Haggin Oaks

This last weekend was a runner-up tournament to the Women's Club Championship and it was a good test of the status of my game. My driving and iron shots were great, but my short game including bunker play showed me that I needed to do some work on them. I practiced my putting before I got out there because I knew that the greens would be a lot faster than what I am normally use to, but because of the fires in Sacramento, Haggin Oaks has been saturating the course and greens in order to keep them alive. For whatever reason, I could not get this through my thick skull and I would always leave my long puts short and forced myself to have eight footer for par. Not the ideal situation you want to have, but as long as I made them, then I was happy. At the end of the day I was overall happy with the result so I stuck around to see what the other players in my flight shot. I am happy to say that I was driving home with a big smile on my face and a wonderful trophy in the passengers seat. I was lucky enough to shoot an 89 and win in a scorecard playoff! Ever since Thunder Valley Casino became the title sponsor of the tour we got really cool new trophies and I just had to have one. I worked hard to sharpen up my game and it paid off and I am so happy to finally win again and accomplish another goal. Up next...The Women's Club Championship!!


Here are some other pictures form the tournament...enjoy!





The scoreboard with Phillip the Tour Director










Here is another one of Phillip










Here is a picture of my shoe Heaven! (They are all Adidas shoes of course!)
Haggin Oaks is not just a golf course, but a golf complex! You can take lessons there and shop until you drop! They have two stores full of golf related accessories and apparel. I definitely had fun in the Adidas section. (Sorry no picture)





These are the fabulous shoes that I bought! I couldn't resist.










This is a picture of one of the tables in the restaurant/bar area. The tables are covered in old golf magazine articles and pictures.




































These last pictures are from a golf tournament that Haggin Oaks holds, I assume every year, called the Golf and Guitars Tournament. They get a few country singers to come out and play golf for charity. I wish I could play in that tournament.

The Golf Swing

I have only been playing golf for 2 and a half years and I feel like I have gone through so many swing changes, as well as three sets of clubs, and finally I feel like I am getting to the point where my swing is comfortable and easy to remember. As in my previous post I have been working on keeping my hips quiet, which has resulted in more solid shot and more distance. Now that I have that down I have to implement two more things. One, start my down swing with my left side and not my arms. Two, I have to work on keeping my head being the ball longer. I found this great video of Ben Hogan demonstrating the mechanics of his swing. Check it out!

Summer Golf Season

The summer golf season is in full swing, which is pretty much what I live for. Summer is a great time to meet up with friends on the golf course as well as work on your game. I haven’t been competing as much as I would like on the Golf Channel Amateur Tour, because I have been on vacation and I have been preparing for The Women’s Club Championship. I was worried that my swing and all around golf game would deteriorate while I was on a month long hiatus and I thought I would have to hunker down for a month when I got back and work my butt off to get back to where I was. But, luckily that was not the case. While was on vacation I watched as many swing videos as I could from Justin Rose, Paula Creamer, and even Michelle Wie (before her injury) to keep my mind fresh when it came to the golf swing. The day after I came back from vacation I went out to the range and I was utterly amazed that watching all of those video helped remind me of what the golf swing should look like. Before my vacation my biggest issue was that my hips were too noisy, and no matter how much I practiced I had a hard time doing it, and my scores began to go up and I was not a happy camper. Magically when I got back I remembered that my hips had to stay still and I attempted to do that at practice and now everything my swing coach Kris had said in the past clicked and my swing is even better than it was before and finally my scores are going down and I am feeling comfortable over the ball again.

For whatever reason the Club Championship means a lot to me and I really want to play in it and play well. The lady who won last year is my Big Sis this year for our Women’s 18-hole club and I know she is more experienced than I am and has a 10-handicap. Statistically I don’t think I can beat her, but I know that if I am confident with my game and my short game is excellent than I will have a good change of giving her a run for her money. I will continue to keep you updated and my progress and how the Championship goes.

A New Champion

This years 2008 U.S. Women’s Open provided us with plenty of excitement. Paula Creamer and Stacy Lewis gave us great hope of an American winning the open two years in a row, but Inbee Park gave everyone a run for their money by finishing the tournament nine under to be the youngest U.S. Women’s Open Champion. It is always exciting to watch a first time winner play their best to win on a tough course in tough weather conditions.

Stacy Lewis was one who also made her mark by finishing in third place in her first event as a professional. She graduated from the University of Arkansas and overcame back surgery after she graduated high school. We will be seeing her a few more times this year through sponsor’s exemptions, and Hopefully she will be playing full time next year with an LPGA tour card.

The most memorable moment for me was Annika’s hole out from 199 yards for eagle on her final hole. It was another great U.S. Open and I can’t wait to see what happens next year.

2008 U.S. Women’s Open

The Women’s Open is underway and there has been some great golf already played as well as some not so good golf. I am so happy that they have added a live streaming broadcast, which I secretly watched/listened to at work yesterday. It was fun watching Paula, Annika, and Susan play together. It almost felt like I was there, except for the lag between picture and audio, but oh well.

Now onto the exciting stuff....the fashion.
I am sad to say that I did not see many outfits which I made me say to myself, “I have to have that!” But, nonetheless there were some fashion statements made. Let’s start with my favorite Maria Jose Uribe.


I really liked the dress she wore by adidas. Natalie wore the same dress on one of the practice days, it is really cute. When I saw this dress at the trade show which I spoke about a few entries back I did not like it, but once you see someone wear it you can actually see what it looks like and it definitely made me say, “hmm, I wonder if that would look good on me?”




My second would be the shirt Lorena Ochoa wore. When I was in Germany we stopped at a Lacoste store (which I always have to do when we are in Europe because Lacoste has this crazy notion that the US market is different than the European market. So I usually find some really cute clothes that I cannot find in the US, which causes a shopping craze in the Lacoste store, but that is another story.), and I bought the shirt that she wore yesterday, as well as some other things, and I was happy that she paired it with white shorts. This is a great example of having a “crazy” top and pairing it with a solid.




I also liked what Michelle wore. When I looked at the Nike collection at the trade show I probably found three things at most that were something I would want to buy, so I occasionally get surprised at what she wears. I really liked what she wore on her first round, plaid type shorts with a solid top and hat.



Here is one outfit, worn by Sakura Yokomine, that is a concept that totally works, but you have to pair the right shoes and socks with the outfit. I think if she wore shorter socks and black shoes then it would have been totally cute.







Last but not least, Miss Paula Creamer put a cute outfit together for the first round. I think Paula got together with the Designers at Adidas and she made this outfit. The cream color shirt is not featured in the collection, but the solid brown color is, and for this tournament I think she asked them to spice it up a bit and add stripes. It is a super cute outfit without being flashy.

Fernando Figueroa

I came across this article from ESPNabout a golfer name Fernando Figueroa, who is from El Salvador. My mom’s side of the family is from El Salvador, so this article was especially exciting for me. He made his debut at the US Open at Torrey Pines, and sadly did not make the cut. I thought it was an interesting article and I thought I would share it will all of you.

Men’s Golf Fashion at Torrey Pines

It is finally summer golf season, which I personally love because I can wear cute skirts and dresses, but this season it is not all about women’s fashion. Back in February I was happily invited to join the buyer at our club to a buyers convention, and I got to see all of the new collections for Bobby Jones, Adidas, Nike, Spot Haley and many more. It was so awesome to look through the catalogs for the whole year (spring, summer, fall, and winter) and we got to see all of the samples including the new shoes, hats, and golf bags. I was definitely in my element and I helped our buy choose outfits for the men’s section in our proshop, as well as the women’s, and I am happy to say Tiger’s Collection for Nike is awesome. They have some great colors for their pants, shorts and shirts. I especially loved their various plaid shorts, and Nike made some great shirts to match. The 2008 U.S. Open has prompted the men to be out in full force with their fashion. Here are some of my favorites.



These three look great. The checked shirt was exciting the first few times Adam Scott wore it and it is now getting a bit old, but he still looks great.

Tiger of course looks great with "bright" colors because of his complexion and this blue is not exception.

All black is always a great outfit for men and women. It gives you a slimmer look as well as an intimidating non-nonsense style.




Here is another great color, which a lot of men are wearing.








Tiger also wore a brilliant shade of green on day 2.










Ian Poulter wore a great pink number, and after the Masters I call him the Rockstar and he usually does not disapoint with his outfits. I give him mad props for having the guts to wear what he does.





Justin Rose is one of my favorite players to watch even though his success is not what it should be, but he has a great clothing sponsor, Adidas, and he always puts great outfits together.









Shingo Katayama is another player who is fun to watch, especially since he always wears a cowboy hat! He has a lot of game and it is a matter of time when he will be considered as one of the best.







Men should not overlook how the dress, act and look overall on the golf course because more and more women are playing the game and we are looking for hot guys out on the golf course. :)