Appleby's threepeat; PGATour asks about iPods, and Taylor's new R7

Well, Stuart Appleby managed to pull off his third straight victory in Hawaii yesterday, bettering Vijay Singh in a playoff. In a story on his victory on PGATour.com, Appleby had this to say:

"I had to do something special coming in. I didn't do it, so I had to do it in the playoff," Appleby said. "Winning the Mercedes is awesome. Winning three times is a dream come true."

It is also good for the bank account. The win at the Mercedes was worth a cool $1.08-million. Not bad for a tournament where you also got to see Jessica Alba hanging by the pool.

I've posted my piece on playing with Appleby. One of the interesting facts I remember about our round was that Appleby played a controlled draw, perfect for Kapalua's wide, rolling fairways, and that he couldn't remember what British Open venues he'd played, or where the tournament was that year. "You know more about this stuff than I do," he joked as we sat on a bench waiting to tee off on one of the early holes during our round.

Also on PGATour.com is a small interview with Norway's Henrik Bjornstad, the first man from his country to make it through Q-School and onto the tour. The problem is the interview. The questions are all the interesting ones: "What has been your most nervous moment in golf, and why?" "How did you get started in the game?" and, of course, the hard hitting golf question, "What's in your MP3 player?" If you are still interested, click here.

Worth a read is a fun column by John Huggan in the Scotsman. Huggan does his predictions for the year, including this thought on March:

As the PGA Tour veers from the California coast to the "Florida swing," Tiger Woods is already looking for his fourth win of the season. No-one else has more than one. Paired on the first day of the Bay Hill Invitational, old chums Rory Sabbatini and Ben Crane begin to reminisce about their previous rounds together. Unfortunately, the conversation remains in limbo when the duo become separated somewhere around the sixth hole. Still, in a gesture of friendship and
goodwill, Sabbatini doesn't leave without saying goodbye. The South African eats lunch, hits balls for an hour, then has a massage as he waits for Crane to finish.
Mickelson announces he is taking the month off to spend more time with his parents.

Obviously the whole piece is worth checking out. Go to the Scotsman site.
This story appeared on my My Yahoo! page, but thanks to Geoff Shackelford for getting me to read it.

Oh, and if you are a gear pig, there's a story by Score Golf's Rick Young about updates to the R7 line, including the new, larger R7 driver, which is now 460cc. There is also a new shaft technology involved in the clubs, according to Young.

The r7 line up also comes equipped with the new TaylorMade RE•AX shaft that features a new technology developed by Fujikura, maker of the No. 1 shaft on the PGA Tour.According to TaylorMade, the new shaft technology promotes improved consistency shot to shot by reducing ovaling – a tendancy of the golf shaft to morph from a circular shape to an oval shape when subjected to the normal forces of a golf swing. This is achieved by weaving the graphite into a
strength-enhancing pattern placed in the midsection of the club, from just below the grip down the length of the shaft.