Annika Wines

Because we met Annika and her husband Mike at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Magazine event two weekends we were lucky to get an invitation to the inaugural release of Annika at Wente Vineyards.

Back in October of 2008 Annika partnered with family-owned Wente Vinyards to embark on a new chapter in her life and follow in Greg Normans footsteps. This evening 2006 Annika Syrah will be released at her event in Livermore, CA. My family and I are lucky enough to attend a blending event tonight with dinner along with a golf clinic taught by Annika with a Tournament hosted by Annika to follow on Saturday. I am very excited for the event and as you know I will be twittering the entire time and taking as many pictures as possible. Hopefully the weather holds up. The predictions are rain Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yuck!

Improve rhythm with a simple stroke

The Golf Channel Amateur Tour sends out weekly golf tips and I really liked this one and I don't think many people focus on the rhythm of their putting stroke so I thought I would share. I also just updated my site with pictures from my trip to The Masters.Enjoy!

Improve rhythm with a simple stroke

Timing and rhythm are important in all phases of one's golf game but especially in
putting, where rushing your stroke and thus pushing or pulling the ball off line is
just as costly as whiffing a tee shot. To retain good timing and rhythm on your
putts, avoid concentrating on the mechanics of the stroke during the actual play.
Such thoughts as taking it back with your right hand, or keeping the blade on line,
complicated your stroke and destroy timing and rhythm. Instead merely swing the
putter back and forward smoothly, rhythmically - and simply.

Sunday at The Masters

The day started off well. The running of the bulls to get good seats on the 18th green wasn’t too bad and in the end we ended up with great seats 4 or 5 rows from the green. We had about two hours to kill once we put our chairs down, so we walked around and my parents decided to go and sit at hole 4 while I decided to go to the driving range so I could watch a few players including Rory warm up. But, when I got there it was completely packed with people so I decided to go to the short game practice area and watch there and I was blown away at the shots everyone was hitting. They are so accurate on every shot from the bunker and around the greens. I was the most impressed with the fact that most players would choose one wedge and use it on every shot from the bunker to chip and pitch shots around the greens. The trajectories varied on each shot which was the most amazing. They rarely missed shots far from the hole. Rory had an awesome short game practice and it really came in handy during his round.

I spent the day following Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald and once they came in I sat in my chair on the 18th green and watched the rest of the action. When the rest of the groups were on the back nine all you could here where roars every few minutes. Everyone would look to the big leader board and wait in anticipation for who made birdies. It was so exciting when Tiger and Phil were both making a run at the lead with birdies. There was a point when Tiger made it to 10 under that I thought he would birdie the last three holes to be at 13 under, which is where Perry was. The whole tournament was sooooo amazing. As much as last year was mesmerizing this year was so much more exciting just because there were about a handful of players in contention and you really didn’t know up until the end who would win. When it was all over it felt like a big dream and I didn’t want it to end. The trophy presentation with the sunset in the background was icing on the cake. It was such a surreal moment that I can’t wait/hope to experience next year.

Par 3 - Challenge

Wednesday was the Par 3 Challenge, which is always really fun to watch. We got to the course early and stood for two hours just so we could get really good seats on the 9th green. After we put our chairs down we walked around the course and I took close to 1,000 pictures for the entire day. I love taking pictures and at Augusta National it isn’t hard to go crazy taking pictures. At around 1:30 p.m. we headed to the Par 3 course and stayed until the second to last group came through. As we headed up Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood were teeing off on hole 8. Rory was signing autographs, so I decided to stick my hat out and he happily signed it for me. As he moved along I saw him take a picture with a kid and I called him back to take a picture with me. He was nice enough to come all the way back to where I was and take a picture with me and he actually smiled in the picture! He wasn’t ticked that I called him back for the picture which has made me a Rory fan for life! Maybe I will follow him tomorrow. Hmmm...

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The Masters - Tuesday Practice Round

I don't get internet at the house I am staying at so my messages will be brief. Today was our first Practice round day and the weather was pretty bad. The wind was blowing very hard and it almost made the day miserable, but I saw a bunch of players today and I was so happy to be able to take pictures of them. I will upload the pictures as soon as I can. Tomorrow is the par-3 challenge, so hopefully we will get to the course early enough to be able to get some great seats. So far, the weather is the only thing that is putting a damper on this trip, but tomorrow is suppose to be beautiful so we will see what happens.

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Tournament #1

The first Golf Channel Tour tournament of the season did not go as planned. My bad golf game decided to show up that day, and all I could do was just deal with it and enjoy the group I was playing with. Even though the day was a bust I met some really nice/cool people and I can’t wait to play again and redeem myself to my flight.

Golf Channel Amateur Tour

I am very happy to say that my season on the Golf Channel Amateur Tour begins next weekend. I have said many times that I love playing on the GCAT and I pretty much practice as hard as I do just to see the look on men’s faces when I beat them. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it feels awesome. This year the Golf Channel decided to open up a tour in San Jose, which I am really excited about because it means I don’t have to drive over two hours to play in Sacramento. But, at the same time I will miss the friends I have made in Sacramento, so I have decided to play in a few tournament up there just so I can still play and talk with the friends I have made. I have a few goals for the tour this year and I really think I can achieve them and I will have a lot of fun trying to do so.

My first goal of course is to get my first win of the season. I would love that first win to come at season opener, but it is easier said than done. My second goal is to win three times during the season. I will be bouncing between the Sacramento Tour and the tour in San Jose, so I have more chances to get those three wins, but I would prefer to get all three wins on one tour since that would automatically qualify me for the National Championship, which will be in Southern California in La Quinta this year. I will keep my fingers crossed for the three wins, but I won two times last year, and I have already seen a huge improvement in my game since the National Championship which was in October. I can’t wait to see what happens. My third and final goal is to meet and make as many friends as I can on the San Jose Tour. I am hoping to improve my networking skills and use the tour as a great opportunity to do so. It will be interesting to see what type of people I get to meet.

This weekend will be pretty much free of rain, so I am going to take every opportunity I can to practice as much as possible in order to sharpen my game for the tournament next weekend. Wish me luck!