Golfgraphs - Golf and Autographs

Friday, December 11, 2009

LPGA Q School

Braved the rain and stopped by the LPGA Q school for a few hours to get a few graphs. Thanks to the rain on Friday and Saturday, they had to make a cut on Sunday so Monday had a scaled down field. Amanda Blumenhurst won the event (no surprise...she was awesome in college) and some of the other highly touted college players, such as Maria Hernandez (Purdue), Pernilla Lindberg (Oklahoma State) and Azahara Munoz (Arizona State) got their cards for next year. Some gals who spent time on the tour regained their cards including Liz Janangelo and Julieta Granada. There were some surprises at the top of the leaderboard. Katie Kempter and Marianne Skarpnord finished tied for second. Katie's dad, when I asked her to sign an autograph for me, told me that she was going to win it all. He wasn't too far from the truth as Katie finished two shots from the lead.

Graphs included pages out of Golfworld or Golfweek for Tiffany Joh, Jane Park (she was Joh's caddie for the week), Blumenhurst, Munoz, Hernandez, Nicole Hage, Liz Janangelo, Alison Walshe, among others. I made custom cards for a lot of the golfers which included Lindberg, Adrienne White, Beatriz Recari, Tanya Dergal, among others. Other than the rain and cold, it was worth the few hours.

Congratulations to all who received their cards...and for those who at least received some status, even if it is not full status on the big tour.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

LPGA Legends Open Championship

Drove to Innisbrook to get a few items signed by some LPGA legends. Got some Hall of Famers and finished up some Solheim Cup items by getting Betsy King to sign a few things.

Basically got custom cards on every player. I did miss a few of the ladies while I was getting the Hall of Famers like Patty Sheehan and Joann Carner. Here was the final scores:

1 Steinhauer, Sherri -3 $50,000.00
2 Finney, Allison E $30,000.00
T3 Johnston-Forbes, Cathy 1 $17,500.00
T3 Shanahan Rowe, Laura 1 $17,500.00
5 Turner, Sherri 3 $12,000.00
T6 Hamlin, Shelley 5 $9,000.00
T6 Jones, Rosie 5 $9,000.00
T6 Myers, Terri-Jo 5 $9,000.00
T9 Dibos, Alicia 6 $6,500.00
T9 Figg-Currier, Cindy 6 $6,500.00
T9 Miller, Cindy 6 $6,500.00
T9 Mucha, Barb 6 $6,500.00
T9 Moxness, Barb 6 $6,500.00
T14 Carner, JoAnne 7 $4,237.50
T14 Coe-Jones, Dawn 7 $4,237.50
T14 Geddes, Jane 7 $4,237.50
T14 Johnson, Christa 7 $4,237.50
T14 King, Betsy 7 $4,237.50
T14 Lovander, Marilyn 7 $4,237.50
T14 Nause, Martha 7 $4,237.50
T14 Stacy, Hollis 7 $4,237.50
T22 Estill, Michelle 8 $3,550.00
T22 Haynie, Sandra 8 $3,550.00
T22 Massey, Debbie 8 $3,550.00
T22 Palli, Anne Marie 8 $3,550.00
T22 Schreyer, Cindy 8 $3,550.00
T22 Young-Robyn, Kathryn 8 $3,550.00
T28 Little, Sally 9 $3,447.00
T28 Rizzo, Patti 9 $3,447.00
T28 Scranton, Nancy 9 $3,447.00
T28 Walker, Colleen 9 $3,447.00
T32 Bradley, Pat 10 $3,429.50
T32 Rinker, Laurie 10 $3,429.50
34 Rarick, Cindy 11 $3,428.00
35 Sheehan, Patty 13 $3,427.00
36 Stephenson, Jan 15 $3,426.00
37 Lidback, Jenny 16 $3,425.00
T38 Albers, Kristi 17 $3,423.50
T38 Tombs, Tina 17 $3,423.50
40 West, Lori 18 $3,422.00
41 Graham, Gail 19 $3,421.00
42 Powell, Renee 21 $3,420.00
43 Dickinson, Judy 23 $3,419.00
44 Eggeling, Dale 26 $3,418.00

Winter Park Lecture Series

Ken Green, the PGA golfer who was involved in a horrible accident earlier this year when his RV crashed killing his girlfriend, brother, and dog, was the guest for the Lecture Series. Ken lost his leg in the accident and is trying to be the first paraplegic on the tour. He was interviewed by Peter Kessler who always asks great questions and always gets some interesting answers.

Kessler was surprised when I asked for his autograph on the Golfweek he was on about 5 years ago. Green signed the Golf Digest article of his from a few months ago and he commented on how Golf Digest really made him look horrible in the photo in the article (he was sitting in a pool exposing the scars from the accident and without his artificial limb).

Ken Green 2/2
Peter Kessler 1/1

Thursday, October 22, 2009

LPGA event - Prattsville Alabama

Went on a long road trip up to Alabama with a friend who is a big LPGA fan. Somehow he talked me into driving up with him. We did extremely well on autographs - any time you can get two Michelle Wies in one day is a good day. Got to see Alexis Thompson do really well to make the cut and at times during the day she was either in the lead or tied for the lead. She did fade over the weekend but a 14 year old competing with the big girls shows that she's pretty darn close to making a wave on the tour. Let's see if she can handle the "teen sensation" title that made some other teens like Vicky Hurst buckle under pressure. You could even put Morgan Pressel or Michelle Wie in that category who took some time to get their feet wet on tour.

Some notes: Ochoa still is not signing photos or magazines. I didn't even bother to ask her. I dislike her very strongly. Let's just say that I had some unfavorable experiences with her at the Merch Show so now I just don't like her. Was rooting for her to lose all weekend. Oh well.

Wie was signing items with her likeness on it. We had heard stories that she wouldn't sign photos or magazines but after I got my scorecard signed, I saw her signing anything, besides golf balls, including photos. So, I put out my Solheim Cup photo and she signed it no problem. My buddies both got her on magazines. Was a huge shock to us. Not sure if that trend will continue on other tour stops though. As I have to say in my industry: Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Highlight of the day #1: my buddy Mitch got into it with some idiot guy who said really loud next to Michelle Wie that me and my buddy Dave were dealers. Yeah, my pages out of Golfword of Joo Mi Kim and Sarah Lee are going to fetch me top dollar. eBay here I come! Mitch told the guy to come more prepared next time with photos for Wie instead of a stupid tournament flag and that we drove 7 hours just to be at the event and to basically shut the heck up.

Highlight of the day #2: My buddy who loves Erica Blasberg watched her for few holes and watched her botch a few shots to take her off of the cut line. So, when she signed her card, she was visably pissed and tried to make a bee line to the cart to take her back to the clubhouse. But my buddy wanted her autograph on some photos. She destroyed his pen as she was signing the photos as she was taking out her frustration on the pen and photo. This was a "had to be there" moment but I could not stop laughing for like 5 minutes.

Here's my haul:

Finished up my LPGA poster from Merch show: Natalie Gulbis, Stacy P, Nicole Castrale, Christi Kerr, Morgan Pressel

On my team Solheim Cup photo: Christina Kim, Natalie Gulbis, Nicole Castrale, Brittany Lang, Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie

Magazines: Anna Rawson X2, Yani Tseng, Inbee Park, Katherine Hull

Ads or pages out of magazines: Dorothy Delasin, Lorie Kane, Alexis Thompson, Vicky Hurst X2, Heather Bowie X2, Na Yeon Choi, Sandra Gal, MJ Hur, Song-Hee kim (looks like a man, baby), Candie Kung X2, Meena Lee, Seon Hwa Lee X2, Stacy Lewis, Leta Lindley, Ji Young Oh, Sung Ah Yim, Anna Grzebien, Sarah Lee, Joo Mi Kim

Custom cards (unless otherwise noted): Jimin Kang, Brittany Lang, Amy Hung, Shi Hyun Ahn, Karine Icher, Young Kim, Jessica Shepley, Samantha Richdale, Mikaela Parmlid, H.J. Choi, Hee Young Park, Karin Sjodin, Kris Tschetter, Sophie Gustafson, Amy Yang, Pornanong Phatlum, Kris Tamulis, Eunjung Yi, Allison Fouch, Mindy Kim, Taylor Leon, Sophia Sheridan, Kim Welch, Paige MacKenzie, Sophie Giquel, Na Ri Kim, Danielle Downey, Lisa Strom, Wendy Doolan, Sarah Jane Smith, Angela Buzminski, Chella Choi, Louise Friberg, Na Yeon Choi, Karen Stupples, Wendy Ward, Jennifer Rosales (UD card)

Other items: Michelle Wie (scorecard), Alexis Thompson (newspaper), photos of Steve with Stacy Lewis, Morgan Pressel & Anna Rawson

We thought about staying up Friday and Saturday but after spending 10 hours on the golf course, there was no need to be there more than 1 day. LPGA - these girls rock about signing autographs!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Missed opportunity

So, last week would have been the LPGA event in Orlando. Only problem was that Ginn Resorts, due to their continued financial woes, cancelled all of their golf tournaments including the Ginn Open at Reunion in January. That left the LPGA unable to find a sponsor to replace Ginn (and the fact that the event was played on Ginn's resort in Reunion located just outside of Orlando) so that meant no LPGA golf for us Central Florida fans.

We were pretty lucky to have a great tournament that attracted the likes of Lorena, Paula, Natalie, Karrie, Morgan, Christie and even Nancy Lopez made an appearance at one of the events. Of course Annika made her appearances since her academy was located a hop, skip, and jump away from the Reunion's clubhouse. And, the autographs were being signed in bunches on those days. If you knew who the golfers were, they were more than happy to sign. Well, except for Lorena who wouldn't sign my photo or magazines. I'll leave that rant for another day.

Communities can live without a real bonafide professional golf tournament in their area. I understand that all too well living in Orlando where the opportunities for entertainment are endless thanks to Disney, Universal, Seaworld, beaches nearby, tons of shopping and restaurants. But, for us golf fans, it still leaves a little empty spot in our hearts...kind of like the empty spot on the LPGA golfers calendars.

So, my buddy Dave is trying to talk me into driving up to Alabama in October for the LPGA event up there. That is a long 7 hour plus drive just to see the ladies tee off. It was so much easier to drive 25 minutes to Reunion.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Welcome to my blog.

Thanks to the Arnold Palmer Invitational being in my backyard (if you call a 15 minute drive a "backyard"), my passion for golf and graphs have led me to create this blog.

I have scoured the internet trying to find more bloggers out there that had a passion for golf and graphing and couldn't find one. So, here's my attempt...

I spent Wednesday at the Pro-Am and had a fabulous day at the course getting graphs. I started a Ryder Cup 2008 team photo at the Honda Classic (got Justin Leonard, Boo, JB, and Stewart Cink at that tournament) and got more guys for my Ryder Cup photo (Curtis, Mahan, Perry, Furyk, Campbell). I also got more guys for my Titleist ad (Harrington and Gamez), Furyk for my Cleveland ad (only need Stenson to finish that bad boy) and a ton of magazines and/or magazine ads. I also got a hockey puck of Bobby Orr for Steve and the nicest Derek Lowe graph ever. The Lowe still looks ugly but it is by far the nicest D-Lowe scribble I've seen and I've been following him since he was a Mariners prospect back in the day.

Disappointment of the day was finding out that Anthony Kim and Paul Azinger both withdrew. Wanted them on my Ryder Cup photo as well.

As for the host of the tournament, Arnie? We followed him for a couple of holes but he wasn't signing much. A friend of my buddy walked with him all 18 holes to try and get his photo signed. The result? Nada.

Magazines: Duval X2, Harrington X2, Immelman, Scott, Chopra, Appleby, Trahan X2

Ads:
Mike Weir
Brandt Snedeker
Boo Weekley
Fred Couples
Sean O'Hair X2
J.B. Holmes
Ken Duke X2
Ryuji Imada
Stewart Cink X2
Brian Gay
Nicholas Thompson
Rod Pampling
Davis Love III
Jerry Kelly
Carl Pettersson
Corey Pavin
Charles Howell III
Woody Austin
Stephen Ames
Kenny Perry X2
Jason Day X2
Matthew Goggin X2
Marc Turnessa X2
Paul Goydos
Zach Johnson
Tommy Armour III
Bubba Watson X2
Kevin Na
Justin Rose
Johnson Wagner
Robert Gamez
Jason Gore
John Merrick
Ryo Ishikawa X2

Cards: James Nitties, David Toms, Bill Lunde, Derek Lowe, Chris Stroud (I think I'm missing a few...doing this from memory)