Golf Trick Shots?

To all my readers out there who enjoy a round of golf or two, watch this!

This has been labeled a trick shot. However, to my mind it is just an awesome shot, period! Bubba Watson is taking a tour of the Ping golf facility. He grabs a right-handed driver, flips it over, and then proceeds to drive a golf ball some 305 yards left-handed.

If you are shaking your head and saying something along the lines of "bugger me, how'd he do that?" Then feel free to watch the video of it here.

I know a few golfers, myself included who would be real happy to hit the ball with a club in the manner in which it was designed to for 305 yards!

By any stretch it was a wonderfully long drive.

Elin Nordegren -- "I Felt Stupid..."

Elin Nordegren has given an interview to People magazine about the hell she has endured since her former husband's infidelities became fodder for tabloids and newspapers around the globe.

The most interesting part of the tid bits that have been made available so far is that she claims that she had no idea as to the extent of the philandering. In a way, it reads like she had not idea at all about any of the women on the side. I guess that would make you feel stupid. What it does not do though, is make you stupid.

Tiger Woods is a billion dollar sports and marketing star. His image has been tarnished but it is not beyond repair. You can bet the marketing gurus will be working overtime to polish up their product. The fact that Woods is such a money spinner meant that there were more than enough people in place (sycophants?) to ensure that Nordegren had no inkling of what was going on. Yet, considering the number of women on the side, it was only a matter of time before the wheels fell off on this out of control car. A spectacular crash it was.

Apparently, Nordegren is almost finished a psychology degree. Maybe her studies have allowed her to find some solace away from it all, and some time to heal the very deep wounds she has suffered.

As I have said in previous posts, any amount of money she and her children receive as part of the finalised divorce are more than deserved.

Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods -- Divorced...

It is official, the marriage of one Tiger Woods and one Elin Nordegren is over.

It really could not have ended any other way, could it?

No terms of the divorce settlement have been announced. The only statement was that their mutual and paramount concern was for their two children and they made a call for privacy. In any event, it is going to be a difficult conversation that Mr. Woods has to have with his children at some point in the future, you know the one, "Dad, why did you and Mum get divorced?"

I would reckon Ms. Nordegren ended up with a settlement that over time will be well over USD 100 million. She deserves it.

Tiger Woods & Elin Nordegren -- The 100 Million Dollar Divorce...

Tiger Woods is getting out of his marriage cheaply. Earlier reports that Elin Nordegren was set to agree to a USD 750 million divorce deal have apparently been far-fetched, or too good to be true for Ms. Nordegren, as it is now being reported that she is going to settle for USD 100 million.

Now, truth be told, this is still better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick. However, it is no where near half of what the golfer is worth!

Although, it would seem that the quoted USD 100 million is the low end of the spectrum because it does not include any child support payments. I would be guessing that over the years, child support payments are going to see Tiger Woods parting with a considerable chunk of his fortune. Nevertheless, one must assume that married or not, he would presumably parted with that anyways.

I would also imagine that there are plenty of blokes out there in the real world thinking, "Tiger, WTF were you thinking?". Truth be told, my personal opinion is that, she deserves more, much more.

Hopefully, once the divorce is finalised everyone involved in this episode can move on.

Tiger Woods and Gay Sex...

It has been a spectacular fall from grace for the world's first billion dollar sportsperson. However, no matter how spectacular the fall, there is always an opportunity for redemption. The game now is whether Tiger Woods can trek that path to redemption.

In many respects the only way that things can go from here are up. There are probably some who might wonder how a professional golfer with a squeaky clean image can recover from one affair let alone fourteen or so of them over a relatively short period of time. Perhaps, therein lies the answer. Tiger Woods is the golfer of his generation, and perhaps overtime the greatest golfer of all time, and herein lies the opportunity for redemption. His name and reputation may be forever marked by this myriad of indiscretions, but the situation is not beyond repair in most facets of his existence.

That said, I would reckon the situation might be beyond repair on the marriage front, but being a divorced father is probably not the end of his world. I don't envy the man's task in having to tell or explain to his children how and why things went the way they did. Nevertheless, we are all human and we all make mistakes, the key is getting back up off the ground when we get knocked down, either by our own doing or by someone else's.

Tiger Woods will be back.

Considering the title of the post, I guess there should be a few words about the allegation that Tiger Woods has either indulged in, or had fantasies about, gay sex.

Now, one of the women Tiger is alleged to have been doing the deed with has decided to write a tell all book. The major selling point of the book seems to be not only Tiger's appetite for sex with women, but also with men. According to Loredana Jolie, she has seen Tiger having sex with men. Not sure that there are any photos floating around of these gay sex encounters, but if there were I am guessing that they would be selling for a pretty good price.

The idea is not outside the realm of possibility. It seems that Tiger had a bit of a fetish for threesomes and had a fantasy of being part of one with one of his other mistresses, Rachel Uchitel, and Derek Jeter or David Boreanaz. Derek Jeter is a New York Yankees legend and David Boreanaz is the star of the show Bones.

In any event, the timing of the recent Vanity Fair cover was particularly opportune, don't you think?

A Billion Dollar Sportsman...

This is what a billion dollar sportsman looks like. The Tiger's billion dollar income has come from sponsorship with the likes of Nike. It also helps that he is a fine golfer and a consistent winner, as the prize money is pretty good too. And winning the season ending Fed Ex Cup and the USD 10 million check also helps bump up one's earnings for the year.

I knew I should have taken my golf more seriously!

Cathleen Santoso -- Australia's Best Female Golfer Since Karrie Webb?

Cathleen Santoso is a 14-year-old who has been playing golf for a mere three years. She is rated as one of the hottest teenage prospects in decades and potentially Australia's best female golfer since Karrie Webb. Considering that Karrie Webb is a Hall of Famer, then this is indeed high praise coming from Jack Newton.

Jack Newton was one of Australia's great golfers until he walked into the propeller of a small aircraft and lost an arm and an eye. Hey, even after that he was still a better one-armed golfer than most two-armed hacks like me.

The reason I am writing this blog post is that I read an article in The Daily Telegraph about her. Having lived in Indonesia for many years the name Santoso jumped off the page and caught my eye. It is an interesting story. Besides I have a fascination for all things Indonesian and Australian, so this combines both of those fascinations and rolls them into one story.

Cathleen Santoso was born in Australia to Indonesian parents. The article does not say whether the parents have taken out Australian citizenship or not. But, a quick Google search reveals that Santoso has won her state age championship event three years running and is in the representative school-age teams for which she qualifies. I have not managed to track down any photos of her in action on the Internet.

Her inspiration, Michelle Wie, of course.

The beauty of multicultural Australia, our talent is bred locally (although not always) but can trace its ancestry to all points on the globe.

Viva Australia.

Antasari Azhar and Murder

What follows is a revised comment from this post on another topic where the question of Antasari Azhar (picture courtesy of Viva News) came up.

I have written elsewhere that where there is smoke there is most likely fire. I am going to go out on a limb and state that I am leaning towards there being fire in the Antasari case.

There are many commentators, Indonesian and non-Indonesian, who are suggesting that this is revenge and a frame-up.

In line with the smoke and fire analogy, the suggestion that this is a frame-up indicates a conspiracy of the highest order that could not conceivably be maintained and would unravel at the earliest opportunity. And, the court of public opinion might be split on guilt and the word on the street is not 100% one way or the other, but there are also plenty of people thinking that this is not the frame-up some are claiming it to be.

This is high profile and as such if it is a stitch-up as many claim, then there are so many others that could have been stitched-up other than Antasari.

Simply, there seems no point in bringing down Antasari if he is not involved.

Antasari has been caught out, at least with his pecker out of his pants and in the hands of an "educated" golf caddy who is being portrayed in the media as an excellent handler of sticks, or is that drivers, for the right fee. I cast no aspersions on the girl, I do not know her. Yet, I do not see any more happy endings on this one.

Let's face it, my reading of the news reports to date suggest, the girl is alleged to have panicked and called the police which really got the ball(s) rolling, so to speak. I would love to get a hold of her mobile phones and download the address book, they would certainly seem to be the veritable repository of contacts of the who's who of the Indonesian elite (and maybe the odd compromising photo or two), an electronic black book if you will.

The beauty of Indonesia is that it has a really short memory and the attention span is equally short. This is not something unique to Indonesia, but probably is relevant in this case. There were serious questions raised about the suitability of Antasari prior to his original appointment to the KPK. In fact, there were some interesting allegations raised about his extra-curricular activities. He was never convicted of anything and as such the allegations remain just that, allegations.

Nevertheless, this should be reasonable ammunition for the "I told you so" crowd that will inevitably appear.

However, I am far from convinced Antasari has been set up. The most likely scenario with what is available in the public domain is that Antasari was aware of corruption in a state-owned enterprise, and he probably became aware of this through Nasrudin. However, as horny old men are prone to do, Antasari was to busy getting his post-round workout with the caddy and forgot to move forward on the corruption documents and investigation. Nasrudin threatened to expose Antasari and then the rest you can probably work out for yourself.

Now all that said, I am all for due process and the Police and the Office of the Public Prosecutor still have to make their case in a court of law. If they do and Antasari is found guilty and convicted, so be it. If he is cleared of any involvement then so be it. Antasari can defend himself against the charges, through his legal team.

It is going to be interesting and fun to watch this one unfold.

Greg Norman's Divorce Payout

Celebrity divorces are no different from any other divorce on the sadness stakes the only difference is the size of the numbers being bandied about for settlement. There are a couple of divorces in the pipeline that might see some big numbers being thrown around such as Alex Rodriguez of New York Yankees fame. A-Rod as he is affectionately know just inked a 10-year USD 275 million deal which is unlikely to be protected by any pre-nuptial agreement.

It would seem that his alleged philandering ways and an inability to reconcile with his wife means that a drawn out ding dong battle is looming. He has two kids one is a three years old and the other is a mere 3 months old. This will be certainly one to watch.

However, this is not a piece about A-Rod but rather one of my favourite under-achieving in the majors golfers, Greg Norman. Although Norman did end up winning a couple of British Opens, the man who dominated the game should have won at least half a dozen more but seemed to be afflicted by that perennial choking disease and ended up throwing some excellent chances away. He was still a great golfer all the same.

Anyways, it seems that his ding dong divorce battle has ended up costing him a payout to the ex of some USD 100 million and a guaranteed payout to his two kids of about USD 103 million and the all important trophies on his death.

This is just the making public of the terms of the settlement. Greg Norman has since remarried. The Shark has recently married the former tennis star and now legend, Chris Evert.

The divorce battle was messy and included acrimonious public court filings and personal spats such as changing the locks on family homes to keep the other one out. All child like but nevertheless a good read for those of us looking to humour ourselves on the suffering of the rich and famous.

One of the filings included Norman's lawyers claiming that the wife was entitled to much less because she did not teach the husband how to swing a golf club or how to win. This is a line that A-Rod might want to consider. After all A-Rod has been considered a star since he was 15 years old. This is way before he met his wife.

When it is all said and done the payout to his former wife amounts to less than 1/4 of Greg Norman's estimated wealth which sits around USD 500+ million. Some men out there would think that he has done well.

Laura Andrassy, the wife, ended up getting:

1. a cash payment of USD 50 million;

2. 500K in jewellery;

3. Range Rover;

4. paintings, furniture, Christmas decorations, and other valuables;

5. USD 30.2 million distributed over the next 15 years;

6. USD 21.5 million from the sale of family homes; and

7. USD 466K from a retirement account.

Golf -- Expensive Balls

Just because I cannot think of anything else interesting to write. And, I also read that Tiger Woods might not be back for a long while. So, this got me thinking about golf.

Did you know that Americans spend more than USD 630 million per year on golf balls.

That means that there must be a lot of balls going into the water hazards.

Tiger Woods

It is being reported that Tiger Woods is to miss the rest of the 2008 golf season because of injury. The injury is a ruptured ligament in his left knee and double stress fractures of his left tibia. This has been confirmed in a news announcement on Tiger's own website. This will require a round of reconstructive knee surgery.

Now, all his fellow pros are sending their best wishes for a speedy recovery. I am sure that some though will be a little relieved that at least for the rest of 2008 they might be a shot for a win without having to look over their shoulders to see whether or not the Tiger is lurking.

For a man who has just concluded his 500th week as the world's top ranked golfer the news is bad but the prognosis is good. Over the long term he should fully recover and be back as good as ever. Nevertheless, if you are one of those fellow pros and you now know that the bloke just won the US Open on one leg, you have to be worried about your chances when he comes back to the tour with both legs in full working order!

This injury will delay the Tiger Woods march to history. He is currently the best golfer on the planet and soon enough he will be the greatest ever to have played the game. This should be a lesson to any youngster out there looking to succeed in sport; love the game, be passionate about the game, work hard, train hard, and the results will take care of themselves.

Well, I night get back to watching golf next year once Tiger returns. The game just won't be the same until then!

Coffee and Stress

I have found the perfect reason to drink more coffee although I am not sure whether I have to be a rat to benefit. A South Korean trial has uncovered that just the smell of coffee triggers action in a number of genes that produce proteins with anti-oxidants that are good for you. It must be pointed out that these responses were measured in rats and not humans (picture was found here).

Nevertheless, anyone who knows even a little bit about scientific testing knows that the rats get it first! The results of the trial have been published in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry". The report indicates that generally just smelling coffee alleviates the stress levels of the sleep-deprived rats.

So, I am going to drink more coffee today or at least go to Starbucks, Gloria Jeans, or the Coffee Bean and buy some fresh roasted beans to sniff because I am sleep-deprived after having watched the US Open Golf. As it turns out I could have stayed asleep as Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate have to go at it again today in a playoff!

It seems like catch-22 to me as the drinking of the coffee keeps you awake and causes stress increases but the aroma of the beans reduces that stress, weird! Apparently, previously studies have shown that coffee consumption reduces depression and the risk of suicide. All this time I just thought these big coffee drinkers were just wired on the excess caffeine but in fact they were not wired but enjoying levels of reduced stress.

In any event if you want to learn more about current coffee research you should go here, The Coffee Science Information Center or CoSIC.