Given the recent downturn in Texas A&M football fortunes, rumor has it that Coach Fran is going to replace the Aggies’ traditional pre-game ritual “Spirit of Aggieland” with the New Zealand National Rugby team’s traditional pre-game HAKU.
Just kidding.
Tiger Woods’ dominating performance (and here is a video of the swing that he used) in winning this year’s British Open gives us hackers something to think about next time we tee it up on our home course.
Woods averaged 291 yards off the tee at Royal Liverpool, which stretches over 7,200 yards. He led the field by hitting 48 of 56 fairways while making three eagles, 19 birdies, 43 pars and seven bogeys. And nothing worse than that.
By the way, Woods accomplished this mostly by not using his driver, which he used precisely once during the entire tournament. His club of choice off most par 4’s and 5’s was his steady 2-iron.
Now, links golf is different from American golf in that the ball rolls farther and the need for forced carries is not as great on links courses. However, count the number of fairways you are hitting with your driver the next time you play. If it’s less than 75%, then try a round without using it at all. My bet is that your score will not be much different and, if it is, it will probably be lower.
By the way, I wonder if Phil Mickelson noticed what Tiger was hitting off the tee?
Following on this previous post from about a month ago, Round Rock-based Dell, Inc. announced late last week that — as Jeff Matthews aptly notes — it had “puked the quarter.”
Dell’s announcement sent its shares sliding almost 10% for the day on Friday to the lowest close in about five years (Dell’s stock was down $2.19 to $19.91 a share, its lowest since October, 2001). This type of announcement is getting a tad monotonous for Dell, which missed forecasts for its fiscal first-quarter revenue and earnings earlier this year, and missed sales projections last year for its fiscal second and third quarters. Dell’s basic problem is that the computer market is shifting away from Dell’s core strength in providing computers to business toward consumer PC’s, which is a smaller part of Dell’s business. To make matters worse, Dell’s cost-structure is such that it doesn’t have any room left to undercut competitors on the cost of PC’s.
Meanwhile, Dell competitor Hewlett-Packard is taking advantage of the situation. HP has restructured its operations to focus on sales growth in consumer PC’s, where its wide footprint in retail stores across the US gives it an advantage over Dell’s focus on web-based and mail order sales. HP’s PC shipments in the U.S. jumped more than 15% in the second quarter.
Finally, Matthews is not convinced that the slide in Dell’s stock price is over, either:
[Dell] has used options extensively as a key component of its employee compensation. . . Dell spent more than $15 billion in the last four fiscal years buying back stockóyet fully diluted shares declined a mere 200 million shares over that time, thanks to the companyís willingness to dilute its shareholder base with large option grants. This is all perfectly legal, of course, but as options lose their place in the hearts and minds of investors, Dell may have to figure out a better way to keep costs down.
Inasmuch as foreign affairs issues are simmering all over the place right now, I pass along the following items that I’ve come across recently:
In this Investorís Business Daily article, Claremont Institute President Brian Kennedy evaluates the US missle defense capabilities and explains why it is wholly indequate. Most interestingly, Kennedy describes an admittedly “fanciful” scenario under which North Korea would hit Seattle with a nuclear missle and an aftermath that is foreboding. The Claremont Institute is also maintaining this site that updates America’s vulnerability to ballistic missile attack as the proliferation of ballistic missile technology increases.
We haven’t checked in with Victor Davis Hanson in awhile, so this National Review op-ed provides a welcome contrary view to the gloom and doom of most media reports regarding the current Israeli-Hezbollah conflict.
For up-to-the-minute updates on the situation in the Middle East, the Truth Laid Bare provides this useful page of bloggers categorized by region and this NY Times article passes along several online diaries from the front of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict.
Finally, Foreign Affairs magazine is providing this excellent online forum on the question of “What to Do in Iraq.” Take a few minutes to review the give-and-take from the various experts particpating in the forum.