A few random thoughts:

- As some of you may know the Braemar Golf Dome is closed because of a fire. My initial thoughts were that it was a bummer, but it wasn’t that big of a deal for me as it isn’t my usual spot for hitting balls in the winter. But on Saturday afternoon, I was a clear victim of the fallout. I went to the Golf Zone in Chaska with the idea of hitting balls for 45 minutes or an hour. But the place was a total and complete mad house.

I knew I was in trouble when I pulled into the parking lot and there wasn’t a single spot. After finding a spot to park my ride, I went inside and there was a waiting list of 15 people just to get a stall. Needless to say, I bailed before hitting a single shot.

- I like the WGC Match Play quite a bit, but the Sunday golf gets to be a bit difficult to watch. I think there is about one commercial for every shot that is played. The good news is that I was busy on Sunday afternoon. I did tape it and zipped through the finals in a little more than an hour. I knew the outcome, but it was the best way to watch the finals. I love the match play, but stroke play can make for much more interesting television.

- Here’s one more reason why I like Rory McIlroy: His choice of headwear. I just can’t approve of these flat-brimmed hats that some of these guys are wearing. Yes, I’m looking at you Hunter Mahan. And Dustin Johnson. And Anthony Kim. You look ridiculous You look like you should be catching air on your sweet skateboard on the halfpipe. I’ll take Rory’s nice fitted hat with the curved brim. If that makes me an old man, so be it.

- Speaking of Mahan, I do approve of the orange belt he was wearing. I used to mock the white belt in a similar manner to how I mocked the flat-brim hat above. But now I’ve embraced the white belt. I saw an orange/white reversible belt recently at Golfsmith and thought it looked pretty good. Would look really good with either these adidas shoes or these from Nike.

- The next driver I want to hit: The Callaway RAZR Fit. I talked with my guy at 2nd Swing who knows my game and he said it would be perfect for me as it has really been bringing down spin rates for a number of guys he has fit. I spin it too much and I’d be cool if I could find something that will launch it high with low spin.

- Four days until I leave on a little weekend golf trip. Yes, I’m very fired up.

Ever since my parents moved to Phoenix about eight years ago, my winter has gone like this: Play as late into November as possible, hit balls a couple of times in December, play three or four times in Phoenix at Christmas and then put the sticks away for a little while.

From roughly January 1 until some point in February, I go into golf hibernation mode. While I will still read some golf stuff on the web and post on a few message boards, I don’t do much else The sticks sit in the basement and I take my only real break of the year from the game.

But at some point, golf again moves toward the front of my mind. I’ll stop and pull a club or two out of my bag and grip it on my way back upstairs from the laundry room. I start to watch more golf on TV. I break out the XBox and start playing Tiger Woods golf. I stop at Golfsmith or Golf Galaxy during lunch or on my way home from the office.

Let’s just say that I’m very ready for this winter to be over. I have been in total golf freak mode. I’m reading a whole bunch. I’m watching the PGA Tour. I’m looking at clubs online and in person. I’m plotting my spring golf. I’m frequently wondering just what this lack of snow and warm winter will do to spring course openings in Minnesota. Basically I’m a mess.

Anyway, here are a few items that have been floating through my head.

- I realize this isn’t a coincidence, but I think it is the PGA show that really starts to get me excited about golf. As has been well established on this blog, I like golf gear. I mean really, really like golf gear. I love getting new clubs. I’m always looking for the latest and greatest driver. I’m not nearly as quick to switch irons, but I can’t wait to try some of the new driver offerings. As a guy who launches the ball too high at times and spins it too much with the driver, I’m very interested in hitting the new Bridgestone J40 driver. I’ve checked out the Ping I20 driver, but I’m not sure that’s the answer.

- Can I be a better putter this season? I’m so desperate to play golf that I ordered a 9 foot long putting green a few weeks ago and have putted a couple of times. I’m not sure how much I can really improve my ball-striking this time of the year, but working on my putting stroke can’t (edit here) hurt.

- On the topic of putting, I must admit that I’ve played around with the belly putter at some of the golf stores I’ve visited. I will admit that my thoughts on the long/belly putter has probably changed in the past year after watching dude after dude on tour win with the thing. I used to think it was a sign of desperation, something you go to only when you have exhausted all other options. Now I’m not so sure. It seems like there are more and more decent to good putters moving in that direction. Now it is pretty clear that I haven’t spent enough time to know a whole lot, but I’m not sure the belly is the answer for me. I can hit several good ones in a row, but then I will roll a couple that have no chance of sniffing the hole. And I think it would take a lot of work to really get comfortable with it.

- I guess here’s a question for a couple of my blog readers who work as golf course supers: When do you think we are going to see golf courses open here? Obviously some of that hinges on how much snow we get in the next month, but I can’t imagine there is that much frost in the ground and I would think that the dry fall and lack of snow for much of this winter means that the time required to dry out courses will be be shorter. Am I off base? Two years ago, pretty much everything was open in late March. Could that be the case again? Could we have an even earlier open?

- As has been well documented on here, I’m a big fan of True Linkswear shoes. A couple of updates there. First, last year’s models can be found on eBay for around $80. In addition, the Golfsmith in Minnetonka has some of the new True PHX shoe in stock. – As you know, I’m all about saving my readers money. So I’ll pass along this nugget. Golfsmith is now regripping clubs for free if you buy grips from them. They want a week to do it, but I wanted pass that along.

- Another sign that spring is coming: Starting to see golf deals being posted on Groupon and similar sites. Nothing that has knocked my socks off, but we’re getting close.

- I’m about 10 days away from a quick golf trip to Houston. Still working on the details, but it is a place where the weather will hopefully be warm and I could get there on pretty short notice on frequent flier miles. I’m looking forward to it.