aaaaiiiiieeeeee! it's scary natalie! or is it just me? natalie looks kinda scary in this pic from the hsbc party --

but ive never been much of a fan anyway ... i mean ive been a fan of her golf and great to see her get that first win last year ... but ive never thought she was all that pretty. she's proof that some guys -- ok, most guys -- will go ga-ga for any fit chick willing to put on a bikini.

fellas, she's just not very pretty. she's not pretty at all. she's blonde and she gots a tight bod but she ain't pretty. gosh, i hate critizing a woman (or man for that matter) on the basis of looks, but thats kinda what natalie built the first part of her career on, so fair game ...

i thought so on the first broadcast anyway ... she seemed more relaxed ... seemed to have more confidence dealing with faldo ... its totally subjective but my ears anyway she was a whole lot less annoyint than last year ... maybe its gonna be a much better year for kelly on the golf channel ...

anyone agree or disagree??

i saw this article -- http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=reu-hongkongfaldodc&prov=reuters&type=lgns -- headline "no easy places in my ryder cup team, faldo says."

ol' saint nick says he's got so much depth nobody is going to back his way onto the team.... bet paul azinger wishes he had that problem!!

about the chase to get on his tema, nick said:

"Those last few months it'll be a bunfight..."

a BUNFIGHT??? ha, what the heck is a bunfight? i don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it doesn't sound easy. i like that word thought, think i'll start using it all the time now

in a chicago sun times story i just ran across online ... it starts like this --

Learning to golf is a spiritual journey, one to be undertaken with patience. That said, getting away from your normal routine and focusing on this relationship between the club, the ball and the course in another city leads to a better understanding of not only the process but of yourself.

ha ha ... gag me! is that terrible or what? i especially like tha beginning ...

Learning to golf is a spiritual journey, one to be undertaken with patience. That said

yes, "that said" ha ha

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/travel/634123,TRA-News-golfside04.article

ha ha, frickin'! that's the word roger fonnest kept saying over and over last night in the first episode. one of the other contestants matt vick said something like, "you act that way when you chug 30 red bulls a day." great line ... fonnest was the little guy, the underdog on the show, so its too bad he got the boot first time out ... i bet the golf channel doenst like to see him go.

at least there were some guys on this one that APPEARED to have great swings and games, and maybe even a few good heads ... i liked hiroshi, he seemed well grounded and not jerky with some good perspective

i still cant believe the pga tour agreed to be a part of this though ... it's a frickin reality tv show

stu said last week he thought maybe dottie pepper blew her chance to be solheim cup captain because of what she said on the air. you know, chokin freakin dogs. just wanted to pass along what i read in golf world. they are saying that pepper was always supposed to be  alock to be captain, no surprise there. now they are saying that dottie is a longshot to ever be captain because she made so many people mad. they didnt quote anyone but i think golf world has a pretty good track record on stuff liike this so it's probably true. i think dottie sank her chances ... too bad because she was just being honest something we dont see enough of in golf tv booths

here's something i didnt notice last week when it happened but that's pretty interesting, i think. in the middle of his round at the bmw championship, robert allenby's caddie just up and quit. sounds pretty silly because to hear allenby tell it there wasnt even an argument or anthing --

Allenby said that on the 16th tee, Tritton pulled a 3-wood out of the bag. Allenby believed it was too much club, but there was no argument.

"He just ignored me, and started walking off the tee," Allenby said. "I said, 'What's wrong.' And then he started whinging at me. For two day's everything's been fine. I really don't know. He said, 'You don't want me to caddie any more. You want me to leave, don't you?' I said, 'No, I don't.' And then he just left."

that's from the espn.com story at http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/columns/story?columnist=harig_bob&id=3009590.

here's something that got my attention --

"I don't know, his girlfriend came into town last night, and maybe he was feeling "toey," said Allenby, using Australian slang for "frisky."

ha! toey! "hey, baby, i'm feeling toey, how about you?"

mulligan stu likes to make fun of ugly trophies, so i thought i'd throw this one out for consideration --

that's what suzann petterseon got for winning the LET tournament today. i dont even know what that's supposed to be. kinda looks like a block of ice. or a bucket.

or maybe a cooler. one of those little ones you might put at your feet in the golf cart. "here suzann, we present you with a cooler. and um we put some beer in it. congratulations."

e gads! a boa constrictor has escaped next to a golf cours ein memphis, tenn. it's five foot long, but it's owner says it won't eat anything bigger than a rat. yeah, sure, famous last words.

the snakes name is fluffy. it probably crawled off out of embarrassment!

http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6836802

in poker there's a player known for the "blowup." mike matusow. the matusow blowup. he's going along great, then out of nowhere does something stupid and before you know he's out of the tournament.

i think john daly is a lot like mike matusow. so i'll coin "the daly blowup" for golf.

i turned into the british open on tv this morning just as daly had taken the lead at 5-under. he had 7 pars and 2 birdies on the front nine, added a third birdie at 10 then eagled no. 11. big john was rolling!

then he got a double-bogey 6 on 12, a triple-bogey 8 on 14, and 3 more bogeys after that. an 8-shot daly blowup. from 5-under to 3-over.

the daly blowup.

dont you just hate a weather delay at a golf tournament? imagine how the player smust be feeling. especially in a major.

whats weird about the weather delays on thurseday at the women's open is that every time they showed a live picture, it was sunny! that must have been really frustrating for the players and officials.

supposedly pretty nasty there today. this is going to wreak havoc on the scheudles. poor usga and women's golf, this was going to be an awesome open with all the various candidates to win, now it's just looking like a big mess and maybe even a monday finish

anyone else notice that angel cabrera's caddie is the guy from the big break, eddie gardino? the italian guy who was in love with nikki last season.

i guess if cabrera makes a really bad club selection he can blame nikki. she got blamed for everything on the series after all. "i dont know why my caddie gave me that club. he must have been thinking about nikki."

wow dottie pepper just went off on michelle wie and her parents! she wrote an article for golf.com, or maybe it was for spots illustrates but it's appearing on golf.com, at http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1631997,00.html

it starts this way --

"In less than six years Michelle Wie, the innocent, happy, super talented phenom from Hawaii, has become what so many feared she would: overexposed, miserable and manipulated."

and it goes downhill (for michelle, anyway!) from there.

after reading it i was thinking -- if dottie talked this way on the air, their ratings might go up!

so i guess i shouuld say congrats to tommy two gloves for winning big break 7. he beat ashley gomes in the finals 3 and 2.

but i dont want to say congrats! ashley is hot! and i want the hot girl to win ... i dont care if that's shallow :) besides, i've been picking ashley to win all year. bah!

but seriously congrats to tommy two gloves. what a weird swing. i hope he gets that swing out on tour. if you thought jim furyk's swing gets funny looks ....

wow, what a way to go. the headline on the story is "golfer dies after cart plunges over cliff."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070522/ap_on_re_us/golf_cart_plunge

his cart veered off the path, went down an emanbankment and then over the cliff. 75 feet down below. the man was dead on impact. a 65-year-old retiree.

as they used to say on hill street blues, let's be careful out there!

saw the note about tommy two gloves and all i can say is hooray! way to go tommy!

but don't foget about bri vega - she's playing in the big leagues this week on the lpga tour. at the sybase classic. remember she played early on in the season in hawaii and didnt do so hot. think she didnt break 80 in either round.

but she shot a 74 today. 2 over. that's respectable, eh? it should have beetter though, i checked her scorecard and she finished bogey-double bogey.

so straighten out that finish and maybe she has a shot at making the cut.

ive been saying all along that my girl ashley is going to win the big break vii, but after last night i'm not so sure. because the golf channel showed a commercial for this week's nationwide tournament and tommy two gloves is playing! is this the tournament he got into for winning bb7? did the golf channel just give away the ending??

last year they did the same thing, they showed bri in a commercial and sure enough she won the championship the next week.

maybe theyre just messing with us this year since they did that last year with bri. i hope so! love tommy, but ashley is my girl!

they should call him hoary sabbatini after today! he shot 79 in the second round, that included a 7 on the 17th after he put two balls in the water.

he picked a bad time to blow up, just a day after mouthing off in the press room, talking trash about tiger. i dont mind a guy talking a little smack, but cmon, talk smack about tiger? why would you do that? you know you're just gonna get smacked down yourself! you cant stop tiger, you can only hope to contain him!

tpc sawgrass is doing a pretty good job of containing tiger so far, eh? he barely made the cut.

but tiger talked back at little at rory, and after rory's 79 i bet tiger's words sting a lot more than rory's did. tiger said,

"He said he likes the new Tiger," Woods said. "I figure, I won nine out of the last 12, and I've won three times this year, the same amount of times he's won in his career. So, I like the new Tiger as well."

"i've won three times this year, the same amount of times he's won in his career." awwwwwww yeahhhhh, step off rory sabbatini! you got served!

sad to see double d don donatello get the boot on the big break last night... dude is annoying as heck, i wouldnt want him in my foursome ... but he makes the show much more interesting.

i'm sure don's going to take a lot of abuse over some of the decisions he made in last night's show ... probably most for holding onto that $5000 check and going into the elimination challenge when he coudl have given up the check and stayed safe.

but you know, don's said many things both times he's been on this show about how bad his financial situation is. maybe he held onto the money because he so badly needs the money? maybe he couldnt say that because it was too embarrassing for him to say.

a shame that he lost the money anyway when he lost the challenge.

go ashley!

man, what a big break tonight. poor tommy two gloves seemed to be literally heartsick over losing his beloved bri ... he even said, suggestively, to bri at oine point, "i'll see YOU after the show ..."

dude, bri's got a boyfriend! leave her alone! you ain't getting wit' her!

then he fell ill, or at least made himself sick (i know he made ME sick) with all his "woe is me" talk ... but he still pulled through the elimination challenge. tommy is the best player there, by a long shot, but i bet he doesnt win it.

my money's still on ashley

so long bri, i'm gonna miss you almost as much as your wannabe boyfriend tommy misses you. you brought a lot of pizzazz and drama to the big break shows, not to mention a great set of ... um ... legs.

you know what ... i wrote this a while back here about how the big break 7 is a disgrace because it has all these obviously untalented golfer on it (not bri or tommy, but some others - the nikki's and mark farnhams and such). i said it's a disgrace that the lpga and nationawide tour and champions tour are giving aways spots in the field to these golfers.

i believe that... of course it hasn't stopped me from watching! but i believe it even more after last night's show.

let's see, it started with pam admitting she's just there to have fun. and it ended with big mike - who must weigh 350 pounds, at least - struggling to walk just two holes in a row!

and tehse are people who are going to get exemptions into top-level pro tours? this is like the lpga showing up at the podunk city golf show and saying, "ok, whoever wins the putting contest gets to play in an lpga tour event!" or the nationwide tour showing up at the charity scramble and saying, "ok, closest to the pin on no. 7 gets into a nationwide tour event!"

i dont know what the prizses should be in order to attract golfers. but they shouldnt be spots in tour events unless the golf channel can promise it's only featuring qualified golfers.

i think philly mick is done for. by that i mean, i dont think he'll ever win another major.

not because of the u.s. open collapse last year. i'm thinking of two more recent collapses. at the bob hope desert classic, when he let the lead slip away late and then lost the playoff to c. "thomas" howell 3rd.

and then the final round of the masters when he triple bogied the very first hole and doomed himself.

his whole demeaner at the hope and during the round yesterday was different. he was slumped over. he seemed really defeated in attitude. he hasnt really played well since the hope collapse. he won the week before, but the hope was the first he'd been challenged down the stretch since the open and he choked it away.

phil will probably win a few more times but i bet he nevers wins another major.

Poll

Will Phil Mickelson ever win another major?

54%

Yes

6 votes

45%

No

5 votes

11 votes | Poll has closed

just saw him spit again, this time in the 15th fairway. dude spits all the time. earlier on no. 13 saw him blowing snot rockets. first one nostril, then the other. he realizes he's on tv, right? his father taught him better than that. cmon tiger, show some manners. who do you think you are, sergio? as sam wyche one said, you dont live in cleveland, you live in cincinnati!

what's with all the spitting going on on golf corses? sergio's spit into the cup is pretty famous. he got blasted, deserveedly so.

i just watched tiger spit on no. 12 at augusta, on the green, as he walked away from the cup. what's with that? tiger spits on the course all the time. maybe he's prone to getting dirt in his mouth. maybe he just likes hawkin loogies. i dont know. but cmon, at least wait till you 're off the green!

as i watch morgan pressel jump into the pond beside no. 18 after winning the kraft nabisco, i kep thinking of one thing: how clean is that water?

is that effluent water they're jumpin into? even if its not, you still have to think there's tons of golf course chemicals floating around in that water. i hope morgan took a good shower immediately after!

i read somewhere that amy alcott was the first golfer to jump in that pond. has anyone seeen her lately? does she have a third eyeball?

So the Golf channel decided to put together a reunion show of former cast member from the Big Break series. Fine. You can cull some pretty good golfers from amongh the past contestants -- if good golfers is what you're looking for.

But the golf channel clearly wasn't looking for great golf, they were looking for great drama. So instead of picking hte best golfers from the past they picked the biggest jerks, biggest whiners, biggest weirdos - and even some of the worst golfers!

It's a disgrace! A female contestant in the second show neede 14 tries to pull off one shot. A male golfer in last night's show needed 16 tries to pull off a different shot! These people have no business competing for the prizes that are at stake.

But hey, the Golf Channel just wants ratings. Can't really blame them. And the golfers, they just want to be on TV. Can't really blame them either.

No, what's really the disgrace about Big Break 7 is that the pro golf tours - LPGA, Champions, Nationwide - agreed to give exemptions to these jokers! Why are they giving away spots in their fields as part of some reality TV show? What's next, will you be able to get into an LPGA tournament through a sweepsakes? A raffle? Buy a ticket, win a spot in the LPGA field?

They are demeaning their tours by being associated with this nonsense. And i hope they are watching the terrible golf on display in Big Break 7 and feeling embarrassed that they lowered their tours to this level.

Size isn't everything you know!

Tiger Woods knows that. Maybe that's why he's tearing down the mansion and two guest houses on the 12-acre beachfront property he bought not too long ago for ... I want to say $70 million? Might have bene a little more than that actually.

Anyway, it was a LOT! So he plans to bulldoze about 23,000 square feet of living space and then rebuild something smaller.

The newspaper in Palm Beach said much smaller. He had designs for a 13,000 square feet replacement, but rejected that as too big.

I guess what he was really paying for with that $70 million was the land.

(Editor's Note: Bumped up to the homepage because this diary by 1ironcharlie seems to be getting a lot of attention around the Web. Bumping it up is not necessarily an endorsement of the contents by Waggle Room. But let me state this: golfers, take care of your skin. This goes for women and men (have you ever taken a good look at Tom Kite?). Slather on a moisturizing sun screen before the round, and more moisturizer after you wash off the sunscreen. Sun and wind are harsh on golfers.)

Stage 1 - Young golf hottie who sells herself on her looks and wears too much makeup:

(Natalie Gulbis)

Stage 2 - Middle-aged former pinup girl trying desperately to hang on to her looks and still wearing too much makeup:

(Jan Stephenson)

Stage 3 - Old, one-time glamour girl who once was able to sell herself on her looks and still wears too much makeup:

(Marlene Hagge)

How many times will Justin Rose come close on the PGA Tour before he finally wins something?

I write this after watching him grab a share of the 2nd round lead at the Chrysler Classic. It seems like we've seen this story before, and sometimes I think Justin is the biggest tease in golf right now.

All that talent, all that potential displayed so young, but so far nothing to show for it on the biggest stage.

I keep thinking he's going to have a breakout year where he wins several times, and that he'll be a major champion someday. I still think that. But when's it going to happen?

I wonder if when he's 38, instead of 25, I'll still be thinking about him, "Well, any time now he's going to turn into a star!"