By Back 9: Fred Altvater
No main street cruising, Friday night football games or high school proms for 17 year old golf phenom, Alexis Thompson. She is petitioning the LPGA for full membership and playing privileges for the 2012 season.
In 2007 at age 12, Lexi became the 
youngest woman to ever qualify for the U. S. Women’s Open. She turned professional at age 15 and two weeks ago became the youngest winner ever on the LPGA Tour by capturing first place at the Navistar LPGA Classic.
The LPGA does not allow membership under the age of 18, but Thompson successfully petitioned the LPGA to allow her to enter Q School in July. She shot four rounds in the 60’s and blew away the entire field at first stage of LPGA Q School by 10 shots.
LPGA Commissioner, Michael Whan, may have just received his Christmas and Birthday presents all rolled up into one tidy little package named Alexis Thompson. Lexi is exactly what the LPGA needs. She is a serious, talented, fresh, young, golfer with a game to back up her great style.
The LPGA has not been the same since the retirements of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa. Yani Tseng dominated the Tour in 2010 and again in 2011 but the LPGA needs an American face to bring women’s golf back into corporate sponsorship big bucks. Christie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, and Michelle Wie have not been able to fill the void left when Annika and Lorena left the tour to start families.
Lexi has the game, charm and style to help launch the LPGA back to prominence. All she has to do is “Just Win Baby”.
Thanks for visiting Ladies on the Tee at www.sherrytabb.com. Keep on eye on this young lady….she really ‘has game’!
Tags: Alexis Thompson, Golf for Women, Lexi Thompson, LPGA, LPGA Tour membership, Michael Whan, Women's Golf
Recently I was approached by a representative of a company called Mobitee to post a press release for their new smartphone golf gps app on the Ladies on the Tee site. Since our policy is to only post information on products we have personally tested, they graciously sent me a free download to try out.
Let me first start with the information put out by the company:
Mobitee Golf Assistant, the most sophisticated, multi-platform (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Nokia, Windows Phone, Bada) golf GPS application has just released its newest update on iPhone, now giving players the ability to use shot tracking. Adding to its long list of astonishing features including satellite view, rangefinder, flyover videos, golf guide and more, shot tracking allows users to record and track all their hits, register the position of a shot and associate a club to it. This multiple award-winning application will also calculate the average distance taken with each club and register the best first shot from the tee box. Having a caddie is no longer a privilege! Mobitee is available on every App Store or on www.mobitee.com for only $24.99!
See below for screenshots:
Aerial View Shot tracking Rangefinder (Augmented reality)
After testing the product myself, I found it to be very accurate and loved the ‘fly over’ feature that shows the entire layout of the hole you are on….especially useful if you are playing an unfamiliar course. That’s not to say I didn’t struggle a bit at first Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: golf, golf apps, rangefinders, smartphone apps, smartphones
By Dr.Spencer Jones
Are you planning to take golf as your profession? Then you must follow the games of greats like Tiger Woods, Jones or Hogan. Their brilliant golf swing skills fascinate all budding golfers. The perfect golf swing of those great players is a sum of natural talent, hard work, and golf lessons obtained from the most eminent swing coaches of the world. All these players have different golf swing techniques suiting their own style, but there are some basic elements that they all have to follow. Let us look into those common traits that every golfer should possess.
Perfection in Club-head Speed
When the experts discuss the about the methods of acquiring a perfect golf swing, you must get to hear the term ‘club-head speed’ over and over again. Different golfers have different ways of generating power. For instance a player like Tiger Woods gets it from his incredible physical strength and exceptional shoulder rotation. On the other hand some players get the entire strength from their hips. Any of these ways may suit you, but your game must include a flawless club-head speed. You will never be successful in generating enough power on your stroke without a perfect club-speed.
Balancing the Golf Swing
Balance is another significant feature of a perfect golf swing. Perfection and balance are almost synonymous in the game of golf. If you don’t have the right balance, you will never be successful in striking the golf-ball straight. Lack of balance will also stop you from covering large distances. The balanced players always get the opportunity of repeating their swing motion every time they strike the ball. This is not the case for the golfers with bad balance. They always have a certain level of irregularity in their game. If you want to improve your golf swing skills you must maintain your balance from the starting point till the end of the swing.
Developing a Perfect Follow Through
You will never manage to achieve perfection in your golf swing, if you don’t have a nice follow through. The great golfers manage to have identical follow through for every single swing they attempt and mostly have high finishes. However, there are exceptions also. You must have seen Tiger Woods cutting off the follow through while trying to hit the ball on low planes. PGA Championship Other than this, he is also known for his high finishes and steady follow through actions. Such actions help the golfers to generate spin and acquire a perfect golf swing.
The great players often make the game of golf look very easy, but the truth is a lot different. Most aspects related to golf are extremely challenging. A player aspiring to become a professional golfer requires constant practice. New Jersey tee times It is probably the only way of achieving a perfect golf swing. Accuracy is always tough to get, but an ideal golf lesson can help you in becoming consistently accurate. So, for learning the golf swing basics, you should start practicing under the supervision of a professional instructor without wasting any more of your precious time.
Thanks for visiting Ladies on the Tee at www.ladiesonthetee.com. We hope you enjoy our postings. If you have any topics you would like to see here, please click on Contact Us above.
Tags: golf instruction, golf swing, golf tips, www.ladiesonthetee, www.sherrytabb.com
A Personal Editorial
Who has enough media coverage these days??? Why would you turn down the opportunity to reach out to more fans and potentially more sponsors?? That was exactly what Tournament Director, Abby Pearson did this past week at the Teva Championship held in Mason, OH at The Golf Center at Kings Island.
The Teva Championship in particular has struggled in the past two years with getting the word out to the community that these great golfers were coming to town. How can additional media resources be refused when this is such a vital part of building the event for everyone’s benefit??? In my opinion, since Game Day Communications, a local marketing firm, was fired by this Tournament Director two years ago this event has lost a lot of its hometown presence, connections and media coverage.
Having said that… for this event organizer to state that ‘her media needs were met’ was most baffling and leads me to question the real reasoning behind her statement. It seems to come down to playing favorites for her pro picks in the two Pro-Ams regardless of tour protocol or maybe better said…penalizing players she doesn’t particularly like.
This is what I mean….This year I requested to play again with a golfer that I had been randomly paired with over the previous two years. This Tour player was not on the list of pros selected by this Tournament Director to play in either of this year’s Pro-Ams even though requests to play with her had been made. As I understand it, the selection of pros is based on the current player standings OR if a request is made by an amateur to be paired with a specific golfer then that golfer is included in the Pro-Am roster. To further explain… another amateur that played in our foursome last year also wanted to be grouped with us again. I was not the only one to request her. So why would this pro not be invited to play? Was I then refused a courtesy Pro-Am spot and media privileges because of my request for this player??? Seems rather coincidental if you ask me.
From my point of view there are some serious issues with the way things unfolded that go far beyond how this impacted me professionally or personally. Without a doubt I understand that it is within the Tournament Director’s rights to not extend playing privileges to media personnel for the Pro-Am slots but to refuse additional media coverage…that’s insane! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: golf, LPGA Futures Tour, media coverage, Pro-Am events, tournament coverage, tournament golf, Women's Golf
The Miller Family
While covering this past week’s LPGA Futures Tour in Mason, OH, I met 20 year-old Stacey Miller. Stacey is a rookie this year with the Teva Championship being only the second tour event of her young career. Her first event was the week before in Iowa at the Ladies Titan Tire Challenge in Marion, IA where she missed her first professional cut. That was not the case in Mason, OH. She made the cut and earned her first professional golf check of $960 with a tie for 42nd place.
Stacey calls Bloomington, IL home. She recently graduated with a Business Management degree from Illinois State University. She travels with her mom, Mary and her dad, Terry who also serves as her caddy on tour.
It was important to Stacey to finish her degree and get some additional collegiate experience under her belt before heading out to the ‘grinds’ of the Futures Tour in quest of an LPGA Tour card.
Here is her record to date:
- Competed in two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships (2008, 2010)
- Recorded four wins in collegiate competition while at Illinois State University
- Three-time Missouri Valley All-Conference Team selection (2008-2010)
- 2011 Ladies Titan Tire Challenge – missed cut
- 2011 Teva Championship – T42
She was very gracious on the course making just a few rookie mistakes. I was able to film the fun side of her in the article “ Having Fun at The Teva”. Best wishes to Stacey for the rest of the season!
Thanks for visiting Ladies on the Tee at www.sherrytabb.com . If you have pictures and stories of other LPGA or Futures players, feel free to send them my way. These great young women deserve our support and attention.
Tags: golf, ladies golf, LPGA, LPGA Futures, LPGA Golf Tour, Rookie, Women's Golf
Newest Hi-Tech Golf Craze: Twitter!
Back 9 by: Fred Altvater
Golf has been all about Hi-Tech for many years. Low compression, soft feel, golf balls that explode off of a 460cc, high MOI, WMD with light weight, composite graphite shaft that produces more swing speed, a higher launch angle and less spin for extra carry and distance. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. The newest and hottest technology, by far, is Twitter and it doesn’t even cost a dime, no $499.99 price tag. Even the worst weekend hacker can chat up Hank Haney, Paul Azinger even Rory McIlroy on your home computer or smart phone.
With the explosion of the social media phenomena the newest hi-tech advancement for golf freaks is Twitter. It seems that Twitter connects nearly everyone in the golf world. In fact Ian Poulter and Stewart Cink are in a tight race for the most followers or Tweeps. Poulter has 1,210,038 but Stewie Cink is currently the leader in the clubhouse, however, with 1,210,205 followers. That’s right I didn’t stutter, they have over 1 million followers, each. And you thought you were the only crazy golf nut out there.
Twitter offers anything from swing tip advice from Hank Haney to up to the minute news flashes from Tiger Woods. That’s right, ”The” Tiger Woods. He announces everything via his website and twitter. You can get the same up to the second news that ESPN, the Golf Channel, or other sports news media receive about tournament scoring, updates or even Eldrick, himself. Follow the LPGA, PGA, Ladies and Mens European Tour, or Golf Channel announcers such as, Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo, and Rich Lerner for golf news and analysis. It’s inter-active, you can even chat them up, in 140 characters or less.
If you like to talk about golf 24/7/365 and are looking for others to chat with, Twitter is for you. There is always someone on twitter that will chat, argue, or discuss any golf topic that meets your fancy. Enhance your viewing pleasure by twittering with other golf fanatics while watching golf on TV. Make fun of the announcers, share the joy of an amazing golf shot just pulled off by one of the professionals, or ruminate over the 13 shots that John Daly just took on the par 4.
If you decide to join golf’s newest hi-tech phenomenon, jump on Twitter, follow me, and give me a shout out @tolohgolfr. I’ll be there. I’m hooked.
Tags: golf, golf information, golf professionals, golf swing tips, social media, Twitter