By now, even many casual observers to motor racing have seen the reality that one of IndyCar's great champions and fan favorites, Dan Wheldon died today due to injuries sustained during the IndyCar Series finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Early on in Dan Wheldon's IndyCar career we could tell he was bound for something special. Always with a smile and very quotable, Dan was the kind of personality racing needed, and loved. Dan worked his way up the ladder on his own, without some major financial backer. He won the Indy 500 once with the big Andretti Green Racing, and this year as a one off with Bryan Herta Motorsports. He was the designated tester for the 2012 IndyCar chassis.

Dan was always a favorite of Regina and I, and we were excited to see him win the Indy 500 this year, and just this past week we all learned that he had landed a full time ride for 2012 with the exit of Danica Patrick at Andretti Autosport.



Dan's passing has us heartbroken. He was such a nice guy. A great competitor, wonderful personality and glowing spirit. He absolutely LOVED the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he would talk to you about it any time, anywhere.

One of the things that made Dan so popular was Dan was about as good with the fans as you could possibly want. A few years back, thanks to a friend of Regina's we had a chance to spend the evening with Dan and his then teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Scott Dixon at a Target sponsor party. Obviously we wanted to spend just a few minutes saying hello and chatting up the two IndyCar stars. But...once Dan found out that Regina went to Speedway High School and lived in Speedway, they must have talked for a half hour or more just about that, and of course his favorite race track in the world, Indianapolis.

You see, lots of racers love Indy. It is what it is...and there's no where else like it. But Dan, Dan wanted Indy more than any other race, at any other time, or any other place. Indy meant so much to him there's just no describing it any other way.

To understand how much Dan will be missed by the racing community is hard to describe. It is immense. Sure, we're "just" fans - but racing is a part of our family too. All of us, race fans around the world who follow series as diverse as IndyCar or Formula 1 to semi trucks or V8 Supercars - our sporting heros are gladiators who strap in to sheet metal & carbon fiber rockets and literally put their lives on the line every time they go to work. For sport. This is more than a sprained ankle or torn ACL. You want to complain about salary caps? Fine, we'll find someone else to drive the car. It's ruthless, but at the same time it is a family. A very close one. The loss of Dan Wheldon today hits them all hard.

But more than any of that, what really matters are those that Dan leaves behind on this earth. His wife Susie and their two children Sebastian and Oliver. It is something I think with Ryan here I now think about more than I used to. This is the part which is even more sad. Dan was 33, with a wife and two young kids. It is so sad and so unfair.

But this is life, this is real and this is racing. We do not see it very often anymore, so when it does happen we're perhaps more sensitive to the situation. We have seen many wrecks, many bad wrecks at race tracks in our travels, and there is always the possibility that someone doesn't come out OK. For the most part, they have. In so many ways I am happy we weren't there in person for it.

This tragedy is a black day for IndyCar. For racing in general. With so many exciting changes coming in 2012 there was hope for a good end to this season and momentum for next year. Now, it is hard to say what is to be next. Racers race, but right now they mourn. Their hearts are heavy, and it is a weight not easily lifted.

Thank you Dan for all the memories. You will be missed.

Dan Wheldon

1978-2011

Well as luck would have it, Cleveland Golf released the CG15 wedge line just as it was time to replace my current pitching wedge which came with my CG4 irons.

I've looked at a few others, and come back to the Clevelands. They feel good and perform well. I have five of them in total (46, 52,56, 60 and 64 degree), although I don't play them all. They range from 588s in chrome & gunmetal to the newer CG12s in black pearl and now as of this weekend, the CG15 in black pearl.



Cleveland offers these beauties in a few different finishes. I'm generally not a fan of the chrome, although I do have one in that finish (the 60 degree 588). Overall, wear & tear tends to show up a bit less on chrome than the black pearl, but still...I like the black pearl. Also available is the Oil Quenched, which basically looks like the 'ol beryllium copper Ping used to offer many years ago. I always liked that look.

This time I needed a 46 degree to replace my PW, and I wanted to stick with the same loft I had previously. Selection at that end of the loft spectrum tends to be a bit light in stores, so I went with the black pearl I like. Had they the Oil Quenched I might have considered it.

The looks of these wedges have been met with some cheers & jeers since images were available. The face is laser etched to provide more bite & spin on the ball. Which it does, amazingly well. However, the etchings are also painted and have some text "laser milled" on either side of the face. Honestly, you don't see it. And seriously if you can, well first, good for you, second...you're looking at the wrong thing.



Feel of the club, at least to me is exactly what I'd expect from Cleveland. Love it. The weighting is similar to that of the CG12s, so it's really not much of a difference there, but it's definitely a bit different than the stock CG4 irons. It has a much larger face overall, which I like and I think makes it a more versatile club.

On the performance scale, well I haven't had the chance to work with it 'in anger' so to speak but I did work it over at the range this weekend. Let's just say that I could see the ball spinning back in long grass. That has to be good for something, no? The one thing I will say though, the CG15s - and ZipGrooves in general - have a habit of really biting into the ball. So much so that you end up with residue of the cover left on the clubface.

Overall though, I like them and the CG15 is a keeper in my bag.

How are you spending Yellow Day 2009? I'll be at an IBM Lotus Software event all day today!

Four sessions down with the PGA Pro, trying to undo 30 years of bad swing habits have left me with some clarity and some confusion.

While I think I am making progress in flattening out the swing plane, I am finally at a point where the changes are getting more difficult to implement. With the moves I am making now, the backswing is shorter, at least in feel and overall shot yardage is shorter but more controlled. Once we start making more changes through impact I'll likely get back some of the distance I was used to previously.

By way of comparison, my 8-iron used to be about 160 yards. At the moment it is roughly 145-150, so I've essentially dropped a club of distance but gained a bit more control in the swing. A reasonable trade-off in the end, since at the end of the day, accuracy is more important than inflated distance.

Practice yesterday was a mixed and somewhat frustrating affair, however, attempting to implement everything we've been working on was always bound to be difficult. At this point I am selecting just a couple of things to work on & think about in order to minimize my swing thoughts.

We'll see. I need to see another decent practice or go play a round and see how it goes to be happy that progress is being made. I'll likely video myself as well here at the house to see what is going on.

First off, Weston Hills Country Club is nestled amoung some very nice homes. The course itself is actually rather hilly for a Florida course, somewhat like what I've played in South Carolina with waste areas and the like dotting the fairways. As many courses down here do, there's a reasonable amount of water to add to the challenge.

It's in rather good shape, but we certainly found the greens to be very slow. Nearly every putt has some break to it, so reading the proper line is even more critical.

This was the 4-ball scramble format, popular for such events. If you're not familiar, each player tees off and then the best ball is selected for the position of where the next shot is played from. Continue until you hole out, then repeat. I like these formats, because for one they're generally low stress. The idea is to have fun. I also like it, because when you can get one shot "safe" it allows the other players to have some chance at "going for it" and trying something different.

As for my personal game, I definately had more drives I was happy with today than Saturday. That part of the new swing changes worked well for me in this round. The interesting thing today though, was that I wasn't as happy with some of my iron play. On Par 3's I did reasonably well, but many of my other approach shots I wasn't happy with. Not sure what the deal is, but I'll work on it and move on.

One thing that certainly came into focus today was the fact that for whatever reason, I tend to line up right of the target when I entirely believe I am lined up square. I don't know what to make of that other than I know I can't see it myself. *sigh* A high priority item to work on.

Overall we ended up with a 66, 6 under par. Not the worst, but not a winner either.

A good day today, nice weather but for a touch of rain. All for a good cause, so everyone's a winner.

So after my first Pro meeting on Thursday, I was set to play Saturday morning. I decided before we teed off that I wasn't going to keep score. It would have been pointless considering what I was working on. For the front nine at least, that proved to be a very good decision.

Needless to say I had what I'd describe as a horrid front nine. Comfort level was next to nil, and frankly I was thinking about too much stuff. I was pretty happy to get the front over with.

Starting on the back I think I finally was getting comfortable with the changes, or starting to at least. I had a string of 4 pars on the back nine, and a couple of those were looks at birdie (even if a bit far). All in all my iron play at least was more consistent. A very good thing.

I probably had one or two drives I was happy with, one in particular that I was really happy with leaving me about 105 to the pin on a 371 yard par 4, for 266 yards on the drive. Other than that, they weren't terribly good but I can't say that given what we're doing, I should have expected much else.

Since I'll be heading to COMMON on Thursday this week, and won't be back until the 1st, it'll be a couple weeks until the next session. But, I do play again tomorrow in a charity scramble so we'll see how that goes.

I tend to really like the "better ball" type of events because the pressure's kinda off. They're a more enjoyable day since if you have one ball that's in good shape the other players can go for it a bit more easily.

So that's it for now, summary after tomorrow's round.

I met with my teaching pro Tom today for our first session. I've decided to stop trying to correct things on my own and have a professional tell my where I suck instead. They're quite good at that.

So the problems are:

1. I tried to fix this on my own and managed to screw it up....not so worse than it was, just in new and different ways. Brilliant.

2. Too much lower body action, in particular my left knee & foot decided to go all crazy on me and move about. What the heck is that....ahh but see #3 for why.

3. My thought from the blog entry a couple days ago where I talked about that full shoulder turn....yea that was stupid (see #1). I was already there, but couldn't tell since of course I can't really see what I am doing. The result was in order to really pull that off, yep, you guessed it. The left knee moved because the left foot was off the ground a TON more than it ever should be. A little bit is ok, many pros have done that over the years, but yeowsers.

4. Cascading down here, the next issue was my takeaway itself, somehow I'd decided a new & fun way to do that which amazingly I am able to get the thing relatively back on plane coming down...but it's way too much inside on the takeaway. So we're fixing that. In fact I think I was doing it better some time ago when I decided to change it for some dumb reason. Go figure.

So there are a few other minor things to work on, but overall I know my fundamentals don't totally stink (no Charles Barkley here), it's all the tweaky stuff that we do to try and "fix" something which really hoses things up. Thus the professional consultation. : )

So we'll see how it goes. I am, right now, happy with what we've talked about. It makes sense and I have some path to work on.

I plan on entering more information here as the sessions happen. Oh and did I mention I am scheduled to play on Saturday and Monday? LOL yea that could be interesting. Just have to keep the swing thoughts to a minimum.

Ok, first off this is a terrible title I know. : )

So it shouldn't be a secret that I am dedicating myself to improving my golf game once & for all. Of course it's a never ending process, but I am looking to make some significant strides this year. Florida weather certainly helps with that.

I figured I would post some updates along the way, talk about what I am working on and the like.

On my Golf Page I have the current equipment list, and it hasn't changed since I posted it. I have however, taken up changing my grips since the original Cleveland-branded Golf Pride Tour Velvets were ready to go.

At this point I have installed Golf Pride New Decade Midsize (red) grips on nearly everything. My 60 degree wedge has a standard New Decade red. So far I love these grips, although I might very well change out a couple of them, opting to play with a standard grip over a couple wraps of build-up tape.

If you've never been sized for grips, I'd highly recommend it. The grip is very often overlooked. Smaller hands need smaller grips, larger hands...you get the idea. But this isn't all of it. A too large grip can cause a slice. Too small, a hook. For those who have arthritis, they might need a larger grip for comfort, even up to a Jumbo. It is also not uncommon to have different grips on different clubs. You might want a bit more action on the short irons and opt for standards there, midsize everywhere else or some other combination.

I tried several grips when I looked at replacing mine, included the much talked about Winn Grips. Personally - of the ones I tried, I like the Golf Pride. However, I did swing a driver outfitted with a Jumbo Winn DSI the other day and it felt really good.

Anyway, Golf Pride generally says look to your glove size for grip size. A good metric, although not necessarily precise. Generally your gloved hand fingers should just brush the palm of your hand when you grip the club. For me, standard grips had my fingers jammed into my palm. Thus the change. We'll see how it goes.

So what else am I working on? Well besides the simple matter of consistency in "routine," the one swing thought for my driver is "make a full turn." I discovered that I was rushing to get to the downswing and not making a full shoulder turn. The result was a slice, because I was late in the release. My body got through the ball way before the club could square for impact. Making this fuller, more CONTROLLED turn (i.e. even somewhat slower) has helped correct this problem, without really sacrificing distance.

In fact when you've noticed over Masters weekend, when Phil Mickelson was sending his drives off-line, he was rehearsing exactly that - the shift & timing of getting the body/shoulders/arms around at the same time to get the club square. In two seconds or less, the golf swing is a precision movement.

I am planning on getting back together with a pro in the near future to work on some of this & hopefully pull up some consistency in the swing. I'd expect it to make a big difference.

Of course I continue to spend some time on the short game, as everyone should - but right now getting the full swing under control is my main goal.

Fun stuff. More later.

So here you are, in a room of 100 people (Group A). Of those 100, ninety of them agree on Product X and are very positive and engaged when speaking of X. The remaining 10 people (Group B) point out only the negatives of X, claim it "sucks" mainly because it doesn't do everything exactly the same as Product Y. Group B declare Group A are sheeple, drinking the Kool-Aid and need to wake up.

Group B, when asked to help the developer of Product X, Vendor Z, by discussing their concerns, react by saying "we've said what we don't like, Vendor Z isn't listening." Group B also seems to insist on posting to their blog an endless stream of obscenity, and claiming that Group A just needs to "deal with it."

For some reason Group B is greatly annoyed when they aren't having their ego stroked and rump kissed by everyone, especially the large corporation Vendor Z. All the while, Group B claim that they're "just saying what needs to be said."

Sound familiar? We've seen it recently in LotusLand when talking about the Lotus Notes 8.5 for Mac client. We've seen it on Midrange-L regarding the IBM i platform. We've also seen it on the blogs of certain people who think they're the divine enlightened ones because they are the only people with the guts to tell the truth and call out a vendor.

The gist of the argument seems to be that those who express the negative argument among a relative sea of positives are somehow automatically the only ones speaking the truth. Certainly there might be some truth to this in some cases. However, overall it's bunk.

Folks who go against the grain always seem to believe they're the only intelligent, thoughtful ones. I am sure in some ways I am guilty of this, as are many of us who are devotees of a particular product - be it from IBM,Apple, Microsoft, whatever. However, it still doesn't mean that those who voice the negative opinion against the general consensus are, by default, the only correct voices.

That's not saying it's verboten to call out a vendor for doing something stupid. It's how you do it that will ultimately determine if they're willing to listen to your comments. In the case of the Notes for Mac client discussion, certainly the author has some valid points...assuming everyone else is seeing the same thing he is, and I have reason to believe they aren't. But, due to the combative nature of the site, the post and pretty well everything surrounding the discussion, it's pretty clear the argument (and having someone suck-up to him) is what he's after, not a solution.

Before my current two week trip to Texas I decided to pick up a Sprint Mobile Broadband adapter. I figured this is a business trip and I'll be online every evening most likely, costing me around $12 a day.

With the adapter costing me $0 (with contract, no biggie - been with Sprint for how long now?) it seemed a good idea. Sure I'll have to deal with the $59 monthly fee long term but still, I think it was worth it. I refuse to pay for wireless in an airport and now, anywhere I go (assuming Sprint coverage) I'll be set. I almost got the PCMCIA card (or rather the ExpressCard with a PCMCIA slot adapter), but opted for the USB model because 1. It was free 2. I can take it to any PC.

Overall the speeds have been more than acceptable. I won't be hauling down the Domino 8.5 install image over it, but for general mail/web/small download it works great.

So if you're interested, it is the 598U from Sierra Wireless. We'll see how this works long term, but so far it is just what I needed.