Sandbaggers Anonymous

For Golfers and non golfers. Sandbagging isn't just a golfing set of tricks.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Confessions of a Sandbagger EBOOK

Yes, my golf novel, "Confessions of a Sandbagger" is now available as an Ebook.

You can read a sample and purchase from Smashwords.com

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/103748


Wondering what "occupy insert_name_of_city" is about?

I feel it is about how the 99% have been sandbagged.

Tax forms are so complicated every tax paper needs to pay someone to complete the form.


  • Tax forms need to be simplified.
City, Municipal, state/provincial and federal taxes seem to be used to pay for the same things.

The powers that are in control need to Decide who pays for what and get it done.



  • If health care (in Ontario Canada) is paid for by the province, why is a regional /city area told to come up with money to cover building a new hospital in our city region.

  • If roads are a town responsibility, why is the region asking for tax increases

  • If full day kindergarten is an "education department" of the provincial government, why is the city having to pay for full day care spaces at an educational school building.

Provincial and Federal sales tax on Home heating .



  • There's talk of removing some of the sales tax from home heating but only if you heat your home by gas or oil.

  • What about the people who live in homes that are heated by electricity?

There's more issues about how the 99% have been sandbagged.


Have a look at what sandbagging is...


Don't take my word for it, do a google search and read the definitions.


Read my book and see some other ways we've been sandbagged.


Stay well,



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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Cory Pavin -New Ryder Cup Captain

Cory Pavin is the USA Ryder Cup Captain for 2010
Snooker anyone?
Betcha didn't know he's a wizard at the pool table.

He's going to have a great time at Celtic Manor in Wales.
Golf and he can teach the team how to play snooker to improve their putting skills. Celtic Manor has pool tables.

Maybe they'll while away the rainy hours playing;

Snooker 4 Golfers
Improve your putting without actually playing Golf

Check the review on Review: From Matt Sherman, www.billiards.about.com (scroll down)
Or go directly to the review: http://billiards.about.com/od/thementalgame/gr/golfputting.htm


Review on Matt’s Blog: www.billiards.about.com/b/
scroll to:
"Win Your Next Golf Pool, Literally"

Snooker 4 Golfers includes snooker tips, putting tips, the game, and scorecards based on famous golf courses.

Snooker 4 Golfers
Improve your putting without actually golfing

available from www.lulu.com/content/4992736

Cliff Thorburn, world snooker champ and avid golfer said,
“When I teach snooker skills, I sometimes use golf examples.
Snooker 4 Golfers has my blessings!”

Notable Snooker players who also play golf:
Cliff Thorburn, Canada, single digit handicapper.
Dennis Taylor UK (1985 world Snooker champ)
Shawn Murphy, World #3 - Ireland – Single digit handicapper

Notable golfers who also play snooker/billiards:
Yani Tseng. LPGA rookie of the year.
Mark Calcavecchia
Cory Pavin
Arnold Palmer
Tom Vardon

Golf courses with Snooker/billiards rooms:
Malahide Golf Club, Dublin Ireland
Celtic Manor, Wales

Friday, October 31, 2008

Wall St executives get bonuses?

So it seems that the people who created this subprime mortgage mess may get year end bonuses from the companies using the money 'borrowed' from taxpayers?

A Bonus payment should only be given if the employee has exceeded performance goals and only if the company overall has exceeded goals.
If a company is going belly-up then no one gets a bonus.

One article said the companies 'have to pay the bonuses or the employee will go to a different company' -
Well... let them go.
Where are they going to go?
45,000 others are looking for the same job so the departing employee could be easily replaced - or not.

Executives who messed up should not get bonuses nor exit fees.

This financial situation is a real mess.

And then I read that one company is borrowing money from the Federal Reserve to pay down a loan from another government agency.
Talk about borrowing from "Peter to pay Paul" but maybe that should be "borrowing from Peter to pay... ah .. Peter"

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Is Global Warming messing up my golf game?

Is Global Warming messing up my golf game?

By J.J. Gowland


Is global warming an inconvenient truth or the reason my golf game is suffering?

Up here in this area of North America, for more than half a year, we beg for warmer weather. It’s barely forty degrees outside. Last night I had to turn on my gas fireplace to warm up the living room. If my gas fireplace is on inside the house, it’s much too cold for Ontario’s fair weather golfers like me to be outside.

Consequently I’m having a difficult time climbing onto the Global Warming Wagon.

At this point, I don’t put the blame for my lousy golf skills on Global Warming but I set the culpability squarely on the cold shoulders of Mr. Winter. He was late getting here.

We all know if even one person is late there isn’t much hope of a meeting starting on time. Mr. Winter’s snowfall didn’t land in my backyard until February — at least two months late. I suspected that Mother Nature’s offspring, Miss Spring and her younger brother, Prince Summer, and we all know the kid brother follows her around, would also arrive late. After all, Mr. Winter is driving the SUV.

Everyone is so busy these days why would I think that Miss Spring would be on time? I was delusional to even daydream about her being on time. I suspect that Mother Nature and Miss Spring were out shopping for… gloves and snow boots with the kid brother getting lost in the games arcade, probably playing hockey. l can’t explain why the hockey finals don’t occur until June. Since it’s a cold weather sport Mr. Winter is likely driving the NHL bus, too.

Mr. Winter probably drove the family to the shopping mall in their SUV and while waiting for them, he kept the motor running to stay warm. It’s even more likely that he ran out of gas. We are all delaying emptying our wallets at the gas station until the last possible moment. With the cost of gas, we either buy gas or golf balls. Depending on the weather, both items will let you skid into places you’ve never been before.

Consequently because Mr. Winter arrived late, which delayed the arrival of Ms Spring and little brother Summer I haven’t had much time on the golf course. Therefore my golf skills aren’t up to my normal levels for early June.

On Monday morning, June 4, the weatherman predicted, “Severe thunderstorms, caused by Global Warming”.

That evening, Jim and I were scheduled to play our two ball alternate shot match against Ron and Susan*. Both were coming to the golf course from work, hopefully to arrive before 6 p.m. Up here in the North Country we enjoy long evenings but the sun was scheduled to disappear and darkness will hit land at 8:50. Teeing off after 6 p.m. means we’ll have to hurry through the match.

At 5:55 Ron and Susan phoned the pro shop from the highway.

“We’re caught in gridlock! But we’ll be there!” They arrived at the golf course about half an hour later than scheduled.

At 6:20, as we teed off, the sky was lightly overcast and that meant that we wouldn’t have a typically brilliant Ontario twilight. Unless we hurried every shot we wouldn’t finish enough holes before dark for at least one couple to win the match.

As we played the second hole the cloud cover broke and the sun cast shadows on the lush fairways and new greens. But timing was still very important so we were giving 2 foot putts and moving quickly to the next tee.

On the eighth hole the sky became packed with grey clouds.

On the 10th tee we faced the western sky that now had battleship-grey cloud cover. Tree leaves were facing up to catch the rain. We were certain the clouds were loaded with rain.

We knew that if the match took more than 12 holes, we’d be heading west again and getting further away from the clubhouse. Concerned about forthcoming darkness and impending rain we hoped that someone would win the match outright by the time we completed the twelfth hole.

After we teed off on the 11th we heard rumbling in the distance. It seemed to come from the west and from the south. The noise was all around us.

I asked Jim, “Is that thunder or transportation noise along the highway?”

With confidence he said, “Trucks.”

After our second shots on that hole the truck noises became louder and more frequent. It was a little like standing in the middle of a ten lane bowling alley on league night.

I said, “That trucker in the sky needs a tune up.”

We tied the 11th and rushed over to the twelfth tee and as I pushed my tee into the ground, a back-shop employee on a golf cart approached us and asked, “Did you hear the siren?”

Jim said, “Nope. The trucking thunder is too loud.”

The young lad explained his visit. “A major storm is moving in fast from the west. We’re bringing everyone in off the course.”

Ron and Susan climbed onto the pro shop golf cart and Jim and I headed back to the clubhouse on our golf cart.

There was no way we’d finish enough holes that evening to declare a winner. We knew that once we were in the clubhouse we’d discuss how and when and if we would reschedule. Due to handicap differences we had to give our opponents 6 shots, and Jim and I were down 3 but Jim is confident that we can muster our skills and at the very least tie the match, eventually.

When lightening cracked, cold rains pounded the roof and water poured over the eaves we were safe and secure inside the clubhouse, sipping beer. After a golf game, good, bad, or even incomplete, everyone knows there’s nothing as tasty as a cold beer.

The four of us started to chat about Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”. The images and facts are all believable, but there are a lot of us northern golfers shaking our heads. It’s barely warm enough for us to climb onto a golf cart let alone on a Global Warming Wagon.

Ron said, “Here’s another inconvenient truth: Bio-fuels for use in motor vehicles are created from barley. Barley is also used to produce beer. As demand for bio-fuels escalates, the price for barley goes up and the cost of beer will go up.”

Jim said, “The price of beer is going up?”

Susan said, “Global Warming is to blame for that too?”

I said, “Global Warming”? Bah humbug! Mr. Winter is driving the bus.”

And that’s my excuse for my lousy golf skills in early June.

P.S. We’ve decided to play the final holes, 12 thru 18, next Monday (June 11) evening. Maybe by then my June golf skills will have come out of hibernation.



(*names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Journalism awards were 'sandbagged'

"Press Club of Dallas may review Katie Awards"
"The Press Club of Dallas may have to review the last three years' worth of Katie Awards, one of the Southwest's most prestigious journalism prizes, because of the possibility they were rigged, the club's president said Monday.
The entries for the 2006 Katies apparently never went before judges, and competitions from 2004 and 2005 are being probed, club President Tom Stewart said."
Stewart said he believes the competitions might have been rigged by the club's former leader, who has won 10 Katies in the past four years and has a criminal record. "

I recommend you read the whole article.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042507dntexkaties.370ff31.html#

Apparently the press club received entry fees for the contest, can't name any of the prior years' judges and the chairperson received awards 10 times in 4 years.

That's like running a tournament, charging green fees, not paying the hosting course, and then winning the tournament because of an ill gotten handicap.

Sandbagging doesn't just occur in sports.

It's why I won't pay an entry fee for a writing contest.

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Friday, March 23, 2007

It does seem strange

Two short list PGA tournaments in a row has left some professionals off the list.
Arnie's show at Bay Hill, and now the CA World at Doral (74 players) both had short fields and golfers who are in the top 70 aren't playing?

It's as if the PGA Tour is building an "elite" tournament schedule and a second level of "Those who Also played but somewhere else".

Sometimes I think it might be wise to go back to the Monday (or even on Tuesday) Qualifier rounds for everyone!

I would have liked to watch a full field at Doral - which could be for some the last chance to qualify for the Masters. The dramatic effects of that would have been great TV.

Because of these two short field player lists, some good ones aren't going to be at the Masters.

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Monday, February 05, 2007

Entourage Golf

Do you play golf alone or are you into Entourage Golf?


See my article: Entourage Golf - 'Deal or no Deal'
on:
http://www.cybergolf.com/writerscorner/index.asp?newsid=4702