Who will be next on the LPGA?

The LPGA's qualifying school will b held at LPGA International in Daytona Beach. the 160 participants are from 20 different countries. As we have seen in the tournaments this year winners come from all countries and internationals are coming full force to try to get their shot. the outcome should be exciting, unexpected and a thrill to watch.

A Massive Collaboration

According to cybergolf.com something big is about to go down in Mexico. Alejandro Ochoa (Lorena's older brother) and Arthur Hills/Stephen Forest and Associates have formed a design architecture form for golf courses. Ochoa/Hills Golf Design will begin work immediately on golf courses primarily in Mexico. The name Ochoa demands instant credibility in Mexico and Arthur Hills is not without reputation himself. His firm has designed 200 original courses and 130 renovations spanning 4 continents. This is a very exciting time for course design especially for the budding golf environment in Mexico.

Staying with the Northern Neighbors

When it comes to Canadian golf media, SCOREGolf magazine claims to be the "voice of Canadian Golf". Their website includes several blogs, notes on equipment and the latest news from all the tours. One of the big things now is the second round of PGA Q School where plenty of Canadian hopefuls are aiming to make the cut.

An update from the European Tour

Up next n the PGA's European Tour calender is the Dubai World Championships presented by DP World. It will be held from the 19th of November until the 22nd. Heading up the "Race to Dubai" are Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood. It should be a very interesting tournament and well worth watching the world's best.

Canadian Miracle

When we think of international golf we often forget our neighbors to the north. This past weekend a Canadian, Stephen Ames, won the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney Resort, Florida. This is the second time in three years that he has won this tournament, and he became the oldest player to do it. The 45 year old shot an eight under, 64 to take the cake on Sunday. With his birthplace in Trinidad, Stephen Ames is definitely an international player, whom we ought not to forget so quickly.

New Line from Ping

Although it doesn't pertain specifically to international golf, Ping is a major international golf company based in the United States and their new products are very exciting for golfers everywhere. It was an unexpected move for Ping to come out with new irons when there G10 series was still so widely popular. According to Golfalot.com, the new irons have seven less grams on the club face and are a bit more forgiving. This forgiveness is achieved through a custom turning point further back on the club face. Despite the loss of seven grams the engineers repositioned whats left to move the center of gravity lower and back to increase launch and achieve optimal spin. One feature that I like is the thinner look they posses, quite a change from the wide-sole format of the G10 series.

Website to keep you updated

Mygolfspy.com does just what it implies. It keeps the consumer more than updated; it keeps them ahead of the game. With the slogan"Tomorrows golf equipment today" it employs a golf search engine, golf jobs, 50 dollar deals, contests and equipment. Today's feature article was on the new G15 from Ping, something that we might look at a little later.

Sticking with Shafts

Sticking with the shaft idea from last week, lets look specifically at Fujikura. I wanted to see if they had any new technology coming out soon, and sure enough the first thing I see on their website is their new Motore Speeder shaft, advertised as "Maximum Feel. Minimum Vibration." In their own words this shaft is better because, "it is supercharged with our Quadra Axis Composite and Triax Woven material creating our 7 Axis Technology. This uniformity throughout the shaft assists with eliminating deformation yet providing the maximum amount of feel through the entire swing increasing overall performance and stability. "

Stiff? Regular? Ladies? Take your pick.

Shafts. The fact is you have to have one to swing a golf club at all. Like the clubs I mentioned a few weeks ago, Japanese shafts have also taken the market by storm. The "big three" shaft companies, Graphite Design, Fujikura, and Mitsubishi Rayon are all based in Japan. According to Inpakuto.com, in 2006 70.2% of pros in Japan use one of these three companies for their shaft needs. That's huge! And really the trend over the last several years the issue hasn't been whats the next big shaft company, it's which of these three will put out something new that will take the market for the year.

Golf and travel

This summer I'm going to Spain. Since I'll be in another country, and I love to golf, it seems like a good idea to look up golf courses near where I will be. On golfinspain.com you can search by province for area golf courses, so I looked in Barcelona for a reasonable price. So I easily found Campo Publico Golf Sant Joan. It costs as little as twenty euros to play here but the website ranks it as a four out of five in difficulty and was designed by world renowned golfer Severiano Ballesteros. Just as a resource this website is very easy to use and has just about anything you need to know about the course, from whether or not you should use a cart to what the maximum handicap is that you can play with.

KOLON Championship

This past weekend a big tournament in Incheon, Korea. Most LPGA tournaments are held in the United States, so going all the way to Korea is a big deal, especially with the growing number of Korean players on tour. Na Yeon Choi won the event at ten under by one stroke over Maria Hjorth in her home country.