In this edition:

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The Week on the tours:

Michelle Wie missed the cut at the PGA Tour Sony Open by 1 shot with a Friday 68. It was her greens in regulation that hurt her. Her putting and driving stats compared well with the men, including three drives over 300 yards. Wie finished with the same two round score as last week's champion Stuart Appleby, as well as Darren Clarke, Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry, Ben Curtis, and Chad Campbell. All in all, she did better than Annika did last year, albeit with a little less pressure.

Meanwhile the tournament ended with Ernie Els winning in a playoff over Harrison Frazar. Els survived a three hole playoff to successfully defend his title. Both players had good final rounds of 65 and 66 respectively. Davis Love III finished third and Vijay Singh had a good final round to get yet another top ten finish.

Next week the tour comes to California desert for the Bob Hope. Mike Weir defends his title at the five round event.

Next week the Champion's Tour gets underway in Hawaii with the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai Resort.

Tour results:

PGA Tour:
Sony Open in Hawaii:

T1 Ernie Els-18 ($864,000)
T1 Harrison Frazar -18
3 Davis Love III -15
4 Frank Lickliter II -14
T5 Jerry Kelly -13
T5 Briny Baird -13
7 John Riegger -12
T8 Stephen Ames -11
T8 Craig Barlow -11
T10 Omar Uresti -10
T10 Vijay Singh -10
T10 John Huston -10
T10 Retief Goosen -10
T10 Paul Azinger -10

European Tour:
South African Airways Open click here for results

For full field scores and stats on all the tours, go to PGA Tour.com.

This week:

PGA tour:

European Tour:

2004 dunhill championship
Jan. 22 - 25
Houghton Golf Course
Johannesburg, South Africa
Defending: Mark Foster


Champion's Tour:

2004 MasterCard Championship
Jan. 23 - 25
Hualalai Resort Golf Club
Ka'upulehu-Kona, Hawaii
Defending: Dana Quigley


Nationwide Tour:

February 5 - 8
BellSouth Panama Championship
Panama Golf Club
Panama City, Panama


LPGA Tour:

March 11 - 14
Welch's/Fry's Championship
Randolph Golf Course Complex
Tucson, Arizona

Golf Books and Magazines:

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Quote/Joke of the week:

"Mr. Byers and I played terribly. He was a veteran and I was a youngster, but we expressed our feelings in exactly the same way. When we missed a shot, we threw the club away. I think the main reason I beat him was because he ran out of clubs first." - Bobby Jones

Tip of the week:

Maintaining Concentration:

For recreational golfers especially, this is difficult, because it is also a social game. What makes this more difficult is when you hit bad shots. We lose our focus on the present and start thinking about past and future shots. We start trying to make up for bad shots rather than focussing on the shot at hand.

One of my favorite suggestions for learning concentration is to go play by yourself first thing in the morning with no scorecard. No distractions, no score just each shot without worrying about results. Do this every once in while to learn how it should feel to be fully present and in a state of concentration.

Another valuable method for concentration is to visualize every shot before hit it. Even if you only have to do this while you are walking to the ball, try to see every shot in your minds eye before you actually hit it.

For more golf tips click here.

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Subscriber feedback :

Do you have relevant questions, comments, or opinions about golf that you would like to be heard? Have any suggestions to improve this ezine? Please email them to sean@lowerscoregolf.com and we may post them in the ezine.

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Good Golfing,

SEAN HARDER

sean@lowerscoregolf.com

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