We continually hear from the golf governing bodies – the USGA and the R & A – that technological advances in club and ball design are outdating classic courses, essentially making golf to easy and may be “ruining” the game.  One could argue this may well be true for the infinitesimally small percentage of the professional golfers, and by the way, not for all of them.  But wait!  The Vardon Trophy is awarded each year to the PGA Tour Professional with the lowest scoring average.  Over the last 20 years the winner’s scoring average as ranged between 67.79 by Tiger Woods in 2000 and 69.92 by Steve Elkington in 1995.  Matt Kuchar won the trophy in 2010 with an average of 69.61 the second highest in the last 20 years and Luke Donald won in 2011 with 68.86, in the middle of the pack over the time frame.  By the way, only three times has anyone beat Byron Nelson’s scoring average of 68.33 in 1945 and it has only been done by one player, Tiger Woods.  Another interesting tidbit – in 1945 Byron Nelson played 35 tournaments – something no tour pro would even think about today. Looking at those statistics it is difficult to square the data with technological advances making the game to easy.  You can see all of the Vardon Trophy winners back to 1937 at http://golf.about.com/cs/historyofgolf/a/pgavardontrophy.htm.

Now let’s look at us – the average golfer.  According to the USGA, the average handicap of the American golfer is 16.1 for men and 29.2 for women. These numbers have remained largely the same over the last 15 years despite significant technology advances with equipment (emphasis mine but the USGA’s words).  According to The National Golf Foundation there were 26.1 million golfers in 2010 (2011 numbers are not yet available) with 14.8 million being core golfers, which are down from 30.0 million and 18.0 million in 2005.  Now I ask you, why in the face of declining number of golfers would the ruling bodies want to make an already difficult game – if you are a golfer and don’t believe that get a mirror – more difficult and less appealing.  For the most part I suspect that the advances in technology have made the game more enjoyable but do not appear to have had a material impact on scoreing.  Look at it this way, while it may have an impact on the infinitesimally small percentage of the golfing population noted above, the change in grooves on irons is not going to impact most of our shots out of the rough.  We couldn’t spin the ball out of the rough with the old grooves and will not be able with the new grooves.  For the vast majority of us it is a lot of ado about nothing.

Barney Adams, the founder of Adams Golf, has written an interesting article on the length of courses for us average golfers.  Here is a portion of the article and the core of Barney’s argument.

 In trying to figure out what the right thing should be, Adams first considered tour pros and how they rarely need more than a middle iron for an approach. “We watch them and think, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be fun to play the game like that?'” Adams says. “Well, we can.”

Adams came up with a system he calls Tour Length. He calculated that for a pro to hit the same clubs on approaches as an amateur averaging 230-yard drives on a 6,700-yard course, the pro’s course would have to measure at least 8,100 yards. Conversely, for the 230-yard driver to hit the same clubs into greens as the pro would on a 7,300-yard layout, the amateur would have to play at no more than 6,200 yards.

By Adams’ calculation, this means the amateur who drives the ball 200 yards (closer to what the average golfer achieves) should be playing courses measuring about 6,000 yards. Many women, routinely forced to play tees in the 5,600-yard range despite hitting drives of about 140 yards, should be playing from approximately 4,600 yards.

Focusing on things like this seems to me to make more sense than worriyng about technological advances. You can read the full article at http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-courses/2011-05/golf-barney-adams-forward-tees#ixzz1qL0IRIH0

In golf we enjoy playing with the same equipment – well almost – as those that play for living and it would be a travesty if, as some have proposed, that we see something like a “tournament ball” or other attempt at equalizing and minimizing length.  First of all, no matter which ball would be chosen it would undoubtedly favor some golfers over others.  And again, one would have to ask to what purpose.

So it appears to me that the two ruling bodies have little to worry about when it comes to the current crop of equipment.  Instead, maybe they should be focusing their efforts and attention on introducing and re-introducing golf to people, showcasing how golf is a game for a lifetime and one of the few games where those of disparate ability can compete together – thanks to the handicapping system.

LARRY MAY BECOME MY NEW FAVORITE!!!!
A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses. She started her class by saying, ‘Everyone who thinks they’re stupid, stand up!’ After a few seconds, Little Larry stood up. The teacher said, ‘Do you think you’re stupid, Larry?’ ‘No, ma’am, but I hate to see you standing there all by yourself!’

Larry watched, fascinated, as his mother smoothed cold cream on her face. ‘Why do you do that, mommy?’ he asked. ‘To make myself beautiful,’ said his mother, who then began removing the cream with a tissue. ‘What’s the matter, asked Larry…… ‘Giving up?’
The math teacher saw that Larry wasn’t paying attention in class. She called on him and said, ‘Larry! What are 2 and 4 and 28 and 44?’ Larry quickly replied, ‘NBC, FOX, ESPN and the Cartoon Network!’
Larry’s kindergarten class was on a field trip to their local police station where they saw pictures tacked to a bulletin board of the 10 most wanted criminals. One of the youngsters pointed to a picture and asked if it really was the photo of a wanted person. ‘Yes,’ said the policeman. ‘The detectives want very badly to capture him. Larry asked,”Why didn’t you keep him when you took his picture ? ”
Little Larry attended a horse auction with his father. He watched as his father moved from horse to horse, running his hands up and down the horse’s legs and rump, and chest. After a few minutes, Larry asked, ‘Dad, why are you doing that?’ His father replied, ‘Because when I’m buying horses, I have to make sure that they are healthy and in good shape before I buy. Larry, looking worried, said, ‘Dad, I think the UPS guy wants to buy Mom ….’

Thanks to Dewayne Andersen for this one. If this brightened your day, don’t let it stop here. Pass it on with a smile.

Keep spreading the cheer! 

I acquired the original iPad in 2010 but by-passed the iPad 2 – didn’t think there were enough enhancements to justify the purchase.  However, I did succumb to the “new” iPad this past Saturday.  This time I decided to go with Verizon rather than AT&T – I would have done this on the original iPad but did not want the hassle of the required additional hardware to connect on 3G. While there are other arguments for my choice of Verizon – better network and larger 4G footprint – the primary reason is that in our area we have no AT&T coverage, only Verizon. Sure I have WiFi at home but when away from home in our area I like the idea of 3G coverage – no 4G here yet.  Because of the high demand the Verizon store was out of all except the 16 gig model and getting the 64 gig model would take about two weeks.  Not perfect, but I decided to go with it.  Bear in mind Saturday was the 17th of March – I received my new iPad yesterday, March 21st, shortest two weeks in history but no complaints.

With a day’s use, my first impressions are all positive.  The new retina display is all that it cracked up to be!  There is a very perceptible difference between the new iPad and the original version – the iPad 2 had the same display as the original one.  I have not been in a 4G area yet so cannot provide any first-hand experience but from all of the reviews it is something.  Walt Mossberg, the technology writer for the Wall Street Journal, commented that he was seeing speeds higher than on most home wired networks, over 17 megabits per second, so I can’t wait to give it a whirl.  One of the motivations for the purchase was the front-facing camera which will allow Skype communications on the iPad – something that was not possible on my first iPad.  (The iPad 2 had a front facing camera but that alone was not enough for me to upgrade.)

My objective is to make the iPad my go to device when away from home so feel that a physical keyboard is a must.  For the first iPad I acquired a Padacs keyboard case but found it of little use.  The keys are a little mushy but worst of all there is no right shift key.  If you are a touch typist and are looking for frustration try typing on a keyboard without a right shift key and two other keys – the up arrow and +/= signs – in that position!  The Verizon store had what appears to be close to a perfect answer.  The keyboard by Belkin is about a 1 1/4 wider than the previous one, the keys are responsive and most important of all there is a right shift key. This post is being written on the new iPad using the Belkin keyboard case. The Belkin case is the same cost as what I paid for the Padacs case, $99.00. This post is also the trial run for Apple’s word processing software Pages.  Again at first blush Pages appears to be a very capable word processing program and this version is just for the iOS5 mobile devices. By the way, when you purchase Pages for $9.99 you can use the one license on other iOS5 devices like your iPhone or iPod. There is a Pages version for other Mac’s but the iOS5 iteration is optimized for mobile devices.

While one could argue that I do not need an iPad, for certain I do not need two. To that end I explored what to do with my now unneeded original 64 gig + 3G iPad. Verizon has a trade-in program and offered $175.00 but I found http://www.gazelle.com and they offered $200.00 plus they pay for the shipping. So as soon as I have the shipping box my old iPad is off to Gazelle. As an aside, there is a market for your unneeded or unwanted electronics. Previously I sold my earlier iPhone for what I paid when acquired.  This works on phones because the carriers subsidize the purchase in exchange for a two year contract.  This same dynamic does not work on the iPads because we purchase them without a contract – a month-to-month agreement.

As I accumulate more experience with the new iPad I will post additional comments but as said earlier it appears to be a winner.

This week I received another notice of a class action suit that ostensibly I am a part of.  Like all of the rest I have seen, it is written in generally incomprehensible language and places demands on those participating in the class to prove they belong.  This particular one involves Lehman Brothers and includes two parts – one for those that purchased Lehman securities and notes ($90,000,000) and the other for underwriters ($426,218,000).  The period covered is from June 12, 2007 and September 15, 2008 and off course they demand a withering level of detail to support any claim.  As luck would have it, since that time frame I have switched financial advisors and no longer have on-line access to the account where these securities were held.  Having said that, they obviously have solid evidence that I did own covered securities in that account as the information in the address label is the exactly the same as the account title and contains more information than just my name and address. Given that, one wonders why I have to provide the transaction detail as they probably know more than I do.  It would seem that agreeing to the terms of the settlement would be enough.  However, when one understands that any unclaimed amounts goes back into the pool and is divided among those that do file claims and guess which group is most likely to have complete access to level of detail required? Probably not us smaller players.

A few years ago there was a class action suit against State Farm over life insurance policies.  In that action the law firms received something like $5,000,000 and the members of the class received the right to buy more insurance.  No kidding.  There is a continuing parade of actions like this and in most cases the only winners are the law firms.

Now let’s talk about the attorney’s fees in the Lehman case.  As proposed the attorneys will receive something over $90,000,000 in fees plus $2,500,000 in expenses.  Even is the average hourly billing rate for those on the project is $250, which is probably high, these fees would equate to over 361,000 billable hours! By the way,that is 174 man years.  Now we begin to see the attraction of class action suits for law firms.

Here is the text of a letter I wrote some time ago to the Court handling a class action law suit; On Friday, August 29, 2008 I received an e-mail titled NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION CONCERNING NORTON SUBSCRIPTIONS.  As I have reviewed the document a number of both questions and concerns occurred to me.  First, I am always amazed that in any other legal proceeding, the client is required to sign a document selecting the attorney that represents them.  In this action I neither signed any such document nor in any way requested that the listed attorneys represent me.  Now I understand that obtaining letters of representation from all members of a class would be burdensome but many things in the civil legal process are deemed necessary even though they are burdensome.  Second, in any other proceeding, the attorney is required to state how they will be compensated – hourly, contingent fee or some combination thereof.  In this proceeding there is the following statement regarding attorney compensation; If plaintiffs prevail in this lawsuit, attorneys’ fees and costs will be deducted from the recovery on behalf of the class or will be paid by Symantec. In either case, the court must approve the amount paid to the attorneys. You are not personally responsible for paying any of the attorneys representing the class.  Nowhere in that statement is there any indication as to what type of compensation the attorneys will be requesting.  Also, while members of the class will not be responsible for paying the attorneys directly, the amount that might be received will certainly be impacted negatively by the attorney’s fees.

Class action law suits like this rarely generate any substantive benefit to the members of the class.  I remember one from a few years ago involving State Farm Life Insurance where the members of the class received the option to purchase more insurance and the attorneys walked away with over $5 million.

Here is the text of the Judge’s response to my letter; I have received and reviewed your letter of September 2, 2008 and appreciate your comments regarding class actions. Your comments mirror remarks I often hear or read about class action suits. You seem to believe that class actions are very beneficial to the attorneys who are successful, but not to members of the class. Quite frankly, this opinion is shared by others.

As a judge who potentially could hear these cases, I can make no comment on this issue, but understand your feelings.

Given the amount of money the trial lawyers contribute to legislative candidates it is probably unlikely that we will see substantive change any time soon but maybe, just maybe, if we talk about it enough someone will notice.

For more info go to http://www.experts-exchange.com.

Would it not be seen as absurd if a retired executive of a company continued to be referred to by his or her title?  Having said that, did you ever wonder why politicians continue to be addressed with a title they no longer hold? For example, Newt Gingrich has not been Speaker of the House since 1999 but the media continues to refer to him as Speaker Gingrich.  In the current GOP crop we have “Governor” Romney and “Congressman” Santorum titles that neither currently holds.  At least Ron Paul is still a sitting congressman.  This bias is not a partisan issue as we see the same phenomenon with Democrats.  Now I understand a former President of the United States being referred to as “President” forever but beyond that I find the practice rather bizarre.  But as I think about it, I guess it fits with the other phenomenon – that is how much smarter our elected representative see themselves the day after we elect them – they know better what we want than we do.  Seen in that light, I suspect that the continued exalted titling makes sense.

One day while riding his Harley a biker ran into God.  After a bit, God asked what was the one thing in the world he would want ?  The biker thought for a moment and said; God, I would like a highway from California to Hawaii so that I can ride my Harley all the way.  God replied that it would be extremely difficult – 4,000 to 5,000 foot pilings and more.  So God asked, what his second wish would be?  The biker thought a little and said God I would like to know how women think and act.  God considered that request for a moment and replied, do you want two lanes or four!

Last Saturday, February 4th, would have been Byron Nelson’s 100th birthday.  In this week’s Golf World there is a great article entitled 1912 The Year Of The Giants but the lead on the cover is probably closer to correct The Greatest Triumvirate – Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of American golf greatest threesome.  Nelson along with Sam Snead and Ben Hogan were all born in 1912, Nelson in February, Snead in May and Hogan in August.  Between them the trio won 198 official PGA tour events.  By way of comparison Arnie Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus won a total of 159. The article is written by Curt Sampson who also wrote a terrific biography of Ben Hogan titled simply Hogan. Those who enjoy golf history will find both the article and Sampson’s book well worth reading.  The last paragraph in the Golf World article is particularly telling. Now a centruy after their births, we remember the Country Boys again.  And we wonder: Would Nelson, Snead and Hogan have succeeded with today’s no-spin balls and 460-cc driver heads? Oh my god, yes.  But it would not be easy. They’d still have to beat each other.

Sometimes you think you have heard it all and then a day like today comes along.  First we have an man in Florida who adopts his 42 year old girlfriend supposedly to protect some family assets. Somehow sleeping with your daughter, adopted or not, is a little weird.  Remember Woody Allen! Next we hear that Ron Paul has picked up a new endorsement in Nevada – the Prostitutes.  They’ve created a “Pimpin’ for Paul” program in which johns can donate money to the candidates campaign. Then comes a story about a special needs teacher in Florida that put hot sauce on the crayons so that her students would not put them in their mouth. And the beat goes on!

A new service for the iPad was just released.  It is OnLive Desktop.  OnLive Desktop brings   true Microsoft Office applications to the iPad.  I heard about it in this article, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203436904577154840906816210.html?mod=djemptech_t, by Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal.  While there are other apps that handle MS Office documents on the iPad, Mossberg points out that OnLive does the job much better. You do not actually install the MS Office applications on your iPad, they run on OnLive’s servers. The really good news is that the service is free.  You have to sign up at http://desktop.onlive.com and once you receive confirmation you can upload documents to their server and create or edit MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint on your iPad. I will not bore you with all of the detail here as Mossberg does a much better job in his article but if you are looking for a better way – check it out.