US Open winner?

I've had a brief discussion with @mrbojumbles about the US Open golf tournament next weekend and thought I'd throw the whole thing open to debate.
I'm looking at four elements:
1) driving accuracy, because the US Open always puts a premium on hitting fairways
2) three-putt avoidance, because US Open greens are often treacherous
3) Previous form at Congressional where the AT&T National was played 2007-2009
4) Current form.
I'd love to have a super computer that could overlay all these factors and pump out a winner, but I don't so I resorted to old fashioned paper and pencil.
In driving accuracy I pencilled in the following in-form suspects; Luke Donald, David Toms, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell, Brandt Snedeker and for value added the 50th most accurate driver on the PGA Tour; Bill Haas.
In three-putt avoidance, the tour website gave me the names: Donald, Toms, Kuchar and Snedeker and for value the 54th person on three-putt avoidance, Bill Haas.
Then to another website golfobserver.com, where I looked at top-20 results at Congressional from 2007-2009. Here the following were recurring names: Furyk, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, Anthony Kim, Brandt Snedeker, Lucas Glover, Vijay Singh, KJ Choi.
It seems Donald, Furyk, Mahan, Stricker, Kuchar and Toms should all be in the mix and I went into this exercise thinking KJ Choi was the man for the title ... but I've come away from this shake-down with one name resounding in my head: Brandt Snedeker.
He's got form at Congressional, he's super accurate off the tee and a great putter.
And for a long-shot I like Bill Haas, simply because he's got a US Open style game.

Snedeker's at $80 on the NZ TAB and Haas is at $60.

New Zealand Beer of the Year

What's the best kiwi beer you've drunk this year? I'm compiling a list here of my favourites and to coincide with Beervana in August will come up with my definitive top-10 brews.

Sadly there's not enough a time to sample every single brew produced by our amazing craft brewers (nor enough time to go to the gym to burn off the calories).

Any suggestions on beers I should wrap my lips around will be well received but so far my top five Kiwi brews for 2011 are:
1) Emerson's Pilsner
2) Invercargill Brewery's B-Man
3) Hallertau Luxe
4) Mash Up
5) Epic Pale Ale

On my list for taste-testing are Epic's Hop Zombie,  8-wired's Stout and Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude. Any other beers you love?

real rules of golf

Golf needs an overhaul of the rules - a set of instructions that will work for once a week hackers as opposed to pros or someone playing in their club championship.

I'd be interested on views on these following alterations

1) Lost or out of bounds balls. Many amateurs struggle to see exactly where a ball lands. Unlike the pros we have no marshalls or a gallery to keep on eye on our wayward drives, and sometimes we're unsure if the ball has landed in or out of bounds. Rather than go back to the tee to play a third for a lost or OB ball the player should just be able to drop in the vicinity for a penalty of one. It'll speed up play and generally make life easier for guys who are going to shoot 80, 90 or 100 anyway.

2) Because no-one rakes bunkers any more if your ball lands in a footprint in a bunker, or in a depression made by a dog or rabbit, you can move it without penalty. Bunkers are hard enough to escape without some selfish clown making it worse by refusing to rake after himself.

3) A ball in a divot in the fairway can be replaced without penalty. No brainer - high handicappers get too easily intimidated by these shots and it's not fair to have to play our of the inch-deep divots other hackers leave behind.

4) An unplayable ball can be moved more than two clublengths with a one-stroke penalty. If you're in really deep rough/trees just get the problem solved as quickly as possible to save wasting everyone's time.

5) Play out of turn. There's always someone bound to be pfaffing around - looking for a tee, pacing out a yardage - if you're ready just hit and etiquette be damned.

6) A limit of two practice swings!

That'll speed up play and make life on the links slightly more bearable for those us driven crazy by our game.

Mash Up review

 IS THERE a definitive New Zealand beer? Something we could put up in a world cup of beers and say `` This is us, it represents what we make in New Zealand''?
Until a few years ago, the answer (by weight of export volume and exposure) might have been Steinlager. To me, however, Steinlager is just a New Zealand version of generic lagers that have dominated the midfield of the beer paddock.
If we want a distinctly New Zealand beer it needs to showcase what is unique to this country, something that will stand out like Jonah Lomu.
One thing we have that is uniquely ours is New Zealand hops. We've got hops that started out as British, American or European transplants but have taken on the characteristics of where they're grown, such as Cascade. And we've developed our own varieties like Riwaka, Motueka and Sauvin.
So when Luke Nicholas of Epic Brewery and his collaborative partner Kelly Ryan decided to create a beer representative of New Zealand, it was the hops that became the star.
Nicholas, who kindly supplied the images for this post, and Ryan toured the country, dropping in at 44 craft breweries, getting ideas from other brewers on what they thought was the essence of a Kiwi beer. They pulled it all together in Mash Up, a New Zealand pale ale.
The cleverly named beer references the mashing stage of the brewing cycle where grains are steeped in hot water, as well as the digital definition of mixing and matching different types of data.   Although critics have argued about whether a pale ale is truly representative of New Zealand, Nicholas and Ryan say it is the best vehicle for carrying the indigenous hop bitterness and aroma to your tongue.
And, as is Nicholas's want, Mash Up is bitter. But with Southern Cross hops as the main bittering agent, it's not a harsh bitterness  more an oily coating that stays on your tongue and allows subsequent sips to lay other flavours across the top. Eventually, as the glass empties, the bitterness recedes like a tide, revealing other characteristics.
There you'll find the heavenly, golden summer scents of Riwaka, with its orange and lemon zest perfume, New Zealand Cascade and its cut-grass, flowery aroma and Nelson Sauvin, which adds a fruitiness veering away from the more astringent notes of Riwaka and Cascade.
Given its backbone of New Zealand and English malts (to reflect the large number of brewers here with English heritage), American yeast and its retro tea-towel label, it's fair to say Nicholas and Ryan have created something that is intrinsically Kiwi, and a modern Kiwi at that.
Whether this over-hoppy style will continue to define the essence of New Zealand beer is debatable, as tastes and styles are bound to change. But right now you could line up this beauty against the best on offer in any other country and be satisfied that it will carry as much punch as an All Blacks pack.