December 2009: Golf Digest Woman: Golf Digest

Tiger Woods: The Female Perspective

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Comments

Tabloid journalism is a business that's almost entirely dependent on women. Whether we just steal the occasional glance at the magazine covers in the grocery-store checkout line or spend hours on the web scouring People.com, it's as if women are biologically wired to take greater interest in celebrity gossip than men are. We care about what names famous actors give their newborn babies, marvel over the wardrobe choices of hit-making stars at award shows. It's usually innocent fun, not something we expect to discuss with our husbands over dinner.

At least we didn't before November 27, when Tiger Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a tree and a Pandora's box of wild tabloid reports, rumors and finally, admissions of infidelity, was opened. (For the rest of the story, click here.)

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

Annika Comments On Tiger

Monday, December 14, 2009 Comments

Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods go way back. They shared a decade of being the dominant golfer of their respective gender, and partnered up and were pitted against each other in made-for-TV coed golf matches such as the Battle at Bighorn, Tavistock Cup and Merrill Lynch Skins Game several times. A friendly rivalry over who was racking up the most tour wins and majors led to the development of an off-course friendship, as did the fact that they're represented by the same agent, IMG's Mark Steinberg. Both players live in Orlando, and Woods's wife Elin grew up an hour away from where Sorenstam grew up outside Stockholm, Sweden, which has brought them closer in recent years. Even though her husband couldn't make it, a nine-months-pregnant Elin attended Sorenstam's wedding last January.

(Photo by Streeter Lecka, Getty Images)

With that in mind (especially the shared-agent part), and considering Sorenstam's tendency to shy away from controversy, it's interesting to read the statement she put up on her blog over the weekend concerning Tiger's admission of infidelity:

"Like most people, I have been following the stories about Tiger that have unfolded the last couple weeks. I have chosen not to address the issue publicly because he and Elin are both friends of mine. However, with the most recent developments and an increased number of requests from the media for a comment, this is all I have to say.

I am disappointed in Tiger's actions and I feel very sorry for Elin and the children. I wish them all the best as they try to work through this privately as a family."

In addition to her formal statement, Sorenstam also gave the AP the following quote:

"It's tragic. I think this whole thing is tragic. I am in touch with his wife Elin Nordegren now and then. Me and my husband Mike have been out dining with Elin and Tiger on a few occasions. Perhaps it won't happen as often now."

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

Wie Takes Studying To New Level

Thursday, December 10, 2009 Comments

Think you've had a busy week? Think again. Michelle Wie may just have proven once and for all that she is the most consummate multi-tasker on the LPGA Tour.

Wie, still nursing an injured left ankle, is vying for her share of a 500,000-Euro purse in Dubai. (Photo by David Cannon, Getty Images)

In Dubai for the Ladies European Tour's season-ending Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, Wie, a junior at Stanford University who's managed to reach number 12 in the Rolex World Rankings between classes, was pulling all-nighters earlier this week studying for her final statistics exam. After shooting a three-under-par 69 in Wednesday's first round (good for a T5), Wie logged onto her computer at midnight Dubai time (the set exam time considering the time difference between Dubai and Los Angeles), and completed the test over the Internet. Thursday morning, she went out and shot 68 in the second round of the tournament to climb into lone second place at -7, two strokes behind leader In Kyung Kim of Korea.

Her stat score? A close-to-perfect 113 out of 120.

Wie's Thursday-morning Twitter post reveals her excitement -- over school, not golf.

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

The Graduates

Monday, December 7, 2009 Comments

The LPGA Tour is no stranger to rain delays, but the Monday finish of the 90-hole 2009 LPGA Q-School at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla., must have seemed like cruel and unusual punishment to many of the participants. After going off last Wednesday and sitting out part of Friday and all of Saturday because of drenching rains, the 106-player field was cut to top 70 and ties after 72 holes Sunday night, with the remaining finalists battling it out Monday for 20 fully exempt spots on the 2010 LPGA Tour. And it was obvious that the drawn-out proceedings took their toll on many.

Take for instance Nikki Garrett, 2008 Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year and famous calendar girl. She had the collective heartbeats of the male American golf audience beating a little faster when she took charge of the tournament in the first two rounds and held the lead alone at -6 as play was called Friday. But a third-round 78 dropped her a dozen spots down the leaderboard, and a closing 79 Monday knocked off the chart completely, landing her at T43 with no U.S. status for 2010. (Sorry, fellas.)

Others apparently used the rain delay to regroup and shake off the first-round nerves. Recent LET "It" girl Marianne Skarpnord of Norway followed an opening 76 with a 66 and three more rounds under par to finish T-2, and Spain's Tania Elosegui (of Solheim Cup fame) also turned a first-round 76 into fully exempt status after following up with four solid rounds in the low 70s.

Medalist honors, not so surprisingly, went to former Duke standout and 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur champ Amanda Blumenhurst, who finished with a four-under-par 68 for a 90-hole total of 351, two strokes better than Skarpnord and Katie Kempter of the University of Denver.

Amanda Blumenhurst came away victorious from Q-School.

(Photo by Scott Halleran, Getty Images)

Other notables who will be playing full-time next year include former NCAA champions Maria Hernandez and Azahara Munoz, as well as Liz Janangelo, Nicole Hage, Juliet Granada and former European Solheim Cup players Iben Tinning and Gwladys Nocera. For a full list of the 20 fully exempt Q-School grads, click here.

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

Long Putting Made Easy

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 Comments

If you haven't yet discovered the Tips Plus section of GolfDigest.com, you can check it out here. In every issue of of Golf Digest, 10 instruction and equipment articles are tagged with the Tips Plus logo, which means senior instruction editor Peter Morrice and I have taped a bonus video tip for that story, available for viewing on line. It's our way to give readers "tips beyond the tips." And from now on, I will be posting some of my favorites here on the GDW blog.

For example, this long-putting advice from Steve Stricker is very useful to players like me, who record way too many three-putts from longer distances: