I’ve been meaning to pass along the Securities and Exchange Commission’s slick new full text search engine for regulatory filings. It’s a very helpful resource.
On the other hand, as Paul Kedrosky notes, one of the unintended consequences of the new search engine is that management of publicly-owned companies may want to consider upgrading the proof-reading department.
The 2006 U.S. Open Golf Tournament begins today at New York’s venerable Winged Foot Golf Club, so the following will provide you with some interesting reading while you enjoy this year’s edition of golf’s most challenging tournament:
This NY Times article describes how Phil Mickelson’s recent success in major golf tournaments is largely the result of his team of advisors refining Mickelson’s preparation for major golf tournaments;
A family of golf pros with strong connections to both Winged Foot and Houston provide helpful hints on surviving Winged Foot;
Nike is going to try and make us cry on Father’s Day, which Jim Corrigan finds appalling;
Speaking of Tiger Woods, this NY Post article reports on Tiger’s yacht, which he is using this week in lieu of a hotel while playing at Winged Foot, and includes Tiger’s morning greeting to the gawking reporters (“It’s a little early to be taking pictures out there, isn’t it? Have a nice f- – -ing day.”);
By the way, PGATOUR.com writers Joe Wojciechowski, Dave Shedloski and Brett Avery are following Tiger during his U.S. Open rounds and blogging about it here;
The Guardian’s Lawrence Donegan reviews the brutal conditions at Winged Foot and includes this quote from Mickelson:Phil Mickelson went as far to suggest the course was “on steroids”. “I’m going to make a prediction,” he added. “Someone will hit the wrong ball out of the rough this week. There are not hundreds of members’ balls out there, but thousands, and you just can’t see them even when you are standing over them. It is thicker and denser than any rough I have ever seen.”
John Hawkins reports that some of the pros are not thrilled with the condition of Winged Foot’s greens;
And, although not U.S. Open-related, don’t miss this video of Fuzzy Zoeller’s incredible hole-in-one a couple of weeks ago during a Champions Tour event in Des Moines.
Almost lost amidst Dwayne Wade‘s heroics during the final six minutes of Miami’s nailbiting win over Dallas in the third game of the NBA Finals the other night was Miami center Shaquille O’Neal‘s making two free throws down the stretch to help his team’s comeback. For the free-throw challenged O’Neal, those free throws were nothing short of remarkable — to that point in the series, he had made only four of 20 free throws.
Of course, poor free-throw shooting is nothing new for O’Neal. Although he is one of five best centers ever to play professional basketball (Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, and Olajuwon are the other four), O’Neal would inarguably be the best of the bunch if he could shoot free throws close to as well as Abdul-Jabbar and Olajuwon did. Only Chamberlain among the greatest centers has a worse free throw shooting percentage than Shaq, and O’Neal (52.8%) may even go below Chamberlain’s desultory 51.1% career free-throw shooting percentage before his career is over.
The art of free-throw shooting has always interested me, and I could probably go out and hit six or seven out of ten free throws today even though I have not shot one in several years. So, when I came across this latest article about the Miami coaching staff’s attempts to help O’Neal with his free-throw shooting, it reminded me of a conversation that I had years ago about free-throw shooting early one morning on the driving range of Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land. The only other person on the range that morning happened to be a very good free-throw shooter, former Houston Rockets guard, Mike Newlin (87% career percentage).
Newlin had a solid 11-year NBA career, mostly with the Rockets and then with the Nets and Knicks for his last three seasons. He had impeccable fundamentals as a basketball player, and his free throw shooting style was close to perfect. At the time we found ourselves on the same driving range, I had never met Newlin, but I felt a connection to him because we had both come to Houston in 1972, my late father and I had watched him play many games in the early years of the Rockets in Houston and we had a number of mutual friends in the business community. So, before leaving the range to find my golfing partners and head for the first tee, I approached Newlin and introduced myself. He was extremely cordial and we spent several minutes chatting about our mutual friends and the early years of the Rockets in Houston.
During our chat, I observed to Newlin that he exhibited the best fundamentals in shooting free throws of any player that I had ever seen. Newlin, who is quite bright, had obviously had similar thoughts, but did not agree with me:
“Nope. I had the second-best fundamentals,” he replied.
“Who had the best?” I inquired.
“Rick Barry.”