my stroke and trying to control the putter face too much in the midst of the stroke. I haven't trusted my lines and have started trying to steer the ball into the hole instead of just rolling it toward my target. In particular, I've been having a lot of trouble while getting ready to pull the trigger to begin my putting stroke with quieting my mind and trusting my body.

Solution: A new pre-putt routine and a new triggering image. Yes, "image"--not words. What I was doing tonight is looking very closely at my target and trying to identify a specific point on it that I'm aiming for. Once I've established that point, I try to keep a clear image of it in my head as I move my eyes from it back to the ball. Once my eyes get to the ball, I start my stroke. Look, visualize, putt. Very simple.

Results: The difference between last night and this one was amazing. I was missing all over the place yesterday, overcompensating like crazy from putt to putt. I was pushing, pulling, you name it, even when I tried the exact same putt over and over. Tonight, I was making everything I was looking at. And I was putting from a different length and angle each time. Even my misses were closer and the pace of my putts was better. I'd say I went from making less than 40% of the 8- to 10-footers I was practicing yesterday to over 80% tonight.

Caveats: Every putt I tried tonight was relatively straight. I haven't figured out the breaks in the new house to my satisfaction, but whichever way the ball was curving on a given putt, it wasn't more than an inch over those 10 feet. So this visualization trigger may just work on short and straight putts. I have to take it to a putting green to see how well it transfers to different kinds of putts, particularly those where the line is dependent on the speed.

Tentative Conclusions: That said, I have to say I'm really excited about this new pre-putt/trigger routine. I was big into The Inner Game of Golf as a teenager and I like to think what I've come up with is in tune with that book's advice. Maybe what the looking/targeting part of the routine does is force you to use the part of your brain that handles aiming without you actually having to do any calculus yourself. Maybe focusing on the visualization part--along with the standardized/automatic nature of the actual trigger itself--serve to keep your verbal/intellectual consciousness quiet and keep the right parts of the brain active in that crucial fraction of a second before you start your putting stroke.

OK, so this is starting to sound like Zen and the Art of Getting the Little White Ball in the Damn Hole even as I'm writing it, but I really do think if you have a putter you trust, if you know how to take a stance that's comfortable to you and helps you keeps your eyes over the ball and your head still during the stroke, and if you've practiced that stroke over and over and over with something like The Rail that gives exaggerated feedback on the effects of even very tiny mistakes, then you really can be very zen. As some band once said, "I don't think so!" And if this routine helps you not think but "use the force," I think it may help your putting. I'll let you know if it helps mine!

LPGA Q-School Saturday: Oh, Mannn!

Here's all you need to know about Saturday at LPGA Q-School.

LPGA to Mother Nature: Can the golfers trying to gain access to our tour in 2010 play a little golf today? It would be great if we could start at 11, but we'll take 1 or 3....
Mother Nature to LPGA: Golfers, no golfing! Golfers, no golfing! Golfers, no golfing!
Golfers: Oh, mannn!

The new plan is to resume the 3rd round in just under 6 hours. The goal is still to play out the full tournament, but didn't we hear that in Houston, too?

[Update 1 (2:24 am): I'm not sure if a reiteration counts as a clarification, but here's hoping the LPGA actually sticks to their rules for a playoff this time around:

The top 20 players at the conclusion of the event will earn Priority List Category 11. In the event of a tie, a playoff will decide the 20th position. Players finishing in the 21st through 30th spots will earn Priority List Category 16, followed by 31st to 40th, who will receive Priority List Category 20.

As I read this, it means no "not counting the Q-School results of someone in Category 11 or higher." Given that no one already in Category 11 is in the field, though, it doesn't seem to matter how I read this for this year. I wonder if the LPGA has rewritten eligibility rules to prohibit anyone in the #81 to #100 slots on the money list to enter Q-School? The highest-ranked player is Sarah-Jane Smith at #105.]

[Update 2 (2:31 am): Beth Ann Baldry does what she can with the situation. Interesting to hear that Alison Walshe plans to be seeking dual LPGA-LET membership. And that the LET moved up their Q-School from January to December.]

Samsung World Championship Sunday: Na Yeon Choi Loses 7-Shot Lead, Beats Ai Miyazato with Walkoff Birdie

The final round of the Samsung World Championship turned into a duel between 2 players: Na Yeon Choi and Ai Miyazato. But it sure didn't look that way for the 1st hour or so of play today. Choi picked up where she left off yesterday, making birdies on the 2nd and 4th and eagle on the par-5 6th to get to -19 overall. Meanwhile, Miyazato parred her 1st 6 holes and Ji-Yai Shin started par-bogey-birdie-bogey to join Miyazato at -12. But almost immediately, Miyazato started chipping away at Choi's lead. Birdies at 7 and 8 brought her to -14, while Choi bogeyed 9, 10, and 11 (narrowly avoiding a double) to fall to -16. 5 holes, 5 shots.

I was watching the NBC coverage with the same friends who saw M.J. Hur beat Suzann Pettersen and Michele Redman in a playoff a few weeks ago, and both husband and wife had almost the same reaction when they 1st saw Choi's face, about half an hour apart: "How old is she--17?" "She looks like she's 15!" And, yeah, Choi did look pretty young while her game was deserting her, but she held on and fought back with 3 straight pars, forcing Miyazato to come and get her. Miyazato responded with clutch approach shot after clutch approach shot. She birdied 12 with a fairway wood in her hands and 16 (for the 3rd day in a row) with a 3-hybrid that she stuck to 4 feet. When Choi missed a knee-knocker on 15 a hole behind her, all of a sudden it was Miyazato at -16 and the former leader at -15. When Miyazato's drive on 17 hit a ridge and bounded forward an extra 20 yards and she stuck yet another approach shot, it looked like the tournament was hers for the taking. But she couldn't handle the curving 10-footer, missing on the low side. And then she had to watch Lorena Ochoa butcher the final hole ahead of her, just as Choi had to watch her playing partner Shin butchering the 17th. Choi managed to make par, but by then Miyazato had decided to go for the par-5 green in 2, despite having made bogey on Friday, when she dumped it in the greenside pond. And she did it again on Sunday.

It's easy to 2nd-guess her decision in retrospect, but look at it this way: she was playing awesome golf; she trusted her fairway woods, having hit 57 of 71 greens in regulation for the tournament and 14 of 17 that day, many with the exact club in her hands; she was looking to force Choi to make an eagle to tie her (thereby increasing the pressure on her 2nd shot into the green); plus, with her wedge game and putting so strong, odds were she could save par even if disaster did strike. Well, Miyazato certainly gave herself a chance to do just that, putting her recovery shot about 12 feet above the hole. But she completely babied the putt and could only wait to see if Choi would win with a birdie, lose with a bogey, or head back to the 18th tee for a playoff with a par.

And Choi certainly made it interesting. A perfect drive gave her a great angle to the green, but after she hit her approach shot, she hung her head as if it was the worst shot of her life. Turns out she was either relieved or couldn't bear to watch the ball in the air (she later said it was because she knew she hadn't hit it solidly), but either way, it stayed dry, ending up just short of the green in a narrow neck of fairway. Choi elected to putt from a couple of yards off the fringe, and like so many putts on the back, she left this one short, in knee-knocker range. But this time the 4-footer was dead center and Na Yeon Choi had followed Ai Miyazato as the 2nd player to get off my list of the best players on the LPGA without a win.

Of course I was down for Ai-sama and couldn't stop going over her decision on the 18th fairway with my friend as our kids played in the playground afterwards. Taking the water out of play would still have given her a good birdie chance--as playing partner Paula Creamer could attest--while taking bogey out of the equation. But hindsight is 20-20 and I certainly was happy for the visibly nervous Choi, whom I had followed for several holes at the Wegmans. And hey, if the Bills could come back so strong from last week's baka baka baka baka baka baka loss to the Patriots (sorry, a little Ponyo reference there) like they did this week, I expect Ai-sama to come back even stronger from this loss. She's now 2nd on the money list behind Ji-Yai Shin, tied with Shin for 2nd in scoring average (only .13 behind Kerr), 2nd to Shin in rounds in the 60s (by 1), 2nd behind Angela Stanford in rounds under par percentage, tied with Shin for 4th in birdie rate (3.97 per round), 1st in top 10 rate (.632), tied for 1st in putts per green in regulation (although Shin and Song-Hee Kim are actually a few thousands below her 1.752 average), and 3rd in the Player of the Year race. And you know what? I still don't believe she's truly put it all together in a single round in any of her last 7 top 10 or better finishes.

I leave you with the Golf Channel highlights, just in case you were watching football instead!

[Update 1 (10:48 pm): Catherine Forsythe focuses on Paula Creamer's latest injury (her back) and Choi's comeback win, while Stephanie Wei wonders how people will react to more Asian dominance on the LPGA.]

[Update 2 (11:30 pm): Ryan Ballengee does the quick take on Choi's win.]

[Update 3 (11:40 pm): Just thought I'd check the field list for this coming week's CVS event to make sure Ai-sama's name was still on it--and guess what? It's not. She's headed to Japan a week early to get ready for the Japan Women's Open. Shinobu, Sakura, Momoko and the gang had better watch out for her! The field list for this coming week's JLPGA event is incomplete, so there's still a chance she'll decide to tune up at the Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open, where Momo-chan is the defending champion, but my guess is she'll take the week off to celebrate, rest, and prep for the JWO.]

[Update 4 (9/21/09, 9:50 am): Jamie RS is really finding his voice, don't you agree?]

[Update 5 (2:05 pm): Great game story by Marc Figueroa--he clarifies Miyazato's intent nicely on her 2nd shot on 18 and moves between description and quotation and context adroitly.]

Lucky Imoto!

Turns out nobody in the Constructivist household shares a birthday with an active LPGA member. Except imoto, who turns 3 this month. If anyone can correctly guess who it is, I'll mail you an autographed piece of original imoto artwork. To make it easier for my regular readers (all 5 of you!), I'll throw out one other hint: she comes from the same state imoto was born in! To protect imoto's identity, I'm closing comments on this post--email me your contest entry at the coordinates listed in my profile.

On Selling Out

Iggy Pop is selling car insurance. Is he selling out?



While BBC puts the debate over selling out in context and Michael Berube puts his sound bites in context, I'd just like to point out that his swinging a golf club at the end of this piece



is probably his ironic commentary on the whole debate. "You want cognitive dissonance? You can't handle cognitive dissonance!"

Change

Finally!

Sparkychan Flix

Sparkychan has authorized me to release the following pictures of her Grandpaland adventure:



Is she looking for a Fill-Oz-of-Her or is she pretending to ride a pony? Or both?

Here she is thinking and contemplating. Maybe's she's wondering when she'll have ice cream and tea with Gojochan and Onechan and Imoto:



And here she's giving reality the Old Test:

Japanese Tunisia

Tomonao Hara plays "A Night in Tunisia":

Make It Dragon Ash in 2008

Amazing discovery today about the Full Metal Archivist's musical tastes. I came home very late from picking up the girls--for which I have to thank Ari, bw, Vance Maverick, and Harriet Beecher Stowe--only to discover that she's into j-punk! Specifically, a group that goes by the name of Dragon Ash. You know what's coming next, right?



Yup, that's her favorite song. Too close to Sugar Ray for me, but it's a start.

Here's why this is so exciting. If you check my profile, you'll see I'm into music in a big way, but most of it the Full Metal Archivist is not so into. So if I start her on The Offspring, move into Green Day, then back to some of the classic punk albums, I might just be able to get to to hear the connection between them and, say, Primus, Mos Def, and, if I need to fall back on them, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Next step: Tool sounds a lot better to her. Happiness reigns in the Constructivist household and onechan and imoto are brought up right, musically speaking, of course.

Heh, I can't wait till I can say, "I love it when an 'imposing my musical canons on those I love' plan comes together!" Or, if it fails, "Would you believe...?"

This One's for JP Stormcrow

Hey, JP, did you make the second parody poster referenced in this recent Verbal Privilege post? Just asking....

1000 Buddhas

Well, not yet a thousand, but they're working on it. Go here to see a bunch of interesting photos:

http://www.lensculture.com/buddha.html#

The Collected Adventures of Sparkychan & Gojochan (Thus Far)

Well, here it is, the first book of The Collected Adventures of Sparkychan and Gojochan (Thus Far), by Uncle Bill Benzon.

July 9: For onechan [in response to this and that]
July 10: The discussion continues
July 11: Onechan's Adventure [in response to this]
July 12: Where's Onechan? and Calling Onechan! Calling Onechan!
July 14: Help is on the way and There They Are! Yippieeee! [in response to this]
July 17: Onechan's Choice
July 19: Calling all kidz! Calling all kidz! [in response to this]
July 23: Sigh
July 28: Catch you later alligator
August 1: Where's the bunny rabbit?
August 3: Onechan Tells a Story
August 11: The Little Worm from Kansas
August 14: Twas brillig
August 16: Sparkychan & Gojochan Adventure Time Mystery Theatre
November 20: i had a dream

Without giving away too much, our intrepid pair end up in Dunkirk! Literally. The girls are still celebrating. Sparkychan is getting rides on the girls' toy baby stroller while onechan cradles Gojochan in one arm until imoto says "itai" enough to prompt me to intervene and force onechan to give Gojochan back to imoto. For more updates, see the comments on the last post in Book I. A big "arigato gozaimasu" to Uncle Bill from onechan and imoto!

Shameless Plug: It's a Blast

Sparkychan: Hey, kids, be sure to see 2001 Redux: A Toy Odyssey, it's a blast!

Gojojan: Yeah, it stars our good friends, Kongsan and Jumpsan. They're cool!

Sparkychan: And it's got neat special effects.

Gojochan: And a shocking opening scene, so be sure to warn your parents so they're not too upset.

Sparkychan: After all, everybody poops, no? Even movie stars and super-heroes.

Gojochan: You weren't supposed to tell them, Sparky.

Sparkychan: I know, but it ... just ... you know ... slipped out. I'm sorry.

Gojochan: Oh, that's OK. I'm kinda' glad you said it. Let's go have some tea.

Sparkychan: Yes. And ice cream, too.

Coming to a theatre near you – 2001 Redux: A Toy Odyssey

Trees for Tuesday

starship empire dancer

and the little people:

Friday's Footprint?