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Bulgarian golf in its developmental stages - Golf course development has essentially reached the point of saturation in North America and many of the traditional golfing countries.

Yes, there are lots of absolutely gorgeous sites that could be converted into golf courses. But who is going to play on these courses?

As a result, investors and golf course developers are looking to "underdeveloped" countries in Europe and Asia for greener pastures. There the hope is to capitalize on the thriving tourist trade as well as turn some of the largely non-golfing local population into golfing fanatics.

Bulgaria is just such a country. With its recent entry into the EU, Bulgaria's development promises to be rapid and significant in the very near future. The same will likely be true for the development of the infrastructure required for extensive travel - airports, highways, hotels, tourist destinations, and golf courses.

Currently there are only two golf courses listed on GolfEurope.com:

Ihtiman Golf Club - the original Bulgarian golf course. Ihtiman Golf Course is rated by the rating committee of USGA. 18 holes, 6345 yards, rating is 71.3 and slope 131 from the back tees.

Sliven golf course was opened on May 24th, 2004. It is a par 71, 6563 yards. It features spectacular views to the Balkan mountain.

The Bulgarian Golf Federation hopes to gradually build more golf courses throughout Bulgaria. Golf courses in Razgrad, Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv and Sofia are in the planning stages, and other developers are planning golf course developments as part of larger tourism projects.

Well last Saturday I hit what may be the shot of the year. It was a dream scenario. We were on #7 which is a "simple" par 3 if you hit it right, but a sure double if you don't. We were hitting into a fairly brisk wind, and it's all carry over the water to a fairly steep bank. If you come up a bit short and hit that bank the ball will almost always roll into the water.

Well, that's what happened to me. I hit a pretty good six iron, but it got hung up in the wind, hit the bank and trickled down the bank into the water. I jokingly said, "Hey, I'm not dead yet that might be playable." I was only half joking because I could see the water was very low, and I knew it is quite shallow right there in front of the green.

After the other guys hit we went over to the green and I took a look at my ball. There it was about two feet out from dry land, fully submerged with the top of the ball about 1 1/2 inches below the surface.

Now Fritz will confirm that I just wait for this kind of situation to try out these "shots that can't be made". But this one didn't look too hopeful.

I know from past experience that a partially submerged ball is pretty easy to get up and out. One that is just below the surface can work too. But when it is that far below the surface you need a big swing and a lot of luck to pull it off.

The other problem was there was no place to stand. I didn't really want to do a Jean Van de Veld (take off the shoes, roll up the pants, flail away at the water). Fortunately there was a rock of just the right size sitting by the shore. I just rolled it out to where my back foot should be and tried standing on it. Perfect! "This should work" I said to myself.

About ten seconds later the SW came slicing down at the ball followed by a mighty splash (fortunately it was fairly warm) and the other guys started hooting and hollering. Of course in the great gush of water I couldn't see it, but the ball came out beautifully, rolled slowly past the hole and came to rest about five feet away.

I missed the putt of course, but that was beside the point. The shot of the day was in the books and will live in golfing lore for ever more.

Then there was the hybrid issue. I've been watching a couple of my buddies hit their hybrids for a few months, and decided it was about time to take the plunge. I'm one of those guys who actually likes hitting the long irons, but it's something you have to do regularly or you really lose confidence in them. I suspect it is a lot easier to just pick up a 19 degree hybrid once or twice a round and hit it nice and solid.

I finally got around to assembling these two clubs before our weekend rounds last week. And then had a chance to hit them quite a bit on the weekend. I really like the look and feel of both of them, and so far they've been working really well for me.

This was the first time we'd all been golfing together in quite a few years. And it was definitely the first time we'd played with Peter's kids, Alex, Amanda, and Nicole. So it was a special day in more ways than one.

In fact it was the first time on a real course for Amanda and Nicole. They've both been taking lessons at the local "golf academy", so this was a chance to see how they would do.

We split up into three groups (we were playing the 9 hole par 3 course) and I was with Amanda and Scott.

The first thing I noticed about Amanda's swing is that she could actually hit the ball. Wow! That's quite an accomplishment. Of course she'd learned that big John Daly like swing that instructors like to encourage kids to use. But she was actually hitting the ball with it - something that always amazes me about kids and golf balls.

Of course it didn't take long before I felt I should show her the little partial pitch swing. "Just take it back about here, and hit the ball...'poop' like that..."

My choice of words maybe wasn't the best, but it stuck. The next time I said "you should probably use that little 'poop' swing here..." Amanda cracked "Ok, but do I have to say 'poop'...?"

Of course. It wouldn't be a 'poop' swing if you didn't.

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Golf Workouts Can Transform Your Game

by Mike Pedersen, Golf Fitness Expert

I’m sure by now you’ve heard most of the professional players; both men and women actively participate in golf workouts. It’s no secret. But why then do most amateur golfers ignore this? Is it because it seems like work? Or, does the thought of actually breaking a sweat get you tired already?

Either way…the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it’s hurting his game? I don’t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I’m talking about.

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Now that spring has arrived in southern Ontario the clubs have already been dusted off for another season.

Actually Fritz, Sean and I did a five day trip to Dallas last month for some power golf -- 8 rounds in 5 days. But that doesn't count. The real golf around here is about to begin over the next couple of weeks.

Well, that's not true either. Fritz and I were out last Friday (March 30) for a round at Carlisle near Burlington. It was a balmy 10C, and apart from being dead tired from the walk (after a very unathletic winter) it was great to be out again hacking the ball around.

As I said, the real season begins over the next couple of weeks. Most of the courses around here will be open by April 15. I even went out and bought one of those collapsible practise nets so I could hit balls in the back yard. My basement range had to be dismantled a couple weeks ago because I needed the drop sheet for a reno project we're doing. So I've actually hit very few balls over the winter.

But that's about to change. After a couple of years of very little practice time -- either at the range or in the back yard -- I've decided to get a new net (my old one seems to have disappeared), and make a concerted effort to work on my swing.

We'll see how it goes.

Heron Creek, North Port, Florida

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One of my favourite winter destinations is Port Charlotte, Florida where we have spent many winter weeks playing golf and enjoying the sun. Here are some of my favourite golf courses in the Port Charlote area.

Deep Creek Golf and CC - Fairly short, and lots of water. If you go in the afternoon you can sometimes get around in 2.5 hours.

Port Charlotte Golf and CC - Closest thing to a "muni" in Port Charlotte. Older course with lots of mature trees. A number of nice holes, especially on the back. "Make sure you get the carts in before it gets dark."

Riverwood Golf Club - One of the "prestige" courses in the area with green fees to go with it.

Heron Creek Golf and CC - Recently added a third 9 for a total of 27 holes. Nice layout. Great practice facility.

Sabal Trace Golf and CC - An older community course which we played a lot until Heron Creek opened up next door. Once saw a "big 'ol gator" walk across the putting green right in front of me.

Bobcat Trail Golf and CC - An unusual layout with some interesting holes. Practice range uses floaters -- you hit the balls at island greens in a lake.

I've mentioned in a couple of posts that a few weeks ago I started using a backyard net for working on my swing. Since the net is only about 8x8 you can't really use anything other than a low lofted club, otherwise you end up hitting balls onto the road and into neighbours' yards. Also, unless you're OK with chewing up your grass you can't really use a lot of irons.

So I'd been using it for 15 or 20 minutes a day to work on some "improvements" to my driver swing.

Well, the results showed up almost immediately. I pretty much lost my driver swing for two or three days. One round was particularly annoying. Fritz and I were visiting with a friend of his at a course I'd never played before. I didn't hit a fairway until the 9th hole. And it was very tentative for the rest of the round.

The same thing happened the next day. And it wasn't a coincidence. I already knew that hitting into a net can be misleading because you can't see the results of sidespin. Even if it feels and sounds good, that's no guarantee it isn't going to be hooking or fading or slicing when you're on the course.

Well sure enough after about 6 or 7 sessions of working on "improvements" I was hitting terrible weak fades.

After a short session on a real range I threw out the changes, stopped using the practice net, and things were more or less back to normal.

So what good is the practice net? I'm not sure.

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Follow this link for information on the PurePoint Golf System. I haven't yet purchased these videos, but since I like Bobby's style of teaching so far, I'm going to give them a try.

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We set another new record for winter golf - Since the real golf season ended around the third week of November our group has been heading out to Burlington Springs, located about 15 minutes from Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville.

Winter golf. What can I say?

For the first time since dinosaurs were roaming our land, golfers all across eastern Canada and the U.S. are taking advantage of the unusual opportunity to play golf in the middle of winter. This is pretty rare in Ontario, but, hey! with no snow on the ground, and temperatures hovering around 10 celsius, rare is a good thing.

It rained hard for about 15 minutes. Now that's golf!

Every weekend is a new record for our group. Last Saturday (January 6/07) it was raining lightly with the temperature hovering between 6 and 8 degrees -- well above the usual TT (tolerability threshold) for hard core Ontario golfers. The course was booked solid all day, as it has been most weekends since November.

I forced myself to take out the camera and shoot a few pics -- just to prove we actually did it.

With one swing on the Dancin Dogg golf simulator you'll learn more about why your shots do what they do than with any other simulator on the market.

How often have you purchased a golf training aid, used it once and never used it again? But effective golf swing training means training your muscles specific to the golf swing by using a swing analysis system and applying well-known golf swing knowledge to make adjustments to your golf swing.

Golf Digest article looks at dominance of China in golf club manufacturing - There's an excellent article in the April 2007 issue of Golf Digest that takes a close look at the extent to which golf club design and manufacturing has be virtually taken over by the Chinese.

Although low wages and a huge, hard working work force are important factors in this incredible shift, it's much more than just cheap labour that sends these manufacturing projects to China. It's the ability of the Chinese to consolidate massive capabilities in a few large factories, most of which are located within a few hundred miles of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In the process these companies have developed manufacturing techniques that speed up the process of going from concept to finished product. And at the same time the quality of the end product has been improved. That makes it possible for major manufacturers to bring out new products more often; and for "boutique" companies to produce their own distinctive lines of clubs. The Chinese can take a concept or rough 3D model and turn it into a finished club within days. Or a small company without its own design team can start with "open" designs and put their own distinctive graphics and colour schemes on them.

To a large extent this has happened within just a few years. For instance, a California company, Coastcast Corporation, that was making a million+ titanium heads in 2004 was out of business two years later. Virtually all that business went to China.

As a result, of the roughly 45 million golf clubs sold every year about 75% have some Chinese content.

Pretty amazing.

Can improper spin have a detrimental effect on driving distance? The other day Andy asked me this question in light of a demonstration he had seen on TV. Some long ball guy demonstrated two drives: one with "spin" and the other with reduced "spin". The one with reduced spin went further. Since this demonstration came with virtually no explanation it was difficult to know what he was referring to, and, in any event this was not something I had thought or read about much, so had very little insight into the matter....

Apart from the obvious of course... If you put side spin on the ball it will curve left or right. If you top the ball and put top spin on it, the ball will sail low and dive into the ground with more than usual run. And if you put bottom spin or "back spin" on it, the ball will tend to rise up, drop softly to the ground and not run a good deal. Too much back spin and it will balloon up into the wind and drop down like a stone.

Ok, that much most golfers know. But is it possible to modify your swing, change your club, or use a different ball to achieve less spin and therefore more distance? I think it is a fairly safe bet that these things can be adjusted and make a difference. But just what the optimal situation would be I am not sure. An hour or so checking on the web yielded some interesting theory, but not a lot of practical advice.

Most of what I found had to do with ball technology. Here is a pretty good article explaining some of the aerodynamics of ball flight. And here is another similar article about ball spin. I will continue to look for more information that might be helpful.

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