My Impetus

Almost unbelievable, is a story from CBS about a woman, Jacqueline, from Rancho Mirage, CA, who has 16 holes-in-one since January!!

“I think that’s pretty much everybody’s reaction,” he said. “Now I want to find out what the secret is to her making so many holes-in-one.”

Gagne says her secret is pretty simple: look at the pin placement and then read the green.

“And to me this green’s breaking to the left so I want to aim to the right of the flag,” she said referring to the Metropolis Country Club’s course.

“From a technical standpoint, we have the first clue here,” Kostis said. “Most people are looking at the green and trying to hit the green. She’s reading the green. So she’s factoring in the break from back here.”

He was impressed, even before Gagne hit a ball.

“She keeps apologizing for her golf swing but all a golf swing is supposed to do is hit shots that you can find close to the hole, so I’m figuring this is a pretty good golf swing,” Kostis said.

Though her first couple of tries roll off the green, Kostis remains impressed.

“There’s always going to be a certain amount of doubt, non-believers, because the numbers are so outrageous,” he said. “I mean they’re off the charts. But after you look at her golf swing and you look at the ball flight you know what, she’s firing at the pin every time, so now the numbers change a bit.”

Smith decided to take a few swings. Gagne gave him some helpful tips, but she was really the one who everyone wanted to see drive the ball. She didn’t get a hole-in-one, but after watching her, Smith and Kostis were believers. Nothing fazed her, not the cameras or the small crowd she attracted.

“It’s the real deal,” Kostis said.

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In a previous post, I was talking about the rumors of the 40d. Bob Atkins has updated the latest technical specs of the latest addition to the Canon line – the Canon EOS 40d.

Canon EOS 40D Product Features and Technical Details

Here are what I think are the most important features of the new Canon EOS 40D:

* Increased efficiency 10.1-megapixel CMOS sensor with larger microlenses
* Large 3.0-inch LCD display
* enhanced Live View display
* LCD with broadened color gamut
* 6.5 frame-per-second continuous shooting capability
* Buffer holds 75 Large/Fine JPEGs or 17 RAW images)
* sRAW mode (small RAW format)
* 35-zone metering system
* 14-bit A/D conversion
* Digic III processor
* Highlight Tone Priority
* High-ISO Noise Reduction
* integrated Self-Cleaning Sensor Unit
* 0.95x optical viewfinder magnification
* Interchangeable focusing screens
* Continuous display of ISO in viewfinder
* Auto ISO mode
* ISO 100-1600 plus “H” (3200)
* Powered by BP-511A, BP-511, or BP-512 lithium-ion battery pack
* stores images on CF cards
* $1299.00 initial price
* Availability “September 2007″

There are some pretty awesome additions to this camera – a 3″ wide LCD with improved brightness, 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, Digic III image processor (the XTi and 30d use the Digic II) and much, much more!

• Display’s the Thing – The most easily visible upgrade on the EOS 40D Digital SLR is the camera’s larger 3.0-inch LCD screen (compared with the EOS 30D’s 2.5-inch monitor)
• Enhanced Durability Recognizing the often rigorous shooting conditions encountered Canon EOS 40Dby professional and advanced amateur photographers, Canon design engineers made the EOS 40D SLR’s magnesium alloy exterior even more ruggedly dependable than its predecessors with upgraded dust- and weather-resistant construction, particularly around the camera’s connection ports, battery compartment, and single-slot compact flash (CF) memory card door.
• Adding to the improved virtuosity of the images captured by the EOS 40D SLR is the camera’s 14-bit Analog-to-Digital (A/D) conversion process. Able to recognize 16,384 colors per channel (four times the number of colors recognized by the EOS 30D SLR’s 12-bit conversion capability), the EOS 40D camera is able to produce images with finer and more accurate gradations of tones and colors.
• In addition to retaining the RAW image capture capabilities of its predecessors, the EOS 40D SLR now offers a more manageable “sRAW” recording format. In sRAW mode, the number of pixels is reduced to one-fourth that of a standard RAW image and the file size is cut in half, while retaining all of the flexibility and creative possibilities associated with full-size, conventional RAW images.
• The Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR is also the first camera in its class to offer two interchangeable focusing screens in addition to the standard precision matte screen. Users can opt for a grid-type focus screen that makes it easier to verify horizontal or vertical alignment while determining image composition, as well as the Super-Precision Matte focusing screen that makes it easier to grasp the “sweet spot” of manual focusing when using a lens with a maximum aperture of f2.8 or faster.
• Enhanced Live View – Previously the province of the EOS-1D Mark III DSLR (one of Canon’s top-tier professional cameras), the Live View function now gives EOS 40D camera users an expanded and Canon EOS 40Dexceedingly convenient and comfortable set of shooting options. By permitting the framing and capturing of subjects using the camera’s LCD screen instead of the viewfinder, the shooter gains a 100 percent field view to more easily achieve the desired composition. A new Custom Function on the EOS 40D allows autofocus during Live View by pressing the camera’s AF-ON button. At that point, the reflex mirror goes down and AF is carried out in the normal way. Letting go of the AF-ON button resumes Live View functions. Also, in the Live View shooting mode the user can magnify the image by five or ten times in order to ensure that the shot is optimally focused. Live View is at its best during tripod shooting–particularly for close-up photography where precise focusing is imperative.

Give the full article a read! Thanks again Bob.
Image provided by Bob Atkins photography.

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Golf Magazine recently released it’s 2007 Top 100 Golf Courses in the U.S. The courses are ranked by a panel of 100 members representing 15 countries.

Our rankings are guided by our panel, whose 100 members represent 15 countries. The men and women who cast their votes include major-championship winners, Ryder Cup players, architects, leading amateurs, journalists and a cadre of nearly a dozen course connoisseurs who’ve had the doggedness to play all Top 100 Courses in the World.

From a master list of 475 courses around the world, the top 100 in the U.S. are displayed. Interesting to note, the #1 course in the country is in good ‘ole New Jersey!

In 2007, we switched to a web-based system that allowed panelists to vote on a combined master list of 475 courses from around the world. Panelists can only vote for courses they’ve played. (On average each panelist has played 73 courses on the World Top 100 list.) From this master list, the top 100 point earners make up our Top 100 Courses in the World. The Top 100 in the U.S. are determined by taking U.S. courses from the World list, in order, and then rounding out the list with the remaining top point earners that did not make the World list.

Pine Valley Golf course in Pine Valley NJ was awarded the #1 course – with a mind-numbing slope of 153 (6,532 yards, par 70).

The green contours that make putting so treacherous are evident from the right side of the green.
The caddie’s feet are well below the day’s back hole location.

Everyone learns to take failure in stride at Pine Valley. Abysmal scores are a way of life. That’s because the underlying principle of founder George Crump’s design for the course is the island. The tee is an island. The fairway, despite being 50-55 yards wide, is also an island. And so, of course, is the green. Each of these isolated plots is tightly defended by sand, scrub, rough, dense woods, sometimes water, sometimes steep falloffs — a no-man’s land of potentially unplayable lies. Players must tack unerringly from one island to the next, or pay a heavy price.

As taken from the right side of the green complex, an approach lost slightly right is kicked away
from the green and towards death. A similar fate awaits on the left side and over as well.
I can’t even imagine how many sleeves of golf balls I would go through!

A guest who was staying overnight sliced his second shot, which trickled into the narrow bunker between the green and the first tee. A foursome about to begin their round watched sympathetically as the player struggled in vain to extricate his ball. The next morning, this same chap, shortly to tee off on the first himself, took another look at the offending hazard and decided to give it another shot. So down he climbed into it and began to swing once more — just as the group who had watched him flailing away the day before approached the first tee.

“My God,” exclaimed one of them, “he’s still in there!”

The imaginative shape of the 3rd green offers numerous interesting hole locations.

All images and image descriptions are from The Golf Club Atlas.

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