Like the forum in the subject, this should serve as a good low-content thread. Probably more "G" than the other two but we'll see how it goes.

Guys I know some stuff about not just from the media:

Tim Clark - nice guy, respected, loves to drink.

Vijay Singh - great sense of humor per John Daly, my mother swears he was a huge PITA to volunteers at the John Deere tournament but I'm inclined to like Veej so would prefer this to be false. Particularly as since we have heard he's very popular among tour players.

Ted Purdy - OK this is a bit of a reach since he's not a marquee player (although he flirted with making the President's Cup until he had an off year in 2007), but he was on my HS golf team and won the Byron Nelson and lost in a several hole playoff to Stewart Cink at Harbour Town one year. Super nice guy, currently working with a hard-core personal trainer (the guy charges like $800/person/month and teaches only group sessions) and has dropped a ton of weight. Hoping for big things in 2008.

John Daly - likes to piss on tarmacs and make fun of one-armed people.

This is just trying to get the ball started. I know I have some more - and hopefully better - ones, but personaly experiences with and resulting opinions of pros should be interesting.

Really? I was always under the impression that Vij had a reputation as a first class a hole.

Tuq, do you still keep in touch with Ted Purdy? What was he like in HS?

Holybull,

Ted still lives here, I don't see him very often though. A friend's wife works out with him at that studio and said he's lost a ridiculous amount of weight and looks great. No doubt part of it is quitting drinking - he loved to drink, and this trainer's brutal regimen includes no alcohol whatsoever.

Ted has always been a nice guy, just really laid back. Kind of what people think Fred Couples would be like. His parents divorced before we were in HS and after we won both state titles his father let us get trashed at his place. Say what you want about that as adults, but of course as kids we thought it was awesome. One of those nights was the first time I smoked a cigarette (thankfully one of the last) and the first time I drank tequila. Of course, I managed to throw up both nights and had to pay his father for the dry cleaning expenses.

At LSU, David Toms carried in his bag a horseshoe that had been blessed by a voodoo witchdoctor.

When I went to the Masters practice rounds in 2000, almost all the Americans were snobby-didn't interact at all with the crowd (especially Fred Couples) and almost all the Europeans were joking with the fans. Got a really good spot behind 15 tee, not more than four steps behind the markers. Daly hits his drive then hands a ball and his driver to a kid, probably 8 or 9 years old and asks him if he wants to hit one. Watching that kid get to hit that drive was awesome.

Kind of suprising what you said about Couples. I have been lucky enough to walk along side him inside the ropes for an entire round at this pro-am thing locally cause a friend of mine is very good friends with him. He was very talkative and outgoing towards us. The thing that impressed me even more was that he remembered who I was because I had been introduced to him by the same friend about 6 months prior at the AT&T Pebble Beach tournament and walked a few holes with him inside and he remembered who I was. I have always thought of him as probably one of the better guys on tour.

IMO Vijay is a jackass. My friends and I call him the snake-charmer for various reasons.

Couples wasn't a jerk or anything and I only saw him for a couple holes, so I'm sure your experience is more valid, but he just didn't ever acknowledge the crowd at all.

I heard Tiger railed Phil Mickelson's wife in the [censored] like three times so far this offseason.
I'm sure others will confirm.

About ten years ago I played in the Phoenix Open pro-am with Kirk Triplett. Super nice guy, a few months later I ran into him at a restaurant, he remembered me and we chatted. A few years after that I sat behind him at a D'Bags game (his season tickets are row one behind the dugout, sick) and he still remembered me. It's a common misconception that people in the spotlight forget others easily.

Jonathan Kaye - a few years back, I caddied for a friend in the pro-am and Kaye was his pro. Very cool guy, he was good at rooting for everyone in our group. One guy hit a shot that was headed towards two bunkers and Kaye yelled "GET IN THE TAINT", , in this case referring to the grass between them. I laughed but luckily I don't think the old people within earshot knew what a taint is.

He told me he'd been dating the same woman for almost ten years. I asked him why he hadn't gotten married yet and he said "because I'm afraid if I do, she'll get fat", heh.

I think I've found a new putting grip it's called the pool cue grip. I was watching some putting lesson show on TGC last night and Mccord showed this one. The basic idea of this grip is to prevent your wrists from breaking down during the stroke.

You want to take a normal left hand grip and then wrap your right index and thumb around the shaft like you would on a pool stick and fully extend your pinky finger to the shaft to prevent the breakdown. It sounds and looks crazy but it seems to keep the blade very square from the limited time I had to mess around with it. Try this out and let me know what you think.

Can't believe I made it this long without a temp ban, lol. 9 seconds wasn't so bad.

Speaking of Kirk Triplett, I drove him and his clubs from valet to the staging area when he came to play at Desert Highlands in Scottsdale....very nice dude for the 30 seconds we talked.

CC,

Interesting. I have good days and bad days with the putter. I tried it out and will definitely give it a whirl the next day I'm having the yips (most days are very good but when it's bad it's REALLY bad). I flirted with the claw for about half a round once - didn't go so hot so I went back to left hand low and it was like getting caught up with an old friend.

This is akin to the claw grip Dimarco uses.
It gets the hand, wrist, and forearm turned so as to not break down.

It has helped me a great deal on some of those days where I've felt yippy (and those days have become more frequent).

One of our members, a USGA rules official, uses the pool cue grip.
And he still manages to yip! But it's a whole body-yip type thing!

Putting is definitely my weakness so I'm always looking for something that works. I'm the type of person who can hit 16 GIR and take 40+ putts. Once in a while it will just click and I'll putt lights out but for the most part it's never consistent and certainly not up to my ballstriking. I don't have a problem looking like a goof on the green as long as the ball goes in the hole so I'm excited to see if this works out.

Steve Stricker - My buddy played 2 holes of golf with Steve Stricker at a golf outing in early July of this year. He said Stricker was a genuinely nice guy.

Then my friend and I were at the BMW Championships at Cog Hill in September and we were watching people on the practice green. Stricker was one of the players putting. Stricker somehow noticed my friend and came over and started talking to us. He remembered that my friend was in law school and asked him how law school was going and then he was telling us about his game and how good he felt. We got to talk to him for a good 10-15 minutes. It was an awesome experience.

Yes Steve Stricker is a very nice guy. My friend belongs to the club stricker's father in law owns and stricker's house is on. I've meet and talked to stricker a few times in the clubhouse and he was always very kind.

I played a couple rounds behind him at the club and you could see a big difference in his game last year from 3 years ago. But 3 years ago he seemed to goof around on the course more and last year he seemed to be more serious.

Gossip: Amy and Phil Mickelson were near divorce at one time. Fred Couples has a big stomach from not playing or exercising.

wow.

Late joining the thread...but my thoughst on Vijay. I can't stand him. First, there are the many rumors about cheating (and not just the scorecard thing early in his career) and his reaction to Annika playing in a tournament, along with his reaction to people who disagreed with his opinion. He's an ahole imho.

Unlike most people, I'm not a big fan of Mark O'Meara either. Along with his rumors of cheating as well (along with lying about his shot intentions to get a drop), I think he's got somewhat of fake act going on. I particularly love the fact that he gave his Ryder Cup charitable donation of 50k (or whatever the amount was) to his children's prep school. I know how much those kids really needed the money...

My brother went to that school. AFAIK the money from O'Meara went to build a couple new athletic fields that were really needed.

Although I agree with you that he seems "fake" I have never heard a bad word about him.



Vijay is awesome in person, Tiger is the worst tipper on Tour, Elin is not as hot in person without makeup (although she is still like an 8 or better), and Jimmy Roberts is seriously like 4 feet tall.

He was accused once AFAIK. Wasn't it some Euro who claimed that he marked the ball closer on the green? I doubt he would be able to do something like this and get away with it for decades.

this is not a surprise to me. me and my friend were having lunch with Charles Howel III and he said that Phil cheats on his wife. I wasn't what to make of it. Also, I'm Ely Callaway took up all of Phil's gambling debts when he signed with Callaway, which i'm sure is common knowledge to some people.

Richie Ramsay, who the U.S. Am at Hazeltine, really lucked out that week. During the week leading up the tournament and during the tournament, he met a girl that worked in the snack shop Hazeltine. He went to a couple movies with her, had dinner with her and what not. They started dating and they're getting married. she left Hazeltine over the summer and is moving/moved to Florida to get married to him. Pretty cool story, imo.

Andrew Magee (sp?) is an awesome guy. I met him at Castle Pines and he was super cool, let us walk in the ropes with him (my friends family invented the tournament, so we got away with a lot things there) and just chatted away with us. he's a pretty funny guy as well.

Arnold Palmer does not like to get dressed. He plays cribbage and gin in his underwear at Bay Hill in the men's grill all the time. he always sits at the same table in the regular grill, and will tell you take your hat off with you wear it indoors. I've seen it happen. He told Tiger to take his hat off and Tiger supposedly got upset or something.

David Leadbetter's son, Andy, is a huge degen. He got kicked out of UNLV after failing all of his classes. He has 3 DUI's. He has to get money and sets of golf clubs sent to him to pay off his gambling debts to other people.

I thought it was John Daly's debts that were paid off. Or perhaps Ely did that for everyone. But Phil is indeed a big gambler but I can't imagine him not being able to pay it off.

his debts were over a million and i'm sure he could pay them off but i think it was part of the contract and Callaway's attempt to get him to sign with them.