Golf Blog by The Orlando Golf Blogger

Back in early 2010, during the PGA Merchandise Show, I had the opportunity to interview Sumi-G, or more specifically, Tony Korologos,  who started working for the company after meeting them at the 2009 PGA Merchandise show. He also writes hookedongolfblog and is one helluva guy.

Sumi-G is a golf accessory company, who’s flagship products are the hybrid, fairway and driver head covers. They’ve put a big emphasis on durability and ease of use.

Features:

• Unique mechanical closure
• Convenient one-handed operation
• Rigid exoskeleton protects both club and shaft
• Easy to pick up from ground with club
• Fits right-handed clubs only
• Fits 460cc drivers (not all square clubs)
• Patented

They’re available in black and white and now offer customers the ability to customize the head covers with embroidered logos. It broke my heart when I found out that these puppies are right-handed only, because, how awesome would it be to have the OGB logo stitched on a white driver head cover?

The MSRP on the head covers is $38.00

In addition to club head covers, Sumi-G also offers a variety of golf accessories, such as bags, hats, scorecard wallets, towel brushes, divot tools, money clips and new this year, belts.

Sumi-G Dormie Belt

In an effort to get the word out about the belts, they sent me one to try out and review, as well as the towel brush, divot tool and money clip.

I was sent the Dormie – Black belt, and no, they do not give you supernatural Kung-Fu skills, regrettably…

Cool features of the belt

• It’s ambidextrous, meaning, it can be used by both right-handed golfers and left-handed golfers (hah.. sorry, couldn’t resist).
• The belt is a two tone , black on the outside, red on the inside, not presently reversible.
• It’s a high quality belt, made out of good thick leather.
• On the buckle, there’s a removable ball marker that’s attached to the buckle by a magnet. This frees up having to fumble for it on your glove or digging through your pocket of tees, change and golf balls to find one. This ball marker is interchangeable with the ball marker on the Sumi-G divot tool.
• The belt comes with two additional ball markers.

The belt is awesome and eye catching, I noticed more than one pair of eyes glancing down to check out the buckle, at least, I think that’s what they were checking out..

There’s a few things I noticed, that one should be aware of. The thickness of the belt caused me problems when I wore it with slacks. It was too wide and I had to muscle the belt tip through the loop on the second pass.

The mirror finish on the buckle is beautiful, but it shows fingerprints and smudges. Lastly, and this is something they’re working on, the buckles/belts aren’t interchangeable, which will be a great feature.

The MSRP for the Dormy is $85.

Sumi-G Divot Tool

The Sumi-G divot tool will leave your ball marks quaking in their depressions. It’s not one of those flimsy plastic numbers, it’s made from sculpted forged stainless steel.

It’s innovative design has prongs that are curved and angled to make repairing divots simple and less harsh on your favorite putting surfaces.

It’s large enough to handle your best(or worst, however you want to view it) divots, but also small enough so it doesn’t leave puncture wounds in your thigh when carrying it in your pocket.

The divot tool is durable enough to last a lifetime, assuming of course, that it doesn’t get lost in that black hole you call a golf bag.

The MSRP of the divot tool is $24.99.

Sumi-G Towel Brush

The Sumi-G towel brush, is, as the name might imply, a brush that’s used to clean grass, dirt, sand, pieces of skull, etc.. out of the grooves in your golf clubs.

This brush uses a V-cleat nautical fastening design to fasten it to the towel on your golf bag. Being the incredibly intelligent blogger than I am, I’m using this in conjunction with the Spotless Swing Golf Towel, so I can get the majority of the gunk off my club face with the brush and use the inside of the towel for the finer turf that’s missed.

It’s made out of forged stainless steel. Being the good product reviewer that I am, I had to test just how strong the V-cleat was. My golf bag was strapped onto the golf cart and my golf towel was attached to the bag by one of those latched metal rings. I pulled so hard that it broke the metal ring and sent me tumbling onto my backside. It’s a good thing my playing partners were in the clubhouse at the time..

The bristles are hard plastic so you don’t have to worry about your towel getting tangled and shredded by coming in contact with the Sumi-G towel brush.

The MSRP of the towel brush is $26.00.

Jim Furyk was disqualified from The Barclays for Oversleeping on Wednesday, August 25th and arriving late, missing his Pro-Am check in time.

Shotgun start was at 7:30am. Furyk arrived at the course at 7:35am and tour officials had no choice but to disqualify him in the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.

He set the alarm on his phone before going to bed the night before and the battery died whilst he slept. He woke up at 7:23am, threw on some clothes and bolted out the door, arriving at the event with no belt or socks with his shoes untied. I wonder if he had time for that mandatory early morning emptying of the bladder, if not, in addition to showing up disheveled, we can probably add doing the pee-pee dance.

The PGA Tour adopted its disqualification policy on pro-ams in 2004 after some players began skipping the Wednesday events for without giving suitiable reasons. Now, players are automatically disqualified from the tournament if they miss the pro-am, with the exception of injury or family emergency.

“I’m kicking myself, I have a way of climbing into situations that are all my fault.”

Although he said he was upset about not playing Ridgewood or the tournament, Furyk said the worst part of the disqualification was “to possibly, severely hurt a good year.”

“I played my heart out all year, I’ve got no one to blame but myself.”

All things considered though, it’s a pretty impressive feat that he managed to get there in 12 minutes..

This is the ONLY reason I couldn’t play professional golf, I have a propensity to oversleep, I think it’s genetic.. Ok, ok, so perhaps I embellished, it’s not the ONLY reason.. there’s this whole lack of skill that also gets in the way..

What do you think? Considering that Jim Furyk was only a couple minutes late and the fact that it is a Pro-Am and not an actual day of Barclay tournament play, should they have let this slide?

Big Break Sandals Resort week 10 is entitled ”El Ultimo Baile,” which translates to “The Last Dance.”

This is it! The final episode of Big Break Sandals Resort! The duel to the death (well, not really) between Carling “Crusher” Coffing and Lili “Annihilator” Alvarez!!!

If you’ve missed any of the previous episodes, check out the Big Break Sandals Resort episodes recap.

The episode starts out with the two remaining contestants taking in a beautiful sunrise before eating an uncomfortable breakfast. Paul, the butler/wise-man in disguise, comes in, this week not offering an envelope, but some inspirational words, “Let the competition be fierce, let it be competitive and do it from the heart.”

The final challenge

The final challenge of Big Break Sandals Resort is (as many of you suspected) 18 holes of match play. Since a full match would take well over four hours of video to record every shot, they speed things up and give us clips from each hole, which.. makes it a bit difficult to recap..

1st hole – all square
2nd hole – Lili 1up
3rd hole – Lili 1up
4th hole – all square
5th hole – all square
6th hole – all square
7th hole – Carling 1up
8th hole – Carling 1up
9th hole – all square

Up to this point, we’ve not seen particularly good “championship” play from either Carling or Lili and Carling said it best “it was embarrassing, it’s like all of the sudden we’re playing like 25 handicaps..” Which, I take offense to! I suspect, however, it’s due mostly to a little creative control on the part of the producers, instead of lack of skill from the final two of Big Break Sandals Resort.

10th hole – all square
11th hole – with two decent tee shots, Lili two putts and Carling flubs her pitch shot and leaves herself a long par putt, which she misses, resulting in Lili 1up.

12th hole – Lili had momentum going and Carling was reeling a bit, but a waterball from Lili helped calm her nerves. Lili recovered nicely however landing her 3rd shot within 10 feet. Carling has a long 50 foot birdie putt which she missed, leaving herself a relatively easy par putt. Lili missed her par putt, scoring a bogey. Carling, who’s putter has been on fire the entire round, shockingly missed her par putt, keeping Lili 1up.

13th hole – Two nice tee shots from each player, sets them both up for birdie putts, which Lili misses and Carling sinks, making it all square.

14th hole – Two drives in the fairway, two nice approach shots, both with birdie opportunities. Lili misses her birdie putt and Carling makes hers, setting Carling 1up.

15th hole – Carling hits a nice tee shot that ends up in the fairway and Lili, having a slight meltdown lands her drive in the hazard, which is a bunch of treacherous rocks that are near some treacherous water.. She takes the drop and recovers nicely, ending up on the green with a par putt. Carling ends up on the green with a birdie putt. Lili missed her par putt and Carling missed her birdie putt, leaving Carling 1up.

16th hole – Carling blocks her tee shot a bit landing in the right side rough and Lili knocks a sphincter-clencher that barely clears the rocks and ends up in the middle of the fairway. A ballzy shot to make on the final episode if Big Break Sandals Resorts, but I guess the ability to pull those off is what makes them do this for a living! Carling’s next shot landed near the bunker and Lili’s was on the green. She misses her birdie putt, making par, putting some pressure on Carling, who misses her par putt for a bogey, making the match all square with two left to play.

17th hole – Two nice drives with Lili away, she hits a beautiful approach shot landing it nice and snug. Carling’s approach shot wasn’t nearly as pretty giving herself a tough 25 foot birdie putt. Putting a roll on it like only Carling can, she sinks the putt. Lili missed her birdie putt by inches.. leaving Carling 1up going into the 18th hole.

18th hole - Both tee shots landed in the fairway, and Carling’s second shot also landed in the sweet grass. Lili’s second shot, in a horrible stroke of luck, stops nestled up against a mini palm tree. She takes an unplayable lie drop. Carling 3rds shot lands on the fringe. Lili hits her 4th shot from 135 yards out and knocks it to twelve feet. Carling’s 4th shot is a 35 yard putt from the fringe that stops an inch from the hole, thus knocking Lili Alvarez out.

Carling Coffing is the Champion of Big Break Sandals Resort!

Man what an awesome episode! Mine was a house divided, I was rooting for Carling and my wife was rooting for Lili, which is completely understandable, Lili is an awesome competitor and an incredible good sport. I was impressed with the way Lili stoically took the loss, congratulating Carling and saying she deserved it.

I wish they had filmed the ending differently. The immediate cut from the winning putt to a bunch of cut footage of earlier episodes and players, than a rushed handing over of the trophy with no final words from the winner, was, in my opinion poorly planned and executed.

Ah well.. it was a great season! Over at intothegrain.com, John posted up an interview with Carling Coffing discussing her experiences on the show. I’m sad that it’s over, but we don’t have to wait too long for the next season.

Your thoughts on the series?

Book your next Discount Orlando Tee Times through our new online tee times booking engine.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always wanted to play in an event like the Ryder Cup, but unlike many of you, I have a serious lack of talent.

So, it’s no surprise that I never get invited to play in the cool events, yeah sure, I get my fair share of corporate scrambles and charity golf tournaments, but nothing as cool as the stroke play, head to head match-ups and the like.

When I heard about this golf outing, I immediately called the wife and begged for her approval and then called OCN and booked it.

Orange County National Golf Center is hosting 16 English soldiers back from Afghanistan for a golf outing and they’ve requested a Ryder Cup Style match against some local Orlando golfers.

These brave men spend most of their time soldiering and don’t have too much time for golf, so their average group handicap is a 20. Meaning, for once, this is an event I can compete it and actually be some fair footing. 

If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Orange County National, you definitely need to, they’ve hosted multiple PGA Q-schools and the courses are top notch.

The event is taking place on September 10th, 2010 on the Panther Lake Course starting at 11:36am and they’re offering a discounted rate of $33.00 per golfer and the first round is on them!

So far, I think they’ve got around eight or so signed up and they’re looking for at least that many more. We’ve got room for one more in our foursome, so if you wanna play with one hack and two scratch, one of whom will probably be playing left handed, let me know. This promises to be a very cool event, and it’s not very often when an opportunity like this is afforded to us hack golfers. Well, atleast, not until I get the HNPGA Tour up and running. That’s Hacking-Non-Professional Golfer Association, rumor has it, OGB and Golf Channel are close to solidifying a three year sponsorship..

If you’d like to sign up, give them a call at (407) 905-2279 and don’t forget to tell then OGB sent ya!

Also, if you are playing, shoot me an email, I’d love to meet up with you!