LPGA golfer Christina KimMike Groll
TWITTER TWIT: LPGA player Christina Kim learned a valuable lesson about the social media tool, Twitter. While it's a great way to communicate with friends and fans (in 140 characters or less), it also leaves you exposed to whatever scrutiny the cyberworld decides to heave upon you. That's what happened to Kim on Friday. She tweeted about something she said she heard, that a player had cursed at a course official during the LPGA event in France.
"I was just told someone very prominent in the future of the LPGA-a young major winner, said to one of our rules officials "go f-word a tree" that is just inappropriate,rude,unprofessional,and just bc she dropped off the leaderboard doesn't mean she should say that. I spit on her" read her post.
"I think players should be barred from the tour for speaking to an official in that manner. That and a big old smack from me, across her face"
That set off a firestorm in the Twittersphere. Fifteen minutes later, she corrected her original post:
" Just spoke with the rules official, and they said that was not exactly what was said. So let us stop assuming. But regardless, the officials have the most thankless job on tour, we would be in a world of chaos without them!"
That didn't stop the speculation as people attempted to pry out of her which player she was speaking about? Was it Morgan Pressel? Or maybe Paula Creamer? A reply from @AugustaGolfGirl suggested: " IDK but sounds like a BL move to me... She likes to throw clubs :( but who knows.. NOT kool!"
That prompted this reponse from Kim...
"Ok folks, stop naming names. Its NOT PC, bc I would have said RECENT major winner. And "young" is all relative. Young might mean 37yrs old"
You know, of course, that didn't stop the second guessing, which then led to this entry: " Ugh you guys. If you truly thought I meant I physically spat on someone-you should stop following me. I never would, nor ever HAVE done that I meant that in a METAPHORIC way. Sheesh, stop assuming, and think about what was said. On that note, I'm sad to say I missed the cut."
Forget about the cut... we want to know, who was it Kim?
"I'm so sick and tired of people making inaccurate assumptions about things I tweet about. In fact, I am so sick, I'm going to start blocking people more and more, and I'm going to take a break from tweeting. Thanks a lot, jerkwads, for ruining a great thing."
And with that it appears the Twitter life of one Christina Kim has apparently come to an end.
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LITTLE BIG MAN: Good to see Spencer Levin climbing the second-round leaderboard at the RBC Canadian Open. He was two under through 11 on Friday, a shot off the lead.
Levin's not exactly a household name but I've kept on eye on his career over the years.
The California kid first surfaced on many people's radar in the 2003 U.S. Open, when he tied for 13th place and was the low amateur.
But I started hearing more and more about him when he joined the Canadian Tour a few years later as a fledgling pro. He ripped up the developmental circuit, created a big buzz by winning twice in 2007 and again in the spring of 2008.
Just goes to show you the Canadian Tour is worth paying attention to. Some good players emerge from there. (Speaking of, Canadian Tour regular Brock McKenzie was leading The Canadian Open as of noon.)
Levins' not exactly the prototypical pro. He's slight (his PGA Tour profile lists him as 5-foot-10 and 155 pounds and that seems generous), doesn't hit it far (155th in driving distance) and has a hitchy swing, not the groomed, flowing lash you see from most young pros these days.
But he gets the job done. Just seems to be one of those guys who's figured out how to get the ball in the hole. In his second year on the PGA Tour, he's won more than $650,000 and had a top-10 finish at the Valero Texas Open, plus four other top 25s.
Not riveting stats. But good enough to keep a place on the tour, and good enough to prove there's room in pro golf for all physiques and styles.
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SAY A PRAYER FOR THE SUPERINTENDENT: The grounds crew at St. George's has been preparing for the RBC Canadian Open for, literally, years. It took just a night of rain to undermine its efforts.
The private club embarked on an aggressive renovation plan a couple of years ago. The improvements were meant to take place over five years but were squashed into two to be completed in time for the Open.
I took a tour of St. George's a couple of months ago to see the changes on a cold, windy, spring morning with superintendent Keith Bartlett, a friendly and articulate fellow who's been at the club for four years and has overseen the improvements.
He rhymed off the elements of the makeover. Every tree on the property (about 600 of them) was pruned, some were removed, new ones were planted. Cart paths and other visual distractions were relocated to more discreet places. The course was lengthened as much as possible on the cramped piece of land (to about 7,100 yards) and the tee boxes were expanded and made uniform. Some 25 acres of new Kentucky Blue Grass sod was planted and about 120 tonnes of Pro/Angle sand was put in the bunkers.
"We got a lot of problems out the way in a hurry," he said.
He also mentioned that 23 "surface drainage problems" were fixed. Some of those fixes no doubt got put to the test overnight as the rain came down.
I thought of Keith this morning as I awoke at my Toronto home to see puddles on the driveway and news bulletins that the start of the second round had been delayed until 9 a.m. because of the rain.
I also thought back to last year (and 2008, for that matter) when a deluge of rain soaked the Canadian Open venue, Glen Abbey, to the oversaturation point and gave superintendent Scott Bowman and his crew fits. With so many weather delays and so much on-the-fly repair work to be done, the tournament didn't end until Monday.
I doubt this year's tournament will have to go to that extreme. St. George's has traditionally had excellent drainage and the 23 tweaks should help. Play is back under way and even if the second round doesn't finish until Saturday, there's still plenty of time to get the fourth round done before 60 Minutes comes on Sunday evening.
But you never know. Golf's an outdoors game. Heavy rain is forecast in the afternoon Friday. All the best laid plans could go for naught. Say a prayer for Keith.
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THE MISTRESS COLLECTION: Cashing in on celebrity downfall can be lucrative. A Victoria businessman has certainly found that out with his line of golf balls emblazoned with the faces of Tiger Woods' mistresses. Roger Sevigny says he's sold about 8,000 boxes of the 12-ball "Tail of the Tiger" package, with orders coming in from as far away Korea, Poland, Germany and France. He's also had calls from major media outlets wanting to do stories on the product from as far away as India. Sevigny tells the Victoria Times Colonist that the balls are "tacky" but "that's the point". Online sales have cooled since he started the venture back in February but now he plans to put the product in retail outlets. The boxes sell for $49.95. "I figure it's got legs at least to Christmas."
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ROLE REVERSAL: For three years, Andy Prodger has been in the fortunate position of being a caddie who does not carry clubs but South Korea's K.J. Choi has halted the unique set-up after it made him a figure of fun.Prodger, who helped Nick Faldo to the first two of his major titles in the 1987 British Open and 1989 U.S. Masters, is one of the most respected caddies on the circuit and Choi hired him for his brain rather than his brawn. The Briton gives Choi advice on club selection and putting lines while another man had the less prepossessing task of actually lugging his clubs around the world's top courses. That was despite Choi boasting precious little English and Prodger speaking even less Korean. The rules of golf say a player can only take advice from one caddie. Choi's second caddie was strictly the bag carrier. However, at this week's Scandinavian Masters, Prodger was back doing the grunt work, carrying Choi's bag. "He (Choi) got fed up with people making fun of him for having two caddies," the caddie told Reuters.