The BEST Unwatched Golf Reality TV Show

I have to write about this show again because it is, for me, undoubtedly the best Golf Reality TV show on today. In my mind, The Big Break is to golf what The Contender was for boxing. This is a great show. It's real, it's fun, it's mortal (as opposed to all the pros out there who seem infallible on TV).

As mentioned in a previous post about this show, I started out watching The Big Break Florida first. In all honesty, I may have started watching that season  because of all the pretty girls and cute outfits (I slipped in that 'may' and give myself some wiggle room just in case my wife decides to reads this post). The novelty of the sexy girls, though, wore off quickly - that's for you honey. For the guys reading this, it really doesn't. I'm almost convinced the Golf Channel even edits the show in a way to make these women look more provocative than necessary. Having said that, I'm not complaining. Keep up the good work Golf Channel. But while the girls are a nice touch, what really keeps you hooked is the mortality of a struggling golfer trying to make it. Every season has drama, egos, clashes, displays of real skill, and at least a couple of amazing shots. The kind of shots we've all done at least once or twice on the fairway ourselves. The kind of shots that make us all go back to the golf course even if for 17 holes and 99% of your shots you sucked.

It's the golf fix you need while you wait for that next chance you have to play on the fairway. They even had a season where former NFL players joined the competition! That was a really good one. How great would it be to see Michael Jordan join this thing?

I can't say enough how good a job The Golf Channel has done with this show and I hope they keep up the good work. 

I've successfully been able to download at 5 seasons now of The Big Break - Florida, Myrtle Beach, Puerto Rico (NFL), Mexico, and Greenbrier. 

Controversy at the 18th Founder Cup in Orchard

Now I am no where near good enough to join a fancy tournament so I haven't. I'm not quite ready to embarass myself in front of a bunch of competitive golfers. I do just fine (embarassing myself) during a regular round of golf. But I've met other golfers who love the thrill of a tournament. They love the competition. They love the challenge. Most times there's no prize money and that's just fine. These guys don't do it for the money. They don't even do it for the trophy. They do it for pride and glory. It's poetic when you think of it that way.

Well, I heard through the grapevine that there was some controversy in the recently concluded 18th Founder's Cup at the Orchard Golf and Country Club. Apparently some golfers are up in arms and upset with how the tournament went down. So much so that I've even been asked to share an anonymous statement on the matter. I'll be doing that in a bit. First though I want to share the facts:

1) The Orchard Golf and Country Club has one of the highest active golf members in the Philippines.

2) The Orchard Golf and Country Club Founder's Cup is said to be one of its biggest annual tournaments held by the club.

3) The rules are made available and presented to members well before the start of the tournament.

4) Somewhere between after the tournament had started and prior to the awarding ceremony, the rules on a penalty were changed by the Orchard golf committee.

5) This change by the golf committee caused the rankings of teams and players to change such that some of those that were supposed to win did not and those that were not supposed to - did.

I don't know about you but whenever you change the rules halfway through anything, there's something fishy. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Here's the anonymous statement:

"ORCHARD FOUNDER'S CUP MARRED BY CONTROVERSIAL RULING

Talks are spreading wild that the results of the recently concluded Founder's Cup at the Orchard Golf and Country Club were rigged to favor certain participants.

In an abrupt move, the Rules Committee of Orchard, suddenly scrapped a long standing rule requiring participants to put an "X" on their score cards when playing for a double net bogey. While the corresponding penalties had all been imposed as shown on Orchard's website and filgolf.com, they were altogether deleted just minutes before the awarding ceremonies on the lame excuse that many violated the particular rule. The decision was met with disgust amongst those who diligently followed the rule which was nothing new nor complicated. Some golfers commented that rules are rules regardless of the number of violators. Violators were rewarded while those who complied with the rule were penalized. The supposed winners eventually ended up as losers. Those in Class B and C were adversely affected as the supposed winners were deprived of their trophies.

Many regarded Orchard's move as a disgrace to the integrity of the game. Decency and fair play were disregarded to favor particular personalities. It was truly a sad day for golf!!!"

-end quote-

Unsolicited Advise #02: Hard Tools

Whether you practice your golf game in your backyard or the neighbourhood playground, your going to need some "hard" practice tools. Unlike my previous post on "soft" tools, "hard" tools are actual items you can physically use to practice within a small area. Let's get right into it.

1. A Golf Net

Golf Net

One of the first hard tools I got was a golf net. I found my Callaway Golf Net in a local surplus outlet store. These things are great for setting up in the yard. What's nice about a golf net is you can use real golf balls and take full swings at it without worrying about breaking a window or hitting a car - most of the time. Word of warning though, if you are an absolute beginner and have zero control of the ball, be very careful. I broke a window (or two) after some really bad shots while practicing with a driver. I mean these are shots where I am aiming straight at the net. I must have somehow managed to hit the ball with the shaft of the club because the ball would go almost 90 degrees to the left or right of my aim.  Those were sad and embarrassing days. I would much rather not recount or figure out how or why. It happened. Hopefully those days are now behind me.

The golf net is a great tool. The best thing about a golf net is really getting that ball contact feel. This allows for you to get the confidence of hitting a ball. And while it is hard to tell at first, there is a very distinct and real difference between the feel of simply hitting a golf ball and hitting it flush. A golf net allows for you to be able to identify that feeling without having to see the flight of the ball.  

This brings me to the downside of a golf net - you don't see the flight of the ball. And if you don't see the flight of the ball, you don't know whether it was a slice or a hook or if it would have been straight-as-an-arrow. Yes, you might think each time you hit it flush that the ball would've likely flown straight but you never really know. As a beginner, you more often doubt yourself than give yourself the benefit of the doubt.

2. Old Driving Range Balls


At about the same time I got the driving net, I also went to a driving range and bought three large sacks of old golf balls (it must have been 5,000 - 6,000 golf balls). For about 6 months there was an empty lot right behind my house that extended about 100 yards out and 60 yards wide. I took these old golf balls and would hit an 8 iron (and later a 9, and even later - as I got better, a pitching wedge) into that empty lot.

It was great fun while it lasted.

Unfortunately, that lot was later bought and construction had started to develop the land. That was the end of my personal 100 yard driving range.

I still have a few hundred balls left and for the ones that are not cracked or too badly scuffed up, I still use them to practice chipping and pitching. Also, I keep about 50 of these old driving range balls in a small bag in my car along with my clubs wherever I go. You never know when you'll be in a place where you can hit a few into the distance with no risk of breaking anything.

3. Holed Balls

After my personal driving range had "closed" I started looking for alternatives to practice. I immediately turned to those soft, plastic, hollow practice golf balls. They come in a variety of colors but the ones that were most commonly available in my neck of the woods were the orange ones.

While I had bought quite a number of these practice golf balls, my experience with them was short. First, I almost immediately lost my first pack of 4. The reason is while these balls tend not to fly too far away on most hits, every once in awhile you'll either hit an exceptionally good one or the wind will blow pretty strong and the ball flies to the neighbors' or over to that empty lot. Second, the whole experience of using the balls left plenty to be desired. The balls tended to be soft - so soft that you could not tee up with a holed ball in your hand and use it to push the tee into the ground. Second, as soon as you tried to hit it with a driver, the ball would dent and collapse into itself on impact. The lifespan of these thing were very, very short and eventually I gave up on these.


4. Kid's old toys

Not to be deterred with the unhappy experience with the holed, hollow, plastic golf balls, I continued to experiment. I have 2 boys (a 4-year old and a 1.5 year old) who always have toy balls lying around. I would steal their old ones from them when they were not looking and have at it (not my proudest "daddy" moment but, hey, that's why I hide behind the alias). This would work most of the time and satisfy the nagging itch to hit something with a golf club. However, the guilt and the fights with the wife and kids every time I had to own up and admit I took the toy ball again proved too much. I quickly let go of this option and stopped kidnapping unknowing toys in the house.


5. Foam Balls with a hard center

They're basically really soft foam balls with a hard center. These are really great for that "impact" feel. And because of the wind drag/resistance of the foam, they only go about 20-25 yards on a full swing. I love these things and still use them from time to time. They're great for indoor use as well for anyone with enough room to swing a golf club without hitting a vase or flower pot (or person).

The only downside of these practice balls is that they're a bit pricey and NOT very durable. I mean I've seen these things priced up to $7 a set (4 pieces). When you think about it, they're just foam balls with the core cut out, a wooden marble placed in it, and then the cut out glued back in. $7 is a lot of money for that, in my opinion. Also if you use your driver with it or hit a hard surface enough times, the foam will start to break and give.

My sense is that these practice balls are best for short iron and wedge use for easy swing shots. You probably won't need any more than 4 balls for that so don't make the same mistake I did and buy a bunch of them. Keep a few in your office, car, or bag and that is all you'll probably ever need.


6. Fake grass

I actually designed, built, and installed a putting green with artificial grass in my backyard. It's only 35 square meters but it's a lot of fun for practice. I am already working on a draft for a separate post on building/installing your own putting green in the backyard. I'll share some pictures of the prep work, progress, and finished putting green on this blog another time. 

Anyway, I use the extra fringe grass that was left over from my home made putting green project to practice chipping and pitching on the driveway. I used to practice off of the lawn until my wife started giving me the stink eye over the divots. Fake grass is great because it turns any hard surface like a driveway (or rooftop) into a nice fluffy grass surface! You can even lay two layers of the grass over itself for a softer surface.

If you do decide to buy fake grass, don't get the cheap stuff. The strands on the cheap ones tend to come off of the rubber backing. Remember, you are going to be pulling those strands with the head of your golf club at high speeds. You want something that can take the punishment. So when you go to your local hardware, take a good look at the bottom of the sheet of fake grass and make sure that those strands are firmly adhered to the base. Don't be afraid to shell out a few extra bucks for the better ones, it'll be worth it.

7. The birdie ball

This is my newest discovery and toy. I actually just saw it on YouTube and thought it was great. Anything that will show me if I'm slicing while practicing at home is almost an insta-buy for me. I can honestly say it is as good as publicised. They look like mini plastic paper toilet rolls and It only flies about 25-45 yards out depending how flush you hit it. The best part about them is how apparent the slice or hook shows. It's really obvious! But because it only flies about 45 yards out max, you are really in no danger of hitting anybody's window as long as you have a decent amount of space (like a small soccer field or large playground). I take these bad boys onto a local soccer field and swing at a dozen birdie balls at a time with a driver. I then take a 6 or 7 iron and walk to the birdie balls and try to hit them back to the original spot. It's a lot of fun especially once you start hitting them consistently. It really builds confidence. I imagine this would even be fun with a friend. You can hit birdie balls towards each other - sort of like playing catch with golf clubs. I think this is an amazing tool and recommend it to anybody suffering from a slice or hook.

So there you have it, those are some of the hard tools I've used to try to learn how to play golf better. If you have other tools that you feel have helped your game, please feel free to share them. I still could use all the help I can get.

Downloading The Golf Channel's The Big Break

If you love the game of golf and have never heard of "The Big Break" you need to check this show out on The Golf Channel. There are already a ton of seasons done - at least 10 by now probably. 

All the episodes are available to stream online on The Golf Channel website. The only problem is sometimes the buffering/streaming can be slow. I once watched a 44 minute episode over the course of 2 hours! It's no fun watching a TV series lead up to a really intense point only to have it stop and play again in 10 minute breaks. In fact it's really frustrating. Other times you just don't have access to internet, and wish you could sneak in an episode into your day.

For the longest time I was researching for a way to download these videos off of The Golf Channel site. And let me tell you, those guys over at The Golf Channel really put in a lot of work to make sure it's next to impossible to do it! I tried all the hacks, and all the tips and tricks - nothing. I've downloaded all the free video downloader softwares out there (YouTube Downloader, VLC, etc.) and nothing worked. I also looked at all possible torrent sites for download links to no avail. It's a great TV series and I found at least a couple of other people looking for the same torrents but it seems no one has really taken the time to download and seed these videos.

And then one day, almost by accident, I figured it out. I was finally able to download an episode of The Big Break Florida. I thought it was a fluke! I tried another episode and the trick worked again! It's a tedious process but I love watching the TV series so much I kept doing it until I was able to download the entire season of The Big Break Florida. Unfortunately, it does not appear to work with ALL The Big Break seasons but it does work on the newer ones. I am currently downloading the current season of The Big Break (Myrtle Beach). Just in case The Golf Channel patrols blog posts like this I will NOT be sharing the trick on how to download episodes. I mean c'mon, The Golf Channel, this is TOOO GOOD a show to make it so hard for people to watch! I even tried ordering DVD sets of this series on Amazon but it was all out of stock. 

Anyway, if anybody out there would like to watch The Big Break Florida or The Big Break Myrtle Beach, let me know.

Cheers!

The Golf Dummy