Brackets And Blades

I haven’t done my brackets yet because I only started paying attention to NCAA men’s basketball oh, say, about five minutes ago.

I was too busy watching Kevin Streelman win his first PGA Tour event ever down in Tampa Bay.

My favorite Bubba golfer, Boo Weekley, had trounced into the clubhouse with a record 63 (that is, in a final round at Copperhead), and had to sit around and wait a couple of hours to see if Streelman could “streel” his resolve and hang on to the lead (when Boo could have gone fishing the rest of the afternoon…Gotta love those Southern boys!).

Well, hold on Streelman did, shooting a total of ten under and striking a brilliant and bold 5-iron draw shot on the par 3 13th some 200 yards, planting it just past the pin and nailing the birdie that took him to 9 under.

It was a long road for Streelman to take his first PGA win: some 400,000+ miles on American highways long.

Streelman went through three cars driving around the country “dead broke” as he chased his golf dream — yesterday, it all paid off, and couldn’t have happened to a nicer, more deserving guy. Here’s to many more, Kevin.

As for my own golf game, I’ve decided to keep my Ben Hogan 1988 “redline” blades in the bag…well, mostly.

Yesterday, down in Wimberley, I shot an atrocious 50 on the front nine, which I’ll blame mostly on some exceptionally bad chipping (not to mention undulating sloped greens).

However, on the back nine, my iron play came alive and it struck me why so many Tour players continue to play with bladed irons.

Assuming you can find the center of the club with the ball, and actually strike the thing, the ball flight is nothing short of gorgeous with blades, and I’m finding the additional height is very helpful in cruising over certain tall objects, namely trees, in search of the green stuff.

Don’t let anyone tell you amateurs don’t have the chops to play with blades!  It just takes a lot of work and perseverance, but it can also be very well worth the effort.

I hit several greens in regulation on the back nine by hosting some smooth, high-arc shots with a slight draw, planting them nicely a couple of times in birdie territory, but otherwise still getting close or on the greens.

Now, I’ve just got to go teach myself how to chip again.

So here’s now what’s in my bag: TaylorMade Rocketballz driver (adjusted at 9.5 degrees), a TaylorMade RBZ 3-wood, an old TaylorMade 5-wood, a Nike hybrid (I forget the loft, but I hit it around 200-220 yards), 5-6-7-8-9 Ben Hogan “Redline” blades, 3-4 Mizuno MP-25 irons and PW, Mizuno 56-degree wedge, a Vokey 60 degree wedge, and an Odyssey White Hot “Rossie” putter.

My handicap index is now a flat 12, but I am bound and determined to get into single digits over the next couple of years.

Back to the NCAA brackets: Despite Austin’s hosting the second round South play, there aren’t any Texas teams in the mix, so I’m going this year with my other all time favorite, Duke.

If you want to use some high tech for your own bracket picks, WPTV.com out of West Palm Beach has a list of several smartphone and tablet apps you can use to make your picks.

Turbo Sports Update

I’ve been so consumed with technology these past few weeks that I’ve all but forgotten to mention what really counts in life, and that’s sports.

First, and my first love, golf.

What in the world got into Padraig Harrington yesterday at Transitions?  Harrington comes out roaring with a 10-under 61 in the first round, and is already -1 for the day today, still leading the pack.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods says no Achilles heel, or in this case, tendon, will keep him from the Masters.  I just hope his game keeps him in through the Masters weekend.

And Rory McIlroy continues leading the FedExCup points, not to mention the official world golf ranking. Oh, yeah, AND the money rankings.

I’m keeping my eye on a few golfers for the Masters, we golfers’ SuperBowl of Golf. Yes, Rory should be in the running this year, but I also have my eye on Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood, and Keegan Bradley. We’re only a couple of weeks away, so we’ll see how they stack up the next two weeks.

Turbo is 12 for 16 thus far in his brackets for the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Then, there’s the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. I went to ESPN and picked my brackets the other day, and so far, I’ve had four bad picks and twelve good ones.  Pretty good for not having really handicapped the teams this year. Although my Texas Longhorns had better get it together — they currently trail Cincinnatti by 3 in the 2nd.

Way over in another part of the world, congratulations go out to Sachin Tendulkar, cricket “god,” who finally scored his 100th international ton in a match against Bangaladesh earlier today (a match which, in a theme not unfamiliar to Indian cricket fans, India lost!).

And my Premiere League fave, Manchester United, lost 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League, exiting them from this year’s tourney.  This will be the first time since the 2001-02 season they won’t contest a cup final.

And alas, for you fans of the new HBO David Milch series about horse-racing, “Luck,” well, you won’t have much of it. The series’ filming has been stopped due to some horse-racing deaths (three so far) during production.  Once again, a Milch series won’t make it to the HBO finish line, leaving the series’ denoeument to its viewers’ imagination (the same thing happened to “Deadwood,” some of the most brilliant TV I’d seen in years).

Too bad, the characters’ complexity were just coming more clearly into view, with stellar performances by Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, among others, and the cinematography some of the most gorgeous I’d seen on TV in eons.

Dead Birds And Razorbacks

What is up with all the dead birds falling out of the skies in Arkansas?  And apparently, now, also in Louisiana?

And what about all those dead fish in Arkansas?

The initial reports said something about the birds being freaked out about the fireworks.

Look, I grew up in rural Texas.  I used to shoot really loud guns at and around birds, and unless I was aiming at one, they didn’t just drop out of the sky due to an exceptionally loud noise. Including Black Cat bottle rockets (for those of you who remember those, and probably fondly).

Methinks something else is afoot here.  And it reminds me of when all the bees started dying off a few years back.  Remember that, back in 2006?

In that case, the scientists came up with some really cool, “Fringe”-ish names for the phenomena: “Colony collapse disorder” (CCD) and “honey bee depopulation syndrome” (HBDS).

Turned out, just last year some proteomic-based pathogen screening tools developed finally suggested that invertebrate iridescent virus type 6 (IIV-6) and Nosema ceranaewere were found in all the CCD colonies sampled.

Just in case you were wondering what the likely cause(es) were.

So, don’t hold your breath on the lowdown for all these dead birds.

We may not know anything for years.

I just hope it’s not any kind of foreboding against the great Arkansas Razorbacks, who are taking on THE Ohio State University tonight at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

But just in case, I guess it’s a good thing the Sugar Bowl has a roof.