Posted by John Anderson
BRISTOL, Conn. -- Is this a real ESPN Golf Blog? Because I don't want to be 500 words in and find out I'm writing for one of those knock-off, Chinese counterfeit ESPm golf blogs.
OK? Good.
Then as my first official contribution to the ESPN Golf Blog, I'd like to apologize.
You know, for the dateline. And the plagiarism.
Winter in Connecticut can make a guy a little cranky.
We have snow here like Hawaii has sand. We have temperatures only the complimentary champagne at the Mercedes Championships could love. Tradewinds? I'd trade our winds for anything in Ian Poulter's closet.
Hence the beauty of the Mercedes -- it offers hope to those of us on ice. Soon it will be golf season everywhere. Sure there's still some winter shoulder season and spring shoulder season price gouging to fight through at those sunny golf resorts but generally the cart fee is included and often a "free" sleeve of balls too. And with every Vijay Singh swing in Hawaii, we are closer to the sighting of that first robin or Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson here on the mainland.
Golf starved? I Tivo'd the Target World Challenge pre- and post-game reports. Tried to start a Calcutta at work on The Royal Trophy event in Bangkok. Scored the tape-delayed Tommy Bahama Challenge at home. Volunteered to work on Steve Williams' pit crew at the New Zealand Super Saloon Championship.
It's not that the courses in the Nutmeg State are necessarily unplayable this time of year; it's just that one would have to outfit oneself like a deckhand on a New England fishing trawler before heading to the first tee. Naturally, I tried this and now the new 2006 U.S. Open Winged Foot wool sweater I received for Christmas is all stretched out of shape and useless. Fashion pointer: wear sweater on the inside, not over insulated rain poncho. Go Groton's fish man over GQ.
So it is that the television and the PGA Tour is our lifeline to our favorite pastime. May Stuart Appleby achieve the threepeat USC could not. And let us rejoice and take comfort in the fact that while the thermometer outside our kitchen window can't break 80, neither can Jason Gore.
