A few links-related thoughts and observations while golf season seems far, far away for my Goodboys friends:

So now Tiger’s messing with his grip to fix his poor play in 2014?

“A quick little fix to my grip and that was all good, and the driving was something that I didn’t really do very well last week. This weekend, nice to be able to start piping it out there again and getting it out there with the big boys, when I didn’t have my grip right,” he said. “I throttled back a little bit, try to get the ball in play, and just don’t hit it as far.”

Is that right? A player of Tiger’s caliber messing with his grip? I thought you never messed with your grip. Could be that Tiger’s just doing the usual off-handed blather with the media because they know – and he knows – they’ll just lap it up as gospel, but that still doesn’t right to me.

Today I’ll be playing my first round after ditching once and for all the orange Wilson 50s I’ve been playing for years. It’s been a long tradition for The Great White Shank to play with orange golf balls, but it’s time to call it a day, grow up, and play like a real man. 🙂 Last Goodboys weekend I played Callaway Hex Diablos and really liked the feel and added distance I got off them, and I used a couple of Christmas gift cards to buy a couple dozen of Callaway’s new Hex Hot Pros. I still had a whole bunch of orange balls left, however, and it has only been through attrition that I’m now down to five – count ’em, five – of the Wilsons. Those I plan on keeping around for practice.

I used to really enjoy watching Bubba Watson play golf but his play and act have started to get really old. No one can deny he can really bomb the ball, but it seems to me he spends as much time pointing right after a double-crossed tee shot as he does playing sloppy golf around the greens. That big open stance and swinging out of his shoes actually hurts my eyes, because that’s what I used to do, and I’ve worked really hard to eliminate those bad habits from my own game. And I don’t get him having his caddy read his putts for him – I mean, that’s stupid. Of course, when he misses six- and eight-footers then glares at his caddy as if it was his fault – well, he ought to look down and see who’s actually the one holding the putter. There’s no doubt he’s one talented golfer, but I just don’t enjoy watching him anymore.

This weekend it’s the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-am. Beautiful location to watch golf being played but the tournament itself is a snoozer. SBNation’s golf blog is right to question exactly who the celebrities are that are supposed to attract attention: do I really care to watch Kenny G or Huey Lewis or Chris Berman play golf? Not really. And the fact that Bill Murray isn’t there this year doesn’t bother me a bit – he, like his act – like us all, for that matter, is getting kinda old. Still, it is Pebble Beach and there’s bound to be some good golf played.

So I decided after my last round at Lone Tree Golf Club that it was time to incorporate that new downswing and follow-through I’ve been using with my hybrids and woods into my iron play. I had been hesitant to make the switch, but my abysmal par 3 play over the past several months finally convinced me it was time to make the same swing with every club in the bag and let the club’s length and loft do the rest. I’ve spent the last two weeks working hard on my irons and I’m feeling pretty confident about the change and the results I’m seeing. Now it’s time to, as they say, take it to the course. Will it make a difference? We’ll soon see.