May, 2008

5/11/2008 - Happy Mother's Day to all our mother's who golf! Yes, Annkia is not a mother, but she is back and with a vengance to be number 1 again. Lorena has faltered in these last two LPGA events and I believe that Annika is still the person to beat at the end of the year. Everyone have a great day today and take your mother golfing if she is a golfer.

April, 2008

4/3/2008 - I have finally arrived back at Las Vegas and plan on taking a break from all this golf I have been doing lately. I will be back in about a week when I will be at St. George, UT taking pics and playing their municipal courses which are very nice indeed.

March, 2008

3/21/2008 - Well, I have been very busy taking more golf course pics and playing some golf. I have been through Yuma, AZ and picked up Mesa del Sol and Los Barrancas golf courses. If you are down in Yuma they are probably your best bet for a great time. I then went to Tuscon for the Tiffin Rally and was able to fit in another great find at Marana. The Pines at Marana is one of the few "quarry" golf courses in the United States and is absolutely georgeous. Pristine greens on this course add to its character and astetics. I then stopped in Casa Grande for 10 days and drove to Phoenix to finish up the Suncor managed golf courses: Sunridge Canyon, Palm Valley, Club West and Sanctuary. Along with those I was able to get the two best courses in Casa Grande, Mission Royale and the monster 7549 yard, Francisco Grande Golf Resort. If you want a great deal while visiting the Phoenix/Tuscon area, Casa Grande is approximately half way between them and has some great golf.

3/2/2008 - Well, the golf was OK this weekend with the Honda Classic and Johnnie Walker, but a young lady, Lorena Ochoa, stole the show. She finished so far in front of everyone that it was like a practice round for her in the final day. Annika (my favorite) finished second and Paula Creamer third. I think the LPGA has got just what it needed with Annika back, Creamer is hot and Lorena is back with a vengence in her first appearance of the year. OK, guys, let us hear it for the ladies.

3/1/2008 - I have been busy with some new courses in the San Diego area and just when I was about to leave. Work, work, work! It is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. I have three more courses that will be coming up soon from American Golf - The Vineyards at Escondido, Riverwalk and Mission Trails. Another course will be the Lake San Marcos Resort and Country Club.

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Annika Sorenstam

September, 2007 - A Time to Remember

9/29/2007 - Well, the day has come for me to fly to Orlando, FL and visit with both Annika and Lotta. You can imagine the anticipation of meeting one of the greatest golfers of all time, man or woman. I will cronical my days at the Academy for my loyal readers. Unfortunately, Henri Reis, Annika's only coach and the Head Instructor at the Academy will not be there do to family matters back home. Our best wishes go out to him and his family. Each day is filled with (ugh!) work out, range and playing golf as well as a custom fitting by Callaway and we get time with Annika in a clinic and 9 holes of golf. When I say we, it looks like there were eight winners in all who will be attending from the sweepstakes which means two foursomes and it still adds up to one heck of a time. Once I leave the Ginn Reunion Resort I will head up to the World Golf Village for a couple of nights and then back to Orlando. By the way, it is only a 1 1/2 hour drive to the World Golf Village from Orlando, so if you are planning a trip to Disneyland I would recommend a couple of nights at the Village which is just south of Jacksonville.

9/01/2007 - It has been a hectic couple of weeks since I last did a blog. There is big news, not only did we get Tiffin Phaeton QSH 40' Quad slide Motor Home, but I received an e-mail this last Monday that blew me away. " You are a winner of the Anika Sorenstam "Share the Passion" sweepstakes. I just about dropped to the floor. I read further through the message and it said, "Clinic and play 9 holes with Anika" "Photograph and autograph session with Anika" "3 nights at the Ginn Reunion Resort" and a bunch of other stuff. I pinched myself and kept saying, "I get to play golf with the best woman golfer that golf as ever seen". So, it has been a great week and continues to get better and better. I will start talking about golf soon.

October, 2007 - More about Annika's Academy

10/07/2007 - Yes, I am home now, but if you want to see more about this adventure to Annika's Academy, please watch for it on The Golf Channel and ESPN as they were filming the big winner and ESPN was on the course taking interviews with all of us while we were playing with Annika.

10/02/2007 - Here, I am at 7:00 AM having breakfast at the Clubhouse resturante. We get to meet Annika today at 8:00 am. Our golf clubs are on the carts and our names too. I have been assigned with Dave who is from the Midwest and sells healing oils (no not snake oil). We drive down to the academy and walk up the steps and in the door and who greets us but Annika herself, along with Christian who is the Assistant Operations Manager and a very competent golfer in his own right.

She asks us to go into the conference room. Once everyone is there she starts out with the introduction of herself, her sister Charlotta and other staff members. We then get a tour of the facility and are put into two groups, A and B. I was assigned to group B along with Dave, Bill and Judy. Group A consisted of Jerry, Sue and the grand prize winner Kathy. Both Kathy and Jerry were new to golf so they tried to split the groups into beginners and more advanced players. Group B was first to go on the range and then Group A to the fitness guru, Kai. Kai has been with Annika for six years and is one of the top trainers in his field. After about 1 hour we then switched and Kai had us, Oh! Oh! Even though he was doing the exercises on a low level they were intense since they focused on specific muscles. The agony!

After that was lunch served in a bento box. Obsolutely, exquisite and nuitritious. We all then went out on the course, Tom Watson's Independence course. We played only nine with Charlotta which turned out to be the back nine when the LPGA plays their tournament there. It was great and I was only 2 over after nine. The course was Bermuda grass both fairways and greens and the greens were a little slow since it is a Resort after all. Charlotta gave us hints on our swing if she saw something was amiss and followed each group for about half of the nine holes. That's the end of the first day which saw me hitting more balls than I would in a normal six months of going to the range.

10/01/2007 - Well, I finally arrived at the Orlando International Airport (approximately 10 hours later). I recommend taking a direct flight if you can afford it and going 1st class. I drove up to the GINN Reunion Resort about 30 minutes south of the airport and was amazed. Driving in through this gated and secured community with wetlands, golf courses, homes and condos was quite an experience. In the distance I could see this exquisite hotel and clubhouse.

I was told that I was to have an early arrival so the anticipation of having a nice bed to flop into was overwhelming. As I approached the front desk, the gentleman in front of me was being told that there were no early arrivals and that the rooms would not be ready until after 4:00 PM; I was promptly told the same thing. That's 1, I thought to myself. So I introduce myself to the gentleman who had been turned away, his name was Jerry, from Illinois who also had had a long flight. It turned out that he too was one of the winners of the Annika "Share-my-passion" sweepstakes. We decided to have lunch at the clubhouse since they at least gave us our room keys so we could buy something since it is a moneyless system. Finally about 4:30PM our rooms were ready and two tired guys emerged victorious with room keys in hand and headed for our rooms. Jerry was on the third floor and I on the fourth.

I opened the door with some trepidation and was total in awe of this absolutely goregous suite. Marble floors, granite counter tops in the kitchen, washer/dryer, two bedrooms and for you guys a 45" LCD Panasonic TV in the main room and a 32" LCD Panasonic in each of the bedrooms. The bathrooms were huge and had both a shower and large soaking tub. In the closest was a satin robe with terry cloth. A veranda was outside the main room which viewed over the driving range and practice facility and you could see two of the courses. In the distance I took my first look at the building I would come to know as Annika's Academy. I really wanted to get some sleep, but the staff kept checking in on me every 1/2 hour to make sure every thing was satisfactory, brought up my luggage twice and then my wife called, whoops!

The one thing that made this first day of arrival was the food. They must have some of the best chefs in the United States working for them because the food was wonderful and the presentation outstanding which for desert made you not want to eat it. If you ever eat at the Clubhouse resturant there, make sure you try the bread pudding covered with raspberry and carmel, but in my case they had run out of carmel. I did ask if he had anything else to put on the bread pudding and he said only chocolate. I said let's try that and a new desert was born. Out came this large peice of bread pudding with whipped cream on top with chocolate peices and splashed with raspberry and chocolate in a large white bowl. It was absolutely beautiful. If I had had my camera I would have taken a picture with it. Time for bed.