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Tenuous golf connection: "Seinfeld" voted funniest sitcom ever

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

In a new poll conducted by "60 Minutes" and Vanity Fair, "Seinfeld" was voted the funniest sitcom of all time. In our much, much more unofficial survey, we think it's also the most golf-friendly TV show in history.

Related: The greatest golf movie scenes

Throughout the series, which spawned 180 episodes over nine years, golf was a recurring topic, usually involving the character of Kramer, played by Michael Richards. The actor isn't known to be a golfer in real life, but co-creator of the show, Larry David, is an avid one -- something that has been seen many times on his later series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Without further ado, here are some of our favorite "Seinfeld" scenes involving golf:

-- In the episode titled "The Caddy," Kramer is advised on everything, from reading greens to clothing, by "Stan the caddy."

-- In "The Marine Biologist," Kramer throws his clubs in disgust after a sub-par range session at the beach. "I stink! ... "The ball is just sitting there and I can't hit it!"

Of course, later in that episode George saves a beached whale that had one of Kramer's golf balls stuck in its blowhole.

-- In "The Cheever Letters," Kramer complains about losing playing privileges at a private club. "I can't go back to the public courses now. I can't! I won't!"

-- In "The Boyfriend," Kramer ties up Jerry's phone line to go through a golf round in painful detail.

-- And finally, in "The Big Salad," there's the scene in which an angered Kramer talks about penalizing someone he was playing with for cleaning their ball before hitting a shot.

"Hey, a rule is a rule," he says. "And let's face it, without rules, there's chaos."

Hey, Mike Davis, is the USGA hiring?

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Tenuous golf connection: Parnevik's gang goes 'Gangnam Style'

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

By Alex Myers

It was just a matter of time. South Korean rapper Psy is quickly taking over the planet with his song "Gangnam Style." Now, this seemingly unavoidable tune has even permeated the world of golf.

Jesper Parnevik, rocking a pretty sweet pink suit with pink sunglasses, appears to be the ring leader in a parody video of the musical phenomenon released on YouTube today. Also making appearances (and donning odd wigs) are fellow golfers Dustin Johnson, Fredrik Jacobson and Richard S. Johnson. Parnevik's wife and kids round out the main cast in the video, which was made as a birthday present to a friend, according to its description online. Take a gander:

Those participating in the video lip-sync the words and do the accompanying "signature" dance, which basically looks like someone riding a horse while holding onto the reins cross-handed. As for the words themselves? Let's just say it's pretty safe to assume there has never been as widespread of a song where so few people knew what they were actually saying.

Still, it's fun and we appreciate the effort. Although for the time being, we'll still say that "The Golf Boys" reign supreme as the sport's premiere musical group since their debut featured an original song. But as for dancing and style, Parnevik's gang -- "The Golf Men"? -- might have them beat. Is it possible that the PGA Tour is closing in on its first-ever battle of the (boy) bands? You can just picture Tim Finchem cringing at the thought.

For point of reference -- and to help you recognize what undoubtedly will be a popular Halloween getup -- here's Psy's original video. And no, that's not a misprint. As of the time of this post, it has more than 530 million views. Now that's something that doesn't need any translation.

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Tenuous golf connection: When Gretzky was benched like Woods

Saturday, September 29, 2012

By Sam Weinman

It's an unthinkable notion: the greatest player of his generation, quite possibly of all time, sat out in a crucial session of international competition.

Tiger Woods in Saturday foursomes of the Ryder Cup? Well, yeah, that, too. But we were actually referring to Wayne Gretzky in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

So maybe a hockey game from nearly 15 years ago doesn't immediately spring to mind when looking at the bold decision by Davis Love III to bench Woods after his 0-2 start at Medinah CC. But it's worth noting the U.S. captain isn't first guy to bypass a living legend.

Like Woods on Saturday morning, Gretzky in 1998 had to watch players with inferior careers carry on in his place.

Some back story: the 1998 Winter Games marked the first time the NHL allowed its stars to participate in the Olympics, which meant that Gretzky, by then the most decorated star in the game's history, could represent his native Canada. Like Woods now, Gretzky's career record dwarfed all of his contemporaries (by the time of his retirement, he owned 61 NHL records). But like Woods, he was at that point in his career struggling to maintain the same level of play, finishing the Olympics with just four assist in six games.

When a semifinal game against the underdog Czech Republic headed to a shootout, Canadian coach Marc Crawford faced a decision not unlike Love's. Like foursomes, shootouts are a quirky format, and not necessarily a gauge of the best players. And just as Love opted to go with less-decorated players like Jason Dufner and Brandt Snedeker for Saturday foursomes, Crawford tapped the likes of Joe Nieuwendyk, Eric Lindros, and Brendan Shanahan for the shootout -- leaving Gretzky to watch helplessly from the bench.

The result was that the Canada failed to score, the Czechs won the gold medial, and the dispirited Canadians couldn't even get past Finland in the bronze medal game. Gretzky retired a year later, but his Olympic benching remains a controversial topic today.

Whether Woods' absence from play on Saturday will have the same sort of ripple effects is unlikely, especially if the U.S. holds onto its lead at Medinah. But for what it's worth, Love is one of the few professional golfers who knows something about hockey.

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Tenuous golf connection: Jessica Biel turns heads at Medinah

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

By Alex Myers

Justin Timberlake's love of golf has been well documented. The actor/singer/dancer/envy of most guys is an avid player, and has supported the game in a variety of ways from attaching his name to a PGA Tour event, to buying and fixing up a boyhood course in Memphis.

Overall, the only two-time participant in Golf Digest's U.S. Open Challenge has helped increase golf's coolness index. But his contributions to the sport's "hotness," thanks to the company he keeps, aren't going unnoticed either.

Related: Our Hottest Golfer Contest

At Tuesday's Ryder Cup Captains & Celebrities Scramble at Medinah, not only did Timberlake play, but his lovely fiancee, actress Jessica Biel, was a loving follower in his gallery (above, right). The two got engaged in January and are expected to be married sometime next month. It doesn't appear that Beal is a golfer, but if you zoom in on the photo, you can see a rock on her finger that's approximately the size of a golf ball.

Here are two more pictures of Biel, so, um, you don't have to zoom in.

Of course, you don't have to look closely to notice the parasol Biel was holding while walking the fairways. Hey, you keep doing what you do, Jessica. And Justin, please play in as many celebrity tournaments as you like. . .

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(Photos by Getty Images)

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Tenuous golf connection: Gonzaga basketball, trick shots, and Kyle Stanley?

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

By Alex Myers

Kyle Stanley is known as one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour. Apparently, the guy has plenty of range on a basketball court as well.

Stanley makes a brief appearance in a new trick-shot video made by four players on Gonzaga's men's basketball team: Kyle Pangos, Kyle Dranginis, Drew Barham and Rem Bakamus. The foursome goes through an impressive display of shooting making shots from everywhere -- from sitting down in the stands to banking balls in from the rafters. They also set an unofficial record for having the most Kyles ever on a basketball court at the same time when the 24-year-old PGA Tour pro gets in the mix.

At the 3:30 mark, Stanley is introduced as a "special guest." A quick bio flashes across the screen listing his accomplishments and calling him "#1 Zag Supporter" and "Trick Shot Specialist." He then bounces in a shot from high above the court in the bleachers. Check it out:

Stanley, a winner on the PGA Tour this year in Phoenix, lists his residence as Gig Harbor, Washington, where he also grew up. Despite the five-hour drive from there to Spokane, the site of Gonzaga, and the fact that he attended Clemson University, Stanley is a rabid fan of the school's famed basketball program. Turns out, he's also a ringer at H-O-R-S-E. Fellow PGA Tour pros, you've been warned. . .

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Tenuous golf connection: Keith Hernandez and facial hair

Friday, September 21, 2012

By Sam Weinman

New Yorkers of a certain age consider Keith Hernandez something of a living deity, for a number of reasons:

1. He was the first baseman and heart and soul of the only Mets team in our lifetime to win a championship.

2. He made a memorable guest appearances (as himself) on Seinfeld.

3. He appeared, until recently, alongside another New York icon, Walt "Clyde" Frazier in the campy Just For Men hair-dyeing gel commercials.

That last part, of course, is because of Hernandez's trademark mustache, which -- according to the New York Times, who we suspect wouldn't make this up -- was voted the best ever in sports by the American Mustache Institute. Now Hernandez intends to shave off his mustache as part of a charity fundraiser for Alzheimer's disease.

None of this has anything to do with golf, except it's an excuse to recall some memorable facial hair in our game in recent -- and not-so recent -- years.

Start with the likes of Johnson Wagner and Geoff Ogilvy, both of whom look like they arrived at the golf course straight from the set of a Spaghetti Western.

Continue with Craig Stadler, aka "The Walrus."

You can even go back as far as golf's first real star, Old Tom Morris, who apparently was too busy playing, teaching, designing courses, and making clubs to break out a razor.

As for facial hair in Golf Digest, it's worth noting that we're just a few months removed from featuring the rare double combination of Rickie Fowler sporting both a mustache AND shorts on our August cover.

(Our September cover subject, Alvaro Quiros, also has facial hair, but in his case, it's more of a several-day old growth). Before that, you had Graeme McDowell appearing on our cover twice in a seven-month span (the latter, in March 2011, was alongside pal Rory McIlroy) with a beard. Then it gets murky. In July 2002, David Duval was on the cover, not with a beard or a mustache but a modest soul patch below his lip; and in September 1999, instructor John Elliott was on the cover with a mustache, but the mustache was slightly obscured by his shoulder.