Without a doubt, Peter Jacobsen holds a place in my dream foursome. He has a reputation as golf’s funnyman, a role which he fills well, but he’s also a fan-friendly, fun, and totally “gets it” when it comes to being a professional in the public eye.

When I picked up a copy of Embedded Balls by Jacobsen with Jack Sheehan, I had high expectations that I’d be getting candid Jacobsen at his best. I wasn’t disappointed.

Chapter List

1. Memories of Payne
2. Tinseltown and Big John
3. Plugged In
4. A Breakout Year
5. Hartford and My Heart
6. Please…I’m Trying to Concentrate Here
7. A Senior Moment…Interrupted
8. The U.S. Senior Open : How it All Went Down
9. The Pros and the Ams
10. Tiger and Fluff…And Other Stuff
11. Carrying on a “Tradition”
12. Things We Can Do Better

This book is absolutely packed full of interesting and funny anecdotes. Here’s a look at a few of my favorites:

• There’s a hillarious story about his father meeting Clint Eastwood inside the ropes at the Gerald Ford Invitational.
• There’s a touching and funny chapter about his friend, the late Payne Stewart.
• One incident I had never heard about - John Daly missing drilling a drive into a spectator’s face by about a foot - at a golf clinic.
• He includes a chapter about what Tour pros can do better, including a story about a dressing down he got from Arnold Palmer about signing an illegible autograph for a fan.
• He recounts his difficult recovery from hip surgery and his subsequent win at the 2004 U.S. Senior Open
• There’s a look at his foray into Hollywood, both in his supporting role in the movie Tin Cup (one of my favorites) and his show Plugged In on The Golf Channel (also one of my favorites).

The Good

Where do I start? The book reads like Jacobsen is sitting right there in my living room shooting the breeze. Once I started, I had trouble putting it down. I mentioned a few of my favorite moments above, but there are tons of great stories shared in this book. Some of them brought back well publicized stories like the saga of one-time Tiger caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan, who looped for Jacobsen for a long time prior to that. Some were things I hadn’t heard like the story of an apprehensive Arnold Palmer and his participation in a show with trick-shot artist Chuck “The Hit Man” Hiter.

The Bad

What’s not to like? Sometimes I have trouble formulating criticism about books I review (I don’t tend to review the bad ones). I’m pretty sure I’m covered here, though - I wouldn’t change a thing in this book.

Conclusion

If you’re a fan of Peter Jacobsen, then you’ll love this book. Even if you’re not, I still think you’re going to like it. It was fun and interesting and a great behind the scenes look at the experiences of a long time tour pro. Through the good and a bad, Jacobsen maintains a positive attitude and describing him as fan-friendly is an understatement. And boy does he know how to tell a story!

This year’s U.S. Open championship is going to stick in my memory for a long time. Today was a great day to be a golf fan. My only regret is that I didn’t see it live (darn job). I must confess to having one eye on the leader board and on the constantly updating blogs throughout the day.

I’m not much for predictions, but I did say that I wouldn’t bet against Tiger Woods. The things he accomplishes are almost beyond belief.

An even better story this year was Rocco Mediate. I’m a big Tiger fan, and almost always root for him. There was one problem this week - Rocco is too easy to root for. Every comment you hear about him is positive. His attitude is great. He has fun on the course. He interacts with fans. He was the underdog, if there ever was one.

As Sunday’s round shaped up, I couldn’t help but get in Rocco’s corner. At 45 years old, he would have been the oldest player ever to win a U.S. Open. As it came down to the wire, it felt like a paper-thin lead. Tiger obviously showed why he’s the king of clutch play, with his putt on 18 to get into the playoff.

I have to admit believing that Rocco and Tiger going head to head today wouldn’t be pretty. I had anticipated Tiger applying a huge beating. I would be happy for him, but sad for Rocco, having been so close to winning, only to get destroyed in a playoff.

Except it didn’t happen that way.

Oh, he certainly appeared to be in trouble, being down by three strokes at one point. But he stayed calm and steady and eventually regained the lead. He showed a great competitive spirit. Many players would have wilted in that spotlight, especially down by three. Not Rocco.

We now know it wasn’t meant to be. Tiger was too much, but it took a sudden death hole to decide it and he did it on a bad knee.

I have to thank both players for such a memorable Open. Today, they showed what golf is all about - fierce competition, coupled with excellent sportsmanship. I’ve never seen a player so gracious in defeat as Rocco Mediate was today.

At first, I was a little sad that he lost, but given his positive attitude, I think he’s going to turn this experience around and make a resurgence on tour, at least for the near future. Unfortunately, his age is a factor, but he says his back is absolutely pain free. On top of that, he proved that he could stare down what will probably be the best player that ever lived. Maybe he’ll have a couple of decent years as he coasts toward the Champions Tour.

Congratulations to both of them.

Being competitive by nature, I can’t pass up a good challenge. The Happy Rock knows how to motivate me by pressing my competitive buttons. He laid down the gauntlet and I’m now finding myself embarking on the One Hundred Push ups training program.

Push ups are a great exercise for building strength in the core, shoulders, chest, and arms. The basic premise of the program is that you can work up to 100 pushups (in a row, wiseguy) by doing three 10-minute sessions per week for six weeks.

The program is simple: simply take the initial test which helps you determine your starting level. With that information, you can start with the week 1 program and progress through each week until you get to the end. You then follow up with the final test to see if you can drop and knock out 100 push ups. As you progress through each week’s program, if you’re not making the grade and aren’t ready to advance, then simply repeat that week’s program until you’re ready for the next level.

This is a perfect Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine that only requires ten minutes per day. I’m going to work on it in the mornings before heading to work. It will supplement my normal fitness routine, so I’m not looking to knock anything off the schedule to make room.

As golfers, we should all recognize the value of core strength. Push ups are a great way to make strides in that area, as well as in several other parts of the body. If you can significantly increase your core strength, improvement in your golf game is virtually guaranteed, especially in the area of distance off the tee.

Are you ready to take the challenge!? Let’s do it! It’s free and it only takes 30 minutes per week. I was challenged and now I’m challenging you!

If you choose to rise to the challenge, I’d like to know two things: how many push ups you were able to do after the six week program, and how many weeks did it take you to get to 100 (if it was more or less than the standard six weeks)?

It was good to get back to taking lessons this week. I had my first one in quite a while on Saturday.

After watching me hit a few shots from face on and down the line perspectives, my pro’s first observation was that my takeaway is bad. I’ve been taking the club too quickly to the inside of the line to start the swing.

This is likely due to my work with a one-plane swing. It’s very rotational and the desire to take the club back on the correct plane caused me to go a little bit in the wrong direction. It goes a long way to explaining why sometimes I don’t feel right at the top of the swing and why when that happens, the result is a guaranteed snap hook. Even when I don’t do that, I still have a tendency to pull the ball left.

After putting me in a better takeaway position, my pro gave me a good drill to work on getting in a solid position to start the swing, that he wants me to do each evening at home.

The results were immediate, though.

I got rid of those lousy pulls and started putting a series of 7-iron shots dead on target. I only lapsed back into the old habit a handful of times. The rest of the shots were right on target.

As much as it sounds like a fairytale fix, I’m still going to have to work hard to adopt this change. As soon as I grabbed my 2-iron, I realized I was going to have a lot of work ahead of me. I can’t remember ever shanking a 2-iron before, but I did it a few times on the range.

No worries. It’s a strange-feeling change that will take a lot of work to make. It’s also a divergence from the Hardy one-plane swing, but as I said last week, I’m willing to let that concept go, in favor of good instruction that takes me in another direction. The one-plane swing is one of many and isn’t the only “right” one.

It wasn’t all about identifying mistakes. My pro pointed out a couple of positives in my swing.

First, he said that I have a good athletic move through impact. Second, he said my tempo is pretty good. He said it could use maybe the slightest tweaking, but that it’s really, really close.

The tempo thing was kind of eye-opening. Normally, I’m trying to hit the ball hard. Standing on the lesson tee, I was trying to hit the ball well, with no consideration for distance so I felt like I backed off just a hair. Who wants to hit bad shots in front of someone?

It’s not that I get out on the course and choose hitting long instead of striking the ball well. In fact, I’m having trouble trying to describe the change in my mentality that I felt on the lesson tee. Whatever it was, I think it led to more smoothness in my swing. The explanation could just be a simple as backing off a few percentge points on the effort-o-meter that bought a little of consistency in the process.

In the coming days, I’ll be trying to figure out how to bottle that up and take it to the course with me.

Whenever a major championship is looming, I can’t help but sit here brimming with anticipation. Each major holds a special place in my heart.

The U.S. Open, national championship of the United States conducted by the USGA, is as tough a test as any player will face in any particular year. The coolest thing is that it’s a democratic major. Got game? Then play your way in. If your handicap index is 1.4 or better, you have a shot. A tiny, minuscule, wee, infinitesimal, chance. But hey, it’s a chance.

I love the difficulty of the courses during the U.S. Open. Many people have unkind words to describe those conditions. I say, bring it on. Not because I want to see pros getting embarrassed on such a difficult course, but because the best will rise to the top. A player that isn’t at the top of his game for four rounds won’t be a factor. A player that plays intelligently, with precision, will rise to the challenge. A player that doesn’t know when to take risks or isn’t having a good ball striking week will go down in flames.

I’m having trouble trying to pick a winner this year. Tiger Woods is usually a safe pick, but he’s been injured for a while. He hasn’t played a tournament since the Masters, but he’s ready to go now. He may not win, but I wouldn’t bet against him.

How about Trevor Immelman? He won the Masters this year, but only has 2 top ten finishes in 13 starts.

Phil? I think he always has to be considered. We all know he’s had some bad moments in U.S. Opens, but without a doubt, he could find himself contending on Sunday.

There are so many cases to be made for different players. Justin Leonard won last week. Does he have more major magic? Boo Weekly is an excellent ball striker and has been playing well. Maybe it’s his week. Anthony Kim is an up-and-comer whose time may be here. Can Ogilvy win another? Is Vijay over the hill?

There are so many guys that have a shot.

I’m undecided. How about you? Who’s going to win?