Chokin' freakin' dogs!: Reason One that the Solheim Cup is more interesting than Tiger winning $10,000,000.

Chokin' freakin' dogs.

I guess that does sound a little mean. But the fact that Dottie Pepper said it about her own beloved U.S. team after they let a few matches they were leading slip to halves, and then had the backbone to stand by the comment, was just one example of why the Solheim Cup was a hell of a lot more interesting than watching Tiger Woods win $10,000,000. Another thing that made the cup more interesting was the simple lack of hype. The PGA Tour and FedEx spent no less than a year pimping the latest cup and its silly $10,000,000 deferred prize all the while trying to make us believe that someone other than Tiger really had a chance to win.

The hype-free Solheim Cup, instead, almost took us by surprise. The U.S. and Europeans teams toiled away on the fairways of Halmstad in weather that would make the Scots proud. Both teams played well and I have no doubt that the Europeans felt pretty confident going into the singles with a lead, albeit a slim one. In the end, they were simply beaten by a team that was better both on paper and on the course. That's another thing that frequently makes the women's game more compelling than the mens: The women tend to play more to their rankings, more consistently, than the men.

Why would this be? My guess is that it's because the LPGA players still have to win to make a decent check. Their small purses and skinny endorsement deals pretty much force the better players on the LPGA tour to keep their foot on the gas pedal all season long. The opposite is true on the PGA tour which is why players like Phil and Vijay can have their games nearly vanish for such long stretches. The PGA tour should not be built upon wealth, not glory. But, I digress.

The Solheim Cup is big for both the LPGA tour and and the Europeans because they don't have a FedEx Cup, a Presidents Cup and a whole myriad of other cups to dilute the relevancy of their season. It is a rare chance for both teams to play for glory and country that they all obviously treasure. There is no grousing about what happens to the money from the TV deals and all the rest. It was about passion, and that's why the loss was so hard on European captain, Helen Alfredsson. For her, it was an oh so rare chance to win for more than herself. Passion is also the reason that her win over Annika Sorenstam will prove so important to rookie Morgan Pressel. The win will show her, in a way that not even her major win at the Kraft Nabisco could, that she truly is one of the best players of her era.

Passion. That's what it's all about. It's sadly what the FedEx Cup lacks and happily what the Solheim Cup has in abundance.

Am I In The Way of My Golf Swing?

In at least one respect golf is a very kind game: You won't wake up one morning only to find that you can no longer play. The decline happens slowly, rather like fading vision. Like any 46 year old, I'd love to have the body that I had when I was 36. I'm not greedy, I don't need the 26 year old me. Still, the fact is that I was stronger back then and had fewer aches and pains.

The limitations that my body was putting on my golf swing became apparent while I was working with Roger Gunn. I was surprised at the feeling of tightness and restriction that seemed to slow my upper body rotation through the ball. It also seemed that I tended to pop-up somewhat near impact when I used to excel at smashing down and through the ball. It became clear to me that I was actually in the way of my own golf swing. Roger has been an immeasurable help to me but now I have the sense that I need to do some physical work on my body to get the full benefit of his superb instruction.

So, I set off to find someone who could evaluate my sorry state and help me to regain at least some of what has been lost to the ravages of Father Time. My search ended with a good guy named Matt Smalling. Matt's a Certified Physical Therapist which helps him to take care of the sick and injured and a Titleist Performance Institute Certified Trainer which allows him to take care guys who think that there must be something that will make them become better golfers. I called Matt to tell him my tale of woe.

After a nice chat about what he does and where he does it, an appointment was made and I was told to bring my 5 iron, workout clothes and an undisclosed amount of US currency (by the way, the cost of the session is very reasonable).

The plan was to measure my body's strength, balance and flexibility and, most interestingly, to record my golf swing in 3D for future analysis by a numbers crunching guy who Matt uses. All very 21st Century stuff, to be sure.

Matt started by taking a complete history and asked me some questions about my game and then we got into the measurements. Suffice it to say that the news was not all bad but there definitely things that needed attention. The areas that Matt came back to were upper back and lower back and hips. Now, I had a very strong feeling that those were problem areas going in but now we could focus on what do about them.

When the laughing over just how funny my swing looked in 3D died down, we got down to the exercises Matt said would help me to regain the flexibility that I had lost and maybe even then some. He videotaped me doing the exercises and though he promised to keep the tapes confidential I have a vague fear that right now some kid in China is having a pretty good laugh watching me roll around atop what appears to be a huge, foam rolling pin. Only kidding (kind of).

The 3D session was brief. All I had to do was take four Hoganesque swings at the tee on a small piece of mat and that was it. I am looking forward to see the chaos that my swing data will cause the guy who has to analyze it. This afternoon, I received some initial feedback from the folks at Titleist about my results and also Matt's outline for my workout. Looks like it's time for me to get out from in front of the computer and into the gym.

I'll report on the results of the 3D stuff and my own progress over the next few weeks so stay tuned.