Golf Spelled Backwards

If you need putting tips, you can't go wrong by listening to what Ben Crenshaw has to say. What I like about this video, in which the putting genius Crenshaw discusses his craft, is that Ben never talks about mechanics. He's asked to offer advice to recreational golfers, and the advice he offers is about feel, and nothing but feel. Crenshaw talks about the way most amateur golfers grip the putter - too tightly, he says. "Hold the putter as a delicate instrument, because you're doing delicate work," Crenshaw says. And: "Back off the grip pressure just a little bit, that makes the putter head feel heavier and therefore it swings more." He then switches to what he calls one of the best things he heard Harvey Penick say about putting, "Never look like anyone else when you're putting," and explains what that means. And finally Crenshaw briefly touches on the speed vs. line debate, and you can probably guess what side of that debate Crens...

Michelle Wie will eat anything. Don't believe me? Here she is eating squid ... live squid ... in Korea: Hahahaha I mean....I gotta do it! Only in Korea once a year with the fam bam! #livesquid #bizarrefoodskorea #fearfactor 🐙🐙 A video posted by Michelle Wie (@themichellewie) on Oct 18, 2015 at 1:33am PDT And here she is eating chicken feet: Chicken feet during a proam? Why not.... 🙈🙊 #wheninkorea #casual #isitglutenfree A video posted by Michelle Wie (@themichellewie) on Oct 13, 2015 at 10:48pm PDT Different cultures enjoy different food. What might seem yucky to people in one geographical area is yummy to those in another. The rustic elements of Asian cuisines have always challenged the American palate, but foodies everywhere - and especially those like Michelle, who bridges two cultures - become more adventurous all the time. Wie posted these two videos from Korea, where she was playing the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship. And it's not the first tim...

Shannon Lee Sanderford, the reigning Miss Texas, threw out the first pitch before a Texas Rangers game, and she didn't let the opportunity pass to make another pitch. She wants a date with Jordan Spieth. How did she Miss Texas make her pitch to Jordan? In the form of a rap. And yes, it's every bit as bad as you'd expect! Deliciously bad. Watch: Alas, Miss Texas, your hitting on Spieth via "rap" is all for naught. Jordan is quite happy with the girlfriend he already has. Annie Verret might not be Miss Texas, but she's probably going to be Mrs. Jordan Spieth .

It's been a great day for great putts. The kind of putts you have to see to believe. Like, this one, for example, by Bubba Watson: Putting & reading the greens well so far!! Good read @jtedscott !! #USOpenChambersBay pic.twitter.com/9Iobm55qUS — bubba watson (@bubbawatson) June 12, 2015 That was Bubba playing and practicing on the Chambers Bay greens that await U.S. Open participants next week. But you know what? That was only the second-best putt of the day. This putt by Jodi Ewart is even better: 30 feet of break on 7. @Jodi_Ewart . @LPGA #KPMGWomensPGA Westchester Country Club #SCTopTen @SportsCenter pic.twitter.com/QWY1OX9XJC — Adam Shadoff (@AdamShadoff) June 12, 2015 Ewart's putt beats Watson's because Ewart's happened in competition. And in a major, no less: the Women's PGA Championship.

Today's YouTube find is this phony infomercial that dates to 2004. The fella in the video purports to be an expert at Urban Golf, and wants to sell you a set of videos telling you everything you need to know about Urban Golf. Do not call the number, the product doesn't actually exist! My thought upon first watching this was: Wow, this is bad. My second thought was: This is intentionally bad. It's a parody, after all. It's a parody of golf infomercials, but it's also a parody of Urban Golf and the too-cool-for-school people who do it, believing themselves to be "expressing themselves creatively" or something. Your mileage may vary, of course, as with all thing humorous (or trying to be humorous). Even if you don't think it's intentionally bad, you'll at least think it's bad, which presents its own kind of comedy.

Michelle Wie made her acting debut on an episode of Hawaii Five-O that aired on CBS on Feb. 20, 2015. Did you catch it? She played herself, but working as a caddie for Five-O boss Steve McGarrett in a big match. Check it out: What do you think: Does The Big Wiesy has a future on the big screen?

Photo via PGA of Australia Tour professionals Richard Green and Marianne Skarpnord got engaged only about 10 days ago. That was a pretty amazing week for them. But what happened this week is even more amazing - at least for the rest of us. First up was Green, playing in the Oates Victorian Open pro-am in his native Australia, where he made a hole-in-one. Not just any ace - an albatross. An ace on a par-4. Green hit driver and didn't even realize he'd aced it after seeing his ball go into a greenside bunker. But golf balls take funny bounces sometimes, and Green's definitely did: Perhaps one of the unlikeliest holes-in-one ever caught on camera! Is it possible that Green could top that hole-in-one in the tournament proper? Maybe the only way he could was to win the tournament - which he did, in a 2-hole playoff . But what about Skarpnord? Surely she was completely overshadowed by her boyfriend's exploits. Wellllll, not so fast. Marianne was playing in the Lad...

Sometimes even the best golfers in the world - pro golfers, tour golfers - do boneheaded things on the golf course. Such as taking a practice swing directly behind the golf ball. When you do that, and you accidentally chunk a divot on that practice swing, bad things can happen. Very bad things. Such as that divot flying forward and hitting the ball. But it's happened at the highest levels of golf. In fact, in 2013 it happened on the PGA Tour and the Web.com tour on back-to-back days! On Sept. 14, 2013, Justin Rose's practice swing divot struck his golf ball during the BMW Championship: And on Sept. 15, 2013, during the Web.com Tour's Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship, Hudson Swafford did the same thing - hit his golf ball with a practice swing divot: Dumbasses! (C'mon, you know you wanted to say it, because now you don't feel so bad about the dumb things you've done on the course.) What's the penalty? One stroke (Rule 18-2). And...

What does every golfer wish they had when practicing? A personal ball retriever. But the following two professional golfers - Danielle Kang and Rachel Connor - have come up with solutions. Their dogs! Here is Danielle practicing with the help of her adorable pug named Booda: Wedges at Saticoy Country Club today!.. I had my personal ball boy with me 😂😍 #Booda @boodakang A video posted by Danielle Kang (@daniellekang) on Jan 12, 2015 at 1:37pm PST Hmm, is Booda actually brinding the balls back? Or is he just running off with them? Never mind - either way, it's cute. The conditions are just a wee bit different in snowy England for Rachel Connor, but she's getting a helping paw from a handsome pup, too: Abit of golf in the snow ⛳️ A video posted by Rachel Connor (@rachelconnor) on Jan 14, 2015 at 4:31am PST

For the last few months a video of two black swans charging at a golfer has been making the rounds. The golfer, with his buggy, hit too close to the swans' favorite water hole, and they didn't like it when he showed up to try to play his golf ball. (The giggling and cackling videographer lets loose multiple f-bombs, so take that into consideration depending on where you are watching this.) The incident took place at Grimsby Golf Club in England. And the video, after sitting on YouTube for a short while, was noticed by Blinkbox, an on-demand video service in the U.K. They digitally replaced the swans in the original video with dragons, and, there you go: a neat commercial for Game of Thrones :

These are just a couple kids at the driving range one night, and they manage to pull off a fantastic trick shot. And it only takes 8 seconds: "Oh my gosh, that was cool," one of them says. And he's right!

Have you seen the A&E show Wahlburgers ? It's a "reality" TV show following the Wahlberg family - which, of course, includes Donnie Wahlberg and Mark Wahlberg - as they expand their burger restaurant beyond Boston. It airs on A&E. In a recent episode Mark took a bunch of his pals to the golf course. That scene began ominously with Donnie telling viewers that Mark likes to pay people to eat disgusting stuff. Sure enough, on the golf course Mark begins collecting large, thick divots. After the round, he offers two of his golfing companions $500 if they eat one of those divots. Actually, it's a race - he who eats the divot, and finishes first, wins Mark's $500. So these poor schmoes plop their divots between two buns (one of them adds Dijon mustard) and dig in. Here is the setup: And here they are actually chowing down their "divot burgers": Disgusting. Would you eat a divot for $500? I wouldn't. I guess these two guys were either ...

Here are some new videos Rickie Fowler has done with Farmers Insurance, in a 1970s/1980s TV detective show style. Episode 1 is titled Backswing Sting : Episode 2 is Divot Dummy : Rickie likes turning somersaults. But he hates bad etiquette on the golf course. (Strangely, though, he doesn't mind blowing up greens ...)

Did Charley Hull just become an international superstar? The 17-year-old captain's pick for Team Europe in the Solheim Cup waxed Paula Creamer in singles, 5 and 4. And then asked Creamer to autograph a golf ball for her. Here's a video clip of Charley shot by Sky Sports a couple weeks prior to the Solheim Cup. Judging by the wallpaper in her bedroom, Charley might require the help of an interior decorator when she grows up and buys her mansion. But everything else about her is fit. Earlier post: Meet Charley Hull, the sexy Brit who's busting out

Just call it a kung-fu golf shot. That's the title of the video that's making the rounds - this golfer has a way of hitting his driver that is as unique as Happy Gilmore's: And cooler than Happy Gilmore's, methinks.

The great city of Calgary is still trying to recover - and will be for some time - from torrential and devastating flooding that occurred nearly a week ago. And the damage to golf courses in that flooding is pretty far down the list of things to worry about. This flood took people's lives, homes and dreams. But we're a golf blog. So here is an amazing video showing the damage at one of Calgary's golf courses called Kananaskis: And here are a few more videos showing the Calgary flooding at area golf courses:

After winning the 2013 U.S. Open, Justin Rose got himself on the tee-vee. He headed to New York and made the rounds on a few talk shoes. That included what is almost becoming a tradition: the Masters and U.S. Open winners delivering a Top 10 List on the Late Show with David Letterman . And Justin Rose made the trip to the Ed Sullivan Theater to deliver Letterman's Top 10 on Tuesday, June 18. The video is below; if you want to skip watching and just read the list, look below the video. Top Ten Questions People Ask Me About Golf delivered by Justin Rose 10. "There is regular golf, there is miniature golf - how come no giant golf?" 9. "Why don't all balls have dimples?" 8. "Does Obamacare cover the yips?" 7. "Ever get tired of Jim Nantz whispering?" 6. "Would you let President Putin hold your trophy?" 5. "How often do you slap your caddy?" 4. "Is a threesome better than a foursome?" 3. "Can ...

The 2013 U.S. Open is the 100th anniversary of amateur Francis Ouimet's victory that stunned the golf world in 1913, when the local boy beat British legends Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff at Brookline. Ouimet grew up across the street from The Country Club, he was 20 years old, and his caddie was a 10-year-old named Eddie Lowery. Ouimet's story is told in the book by Mark Frost, The Greatest Game Ever Played , and in the movie of the same name starring Shia LaBeuf . In 1963, Brookline was the site of another U.S. Open to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ouimet's win. So in 2013, naturally, the Open returned to Brookline on the 100th anniversary. Except that it didn't, of course: the U.S. Open is at Merion this year, not Brookline. Why not? Former USGA executive director David Fay explained in a Golf Digest article: That's a sensitive subject. Some members of The Country Club regarded the 2013 Open as a foregone conclusion, a birthright. I like The...

Here is a video posted on Annika.com (and YouTube) by parents Annika Sorenstam and Mike McGee of their adorable 3-year-old Ava golfing: All together now: Awwwwwwwwwwwww!

It's time once again on the schedule for Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament. Last year, at the 2012 edition, Tiger Woods won with the help of a brilliant chip shot on the 16th hole in the final round. Let's look back, shall we?