Island ladies in total control

Sue Klingberg and Edie Mazzucco were in total control of the July 15 LGA outing at Galveston Country Club, with Klingberg carding a birdie on the par 3 11th hole en route to low gross honors for the day.

Mazzucco had a chip-in on No. 16 and used the fewest putts of anyone to garner low net score on the day.

Becky Rice birdied the par 3 eighth hole to represent the balance of the field and avert total dominance by Klingberg and Mazzucco.

Where The Pros Play

Last week I marked my second year of participation in the annual meeting of the Texas Golf Writers Association. This is where I get to hang out with real golf/sports writers with true pedigrees with the Associated Press and Sports Illustrated; these are folks who have published books and who actually make a living with newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.

It’s a great experience made even greater by the fact that we typically get really good deals on rooms, golf, meals and other incidentals in return for writing about our hosts. In a word, our Hill Country meeting place this year was spectacular.

The JW Marriott in San Antonio is the largest in the world, with more than 1,000 rooms. It also boasts a resort golf course, which was designed by Pete Dye with Bruce Lietzke as a player consultant.

The AT&T Oaks course, designed by Greg Norman with player consultant Sergio Garcia, also is part of the resort and is the new site of the Valero Texas Open. However, it is accessible by Club members only and guests of the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa.

The Oaks or tournament course will challenge the best of players and can frustrate the lower tier golfer who tries to tame it. Its “signature” is found in the abundance of bunkers and their serrated edges, which are reminiscent of oak leaves.

Someone suggested Norman must have had the meltdown at Augusta circa 1986 or his split with Chrissy Evert on his mind during the design phase.

The AT&T Canyons is the resort course and is therefore generally more user-friendly. However, it should not be too quickly labeled as “easier,” as it can tempt the mid- to high-handicap player into a mindset of “career best” scoring only to have him or her wondering what happened once the round is tallied. But its vistas are gorgeous.

Tour Striker II

Quick success with Martin Chuck’s invention (see last week’s column) brought visions of greater distances with the irons and prodigious tee shots with my 460cc driver.

I was “puring” the Tour Striker 7-iron and needed only to hit it just a little harder.

I swung harder at the next half-dozen shots, none of which ever left the ground or traveled more than 130 yards. I was sweating profusely (I don’t perspire) and more than a little frustrated. You won’t believe what happened next, but you will have to wait a week to find out.

Meanwhile, some of my golfing buds have been interested or at least curious about the club and the concept. Old NHL tough man Doc Davis gave it a try last Sunday afternoon and reported the feedback was immediate and definitive.

Earlier in the week, Aggie NASA guy Jim Pendergast found it intriguing and, with his lower handicap, was soon hitting it mostly solidly.

And former PGA Tour player Frickwater Johnson, predictably, crunched it from the first swing, thereby reinforcing Martin Chuck’s claims about impact position, lag and consistent ball striking.

It has been said one can learn to write one’s signature perfectly with the opposite hand by practicing for eight hours daily for about 30 days. The Tour Striker might hold similar promise.

The Open

The TV commentators had to have the pronunciation on a card in front of them in order to consistently repeat the seemingly player approved WUHST-hayzen (Oosthuizen). Never mind they simply accepted “Louie” despite the spelling — Louis.

One day later, the proper pronunciation seems to be WUHST-hyzen. Either way, the RSA native with the nickname of “Shrek” played a heck of a week of golf.

If he were sponsored by Nike, we could just call him Swooshterhyzen … or hazen.

Be safe, on and off the course.

Daily News golf columnist Gean Leonard can be reached at Gean.GDNgolf(at)gmail.com.