Southern California Golf Expo

Tattoo Golf will be exhibiting at the Southern California Fall Golf Show out in Pomona this Friday, Saturday & Sunday. If you golf and are looking for some great deals then this is a great show to attend because there are tons of vendors (including us!) selling everything you can ever want to get your game on track. Tattoo Golf will be set up in booth # 320 so stop on by to say hello and check out our hot deals. Roger Dunn always has a massive shopping area at these shows featuring some reallys seet deals. I've got a new bag, a 9 iron & a hybrid on my shopping list so I'm fairly excited about doing a little shopping this weekend.

4 ball tournament

I just played the first round of my club's 4 ball tournament & my partner Jim & I closed out our opponents 6 & 4. We started out with 3 natural birdies on the 1st 3 holes so with handicap we were shootin net eagles while the other guys started off with 3 pars for net birdies! I think that took some wind out of there sails because they never chipped into that 3 up lead and we got it to 4 before giving one back then bringing it back up to 6.

I'm a 22 handicap but still stuck a couple of shots within feet of the pin on 2 separate holes to card 2 birdies (net eagles). I did go through a 4 hole stretch where I couldn't pull my head out & completely lost my swing but I did get it back though and finished the last hole with a crazy 25 foot putt to close things out. If my putter didn't work I'd be dead!

Help Wanted

Urgently needed - help finding my game!! I had it two weeks ago but now I've been out 2 times in the past 2 weeks & it's gone. Fat shots, shanks, pulls & pushes, it's completely frustrating and I've got a tournament tomorrow at my club so it better come to me in my sleep! This isn't the first time my game's gone AWOL which probably means that it won't be the last unfortunately.

Has anybody else experienced this & what the hell did you do about it?

What a crazy game golf is...

Wie can't go on like this.

Big news in the desert this weekend! Michelle Wie placed 19th in the Samsung World Championship played in Palm Desert at Bighorn Golf Club and this helped more than double her earnings for the entire year! Sounds good if it not for her total earnings so far this year being less than $10,000 plus the fact only 20 players participated in the Samsung tourney. Her 1 under 71 (only the 2nd sub par round this year) helped push her ahead of Germany's Bettina Hauert & come up just 36 strokes behind winner Lorena Ochoa.

Anyone else and I might be inclined to feel sorry for her but aside from winning the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links title in 2003, she's done absolutely nothing! She's really starting to embarrass herself and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Someone needs to set her off on the right path quick. If I were her advisor (or her Daddy) I'd say "Golf or college, make a decision" If it's college then great - play maybe 2 or 3 LPGA exemptions a year & spend the rest of the time studying. If it's golf then let's focus on winning a woman's tournament before ever teeing it up with the men again. Unless she's absolutely stupid, why continue to go against the men? She can't win, damn, she can't even make the cut so what's the point?

Photo shoot

If you live in So. Cal. & you're a golfer then you've more than likely heard of Southland Golf Magazine. It's a fantastic super-gloss golf mag w/ tons of great product info, course reviews, player interviews, etc. & it's absolutely free! Tattoo Golf advertises in there every month & they've done some TG product reviews over the past year but now we're gearing up for a full-on editorial which should be rolling in out in their Nov. issue.

My partner Bill & myself met up with Eddie Meeks, Southland's photo editor, today at Chevy Chase CC in Glendale for a photo shoot to capture our mugs on film for the article. Eddie is Vietnam Vet & a real colorful character with plenty of great stories was just a blast to work with. He specializes in golf & auto racing but he's a real pro so he basically can do it all. Check him out at www.eddiemeeks.us or community.webshots.com/user/golfphotographer and don't forget to check out Tattoo Golf in November's issue of Southland Golf!

Swede's Golfing is Sweet

Jesper Parnevik, winless since 2001, seems to have found his game over the past 2 days down in San Antonio at the Valero Texax Open. In a field almost completely void of any top 50 ranked players, Parnevik is a stunning 14 under after 2 rounds and hopes to continue his amazing run when he tees off in a couple of hours.

It's a Swedish party at the top as Parnivik's playing partner is Mathias Gronberg who trails is countryman by 4 at 10 under.

Every since he lost his nanny to Tiger Woods Parnevik's played like a Swedish meatball but I'm rooting for him and maybe his time has come.

Woody Takes the Plunge

Even better than the solid beating the American's handed out to the rest of the world during the recent President's Cup was Woody (Aquaman) Austin's graceful dive/fall into a water hazard at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. Always the colorful character, Woody outdid himself this weekend! Gone were the flamboyant Tobasco brand scenery shirts but under the fashionable USA team garb lied our old, lovable Woody.

He was as animated as ever & a joy to watch as he made clutch putt after clutch putt during his pairing with Phil Mickelson to help pad America's lead during the 4 day event. Following his quick mid-round dip, Woody toweled off & proceeded to birdie the final 3 holes to lift him and playing partner David Toms to a tie in their 4 ball match with the South African team of Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini.

Having now played in his first President's Cup at the age of 43, he's already got his sights set on 2009 and if he continue's playing anywhere near this level there's no way he doesn't make that goal.

Greg Shaw
Tattoo Golf